The Ultimate AMD Trinity Notebook List

david you'll forgive me for this slight deviation but its on the minds of other than myself. one of the things of interest that I triangulate from what was said and not said re: things-microsoft at CES, is that MS seems to lack motivation to really push Windows RT on all fronts. this on the surface to me looks suicidal, but reading a number of notes from meetings/presentations/etc surrounding the event, they seem to be hoping that hardware will pull them out of the tailspin and enable thin/light tablets and hybrids running "real" windows 8 [& followons], finally melding the heady development in the handset space with notebookworld. sounds like wishful thinking doesn't it but Intel needs that to happen as badly as MS does, and are working hard to get the future generations of processors/soc's there to compete with ARM. I would imagine somewhere in AMD's piles of future planning is the same

 

1) i questioned the build quality of the new visio 15.6 vs. the asus n56dp. i think that's fair, just because asus has such a great reputation built over so long, and they make their own boards, etc.

2) i was really hoping for some nice stuff from lenovo, like a thinkpad, since rory came from there. not sure what the absence of it says?

3) there was talk on semiaccurate, and there still is that amd might abandon its big cores, and go with the little ones. whacky, eh? like abandon kaveri and go with kabini. at least that's how i remember it.

4) i just wish there was a 15.6 version of the u38n!

 

If you want a 15,6'' version of the U38N get an HP.
You have a truckload of 15,6'' options available.

 

delete that poste no longuer good sorry

 

1) My impression of Asus is not as good as yours. In the past, their notebooks weren't considered real quality, a lot of the budget stuff. There are already Vizio notebooks, and they are nice, sleek, metallic, and come with no bloatware.

2) absence of an AMD Thinkpad is no big deal, because they are expensive, Lenvovo wants to charge more for them, and they are mostly for business where people dont care about graphics. The Intel integrated solution is better than the discrete solution in my 4 year old Thinkpad. Lenovo has the ideapad with Trinity, and Trinity did not deliver on all of the promises. Richland is likely to be what Trinity was supposed to be.

3) That was just rumors and lies, AMD even sent those jerks a note that they are false rumors, big cores still on track, and AMD confirmed at CES that Kaveri was launching in the second half of this year. The game consoles are probably going to eat up the bulk of initial production though. Both Xbox720 and PS4 likely to be using the Kaveri, both looking to be released in November probably for the holiday shopping.

 

Great news everyone! I finally own a Trinity notebook as of today. So while at work this guy walks in and tells me he wants to sell his notebook to us. But, my store doesn't buy notebooks anymore. I asked him to show it to me just for the heck of it, and low and behold it was a MINT week old HP ProBook 6475b!

I couldn't believe it, one of the Trinity notebooks I was considering was right there before me. It is practically brand new, nothing wrong with it. It was missing the box but he did have the charger and manuals. The reason he was selling it? Well it turns out it was a gift from his wife's father to her and she apparently didn't use it or really need it as they had another computer so they'd much rather have the cash instead.

I asked him how much he wanted for it, he said $300 cash! I was sold! I told him I'd buy it for sure and this morning we did the deal and now I'm the proud owner of a 6475b, in mint condition barely a week old for $300! He didn't have the original receipt because it was the wife's father that made the purchase but he reassured me it was bought new.

Now what I want to know is if the A10 Richland APU will be an easy direct swap for the current A6?

Come up! Great price for a business class notebook.

So what did I buy for $300? Here's a quick spec list:

HP ProBook 6475b
Windows 7 Professional x86 (I will install x64)
1366x768 anti-glare display
A6-4400M
1x4GB DDR3 1600 RAM Hynix
320GB HDD Seagate
Cd dvd burner
HP 65W charger
Fingerprint scanner
Pointing stick
Displayport v1.2
TPM
720p webcam
55 Wh (5100 mAh) lithium ion HP battery (2 cycles)
Manuals

I took some photos and its actually very similar to my old E425, excuse the quality as I took them with my Note II a little while ago:







I am pretty happy with it and will soon sell the E425 to make up for what I just spent. Also im really hoping the A10 Richland APU will drop right in without issues. I'll post my mini review later this week if I get some time. Anyone know if the sockets will remain the same as Trinity FS1r2? All that turned up from a quick Google search was the mention of desktop FM2 socket, but nothing for mobile APUs.


Sent from my SGH-T889 using Tapatalk 2

 

If that is Win7PRO x64 and I can install at least another 4GB SoDIMM - I would have bought that too at that price. (The fingerprint scanner is what is selling me, actually).

