Weekly Deals: HP Dm1z, Lenovo IdeaPad S205, HDTVs & Apps for Cheap

This week’s deal features the new breed of netbooks that are light in weight but not on performance, unlike previous Atom-based machines that you could almost hear crying in pain as you tortured tasked it with streaming a YouTube video. Terrible analogy aside, here are the deals:

HP Pavilion DM1z

The popular HP Pavilion DM1z has recently been refreshed with AMD’s latest CPU/GPU integrated processor. Aptly named AMD “Fusion,” this new “APU” (accelerated processing unit) strikes a great balance between performance and battery life efficiency. The AMD Fusion found in the dm1z is the mainline “Zacate” series, E-350 dual-core clocking in at 1.6Ghz. The integrated GPU is model Radeon HD 6310 running at 500Mhz with full DirectX 11 support and Shader 5.0 support (!).

A nice perk of this APU is the UVD3 video decoder support, letting you decode HD videos using the GPU. So whether you’re doing H.264 and VC-1 HD streams (or Blu-ray), your dm1z should chug along just fine.

Outside the internal hardware you’ll find a slick shell on this 11.6-inch ultraportable. The dm1z is also fairly thin, with thickness ranging from 0.8 to 1.2 inches and weighing in at only 3.5 lbs, making it a perfect on-the-go laptop.

As for ports and connectivity, you’ll find all the usual suspects: 3 USB ports, ethernet port, along with VGA and HDMI out. Memory card reader, Webcam, WiFi N, and Bluetooth are standard, and HP offers an optional HSPA+ mobile broadband card.

Finally, the best part about the HP Pavilion dm1z? Its battery life of up to 9.5 hours (HP claims) on a single charge of the 6-cell. All of this for around $400 as of time of writing.

Lenovo IdeaPad S205

The Lenovo IdeaPad S205 is the successor to Lenovo’s popular S10 series of netbooks, and like HP did with the dm1z above, Lenovo threw out the Intel Atom lineup for the newer and stronger AMD Fusion.

Another 11.6-incher, the S205 comes with very similar specs as the dm1z. What sets the S205 apart is its styling and price range. The S205 usually comes out a tad bit cheaper ($10 to $20 less than dm1z), and sometimes with an extra gigabyte of RAM to boot.

It’s equipped with the AMD Fusion E-350 dual-core processor and can pack up to 8GB of DDR3 memory and 750GB of hard drive space. Wifi N connectivity, 3 USB ports, a 6-in-1 memory card reader (which bests the dm1z’s 2-in-1 reader), webcam, and a 98% full-size keyboard with individual curved keys rounds out the feature set on this nice ultraportable from Lenovo.

Unlike HP, Lenovo isn’t claiming a wild battery life of up to 9.5 hours, but you still get a respectable 5 hours with its 6-cell battery. There’s no 3G/mobile broadband card option for in the US region, but the capability and slots are definitely there for those who like to mod their laptops.

You’ll find the Lenovo IdeaPad S205 at around $380 to $440, with RAM and storage space bumping up the price. We recommend going with more RAM if you plan to do any intensive multitasking, but you can probably skimp on the storage space as there’s plenty fast external storage drives at cheap prices these days.

HDTV Deals:

Sony NSX-32GT1 32-Inch 1080p LED HDTV

Available at Amazon for a very nice price, the 32-inch HDTV comes built-in with Google TV for all your internet media streaming needs.

Calypso CLP24LC1A 24-inch 1080p HDTV

Also available at Amazon for a great low price, this much smaller 24-inch HDTV from Calypso is perfect as a no-frills unit, especially if the high-end Google TV equipped Sony is too much on the wallet.

This Week’s Apps Deals:

Trickle for Twitter for iOS:

For the tweets lover, Trickle is now available for free for a limited time (usually $0.99). The minimally designed, hands-free app streams tweets from favorite follows. Works best while the iOS device is on a dock.

3D Pool Master XD

Its billiards, its 3D, its free! Free for a limited time at the iTunes store. Supports 2-player hot seat action along with online multiplayer play.