Dell's "mini-Inspiron" Eee PC killer revealed

Thinking of a new Eee PC or maybe Wind laptop? Hold up, Dell's about to loose this baby on the sub-$500 mini-laptop world. All we've got are these pictures for now but the specs can't be far behind. Even the name "mini-Inspiron" comes from the file name of the Dell-supplied pics. However, if what we've already heard holds up, then we're looking at 8.9-inches dolled up in a sub-$500 price tag with a choice of both Windows XP Home or Ubuntu Linux, 8-in-1 card reader, integrated webcam, direct media playback buttons, and a "host of wireless access options." Expect more next week as the Computex show kicks off.

Gallery: Dell's "mini-Inspiron" Eee PC killer revealed

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[Via Gizmodo]

[rBoLt @ May 29th 2008 12:57AM]

keep em coming... competition makes this world better...

[Brian @ May 29th 2008 12:59AM]

Agreed.

[Pochi @ May 29th 2008 1:32AM]

Say goodbye, little guys. The Dell hath arrived!

[mike @ May 29th 2008 2:06AM]

Very original. Did you come up with that yourself?

But seriously, competition may make us all better off, but Dell and their kludgy spam infested dreck make the world worse. The same spam that
a) they get paid by the software makers to install on YOUR PC.
b) they'll offer to not provide for a nominal fee.

So their either charge you, or the software guys. Either way, Michael Dell was asked about the future of the company, the direction, the new technology, new markets... all he could come up with was to start bragging about *cough 7% profit margins, or some such drivel.

[greatslack @ May 29th 2008 2:00AM]

I don't know about you mike, but I think a discount on my computer is worth the 15 minutes spent uninstalling crapware.

[Reid @ May 29th 2008 2:02AM]

I agree. This looks great -- it's what I was hoping the "ultralight" Macbook would be, until it turned out to be 'premium small' rather than 'stripped down and cheap small'.

Something to mess around with, websurf from the couch while watching TV, etc. I think there's a huge market for something like this, as long as it's well-executed. Cheap and middling performance is okay, huge corners cut is not.

Unfortunately I'm just not willing to deal with Windows more than I have to, but perhaps it's time to see what the latest and slickest Linux distros are. Something lightweight, pretty, and fast fast fast. Hard to believe I haven't run a Linux desktop in over 5 years now, after doing it for 8. It would be interesting to see how things have changed (or haven't).

[Tony @ May 29th 2008 4:01AM]

This is why you wipe out your machine when you get it, then you load your OS yourself.

[greg @ May 29th 2008 3:04AM]

@mike

eh, preloaded programs mean that computers are cheaper. If they took $50 the price, they could load as much crap on my computer as they wanted. Not that hard to get rid of it...

[nDee @ May 29th 2008 5:32AM]

Coming up
Thinkpad
MacBookNano

[Mike Cerm @ May 29th 2008 6:59AM]

MacBook Nano? If Apple was going to make an ultra-portable, don't you think they would have done it by now? They had a shot to make an ultra-portable and they made the Air instead, and it will probably be a few years before they put out anything that will cannibalize Air sales.

[Wii60Warrior @ May 29th 2008 8:01AM]

The funny thing is that these are the first "minis" that actually look decent and appealing (visually) to me.

For all the climaxing Engadget does over the EEE w/e the actual laptop looks fugly in my opinion. Plus I don't understand why exactly this is such a huge trend and why people want such small laptops to begin with. It would be hard to see and type on such a small thing for me.

But to each his own.

Hopefully Dell delivers a decent product.

[Jon K @ May 29th 2008 3:07AM]

Is the Dell logo upside down?

[phanbouy @ May 29th 2008 1:00AM]

no, you just have a rare and urgent eye disease

[Sean @ May 29th 2008 1:13AM]

i don't know if phanbouy is just being ironic, but it is ǝpısdn uʍop!

[Ellianth @ May 29th 2008 1:20AM]

Sean how did you do that?

It's not upside down. There are two ways to put thing son the lid of a laptop. 1 way where when the lid is closed the owner (the only one who matters) gets to see the text/logo right side up. The other way (which i think is better) is to make the logo appear right side up when the lid is open. The reason i say the 2nd way is better is: do you use your laptop by sitting there with the lid closed and staring at the logo for hours on end?

(though i must admit, when i first got my m1330 i did sit there with the lid closed and stare for a good 10 minutes)

[Keith MacDonald @ May 29th 2008 1:27AM]

Sea: Indeed WTF?! How'd you do that?! :p

I agree tho: the logo *is* upside down. Clearly the person that did the render screwed-up. Traditionally the logo faces the other way so that people looking at the laptop from that side can see the badge. The way it is now is just... wrong...

Can't wait to see what kind of specs this machine has. When I get my next desktop & third 24" widescreen from Dell, I'll probably tell them to throw one of these in the box too.

[scott @ May 29th 2008 1:32AM]

google upside down text generator. it's a javascript thing.

[Jonathan Kim @ May 29th 2008 1:35AM]

Now I feel safe in saying this. Dude you got a lləp!

