The price at the component level would be about $10 more for 1080p is my understanding. Sadly, all the OEMs like to order cheap parts in large quantities so they have thousands (or millions even) of cruddy 1366x768 panels but 1080p panels are "special" still. 1366x768 really needs to die on anything larger than 11.6 inches.
Always pick laptop based on screen first. This is so disappointing to see because these little AMD chips are decent for everyday usage, watching videos and office work. Too bad that they are being bundled with junk.
Yeah, it's hard to get excited when budget tablets are outshining the budget laptop market. With CPU power being more that sufficient these days for many users, you'd think that the laptop market would be shifting to better panels and modest SSDs. As an OEM, what would make your product look the best on the floor at Best Buy? Having the nicest looking screen and the snappiest load times. The PC market just doesn't have a shot if they can't get the perceived quality up. Many models feel like they are made from the same plastic as those kiddie cell phones that are actually just full of candy.
While it's true that budget tablets can compete in many ways with budget laptops, there's still a big gap in certain functionality. If you want to do any serious work (typing and such) on a tablet, you need a keyboard and that means more money. Performance is still quite a bit different as well, though the difference in OS makes up for a lot of that. As for SSDs, eMMC storage doesn't hold up long-term nearly as well as true SSDs. In fact, many tablets start to feel worse than HDDs after a while thanks to the storage bogging down, which is pretty bad considering they run a lightweight OS.
The sad reality is that Best Buy doesn't really care about what's fastest, best looking, or anything like that -- they just want to make a sale and earn money, and if they can either move more units or sell higher priced units, they're happy either way, but usually it's easier to sell lots of inexpensive devices vs. fewer expensive ones. Best Buy (and other large retail outlets) is a big part of the reason we have lousy budget laptops. They tell an OEM, "We want a laptop we can sell for $399" and the result is the OEM starts looking for areas where they can cut costs.
Fundamentally, there's more "stuff" in a laptop which is why they end up costing more than a tablet. You have a larger motherboard, keyboard and touchpad, hinges, fans, larger battery, etc. to worry about. I'd guess the profit margin on a $400 tablet is actually quite a bit higher than on a $400 laptop. If you want the true laptop alternative to a tablet right now, Chromebooks are probably a better comparison, and not surprisingly the Chromebooks with 1366x768 displays are hitting sub-$300 price points (and even $200). I wouldn't be surprised if the next generation of Chromebooks -- or perhaps two or three generations out -- Windows laptops really start to feel the crunch.
Actually they have plenty of cheap Windows notebooks out there. Turns out that they have a lot in common with Chromebooks in this case - namely that they don't HAVE A8+ class Kaveri - not that Chromebooks do much gaming anyway.
My point is that the cheaper Windows notebooks or Chromebooks don't really compete with the Kaveri laptops in question. Need a notebook to handle everyday computing plus a little light gaming duty? That's these Kaveri-based devices. Want something with a prettier display or cheaper all-around? You can't swing a stick in an electronics store without hitting something that already fits those requirements.
Most of these arguments are moot. Ultimately, you can take a laptop -- SSD and all -- and stuff it into a tablet rather sexily, especially if you don't try to do any lame-ass removable battery stuff. After that, I take your "keyboard" argument, and I hand you back a 'convertible' dock. To be honest, the difference in materials and design between a laptop and an equivalent convertible should be about $40, $100 to be generous (and to put another battery in the dock!).
SO, the real questions are: 1) Do you want to pay an extra $100 to get optional tablet mobility (A: YES -- especially if there's a no-dock option to save money), and 2) why the hell are there $400 laptops that clearly cost more to make than some $500 tablets? (A: novelty tax, 'tablet' as a buzzword).
Conclusion: Premium 11 to 12-inch laptops ought to be convertibles. Premium tablets ought to be convertibles.
I recently bought a HP Notebook with 8Gb of Ram, AMD A8 2.8Ghz quaddy and then dropped in a cheap 128Gb SSD and it's fine for web browsing and light gaming.
