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The Wall Street Journal reports that HP will release a netbook with a 10 inch screen this year. Since all of HP’s current netbooks have 8.9 inch screens, I’m going to go out on a limb and assume this is the next-generation HP Mini-Note we’ve all been waiting for.

But until HP updates its product line, now is as good a time as any to pick up one of the first generation HP 2133 Mini-Notes. Because HP is pricing them to move.The current generation of HP Mini-Notes have two things that most other netbooks lack: An excellent keyboard and a high resolution 8.9 inch, 1280 x 768 pixel display. But when HP launched the Mini-Note, it priced the netbook a bit higher than the competition. Of course, back in April there wasn’t as much competition. But with prices ranging from $500 to $800, the HP Mini-Note wasn’t quite the impulse buy that a $$350 to $400 Eee PC was.

Flash forward a few months, and we’ve seen a number of retailers begin offering the HP Mini-Note with deep discounts, bringing the price down closer to the $400 mark. And now HP is following suit and marking down the price at its own online store.

For $399, you can pick up an HP Mini-Note with a 1.0GHz VIA C7-M CPU, 512MB of RAM, and a 4GB SSD. It also has that glossy 1280 x 768 pixel display that makes the Mini-Note line so sexy. This model runs SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop. If you want Windows Vista or XP, additional RAM, a large hard drive, or a faster CPU, you’ll still have to shell out a few more bucks.

HP sent out a promotional email this week describing the deal as an October promotion, but I’d be surprised to HP raise prices on the current HP Mini-Note line any time soon. But I do expect HP to announce a new line of Mini-Notes based around faster VIA Nano CPU and S3 Graphics GPU soon.