Dell Vostro A90 now available in US with much more reasonable $349 base price
By Ross Miller 
posted Apr 15th 2009 8:41PM
posted Apr 15th 2009 8:41PM
[Thanks, Erik]
posted Apr 15th 2009 8:41PM
Now that we've thrown 'em off the trail, use the form below to get in touch with the people at Engadget. Please fill in all of the required fields because they're required.
what is the diference between this and a mini 9? apart from the sexy paint
There isnt one. Its the same computer painted black. and i must say, it looks damn good.
ah. nice
doesn't the Mini 9 come in black too?
The difference is you pay almost 2x for a few component upgrades.
You can get a Mini 9 for under $200 these days.
Definitely. I like the Vostro look compared to the Inspiron/Studio look. I'm surprised though that it's more expensive than its counterpart. I thought the Vostro products were supposed to be cheaper for small business implementations?
I thought Vostro = small business != home edition
I thought Vostro = Bad Business!
I now I'm even more convinced : The new Acer has a 10.1 screen, the new Atom 280, BT/WIFI, and costs a lot less, doesnt have ssd but once you have added the second gig of DDR2 is just as fast.
I've got a one year old firetruck-red MSI wind clone, which out of the box already had excellent screen,kboard ,web cam etc.; and after I put in it a new wifiB/G/N + internal Bluetooth chip, a 160GB 8600rpm hd, 2 gigs of ddr2, and bought a few add on it was still cheaper than this Dell. (In fact it turned out to be so good that even now that I have got a Vaio TT and so I almost never use it anymore, I just don't have the heart to sell it).
I have never understood why Dell got this fame as a good priced manufacturer and has become so popular in the USA.
I've never had a Dell, and I'm willing to belive that they are strong and reliable machines (I don't know) but I have never seen a convenient or aggressively priced model from Dell.
Here in Europe you can walk in any electronic store (not to mention supermarkets which is where I bought my red MSI wind rebranded clone) and walk out with a cheaper and better specced desktop, laptop, notebook, nettop or netbook, in any flavor and form factor, then the ones Dell would have offered you for the same bread , having also a better assistance, guarantee, repair possibilities, support, etc (beside a better PC).
Even they vaunted XPS machines make not much sense to me : yes they are good, maybe even great machines, but for the same price I could build (or even have built for me) a kick ass machine tailored to my needs and wishes.
And have you seen how much they are asking for the Adamo?
About the same price I payed for my beloved Vaio TT.
This thing is no exception, maybe I don't understand the joys offered by a Dell because I never had one, but sure I' ve never been even slightly tempted to get one and see for myself; and you know what?
I'm convinced that I never missed anything.
I thought = != ==
stfu()
There's nothing wrong with XP.
There's nothing wrong with Linux
There's nothing wrong with OS X
**gasp** did I just say that?! I guess it's because I run OS X on my mini 9.
Except that they're forcing you to pay more for a license, instead of giving you the option to choose Linux, and save $80; instead you have to buy a license and remove XP to install Ubuntu (I can't image dual-booting on something with a 16GB SSD...), essentially making you spend the extra money for something you won't use anyways.
Just that.
Nothing at all?
@ Greg
That may be true for you, but I remember reading somewhere (prob here) that a lot of netbook owners went w/ the Linux version only to realize it caused them a lot of headaches, so they switched to XP. You can stand on your matter of principle all you want, but at the end of the day it's the Wal-Mart logic: most people don't care enough to fight it. It might be unjust, but they make things easier for the everyday consumer.
Sorry, didn't mean to compare XP to pure evil. Just thought it was a good example of consumer thoughts. :-)
There's nothing wrong with vegetables.
Chris,
That's a great argument for why they should offer XP. It's not a great argument for why a netbook should require you to buy an XP license -- especially since the netbook market right now is comprised of a decent % of people who actually know what they're doing, unlike the mainstream laptop/desktop market.
@ UnixSystem...
