Dell launches the Inspiron Mini 12

We knew more Inspiron Minis were in the works, and Dell's just officially announced the next member of the family, the Inspiron Mini 12. Yep, the same machine we first spotted all the way back in June, and nothing much has changed in the meantime -- you're looking at either a 1.3GHz Atom Z520 or 1.6GHz Atom Z530 processor (a step up from the usual 1.6GHz Atom N270), up to an 80GB drive, 1GB of RAM, Bluetooth / WiFi, and that 12-inch, 1280 x 800 display, all in a 2.72-pound package less than one inch thick. The bad news? It's Japan-only for now, but it'll hit the States late next month with a starting price under $600. That's a pretty hot price / performance ratio on paper -- if this thing performs like it should, it could potentially take away sales from more full-featured ultraportables like the Envy 133 and the MacBook Air. We'll see how it goes -- the netbook market suddenly got interesting again, eh?

Update: It's worth pointing out that this netbook runs Vista Home Edition, albeit sluggishly according to APC (XP and Ubuntu variants by end of year). It also ships standard with a 3-hour 3 cell battery or optional $79 6-cell battery for up to 6-hours of power.

Read - Dell announcement
Read - Laptop hands-on
Read - APC hands-on
Read - Dell Q+A

[aznofazns @ Oct 26th 2008 9:27PM]

The only thing I can see that might make this "interesting again" is the 12.1" 1280x800 display. The cpu's not really any faster than the old Atom and not much else is changed.

[Dopefish @ Oct 26th 2008 9:41PM]

The difference is that the battery should be a trooper, considering the extra space available in a 12 inch laptop.

Also the keyboard will be full size which makes it a LOT better for every day use.

I can see this being absolutely fantastic for university students....

[tom @ Oct 26th 2008 10:08PM]

If I pay 600 bucks for a dual atom, I may as well get a full power cpu, like Pentium Dual Core and it also comes with a dvd burner. Dual atom does not qualify for Windows xp as well, you are bound to get linux or vista basic

Talk to me when it is 400, or 450.

[Atropos @ Oct 26th 2008 10:14PM]

"Dual atom does not qualify for Windows xp as well"

If you can't... um... "find" XP to put on your netbook, you're not trying hard enough. Or just buy a copy on eBay. So cheap now, especially for a home copy without SP3.

[d00b @ Oct 27th 2008 4:52AM]

I can't figure this out, somebody fill me in: Why would you put Vista on a 1GB RAM (max!) computer?

[Atropos @ Oct 27th 2008 5:35AM]

@d00b

For the millionth damn time, Vista works fine on 1GB.

[Atropos @ Oct 27th 2008 5:36AM]

@d00b

And for the record, 1GB is not the max for this thing either. Even the 9 supports 2GB.

[G @ Oct 27th 2008 7:31AM]

actually 1GB is a maximum... it uses a different chipset (Poulsbo) - hence the 1GB RAM and PATA Hard Drive

interesting that the battery life is soo poor (from the review) as poulsbo is meant to use about a third of the power consumption of the chipset in the mini 9

[Matt @ Oct 27th 2008 8:59AM]

@Dopefish

Actually it's not a full sized keyboard. The APC hands on says "standard netbook keyboard" which likely means it's one of those 95% ones. This seems like an absurd design decision on Dell's part. Judging from the picture there's nearly an inch on either side of the keyboard, and it should have been very easy for them to include a full sized one.

[JerkfacedFed @ Oct 27th 2008 10:38AM]

yea my laptop that i got when i was in college only had 1gb and it still runs fine after i installed vista. vista runs perfectly fine if you know what you are doing and dont have 2 gigs of crapware processes running in the background. the os gets a bad rep because of stupid people that check "yes install wildtangent/ google desktop search/ adobe speed launcher / norton antivirus + mcaffee at the same time / aim, messenger, yahoo to startup items and have them all running in the background not even being used.

[Atropos @ Oct 26th 2008 9:28PM]

I'd love to pull the trigger. But I feel like if I wait just a little bit longer... dual-core Atom will be in this thing soon enough. Then it's go time.

[Alex @ Oct 26th 2008 10:15PM]

I feel like duel core atoms might make the netbooks with them cost as much as laptops currently available with higher end intel processors. How much do you think they are going to tack on to the current netbook price range? Lets say netbooks do better with those spending $300-600, with budget laptops dominating $600-1000. Are you going to be using your netbook for multi-tasking or using multiple applications at once?

[Atropos @ Oct 26th 2008 11:58PM]

@Alex

Wha? Relax, man. Some of us would just like a little more oomph in our netbooks, and don't want to feel like we've been jilted when it releases soon after our purchase. Don't need to deeply analyze it so much.

