Fusion-based systems continue to crawl out of the woodwork this week with Dell's new Inspiron M102z. The new 11.6-inch ultraportable is currently listed on Dell's Australia website with a starting price of $599 which gets you a single-core 1GHz AMD C-50 processor, on-die Radeon HD 6250 graphics and 2GB of DDR3 1333MHz RAM. For an extra Benjamin, Dell outfits the machine with a dual-core 1.6GHz E-350 APU, Radeon HD 6310 graphics and 4GB of RAM.
All configurations come with a 1366x768 LED-backlit display, a 320GB 7200RPM hard drive along with 2GB of Dell's cloud storage for a year, a 1.3-megapixel webcam, 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0, 10/100 Ethernet, a 7-in-1 card reader, three USB 2.0 ports, and HDMI and VGA outputs. A six-cell battery is standard while an optional nine-cell unit provides up 14 hours of life. The company offers a third model for $749, but that only appears to gain an internal DVB-T TV tuner.
It's worth noting that HP's Pavilion dm1z series is already available stateside for a starting price of $449.99 and seems to offer more flexibility. You can add up to 8GB of RAM, 250GB to 750GB of mechanical storage or a 128GB SSD, WWAN connectivity via Verizon, AT&T or Sprint, as well as Windows 7 Professional instead of Home Premium. Both systems offer roughly the same dimensions, though HP's appears marginally thinner and heavier than Dell's.
