Dell's taking the slightly revamped "forward hinge" design language it introduced with the
Inspiron R line and bringing it down to 11.6-inches with the new Inspiron M101z. The laptop is a followup to the Inspiron 11z, and packs your choice of AMD Athlon Neo K125 (single core) or K325 chips (dual core). AMD, which might still be a
bit of a sore subject for Dell, really seems to have carved out a niche for itself in the 11.6-inch size, with its blend of more-than-Atom power, cheaper-than-Intel price, and decent-but-not-ULV power sipping; Dell claims a bit over 6.5 hours of battery life with the standard 6-cell battery. The AMD chips bring along integrated ATI RS880M graphics, and the laptops pack 2GB of RAM and 250GB HDDs standard. What we don't have yet is the US price: the laptop starts at £379 for a single core model in the UK, which should translate to something around $400-$450 US -- Dell has to beat out HP's $449, similarly specced
Pavilion dm1, after all.
posted July 26th 2010 10:56AM
Single core? How retro.
@CRA1G actually i have a 1.2 Acer laptop with 3GB of RAM 13"... single core...and it runs win 7 ultimate very smooth...it's more than enough for internet and office.
@elvinu
I have a win7 ultimate with 768MB RAM working with a single core ;). I even saw a pc with less resources working with win 7 xD.
@CRA1G Remember, this is supposed to be a "better Atom", and there are a kajillion single core n270s buzzing about in little netbooks all over the world.
I'd opt for the dual too.
So glad AMD is finally being allowed to compete on equal footing now! This is fantastic news for consumers, even if you prefer to stick w/ Intel. =)
This is - literally - my ideal machine. If they can wack a decent keyboard in it, I'm sold.
@archkron
If you are looking, you might want to check out the Lenovo X100e. If you can handle a little heat then the dual-core AMD, the semi-matte screen, the wicked keyboard and the TrackPoint will surely impress. Don't read reviews that aren't based on the dual-core, things are much different...
http://www.laptopmag.com/review/laptops/lenovo-thinkpad-x100e-dual-core.aspx?mode=benchmarks&cids=2148%2C2122%2Cpa
Not bad. I got my Inspiron 11z on the cheap (sub $300) a while back. It's been a nice netbook.
@Steven
Man. I haven't looked at netbooks in a while now. When did they sneak everyone up to cheap laptop prices? Last I checked netbooks were supposed to be $300.
@Failbait
When they also upped the specs to cheap laptop specs.
@Steven
I've had the 11z for about 3 days now, and I must say, it's a dream-come-true. Dual Core, 2gb Ram, 1.3mp cam, 3lbs, windows 7, and this thing flies!
The keyboard, for those wondering about the size on 11.6" screened lappies, is about 94% the size on a normal keyboard. I've noticed zero slowdown with my typing, and haven't found anything to complain about. It's exceptionally sturdy!
The thing I hope this new computer fixes is the rotten trackpad/button combination. If it's got separate buttons for it, then this laptop is ideal for students, teenagers, and the businessman on the go a lot.
@Failbait
I think they figured out that there were some that were attracted to the low price, and others that were attracted to the tiny convenient footprint.
What we see now is a compromise between the 9" netbooks of yesteryear, and the performance and price of a cheap laptop. This hybrid seems to be pleasing people, so expect more blurring of the lines.
@Steven
I'll admit that the 11z (especially now) sounds like a good alternative to the usual weak netbook specs and too small 10.1" screen, but I'm using the 11z's more powerful cousin. (Read: Alienware M11x). The 11z would be a perfect laptop if it had better battery life, and a backlit keyboard, but I think those kind of features will be too high-end for this side of the notebook market.
The more choice the better! I still gate dells idea of making people pay for a custom color
@deliteguy (I apologize for the double post, I meant to reply to this comment)
In the manufacturing business, more SKUs = higher costs...you should EXPECT to pay more for items that cannot be mass produced on as high a scale as another item.
E.G. the regular (usually black or silver) laptop colours are by far the highest selling, and thus are cheaper to produce. If you prefer, they could just charge $30 for the base model, black/silver one, then it wouldn't be an 'upgrade' to change the colour, but then people who want a black one get screwed.
If anything, kudos to Dell for still offering the other choices for a fee while not upping the price on the regular-colour one.
My hp dv2z uses the dual core neo chipset. I get some damn good performance out of it. It does run a bit hot, but it could be hps design.
Piece of junk. Wait for a few days, you will hear a bizzilion complaints regarding keyboard/keys
At least it looks nice
@tylersmyler
That's what she said!
I've been looking online for the specs for the ATI RS880M and I can't find a damn thing! Does any one know whether, paired with the dual core processor, this could play back hi-def media (blu-ray from image/external drive, flash etc.), as I'd love one of these as a replacement for my aging laptop and I need to show video on external devices?
@RikF It's a HD4200 and I know it can handle 720p. 1080p I don't know.
@RikF
If it is a 4200 chipset it can handle 1080p
@RikF The graphics chipset will be able to handle h.264 (Blu-Ray) at 1080p and probably some other codecs with even the single-core processor, and the dual-core should be able to brute-force play any videos the graphics can't hardware accelerate.