[RyanTV @ Oct 27th 2008 1:24AM]

the dual core atoms, as far as I've seen, are going to cost almost the same as the current single core once they come out. they really shouldnt effect the price of devices that much and they will make netbooks and atom based desktops more appealing to a lot of people.

If i could get a EEE desktop type computer that would handle high def video better than the current generation one, I'd buy one to put on each of my HDTVs, and I think the dual core atoms will definitely help in that respect.

[happy_penguin @ Oct 27th 2008 1:58AM]

"Alex @ Oct 26th 2008 10:15PM
I feel like duel core atoms ......."

Must be the kind of cores that take ten paces each, turn and shoot until one of them falls.

[Ogo @ Oct 27th 2008 4:28PM]

http://pc.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/2008/0904/kaigai_2l.gif

On the Intel processor chart Atom dual core is not due out until Q3 2009. Where are you guys getting this info?

[Purple Haze @ Oct 28th 2008 12:28PM]

@Ogo

You're thinking of the follow-up (Pineview(-DC)) to the current Atom (Diamondville). The Atom 330 (Diamondville-DC) is the current dual-core offering and it's available since Q3'08.

[Jerome @ Oct 26th 2008 9:29PM]

I guest in a couple of month we will get the Inspiron mini 10.

[aznofazns @ Oct 26th 2008 9:33PM]

Or an Inspiron Mini 20... a 20.1" 15lb DTR with Atom!

[Skrying @ Oct 26th 2008 9:35PM]

Interesting. If this had been in the market say 4 months ago I would have certainly bought one, hell I'm thinking about doing something along that lines now. Buy Inspiron Mini 12 and then sell my XPS M1330 and fund a solid desktop. I have no need for mobile power, but want something more than what a smart phone can offer. I might wait for a dual core version to hit the market as I do heavy multi-tasking office work while mobile.

[needs_a_laptop @ Oct 26th 2008 9:46PM]

is it like, unpossible to have a higher resolution than 1280 x 800? I mean, whats the use of a bigger screen if resolution is so small.

[Peter @ Oct 26th 2008 10:02PM]

Me fail english?
That's unpossible!

[iofthestorm @ Oct 26th 2008 10:12PM]

Most 12" laptops are 1280x800. Heck, most 14" and a lot of 15" laptops are 1280x800 too, because manufacturers are cheap and most people don't know anything about resolution. And hey, they probably go around trumpeting HD resolution since technically 720p is HD and that's 1280x720, because people will buy it up not realizing it's the same crappy resolution they've been using since the shift to widescreen.

[iofthestorm @ Oct 26th 2008 10:14PM]

Oh also, as an owner of a 12" tablet PC at 1280x800, I think if it was a higher resolution (1440x900) everything would be too small. I think the real solution here is to get an external LCD. And really, why would you want higher resolution on a netbook? If that's your thing get an ultraportable laptop, not a netbook.

[Jack @ Oct 26th 2008 10:21PM]

As an owner of a 15.4" laptop with a 1900x1200 screen, everything is WAY too small. Thank G-d for Ctrl ++ in Chrome and FireFox!

[loosely_coupled @ Oct 26th 2008 11:08PM]

"everything would be too small"

I'll admit that font/UI scaling is certainly not perfect (especially in XP) and we all look forward to the day of true resolution-independent vector graphics interfaces, but it's actually not that big of deal. I can't stand shitty low-res LCDs, especially for a device whose primary use is web browsing... 800 pixels is not enough...

[needs_a_laptop @ Oct 27th 2008 12:31AM]

I couldn't have said it better loosely_coupled. Although I admit maybe this type of laptop/netbook isn't segmented towards people like me, but still I abhor laptop makers for thinking they can rely on the ignorance of their customers so that they can push crap LCDs on us.

Oh and nice attempt at trying to be a grammar/English nazi Peter. Way to pick the low hanging fruit. 1st year ESL students could have pointed that one out.

[Mike @ Oct 27th 2008 1:14AM]

If you want higher res than that, you shouldn't be looking for a netbook.

They don't have alot of power as it is, and you want to put more into 2D bullshit for what?

Go get a normal cheapo dell laptop for 700$ out of dell outlet and you'll be happy.

[djsflynn @ Oct 26th 2008 9:43PM]

FYI, a detailed hands-on review also now up at APC magazine (http://apcmag.com/scoop_we_review_the_inspiron_mini_12__dells_supersized_yet_superslim_12_inch_netbook.htm).

[dcoaster @ Oct 26th 2008 9:55PM]

APC says its $999. What gives?