And that "only" has a 1600x900 panel and all for only $550 AUD. (Probably about $400-$450 USD.)
I'm a little surprised that Acer actually has some semi-appealing Kaveri laptops at not-horrible prices. Although the more affordable options only have 4GB of RAM so you'd probably want to upgrade them a bit.
With that being said... bring out the 35W models already! The 35W models look much more interesting to me, especially since they support faster memory. The FX-7600P in particular is loaded with 512 shaders and DDR3 2133 support, although the A10-7400P might end up holding the value crown.
Nope. I have had Intel notebooks where Intel's Decelerator graphics driver could only be provided by Toshiba. However, there are ways around those particular blocks, had the same issue with a Radeon 9700Pro Notebook back when Dinosaurs roamed the Earth, ended up throwing on modded drivers and overclocking that chip by over 50%.
If you ignore price, sure. The 35W models have traditionally offered more performance for basically the same price, although they're not as svelte/cool and they drain the battery faster. But for a teenager that uses it for light duty gaming while tethered and very rarely uses it away from a wall in general? It's fine. Unless you can talk them into a small desktop...
Ugh. It's loathsome that AMD's silicon always gets tied to crappy 768p panels and slow HDDs. And the OEM's charge a pretty obscene markup to get a decent screen and SSD.
I'm still waiting and hoping (likely in vain) for a decent tablet sporting Mullins to appear. But then, I've been waiting on a decent tablet with any of AMD's silicon to appear for forever.
It's a chicken and egg -- no one wants to gear up to build AMD, so AMD gains no marketshare and makes no money, so they don't get resources, rinse, repeat
"no one wants" ? Well maybe you ought to get educated how Dell, HP & IBM "wanted" to build just with intel a few years ago... or how contra-revenue is now affecting the landscape. Intel is organized crime incorporated they don't know any better. Whenever they have bad products in one market or another they just bribe their way in or back... Thi is Intel for everybody!
I guess consumer Kaveri didn't get many design wins nor did anything else in this particular product series. The laptop I'm using to type this post is running Intel hardware but I want to still purchase a Kaveri laptop.
What is the root issue here though? AMD, the OEMs or something else?
OEMs obviously, when you have hardware that outperforms intel hardware having lower TDP like the mullins does just the OEMs are at fault because they take the "contra-revenue" bribe and call it a day. The Intel Crime Syndicate hits again just a like a few years ago. Intel is and always will be a criminal company. 3bn $ in fines and settlements is not nearly enough for what they did and are still doing.
I'm waiting for the day when AMD APUs are packed into 15' (with a bit better resolution), with 8GB of performant RAM and SSD. In budget range.
(If You buy i5 notebook and SSD and 4GB RAM You can have config that is not sold, and much better then models priced similarly. Nobody wants to make balanced builds :( Its either overpriced CPU or overpriced SSD or overpriced XYZ, and never everything for fair price :( )
Newegg has 2133 MHz laptop memory from gskill, corsair, and kingston. the corsair looks to be the best, timing wise. all but one kit are also 1.35v instead of 1.5v
Buying any of these you have to replace the HDD with e.g. a 250 GB MX100 and put the HDD into an external chassis. If you can do it yourself the value isn't as bad as when ordering some small OEM SSD for several 100's of $.
"the PRO series of APUs is essentially the same as the consumer models, only they're guaranteed to be available for a longer period of time so that businesses in particular don't have to worry about validating new processors or platforms"
In this case make sure your locked in to some terrible chunky 720p laptops for a longer period of time. Employees will love it.
These prices are outrageous. Why do they even bother... no one is going to buy them when you can get an intel + nvidia solution for the same price, and get even better performance. AMD may as well just declare bankruptcy right now.
Most full-size 15"+ laptops with a competent Intel CPU and a halfway decent dedicated GPU start life at $600 and up. So if you look at consumer models, the AMD solutions are pretty competitive.
