14 DAY TRIAL // Announced in mid-June, HP's Pavilion dv6z Quad Edtion notebooks powered by AMD Llano accelerated processing units have now started selling on the company's website with prices starting at $650.
This is the first time that HP used an AMD processor for powering a Quad Edition Pavilion notebook, as previous versions were built around Intel chips.
Despite the configuration change, the new Pavilion models use the same design as their Intel counterparts and HP sells these with a dark umber or steel gray metallic finish which is paired with a chiclet-styled keyboard.
Moving to the inside of the laptop, customers can choose from five different AMD Llano accelerated processing units (APU) options, which range from the entry-level A6-3400M clocked at 1.4GHz (2.3 in Turbo mode), to the A8-3530MX.
This is the fastest of AMD's mobile APUs as its four 1.9GHz (2.6GHz maximum Turbo) Husky processing cores are paired with an integrated Radeon HD 6620G GPU that runs at 444MHz and features 400 shader units.
Users who require even more graphics power that the on-chip GPU can deliver also have the option of adding a discrete graphics card in a Hybrid CrossFireX mode for improved performance.
The rest of the notebook can be configured to include as much as 16GB of system memory, hard drives with up to 1TB of storage capacity, a 1366x768 or Full HD display as well as a Blu-ray optical unit (this is currently offered as a free upgrade from a DVD burner by HP).
Connectivity features are pretty much standard, but it's worth noting that HP's laptop comes equipped with a pair of USB 3.0 ports as well as with HDMI and VGA video outputs.
As noted earlier, pricing starts at $650, which makes the AMD-powered Pavilion dv6z Quad Edtion notebooks significantly cheaper than their Intel counterparts. (via Laptoping)