But I think you're going to be disappointed if you think you can drop in the just announced APU's...


Curious how easy it is to take the system apart is and if the battery is high capacity and removable? How long does the system last on battery?


Thanks in advance for any additional info - btw, the photos are not showing up yet.

 

EDIT: The factory recovery partition installs the 32-bit version by default.

Yeah it was hard to pass up at this price even with "just an A6-4400M" and the 1366x768 display. I didnt really need it but for that price, i couldnt resist. Those are two things I will be upgrading myself and it'll still cost less than buying it new. I hope i can still register it under my name and have warranty support even though i don't have the original receipt. I haven't had a chance to really test the fingerprint scanner and anything else. I ran the built-in diagnostics on the hardware and everything checks out fine so far. Right now I'm restoring it back to factory settings.

Regarding the Richland APU compatibility issue, we'll just have to wait and see.

The end-user access panel is great! It gives me access to all the key components. I don't know how hard it is to disassemble this notebook but I already found a couple service manuals showing the steps on how to do it. Eventually I'm sure I will need to disassemble it, but the easy access panel should be enough for swapping APUs, upgrading the RAM, HDD, and wireless cards.

I added the stated battery capacity (55 Wh (5100 mAh)) to my original post and yes it is removable. I don't know how long it'll last but when I hovered over the battery meter in Windows, it said 4-5 hrs and one time it said 7hrs. I know this isn't accurate at all but that's all i have for now.

 

Cool davidricardo! My laptop just went from doing okay to seemingly last legs a week ago, and so I will almost certainly be buying the a10 model in the next couple weeks. I wondered if you would share your experience on temperatures and noise for the laptop when you get the chance!

 

Upgrade the panel!!

 

That's stellar - I would have taken it in a heartbeat.

When I asked HP about the warranty on my Envy 14 shortly after buying it, they told me the warranty travels with the computer, no need for a receipt or a warranty transfer.

 

great price! I love how easy those probooks and elitebooks are easy disassemble, that smart cover is just wonderful! internals in just a flick of the latch!

 

You really think Trinity 2.0 will fit that socket? I hope. Looking for a 6475b myself but with A10-4600m. If I can find one under $750 with 1600x900 panel I'll bite. I'm selling my S405, such a disappointment.

 

I'll post some readings.

I want to and i plan to,but i don't know any OEM/compatible part numbers yet, only HP part numbers of parts i cannot find.

Really that easy? So I'd be covered? I don't know if its 1 year or 3 years warranty.

Convinient and something every notebook should have!

Idealy, I would like Trinity 2.0 to fit in the existing socket with the pins matching correctly, plug and play style, no messing with flashing either. That would be a great opportunity for AMD. They do it all the time in their desktop platforms, why not these mobiles? I'm liking this 6475b, its not very cool looking or sleek or light, but it appears to be durable so thats a good thing. It also has a wwan pcie and sim connections. I tried looking for the 1600x900 panel bought could not find anything yet. I know im also going to need the LVDS cable, but my search turned up nothing.


Sucks to hear about the S405 experience, Lenovo could've had a winner but ended up screwing it up.

 

How could AMD benefit from compatibility? I'm afraid Chinese ebay guys could make big money by stealing Richlands from factory. Need only socket compatibility or new bios too? How much faster is Richland? Will you run few benchmarks on your new laptop?

 

to remove.

 

thanks TommyB0y. i'll take your word on all three points. except that if a thinkpad really has that great quality, i'll pay. i'd probably run the damn thing for 4 or so years, i'll get my money's worth.

that said i don't care about graphics much. i'm mostly programming, running citrix, surfing and watching movies. i don't game and except for vpn, i run linux. for the most part, better graphics just means worse battery life.

however, i would eventually like to hook my new laptop to a very high res monitor, hopefully better than 1080p. that might need gpu? but can citirix even pump that much resolution? and can any of these laptops connect to such a monitor? don't they use displayport, which trinity lappies don't have? can any of these lappies hook up to two monitors?

 

thank you too! very interesting. apparently new HP lappies will be available tomorrow. problem is i really care about build quality, these aren't envy's or probooks, so they'll have crappy quality, no? they could be cheap as hell though. i guess that 125 dollar discount from facebook won't apply .

 

I don't think HP offers new business-class laptops with less than a three year warranty. They've got a place on their website where you can put in the serial number and check your warranty info.

 

actually i did a bit of research on these 1440p monitors from korea.

