In addition to utility, think about portability and durability. In general a laptop needs to have enough power to perform all the tasks required. It must be equipped with the screen resolution, keyboard, speakers and cameras that make its main functions enjoyable. Consider battery life and data storage capacity for laptops that will spend the day out and about. Don’t buy a notebook that’s too big to carry around or too small for content creation — if that’s its purpose. And don’t forget to consider the warranty and the availability of repair facilities in your town. Research from SquareTrade found that one third of all laptops break within three years.

In the past, many consumers automatically looked toward chips — CPUs — from Intel to power their notebooks. But now there’s something new. The Llano APU from AMD, commercially called the Fusion A-Series, offers consumers an amazing notebook experience particularly for graphics applications such as  gaming and movies. An APU or Accelerated Processing Unit is a processor that combines the Central Processing Unit (CPU), Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) and a memory controller on the same silicon die. The integrated graphics produce better performance from the APU and energy saving, which leads to longer battery life. 

Arab News took the AMD Fusion A-Series for a spin in the rally series DiRT3 and found that game play was outstanding. Featuring DirectX 11 graphics, the images in DiRT3 were very sophisticated with realistic shading and texturing. There was no need downsize the game from its native resolution. The response time was excellent. DirectX 11 is designed to be more efficient than its predecessor, leveraging the power of multi-core processors.  In fact, developers are no longer making DirectX 10 games. World of Warcraft, the world’s most popular PC game is now DirectX 11.

Intel doesn’t yet offer chips that support DirectX 11 — but AMD does and in Saudi Arabia consumers will be able to purchase the AMD Fusion A-Series APUs in notebooks by the end of August. MSI, Acer, Toshiba and HP will have notebooks with the Fusion A-Series APUs — either A4 or A6 — for sale at Jarir Bookstore and eXtra. The Fusion A-Series — A8 — is not yet available. AMD claims that  more than 150 Fusion A-Series desktops and laptops are on the way. Expected price points are $499 for A4 systems, $599 for A6 and $699 for the top-end A8.

In addition to great gaming, the Fusion A-Series offers advantages for consumers who love creating home video. Movies become much brighter and more colorful with the Fusion A-Series. There’s also an AMD exclusive feature called AMD Steady Video, which applies advanced algorithms to smooth out shaky or unstable video. AMD Steady video scales to larger screens. Just hook up the laptop to a television for a home cinema view. The AMD Fusion A-Series APU supports multiple stereo 3D formats including Blu-ray 3D and streaming media up to 1080p; native 3D-ready games and 2D games through middleware; and anaglyph, passive polarized and active shutter glasses.

If you’ve never heard of AMD, you’re not alone. The company has been running behind Intel its entire existence. Over the past five years though, AMD has been reinventing itself and its products. The Fusion A-Series APUs are made in the  GlobalFoundries Fab 1 facility in Dresden, Germany. Both AMD and GlobalFoundries have received significant investment from the Advanced Technology Investment Company (ATIC), a specialist investment company created by the Government of Abu Dhabi to focus on investments in the advanced technology sector.

“We’ve been here for ages,” said Bernard Biolchini, AMD vice president for sales and general manager in the Middle East, Turkey and North Africa. “The fact that the Government of Abu Dhabi has decided to focus on the semiconductor industry and therefore bought a portion of AMD and is part of creating GlobalFoundries, that is putting a lot of attention in the region. We are extremely serious about the Middle East. We want everyone in the GCC to know what AMD is all about and to understand the value of the brand.”

Biolchini commented that AMD has a worldwide focus on the consumer market for computing hardware because that is by far the largest total addressable market in the industry. However, in the Middle East, because the corporate sector is growing rapidly, particularly when compared to other regions, AMD will also be bringing business focused products such as new servers and desktops. But Biolchini advised that there isn’t a lot of emphasis on pushing computer manufacturers to promote the AMD brand. Consumers who specifically want to buy AMD’s Fusion APU will have to know to ask for it when they buy a new laptop. 

“Our strategy, what we would love, is that original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) manage our technology in ways that differentiate themselves,” he said. “That’s the value we want to bring to them. I believe that some OEMs understand this. We expect them to use our technology and grow their business rather than us being interested in them promoting our brand.”