13", 900p, A10-7300 with 4 or 8GB of 1600MHz RAM, 4 or 6 cell battery, under 1.8kg with 2 USB 3.0, 2 USB 2.0, DisplayPort, HDMI and mSATA+HDD and/or easy to access RAM/HDD/WiFi slots, good and quiet cooling. That without a Windows license and you get my next 500 to 600€ for it.
@intel: Fool me once shame on you... fool me twice shame on ME!
We can see & buy up to 17wat TDP tablets from intel... We can't see any tablet with a 4.5 TDP mullins inside... And I blame Intels contra-revenue exclusively. While a top end mullins can take on a low end i3 while using much less power we don't get them in any built worth mentioning. We only get sh*t builds with amd chipery, the first mullins laptop from hp and these sorry excuses of laptops are the only builts AMD is allowed into... I honestly hope that somebody will step on intels trout and teaches them a lesson once and for all...
I say, BOYCOT INTEL until the FTC will start taking responsibility and reign them in. Until then however if we the customers will get again fooled by Intels tactics of market manipulation we deserve being robbed blindly!!
Yes it is sad that people don't want to spend much on a notebook anymore, including myself. For me, I brought an Asus k55n with an a8-4500 apu for $270 refurbed from newegg last sept for less than $300. I am pretty content of playing games with it.
Personally I think hardware manufacturers won't even use kaveri apus as their entry level notebooks, plenty of crappy AMD dual core 2100's out there to compete with Intel's celeron n2830 out there.
A number of Kaveri-base laptops are now listed on HP's website. Some of them, the Pavilion 15Z, for example, have a 1920x1080 screen upgrade for $50. It also has two upgrade processors, one of which has an added-in graphics card.
The base unit (A8-6410 processor) with the 1920x1080 screen currently lists for $549.99
This was at 2.00pm. HP is busy updating its website right now, so I hope that it is still there when you look (the product list changed once since I started this comment).
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42 Comments
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monstercameron - Monday, July 28, 2014 - link
768p screens should just be banned.Flunk - Monday, July 28, 2014 - link
You really have to wonder what the price difference would be, if they can afford to put 2560x1600 screens on $400 tablets.JarredWalton - Monday, July 28, 2014 - link
The price at the component level would be about $10 more for 1080p is my understanding. Sadly, all the OEMs like to order cheap parts in large quantities so they have thousands (or millions even) of cruddy 1366x768 panels but 1080p panels are "special" still. 1366x768 really needs to die on anything larger than 11.6 inches.zodiacfml - Tuesday, July 29, 2014 - link
$10 only?! Im baffled. I recently bought a notebook with a 14 screen and it is "not" a pleasure to use compared to my Nexus 5's screen.Krysto - Tuesday, July 29, 2014 - link
Laptop displays are garbage compared to modern day smartphone displays.niva - Tuesday, July 29, 2014 - link
Always pick laptop based on screen first. This is so disappointing to see because these little AMD chips are decent for everyday usage, watching videos and office work. Too bad that they are being bundled with junk.odell_wills - Thursday, October 9, 2014 - link
I don't think it stands a chance to some of the top laptops that are out there. /Odell from http://www.consumertop.com/best-laptop-guide/Ortanon - Wednesday, July 30, 2014 - link
*anything larger than 7 inchesFTFY
MonkeyPaw - Monday, July 28, 2014 - link
Yeah, it's hard to get excited when budget tablets are outshining the budget laptop market. With CPU power being more that sufficient these days for many users, you'd think that the laptop market would be shifting to better panels and modest SSDs. As an OEM, what would make your product look the best on the floor at Best Buy? Having the nicest looking screen and the snappiest load times. The PC market just doesn't have a shot if they can't get the perceived quality up. Many models feel like they are made from the same plastic as those kiddie cell phones that are actually just full of candy.JarredWalton - Tuesday, July 29, 2014 - link
While it's true that budget tablets can compete in many ways with budget laptops, there's still a big gap in certain functionality. If you want to do any serious work (typing and such) on a tablet, you need a keyboard and that means more money. Performance is still quite a bit different as well, though the difference in OS makes up for a lot of that. As for SSDs, eMMC storage doesn't hold up long-term nearly as well as true SSDs. In fact, many tablets start to feel worse than HDDs after a while thanks to the storage bogging down, which is pretty bad considering they run a lightweight OS.The sad reality is that Best Buy doesn't really care about what's fastest, best looking, or anything like that -- they just want to make a sale and earn money, and if they can either move more units or sell higher priced units, they're happy either way, but usually it's easier to sell lots of inexpensive devices vs. fewer expensive ones. Best Buy (and other large retail outlets) is a big part of the reason we have lousy budget laptops. They tell an OEM, "We want a laptop we can sell for $399" and the result is the OEM starts looking for areas where they can cut costs.
