Still reeling from the astonishing 1080p video playback of the NVIDIA Ion platform we tested inside that Echo 1 home theater PC, we snapped to attention when we saw the HP Mini 311. It's also packing Ion inside, and our friend Matt Buchanan at Gizmodo says the 3.22-pound netbook "plays back 1080p awesomely."

Even though it's running a measly Atom N270 processor with a mere 1GB of RAM and a 160GB hard disk, you could hook this baby up in your home theater and play back some crispy HD movies in between your road-warrior jaunts.

Oh yeah, it looks perfectly adequate for web browsing, document creating and other tasks you might do on the go, too. We're especially impressed with its 11.6-inch 1366x768 display, bigger and higher-rez than most of its netbookish competitors.

Best of all, it's available September 23 for a dirt-cheap $400, or if you can wait until October, it'll be $475 with Windows 7 on board. This could be the zippy Ionesque netbook we've been waiting for. Continue reading for the tech specs.

• Intel Atom Processor N270
• Genuine Windows XP Home Edition with Service Pack 3
• 11.6" Diagonal HD LED BrightView Widescreen Display (1366 x 768)
• NVIDIA ION LE for Windows XP with up to 319MB total graphics memory
• 1024MB DDR3 System Memory (1 Dimm)
• 160GB (5400RPM) Hard Drive (SATA)
• HP Webcam with integrated digital microphone
• 802.11b/g WLAN
• 6-Cell Lithium-Ion battery
• 1-Year Free Hardware Technical Support