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Dell Shows Off Its Eee PC Rival
Tom Moreland tips us to photos of Dell's answer to the Eee PC on the Direct2Dell site. Dell posted these after an attendee at the D conference spotted Michael Dell carrying one. The company hasn't released any details, so you can take these with a grain of salt — from a commenter to Dell's post: "Here are the specs for the Dell Mini Inspiron: Atom 1.6 GHz, 3 USB ports, Ethernet, Card reader, Kensington lock, Adapter socket, Mic/line-out, VGA port, screen resolution at 1280×800. Scheduled to be released before the end of June 2008. It costs less than $500."
Good to see some competition in this market, but I'll pick Asus over Dell any day.
Given that this is being compared to the EEE, physical dimensions are important. Guessing based on the pencil in the pictures, this looks like it is maybe 8" x 5" (20 cm x 12 cm).
This post climbed Mt. Washington.
The most interesting question to me is which OS Dell will choose to install on it. Hopefully it will be a Linux distro...
There are models for 300 bucks and they think that they will sell well at $500?
It may have some potential. Having a good cheap system to surf with is definitely a good idea. But for $500 you can get a regular fully functional laptop in many instances.
Dell's going to be competing with their own price points no matter where they put this product in the spectrum from 3-500$ they'll be cannibalizing their own market.
With that resolution it really looks like a solid competitor to the Asus EEE PC. I'm still waiting for my Asus EEE PC 701 4G to arrive :-( The only thing I'm really worried about is that the screen might really be too small. That said, my first laptop had a 640x480 colour TFT screen and that worked well. Of course software has changed a bit.
I don't know about anyone else, but 1280x800 on a screen that small is going to be practically unreadable for my eyes, and I'm not exactly old. At some point, things can get a bit *too* small...
There is nothing interesting going on at my blog
Andy
Notice how there is already some creep in specs and price, none of the ones anounced since the first eeepc (including the new 9" version) is lighter or cheaper and most of them seem to be quite a bit more.
Instead I would like to see them stick at 300 euros and just gradually improve the spec.
Any company producing magnifying glass for these mini-laptop? I mean there are so many eye-sore out there to make them rich.
It's a good thing that most Linux distributions use Vector fonts, and allow you to set the screen resolution in dpi.
Actually, such a high resolution on such a small screen means super-smooth fonts, and easy readability... which thus far could only be obtained on high-resolution laptops (1650x1080 on 15" and 1920x1200 on 17").
Considering that the cheap Inspirons have 1280x800 on a 15" screen, just imagine the improvement.
Does it run Vista?
http://gizmodo.com/393815/exclusive-dell-mini-inspiron-their-first-mini-laptop link to actual photos
Yes, the keyboard seems to be pretty darn big. However, as always they managed to screw up key placement. Apostrophe is not in its regular place, shift is waaaay over to the right of the up arrow. What are these people smoking? Make the [ENTER] key smaller and put apostrophe where it belongs. Instead of where the apostrophe is now, put the slashdot keys there (/ and/or .), and put shift in their place. Why do all these laptop manufacturers need to be individualistic with keyboard design? It's not like keyboards have feelings. Users do, though. :)
-Palal
Am I the only one who thinks this looks a lot better than 99% of Dell's plain-jane (any color, as long as it's black and grey) standard models? Forget developing countries, I want one HERE.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
This is exactly what I would want to give to my mother, because all she does is go on YouTube to find oldies music videos, and surf the internet and play casual card games.
Yes, the Asus runs Linux, but it doesn't run her casual games. I still require Windows. It's not that bad anyway -- I'll set it up properly and lock her out of admin, and she can't screw it up that badly. And it's cute.
The price is always right if someone else is paying.
Forget Dell, damnit, I want an Apple version of the EEE. Comeon apple, theres clearly demand, you can do it too (and yes, you can even make a profit doing it, don't give me that "margins" line.)
Modding Trolls +1 inciteful since 1999
Yes and no. I have an aging Omnibook with gorgeous 1400x1040 15" screen. Most desktop apps work fine with the DPI set correctly (No thanks to GDM trying to set 96 DPI regardless of what XF86Config/xorg.conf says (And don't get me started about Gnome deciding that I live in "Colourado" (but I digress)))
Unfortunately, most web pages are so badly designed as to be almost unreadable at high res, and if you increase the font size the formatting goes to hell. Opera does a pretty good job at handling this, and Firefox 3 looks promising. That still leaves the unreadable Flash apps, but most of those are a wast of time anyway.
