Compal: 8.9-inch Dell laptop coming in June for less than $499

Hear that? That's the sound of pitter-pattering little hearts bursting within the executive board rooms of FIC, ASUS, Acer, and HP among others. This after a Compal Electronics official said that Dell plans to launch an 8.9-inch wide-screen laptop for under $499. Taiwan's Compal would of course assemble the goods. The new ultra-portable is expected "as early as June" -- the same time that Intel's Atom processors will launch, coincidentally. Hmm.

Update: The whole thing is now seemingly confirmed by Michael Dell himself. When asked yesterday about the new HP Mini-Note, Dell responded, "We will introduce a similar laptop." He then teased with, "Stay tuned, we will have some interesting products coming in that space over the next two quarters."

[Syliss @ Apr 9th 2008 4:58AM]

Good thing im waiting till summer if not later.

[sinjinn @ Apr 9th 2008 5:04AM]

here comes a new challenger

[3rdsun @ Apr 9th 2008 6:26AM]

Ahhhh thats the sound of cheap goodies

[Mush @ Apr 9th 2008 6:26PM]

if its anything like the E-series with atom processor in it...i might consider it over the EEE =D

[Deputy Doffoos @ Apr 9th 2008 8:39PM]

@sanjiiin

do you mean it's going to burst?

[mastakilla @ Apr 9th 2008 5:12AM]

and i was just reading comments of people asking why isnt dell entering the ultra-portable market

[ishism @ Apr 9th 2008 6:13AM]

I was thinking just today, if dell was entering this umpc market. I like dell's very competitive prices. And their refurbs are priced better than some of these 7" umpcs. I don't know too much on their quality, but I can't emagine it being bad.
!!!KICK SOME A$$ DELL!!! I'm rooting for ya!!!

[RyanTV @ Apr 9th 2008 10:57AM]

dell is playing it a little smart and waiting for those Atom processors. The HP looks pretty good, but i'll definitely wait for the "intel inside" sticker :)

[sjdurfey @ Apr 9th 2008 12:50PM]

just to clarify a bit, unless this thing is going to have a touch-sensitive screen, then it is not a UMPC, its just an ultra-portable. a touch-screen is part of the definition of a UMPC. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umpc

[Schfelzerberg @ Apr 9th 2008 5:20AM]

Someone should convince all those companies that want to overthrow the ASUS EEE PC that putting the new Intel Atom in their mini, anti-EEE warmachines is the only way to victory.

[Chebwa @ Apr 9th 2008 8:23AM]

Looks like somebody already convinced Dell.

Here comes the fastest selling "Eee killer" ever. I was a couple of weeks from pulling the trigger on the new HP model, but I can definitely hold off until June.

[LondonConsultant @ Apr 9th 2008 5:36AM]

Looking forward to Lenovo releasing a ThinkPad version of the Eee notebook. With black styling, red Trackpoint, etc. Drool...

[tom @ Apr 9th 2008 8:49AM]

this would kick ass...i am SOOOO getting one right away.

I am prepare to drop up to 1k for the

roll cage chassis, trackpoint and spillproof keyboard

[ToniCipriani @ Apr 9th 2008 9:29AM]

... and then sell it for like almost double of competition (before discounts). Then come along those idiots who will go: OMGWTFBBQ!!! I CAN BUY A 15.4" DELL FOR LESS THAN THAT WITH MORE POWER!!!!

[Andrew @ Apr 9th 2008 10:33AM]

If Lenovo ever makes one of these subnotebooks they need to bring back the butterfly keyboard.

[Paul @ Apr 9th 2008 5:40AM]

If the styling is on par with the XPS M1330/M1530 then I'm most definetely looking forward to this! And Dell...please please please don't put speakers to the side of the screen! And bundle it with XP/Ubuntu!

[barbiturik @ Apr 9th 2008 5:46AM]

if its small and light, its a win! copy the eee, not the HP!

[ishism @ Apr 9th 2008 6:20AM]

Sorry about the double post, but I was thinking I'm so close to buying MY FIRST LAPPY, it's exciting how many cool gadgets are popping up. This makes, this tech geek, very happy.

