Dell's Vostro A860 yours for a song (and $379)

The Dell Vostro A860 we've heard so much about has finally hit the Stateside scene, and it looks like we'll be able to get our hands on the laptop that those lucky folk in the "emerging markets" of Asia, Africa, Europe and Latin America have been into since before it was cool (that is, late August). Starting at $379 with Dell's instant savings, the 15.6-inch, 5.4 pound laptop comes with either a Celeron or Pentium Dual Core processor, GMA X3100+ integrated graphics, up to 2GB of memory, up to 160GB storage, 1366 x 768 display resolution, WiFi and optional Bluetooth. This "speed demon" comes preloaded with Vista Home Basic or Vista Business and is available now at Dell's website.

[Via Laptoping]

[david @ Nov 13th 2008 6:50PM]

why not the US? I woudl buy a few of these.

[david @ Nov 13th 2008 6:53PM]

jumped too soon, should have read the whole article. Ordering one now.

[deyanimay @ Nov 13th 2008 8:06PM]

Talk about impulse buying. =)

[broli @ Nov 13th 2008 8:09PM]

No wonder America is broke.

[Korr @ Nov 13th 2008 6:52PM]

How good is the battery life?

[Alexandre Emond @ Nov 13th 2008 6:54PM]

Dell rules.

[OCEAN 'CLAK' 20th @ Nov 13th 2008 7:25PM]

'i' agreed dell rules in the bargain basement and returns, Apple rules in my world

[CUBSWILLWIN @ Nov 13th 2008 6:55PM]

You fail, David :P.

[CUBSWILLWIN @ Nov 13th 2008 6:55PM]

I Fail... :(

[Mobius_1 @ Nov 13th 2008 7:57PM]

Engadget comment system Fails...

[noyp @ Nov 13th 2008 6:55PM]

But, I don't want to sing to Dell. I have a terrible voice.

[Haikibutsu @ Nov 13th 2008 6:58PM]

What the hell? $370, and so far, it beats my MacBook that I am typing on in everything, except for sexyness (Which is a good perk, but not *that* important), and in the processor, 2.13ghz vs my 2.16ghz dual core....

My MacBook is dying. A logic board replacement is 600 dollars. I could sell this for 500, giving me about $1100 of spending space. I could get some super sweet HP refurb, and this Dell, and still be 50 dollars under, so I can buy Left4Dead.

This from a former apple fan, now just an apple user and customer, with an iPod Classic and a MacBook, I now have left the cult. Honestly, with Apple's latest offerings of MacBook, they lack and are overpriced.

I will hack Mac OS X on my HP when I get it, but I find myself using Bootcamp more than XP. I do not see myself buying another Apple product in the future, save for an iPod or iPhone when I actually get a job.

Go Dell!

[NICK @ Dec 5th 2008 3:59PM]

$379 is for a Celeron; i would think it would be quite a bit slower than the Core 2 Duo in the Mac.

[OCEAN 'CLAK' 20th @ Nov 13th 2008 7:30PM]

don't forget the cheap white macbook still available and its better value as it comes preinstalled with OSX, you dont want to go back to windows you will regret it 'OSX is the future' steve jobs said

[deyanimay @ Nov 13th 2008 8:08PM]

Thank god you've come to you senses. Now just change your avatar and your good to go.

[Boards of Canada @ Nov 13th 2008 9:01PM]

can you install os86 on a non duo2core cpu?? I think so... this would be a good deal! celeron is slower but it still dual-core and 2ghz... its way better than my single centrino 1.7ghz!

[CraigJ @ Nov 13th 2008 9:30PM]

Intel® Pentium Dual Core M® T2390 (1.86GHz, 1M L2 Cache, 533MHz FSB) is $529, keeping in mind that it is not a Core2 Duo, has a fairly slow bus. $529 is a good price if you want to browse the web, e-mail, etc. On the whole though I'd probably rather have something a little more portable.

[chris @ Nov 13th 2008 9:45PM]

For $370 I'll get 2. Before you write off your macbook try cleaning out your
cpu/gpu fans and heat sinks. Unless you dropped it mother boards don't
fail that much.

[Chuckles McGee @ Nov 13th 2008 9:46PM]

Didn't know Intel was still churning out Pentiums.

[Kai @ Nov 13th 2008 11:43PM]

Errrm the Pentiums that Intel churns out today ("Pentium Dual Core") are really low cost, low end versions of Core 2 Duos.

[iofthestorm @ Nov 14th 2008 1:39AM]

@Kai: Actually, I think they might be the old Pentium Ds, but I'm not positive.

[Daza @ Nov 14th 2008 7:47AM]

They're not Pentium D's, they're Pentium dual-core, aka - cut down version of the Core 2 Duo that we didn't want to tarnish the name of.

[Daza @ Nov 14th 2008 7:48AM]

Oops, didn't manage to mention performance is actually very reasonable on these things, and unless you're doing number crunching or video encoding they will multitask very well. They're probably better than the "Core Duos" I imagine most people have forgotten about, and they weren't bad at all.

[Duuude @ Nov 13th 2008 6:58PM]

Hackintosh-able?

