Dell's "mini-Inspiron" Eee PC killer revealed
By Thomas Ricker 
posted May 29th 2008 12:55AM
posted May 29th 2008 12:55AM
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.
[Via Gizmodo]
[Via Gizmodo]
keep em coming... competition makes this world better...
Agreed.
Say goodbye, little guys. The Dell hath arrived!
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.
I don't know about you mike, but I think a discount on my computer is worth the 15 minutes spent uninstalling crapware.
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).
This is why you wipe out your machine when you get it, then you load your OS yourself.
@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...
Coming up
Thinkpad
MacBookNano
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.
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.
Is the Dell logo upside down?
no, you just have a rare and urgent eye disease
i don't know if phanbouy is just being ironic, but it is ǝpısdn uʍop!
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)
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.
google upside down text generator. it's a javascript thing.
Now I feel safe in saying this. Dude you got a lləp!
lol yea it's just a javascript.
http://www.revfad.com/flip.html
what? where? hey they fixed it/chopped it back
dude you got a llep (-rechaun)?
@ Sean
What's "apisdn umop"?
*Pause.*
You did what in my mop?!
@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!!!
That looks better than the Eee. Too bad these things are a bitch to type on.
"There are two ways to put thing son"
what are you a pimp?
mmkay, that was to Ellianth a comment below. yeah, this is awkward
@ phanbouy
And very funny!
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...
^ 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!
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
... and if they take my red laptop, I'll set the building on fire.
Thats.. that's the last straw..
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.
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"
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*
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)
Why not just dual-boot XP, then you don't have the overhead from running two OSs at once.
@ 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.
that thing looks chunky. eepc and wind look more sleek.
Nicely done Dell! Now let's put out those coupons!!!
seems like it doesn't come with any disc drives.
Umm nor does any of the other subnotebooks out there. Your point?
Although... it sure would be cool if they could cram in an optical drive. Maybe that's unrealistic though.
Battery is a better use of space.
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
Took them long enough
The lappie may not be available yet, but the pencil is: http://www.allinoneline.com/ProductDetails.aspx?productID=258
That would be perfect for school!
Not so sure about the computer....
yeah i was just about to say... What if the spec's are wrong and really the pencil is 2 feet long
No dual core Atom, no sale.
no blind allegiance to marketing concept without regard to actual real-world benchmark cpu HP to watt ratio; no sale
call me crazy, but i feel like the one thing more important than the processor, screen size (
that's weird...it deleted most of my comment. anyway, the end of it was supposed to say somethin about the battery being more important.
I think I just splooged myself...
WELCOME to toomuchinformation.com
your tutorial for today is: ^^^^
I would only get this is it came in the same colors as the current Inspirons, so I can have a baby Spring Green lappy to go along with my Inspiron 1420.
foleo will return!!!!!
Eh?
Dear GOD. Do want.
This looks really very lovely. It's almost like they listened to all the random wishes of random posters here:
http://www.ideastorm.com/article/show/10079892?page=last
Yay Dell!
hellllo
gooodbye
i love.
it's a heartbreaker, careful young squire
Does anyone remember the macbook air?
Uhmmm WTF
How cares about that overpriced POS. These little minis are better.
Why?
Where are function keys (F1-12)?
form over function?
now that i think of it, the only time i use the F keys is in games, and the very seldom alt-F4
Looks very nice, but any word on the screen resolution yet?
Also, it looks like there are only 2 USB ports, and they are both near the front of the base. That could mean cable interference when using a wireless mouse : (. Should have moved them further back.
Judging from pictures on Gizmodo i see 3.
Oops, my bad, both of these shots show the same side. There are, indeed, 3 USB's. I still wish the one on the right was further back though.
I'm glad I'm happy with my Eee... By the time this thing dies, I will have a lot of nice subnotes to choose from to make me happy.
Just keep telling yourself that, but, uh... if you want, I know how you make your eee just... go away. You interested?
Let the race to the bottom commence!
now that pencil link... that there was F-U-N-N-Y!!! need more info and soon...
wtf is a macbook air?
The MSI Wind, with its price, feature set, screen size, and incredible portability (it's just as thin as a MacBook Air but actually usefully small in the other two dimensions as well!), is still at the top of my list.
But kudos to Dell for entering this market; competition drives prices down and drives innovation forward and that makes me a happy waffle :]
the wind is not as thin as the macbook air.. sorry
i will buy the wind though
boi-oi-oi-oi-oing!
WOW! Dells and whistles!
since I've seen this, I don't think I'll ever think about the EEE again. If the specs and price is what we've been looking for. The EEE is BOA.
bored on arrival?
BOA CONSTRICTOR!!!
If the Mini Inspirion gets out first (with better specs) the EEE 1000 will be "Bricked on Arrival".
Well, if the powers that be insist on getting me a Dell laptop, then I suppose I could do worse. I don't really need huge screen real estate and would much rather the portability.
about time, engadget-- what took so long? :/
I can't believe no other commentators have noticed this - after making a keyboard for European users that was entirely unsuitable for touch-typing on, they've done it again. Look at your regular Qwerty keyboard, and you'll see that, quite roughly, Z is in line with 2. Now look at this Dell one and you'll see FAIL. Z is directly below A, is directly below Q, is directly below 1. They've made an entirely square keyboard, the likes of which I've not seen since the early 80s also-ran 8-bits.
It's worth pointing out that I can touch-type, and I find it possible to touch-type on my Eee, which is the same form factor as this Dell box. So... why are Dell determined to completely ruin everybody's keyboard experience?
Look at the cursor key locations and the small right shift: FAIL.
Have fun getting used to a seriously non-standard layout. This will definitely show up as a con in most reviews.
@Irregular Shed
Dude, don't complain about the square keyboard. The only reason why we don' have them everywhere is that keyboard manufacturers were afraid to change from the then selling type-writer staggered keys layout. Just go to the store and give the sqaure keyboard a try.
From experience, square keyboards are easier to get used to. I do a lot of typing and backspacing. Why the backspacing? Today's keyboards force your hands to move in slanted up-to-the-left and down-to-the-right directions. I tend to shift to a straighter hand poster every now and then.
Where is my squared Matrix Keyboard?
@irregular shed
You're right, the mockups on Engadget do have a square/grid keyboard. However, photos of the product over on Gizmodo show a more traditional keyboard with the "z" offset and between the "a" and "s".
http://gizmodo.com/393815/exclusive-dell-mini-inspiron-their-first-mini-laptop
Where do you get it's totally square from? The upper letter keys aren't shifted as much as normal, but it's definitely not totally square:
Better pic: http://gizmodo.com/photogallery/dellmininsp/1001694713
This thing here from Dell seems like a slightly more mainstream and grown up version of the Eee. But I'll still love them both. After all, it isn't as cute as the Eee.
I think I just found the replacement for my aging Inspiron 1100 laptop for travel.
What would really be nice would be for this to cross over and be marketed as a Latitude laptop. The better support and lack of garbage software from the factory (except google desktop) would make it a winner.
If this thing uses the same power adapter as the Latitude Xt, that would be sweet as well.
I'm sold.
Please let it have bluetooth, please let it have bluetooth, please let it have bluetooth.
It's a Dell. It'll have bluetooth - for $20 extra.
Isaiah? I mean Nano?