Dell rebrands its own Mini 9 as the Vostro A90, jacks the price to absurd levels

We're no strangers to rebranded netbooks, but we're a little befuddled as to why Dell's rebranding its own Inspiron Mini 9 as the Vostro A90. Sure, we're digging the stealth looks, but the specs haven't changed at all, and we don't think the Vostro brand really has any more cachet than Inspiron -- they're both pretty low end. Even more bizarrely, the A90 is apparently Japan-only for now, and it's priced at an absurd ¥92,830 ($972) -- yeah, you can get three Eee 900As for that price with more or less the same specs. Must be one hell of a paint job.

[spass @ Oct 24th 2008 3:16PM]

... and moved the exterior design about 10 years back.

[Rollins @ Oct 24th 2008 3:37PM]

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.

[Boards of Canada @ Oct 24th 2008 7:25PM]

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!

[Boards of Canada @ Oct 24th 2008 7:26PM]

Hey it reply in the wrong post... it was for the post below.

[Skyride @ Oct 24th 2008 8:31PM]

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?

[JohnTitor @ Oct 24th 2008 8:34PM]

almost every business user?

[Boarderwoot @ Oct 24th 2008 3:17PM]

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.

[Oli D @ Oct 24th 2008 5:01PM]

tut tut tut, netbooks are a "nascent" market, no apple logos in this zone for a while yet.

[Zak @ Oct 24th 2008 5:29PM]

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.

[rock99rock @ Oct 24th 2008 5:48PM]

"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.

[Zak @ Oct 24th 2008 6:00PM]

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.

[happy_penguin @ Oct 24th 2008 6:47PM]

Geez Zak chill out. It was a joke.







I think.

[Zak @ Oct 24th 2008 7:19PM]

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.

[solarpos @ Oct 24th 2008 7:38PM]

YOU can make it an OSX book for no extra cost. Easy.

[Blondie @ Oct 25th 2008 3:51AM]

LOL

Look at Zak go.

What a fucking LOSER.

[Patriks7 @ Oct 25th 2008 5:33AM]

"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.

[ThreeDee912 @ Oct 25th 2008 8:38PM]

Zak is the kind of fanboy that gives us regular Apple fans a bad name.

[strider_mt2k @ Oct 26th 2008 8:47AM]

Time for your meds, Zak!

[Mikey @ Oct 27th 2008 4:21PM]

Zak and his crippling insecurity strike again. Always entertaining.

[Julian @ Oct 24th 2008 3:18PM]

There must be some other reason for this price, this is definitely "absurd"

[Henry The 8th @ Oct 24th 2008 5:43PM]

It's radar absorbing paint.

[LondonConsultant @ Oct 25th 2008 6:34AM]

"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.

[Richy @ Oct 25th 2008 6:37AM]

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!

[BJ is Gooder @ Oct 24th 2008 3:19PM]

Don't forget where you came from, Dell...

"Dude! You're getting an overpriced Dell!!!"

[StalematE @ Oct 24th 2008 4:50PM]

haha, stoner steve... dude, you're going to jail!

[James @ Oct 24th 2008 8:49PM]

The dell stoner dude was way less annoying than the PC vs Mac ads. (which were full of lies about windows PC's)

[adrian @ Oct 24th 2008 3:20PM]

Dell must be looking to put themselves out of business. Who the hell is running things nowadays.

[disgruntled @ Oct 24th 2008 3:47PM]

Oh they are. They are treating us like crap at Dell.

[Blondie @ Oct 24th 2008 5:17PM]

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.

[Chad @ Oct 24th 2008 3:21PM]

Paintable cocaine? Anyone? Anyone?

[Kinger @ Oct 24th 2008 7:49PM]

i love that show

[Leindurstit @ Oct 24th 2008 3:28PM]

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.

[mmendoza27 @ Oct 24th 2008 3:36PM]

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.

[Eddie @ Oct 24th 2008 4:21PM]

This comment just made me stupider. Thank you.

[phanbouy @ Oct 24th 2008 4:46PM]

when you're out of things to say, just make an unintelligible snark about apple fanboyism or something

[jon @ Oct 25th 2008 12:38PM]

yep, using stupider makes you sound smart
more stupid is better, less intelligent is best

[newfmike @ Oct 24th 2008 3:35PM]

The Vostro line includes better warranties, support and backup services. Its meant for sysadmin-less small businesses.

[solarpos @ Oct 24th 2008 7:40PM]

True, but only is you pay for it. You can spec it just like an Inspiron, which is what it is.

[matt @ Oct 24th 2008 3:37PM]

I am guessing that is a typo, because otherwise it is almost $300 more than the starting price of the most expensive vostro.

[Ashwin @ Oct 24th 2008 4:06PM]

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.

[Snitch @ Oct 24th 2008 4:03PM]

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

[Chuck @ Oct 24th 2008 4:08PM]

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.

[Chris @ Oct 24th 2008 4:18PM]

Googling at the time of this comment (Check the time and date next to my name)
¥ 92 830 = 999.96476 U.S. dollars

[Chris @ Oct 24th 2008 4:20PM]

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

[Thi mam(kris120890) @ Oct 24th 2008 4:31PM]

Christ on bike that's a high price.

[CraigJ @ Oct 24th 2008 4:35PM]

maybe that's the version with the 128GB SSD?

[apeguero @ Oct 24th 2008 4:51PM]

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!

[CraigJ @ Oct 24th 2008 4:57PM]

"Japan-only for now"

[CraigJ @ Oct 24th 2008 4:56PM]

Actually, do Japanese people even buy Dells?

[drfelip @ Oct 24th 2008 5:13PM]

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