Earlier this month we launched the AMD Center, a portal on AnandTech that aggregates all of our AMD content in one place. As a recap, the AMD Center features all of our independent content just as before but in an AMD sponsored wrapper. Thanks to AMD's sponsorship you'll get a cleaner interface on all AMD articles, as well as reduced advertising on those pages. The portal will also serve as a way for AMD to reach out to you all directly as we're pulling in AMD tweets and have a feed of AMD's own blogs on the right hand side. AMD also wants to hear from you, and we've got some opporuntities to help with that going forward. Finally, the AMD Center serves as a destination for a bunch of pretty awesome AMD giveaways we've got planned. With AMD's support we've got better prizes and more of them to give away.

We kicked off our AMD Center giveaways with three Acer V5s. Today we're continuing with some more powerful notebooks for those of you looking for a little more punch. AMD is supplying three 15.6-inch HP ENVY TouchSmart Sleekbooks for this giveaway.

The ENVY Sleekbook features a touch-enabled 15.6" 1366 x 768 display, 8GB of DDR3 memory (up from 4GB on the V5s we just gave away, and expandable up to 16GB) and has an AMD A10-5745M Richland APU with Radeon HD 8610G graphics. The A10-5745 features four Piledriver cores running at a base clock of 2.1GHz and a max turbo clock of 2.9GHz. This is a 25W part, which is fairly low as far as Richland APUs go. The GPU features 384 Radeon cores (VLIW4) running at up to 626MHz with turbo (533MHz max non-turbo). Just as before, I asked AMD if they would be willing to swap out the hard drives for SSDs and they agreed - so if you win, your Sleekbook will ship with a 128GB Samsung SSD 840 drive.

The Sleekbook is 0.9" thin and weighs 5.6 lbs. 

Here's the deal. To enter, simply post a comment below (US residents only, please only make a single post, contest requirements below) explaining your current PC setup and why you want, or need to win a Sleekbook. What I'm looking for here is an understanding of what you currently own in terms of computing devices (PCs, notebooks, tablets, etc...), how you use them and how winning a Sleekbook would change/improve your current setup. Make your entries good as they may come in handy for some other stuff we've got planned in the future. If your entry from last time still applies, feel free to re-use it.

If you win, AMD wants your feedback on the machine after you get it. You'll be asked to provide a short review (a paragraph or two) talking about your experience with the system. Do a good job and your feedback may even be featured on AnandTech.

Good luck!

Congrats to our three winners. Here's their feedback from using the systems for a few weeks.

Francis

The HP ENVY M6 Sleekbook certainly doesn’t feel like a bargain laptop. With a sleek metal exterior and soft touch plastic on the bottom, the Sleekbook feels solid in the hands. The build quality is quite impressive, especially compared to some of the other HP laptops I have come across in the past. The laptop is slim, and deceptively light considering its size. On the exterior, the laptop features a solid port selection highlighted by dedicated HDMI. Open the lid and one sees a well laid out backlit keyboard that is pretty nice to type on. The keyboard does have some mild flex, but the key travel is good.  The backlight is of the on/off only variety, while the wi-fi light on the f12 key is always on no matter what you do.

Turning the laptop on, one can appreciate the quickness of Windows 8 on an SSD. The laptop is snappy and responsive for your basic every day tasks and is well suited for multimedia as it handles HD video easily. I had no trouble with light gaming thanks to AMD’s A10 APU. The featured Beats Audio Speakers provide good sound quality at an impressive volume. That said, they are not anything to get too excited about. Where the Sleekbook really falls short is in its display and WI-FI performance. The 15.6 inch 1366x768 display is quite frankly, terrible. The low resolution may be forgivable at this price segment, but the screen’s brightness is just plain disappointing. Having the display at anything less than 100% brightness is not really an option. The Wi-Fi is another area of disappointment. The Sleekbook’s Wi-Fi range is limited compared to other devices I own.  With just a quick (and unscientific!) comparison to my Acer netbook, the HP might fail to recognize my router in an area where the Acer would report greater than 50% strength.

