Dell Latitude 2100 takes touch netbooks to school
By Dave Jeyes
The Dell Latitude 2100 was designed as the first touch netbook aimed at K-12 students with a rugged case and an option of five bold colors. However its robust features and modest pricing appeal to a much broader market.
The Latitude 2100 starts at $369, which may or may not include the touch screen option. It’s being marketed to schools as an inexpensive device that’s made to bear the brunt of students.
The ruggedized case will help to extend the life of these netbooks and the rubberized exterior helps students keep their grip. These features will also appeal to adults who shuttle their netbook with them everywhere they go.
The 2100 has an Intel Atom processor running at 1.6 Ghz and no word yet on the standard RAM or available upgrades. Buyers can opt for XP Home, Vista Home Basic or Ubuntu Linux, though Windows boosts the price to $450.
The newest Latitude comes in at a base weight of 2.91 pounds. That’s with a three-cell battery standard, but can be upgraded to a six-cell for up to seven hours of use per charge.
The netbook market has only existed for about 18 months and has vaulted companies like Acer and Asus’s Eee PC line to fame. However this offering shows that Dell is committed to playing in the space and could be able to outmaneuver the competition.
Asus recently announced its touch netbook offering, the EeePC T91. However the T91 is overloaded with features including GPS and a TV tuner that raise the price to $680.
The only other touch netbook set for release is the Always Innovating Touch Book that only runs Linux. While the unknown entrant to the PC market has started taking pre-orders, there’s no word yet on a release date.
Once the 2100 is listed on Dell’s Latitude site, it will be much easier to make an apples to apples comparison on the price of these offerings. It’s not listed quite yet as of this morning, but don’t let that stop you from refreshing the page until it is.
UPDATE: The touch screen is an add-on for $30, and there are plenty of options for upgrading the processor, RAM and storage.
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May 27th, 2009
actually the A.I. touchbook will run windows ce, although i haven’t the slightest clue as to why you would ruin it like that. I’ve already pre-ordered mine and it should get here by late spring/early summer.
May 27th, 2009
to clarify from before the A.I. touchbook can be changed to “CE” but it comes pre-loaded with its own flavor of linux.