Thin-and-lights
The thin-and-light form factor is turning out to be this year's netbook, as the PC industry hopes to capitalise on the frustration felt by many netbook users when they try to do much more than surf the web.
HP refers to an IDC study that predicts the thin-and-light market will grow three times quicker than the overall notebook market over the next five years and has launched the HP ProBook 5310m and the HP Pavilion dm3 to meet this demand.
The ProBook 5310m is a 13/3 inch, 3.7 pound notebook that is less than an inch thick. It has an Intel Core 2 Duo SP9300 CPU, but there are downgrade options. It also comes with the Qualcomm Gobi 3G module built in.
The Pavilion dm3 is the heir apparent to the dv2, which was built around AMD's Yukon thin-and-light platform. This time AMD's second generation platform is used. This used to be codenamed Congo, but the PC police (excuse the pun) moaned that the codename somehow glorified the atrocities being committed in the Democratic Republic of Congo, so AMD dropped it.
This time it comes with both AMD and Intel CPU options and ATI or NVIDIA discrete graphics. HP is offering Intel integrated graphics too, but the only mention of AMD's integrated offering comes when paired with an ATI card, which unlocks PowerXpress technology, allowing users to switch between integrated and discrete graphics.
The ProBook 5310m and Pavilion dm3 will launch globally on 22 October with Windows 7. US pricing is for the 5310m is $699 with a CULV processor and $899 with a Core 2 Duo. The dm3 starts at $549 with an AMD CPU and $649 with an Intel one. Again, we hope to bring you full specs and UK pricing soon.
HP ProBook 5310m
HP Pavilion dm3