Some of these specs, like the 1280x800 resolution screen look beyond the M$ limits for such devices. Good for Dell, they know what the market really looks like.
I am a name troll of Westlake. Visit my homepage to learn why.
It looks suspiciously like a rebranded MSI Wind (http://msiwind.net/) subnotebook to me. All of the specs are EXACTLY the same. The MSI wind is even available in red...
Real programmers use "copy con program.exe"
I used to think the Eee PC was a great idea until I actually tried to type on a 7" model at Best Buy.
Absolutely horrendous keyboard! Too small and cramped for me to be able to stand there and type out a few sentences at normal speed.
For me, the best portable I've seen is the old 12" PowerBook G4. It was light and small, but had a fully usable keyboard.
Portability. It's the same argument that people made back in the days when laptops were not ubiquitous. You can get a cheaper more powerful desktop, so why do you want to buy a laptop? Same here, scaled to new ultraportable devices.
The ASUS eeePC is currently selling like hotcakes, and the price range is currently in the neighborhood of 400-500$. Your argument has been around for quite a while ("I can get a full featured laptop for the same money"). The problem is this laptop isn't a regular laptop, but a new category of devices. Something you can carry easily, light, and robust. Dell isn't foolish, after the success of the eeePC, the HP mini-note and new devices coming from MSI, they want to make sure of their presence in that growing market.
So yes, you can get something bigger for similar money. But you get a all different device. Exactly like the MacBook Air (why spending so much for something slower than a regular Mackbook?) these are new devices, for people who value portability over added features.
In addition, if these devices run Linux natively (as they pretty much all do, in addition to WinXP), you get a modern fast OS, without you having to do anything to it, it simply work out of the box. In fact some people say that the Linux version are for those unexperienced, considering how easy they are to maintain.... Can you say the same about the crap-loaded $500 cheap "conventional" laptops?
Well this explains why Mark Shuttleworth has confirmed that Ubuntu is coming out with a version for UMPCs. Dell needs a linux distro to compete on the low end against Asus and the rest.
Dell Vostro laptop: Mobile AMD Sempron Processor 3600+, 1 GB memory, 80 GB harddrive, 15.4 inch screen, standard ports*
... ?
$399, available today through Dell Small Business.
So, what's the point of this computer again
*Does an ethernet port really count as a remarkable feature now days? Nobody mentions "Keyboard has all 26 letter keys!"
i don't know if you've ever tried using firefox on 1024x600 but it's awful.
fully 2/5ths of the screen is taken up with impossible-to-remove toolbars, and, on these tiny screens, you are left with 2 inches of readable space in which to view the web page.
the minimum useable screen resolution is 1024 x 768 - yes those extra 168 pixels make a massive difference - and so i am deeply impressed to hear that dell have got it right, by providing a 1200 x 800 screen.
you can always increase the font size on an 8in screen of that resolution, so that people who are blind can read it: you can't go down in font size if the resolution isn't there....
These tiny machines really need a fold-out butterfly keyboard as once appeared on an old ThinkPad model. I tried typing on an Eee PC recently and found it nigh on impossible, especially at the command prompt.
Imagine a Beowulf cluster of these!
Pi Ran Out
can this new dell fit in my jacket pocket? by far, the most excellent thing about the eee pc is that it is so incredibly portable without making significant sacrifices. furthermore, with 4gb of space, there are many choices for an os.
my hands aren't small, but i can manage to touch-type reasonably well on it. frankly, i don't think anyone should be alloted any credence when complaining about the keyboard size on such a small system. it's much like griping about the lack of luggage-space on a motorcycle. if your major complaints are about the keyboard, you must not be the target market.
my only complaints are about the cpu, which seems to be underclocked to 630mhz, and the difficulty in booting from an sd card (i'm sure i'll figure it out).
There are a lot of LCD projectors out there in classrooms, lecture halls, and meeting spaces that have only been wired for VGA.
You could always use DVI -> LCD converter I suppose...
Unix is mysterious, and ancient, and strong. It's made of cast iron and the bones of heroic programmers of old -
F11.
Digital released the Microvax II which had, if memory serves me, virtually the same performance as a full-sized VAX at about a third or a quarter of the price. More to the point, it was significantly better than the VAX-11/750, better as in double the performance, for about half the price. Killed all the older lines dead, instantly.
Wang released the Wang 1200 WPS, its CRT-based word processing system, at a time when their previous non-CRT-based offering was still selling well. Killed the older line dead, instantly.