The Sleekbook has a lot going for it in terms of build quality and performance. However, it gets hung up by the two huge flaws of display quality and Wi-Fi performance. That said, the AMD platform shows promise here and I look forward to seeing it offered in more devices.

Jamy

The 15" HP Sleekbook comes in an attractive brushed metal package and is clad with a black island style keyboard. It feels higher up market than its price would suggest. AnandTech has said, AMD processors in notebooks allow OEMs to trade some of the silicon cost for higher quality components elsewhere. I can see some of that here with this Sleekbook. It has the best trackpad of any windows notebook Iíve ever used. Itís large, responsive, and handles gestures easily. Itís getting really close to a Macbook in trackpad quality. The screen is bright and looks good, but with the usual 1366x768 caveat. It came with Dragon Naturally Speaking, Box cloud drive space, and a nice temperature utility that uses sensors to keep the Sleekbook cool when it detects it is on your lap. My biggest complaint is, even beyond the wish for more pixels, it came with 600 MHz RAM. I almost couldnít believe it considering how dependent AMD chips are on being fed with fast memory. The A10 feels fast in most cases, but there are definitely times when you miss memory speed. I play quite a bit of Kerbal Space Program on this laptop, which it handles really well at native resolution. Yes, it does borrow some design, and cut some corners in some places I wouldnít have. However, this Sleekbook is aimed at people who are looking for value in a notebook form factor, and it delivers. 

Jarrod

The HP ENVY TouchSmart Sleekbook has been my first experience using Windows 8 on a touch screen device. I was able to familiarize myself with navigating the operating system using the built in help menus and minimal internet searching. I primarily use the Sleekbook for web browsing, messaging, and light gaming. I am impressed by the almost instant boot time. The touch screen was calibrated well (for touch) from the factory and accurately responds to my input. I find the track pad difficult to use since it is a one-piece surface that incorporates the left and right buttons. Trying to click on anything without moving the cursor off of what you're trying to click is difficult without a light and deliberate touch. I am satisfied primarily using the touch screen. The keyboard layout is a bit spread out and works well for my larger hands although it may be less than optimal for someone with smaller hands.The AMD APU is powerful enough to handle casual games as well as some less demanding modern PC games. The sound quality is among the best I've experienced from laptop speakers. The Wi-Fi reception is the only aspect of the laptop I find substantially disappointing. This is the only device of several I use throughout my small house that must be in the same room as the wireless router to maintain a connection. Overall I am pleased with the construction and performance of the Sleekbook and would suggest it as a viable option for anyone looking to use Windows 8 on a touch screen device.  

 

Entries will be accepted from 9:00 AM ET on 9/23/2013 through 12:01 AM ET on 9/27/2013. We will draw 3 winner(s) who will be selected by 9/30/2013.

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BEFORE ENTERING A PROMOTION, READ THESE RULES AND THE SITE’S TERMS, CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY INFORMATION.   BY ENTERING THE PROMOTION, YOU AGREE TO COMPLY WITH THE RULES AND THE SITE’S TERMS, CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY INFORMATION. 

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN.  PURCHASE DOES NOT INCREASE CHANCES OF WINNING.

  1. Eligibility.  Promotions are open to entrants who are 18 years of age or older at time of entry, and a legal resident of the United States (excluding Puerto Rico).  Entries are limited to individuals only who are not presently banned from AnandTech’s website or comments section; commercial enterprises and business entities are not eligible.  Directors, officers, employees, contractors, and agents of AnandTech (excluding volunteer AnandTech forum moderators) and members of their immediate families (spouses, parents, siblings, and children) are not eligible.  Subject to all applicable federal, state, and local laws and regulations.  Void where prohibited.  Participation constitutes entrant’s full and unconditional agreement to these Rules and AnandTech’s decisions, which are final and binding in all matters relating to a Promotion.
     
  2. Entry Period.  Each Promotion will contain a specific time period within which entries will be accepted (a “Promotion Period”).   The Promotion Period for this Promotion shall run from 9:00 AM ET on 9/23/2013 through 12:01 AM ET on 9/27/2013.  Only entries received during the Promotion Period will be accepted. 
     
