More info on the Dell Vostro 1200

We've gotten some more info on the little Dell Vostro 1200 we mentioned earlier this month sans specs and price, and we thought we'd share our good fortune with you. The 12.1-inch laptop appears to be outfitted with the popular (some might say ubiquitous) Santa Rosa GM965 chipset, will sport a Celeron or Core 2 Duo processor, the Intel GMA X3100 GPU, up to 4GB of RAM, a 160GB hard drive, and all kinds of other useful items like a DVD burner, 802.11a/b/g/n, optional Bluetooth module, and an ExpressCard slot. The innocuous black system is available right now in Japan, and will run you an import price tag of roughly ¥103,300 (or around $912), though these guys are rumored to be making their way Stateside any day now.

[Via Laptoping]

[Jonathan Bergeron @ Dec 18th 2007 9:07AM]

Why is it so ugly?

[kev @ Dec 18th 2007 9:29AM]

It actually looks rather nice in person, I have a 1400. It's frackin heavy though...but you get what you paid (less) for.

[Bombaclaat @ Dec 18th 2007 9:37AM]

why does dell make such ugly laptops and then expect a premium. (xps) Vostro = Your $

[BobTurbo @ Dec 18th 2007 9:51AM]

The current inspiron line is even uglier. You have to see it in person to appreciate how ugly it is. The silver is so cheap, I have never seen an uglier laptop in my life.

Having said that, there is not much else in the non-apple world that is attractive and the Vostro 1500 that I played with at my desk for a few days had an excellent screen (as did the Inspiron 1520) and excellent price.

By the way, I think the starting weight on 1200 is 1.9kg.

[strider_mt2k @ Dec 18th 2007 9:10AM]

Reminds me of my ugly but oh-so-reliable little Inspiron B130, which has been chugging along for years now.

Given the specs it's a little pricey but prices fall, prices fall.

Sure, I'd go for it as long as I have a Win XP Pro option.

[Brodie @ Dec 18th 2007 9:17AM]

Which number points to the hard drive that is sure to fail within a year?

[Paul @ Dec 18th 2007 9:32AM]

What are you talking about? I have had a dell laptop for 3 years now and I have had 2 problems with it. The first was just a month ago when the space bar stopped working, but I (a regular joe) was able to order the replacement part directly from dell for $30. Not only that but they directed me to a free online service manual: http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/ins6000/en/sm/index.htm that shows you how to completely, and safely dismantle your laptop.

The second problem is not Dells fault but after 3 years my battery is finally starting to die.

The hard drive has been chugging along without a hitch for those entire 3 years and I can tell you that I dont treat my laptop with velvet gloves, it has the scratches to prove that.

[Paul @ Dec 18th 2007 9:38AM]

Oh, also wanted to add here that my dad just bought an HP laptop that came with Vista Home Basic on it. I wanted to install Windows XP on it because that is what my dad is familiar with, and quite frankly, Vista Home Basic sucks.

So I get Windows XP installed on it, and then I go to the HP website to look for drivers, they only offer Vista drivers and their online support page sucks.

With my laptop (a dell) when I wanted to try out Vista Ultimate on it I went to Dells support page for my laptop and they had windows Vista drivers available for my Laptop. Vista was not released until 1 year after Dell discontinued the Inspiron 6000 product line, yet they still offered drivers for it. However, HP cant even be bothered to offer decent drivers for XP for their laptop.

I ended up installing a copy of Vista Business that i got from some MS promotion on my dads laptop, but it has been a string of hassles dealing with HP.

Rip on Dell all you like, but they make good laptops and they offer excellent support for them.

[itanshi @ Dec 18th 2007 10:23AM]

My hard drive died in 3-4 years, but my sister's (same everything specs) has not yet. It was the 700m model. Compared to that one, this one looks nice.

[shamrock593 @ Dec 18th 2007 10:03AM]

Pretty sure these are already selling in Australia.

[zounds Padang @ Dec 18th 2007 10:19AM]

so... it's a black macbook....

[Paul @ Dec 18th 2007 11:12AM]

I am currently hoping and praying I missed the sarcasm.

[zounds Padang @ Dec 18th 2007 1:21PM]

nope. no sarcasm at all. not a lick. nope.

[freakmarket @ Dec 18th 2007 5:52PM]

Actually Macbooks are white PCs.

[zounds Padang @ Dec 18th 2007 5:55PM]

or black ones. i'm just sayin.

*restrains apple fanboy inside*

[jd @ Dec 18th 2007 11:21AM]

when asus announces eee for $299, everyone wanted one. what does that taught me?

Consumers want cheap and portible laptop. almost all the pc makers understand that. pc makers kept making smaller laptop more expensive.

My question is, why the hell the smaller they are, the more expensive they are. it is not like technology is any different than the big laptop.

just watch asus get the first worms with eee before other pc makers realize the perfect formula: small+cheap=buy; small+expensive=i_m_just_looking

[Paul @ Dec 18th 2007 1:03PM]

You do realize that you cant just point a shrink ray at a computer part, hit a button, and suddenly have a smaller part for the same price, right?

So, the reason why smaller = more expensive is because computer manufacturers are trying to make fully featured laptops smaller and smaller, but since it is more difficult to make smaller parts, they are more expensive.

The eee PC is so "cheap" because it only has a 7" screen, no hard drive, and a low speed processor. Basically it has the same stats as a desktop nearly 8 years ago. How much would you pay for my 1 Ghz Pentium 3 with a 2 gig hard drive? $20? Yet this costs $300.

