How we test
Laptops come in all shapes, sizes and budgets. Appreciating the screen size and potential of the Llano-powered A8-3500M, which appears near the top of AMD's APU list, we've thrown in six comparison laptops that feature modern Intel and AMD technology.
Specifically, based on last year's technology a Lenovo armed with a triple-core AMD Phenom II processor and discrete Radeon HD 4250 1GB graphics card should inform us how AMD has progressed with its APU initiative: the A8-3500M looks to be better in every respect.
Then we have a glut of Intel-based laptops, ranging from a CULV (Acer Timeline) to four models powered by last year's mobile Core i3 and Core i5 technology. There are varying graphics cards used - IGP and discrete - and budgets span from £650 to £1,000. We fully appreciate that a Sandy Bridge laptop isn't included here, and we're working overtime in getting one into the labs and benchmarked up.
Even so there's enough variety here to show where AMD's APU sits in the pecking order. We'll also be paying particular attention to graphics and multimedia performance of the APU, discrete card and Dual Graphics.
| Comparison systems | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Laptop | AMD Llano A8-3500M | Lenovo ThinkPad Edge 15 (AMD) | Acer Timeline 3810T | ASUS U35JC | HP Envy 14-1050EA | Lenovo ThinkPad Edge 15 (Intel) | Acer Aspire 5745DG |
| Processor | AMD A8-3500M (1.5GHz, 4MB L2 cache, quad-core, 35W) | AMD Phenom II P820 (1.8GHz, 1.5MB L2 cache, triple-core, 25W) | Intel Core 2 Duo SU9400 (1.40GHz, 3MB L2 cache, dual-core) | Intel Core i3 370M (2.4GHz, 3MB L3 cache, dual-core) | Intel Core i5 450M (2.4GHz, 3MB L3 cache, dual-core) | Intel Core i5 430M (2.26GHz, 3MB L3 cache, dual-core) | Intel Core i5 450M (2.4GHz, 3MB L3 cache, dual-core) |
| Memory | 4GB DDR3 | 4GB DDR3 | 2GB DDR3 | 4GB DDR3 | 4GB DDR3 | 4GB DDR3 | 4GB DDR3 |
| Graphics | AMD Radeon 6620G + Mobility Radeon 6630 1GB | AMD Mobility Radeon HD 4250 1GB | Intel GMA 4500MHD | Intel HD Graphics + NVIDIA GeForce 310M 1GB | Intel HD Graphics + AMD Mobility Radeon HD 5650 1GB | Intel HD Graphics | NVIDIA GeForce GT 425M 1GB |
| Graphics driver | AMD Catalyst 11.5 | AMD Catalyst 10.7 | Intel 7.15.10.1666 | Intel 8.15.10.2182 + NVIDIA Verde 258.96 | Intel 8.15.10.2182 + AMD Catalyst 10.9 | Intel 8.15.10.2057 | NVIDIA Verde 259.12 |
| Display | 14in - 1,366x768 | 15.6in - 1,366x768 | 13.3in - 1,366x768 | 13.3in - 1,366x768 | 14.5in - 1,366x768 | 15.6in - 1,366x768 | 15.6in - 1,366x768 |
| Battery | 6 cell, 58Whr | 6 cell, 48Whr | 6 cell, 56Whr | 8 cell, 84Whr | 8 cell, 59Whr | 6 cell, 48Whr | 12 cell, 99Whr |
| Weight | 2,179g (including battery) | 2,560g (including battery) | 1,645g (including battery) | 1,816g (including battery) | 2,589g (including battery) | 2,476g (including battery) | 2,839g (including battery) |
| Wireless | Realtek WLAN (802.11bgn) and Bluetooth 2.1 | Realtek WLAN (802.11bgn) and Bluetooth 2.1 | Intel WiFi 5100 (802.11bgn) and Bluetooth | Intel WiFi 5100 (802.11bgn) and Bluetooth | Broadcom 43224AG (802.11bgn) and Bluetooth | Intel WiFi Link 1000 (802.11bgn) and Bluetooth | Broadcom WLAN (802.11bgn) and Bluetooth |
| Disk drive | Hitachi 250GB HDD, 7,200RPM, 8MB cache | Seagate Momentus 320GB HDD, 7,200RPM, 8MB cache | Hitachi 500GB HDD, 5,400RPM, 8MB cache | Seagate Momentus 320GB HDD, 5,400RPM, 8MB cache | Seagate Momentus 500GB HDD, 7,200RPM, 16MB cache | Seagate Momentus 320GB HDD, 7,200RPM, 8MB cache | Hitachi Travelstar 500GB HDD, 5,400RPM, 8MB cache |
| Optical drive | Blu-ray/DVD RW combo | DVD-RW | None | None | DVD-RW | DVD-RW | Blu-ray/DVD RW combo |
| Operating System | Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1, 64-bit | Microsoft Windows 7 Professional, 64-bit | Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium, 32-bit | Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium, 64-bit | Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium, 64-bit | Microsoft Windows 7 Professional, 64-bit | Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium, 64-bit |
| Approx. price as configured | TBC | £600 | £500 | £600 | £1,000 | £650 | £900 |
| Benchmarks | |||||||
| Geekbench 2.1.6 | A cross-platform benchmark used to measure memory and processor performance. Run using high-performance mode. | ||||||
| Cinebench 11.5 | Using Cinebench's multi-CPU render, this cross-platform benchmark stresses as many cores as possible. Run using high-performance mode. | ||||||
| 3DMark06 | A PC benchmark used to test the DirectX 9 performance of a system's graphics card. Run using high-performance mode. | ||||||
| Power consumption | Using balanced power settings, we record mains power draw whilst playing back a 720p movie trailer. | ||||||
| Battery test | In order to measure battery life, we run the notebook on balanced power settings and loop a 720p movie trailer, measuring the time taken to hibernate. | ||||||
