• Tweet
• Email

Dell plans to launch a new thin and light laptop with an 11.6 inch display and AMD chipset in August. It’s called the Dell Inspiron M101z, and while it’s it’s pretty much the same size as the Dell Inspiron 11z I reviewed earlier this year, the new Inspiron M101z is a completely redesigned machine.

Dell sent me a demo unit to review, and you can find my unboxing video below.

The most obvious change is that the M101z has an AMD processor and ATI graphics instead of Intel components. The base model comes with a 1.7GHz AMD Athlon II Neo K125 single core processor and ATI Radeon HD4225 graphics. It has 2GB of memory, a 250GB hard drive, a 56Whr battery, and runs Windows 7 Home Premium. The notebook has an 11.6 inch, 1366 x 768 pixel glossy display. It also has a 1.3MP webcam, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth 3.0, and VGA and HDMI output.

But Dell has also tweaked the overall design of its thin and light laptops. While the Inspiron 11z looked like an oversized version of the Dell Inspiron Mini 10v netbook, the Inspiron M101z has a style all its own.

The new model has a nice wide touchpad with two distinct buttons for left and right clicks. It’s much easier to use than earlier models which had the buttons integrated into the touchpad. The Inspiron M101z also has a shiny, metallic looking design for palm rest and area around the island-style keyboard.

Like the Dell Inspiron Mini 10, the Inspiron M101z is thinner in the front than the back, and there’s a small lip behind the lid. The laptop measures 11.5″ x 8.1″ x 0.95″ (in the front) to 1.38″ (in the back).

I really like the look and feel of the new laptop so far, and I plan to put it through the paces to see how it compares with other laptops in its class soon.

You can check out my unboxing video after the break. Unfortunately it came out a little darker than I had expected, but I’ve posted a couple of additional photos to give you a better idea of what the laptop looks like.