Dell chooses AMD CPUs for Inspiron M501R, M5030 laptops

 

AMD has been trying to claw its way back into the laptop processor game — it’s had better luck with its mobile GPUs — and it’s found a willing partner in Dell, which has been slowly adding AMD-powered notebooks to its Inspiron lineup. Tally up two more in the Inspiron M501R and M5030 models, both of which come with starting prices below $1,000.
Dell offers two configurations for each Inspiron, and you can’t customize much from those base models. The $529.99 flavor of the M5030 comes with an Athlon II P320 dual-core processor, 4GB of RAM, 320GB hard drive, and Mobility Radeon HD 4250 graphics, while the $599.99 version just bumps the hard drive size to 500GB.
For $749.99, the M501R comes with a Phenom N930 processor, 4GB of RAM, 320GB hard drive, and Mobility Radeon HD 550 graphics for some light gaming. Oddly, you only need to pay $50 extra to get a 500GB hard drive on this line. Each series is based around a 15.6-inch LED-backlit screen.
The N930 hasn’t found its way into many systems yet to have hands-on editorial reviews, though some benchmark comparisons to Intel’s comparable offerings would be useful to make a buying decision (for example, matching them up to the similarly priced and configured Dell Inspiron 15R laptops with Core i3 and Core i5 CPUs). I can’t imagine there are many AMD mobile fanboys who would purchase a budget laptop with an Athlon or Phenom inside without knowing how it stacks up to the competition.