CES 2013: Monoprice Launches Cheap 2560x1440 IPS Monitor | PC Perspective
Achieva Shimian 27" Monitor Review - 1440p IPS Display at Under $350! | Conclusion

they have dvi ports. guess i can't plug it into any of these laptops? if i do, maybe a ulv chip without a gpu won't be able to feed it? would a 25w or 35w chip be able to? would i need discrete graphics? and i wonder if it would work with linux.

 

Cognus do you want or need Windows RT for any particular reason?
I don't really have interest in it right now because its of little use to me and I would much rather buy an x86 legacy computer (for my existing applications) be it a laptop, tablet, etc. It might be that these companies don't want to take that risk and would rather watch from the sidelines to see how things play out, then and only then they can jump in when they see fit.

AMD would make a lot of end-users (who do the actual purchasing) really happy. They would then value its products more highly and be more likely to purchase another AMD product in the future. However, I guess the flip side would be that OEMs would rather sell you a completely new system instead of allowing you to upgrade it yourself.

I'm crossing my fingers for socket and BIOS compatibility, basically plug and play. AMD claims that the mobile A10-5750M Richland APU will have a GPU that is 20% or more faster than the current A10-4600M. I don't know what the CPU difference will be or whether it'll support RAM faster than 1600.

Sure I'll post benchmarks. What were you interested in?

Most of these laptops have HDMI and VGA ports which can be used simultaneously alongside the built in display (3 displays at the same time). Would this work for you?

I also just learned that my 6475b's displayport v1.2 is able to daisy chain multiple displays at once. I haven't seen exactly how this works but display port resolution goes beyond 1080p. All of this mafe possible by the integrated GPU. If I remember correctly, the 6475b is the only Trinity notebook with a displayport. Otherwise HDMI + VGA is your only other choice.

EDIT: I remember the MSI GX60 also has a displayport.

Probably not the best quality out there but decent performance for the money.

The reason I said 1 or 3 years is because on the 6475b HP webpage it states this. I'll definitely check out my warranty info using the serial input method you speak of.

DVI to HDMI or DVI to VGA adapters would be what you would need in that case.

I don't have a definite answer regarding if an ULV or 25/35W APU will be able to output this high resolution. I would assume so. Same with your Linux question. A discreet gpu wouldn't hurt.

Sent from my SGH-T889 using Tapatalk 2

 

Nevermind the pro book... The galaxy Note2 is the technology!

 

Its not RT that is of interest but rather the ARM-based SoC technology implementation

 

It surprised me, but you can actually get the HP ProBook 6475b with A10-4600M, Win7 Pro, 1600x900 display, 8GB RAM, 3 year warranty at KMart. If its the only one with displayport too, that makes it a pretty good reason to get it. The business laptop will easily last 5 years, and a standard 3 year warranty is nice, normally pay a lot for, along with no bloatware.

HP HP Smart Buy Pro Book 6475b 14" Notebook with AMD A10-4600M Processor & Windows 8 ENERGY STAR® - Computers - Laptops - All Laptops

Well actually, hard to tell which OS it comes with, title says 8, but description say 7 Pro with win 8 option upgrade.

I noticed that HP themselves actually did away with the pre-configured option alltogether. They had this same setup for the same price on HP.com, but not anymore.

Newegg has it too.

 

Newegg is the best bet for me. No taxes, otherwise it adds about $50 to the cost, plus costs $20 less. It's also on Amazon through one of the resellers. That actually looks like the best combination of all worlds though as far as a Trinity laptop. Too bad it isn't about $100 cheaper. $700 seems about perfect, but then again, what do I know?

 

Hey, I used the preinstalled HP Support Assistant to verify my warranty status and it says:

Standard warranty start date: 1/7/2013
Expiration date: 1/6/2016

So looks like I'm good to go for the next 3 years! Awesome!

Regarding which OS it comes with, that is weird. It says Windows 8 Pro, but also Windows 7 Pro. You can try contacting Wal-Mart but they might just tell you to contact HP support with that exact model number. It could be a walmart "exclusive."

EDIT: Correction, I meant kmart. Also, I forgot the MSI GX60 has a displayport too.

 

At the HP site it shows it comes with Windows 7 but upgrade to Windows 8. You can buy direct from HP too: HP ProBook 6475b Notebook PC (ENERGY STAR) (C6Z45UT) specifications - HP Small & Medium Business products

 

Ahh there it is, I had a link in my favorites to it that was now dead, and my search on ths site for 6475b didn't come up with it. Good to see it direct from HP, I have bought two AMD laptops direct from them and not an issue with either one in a combined 6 years.

