HP dv2 Ultraportable Notebook and the AMD Athlon Neo

Whilst we’re still waiting to hear from HP on if/when/how the HP MediaSmart Server EX48x series will come to market here in Europe (once again, I’ll iterate, despite what some sales bloke in a call centre told you, they’re still looking at it), the company did invite me today to the press launch of their new ultraportable notebook, the dv2.

The new model is interesting for a couple of reasons. Firstly, HP are looking to open up a new low-cost ultraportable notebook product line which sits squarely in between the 10” Netbook and more mainstream 15”+ notebooks (think Sony VAIO styling at half the price) which in itself is an interesting challenge.

Secondly, the dv2 also sees the launch of AMD’s new, low-power Athlon Neo processor (exclusive to HP for 6 months) and Yukon platform which, with a quoted 15W power consumption, could see its way into a lot more devices in the future (did someone just say “low power/low cost home server”?)

If you’re in the US, you’re going to get the choice of various specifications in both black (actually, looking at the pics, it could be brown but it certainly looked black to me today!) or white – sorry, make that “Espresso” and “Moonlight” – whereas us unfussy Brits will get the choice of three models in the former colour.

In terms of spec, all models ship with a 12.1” LED screen, the 1.6GHz AMD Athlon Neo MV-40 processor, 802.11b/g wireless, 5 in 1 card reader and a 10/100 Ethernet port. HP also bundle their own MediaSmart software suite, which provides Music, Video and Photo playback.

The Neo processor on board is a tailored version of AMD’s existing Athlon processor which has been tweaked to provide lower power consumption and engineered to fit in small and thin notebook chassis like the dv2’s. Integrated graphics come courtesy of the RADEON X1250, or you can upgrade to the beefier HD RADEON 3410 on the two higher spec models. This gives you a quoted 3-4 hours battery life (at idle – real world usage will be shorter, no doubt) and 1080p HD video playback (using the onboard HDMI out socket) from a pretty low footprint.

AMD didn’t want to talk about anything other than the dv2 today, but with seemingly no story to tell when it comes to home servers right now, and with Atom and Celeron pretty much the only game in town for manufacturers, there may be a really interesting opportunity for them in the home server category with this chip.

With regard to the dv2, my first impressions were positive. Certainly it looks great – small, light and thin with a higher quality feel than you’ll find in cheaper netbooks. The cheaper model however comes with compromises – a “proper” notebook for £499 is a sweet price, but Vista Home Basic means you lose Media Center amongst other Windows features (admittedly, HP’s MediaSmart software plugs this gap to arguable success). For me, the 1030 in particular and 1035 look like better bets if you really wish to put your neighbour’s netbook to shame.

Given such strong media features, I was surprised to see the lack of 802.11n in the wireless networking specs – the form factor is perfect for watching video in the home, but 802.11g is really insufficient for video streaming. I know HP are building to a budget, but would supporting the faster standard cost that much more?

Otherwise, it’s a great package. I’m a heavy netbook user (Samsung NC-10 upgraded to 2Gb) and it would take a lot for me to be tempted away from such a great form factor/low price combo. But if you need a small footprint notebook with great looks and a bit more power than you get with a netbook, the dv2 looks like a great fit.