[Schfelzerberg @ Apr 9th 2008 6:46AM]

Indeed. The competition, or lack thereof, affects us consumers most. And so far, so good. There's plenty of competition and we're just boggled with which device to pick since most of them do the same thing at the same price range anyway.

[Geert @ Apr 9th 2008 6:54AM]

I like this race to the bottom a lot, not so long a go any decent spec'd ultraportable would cost at least twice as much money as a regular form factor. I have no problem with a slow CPU, hell you don't expect Crysis on any of these or do you? But just make sure they are dirt cheap.

[niron @ Apr 9th 2008 7:07AM]

Michael Dell just mentioned it in his current visit to Israel.

[Paul @ Apr 9th 2008 8:23AM]

niron, do you have a link to where Michael Dell mentions it? I'd be interested in reading it :)

[niron @ Apr 9th 2008 8:43AM]

Paul,
It's written in Hebrew, he was asked if Dell is planning to offer their version for the Asus Eee Pc and his answer was - Absolutely yes, we are planning to bring interesting products in this area during the following quarters (not the exact quote). Check the video in this links:

http://net.nana10.co.il/Article/?ArticleID=548348&sid=127

He also mentioned his affection to Vista and that he was using it since the beta versions and have no plans to downgrade to XP.
Also mentioned that Dell is the most green tech company in the world.

Here are some links:

http://www.nrg.co.il/online/10/ART1/719/609.html

http://www.themarkerit.com/tmit/article/3223

[itumkhaish @ Apr 9th 2008 7:12AM]

A new baby to born in june 2008 I am waiting for

[eseiber @ Apr 9th 2008 7:50AM]

Ok. Dell has swayed my attention again. I also will be waiting till June as I want one of these and the more choices the better. I will probably go with a Dell if it is resonable as that seems to be the ONLY company I have not had problems with in their prodects except when I build my own computers. Go Dell!

[Frank Daley @ Apr 9th 2008 8:07AM]

Let's hope that Dell continues to improve its Linux support by putting a Linux model front and center.

[Paul @ Apr 9th 2008 8:59AM]

Excellent, thanks niron :) I watched the video. My Hebrew is a bit rusty (read: non-existent!)

[niron @ Apr 9th 2008 9:17AM]

with pleasure :)

[freakmarket @ Apr 9th 2008 9:28AM]

It drives me nuts ... why would one design a mega portable then cripple it with Linux ... the world needs compatibility and integration with their stuff ... not non standard, unsupported, not integrating linux.

At least we know Dell will support it with Windows as the standard out of the box.

[Chebwa @ Apr 9th 2008 9:34AM]

You're going to be low ranked now, but you are 100% correct. Linux is F-R-E-E and still has a sub 1% market share. I have used a couple of version of Linux, and each one was still unfriendly and ugly (anybody who says otherwise is kidding themself).

[Dalcébolus @ Apr 9th 2008 10:15AM]

(fingers crossed for the reply system to work)

Not true. Linux is as user-friendly and as ugly as WinXP. It is not an exact copy, but it is similar.

You insert a pendrive, it opens a window displaying its contents... you double-click say, a .doc file, it opens the file. There you have a toolbar with bold, italics, underline, left/right/centre/justified alignments, tables...

Done editing your file? Press the toolbar button with a diskette on it. Yeah, that simple. Unmount your pendrive selecting the corresponding option that is displayed by right-clicking the... yeah... pendrive icon in your desktop. Oh my god, I've said 'unmount'! What? Yes, you do the same thing on WinXP.

The only thing linux is not good at is gaming. For the rest, it is just as good as WinXP, only safer and, even easier as it comes with all the goodies you would need to install separately on WinXP. Oh, and keeping your system updated, complete with all the apps is sooooo much easier on Linux. WinXP is just so ugly and unfriendly.

So no freakmarket and Chebwa, you may not like Linux, which is ok, but it is not true that Linux is unfriendlier and/or uglier, 'non-standard' and 'non-integrating', whatever that means.

