14 DAY TRIAL // Asus has recently introduced a great deal of notebook models based on AMD's A-Series APUs and the company has no plans to stop here as it just updated its lineup to include a new Sabine-powered system, the 17.3-inch X73TA.
This notebook is built around the A4-3300M APU, which combines together two high-performance AMD Husky processing cores with an on-die graphics unit.
The dual-core chip has a base frequency of 1.9GHz, 2MB of Level 2 cache, a 35W TDP and also supports AMD's new Turbo Core 2.0 technology, which can dynamically adjust the frequency of the CPU according to the tasks run.
Thanks to this addition, the processor can reach speeds as high as 2.5GHz when the operating system uses a single computing thread.
The two cores are paired together with a built-in Radeon HD 6480G GPU, which features 240 stream processing units and has an operating frequency of 444MHz.
Users who require even more graphics power would also be glad to know that Asus' latest creation also comes with an AMD Radeon HD 6650M discrete graphics card with 1GB of dedicated VRAM that can run together with the A4-3300M integrated GPU in a special CrossFireX mode.
The two GPUs are used to drive a 17.3-inch LED backlit display with a resolution of 1600x900 pixels and featuring a glossy finish.
The rest of the K73TA specifications include 4GB of system memory, a 750GB hard drive, a DVD burner as well as the usual WiFi 802.11 b/g/n and Gigabit LAN connectivity. Bluetooth support is sadly missing from the specs list.
However, a VGA webcam and an USB 3.0 port are both included in the standard configuration and these are joined by an HDMI video output and a multi-format card reader.
Equipped with a Li-Ion 6 cell 5200mAh battery pack, the Asus X73TA notebook retails in Europe for €474, which translates into about $642 US. (via Laptop Spirit)