Dell launches ultraportable Inspiron notebook with Fusion

Matthew DeCarlo

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Staff

Fusion-based systems continue to crawl out of the woodwork this week with Dell's new Inspiron M102z. The new 11.6-inch ultraportable is currently listed on Dell's Australia website with a starting price of $599 which gets you a single-core 1GHz AMD C-50 processor, on-die Radeon HD 6250 graphics and 2GB of DDR3 1333MHz RAM. For an extra Benjamin, Dell outfits the machine with a dual-core 1.6GHz E-350 APU, Radeon HD 6310 graphics and 4GB of RAM.

All configurations come with a 1366x768 LED-backlit display, a 320GB 7200RPM hard drive along with 2GB of Dell's cloud storage for a year, a 1.3-megapixel webcam, 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0, 10/100 Ethernet, a 7-in-1 card reader, three USB 2.0 ports, and HDMI and VGA outputs. A six-cell battery is standard while an optional nine-cell unit provides up 14 hours of life. The company offers a third model for $749, but that only appears to gain an internal DVB-T TV tuner.


It's worth noting that HP's Pavilion dm1z series is already available stateside for a starting price of $449.99 and seems to offer more flexibility. You can add up to 8GB of RAM, 250GB to 750GB of mechanical storage or a 128GB SSD, WWAN connectivity via Verizon, AT&T or Sprint, as well as Windows 7 Professional instead of Home Premium. Both systems offer roughly the same dimensions, though HP's appears marginally thinner and heavier than Dell's.

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Because the C-50 is sufficient for basic tasks (word processing, accessing email etc.) while offering half the TDP and a lower price? Seems like a reasonable compromise to me if you don't need the extra power.
 
I don't know about crawling, but I'm using an Acer 5253-bz602 I purchased for $350 online. It is the best "budget" portable gamer laptop I've used. I'm playing Counterstrike Source with most settings high (texture to mid), 4XMSAA, multicore rendering enabled and HDR on, and I get about 47FPS, smooth play, even when online.

This GPU technology compares well with 8600MGT, which a few years ago, used to cost around $600-$800 on similar powered notebooks. The CPU compares well with a Pentium D820 or Athlon 64FX-57. This CPU performance is no Intel Atom that's for sure:

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_lookup.php?cpu=AMD+E-350

Not only that, after intense 3d gaming, the notebook feels only lukewarm to touch (under the GPU), it is very light (due to LED backlight and integration of CPU/GPU). My old Gaming notebook rig would be so hot you could cook an egg underneath.

Fusion is the best thing to happen for us Budget gamers in a LONG time.

I use this AMD E-350 rig as both my work and game machine.
 
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