[cheng @ Oct 26th 2008 10:21PM]

apcmag is an australian magazine. so it's australian dollars.

[thethirdmoose @ Oct 26th 2008 9:58PM]

What is the cheapest netbook available? To be honest, I don't see why people care about the performance in a netbook. The way I see it, netbooks are for browsing the web, word processing, and email, and if you want greater power, you should ssh to a main computer.

[Phoenix987 @ Oct 27th 2008 4:06PM]

Depends on where you look, and if you're looking for refurbished or new.

The original 700/701 Eee's I've seen as low as $229 (refurbished), but I have seen the Aspire One with the 120GB HDD and 1GB RAM for as low as about $275. Probably, there have been others, but I don't know. Look around :)

[Boards of Canada @ Oct 26th 2008 9:58PM]

Aaaaargh... 600$ in US it probably mean 800$ in japan... even if it suppose to be the opposite with the US dollar so low... Everything new in japan is expensive. Its sad cause if it was under 60,000Yen I would totally buy one.

[ethana2 @ Oct 26th 2008 10:01PM]

800px high screen and an Ubuntu option? That puts it into my range of consideration.
600 wasn't enough, so the mini 9 wasn't a serious option for my family..

[Ender @ Oct 26th 2008 10:16PM]

I agree!

[Macdelaney @ Oct 27th 2008 9:26AM]

Expect the ubuntu version to have lousier hardware, an not be much cheaper than the XP one.

[liv @ Oct 27th 2008 1:23PM]

1280 x 800 screen, Atom 1.6 + 1 GB RAM and a 60 GB hard drive. That's the perfect combination right there... I'll just dual boot OS X and XP on it... or maybe Windows 7.... man this would be perfect for classes... hope it'll drop in Europe soon :)

[ethana2 @ Oct 27th 2008 1:40PM]

Perhaps it'll handle OSX better than my Inspiron 1420n.. But maybe you're one of those people intrepid enough to send your BIOS into the one dude to get hacked up a bit.. I don't know what OSX's requirements are, but I'd suppose they're quite similar to ours.
I don't quite know what you could need to do on a /netbook/ that would require windows..

[eggothewaffle @ Oct 26th 2008 10:03PM]

10" is the sweet spot for a netbook...Anything beyond that and you might as well get a laptop.

[Alex @ Oct 26th 2008 10:16PM]

This things is going to be a hit if its $600. It won't have the drawbacks of the smaller netbooks, but it'll be small enough to be more attractive than other larger $600 dollar-ranged laptops on the market. Battery life will be the deal break because otherwise might as well go with a 10 inch.

[Stereotype @ Oct 26th 2008 10:07PM]

Me gusta! :)

[L @ Oct 27th 2008 9:11AM]

My Eee 1000H's 1.6 GHz Atom is absolutely sufficient for every normal task - not counting HD video or modern games of course. In my experience it probably offers similar performance-levels as 2003/04 laptops, so I wouldn't be surprised if it works as good or better than a iBook 4G..

[pheer6224 @ Oct 27th 2008 10:08AM]

Oh god, I thought that fad was contained to my school...

[Dale @ Oct 26th 2008 10:08PM]

wait, 12'' is now considered a netbook? does that make the old 12" iBook and other 12" laptops netbook?

[Boards of Canada @ Oct 26th 2008 10:13PM]

Ibook weight 5 pounds...

[iofthestorm @ Oct 26th 2008 10:16PM]

I think the distinction is that netbooks cost around ~$500 or less and have weaker CPUs than an equivalently priced regular laptop. Also there's the fact that most 12" laptops would run around a grand or so.

[linuxamp @ Oct 27th 2008 12:22AM]

So if this exact device was priced at $1000 it would be a notebook and not a netbook?

[diode3diode @ Oct 27th 2008 3:55AM]

BINGO!

[JeffEd @ Oct 27th 2008 5:17AM]

I've had a 12" iBook up until this year. For right now I'm using a 10" WindBook.
Here's a few differences, jsut for the heck of it:
iBook wighed a little over twice as much, coming in over 5 pounds.
Had shorter battery life (and of course the core was never higher than 1.4ghz)
Was 1.35" tall.
Had 4:3 ratio screen.

You know what, most of that is irrelevant. What am doing. Why am I awake? I don't know.
Anyway, I'd say those old iBook are a lot like a netbook, but of course not as good at it because they're older technology.
I can run Leopard and XP in Parallels just fine on my Wind, and still watch Hulu without it skipping. And it runs really cool and quiet. The iBook would be warm, and even running two youtubes in Firefox would start making it feel old.
But otherwise, I'd say yes about your remark. The old iBooks come in somewhere around a crappy netbook by today's standard.