Well, would you look at this?
Dell's not-at-all-boisterous launch of numerous
R-rated Inspirons left us with far more questions than answers (you know what we mean, J.J. Abrams?), but now things are starting to come together somewhat. We're guessing some of the mystique surrounding the M501R has to do with the power plant within, because so far as we can tell,
AMD has never shipped a
Phenom II X4 within a laptop. Sure enough, this here machine can be ordered up with a quad-core X4, and while prices and the like aren't yet available (the order process seems to be borked for now), we
do know that this particular model will ship with a 720p 15.6-inch display, Windows 7, an optional 1GB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 550v (another new one to us), WiFi, up to 8GB of DDR3 RAM, four color options and a total weight of 5.83 pounds. C'mon Dell / AMD -- why not just spill the beans already? Our trigger finger can only itch for so long.
posted May 4th 2010 5:44PM
I heard Apple's going to ditch Intel for AMD
@jdm28690 I heard Apple's ditching Flash for HTML5.
@jdm28690: I heard Apple is replacing proper competitive practises with anti-competitive ones. I think they are out of beta now.
I heard Apple is ditching innovation for patents
@jdm28690
Apple
@nigra I think I'm ditching apple for Dell
I want
With a battery life of 1 hour! Seriously there is no way this thing is going to have any real battery life to speak of under moderate usage so what the hell is the point? Not to mention that I wouldn't want this space heater anywhere NEAR my lap. Anyone remember the 17" Macbook Pro article from a few days ago? Me thinks that this one will be right up there with it.
@Darkseider I have the ASUS G73JH (Core i7-720QM) with an ATI Radeon HD 5870 and it's cool to the touch on the bottom. It's all in the design.
Battery life is another story. I don't use it anywhere but on a desk (home and office) plugged into the wall.
When I want portability, I take the iPad.
@Darkseider Consider these portable desktop replacement notebooks, not LAPtops. Serious no-compromise computing is not done laying on your lap while you're reclined on the couch.
A nice thin and light 13" ULV Asus does a much better job when it comes to the "lap" style.
@Darkseider I used to have a "desktop replacement" 17" laptop. A penitum 4 3.2 ghz. The thing could heat up the entire room. I tried a couple of times to use it in bed to watch movies. Didn't work out so well.
Nice specs on paper! :D
Always appreciated Dell's openness to offer its customers great variety in products from Intel+AMD, Nvidia+ATI, and even on the OS front.
Michael Dell before finally giving up even lobbied Steve Jobs pretty hard to allow them to include licensed copies of OSX at any reasonable royalty, but unfortunately Steve-o thought that was too heavily cannibalize Mac sales.
Nice, this is definitely real. It uses the Phenom II N930 which is clocked @ 2.0.
disappointing. Why can't even one other notebook manufacturer have at least one notebook the rivals a MacBook Pro in form?
@sonicwind
Because most people prefer function over form.
@Dafrety I prefer function AND form and choice. I actually find it really strange. Most of the brands have high end notebooks, but they're still bulky plastic boxes. HP gave it a stab with Envy, but come on, no CD drive? Plus it was thicker to boot, ridiculously hot and buggy. HP = Has Problems, Dell = Don't Ever Look Lovely, Toshiba = (forget about it)
@sonicwind
Nobody is doing it because nobody wants to grill their laps. Besides, this will probably cost less than a 15" Macbook Pro.
@Sunweb
I think you're also missing the obvious answer, which is that not everybody thinks the MacBook Pros are particularly pretty.
They're square slabs of aluminum. I could cut one out myself with a hacksaw and a piece of sandpaper. Also, "aluminum" is the new beige.
@badasscat
aluminium is the new beige?
Sweetheart, you may wanna check with your stylist and give him my number for updates ;)
BTW: for this year, "Kangaroo leather" notebooks are a scream!
Anyone know which current model the 550v is equivalent to?
@tazmond im pretty sure the 550v is brand spanking new.... nobody knows...
@WikiWarrior Ahh, ok I figured as much, but any idea what tier it would be in, i.e. Entry like the 5470, mid like 5770 or gaming like 5870?
Thanks for the reply anyways!
@tazmond It should be around 5550 ~ 5670 (mobile of course) at best.
Decent GPU, I just hope Dell doesn't cheap out on the damn heatsinks like all manufacturers do with AMD laptops (since they're sold for cheap/low budget). That's why they're usually hot.
@sagi446 Cool, thanks for the info!
@sagi446 I'll bet u can fry an egg on the touch pads of those AMD models!
@tazmond
The 560v is simply a re-branded 4xxx series GPU - it's DirectX 10.1 (http://www.amd.com/us/products/notebook/graphics/ati-mobility-hd-560v/Pages/hd-560v-overview.aspx). The specs are identical to the 4600 series mobility GPU's - http://www.amd.com/us/products/notebook/graphics/ati-mobility-hd-4000/hd-4600/Pages/hd-4600-specs.aspx
I imagine the 550v is both slower and another 4xxx series GPU re-branded.
I was quite sad to see that AMD have gone and done this - very nvidia like! Confusing that they have got the 3 digit number starting with a 5 as well, you'd expect it to be both new and directx 11. But it's not :(
@tickedon Dang.. oh well. Thanks for the info anyway!
I wonder if I'm gonna regret pulling the trigger on a Vostro two days ago...
I have a feeling I won't, though. No doubt a fully tricked out Inspiron is still gonna be a right bit more expensive than the Vostro I ordered. But I was wondering why the Vostros were such ridiculously better deals than the Inspirons as of 2 days ago... I mean you couldn't even really get a GPU as good as the GeForce 310M in an Inspiron when I checked, much less for $700.
Though if these Inspirons have the new dedicated Radeons plus Blu-Ray drives for around that price, I'm gonna be kind of pissed.
Headline should be, New Dell Packing AMD's latest, battery life est at 7 min.
It says quad core, but clock speed isn't given. There are already 65W X4 desktop parts, a downclocked, undervoltaged mobile part should manage 45W TDP or less, maybe even 30W. Add 15-20 for the GPU. Should manage 2-3h battery life, i.e. average for this class of notebook.
Wow, a whole '720p' on a 15.6" display! Why don't computer manufacturers start realising that you shouldn't have the same resolution display on a proper laptop as what you'd find on a decent 10" netbook. I wish that more manufacturers would start offering 1440 x 900 13" displays and 1680 x 1050 minimum on 15" displays.
After using a 13" white MacBook as my main computer over the past two and a half years, I'm starting to yearn for more screen pixel real estate these days, but perhaps I'm just a little more frustrated by this issue with most.
Hmm, maybe I'm going to be looking towards a Sony Z-Series laptop next time if I want a healthy resolution for a new 13" laptop, although I wish that it was a little less pricey.
@meeku
We just went over this in another thread... those resolutions can be *options* but they sure as hell shouldn't be "minimums". Some of us actually like to read text without a magnifying glass...
I know this is asking a lot, but does anyone have any idea what kind of battery life these processors will provide? The previous AMD chips have been sorely lacking compared to their intel counterparts. (they get killed on battery life and performance per cycle... ouch...)
I'd love to buy a laptop with an AMD chip, but I want don't want to suffer for it.
With the reported arrandale shortages, Dell has quite the opportunity if they can get their mobile act together.