The HP Pavilion dm1z is an ultraportable notebook with an 11.6 inch display and a low power AMD processor. Recently HP started offering the notebook with AMD’s new Brazos 2.0 chips overseas. Now, hot on the heels of the official launch of AMD’s new chips, the Pavilion dm1z is available with Brazos 2.0 processors in the US.
You can pick up a dm1z-4100 laptop with a 1.4 GHz AMD E1-1200 processor for $399.99. That’s the same price the company used to charge for a model with a 1.3 GHz AMD E-300 CPU.
The Pavilion dm1z is also available with a faster 1.7 GHz AMD E2-1800 CPU for just $25 more. Both Brazos 2.0 processors offer better graphics and reduced power consumption while idle than their predecessors. But the 1.7 GHz version has has a faster graphics processor and supports faster memory. Its’ well worth the modest price bump.
HP ships the notebooks standard with 4GB of RAM, 320GB hard drives, and Windows 7 Home Premium, but you can upgrade any of those features. The dm1z supports up to 8GB of RAM, and HP offers a range of storage options including larger and faster hard drives or a 128GB solid state disk.
The notebook measures about 1.3 inches thick and weighs 3.5 pounds. That makes it a bit thicker than a typical ultrabook, and it’s not nearly as fast — the AMD E-Series chips are designed to be cheap, not super speedy. But the dm1z is also about half the price of a typical ultrabook.