[Chebwa @ Apr 9th 2008 11:09AM]

Linux is ugly and unfriendly. The UI looks unfinished (in Kubuntu, even my desktop icons' text wouldn't auto center properly), installing programs is annoying, and frankly nobody uses it (0.6% of the internet using population or something, right?). Games are rarely released for it and the general public is obviously not interested (Dell's sales of Linux systems were not good).

Linux is a niche product and until somebody fixes it, it's going to stay that way. I swear to God if you got just a TINY team of ex MS or Apple employees banging away at Linux, you'd have a monster competitor. But right now it is awful, and nobody but hardcore PC enthusiasts are going to enjoy using it over Windows or OSX.

Tell me how wrong I am now, low rank me, whatever. But at the end of the day, Linux is still not even a real player in the OS game. And I know I have changed exactly 0 Linux-people's minds with this, so, I don't know why I even why I wrote it.

[LongshotX @ Apr 9th 2008 11:14AM]

I wouldn't say Linux is safer, more prettier and better at games than Vista.

[A1 @ Apr 9th 2008 11:49AM]

> The UI looks unfinished (in Kubuntu, even my desktop icons' text wouldn't auto center properly)

lol configuration

You chose that distribution or UI.

[Teebo @ Apr 9th 2008 4:04PM]

I had the same opinion as you in regards to Linux. Just last night on my EEE PC I switched over to the advanced desktop mode. It was enough like Windows in terms of looks & feel that I was very comfortable in it. Linux has come a long way from a frustrating user experience for noobs, where it can be used on a daily basis. Give it another try if you haven't used it in a few years.

[Dalcébolus @ Apr 9th 2008 12:41PM]

Sorry, but installing programs in Ubuntu is just a matter of checking some box and letting apt download and install it for you. Installing programs in windows harder and unfriendlier.

I repeat: Linux is not good for gaming, yet. And the general public not being interested in it won't make your assertion that 'Linux is ugly and unfriendlier' less false. The UI looks ugly... to you perhaps. I could say the same thing of WinXP: 'look Ma, if I want to power down my computer I have to press the START button... how stupid is that?' and in Vista the whole 'power down options' thing is even more stupid... But hey, I don't say Windows is satan's OS because of that.

Things are the way they are not beacuse Windows is better. Just because people use whatever you put in front of them, and once they get used to it, they don't like to try anything else. They don't care what OS runs beneath. They just want things to stay the same, since they are not interested in 'computers' per se. It is just a tool to get things done. That is why Vista is so resisted. It is not really that much uglier. At least not for the 'general public' untrained eyes.

So don't come here telling Linux is 'unfriendly' or 'ugly' just because it doesn't have significant market share. Is it unfinished? So is Windows then. The truth is that Linux is on par or better than windows for many tasks, and, yes, it is definitely safer. Because it is safer by design.

I've installed close to a hundred ubuntu clients (Ubuntu Gnome displays desktop icon names just fine, BTW. But Kubuntu should do the same, of course), made many customers happy and kept viruses and spyware away from them, saved them thousands of US dollars and correspondingly diverted some of those to my pocket.

Users are amazed at how easy is to install new apps, and they just don't believe how easier it is to keep them updated. They love the nicely organized applications menu, and how easy it is to work with usb storage and CDs/DVDs.

I also deployed many many many windows clients, so no, I am not a Linux zealot. When windows is better for a particular task, use windows. But that list of tasks windows is better at keeps getting shorter, fast.

And God forbid any of those 'brilliant' ex-MS employees work on Linux. Windows is mainstream, yes, but it is not a well-designed OS. Linux is not perfect either, but thanks to its unix roots it is a better design.

I know I won't change any windows-people minds either. Windows is fine... keep using it if it suits your needs. Linux suits mine, and other people's needs too. And you will see it slowly but steadily eroding Windows userbase, as it has already been observed, but that won't make Windows any uglier or unfriendlier than it is now.