[Ashwin @ Nov 13th 2008 8:29PM]

Yes, but the performance would definitely be abysmal.

[Matthew C @ Nov 13th 2008 8:57PM]

I think the performance would be just fine. Leopard runs on MUCH lower hardware, despite the eyecandy, this is one area where apple actually beat microsoft.

My mom has an imac g4 800 mhz, and its running 10.5.5 flawlessly (of course its not up to newer games or anything like that), but I have been able to play halo on it and use photoshop cs2, both without major complaints.

[patrick @ Nov 13th 2008 7:02PM]

It has a 4 cell battery. This machine is not worth the whoopla.

[korr @ Nov 13th 2008 7:30PM]

your reason? 4 cell... but how many hours will it last with full use?

[JohnTitor @ Nov 13th 2008 7:12PM]

come on Dell cut the charades, where's the XPS Studio 16

[bidur @ Nov 13th 2008 7:18PM]

some one told me taht intel pentium dual core is for desktop ? is that ture ? if yes then why are there somany laptops with PDC?

[AVG @ Nov 13th 2008 8:24PM]

You are my hero.

[lawyer bird @ Nov 13th 2008 8:33PM]

hahahaha

[bureX @ Nov 13th 2008 7:18PM]

If I see one more laptop manufacturer offering Vista Basic as a main option, I'm gonna gouge my eyes out...

[Gabe @ Nov 13th 2008 7:49PM]

You're gonna need more pairs of eyes, then...

[AVG @ Nov 13th 2008 8:26PM]

I prefer basic. Aero is a registry hack away, and then I can use the programs I want to use. No excessive applications (like media center) to foul me up, no "ultimate extras" that I will never use, and so on. It is the vanilla Vista OS, and as such is by far the one I'd rather have. I use Business now, but there's nothing in it I couldn't do without in a "downgrade" to Basic.

[b33me @ Nov 13th 2008 7:32PM]

No webcam? That sucks.

[Smi @ Nov 13th 2008 7:45PM]

It's a $379 laptop.

It's like the people that say "Man, I sure wish this eee PC had a core 2 duo" or whatever. Then it wouldn't be so cheap, would it? Sure, the specs aren't fantastic, but for a lot of people, that'll be all they need. It's certainly more powerful than my current laptop, and for that price, I'm more than slightly tempted.

Although somehow $379 translates to £289, which doesn't seem to equate quite right. Still dirt cheap!

[Smi @ Nov 13th 2008 7:47PM]

Beg pardon, £229. That's much better. =)

[DarkLight @ Nov 13th 2008 7:51PM]

No it doesn't.

Seriously, who uses the webcam often?... Well, I really don't know, but personally, my webcam has been in the drawer for several months, maybe years now... I don't want to go through the hassle of putting some clothes on just to talk over the internets.. Not to mention I'm goddamn ugly - the "you can't see me" factor of the internet is a big plus

[Andy ^^o @ Nov 13th 2008 9:11PM]

@ DarkLight

Who uses webcams? Gee... I don't know... those porn star wannabes on the Internet? o_O

I'm with you as my webcam has set in my desk drawer for eons. ^_^

[nanobis @ Nov 13th 2008 7:48PM]

as long as there is no option for art house stuff, I'll be happy.

[Jon Doe. @ Nov 13th 2008 7:59PM]

Can has new XPS lappies plz?

[adgeman @ Nov 13th 2008 8:11PM]

I'm guessing this isn't going to play Crysis but how is something like this going to perform with games like Sims 2 etc? I'm thinking of buying a laptop for my wife and this might do the trick nicely but I've no idea about PC hardware as we're a mac household but I can't run to macbook money.

[Smi @ Nov 13th 2008 8:13PM]

As far as I can remember, the Sims 2 is actually quite graphically demanding, despite not actually appearing to be. This probably won't cut the mustard - it'll perform exactly how you'd expect a £250 laptop to. Good for word processing, internet and email and so on and not much else, I'm guessing.

[adgeman @ Nov 13th 2008 8:20PM]

Smi - thanks for the info. I'll cross this off my list.

[AVG @ Nov 13th 2008 8:58PM]

DO NOT LISTEN to the comment above. This laptop will ABSOLUTELY play The Sims 2. That I promise you.

[noyp @ Nov 13th 2008 9:36PM]

I'm sure it CAN play it, but can it play smoothly?

[AVG @ Nov 14th 2008 2:22AM]

Yes, guaranteed smoothly. I have run it on rigs just like this and a very short time ago. Trust me. All set.

[Smi @ Nov 14th 2008 4:40AM]

Funny, "the internet" tells me that it'll run it but only on the lowest settings and it'll still slow down when things get busier on screen! The X3100 isn't a very capable chipset for actual gaming...my friend's laptop has (or had, I should say) a dedicated ATI X700 mobility chipset and that struggled to play the Sims 2 at playable framerates.
Fair play to you if you want to promise that it'll play it smoothly, but I'd rather not say "Yes, absoloutly" for the guy to go out, buy one, and find that it runs as well as ants in treacle. I'm not convinced.

[Thi mam(kris120890) @ Nov 13th 2008 8:32PM]

You do realise that's £229 and £269 before VAT Brits.