Fundamentally, there's more "stuff" in a laptop which is why they end up costing more than a tablet. You have a larger motherboard, keyboard and touchpad, hinges, fans, larger battery, etc. to worry about. I'd guess the profit margin on a $400 tablet is actually quite a bit higher than on a $400 laptop. If you want the true laptop alternative to a tablet right now, Chromebooks are probably a better comparison, and not surprisingly the Chromebooks with 1366x768 displays are hitting sub-$300 price points (and even $200). I wouldn't be surprised if the next generation of Chromebooks -- or perhaps two or three generations out -- Windows laptops really start to feel the crunch.
Alexvrb - Tuesday, July 29, 2014 - link
Actually they have plenty of cheap Windows notebooks out there. Turns out that they have a lot in common with Chromebooks in this case - namely that they don't HAVE A8+ class Kaveri - not that Chromebooks do much gaming anyway.My point is that the cheaper Windows notebooks or Chromebooks don't really compete with the Kaveri laptops in question. Need a notebook to handle everyday computing plus a little light gaming duty? That's these Kaveri-based devices. Want something with a prettier display or cheaper all-around? You can't swing a stick in an electronics store without hitting something that already fits those requirements.
Ortanon - Wednesday, July 30, 2014 - link
Most of these arguments are moot. Ultimately, you can take a laptop -- SSD and all -- and stuff it into a tablet rather sexily, especially if you don't try to do any lame-ass removable battery stuff. After that, I take your "keyboard" argument, and I hand you back a 'convertible' dock. To be honest, the difference in materials and design between a laptop and an equivalent convertible should be about $40, $100 to be generous (and to put another battery in the dock!).SO, the real questions are: 1) Do you want to pay an extra $100 to get optional tablet mobility (A: YES -- especially if there's a no-dock option to save money), and 2) why the hell are there $400 laptops that clearly cost more to make than some $500 tablets? (A: novelty tax, 'tablet' as a buzzword).
Conclusion: Premium 11 to 12-inch laptops ought to be convertibles. Premium tablets ought to be convertibles.
CONCLUSION: CONVERTIBLES.
Alexvrb - Wednesday, July 30, 2014 - link
That makes sense to some degree (minus upgradeability) for smaller laptops. But the laptops in the article are all 14"+. Price a big tablet like that!Ortanon - Wednesday, July 30, 2014 - link
If you see someone with a tablet bigger than ~12", slap them on the mouth.Valis - Tuesday, July 29, 2014 - link
Let me guess, all these "new" fancy laptops has 15" 1366x768 Res TN screens? xD My Dell from 2004 has 1440x900 14" I think, pathetic.StevoLincolnite - Wednesday, July 30, 2014 - link
I recently bought a HP Notebook with 8Gb of Ram, AMD A8 2.8Ghz quaddy and then dropped in a cheap 128Gb SSD and it's fine for web browsing and light gaming.And that "only" has a 1600x900 panel and all for only $550 AUD. (Probably about $400-$450 USD.)
Alexvrb - Monday, July 28, 2014 - link
I'm a little surprised that Acer actually has some semi-appealing Kaveri laptops at not-horrible prices. Although the more affordable options only have 4GB of RAM so you'd probably want to upgrade them a bit.With that being said... bring out the 35W models already! The 35W models look much more interesting to me, especially since they support faster memory. The FX-7600P in particular is loaded with 512 shaders and DDR3 2133 support, although the A10-7400P might end up holding the value crown.
