It's already confirmed
for this week. Now
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the Dell Inspiron 910 Mini netbook will be announced on Thursday the 4th courtesy of an eMail received from Box.net, an online photo and document storage service already seen bundled with
Creative's Vado Pocket Video Cam. Apparently, Box.net services will "come pre-installed on the Dell Mini." A Dell spokeswoman confirmed that Dell is working with Box.net for online storage. A person familiar with the matter says that the Mini will likely sell for less than $400, run your choice of Windows or Linux (
Ubuntu, is our guess), and sport a display slightly less than 9-inches. You know, all this service talk has us wondering if this will also be Dell's first laptop with its
Zing-based audio and video services bundle. Fortunately, we'll know tomorrow.
P.S. That image above is from
these earlier leaks and matches the keyboard configuration in
Dell's own support documents. In other words, it's what we expect to see tomorrow.
Update: Heh, so much for that image above. Dell has updated the
support docs again. See the new keyboard after the break.
posted Sep 3rd 2008 at 3:01AM
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
micrypt @ Sep 3rd 2008 3:08AM
Just in time to stop me buying an Acer Aspire One
Pumping_Iron @ Sep 3rd 2008 5:17AM
By the looks, Acer Aspire One beats it by FAR ! Specs, dunno. Id choose Acer.
bebop @ Sep 3rd 2008 6:18AM
Shrug. Okay...
ishism @ Sep 3rd 2008 6:44AM
damn, the acer with 120gb hdd,xp for $399 sound real good. If dell can match or beat this, i'm in.
idrinkberr @ Sep 3rd 2008 8:27AM
@ishism -- $399? you mean...$349...check Micro Center and BB...
Callaway @ Sep 3rd 2008 9:11AM
$329 at newegg...
kccboy2004 @ Sep 3rd 2008 10:14AM
if this has Express Gate then I am buying one of these.
After getting me new Eee Box, if it ain't got Express gate it ain't worth it.
richard @ Sep 3rd 2008 1:29PM
Yes, but too early to choose this or the lattitude E4200
Yay. @ Sep 3rd 2008 3:09AM
I'll make a bold prediction:
That keyboard isn't final.
Gunn @ Sep 3rd 2008 3:38AM
Hope so.
BTW, compare this picture with the previous Inspiron 910 page on Engadget.
Keyboard is DIFFERENT!
On the right, above the num keys, a four-key console-like thingy appears and disappears.
Yay. @ Sep 3rd 2008 3:53AM
Yeah, both of those pictures are fairly old; we have reason to hope!
Thomas Ricker @ Sep 3rd 2008 5:23AM
The picture used is our best guess as to the final product. Post updated with explanation.
Thomas
allens555 @ Sep 3rd 2008 3:24AM
WHat??! 400?? was hoping for the $300 price point.
Gunn @ Sep 3rd 2008 3:35AM
Guess the included Box.net services are snitching the extra $100.
gs @ Sep 6th 2008 2:12AM
I really wish it had one of those pointer mice. I don't care for track-pads at all.
Ryan @ Sep 3rd 2008 3:25AM
Phanbuoy is a comment whore.
phanbouy fan @ Sep 3rd 2008 7:56AM
you be quiet, good sir!
Information Central @ Sep 3rd 2008 3:30AM
Another mystery photo that links to basically nothing. This is a growing trend on Engadget.
Don't throw an unexplained picture up there when that picture doesn't exist in the linked-to source.
Gunn @ Sep 3rd 2008 3:33AM
Yeah yeah here it comes again. Like I'm REALLY gonna red-circle that date. pufff
x3qt0r @ Sep 3rd 2008 3:38AM
I have waited for this thing for long.. but now I have started liking the inspiron 13.
jordn @ Sep 3rd 2008 3:46AM
Looking good, Dell!
I'm still after something which is 10-12 inches, where is the E-Slim you promised us?
the_vortex01 @ Sep 3rd 2008 6:20AM
I'm sure there are plenty of people out there looking for 10-12 inches.
modifiedbears @ Sep 3rd 2008 10:39AM
I want the 12" version over this also. I need something closer to a regular keyboard. The better specs don't hurt either.
Fanfoot @ Sep 3rd 2008 10:10PM
There are lots of good 13" notebooks out there. Just buy one of them.
alex @ Sep 3rd 2008 4:07AM
any idea how much RAM can it take? hopefully 2G... and have options of SSD and HDD...
