Dell announces new contender in netbook market
The netbook market has started to grown dramatically over the past year. Light portable laptops designed to surf the web and do basic computing have started popping up on every manufacturers laptop manufacturers list. Dell has just announced a new such notebook, the Dell Inspiron Mini 12. Designed for Tweens and travelers the compact laptop allows users to surf the web and chat as well as upload photos and watch videos online, all for a price tag under $600.
Thought to become a heavy contender against the MacBook Air, the laptop is less than an inch thick (.92 inches) and weighs in at only 2.72 pounds. Running Windows Vista Home Basic, the netbook and has 1GB of RAM and the choice of a 60GB or 80GB hard drive. The laptop has a 12.1-inch WXGA display, built-in Bluetooth and 802.11 b/g wireless, and a built-in webcam to allow travelers to chat with the family (or business associates) back home.
I’ve personally been thinking about purchasing a separate laptop for travel for quite some time. With the launch of the MacBook Air, companies have started to notice that there’s a huge market for compact, light, portable laptops, and they just keep getting better as far as the specs and prices are concerned. I’m an avid Mac fan, but a $600 Dell laptop beats a $3k MacBook Air any day.
With prices dropping rapidly, these could make excellent laptop options for kids who want something to take to school. I would much rather have my child lose a low priced netbook than a high-dollar PC, and in most cases a netbook is really going to do everything that someone (especially a younger user) would want to do.
Cloud computing is making it easier to not install tons of software on your computer, and save your projects so you can access them anywhere, not just on your PC at home.
The Inspiron Mini 12 is available in Japan only currently, with units expected to hit US store shelves next month.
Is anyone else in the market for a netbook? What models do you have your eye on?
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October 28th, 2008
Surely a 21.1″ screen SLIGHTLY defeats the object of a netbook?! I assume that’s a typo…
October 29th, 2008
Typo fixed. Thanks Akers.
October 29th, 2008
Thanks! Sorry for the mis-type
October 29th, 2008
“Thought to become a heavy contender against the MacBook Air [...]. Running Windows Vista Home Basic [...]“.
Nothing running Vista is a “contender” for anything.
“[...] a $600 Dell laptop beats a $3k MacBook Air any day.”
Not once you factor in the loss of performance and lower productivity that running Vista entails.
“I would much rather have my child lose a low priced netbook than a high-dollar PC”
I would rather crawl three miles over broken glass than foist a convicted monopolist’s crippleware on my children.
“in most cases a [Vista] netbook is really going to do everything that someone (especially a younger user) would want to do.”
Like having DRM spy on them? Like calling home to Microsoft? Like automatically deactivating software that is unilaterally deemed to be pirated? Like annoying them with endless UAC prompts? Like having backdoors for the NSA? Like getting infested with malware, spyware and trojans? Like being a poorly-performed resource hog?
February 4th, 2009
Good old Asus eeePC 901 on Linux is the business. Less than 30 seconds from hitting the switch to using it, super reliable, portable, long lasting battery, etc etc. There’s nothing else on the market to match it yet (Feb 2009).