Dell Does Its First AMD Laptop
The Inspiron 1501 offers buyers a choice between AMD's entry-level Sempron, the mobile-centric Turion 64, and the dual-core Turion 64 X2 processors. Other than its prominent position on Dell's home page for notebook PCs, the 1501 was launched with no fanfare.
Aimed at consumers and small businesses, the newest in the Inspiron line starts at $549 when built with a 1.8GHz Sempron, 512MB of memory, a 60GB hard drive, and a 15.4-inch LCD screen. Other models range in price from $704 for a PC that includes the Turion 64 CPU to $1,093 for a notebook powered by the Turion 64 X2.
Dell added AMD to its processor choices earlier this year, and as recently as a week ago debuted its first AMD Opteron-powered servers. The first Dell desktop boasting AMD -- the Dimension E521 -- launched in the middle of September.
Other major PC vendors, including Hewlett-Packard, have been selling AMD laptops for some time. Last month, Dell relinquished its long-time top PC sales spot to rival HP.