The GX733 features an AMD Turion X2 Ultra dual-core mobile processor 2GB of DDR2 667/800 RAM (uapgradeable to 4GB) and an ATi Mobility Radeon HD4670 graphics card with 512MB of DDR3.

Today, with the partnership of HP, AMD has brought out their Yukon platform to retail - which partially addresses this area. The Yukon platform consists of an AMD RS690E + SB600 chipset and a single-core AMD Athlon Neo MV-40 (1.6GHz, 512KB L2 cache) or otherwise known as the "Huron" processor by codename. The processor is basically the old Athlon 64 (K8) architecture and brings nothing new other than this model boasting 15 watts TDP and is based on the existing 65nm SOI process technology. While this is a lot higher than the Atom processor's TDP of less than 5 watts, it is also a lot more powerful. Even the chipset is a lot more capable than Intel's ageing 945-series chipset that's often paired with.

Affordable and lightweight laptops are few and far between: You'd have to settle for either a netbook or a desktop replacement laptop in order to spend less than $1,000. I'd like to see more systems that don't skimp on screen real estate yet are still relatively light, in the range of 4 to 5 pounds. The HP Pavilion dv3z ($980 direct), a 13-inch lightweight beauty, easily meets these criteria while keeping prices in the three-digit range. The only catch is that you'll have to settle for AMD parts, which, unfortunately, aren't as fast as their Intel counterparts. If your workloads are as light as this system, however, performance shouldn't matter.

MSI's latest (for now, anyway) notebook features a decorative ocean wave lid, the company's own ECO Engine for saving power whenever possible and a slim, sleek overall build. Sitting just between the realms of ultraportables and full size notebooks, the VR430 includes a 14.1" LCD with a 1280 x 800 resolution, a DVD drive, 1.3-megapixel camera (for video calling, video chatting, etc.), a 4-in-1 card reader and three "well distributed" (as opposed to what?) USB 2.0 sockets. The entire machine weighs 4.85 pounds, and the full size keyboard ensures that you won't be missing that Shift key due to any weird layout issues.

One system in a table that Dessau posts is rated at 148 minutes of battery life using an Intel microprocessor chip and 103 minutes using one from AMD, when measured on the MobileMark test. But the 3DMark06 test–which stresses graphics circuitry, a big AMD focus–yielded a rating of 59 minutes of battery life for an AMD-powered system and 53 minutes for Intel.