Dell rebrands its own Mini 9 as the Vostro A90, jacks the price to absurd levels
By Nilay Patel 
posted Oct 24th 2008 3:11PM
posted Oct 24th 2008 3:11PM
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... and moved the exterior design about 10 years back.
You really think so? I think the Mini 9 looks far too much like a cheap $399 Inspiron. Technically speaking, I suppose that's exactly what it is, but you get my point. I think this is an improvement.
Zak smoke old banana peels. A netbook from apple would be super expensive. Anyway that product is for japan. Japanese customers really dont care about the price. Dell know that and put everymonth some expensive new stuff. Its marketing. Here, New=expensive.
And what I am earing? Low end my Vostro? come on... its an excellent computer. Absolutly no problem at all and it cost a peanut. Damn you engadget with your damn fruit addiction.
The guy next to me work on a Mac Pro quad xeon 2.6 and he is jealous of how well my machine handle after effects. once per 6 month he got a major failure, no kidding, last time his machine was 2 weeks out of order. Vostro is cheap but solid. Its not for gamers but workers concern about performance/price ratio will find its the number 1 solution. Merge it with one of the high end Dell monitor (like my 3007!), a wacom tablet and voila!
Hey it reply in the wrong post... it was for the post below.
Ye, I have a Vostro 1400 which I use heavily at school, but i use photoshop on it on a regular basis (and FYI, its 8400M version and it still works perfect even though the way i treat it should be a prime cadidate for iminante failure).
Im no fan of netbooks but the vostros are more solid, overall better units that equivelant inspirons. I don't see why this A90 should be any different.
Although more to the point, what buisness user is going to buy a notebook?
almost every business user?
make it out of white plastic and throw an apple on it. That will make the price reasonable and I'd even buy one. $972 would be a steal.
tut tut tut, netbooks are a "nascent" market, no apple logos in this zone for a while yet.
You're aware Apple already sells a laptop for about that much that has a much bigger screen and is vastly more powerful, right? If Apple made that A90 it would be a lot cheaper than what Dell is selling it for.
"If Apple made that A90 it would be a lot cheaper than what Dell is selling it for."
Hah! wait... where is the /sarcasm? i hope you forgot it by mistake.
Yes, because I'm sure Apple would sell a laptop that's much slower and smaller than their current laptops for the same amount of money. Yeah that makes perfect sense. Are you a moron or something? Or did you miss the part where I said Apple already sells a laptop for that much money that's much faster and has a 4" bigger screen? And I didn't even mention the parts about how the Macbook has much more HD space and more ports, not to mention higher resolution.
Geez Zak chill out. It was a joke.
I think.
A joke? Well it was sarcasm attempting to pass as humor, if that's what you mean. But sarcasm is only funny if it refers to something that's actually true. The alleged "joke" was another jab at how all Apple products are overpriced, but since that's not true, it wasn't funny.
It's amazing how some people will try to compare something as blatantly overpriced as the A90 to something like the Macbook which costs the same but is way, way better - and still try to call Macs overpriced. I mean what is it with these people, are their brains wired wrong? You have to wonder sometimes.
YOU can make it an OSX book for no extra cost. Easy.
LOL
Look at Zak go.
What a fucking LOSER.
"Yes, because I'm sure Apple would sell a laptop that's much slower and smaller than their current laptops for the same amount of money. Yeah that makes perfect sense"
Well to Apple that makes perfect sense.. I mean you can get a 1.86GHz MacBook Air for a nice price of $1,999 while you can get a 2.4GHz MacBook Pro for $1,999
So as you can see it makes perfect sense for Apple to sell a smaller and slower laptop for the same amount of a low end MacBook Pro.
Zak is the kind of fanboy that gives us regular Apple fans a bad name.
Time for your meds, Zak!
Zak and his crippling insecurity strike again. Always entertaining.
There must be some other reason for this price, this is definitely "absurd"
It's radar absorbing paint.
"you can get three Eee 900As for that price with more or less the same specs"
Yes, but one Vostro A90 is much thinner than three Eee 900As - and you pay a premium for that reduction in size.
I'm guessing it includes a hell of a lot of tax, and maybe a 3 year onsite support deal?
On the other hand, these things are pretty disposable. Who would pay for support on one?
Or maybe it's just damned expensive!
Don't forget where you came from, Dell...
"Dude! You're getting an overpriced Dell!!!"
haha, stoner steve... dude, you're going to jail!
The dell stoner dude was way less annoying than the PC vs Mac ads. (which were full of lies about windows PC's)
Dell must be looking to put themselves out of business. Who the hell is running things nowadays.
Oh they are. They are treating us like crap at Dell.
LOL. Yeah, man. The most powerful PC manufacturer on Earth must be really going under if Engadget reports they may or may not be selling one overpriced netbook.
Get a grip.
Paintable cocaine? Anyone? Anyone?
i love that show
A lot of bashing going on today against not-Apple companies. This must be what you have to do to get that slot in the iTunes music store for the podcast.
That argument makes no sense on this article. The netbook is priced extremely high. Apple fanboi are not, the price is absurd, especially since you can find similar products at way lower prices.
Now is Engadget biased toward Apple, well that's a debate on it's own. I think they do a damn good job reporting on technology in general, which is why I am a reader.
This comment just made me stupider. Thank you.
when you're out of things to say, just make an unintelligible snark about apple fanboyism or something
yep, using stupider makes you sound smart
more stupid is better, less intelligent is best
The Vostro line includes better warranties, support and backup services. Its meant for sysadmin-less small businesses.
