Well I’ll be—the Dell Mini-Inspiron doesn’t look half bad. Gizmodo broke into Dell headquarters, beat up the security guard, and stole the full spec sheet for the Internet’s enjoyment. That, or some dude just e-mailed a copy to Rothman. Either way, the specs are now out there.
The raw: 1.6GHz Intel Atom processor, up to 1GB of RAM, a solid state drive (4 to 16GB), 8.9-inch display with a 1024×600 resolution, Wi-Fi and three USB ports.
A four cell battery rounds out the package.
The best part? It comes with an Ubunutu configuration. Set up a lightweight window manager and you could have yourself a fine “I’m going to Starbucks, might as well surf the Web while I’m there” computer. Might be handy when covering trade shows, too.
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]
Dell is selling the Inspiron 1525 for a mere $879 — a little more than what a nicer BR player currently costs. The 1525 has a 15.4-inch screen with 720p resolution and an HDMI port. The improved 1525, which starts at about $500, is one of Dell’s better selling low- to mid-tier consumer laptops.
Lionel Menchaca over at Dell is a great guy. He represents Dell to the blog-world and takes the heat, makes the meetings, and spreads the love the best he can. I’ve been working with him for years. However, he’s been given the unenviable task of cleaning up after a major gaffe at the company involving missing Inspiron M1330s, the color laptops that have apparently had paint and delivery problems the past several weeks. We posted about it last week and the story has been brewing for the past few days.
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Let this be a lesson to all of you. Dell struggles when it comes to shipping things in a timely manner and who really wants a bloated 7-pound laptop? This time around it’s the XPS M1330 and Inspiron laptops. Over at Notebook Review, an XPS delay dedicated thread already has 9,000 comments. The Inspirons aren’t experiencing the massive delays, but it all depends on what color you want.
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Earlier today we introduced you to the new of Inspirons and now we have a few snaps of what they, and the XPS notebooks look like up close.
Although the new additions to the XPS line are elegantly designed, it looks like the Inspirons got the short end of the stick when it comes to visual appeal.
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