Gunn @ Sep 3rd 2008 4:15AM
Box.net is devoted to kill any chance that this netbook comes with an HDD.
My advice:
Get a 16G SD card. Insert and forget.
Jassen @ Sep 3rd 2008 4:13AM
It's all about the battery life...the basis for all these netbooks is almost all the same and only marginall different between most brands (MSI, Acer, and Asus netbooks) Give us 5+ hours and the Mini Inspiron will be printing money like the DS.
mikepegg @ Sep 3rd 2008 6:29AM
I agree on battery life but I was under the impression All Acer and Msi netbooks had 3 cell batteries but Asus eee's 1000 forward had 6 cell. Clearly making the Asus eee pc 1000h the netbook of choice.
thesimplicity @ Sep 3rd 2008 12:19PM
The $400 Aspire One model comes with a six cell battery and is quite a nice choice, feature wise.
Gunn @ Sep 3rd 2008 4:17AM
I see you're making a better online marketing idiot here.
Nice job! Now there's a lifted bar for idiot-proof technology. Bravo!
matt @ Sep 3rd 2008 5:28AM
What a cunning stunt...
BoloMKXXVIII @ Sep 3rd 2008 7:27PM
How can you touch-type on this thing? Look at the alignment of the keys! The "Q" is directly over the "A", not offset like ALL other keyboards. Unless this changes, forget it.
SteveJ @ Sep 3rd 2008 11:10AM
Agreed - that keyboard looks completely atrocious. If you can't touchtype on it, then why even bother with a QWERTY layout? It should just be alphabetical.
mikepegg @ Sep 3rd 2008 6:31AM
less than $400? so $399.99 and £399.99 then.
HardDisk @ Sep 3rd 2008 8:17AM
£399.99 is NOT less than $400.
Superevil @ Sep 3rd 2008 8:45AM
I was thinking the exact same thing.
ilh @ Sep 3rd 2008 8:53AM
He's referring to the somehow magical pricehike that a product gets when it comes over to the UK, quite often 1.5-2x the US price especially when it comes to electronics hardware.
And the keyboard still sucks, wasted space above it they could've used for F# keys and the key alignment is just wrong.
mikepegg @ Sep 3rd 2008 9:05AM
Well the direct translation would be $400=£225 but in the world of electronics importers this is never the case. I expect at least £299.99.
jd @ Sep 3rd 2008 7:48AM
why so much space at north of the keyboard?
they could have included the f-keys.
Brian @ Sep 3rd 2008 9:03AM
That's usually where dell puts the head pipes and fins and doodads like that. Also voltage control circuits, Things of that nature., the tall bits (caps and the like) can't go under the keyboard they have to go somewhere in a laptop this small :D
Serial 8-Ball Mouse @ Sep 3rd 2008 8:52AM
Well, there's probably... you know... components under there. So the thing isn't just a keyboard with a screen.
Lancelot @ Sep 3rd 2008 9:19AM
Why didn't they move the "tab" key over next to the "backslash" key.? This way the whole row could have been staggered to the left like it is on a full size keyboard. I'd rather have one key out of place than the whole row..
Does this make sense or am I crazy.? I can't believe they left this whole row in line with the keys below.
stevereportdotcom @ Sep 3rd 2008 9:17AM
Looks very nice. Better then the Eee.
chyan @ Sep 3rd 2008 9:38AM
seriously..
I've got the Aspire One...
Using XP on it?
Well good luck finding compatibilities.
And also comsider the lag.
Opt for Linux instead.
Sure it's heaps better than this 910. =]
cmil1212 @ Sep 3rd 2008 9:44AM
Not sure why anyone would want this. I'll keep the xps 13" i have which is much more powerful.
Dr Zoidberg @ Sep 3rd 2008 11:48AM
Well of course it's more powerful, if I was paying $700 upwards on a laptop I'd want it to be more powerful than a netbook.
johnmc @ Sep 3rd 2008 1:55PM
My Vostro 1500 is also way more powerful, but it's a freakin behemoth. One of these would be perfect for when I need something small and light to, say, remotely manage a system when I'm away from my desk.
cmil1212 @ Sep 3rd 2008 7:52PM
a 13" xps is small and light. How many computers do you want to keep synced anyways?
monkoosbob0 @ Sep 3rd 2008 8:26PM
my 002 blackbird is faster!
Fanfoot @ Sep 3rd 2008 10:14PM
My Lenovo Z61p is faster than your XPS 1330! Course its also way more expensive and prone to breaking down...