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  5. Prizes.  Winning a gift, prize, or other promotional item (a “Prize”) in a Promotion is contingent upon fulfilling all requirements in these Rules.  Winners will be selected in a random drawing of eligible entries received during the Promotion Period.  AnandTech will notify Prize winners using the contact information provided in the winning entry.  Failure to claim a Prize by the time or in the manner specified in the particular Promotion will invalidate any claim to the Prize.  Prizes are not transferable.  The odds of winning a Prize or the Grand Prize depend on the number of entries received by AnandTech.  TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, ALL PRIZES ARE PROVIDED “AS IS” AND ARE NOT EXCHANGEABLE FOR FAIR MARKET VALUE.  TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, ANANDTECH DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES WITH RESPECT TO THE PRIZES, INCLUDING THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. For this Promotion, 3 winner(s) will be selected by 9/30/2013 and will each receive a HP ENVY TouchSmart Sleekbook laptop described above (“Grand Prize”).  The Total U.S. Retail Value of the Grand Prize is $699.99.  The Grand Prize may not be substituted for cash.  The Grand Prize winner will be solely responsible for all applicable taxes, fees, and surcharges associated with receipt and/or use of the Grand Prize.  After the Grand Prize winner has been notified and has complied with all applicable Rules, AnandTech will post the Grand Prize winner’s name on this website.
     
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  • Lifedelinquent - Thursday, September 26, 2013 - link

    This will be my first Laptop. Been using my phone for all my mobile things for around the house. Would be nice to have something larger.
  • rudder - Thursday, September 26, 2013 - link

    This laptop would be perfect for my wife. She is a 4th grade teacher in a title 1 school in Tennessee. Title 1 means that over half the kids are on free or reduced lunch. The district is hard pressed for money for technology in the classroom. She lost her Promethean smartboard. She used this in nearly every lesson. These systems run several thousand dollars and we have been looking for an affordable solution to replace that. A touchscreen enabled laptop would work great. She could project the screen for the students and like with the smartboard the students can easily manipulate the screen for class excercises. The HP envy has a good balance between power, size, and battery life.

    Beyond the classroom another laptop is needed for her to work on at home. She never has time at school to enter grades, make tests, or create newsletters for the class. Being able to do this comfortably from the couch would be great.

    Our house has a main PC based on an Intel sandy bridge cpu. This PC is isolated in a small room. We have a Presario F700 and a Presario V6000. Both of these have served us well, but the hardware finally gave out. Our Toshiba C655D met an early end in an accident and no longer works either. All of these machines were based on AMD cpus and offered great values.

    We do have an Ipad in the house but it is difficult for her to enter grades or make tests on that.

    Having an HP Envy would be perfect and provide some relief for a hard working teacher.
  • riverajl - Friday, September 27, 2013 - link

    The year was 2011. It was March. I just finished my bachelors degree, and graduated from using the so-so computers offered by the university. Being an AMD fan ever since Athlon 64 circa 2005, I was looking for a laptop I could use on the go, mainly for web browsing, office productivity, and light gaming in the field as I was a salesman. I have bought an HP 2000 equipped with a Llano E-350, 4GB DDR3, and all the accessories I would need as I started to weave my way through the so-called “Real World.” Compared to now, however, my trusted lappy-top cannot handle the workload I do. In addition to the work load I mentioned before, I am now getting into free lancing, which means me using Photoshop and Premiere Elements, not to mention I’m also building a website. My laptop CANNOT do those. Then again, yes it could, albeit very slowly. Now, I was honestly leaning into buying the updated MacBook Pro coming out in the few weeks, but the AMD giveaway was just too juicy and tasty and impressive to pass up. Impressive? Si. Look at the numbers I gathered below comparing my E-350 with the latest Richland (all from Anandtech hihi)

    X264 Video Encoding (Pass 1)
    E-350 = 13.7
    Richland = 21.23 (55% Faster)

    X264 Video Encoding (Pass 2)
    E-350 = 3.16
    Richland = 5.17 (64% faster)

    I can’t really compare PCMark, 3DMark Numbers, and gaming numbers since the software used back then and now is different, it is easy to see the performance advantage *when* I get my hands on Richland. Magic word is AMD 8610G. Back then, there was no Diablo 3 and DoTA 2. All I did was play Diablo 2 and DoTA, but seeing as they are released now, it might be a good idea to upgrade to better games.

