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Updating something old. HP has released an updated the AMD powered version of its popular 11.6-inch Pavilion notebook. The  new HP Pavilion DM1-4304AU has been fitted with a more powerful AMD E2-1800 Accelerated Processing Unit (APU) and Windows 8. This replaces the the HP Pavilion DM1-4029AU with a AMD E1-1200 accelerated processing released last August 2012.

The most significant thing about this release is the price. The HP Pavilion DM1-4304AU now is retailing for below 20K, at Php19,990, which HP hopes makes it more competitive with lower priced tablets.

But, the HP DM1 design is starting to show it age. The small 11.6-inch notebook weighing in at 3.2 pounds defined what an ultraportable was in 2010 and the first half of 2011.  Today however, its 1.26 inch thick frame is starting to look chunky. The chunky frame does still pack a powerful battery rated for 7 hours of use, 

Something new. HP has also released its Sleekbook 14 in the local market. Sleekbook is the term HP coined for Ultrabook like PCs which do not run on Intel Processors. The term "Ultrabook" is an Intel Trademark.

The Sleekbook 14, as it name indicated has a 14-inch display. It is powered by the same AMD E2-1800 APU and comes bundled with Windows 8 like the DM1-4304AU. It is priced a bit higher than the DM1-4304AU at Php22,990, but it does come with double the RAM of the DM1-4304AU, at 4 GB, and does come with a larger 750 GB hard drive.

The Sleekbook 14 following the trend of modern laptops is just 0.8-inches thin and weighs in at just a tad under 4-pounds. 

The only thing in the Sleekbook 14 specifications which look worrisome is the 4-cell battery rated by HP at 4-hours of battery life.