 

Here's the first ULV A-series Pavilion Sleekbook, its got an A4-4355M, Radeon 7400G, 2 DIMM slots, 4 GB RAM, 500 GB HDD, 4-cell (37WHr) Li-Ion battery, 14" diagonal HD BrightView LED-backlit (1366 x 768), 9.37 x 13.66 x 0.83 in, 3.96 lb, $519.99 (MSRP)

HP Pavilion 14-b110us Sleekbook | HP® Official Store



I'll add it to the list.

 

Ah, give me that with an A10-4600m for $600 and I'm sold!

 

I can't support a 37WHr battery... You'd be lucky to get four hours on that...

 

Meh, true, 55 Whr.

 

There's now the HP Pavilion Sleekbook 15z available for order and, interestingly enough, it has the 8550m paired with an A8 as an option. Considering you can get it for just shy of $500 (coupon out there for $125 off when you config it up to 600) it's a very interesting option. Depending on what, exactly, the 8550m is (rebrand or what?) and how it performs, that is.

Promising price, though, any which way.

 

8570M is definitely a next gen, 384-core GCN part, but what does that make the 8550M? Someone buy this machine!

AnandTech - AMD Releases Full Product Specifications For Radeon HD 8000M Series

 

Ugh, 4 cell battery, 1366x768 resolution, ULV CPU... meh.

And that coupon doesn't work for the 15z (NB4927) just tried. However, it does only cost $549 with the A8-4555m + 8550m GPU.

 

Good action my friends! a flurry

question: where would one find a 14" 1600x900 hp panel that one could retrofit onto one of those pedestrian models? I checked the usual online source but no have....

 

Is the 900p panel an option for that device? If so, the service manual would have the hp part number for it.

 

here you go Sammy Fans: Newegg.com - SAMSUNG Series 3 NP365E5C-S01US Notebook AMD A-Series A8-4500M(1.90GHz) 15.6" 4GB Memory DDR3 1600 500GB HDD 5400rpm DVD±R/RW AMD Radeon HD 7640G
interesting... the low rent 15" sammy weighs 1.6 lbs less than the 14" probook ..... go figure

sammy for under 400...

 

I don't think this one is on the list, in any case I will go ahead and add it. This is great for the price.


Where are you seeing that because I saw this...

14.0" HP ProBook 6475b: 4.48 lb
15.6" Samsung Series 3 NP365E5C-S01US: 5.16 lb

Sent from my SGH-T889 using Tapatalk 2

 

David, I'm glad for you finally have your Trinity machine! Especially for that price!!! When do you plan to upgrade APU? Do you feel A6 APU strong enough generally? How would you compare HP's build quality over Lenovo?

 

depends on config:
Weight
Starting at 4.48 lb (2.03 kg) [per the hp book]

if they were same price [they are not] I'd take the 14 just for size and the possibility that in the future I could upgrade the display to the 900p... I don't have the affection for sammy that others do. one has to take each of their models on its on merits, be it netbooks, notebooks, phones, monitors/tv's...
I have one of their highly touted ips 1080p HDTV's in 26" flavor. the ONLY thing good about it is the display... which they manage to ruin with an almost pointless tuner, horrible defaults, and sound that is as bad, pound for pound, as a nexus 7!
but the nc-10 little book is pretty good... best keyboard on a netbook ever... they have their moments.
one can't argue with their sales nums

 

Coupon code would be HP125AMD, which definitely works. Far from the strongest thing, sure, but for the price, it's an interesting option, I would say. Depending on what the 8550m is like.

 

Haha yeah funny how things worked out. I'm glad too, sickass price. Best deal for me in a while. I could've hustled him more but since I accepted his first answer, that was it. Still I cannot complain at all about what I got.

I don't have a definite answer about an APU upgrade but I wanted to plan on upgrading when an A10 Richland APU is available from ebay or similar (assuming an APU swap will work without problems). Should hopefully be here sooner than we may realize.

I'm a little tempted to just pick up a Trinity A10 but it appears the A6 can hold me over for now. The A6 to me feels like it is enough, its the Seagate 5400rpm HDD that slows things down a lot! Before swapping APUs I wanted to try overclocking my corsair RAM to 1866, maybe the A6 will actually utilize it correctly.