    Of course, not to mention the better hardware included in the laptop, USB 3.0, HDMI (my laptop got only VGA hahaha, talk about old skool), touchscreen, Windows 8, slimmer profile (cmon, 0.9 inches?), and just a plain more beautiful laptop to behold and use.

    All in all, I see winning this laptop as a way of me upgrading to better hardware which would enable me to do the work I will be doing from now on, very different from what I was doing after graduating. I sure would love to try out and compare my old laptop with the new one, but for now that is best left to my imagination until I see my name as the winner on September 30. :)
  • vamshiram - Friday, September 27, 2013 - link

    I currently own a Sandy i5 based Sony Viao laptop, am a gamer at heart and miss those days when I was proud of my Athlon XP PC, want to relive those days as a happy gamer.
  • cyjunk - Friday, September 27, 2013 - link

    Hi, would love to have this laptop to replace my 4 year old HP Windows Vista desktop. Currently being used as a media center. This laptop would be more powerful and much more power efficient.

    Thanks AMD and Anandtech!
  • kazis111 - Friday, September 27, 2013 - link

    I currently use an hp envy 17 with i7-2670qm, samsung 830 ssd and 16gb ram.I use it for editing my youtube videos, calligraphy and making my own desktop backgrounds with fractal flames. At over 8lbs and with 11 peripherals hooked up, its not fun to move around. The envy sleekbook would not only complement my current system, but also remove the need to carry the giant with me. It would also be really cool to try out calligraphy on a touch screen. the 25 watt apu would be amazing too since my 45 watt cpu runs 60 C and over just with web browsing. it would be interesting to see the improvements on the samsung 840 ssd as well. I have a ipad mini which i haven't used in over a month since it is so underpowered. i don't even know where i put it. my phone is a gs2...almost two years and still going. I might put a 4g lte mpcie card in the laptop for convenience. I don't need it....but i could definitely use it.
  • ehume - Friday, September 27, 2013 - link

    I have an old Dell Studio 1537 running a dual core Core Duo. It is heavy, and will only run two hours or so. I gave it a new lease on life by swapping out the 250GB 5900 RPM HD and replacing it with a 120GB SSD. I take it to conferences and stuff. It keeps me connected while I'm away.

    My wife got a Macbook Air, but I can't justify that for me.

    I've been looking for an inexpensive yet fast laptop with an HD I could pull out and swap for a good-performing large SSD. I will get the lappy between now and February, when I'll really need the battery life.

    (BTW Anand, a buyers guide would be interesting -- especially if we got tips on when laptop prices would be lowest.)

    I have four desktops at home, three of which I built and OC'd. They serve the family on our homenet.
  • Cyric_Mage - Friday, September 27, 2013 - link

    Well, I have a Pentium 4/Windows 2000 desktop I built years ago and still use to play Neverwswinter Nights/Baldur's Gate/Icewind Dale games with my dad but for current gaming, it's an Asus G50v laptop from 2008 that struggles to run Dragon Age: Origins, much less Vista. So while a new laptop would not make me more productive, per se, I could do a lot more gaming :)
  • sunbeamtoaster - Friday, September 27, 2013 - link

    As a full-time student, part-time tutor, and freelance editor, I spend a lot of time in front of computers. Right now, I'm using a home built Core i3 system, which works reasonably well for my needs, which is mostly productivity applications and some light gaming such as Borderlands 2.

    However, I find myself wishing for a bit more mobility lately. I had to dispose of my trusty but very old Thinkpad T60 earlier this year, and I'm really starting to miss being able to take my work with me wherever I go. Winning a Sleekbook would unchain me from my desk.
  • SrRaven - Friday, September 27, 2013 - link

    So...lets do this :)

    I'm a CS Student starting in October and can't afford a laptop.

    Why would I want this laptop ? So I can properly study :(

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