I know, you like posts with pictures in them. Well, too bad! AMD’s new ultrathin platform isn’t quite ready for its close-up yet. If you remember last year, they introduced the dv2 with HP as the first entry in their ultrathin platform, and I liked pretty much everything but the trackpad and the fact that it came with Vista. The new ultrathins are going to be better, faster, stronger… and more expensive. I find that disappointing because the $750 price point on the dv2 (and major lead over all Atom-based netbooks) made it easy to recommend — who knows if I’ll be able to do the same with the next generation.
Luckily, they’re partnering with more than one company this time. Sounds like the dv2 sold enough that others wanted a piece of the pie, and AMD was happy to oblige. The other side of the coin is that AMD doesn’t get to announce the actual units — that’s up to the partners, of which AMD assured me there were plenty.
But they can reveal the basic platform features:
- Screen size bump (up to 13.3″ (or more?))
- Still under 1″ thick
- Hardware video enhancement
- 6-cell battery
- Serious battery life improvements
They say that the second generation ultrathins beat the pants off Intel CULV setups, and I believe it. I really want the ultrathins to catch on, since it’s a little more money for a lot more machine when you’re looking at an upsell from a $500 netbook. That said, I’m afraid they might be spreading the “ultrathin” moniker a little thin (13.3″ screens?), but I’ll withhold judgment until the hardware hits.
Here was one of their test rigs for their promo data, to give you an idea of what the machines may be sporting:
In the meantime, all the details you need should be here.