@RikF
Thanks all for the replies - penny saving (adjunct community college lecturers are not the best paid people out there!) will now commence :)
@RikF There's an HDMI and a VGA output on this thing, but it's hard to say if it'll play back all 1080p videos smoothly. Probably 720p, judging that the internal display is only 720p, and that the processor is only 1.3ghz.
At least someone's finally using a decent battery with the platform.
Yeah, it'll run full HD with the dual core. My Ferrari One does and has the same GPU and a low power AMD dual core. Can't comment on the single core.
Where I find these CPUs struggle is when you try and do too much at once. Generally they have very small cache and it really shows if you try to use it like a normal desktop but for browsing, light office work and media they are fine.
this is fairly close to that Toshiba's had out for a while... Toshiba Satellite T115D-S1125. I think there's a newer version out, but I have that Toshiba for a few months, got it sub-$450, it runs Civ IV just fine and some other games, HDMI streaming at 1080 is stuttery, but less resolution is fine.
In the manufacturing business, more SKUs = higher costs...you should EXPECT to pay more for items that cannot be mass produced on as high a scale as another item.
E.G. the regular (usually black or silver) laptop colours are by far the highest selling, and thus are cheaper to produce. If you prefer, they could just charge $30 for the base model, black/silver one, then it wouldn't be an 'upgrade' to change the colour, but then people who want a black one get screwed.
If anything, kudos to Dell for still offering the other choices for a fee while not upping the price on the regular-colour one.
I don't like the way new netbooks are using AMD Athlon Neo CPU instead of new ULV Intel processors, this netbook battery lasts 6.5 hours while there are other netbooks out there which support 11 hours of battery. If the ISP providers really want to make people buy mobile broadband plans, they have to give users a full day device so they can travel anywhere without need to recharge, the OS is not important it can be Android, Win XP or Win 7 starter so there's not too many GPU power used to save battery.
@gabrielhernandez
First of all, Intel still has the dominant marketshare as far as netbooks are concerned. Actually look at the number of SKUs the different manufacturers build using Intel platforms versus AMDs. Most manufacturers provide at most 2 AMD netbook/ultraportable-class systems, and many don't even provide that much.
Secondly, the AMD platform is a cheaper deal for manufacturers than a modern i-generation Intel ULV platform. Even so, most manufacturers do provide Intel ULV systems at a slightly higher price.
So manufacturers making AMD systems aren't hurting anyone. Consumers can still buy cheaper, weaker powered Atom systems or more powerful Intel ULV systems. The addition of AMD to their lineups merely gives consumers some middle-ground.
Wouldn't you rather a lovely Lenovo x100e? Similar price, similar insides, better keyboard, probably better built..
"with its blend of more-than-Atom power,"
But will it blend?
there was a us dell page earlier today but its been removed, very similar to this page but without the spec'd out systems listed in middle of page
http://www1.euro.dell.com/uk/en/home/Laptops/inspiron-m101z-amd-1121/pd.aspx?refid=inspiron-m101z-amd-1121&cs=ukdhs1&s=dhs
So is this a netbook or an ultraportable?
@kenny goo
I guess it depends how you define netbook.
Whether you're going single or dual you're going to see a bump over the typical Atom netbook in performance although you'll see a hit in battery life, especially since most OEMs are including low capacity batteries.
@Brother Unit No 4
Well a netbook for me is a screen sub 12", usually with an Atom, either XP or Win7 Starter/Premium 32-bit, 1GB-2GB of RAM, no optical drive, a low capacity 5400RPM HDD or a cheap SSD, integrated graphics, and a pretty good battery life.
An ultraportable for me is also sub 12", usually with an Intel ULV, with Win7 Premium 32-bit/64-bit, 2GB+ of RAM, no optical drive, sometimes dedicated graphics, and a decent battery life, but not as good as what you'd get out of a netbook or smarbook.
I guess you're right though. This seems to be a step above an Atom but below a Core 2 or Core 2010 and into ULV territory. And I guess the battery life would put it in the ultraportable range as well.
just got a toshiba satellite T215D today same 11.6" screen with a k325 cpu in it. its actully not an atom its a real honest to go ultra low voltage athlon II dual core. (has 1MB l2 cache) bumped it from 2GB to 4GB of ram (can go to 8!) and it hauls ass. 3.3lbs with battery. compared to an atom these things are beasts. i HIGHLY recomend this platform if your looking for a "netbook"
i read your post on your web
i am neo.james and i just simply say here to comDDell is the best for ever.
Simply
I am also the user of dell and computer hardware trouble shooter
Any benchmark on these AMD neo processors?
@pika2000
I believe the single core neo processor is somewhere within the range of the a really low clock athlon processor. The turion neo would probably be double that(two cores) my lil bro has the hp dv2 with the dual core neo and I can safely say that it has a lot of power in that thing, it can even play team fortress two on reasonable levels. The only downside I see is heat and maybe battery power depending on your preferences, but with the new chips that should be less of a problem. take a look at the hp dm3z and dm1z those look pretty good to me.