[Kappy @ Apr 9th 2008 4:36PM]

No one in this thread understands what "Linux" is. The Linux kernel is actually a pretty nice kernel, and the GNU tools are great for what they do. The desktop environments (KDE, GNOME) and the gui system in general (X) are just terrible and ugly. For servers (non gui), or embedded/portable/custom systems (custom gui for specific tasks), the kernel can be used quite effectively. In fact, were it not for the GPL license, all us OS X users might be using a linux based system instead of a BSD based system.

[freakmarket @ Apr 9th 2008 11:38PM]

With Vista or XP i can communicate flawlessly and effortlessly with all the device around me ... transferring files ... streaming media housed on my other computers to the one i'm at ... or maybe is at me.

Networking integration with Linux and other o/s's is a nightmare.

I just like my stuff to play well with each other.

[Rick @ Apr 9th 2008 9:34AM]

I'm so excited I just died of joy!

[john @ Apr 9th 2008 9:37AM]

I hope this is one of the devices they sell with Ubuntu (or would this be an opportunity to get into the Ubuntu-Mobile market?)

[john @ Apr 9th 2008 10:15AM]

I also wonder what form-factor they're going to go for. Plain boring mini-laptop like the Eee and HP? Or for something interesting, like the Fujitsu Lifebook U810 and U1010 convertible micro-laptop+tablets?

Hopefully the latter.

[william @ Apr 9th 2008 10:23AM]

this sounds like its going to be an all out war all we need know is sony to come in with lowprice subnote book . HP,DELL,ASUS ,EVREX let the battle begin

[Allen @ Apr 9th 2008 11:46AM]

Wow! So there's now:
Asus
Intel
VIA + Everex
HP
MSI
Acer
ECS
and Dell + Compal

With the big boys in the race, the price is going to get lowered with more features.

I'm not so impressed with HP's powerbookwannabe. Of all the companies, Asus and Compal have the best quality.

Come on Sony, release a Picturebook 2 and sell it for 699-900. It'll do well.

[saq @ Apr 9th 2008 12:13PM]

Ahh Dell, always a copycat and follower, never a leader or innovator. I guess thats why they only spend $250m a year in R&D, as opposed to HP's $3.5b and IBM's $6b (which is all of IBMs crazy departments, most of which don't impact their computing product line directly).

[Andrew @ Apr 9th 2008 12:43PM]

Right on. Dell has been playing catch up in the ultra portable sector. I guess now that everyone ELSE is coming out with those, Dell has started to work on it (notice, not "in a few weeks" but "over next few quarters" - they have been caught totally off balance and are making new models FROM SCRATCH). Lack of vision as well as lack of innovation. And they're surprised nobody is buying their stuff.

[DonatoM3 @ Apr 9th 2008 1:11PM]

You're comparing the R&D budget of a company that only designs desktops, laptops, and servers to companies, that design many more products including processors, printers, Supercomputers? $250 million in R&D for a company that needs to design cases and cheaper ways of integrating other companies components seems like a good amount. Plus maybe Dell didn't like the current processors out there, and new about Atom before we did so decided to wait.

[foodle @ Apr 9th 2008 1:55PM]

uh, IBM doesn't make notebooks anymore ...

[foodle @ Apr 9th 2008 12:51PM]

Apple subnote please! ... oh, Macbook Air, so much missed opportunity ...

[john @ Apr 9th 2008 2:16PM]

If you look at the MBA's motherboard, it could probably easily fit in a sub-notebook, too. Maybe we can get modbook to make a modbook-mini, using the MBA's motherboard, and a touchscreen, with a Samsung Q1 type format (no physical split-thumb keyboard like the Q1 ultra; instead, have a virtual split-thumb keyboard like the Q1 (non-ultra)). Then have a physical keyboard via the docking/charging connector. A laptop-type keyboard that attaches for mobile use, or a docking station with USB and DVI connectors for acting like a light desktop.

That's what I'd like to see, anyway.

[giantenemycrab @ Apr 9th 2008 3:50PM]

Well, I can forget that Eee PC purchase I planned for later this week. Dell, please don't screw this up!