According to internal support documents unearthed by Liliputing, HP is preparing to launch a new budget notebook powered by an AMD "Mullins" APU. The HP 14Z-z000, which will also be known as the HP Stream Notebook, is a 14-inch netbook running the full version of Windows 8.1 weighing 3.9 pounds and measuring 13.5" x 9.5" x 0.7". The Stream will be the second device from HP to utilize AMD's latest mobile "Mullins" APUs (the first device being the $250 10-inch Pavilion 10z).

HP's Stream notebook is a traditional laptop-style design that uses a hinged 1366×768 display, full keyboard, trackpad, 720p webcam, and four Beats Audio speakers. However, internally, the Stream resembles tablet hardware more than laptops because the internal storage, processor, and RAM are not upgradeable. Physical IO ports include one HDMI, one USB 3.0, two USB 2.0, and a SDXC card slot.

Internally, the Stream uses an AMD A4 Micro-6400T processor, 2GB of RAM, either 32GB or 64GB of eMMC storage, a 802.11n+Bluetooh 4.0 radio, and a 32Whr battery. The A4 Micro-6400T processor is the interesting bit here, as it is a solution that has not seen many design wins yet. This APU is part of AMD's "Mullins" family which is the successor to Temash. The 28nm HKMG chip features four Puma+ cores (improved Jaguar) clocked at 1.6GHz, a 128 core GCN GPU clocked at 350MHz, 2MB of L2 cache, and support for DDR3L 1333MHz memory. The Micro-6400T is rated at 2.8W SDP (Scenario Design Power) and 4.5W TDP (Thermal Design Power). Further, it features TrustZone technology and new power management features that allow it to boost (or downclock) clockspeeds in certain situations with an emphasis on extending battery life.

HP is bundling the Stream with 100GB of Microsoft OneDrive which is free for two years.

The Stream should be available shortly with a starting price of $199 from HP. I do wish HP was less stingy with batteries in these low power systems (here's looking at you HP X360), but this Mullins-powered netbook should at least be performance competitive with existing Bay Trail based notebooks according to these Mullins APU benchmarks. I would like to see how this midrange APU (The Micro 6700T is actually the top end Mullins) stacks up to the newer Z3770 Atom.

Are you interested in this new generation of budget notebooks?

Also read: AMD Unveils Beema and Mullins: A Greater than Expected Refresh of Kabini