[Sean @ May 29th 2008 1:35AM]

lol yea it's just a javascript.

http://www.revfad.com/flip.html

[webon @ May 29th 2008 2:14AM]

what? where? hey they fixed it/chopped it back

[phanbouy @ May 29th 2008 3:33AM]

dude you got a llep (-rechaun)?

[gad get @ May 29th 2008 6:51AM]

@ Sean

What's "apisdn umop"?


*Pause.*


You did what in my mop?!

[Teetdogs @ May 29th 2008 8:53AM]

@gad get

Thats the first thing to make me laugh this morning, in fact i laughed so hard I spit coffee all over my kitchen table!!!

[waiownsyou @ May 29th 2008 12:59AM]

That looks better than the Eee. Too bad these things are a bitch to type on.

[phanbouy @ May 29th 2008 1:24AM]

"There are two ways to put thing son"

what are you a pimp?

[phanbouy @ May 29th 2008 1:25AM]

mmkay, that was to Ellianth a comment below. yeah, this is awkward

[gad get @ May 29th 2008 6:34AM]

@ phanbouy

And very funny!

[MRCUR @ May 29th 2008 8:29AM]

I guess Engadget missed this yesterday:
http://gizmodo.com/393815/exclusive-dell-mini-inspiron-their-first-mini-laptop

It looks great, and the keyboard looks very nice. I think I'll be getting one of these. That new Aspire looks pretty nice though...

[Life of Brian @ May 29th 2008 11:50AM]

^ Holy crap that's awesome! It definitely wins in the looks department. HP's Mini-Note looks great, but the touchpad is gimpy and the screen is too reflective, not to mention a weak processor. And the EEE PC is just ugly. Let's hope Dell gets it right!

[phanbouy @ May 29th 2008 1:00AM]

and and i told lumbergh that i wanted the red laptop but they stopped making the red laptops but i kept mine and i said no salt, no salt on the margarita

[Big Al @ May 29th 2008 1:10AM]

... and if they take my red laptop, I'll set the building on fire.

[tyler @ May 29th 2008 4:19PM]

Thats.. that's the last straw..

[Phil @ May 29th 2008 1:01AM]

Is it just me, or does the screen seem kind of thick. Maybe it's just the angle this shot is taken at, but I'm not a fan of chunky LCD's.

[Sourcerer @ Jun 2nd 2008 2:06PM]

Let me verbalize what some may thought:
Who 'ckin cares what you're a fan of?

"Your face is kinda something looking like if it was supposingly maybe fugly from that angle, and woah I'm not a fan of fugly faces"

[Keith MacDonald @ May 29th 2008 1:03AM]

Well now... *this* looks interesting. I wonder if it will have the dual core Atom in it and support more than 2 GB RAM. I sincerely hope so because I'd really like to run XP under VM Ware in Ubuntu.

I *suppose* I could stoop to running Windows 98 in VM Ware if I had to tho to conserve CPU and RAM. *shudder*

[Ayman @ May 29th 2008 1:13AM]

Really, I still run my Win 3.11 on my 486 compaq but still can't find a software for the modem or a modem for a software

I too suppose i can change to an XP :P (But will not change to Vista)

[Zorque @ May 29th 2008 1:42AM]

Why not just dual-boot XP, then you don't have the overhead from running two OSs at once.

[Josh Warner @ May 29th 2008 2:07AM]

@ Zorque:
For one, the benefit of immediately rolling back to a safe/unb0rked image at the click of a button. Far, far better than the abomination that is System Restore.

For people that use XP for the few programs that we have to (which Wine stubbornly remains incompatible with, for instance), running a VM is far better than having a physical install to muck around with.

[marcin @ May 29th 2008 1:04AM]

that thing looks chunky. eepc and wind look more sleek.

[TIMMAH! @ May 29th 2008 1:06AM]

Nicely done Dell! Now let's put out those coupons!!!

[ZeV @ May 29th 2008 1:08AM]

seems like it doesn't come with any disc drives.

[Jon Doe. @ May 29th 2008 1:53AM]

Umm nor does any of the other subnotebooks out there. Your point?

[gad get @ May 29th 2008 6:39AM]

Although... it sure would be cool if they could cram in an optical drive. Maybe that's unrealistic though.

[ethana2 @ May 30th 2008 2:07PM]

Battery is a better use of space.

[Farouq @ Jun 8th 2008 6:10AM]

The new vye coming out has a cd/dvd rom drive, however at $1500 its a tad more than the other sub-notebooks out there

[Ayman @ May 29th 2008 1:08AM]

Took them long enough

[Philippe @ May 29th 2008 1:11AM]

The lappie may not be available yet, but the pencil is: http://www.allinoneline.com/ProductDetails.aspx?productID=258

[gad get @ May 29th 2008 6:43AM]

That would be perfect for school!
Not so sure about the computer....

[Jason @ May 29th 2008 8:48AM]

yeah i was just about to say... What if the spec's are wrong and really the pencil is 2 feet long

[poematik14 @ May 29th 2008 1:12AM]

No dual core Atom, no sale.