Gigaplex - Monday, July 28, 2014 - link
If you want the 35W models you're likely interested in performance, in which case you're better off with an Intel CPU combined with a discrete GPU.przemo_li - Tuesday, July 29, 2014 - link
Not in notebook.OEM can screw You over with their "special" driver (special only by virtue of single release!), that can not be replaced with GPU vendors drivers.
APUs (and intels with iGPU and not dGPU) do have to one advantage.
And If You are using Linux then its also good option.
StevoLincolnite - Wednesday, July 30, 2014 - link
Nope.I have had Intel notebooks where Intel's Decelerator graphics driver could only be provided by Toshiba.
However, there are ways around those particular blocks, had the same issue with a Radeon 9700Pro Notebook back when Dinosaurs roamed the Earth, ended up throwing on modded drivers and overclocking that chip by over 50%.
Alexvrb - Tuesday, July 29, 2014 - link
If you ignore price, sure. The 35W models have traditionally offered more performance for basically the same price, although they're not as svelte/cool and they drain the battery faster. But for a teenager that uses it for light duty gaming while tethered and very rarely uses it away from a wall in general? It's fine. Unless you can talk them into a small desktop...schizoide - Monday, July 28, 2014 - link
Would love to see kaveri in a brix/NUC type of form-factor for HTPC use.Actually, what I REALLY want is a kaveri APU with PS4-class integrated graphics in a PS4-like form factor for $500.
ayejay_nz - Monday, July 28, 2014 - link
Yes! I'm also hoping to see a model of BRIX that includes Kaveri, looking to use as an HTPC.piroroadkill - Tuesday, July 29, 2014 - link
Nothing slim and 13" with a 1600×900 screen?What the hell is the deal with all these enormous and fugly 15.6" 1366×768 machines? Ain't nobody got time for that.
kyuu - Tuesday, July 29, 2014 - link
Ugh. It's loathsome that AMD's silicon always gets tied to crappy 768p panels and slow HDDs. And the OEM's charge a pretty obscene markup to get a decent screen and SSD.I'm still waiting and hoping (likely in vain) for a decent tablet sporting Mullins to appear. But then, I've been waiting on a decent tablet with any of AMD's silicon to appear for forever.
lmcd - Tuesday, July 29, 2014 - link
It's a chicken and egg -- no one wants to gear up to build AMD, so AMD gains no marketshare and makes no money, so they don't get resources, rinse, repeattcube - Tuesday, July 29, 2014 - link
"no one wants" ? Well maybe you ought to get educated how Dell, HP & IBM "wanted" to build just with intel a few years ago... or how contra-revenue is now affecting the landscape. Intel is organized crime incorporated they don't know any better. Whenever they have bad products in one market or another they just bribe their way in or back... Thi is Intel for everybody!bleh0 - Tuesday, July 29, 2014 - link
I guess consumer Kaveri didn't get many design wins nor did anything else in this particular product series. The laptop I'm using to type this post is running Intel hardware but I want to still purchase a Kaveri laptop.What is the root issue here though? AMD, the OEMs or something else?
tcube - Wednesday, July 30, 2014 - link
OEMs obviously, when you have hardware that outperforms intel hardware having lower TDP like the mullins does just the OEMs are at fault because they take the "contra-revenue" bribe and call it a day. The Intel Crime Syndicate hits again just a like a few years ago. Intel is and always will be a criminal company. 3bn $ in fines and settlements is not nearly enough for what they did and are still doing.przemo_li - Tuesday, July 29, 2014 - link
I'm waiting for the day when AMD APUs are packed into 15' (with a bit better resolution), with 8GB of performant RAM and SSD. In budget range.(If You buy i5 notebook and SSD and 4GB RAM You can have config that is not sold, and much better then models priced similarly. Nobody wants to make balanced builds :( Its either overpriced CPU or overpriced SSD or overpriced XYZ, and never everything for fair price :( )
Anyone seen some 2100+ RAM for notebooks? :D
TheinsanegamerN - Tuesday, July 29, 2014 - link
Newegg has 2133 MHz laptop memory from gskill, corsair, and kingston. the corsair looks to be the best, timing wise. all but one kit are also 1.35v instead of 1.5vMrSpadge - Tuesday, July 29, 2014 - link
Buying any of these you have to replace the HDD with e.g. a 250 GB MX100 and put the HDD into an external chassis. If you can do it yourself the value isn't as bad as when ordering some small OEM SSD for several 100's of $.Gunbuster - Tuesday, July 29, 2014 - link
"the PRO series of APUs is essentially the same as the consumer models, only they're guaranteed to be available for a longer period of time so that businesses in particular don't have to worry about validating new processors or platforms"In this case make sure your locked in to some terrible chunky 720p laptops for a longer period of time. Employees will love it.