I find it sad that the underpowered computer market has a higher percentage of people who know what they are doing than the mainstream laptop market. From my experience you are completely right, my question is, why do so many people who just use internet and office apps buy such expensive laptop and desktops? In all honesty, I am able to run software that manages phtos and music easily on my Aspire One, so that does not count as a reason.
@Unix
Hmm, I would think the complete opposite: I'd think people buying netbooks are the corporate types or average consumers who have a desk top and don't want to spring for a full lappy- those who might know Excel and such but don't really care to know how to use Linux. But I'm not basing that on any fact.
@ UnixSystem...
I find it sad that the underpowered computer market has a higher percentage of people who know what they are doing than the mainstream laptop market. From my experience you are completely right, my question is, why do so many people who just use internet and office apps buy such expensive laptop and desktops? In all honesty, I am able to run software that manages phtos and music easily on my Aspire One, so that does not count as a reason.
"There's nothing wrong with Linux"
LOL.
Where has this guy been for the last year?
Uh, what's wrong with linux?
First off, I'll start by saying that Linux becoming a competitor to Windows in the desktop/laptop domain is nothing more than a fanboy's fantasy.
That being said, I think that if enough attention is paid to the software, Linux can be an appealing platform for developing a decent internet machine. (with cloud computing on the rise, that's really all you need.) What does Linux have going for it? Well, it's free (no irritating licenses to jack up the price), there's no need for artificial limitations like Windows 7 Starter Edition, and a decent OEM can really make a usable interface out of it.
The only problem? We need an OEM that can do to Linux what HTC did to Windows Mobile with TouchFlo. Sad, but give it some time. I think it will eventually happen.
Linux also competes with windows on the server market
Dell Vostro A90
For the on-the-go professional or frequent business traveler, the Vostro A90 is the ideal mobile business Internet companion that will keep you moving and connected to your business. Discover the advantages yourself:
Lightweight (only 1.07 kg/2.36 lbs), ultra compact design will keep you highly mobile
Easy to purchase, setup and maintain
Backed by Dell’s worry-free services and support designed for small business
How much is Dell paying you? Would a simple "i like the Dell Vostro A90" be to less?
Pretty sure he's quoting something- at least I HOPE he is...
It's a quote.
y does this exist?
I used to work for Dell - and the reason it exists, I'm assuming, is the same reason other cross-overs from the consumer division exist. Because Dell is seperated into two seperate businesses - Consumer and Business. In the past - both had their own seperate marketing and lines.
Many times something would become popular in the consumer line and the business users would try to buy it throught the business side - but there was no way to do that if they were a business (so they couldn't use their business credit to buy a consumer product). So, the solution was typically to take a consumer line - do something new or different with it (better support, different paint job, etc) to fit it in with something in the business line.
In this case, I assume, many people in the business division were demanding a Mini 9 - but there was no way to sell it really. They may have made the mini 9 available through some concession - but it would be difficult. Now they have a dedicated machine with the vostro name they can market and sell directly through the business division.
Again, things have changed in the past few months since I left I'm sure - but that is typical of Dell when you have a product on the consumer side that business users want.
The best example of this is the business side never had 17" notebooks - and then they had the Vostro and Precision with 17" screens. Same thing with 13" displays - they appear now on the Vostro, Latitude and Precision when they first appeared for Dell on XPS machines.
It exists simply because business users demanded something they could buy and use their business credit with...and the way Dell is set up - Business credit is seperate from Consumer credit lines and they won't use one another - even though its all Dell.
Yup. That's how screwed up they are.
Conversely - you can't use dell personal credit to get a business machine.
@puckotg22
Actually, that's not exactly true. If you go through Dell Outlet, you can buy anything you want. Sure, it's not new, but it's close enough.
@Bob
Actually - that's not correct (anymore). If you look - the Dell outlet is divided by Consumer and Business. You can't use your business credit to buy through the consumer division and vice-versa. You don't have to be a business to buy a business computer (I have a Optiplex as my home PC).
In the past you COULD use consumer credit to buy business PC's through the outlet - but while I was there - they cut that out - and that was just a few months ago - maybe even up to a year ago they stopped that.
