As we noted after talking to AMD at CES 2009, the company sees Netbooks as occupying the space between 7- and 11-inch displays with prices under $499, while traditional ultraportrable laptops run from 11 to 13 inches and cost $1,499 or more. AMD calls it a "platform for ultrathin notebooks," and wants to use systems such as the HP dv2 to create a new laptop category.
The end result is that the HP dv2 looks like a more expensive machine than it is.īut the big story of the HP Pavilion dv2 is its AMD Athlon Neo CPU, and this is the first system we've seen with that processor. The slim Pavilion dv2 is thinner than other low-cost 12-inch laptops we've seen-the Samsung NC20 and Dell Mini 12 (powered by the Intel Atom and Via Nano processors, respectively)-and is only slightly thicker than a high-end ultraportable like the Lenovo IdeaPad U110. As in other current HP laptops, the touch pad's mirrored surface isn't quite slick enough for our tastes-there's a little too much drag on the finger, forcing us to dial up the pointer speed in the system settings. That keyboard is comfortable and easy to use, but the narrower overall width (as in the case of Netbook keyboards as well) takes a little getting used to for touch typists. But unlike other Pavilions we've seen recently, this model trades the traditional tapered-key keyboard for one with flatter, more closely spaced keys-similar to what you'd see on Apple and Sony laptops, or HP's Mini 1000 Netbook. Taking some design cues from the rest of HP's current Pavilion lineup, the dv2 has a mirrored touch pad, imprinted swirly design on the keyboard tray, and a high-gloss finish. HP's own Pavilion dv4-1275mx (also $749) has a 14-inch screen, but also features a dual-core Turion X2 CPU, while Sony's 14-inch Vaio CS215J/W ($799) has a 2.0 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T6400-both of which handily outperform the HP dv2. Once you hit that price range, plenty of mainstream laptop choices come into play, as illustrated in our recent retail laptop review roundup. But, at $749, there's a big psychological leap to the HP dv2 from a $499 10-inch Netbook or even the $549 12-inch Samsung NC20, which has Via's new Nano processor. In practice, the 1.6GHz Neo handles many tasks better than the Intel Atom does, and it comes paired with ATI Radeon graphics (it's also restricted to Windows Vista-sorry, no XP option). The Neo is intended to be a kind of step-up from Netbook CPUs, such as the Intel Atom and Via Nano, offering a little more processing power for a little more money, and is targeted at slightly larger systems: 12-inch laptops instead of 9- and 10-inch ones. AMD sees room for systems with slightly bigger screens than Netbooks, and that cost slightly more.