Mark my words: 2009 will be the year of the affordable portable computer. Last year people showed that they were hungry for netbooks, but this year we'll see the birth of a new class of computer, an ultrathin laptop that can offer a little more than just basic performance. About a month ago, nVidia raised the stakes when it started to show off its Ion platform concept, an nVidia GeForce 9400M GPU married to an Intel Atom CPU on a tiny motherboard.

Earlier this week, for CES, AMD made its case with its new Neo mobile processors (code-named Yukon). Think of the Neo as a step up from Intel's Atom and a competitor to the Ion. AMD sees the Neo as part of a new class of ultraportable that could cost between $700 and $1400.

HP's Pavilion dv2 seems to be the poster child for the new AMD processor. The dv2 is fully loaded with features, all packed into a 11.50-by-9.45-by-0.93-inch, 3.8-pound magnesium-alloy frame--the most obvious feature being the 1.6-GHz AMD Athlon Neo MV-40 CPU.


More: http://www.pcworld.com/article/156463/article.html?tk=nl_dnxnws