As for quality comparisons between business-class Lenovo and HP go, there's a few differences.
Lenovo E425:
-entry level business notebook not as good as premium ThinkPads, 1 yr depot warranty (paid shipping back and forth, 3 day turn around, 24x7 support, )
-bulky looking, not thin, not sleek, style only some will like
-plastics used throught chassis
-a little flex from the lid, strong hinges
-strong lower case, well ventilated, wobbly battery when installed
-great keyboard, great synaptics touchpad, nice red point stick/buttons
-easy to work on, most parts easy to change
-fit and finish appears good
-less features and options (no boot from sd card or eSATA, resolution maxed at 1366x768, no mSATA SSD, etc.)
-faster cpu, slower gpu
-average battery life
-cool operation, fan shuts off completely
-display could've been better
- I'd recommend it

HP ProBook 6475b:
-entry level business notebook not as good as premium EliteBooks, 3 yr standard warranty (must be very good too),
-bulky looking, not sleek, not thin, style only some can like
-aluminum and plastics used throughtout chassis
-very little flex from the lid, strong hinges
-strong lower case, well ventilated, battery does NOT wobble
-good keyboard, good synaptics touchpad, good black point stick/buttons
-easy to work on and very easy to change parts
-some very minor fit and finish tiny gaps in the construction of the lower case (maybe I just got a bad one?)
-more features and options (boot from sd card or eSATA, SIM WWAN, mSATA SSD, HD+ display, docking station options, secondary battery, easy access panel, generation 1 and 2 ExpressCard 54/34mm vs generation 1 and 2 34mm only, native 2x USB 3.0, etc.)
-faster gpu, slower cpu
-excellent battery life
-cool operation, fan shuts off completely
-display could've been better, I only have access to the 1366x768 display, some may think these displays are terrible but for me they're still very usable
-I'd recommend it more

The winner to me is the 6475b because of what appears as the better warranty, enhanced features, and more thought out design. Its definitely worth the money, even the full price. This is one Trinity notebook I recommend to everyone here, you won't regret it. However, newer, sleeker, thinner, lighter Trinity notebooks are now available. Still, this is easily one of the best Trinity notebooks so far.

Sent from my SGH-T889 using Tapatalk 2

 

Thanks DavidRicardo. Good deal you got there. I actually have a 6475b coming in with an A10. Perhaps we can do a head to head benchmark comparison. It was listed on newegg for $749 + $7.99 shipping, but it's $811 now there. I did find a seller on eBay with them for $749 but no longer available either.

 

Call me David guys.

Good price, i remember I couldn't find it below $800 before. Congrats man, you'll be a lot happier than what you were with that sad S405 (no offense S405 owners)! You're better than me at benchmarks and testing but I'll give a shot. I would actually like some info from you too. After you receive yours and have some free time of course.

-I have the HP part numbers for the HD+ display and necessary video cable but I would also like to know the display manufacturer and its part number.

-Since you have access to an mSATA SSD, can you insert it into the mini-PCIe slot meant for the WWAN to see if it runs at SATAIII speeds? HP lists a 128GB SATAIII mSATA SSD for the 6475b in the service manual. I would like to know that it works for myself. I'm already considering an mSATA SSD, just don't know which one yet (256-512GB).

-Can you test 1866 RAM (if available) to see if it'll work at that speed?

One of us should start an owner's thread in the HP business notebook subsection.

Sent from my SGH-T889 using Tapatalk 2

 

OK - the selfish person in me hates to do this, but I'd rather make one of you guys happy than to have some unknown undeserving wretch jump on this bargain - I want to get this but I am just really spoiled by smaller/lighter notebooks and looking to the future hopefully....
So here it is, only 2 available, they are new 6475B's at a stupidly low price. the exact model is B5P18UT#ABA
HP ProBook 6475B 14" A8 4500M 1 9 GHz 4GB 500GB Win 7 Notebook Free SHIP 887111046949 | eBay

merry christmas, somebody!!

 

Holy crap! Nice find! I may have to reject my Newegg order and get this then order an A10 from here: AMD A10 Series A10 4600M AM4600DEC44HJ | eBay

$470 + $160 = $630! Then sell the A8 for $50, it will cost less than $600 altogether!

Just makes me a little nervous considering the box was all banged up.

 

Great find cognus! Someone here can definitely get a better deal than buying from other retailers. Hey at least the seller might give you a box... lol I didn't even get a box.

I wonder if these models include the 1600x900 display?

Sent from my SGH-T889 using Tapatalk 2

 

I'm confident the seller would make it right if there was so much as a nick on the unit. I've done a lot of biz on ebay both sides and never an issue with 100%-rated folks.

 

When you buy on ebay I assume your warranty will start from the date of manufacture if you cannot produce an original receipt or if it wasn't registered or whatever. Not all of the the 6475b models came with 3 year warranty, so that is also something to consider when finding them. Verify warranty length.