Dell's new subnotebook spotted at All Things D
Gizmodo managed to catch up with Michael Dell at yesterday's All D Conference and he cagily spilled the beans to them on their rumored upcoming entry into the subnotebook field, the Dell Mini Inspiron. Writes Lam:
It's a small form factor notebook, just like the Asus Eee and the HP 2133. He wouldn't tell me what OS it's running, or the pricing, but that it's a low-cost notebook meant for developing countries, and I hope here. Maybe it's Atom-powered. Who knows? But I do see three USB ports, a card reader, VGA out, Ethernet, and that red candy shell.
It actually looks great, unlike most of the recent Eee-like subnotebooks, And it comes in my favorite laptop color: hussy red! Without any specs or pricing, though, there's little reason to get excited. Still, I'm wondering: Dell and Ubuntu have a partnership, and Ubuntu has recently announced that they will be tailoring a version of Ubuntu specifically for subnotebooks. I don't think it's too implausible to imagine that Dell has prodded Ububtu in that direction with the specific aim of pushing Ubuntu onto their new Mini-Inspirons, do you?
the latest
latest episodes
Somebody spilled nail polish all over it!!
Cool to see other shops jumping on the "sub-notebook" (not sure we really need that word, it's still a laptop, guys, just a small one) bandwagon. I've got an HP 2133 and absolutely love it (posting on it right now) - once you take Vista away and put XP on there, it runs like a champ and is so easy to throw in a bag and take everywhere.
Personally, I don't like the "hussy red" color, but the shiny shell certainly looks attractive. The 2133's got a brushed metal look that I really like, too. Wonder what the specs on the Dell will turn out to be. The 1280x800 screen was what sold me on the 2133 over the other options, and that's a choice I haven't regretted.
Can anyone tell me why these things don't seem to have DVI/HDMI ports? Only VGA.
If it did, it seems like one of these would be the perfect replacement to my old and underpowered Mac Mini---still underpowered, but pluggable and *portable*.