Two weeks ago I wrote about some active speculation regarding the announcement of the not-so-secret Dell Mini-Inspiron (I guess Minspiron sounds too weird?).
Everyone expected the machine to be announced during a special Dell press event held that week; but we got nothing.
In the meantime, Asus, Acer, HP, Lenovo, MSI, Everex, Fujitsu and even LG have either released or announced their own Netbook. Everyone knows Dell will have one, so what is taking them so long?
I had initially set my sights on getting one of their shiny mini Inspiron machines, but ended up succumbing to the draw of the Acer Aspire One. At $350 it is (in my opinion) the best value for money in Netbook land at the moment.
The specifications:
The Aspire One (with Windows XP) launched for $429, then dropped to $399, then dropped again to $349. It was on sale this weekend at Bestbuy, but most vendors have yet to lower the price from $399. A Linux version of this machine is available for $329, but it lacks the 120GB HDD opting for an 8GB SSD drive instead. Perhaps I’ll give Dell a chance if they ever release their machine, but the Acer is making me mighty happy in the meantime.
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Dell will be holding a press conference tomorrow to announce some “new and exciting products”. One of those new products is most likely going to be their Mini Inspiron, which will be the first Dell Netbook.
The rumored specifications point towards a $299 Linux powered sub-notebook with an Intel Atom processor, 512MB of memory and a 4 or 8GB SSD drive. Beefier models will add more memory, Windows XP (or Vista) and a spinning hard drive.
All models are rumored to be equipped with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and an Expresscard slot.
It’s no secret THAT they’ll be introducing these machines, it’s just a matter of WHEN, so tomorrow seems as good a time as any, just in time to squeeze some more cash out of parents in the wacky “back to school” sales frenzy.
In my opinion, the Dell lineup, along with the recently announced netbook from Lenovo will probably deal a serious blow to firms like Asus, Everex and MSI who have been dominating this market for the past months.
Source: CNN Money (Image from Engadget.com)
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First light bulbs, and now netbooks? This months Tiger Direct catalogue shows an Everex Cloudbook rebranded as a “Sylvania G Netbook Notebook PC”
The only difference I could find was the 1GB of ram in the Sylvania compared to the 512MB in the Everex. This isn’t the only other version of the Cloudbook out there, Packard Bell sells it in Europe as the “Easynote”.
Of course, in true Tiger Direct fashion, they managed to mess up the specs by claiming the machine has a VIA C7-M and an Intel SL7100 Core2Duo CPU.
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After numerous delays, the first MSI Wind netbooks seem to be shipping. Gizmodo got their hands on one, and have already posted a brief review.
According to the review, it’s everything the Eee should have been.
In short; $499 gets you a 1.6GHz Intel Atom CPU, a 10″ display, 1GB ram and an 80GB drive. The price drops $100 if you select Linux.
Source: Gizmodo MSI Wind review
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You would think that putting your 11 different notebooks in a chart would help people pick the right machine for their needs.
Sadly, if the machine is an Asus Eee PC, you’d be wrong.
I’ve complained about Asus before, and how they have jumped the shark, but it takes their own chart to show what a daft mess this has become. And things are only going to get worse once they add the Eee 905, the Eee monitor and several Eee desktop machines.
Source: Asus UK (via Engadget)
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Ok.. Calm down. That "buy now" button does have some fine print; the MSI Wind won’t actually ship for another 3-5 weeks, but when Amazon says you can pre-order, it means that the product is actually on its way to their warehouses.
MSI actually announced that their machines would be in the US on July 7th, so Amazon might just be messing with us.
The MSI Wind is an Intel Atom powered Netbook with an 80Gb HDD, gigabit Ethernet, Bluetooth, 1Gb of RAM and an LED backlit 10" display capable of a pretty decent 1024×600 resolution.
It could be yours for just $499. - Amazon.com product page.
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Oh Asus…this is just getting silly.
What started as the prospect of a $199 laptop has now evolved into lineup of overpriced machines that get upgraded every month. That $199 PC is about to pass the $700 mark.
The successor to the original Eee PC was the Eee 900, and it was available for less than 3 weeks. It got replaced by the 901 last month.
And now the 901 is about to be replaced by the 903, 904 and 905 (in addition to the already announced Eee 1000). Whatever goodwill Asus generated for themselves with the original Eee PC, will soon be gone if they keep this up.
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Asus may not have delivered the $199 super notebook we were promised, but they have created an entirely new market for compact notebooks (called Netbooks).
The next big player to join the gang is MSI with the "Wind".
The MSI wind is powered by a 1.6GHz Intel Atom chip, has a 10" display (capable of 1024×600), 1Gb of ram, a spacious 80Gb SATA drive and even comes complete with Gigabit Ethernet, Bluetooth and a 1.3MP webcam.
In every possible way it is better than the Asus Eee PC, plus it’s only $80 more than the most common Eee (the 4G).
That’s right; the MSI Wind will be released on the 27th for just $479.99.
You can learn more about this machine here and a snazzy flash animated demo with horrible music can be found here.
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We already knew Dell was "secretly" working on their own answer to the Asus Eee PC, Gizmodo ran into someone from Dell who gave them a sneak peek at the machine. But it’s Engadget who got the real scoop, with some real info.
Dell will be releasing not one, but 3 different versions of a netbook (yeah, that’s apparently the new name for these machines); The E Classic, E Video and E Video+.
They will all run on a 1.6GHz Intel CPU and come with Wi-Fi and an 8.9" widescreen display. The different versions will come with either 4, 8 or 12GB of storage and options for Linux or XP. The high end machine will also come with Bluetooth.
Then, later in the year they’ll be releasing an ultrathin machine called the E Slim. It’s a .8" thin notebook with a 1.3 or 1.6GHz CPU, 40 or 60Gb storage, webcam and once again the choice of Linux or XP.
Both machines can be equipped with WWAN (wireless broadband) as well as WiMax!
But the best part is the price; the Dell E will start at $299, which is without a doubt the pricepoint it takes to kick Asus out of this market, since their similar specced machine (with an 8.9" screen) starts at $600.
The E should be out in September along with a long list of optional accessories (batteries, carrying case, auto/air adapter, Bluetooth headset, Bluetooth mouse and a USB TV dongle).
Source: Engadget
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Ahhh… Anonymous blog commenter, where would we be without your "insider information"?
Someone posted the Dell Mini Inspiron specifications on the Dell blog, they sound reasonable enough for me to trust, and nice enough to want one of these new machines. 1280×800 screen would be perfect, and a 1.6GHz Atom would be sufficient for almost anything you throw at it.
If Dell actually manages to sell this for under $500, then Asus and HP better have a response really fast, cause otherwise I see Dell beating them at their own game.
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