The EEE PC is undeniably cool, but I just bought a full featured dual core laptop with a 160 gig hard drive and a decent video card for $450 (true it was a black friday deal, but still).

So like I said on the EEE PC post that engadget made, each has its strengths and weakenesses, if you travel around a lot and just need to be connected the EEE PC is awesome, with its compact size and long battery life (and its awesome factor). But if logically it does not make sense to buy the EEE if you want all the features of a laptop. Wait for a deal and spend $200 more on a laptop.

[Jim @ Dec 18th 2007 11:25AM]

I wish Dell offered a version with (much) lower end components, ubuntu instead of Vista, and at a price comparable to the eee. One of their other Vostro notebooks costs less than $500; if only they would do the same for this...

[Shnugi @ Dec 18th 2007 11:52AM]

For a 12 inch laptop the price is pretty darn good considering all the specs. Stop complaining people. The target group for this is different than what the Eee is targeting.

[Dustin @ Dec 18th 2007 11:59AM]

Between buying and recommending 4 Dell laptops, 3 had bad HDD's and one had a bad memory stick. I had complete care warranty on my wifes and they send back a refurb drive, which was also unacceptable, tons of read and write errors detected by SpinRite, i am now recommending HP's! PS. I hate Haji support!

[heyguy @ Dec 18th 2007 12:17PM]

You people do realize Dell doesn't manufacture hard drives, right? They aren't buying bargain basement Walmart brand hard drives, either. They use the same drives as any other manufacturer.

[Ethyriel @ Dec 18th 2007 6:57PM]

A poor design can cause higher than normal hard drive failures, though. I'm not saying that's the case, but if there's little airflow around the drive, and it's mounted very rigidly without any vibration damping, a laptop might experience high failure rates.

[Ethan @ Dec 18th 2007 12:38PM]

If you want pretty, get a pink Vaio or something. Vostroes (Vostros? No, that means something else...) are comparatively inexpensive business computers; besides, I think they look good. Oh, and the extra weight is from the magnesium.

[Ethyriel @ Dec 18th 2007 6:59PM]

The Mag Alloy used in laptops is actually very light.

[Ethan @ Dec 18th 2007 8:16PM]

As light as plastic?

[Ethyriel @ Dec 20th 2007 12:04PM]

Pretty close. There's also the little fact that to get the same strength as a relatively small amount of mag alloy you need a f***load of plastic, and you'll never get the same rigidity. At least not in consumer grade plastics.

[Random Task @ Dec 19th 2007 3:22AM]

Wow- this is exactly what I wanted for my photo trips, 1 year too late. Oh well, the Inspiron 1501 is nice, but large. Would have bought this in a second.

[Tyler @ Dec 19th 2007 4:22AM]

Every time I read a devices spec that has 802.11a/b/g/n I think they should call it BANG wireless or something? We love acronyms! Come on marketing departments!

[Daniel @ Dec 24th 2007 12:55PM]

I went snooping around on the Japanese Dell website, and lookie what I found.. Take note: I can't read Japanese, but I know my way around the Dell website well enough, having ordered two notebooks and one desktop from them in the past. There's even a nifty Flash demo. Apparently the computer comes with the following:

Choice between an Intel Core 2 Duo T7250 and Intel Celeron 540 on the GM965 chipset
Choice between Windows XP Professional or the following flavors of Vista: Home Basic, Home Premium, Business, and Ultimate
Up to 4 GB of PC5300 DDR2 RAM
Fixed Intel GMA X3100 Integrated Graphics
Fixed 1200 x 800 WXGA Display with TrueLife
Fixed 160 GB 5400RPM SATA HDD
Choice between a DVD-ROM/CD-RW Combo Drive or a DVD-RW
Choice between a 4 cell or a 6 cell lithium ion battery
Choice between Intel Pro Wireless 3945 (Supporting A/B/G Wireless protocols) and Intel Wireless Wi-Fi Link 4965 (Supporting A/B/G/N Wireless protocols)
Optional Bluetooth and integrated 2.0 megapixel Webcam option

And the following standard components:

3 x USB 2.0 Ports
Standard 54mm ExpressCard Slot, Kensington Lock Slot,
3 in 1 Card Reader (Pales in comparison to the 8 in 1 reader featured on Vostro models 1400 and up)
VGA video output

Unfortunately, it doesn't look like this model features the dual headphone jacks found in the new Inspiron/Vostro models.

Anyways, I think that's about it! Link below:

http://www1.jp.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/vostronb_1200?c=jp&cs=jpdhs1&l=ja&s=dhs

[SK @ Dec 25th 2007 11:01PM]

You can find more details this laptop on Dell's Singapore or Malaysia site. Here are the links. Model with Celeron M costs about $650USD while one with C2D T5270 is about $100USD more.

http://www1.ap.dell.com/content/products/features.aspx/notebooks_better?c=my&cs=mybsd1&l=en&s=bsd

http://www1.ap.dell.com/content/products/featuresdetails.aspx/vostronb_1200?c=my&l=en&s=bsd&cs=mybsd1&~lt=popup&~tab=highlighttab

[Cameron @ Jan 1st 2008 2:20PM]

Why are these laptops so cheap? I found a decent laptop, the Vostro 1000 for £199 but all the other dells on the proper site are a lot more expensive. Do you have to buy in a bundle or do you have to be a registered business? What's the catch can home users just buy a laptop as cheap as this?