True, but only is you pay for it. You can spec it just like an Inspiron, which is what it is.
I am guessing that is a typo, because otherwise it is almost $300 more than the starting price of the most expensive vostro.
Well considering that the price is in yen, and that the pricing must be a couple of days old at the source, and the rate that the dollar is falling against the yen, this might be correct. However, this is definitely not going to be the price you will see when it hits dell.com. Most likely it will be slightly higher than the price of the mini, but will come with Windows XP only.
The reason the price is so high is cause they are painted with a single can of spray paint to compete with the Macbook Precision aluminum unibody enclosure. i got to tell you if the macbook had no LED backlight screen and no SDDR3 Ram this it would be a really tuff decision to chose ether one of these machines
Wow, that's snazzy (am I allowed to use such words? or do I have to misspell them?)
However there's obviously some misunderstanding about the price or specs. Perhaps Dell is planning a surprise price crater.
Googling at the time of this comment (Check the time and date next to my name)
¥ 92 830 = 999.96476 U.S. dollars
then XE says:
92,830.00 JPY = 980.827 USD
Japan Yen 1 JPY = 0.0105658 USD
United States Dollars 1 USD = 94.6446 JPY
Christ on bike that's a high price.
maybe that's the version with the 128GB SSD?
So is this one built in their new overseas manufacturing plants? I guess the savings aren't being passed on to the consumer. So much for shipping US jobs overseas!
"Japan-only for now"
Actually, do Japanese people even buy Dells?
If its japan only, why are you converting their currency to the US$? WHO CARES? Unless you want it black, this is not news for anyone and no one cares.
You already solved your bitch, buy a Wind.
I think the conversion of the price is not so easy. Does anybody read Japanese?
http://www1.jp.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/laptop-inspiron-9?c=jp&cs=jpdhs1&l=ja&s=dhs
What the heck is Dell smoking?
I bought one fully loaded for a good price last week but they just said to me on the phone that there is a shortage of black one and that I'll have to wait until Malaysia plant produce more units GRRRR!
it's selling for 54979JPY as I can understand it...
let's put this in english:
構成例価格 85,481円 (retail price)
割引額 30,502円 (discount)
販売価格 54,979円 (selling price)
分割60回払いで月々1,200円 (60 months pay per month)
thanks for that post. i know have at least Sarah Palin's level of foreign affairs experience
You have her spelling and grammar abilities too.
Its now, not know.
yes, it's a typo. troll.
Yeah saw you point out someone elses so had to.
Yeah Dell tends to do that, to make the product seem a lot cheaper.
where did i point out similar? i made a J O K E there troll. calm down
Don't know, don't care because this thing is too
damn expensive.
vosotros
They got it from http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/10/24/dell_readies_vostro_a90/ .
no, no comprendo
Does that translate to "Go to Us"?
it means "all your you are belong to us"
actually it's just "you", plural
Odio la forma de vosotros.
http://www1.jp.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/laptop-vostro-a90?c=jp&cs=jppad1&l=ja&s=pad
Where did they get that pricing info from?
It isn't on the Dell website.
They got it from http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/10/24/dell_readies_vostro_a90/ .
I meant to reply to Tmacfan4321. Damn comment system!
Those prices aren't confirmed though. Once I see it on the Dell website, I'll be convinced. It could have been some sort of misunderstanding. The price seems far too high.
What the heck is with the price! Is Dell going bankrupt or something!
The name says it all:
Vostro is italian for "Your's"
And "yours" it is. Not mine for sure.
Many companies try to leverage the exchange rates when one currency is up against others. The american wii shortage was in part because the euro was so strong and Nintendo wanted to get as much as possible.
"american wii shortage"
heh heh heh
Damn you phanbouy and your amusing, presumabley alcohol fueled sexual puns! :)
phanboy, looks like you have an phan ^ that wants your wii!
Dell make few expensive items targeting idiotic audience here in japan but you cant beat them for best computers at lowest price. Just search all over the website, you will find the same item with different prices... just take the lowest one, add a 15% off coupon and voila!
I got my 30inches dell monitor for 800$ on dell.jp Best deal I ever made. It look majestic!
Yeah, but this one has a new hat!
@Blondie
"The most powerful PC manufacturer on Earth"
Dell are a large company no doubt but they will always be the generic chop shop of the computer world.
Have you put in your order yet?.
been waiting like forever for my mini 9 to ship.mine was ordered in black.This is a slap in the face to think that they can give a cheap paint job to their white 9's and sell them for more.weak!
There are so many people drawing Apple comparisons here- while I don't disagree that there are some overpriced Apple products, the bottom line is that Apple doesn't rename it's own product and charge twice as much for said product, in contrast to the identical, cheaper product. (aside from the black macbook- it may be the same general idea, but that wasn't doubling the price). I propose we just drop it.
I wondered why the Japanese Mini9 was so ridiculously higher priced when I looked at the site last week!!
I has a different name!
Ha, Ha, that is brilliant on the price jack! No wonder they can't deliver orders in order and on-time. They are going to dip them all black and get three times the price for them. Dell,the OPEC of computing!
Vostro A90 list price of JPY92830 (USD928 at current exchange rate) is simply a reference price that does not include various campaign offers and discounts normally applied to each product when it goes on sale. At Dell Online Store in Japan, Vostro A90 is currently priced at 62,890JPY (after discount) while Inspiron Mini 9 is priced at 54,979JPY (after discount). The actual price difference is not significant at all given the added value of ProSupport services (24-7 phone+ e-mail tech support, onsite repair) applied to Vostro A90.