Laptop Thoughts: Intel Atom N455 Atom 475 Come to the HP Mini 110 and Mini 210

"HP slipped new Intel Atom processors into the very popular HP Mini 210 HD netbook (review) as well as the HP Mini 110 netbook. The Mini 210 and Mini 110 now ship with the 1.66GHz Intel Atom N455 processor standard and a 1.83GHz Intel Atom N475 CPU option available for $25 more."

As Notebooks.com points out, these new Atom chips pull 6.5 watts under load instead of 5.5 watts, so it's not entirely clear what advantages these new chips bring - the inclusion of DDR3 support seems pointless from a performance perspective on a small netbook. Although given that the primary power draw on a netbook or notebook continues to be the screen, that extra 1 watt of power won't amount to much. Still, it's a curious trend...