During a recent shopping trip to Best Buy, we checked to see if any Brazos-based notebooks were available. We only found only two systems: Gateway’s NV51B08u and Toshiba’s Satellite CS655D. As we looked at the notebook specs, we realized that these notebooks were in a 15.6" form factor. The first shipping netbookthat AMD claims under the Fusion banner is HP's Pavilion dm1z. (The Asus Eee PC 1215B is shipping now). When it comes to the price, at least all three notebooks are priced under the $500 mark AMD so badly wanted to conquer.
Brazos has an edge on the competition when it comes to price. However, our desktop preview of AMD’s first Fusion-based product left us a bit disappointed. If you are planning a mini-ITX build, Brazos still feels lacking. It's more of an "Atom Plus" rather than the entry-level Pentium competitor that AMD had us believe. For all of the hype surrounding Fusion so far, the Zacate APU cannot beat a Pentium or Celeron when it comes to raw CPU performance.
However, that’s the desktop space. Mobile is completely different. Remember, an APU includes a CPU and a GPU on a single piece of silicon. This makes more sense for notebooks, where any reduction in the number of discrete components allows for important power savings.
Unfortunately, the mobile market always lags behind the desktop, which is why it has taken us this long to assemble a decent roundup. Now that we have three Brazos notebooks in our lab, we can say that there are a few things that surprised us. When AMD showed off its first Fusion APU in November of last year, we were told to expect thin-and-light notebooks, budget all-in-one desktops, and netbooks. However, this is not the case.
| Market Price | 349.99 | 449.99 | 349.99 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brand | Gateway | HP | Toshiba |
| Model | NV51808u | dm1z | C655D-S5126 |
| CPU | C-50 (dual-core, 1.0 GHz) | E-350 (dual-core, 1.6 GHz) | E-240 (single-core, 1.5 GHz) |
| Display Type | Glossy | Glossy | Glossy |
| Display | 15.6" WXGA LED | 11.6" WXGA LED | 15.6" WXGA LED |
| Native Resolution | 1366x768 | 1366x768 | 1366x768 |
| Graphics | Radeon HD 6250 | Radeon HD 6310 | Radeon HD 6310 |
| Memory | 3 GB DDR3 | 3 GB DDR3 | 3 GB DDR3 |
| HDD | 320 GB, 5400 RPM | 320 GB, 7200 RPM | 320 GB, 5400 RPM |
| Wireless | 802.11b/g/n | 802.11b/g/n | 802.11b/g/n |
| USB 2.0 | 3 | 3 | 2 |
| HDMI | Yes | Yes | No |
| Bluetooth | No | Yes | No |
| Card Reader | SD/MMC | SD/MMC | SD |
| Webcam | 1.3 MP | 1.3 MP | 0.3 MP |
| Battery | 6-cell (48 Wh) | 6-cell (55 Wh) | 6-cell (48 Wh) |
| Length | 15.00" | 11.38" | 15.00" |
| Width | 10.00" | 8.63" | 9.75" |
| Height | 1.25" | 1.25" | 1.38" |
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