Shadowmaster625 - Tuesday, July 29, 2014 - link
These prices are outrageous. Why do they even bother... no one is going to buy them when you can get an intel + nvidia solution for the same price, and get even better performance. AMD may as well just declare bankruptcy right now.Alexvrb - Wednesday, July 30, 2014 - link
Most full-size 15"+ laptops with a competent Intel CPU and a halfway decent dedicated GPU start life at $600 and up. So if you look at consumer models, the AMD solutions are pretty competitive.Death666Angel - Tuesday, July 29, 2014 - link
13", 900p, A10-7300 with 4 or 8GB of 1600MHz RAM, 4 or 6 cell battery, under 1.8kg with 2 USB 3.0, 2 USB 2.0, DisplayPort, HDMI and mSATA+HDD and/or easy to access RAM/HDD/WiFi slots, good and quiet cooling. That without a Windows license and you get my next 500 to 600€ for it.tcube - Tuesday, July 29, 2014 - link
@intel: Fool me once shame on you... fool me twice shame on ME!We can see & buy up to 17wat TDP tablets from intel... We can't see any tablet with a 4.5 TDP mullins inside... And I blame Intels contra-revenue exclusively. While a top end mullins can take on a low end i3 while using much less power we don't get them in any built worth mentioning. We only get sh*t builds with amd chipery, the first mullins laptop from hp and these sorry excuses of laptops are the only builts AMD is allowed into... I honestly hope that somebody will step on intels trout and teaches them a lesson once and for all...
I say, BOYCOT INTEL until the FTC will start taking responsibility and reign them in. Until then however if we the customers will get again fooled by Intels tactics of market manipulation we deserve being robbed blindly!!
pugster - Wednesday, July 30, 2014 - link
Yes it is sad that people don't want to spend much on a notebook anymore, including myself. For me, I brought an Asus k55n with an a8-4500 apu for $270 refurbed from newegg last sept for less than $300. I am pretty content of playing games with it.Personally I think hardware manufacturers won't even use kaveri apus as their entry level notebooks, plenty of crappy AMD dual core 2100's out there to compete with Intel's celeron n2830 out there.
bchreng - Wednesday, July 30, 2014 - link
Does the A10 7300 APU have R6 or R7 graphics? The Lenovo Z10's description on Best Buy's website shows that it comes with R7.Tikcus9666 - Wednesday, July 30, 2014 - link
Specs for the APUs are as followshttp://www.amd.com/en-gb/products/processors/noteb...
http://www.amd.com/en-gb/products/processors/noteb...
http://www.amd.com/en-gb/products/processors/noteb...
Nincomp - Monday, August 18, 2014 - link
A number of Kaveri-base laptops are now listed on HP's website. Some of them, the Pavilion 15Z, for example, have a 1920x1080 screen upgrade for $50. It also has two upgrade processors, one of which has an added-in graphics card.The base unit (A8-6410 processor) with the 1920x1080 screen currently lists for $549.99
This was at 2.00pm. HP is busy updating its website right now, so I hope that it is still there when you look (the product list changed once since I started this comment).
Novaguy - Saturday, August 23, 2014 - link
The A8-6410 is a Beema processor (successor to Kabini), not a Kaveri.