first takeWe may see the laptop market as completely oversaturated, but chipmaker AMD sees only opportunities and undeserved markets. Hence the new Athlon Neo, which AMD calls a "platform for ultrathin notebooks".
(Credit: AMD)
The company sees netbooks as occupying the space between 7- and 11-inch displays with prices under US$499, while traditional ultraportrable laptops run from 11 to 13 inches and cost US$1,499 or more. Somewhere in there, AMD reckons, there's room for systems with slightly bigger screens than netbooks, and that cost slightly more.
The 1.6GHz Neo is a dual-core processor, so it handles multiple apps better than the Intel Atom, and comes paired with either ATI Radeon X1250 graphics, or ATI Radeon HD3410 graphics. The higher-end graphics option runs the Windows Vista Aero interface smoothly, can handle some basic 3D gaming, and can play back full 1080p video — something that would bring the average Atom-powered netbook to its knees.
The new Athlon Neo platform is turning up first in HP's Pavilion dv2, a 12-inch laptop that manages to be not only thin and light, but also inexpensive, starting at well under US$1,000.
AMD still has to convince the public that it needs a midpoint between low-price netbooks and mainstream laptops. With decent netbook configs dropping to US$399 or less, and only HP releasing Athlon Neo systems at first, it may be an uphill battle.
Too slow at 1.6GHz to be a proper laptop, too expensive to be a netbook. Too late to market to be a game changer. After a string of engineering and strategic failures AMD shareholders need to look at why they continue to support the current crop of AMD executives.