You can see for yourself by going to Dell.com and trying it.
I know this is true, again, from experience. I just bought a notebook from the outlet and I used my dell consumer credit - I was wanting a precision notebook and wanted to make a few payments on it (hence putting it on my dell credit) - but I ended up with a studio because they wouldn't let me buy the precision with consumer credit. But that's ok - I like the studio and it does what I need. And I got a great price because of the outlet pricing.
But they have the Vostro because business users wanted a 'business' netbook. Plain and simple. And, you get a different level of support in the business division and I'm sure they wanted to make sure they could get that level with any machine they purchase and not have to go to one number for support and another for something else. Another reason they have the Vostro netbook.
Oh my God!
This netbook has a 1.6 Atom processor AND 1GB of memory???!!!!!
I've NEVER seen that on a netbook before!!!!!!
Bravo Dell for giving something new!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
it could be worse, it could have a crap webcam..
Why can't you put Vista on these small laptops?
I don't want an outdated OS on my new laptop. That to me is just stupid. I'd rather go with Ubuntu (having never used it before) than go with XP...
But can anyone answer that question. Why won't they even give the customer the option of having Vista instead?
by the time vista booted, it would be outdated.
Microsoft won't discount vista and they won't discount xp home if the netbook has more than 1gb of ram windows 7 should change this.
Ahh I see...
Thanks for the info.
i think that there's nothing outdated on xp, i have xp home editon and win 7 on my netbook and i use xp for pretty much all.
thought i beleive that since it suppose to be a business netbook (?) it should have the option of vista.
You win the hyperbole award for:
1. Not understanding why this runs XP and not Vista
2. Not understanding that this is a netbook, not a laptop (ties into 1.)
3. Making the absurd claim that you'd rather run an OS you've never used before, rather than run XP over Vista (which are pretty damn similar from a user experience standpoint).
Pardon me if I simply don't believe someone who clamors for Vista, hates XP, and has apparently never investigated alternate OSes.
@ Josh
Why won't they discount the software if it has more ram? What does that have to do w/ anything?
Does Dell think just because this thing runs OSX they can be like Apple and charge more for a blacked out system? Ya it looks cooler but c'mon...
oh crap is IS a 0.3 megapixel camera...that sucks
@ Chris
read this:
http://www.netbooknews.it/en/dell-inspiron-mini-9-con-2gb-di-ram-e-64gb-ssd/
if they violate those specifications xp home costs about $65 as on desktops rather than $32
There's nothing wrong with coexistence.
Dell should offer Ubuntu for every computer they sell, that would be awesome. But Microsoft won't let them since Dell and the other OEMs do what Microsoft say they should do.
Are you on DRUGS?
1 - Ubuntu is free, who gives a shit if it's not included? Download it, burn it, install it. It takes less than an hour on a cable connection; or order it from Canonical. You'd still have an XP/Vista license for whatever you may or may not want it for
2 - To say that OEM's do what "Microsoft tells them to" has got to be one of the most asinine things I've ever seen on here. Fact: People WANT WINDOWS. How do I know? Look at the small amount of OEM's who offer any flavor of Linux, or anything besides Windows for that matter, on thier machines. These machines do not sell. Hell, I'd love it if they would sell more. Desktop Linux + Gnome is by far my favorite OS. But the applications available are largely unavailable on Linux boxes. Don't bitch out MS, bitch at Adobe for not making CS available, or Properllerhead for no Re-Series, or whoever for whatever software. I suppose that the MS Office team too, falls into that category. For this reason, people who love Linux don't wind up using it on a regular basis (like me!). MS places no restrictions on what can run Windows, or what apps can run ON Windows (aside from malware which is semi-regularly patched). Pointing the finger at MS for zero reasons only serves to make you look like an asshat, toughguy.
they make 0.3mp cameras?!? lol
yes. It's called a web cam. 640 x 480=307,200/1,048,576 = .293, i.e. .3 mega pixels.