My rule for purchasing laptops (or for recommending laptops to family and friends): nothing over five pounds. That’s been unfortunate for Dell, as I haven’t been able to recommend many of the company’s laptops over the years.

They’re finally starting to shed some weight, though, so the company can expect to see sales spikes in the low teens thanks to an increase in word of mouth endorsements between me and anyone asking for “a good, cheap laptop” and then saying that someone in their office just bought a Dell. At that point, I know I’d be wasting my time trying to talk them into another brand, so Dell it is.

Dell’s Inspiron line, ever the bastion of moderately priced, decently-spec’d notebooks, will finally break the five pound barrier with the impending “Inspiron 13”, set to hit Wal-Mart stores August 3rd at $699 and Dell’s site toward the end of August. It’ll weigh “just under five pounds” and will come in Pacific blue or black. You’ll get a 13-inch LCD (not sure about the resolution yet) and, oooh, a slot-load DVD drive.

[via NotebookReview.com]