HP DM1a goes official

HP has equipped its new Pavilion DM1a mini-notebook with AMD Nile platform and it appears that the company will be offering the same processor to its other models too. The new HP DM1a is powered by the AMD Athlon II Neo K125 1.7GHz processor, ATi Radeon HD 4225 graphics and features a 11.6-inch display, 1366×768 resolution, 2GB DDR3 RAM, 128GB SSD / 250GB HDD, WiFi b/g/n, LAN , Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, VGA, HDMI, 3x USB 2.0, LAN. HP claims 6.5 hours of runtime with its 6-cell battery

It packs the typical, comfortable full size HP keyboard for your typing pleasure. Dm1a is being retailed at 870 dollars in Japan.

AMD Yukon CPU – for sub notebooks and ultra-thin laptops

AMD (Advanced Micro Devices) is soon going to launch its next generation processor meant for the slim-notebooks. AMD made clear that it is (still) not interested in the mini-notebook market, by which he actually meant netbooks. The Yukon, its upcomig mobile processor will target notebooks having 11-13 inch displays.

“To be clear, Yukon is targeting ultraportables and not netbooks/mini-notebooks,” the AMD spokesman said.

Whether they admit it or not, but many netbook manufactures have started using the AMD Neo processors in their netbooks. So AMD is indirectly active in the netbook market.

MSI X410 now on sale in Europe, Already shipping in France and Belgium

Few days back, we mentioned about the MSI X-slim notebook and Wind netbooks based on AMD’s NEO platform and according to fudzilla, amazingly, MSI has begun shipping some of its Neo-based notebooks, right now to particularly to France and Belgium. MSI is still in a mum about their products,which is yet not made public officially.

X410 is a very attracting model, weighing just 1.5kg and it’s under 25mm thick, which makes it the lightest and slimmest of all. It has a 14-inch display and is backed by an Athlon MV-40 at 1.6GHz, has 2GB of memory and 320GB of storage, draft-n wireless and comes installed with Vista Premium.

X410 is listed by some French vendors at as low as €414 although some are shipping at higher price which is slightly above €500. While Belgian e-tailers have also listed the X400, which is based on Intel’s SU3500 CPU. However, the price difference is astonishing. Shockingly, X400 costs €650, while the X410 is listed at just €499.

The battery life of AMD-based X410 with that of X400 is incomparable as the latter offers much better battery life.

Gateway LT3100 netbooks uses AMD processor

Gateway has launched LT3100, which uses AMD Neo processor along with the ATI Radeon X1270 graphics. The AMD Neo is the processor that the AMD specially made for the ultra-portables. Since, lines between ultra-portables and netbooks have become blurrier than ever, it makes perfect sense to use the processors meant for ultra-portables in netbooks (and vice-versa).

It comes with some features that are not usually present in usual netbooks. For example, unlike most netbooks that come with 1GB RAM, the Gateway LT3100 comes with 2GB RAM. It also comes with massive 250GB HDD (most netbooks come with 160GB HDD). To power this powerful netbook, Gateway has equipped it a 6-cell battery. Also, it seems that folks Gateway were so impressed with LT3100 that put in a Vista Basic instead of Windows XP. It will be offered in two colors: NightSky Black and Cherry Red. It is pretty modestly priced at $400.

Benq to launch AMD Neo-based netbooks in Spring

Benq, third largest netbook maker in China, is planning to introduce a number of thin notebooks based on AMD’s Neo and Intel’s CULV platforms later this spring. The ones on the roadmap include a 12.1-inch and 13.3-inch netbooks notebooks in May, 2009.

However, nothing more is known about the notebooks at this moment. That said, if they stick to the Sempron U210 processor, the price of the notebooks is going to be affordable.