Apple released the iPod Nano about eighteen months after the introduction of the iPod Mini line, and barely six months after a major refresh of the iPod Mini line, killing the minis dead instantly.
(And, for the record, the Digital and Wang examples occurred during the upward trajectories of those companies and were major, major successes for them).
Companies don't have to put the customers' interests ahead of their own, but they need to put a high priority on it. Companies that concentrate too much on what's good for them instead of what's good for their customers... rationalizing product lines, avoiding cannibalization, holding back new features, and generally not producing the best products they know how to produce (e.g. IBM foot-dragging on the 80386) get in trouble. Their locked-in customers may go along for a while, but customers aren't stupid and they'll be steaming about it, and delighted to give the company its comeuppance.
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
No matter what features the EEE has, it was designed to be low cost. Any competitor must also be low cost. $500 is not cheap for a laptop these days.
Why does dell need to make an EEE competitor when it ALREADY HAS a $399 laptop you can buy today. The Dell Vostro 1000 has an AMD Sempron 3600+, XP Home, 15.4 inch Wide Screen, 1GB RAM, 80GB HD, CD Burner, 802.11g Wifi, and 256MB integrated video.
I knew that the ASUS Eee would be followed by some crappy American knockoff.
The specs list ethernet, but no mention of wifi? If it doesn't have built-in wifi, I don't see how it can compete with the Eee PC
--- What?
Well, its guts, at least.
I was visiting a friend a short while back and he was doing some development on it. It was sans-case - just some cardboard to hold up the screen above a bare motherboard sitting on the desk.
Couldn't determine a whole lot but it was running Ubuntu, had solid-state drives and used the Atom chips.
I was getting ready to buy an eee (finally time to upgrade from my Poqet) but his advice was to absolutely wait till the Dell is out since I would probably change my mind.
~~~~~~~
"You are not remembered for doing what is expected of you." - Atul Chitnis
Yes you can. So my question to you then is, why are people snatching up these mini-notebooks left and right, with companies seemingly finding an urgent need to enter the niche?
Is it possible that you're missing something? Or do you ascribe the success of these devices to marketing and gullibility? I ask because I've seen your argument before, and responded to it before, but the responses never seem to register.
So what is your answer? Why are people going against what you think to be the intelligent choice? I ask again, is it possible that you missed something and that 500 dollar laptop you're touting doesn't measure up for some reason? I bet if you examine the two devices, you'll see the major difference that makes these devices desirable.
Hint: it's not processor speed, or hard drive size, or screen resolution. Those things matter little to the people considering an EEEPC or one of its competitors.
I'm not a Mac guy, but have written an open-source app that runs on Win/Linux/Mac, but I have a really old iMAC for testing. If I could get one of these for $500 and get it converted to a MAC that would really help me in making sure the MAC version was really stable. Thoughts?
1. Dell may be assuming that there are more existing VGA monitors around (including conference room projectors) and therefore are assuming that when purchasing a $500 subnote, one may not be purchasing an brand new monitor to go with it.
2. If my memory serves me right, DVI/HDMI require royalties for the interfaces to be implemented in devices. I don't believe that is the case for VGA. Eliminating this reduces cost.
3. What Dell could consider would be a Displayport connection http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DisplayPort, seeing as they are one of the founding members of this interface. It's royalty and license free. However, rollout is still slightly behind.
For those who say Displayport is the wrong way to go due to a low install base, VGA is the exact opposite. Highest install base with the greatest number of options.
I'd love an HDMI a la xps1330, but for $500 I'm not really complaining.
Does anyone know if HDMI/DVI can do VGA passthrough?
You'd think so, until you actually give it some real consideration. Then you'd realize how wrong that is.
The market for "cheapest possible laptop" isn't going to cross over with the "very small, very light laptop" very often. They are two different products. To make the ubiquitous car analogy, people who sell trucks aren't worried about cannibalizing their convertible market, even though the two products may overlap in price.
The reason is simple:
Battery life is a horse of a different color when it comes to a laptop versus the ultraportables. The things can do much better than most laptops can achieve. Get a laptop into the 8-10 hour range on a single fresh battery with a good charge and still at the same price point, and then you won't see the ultraportables selling so well.
Everyone has resolutions they can live with and I'm sure I personally could live with the resolutions on such a device. I always welcome a debate you know, I never said I'm automatically right (and I welcome corrections) but you don't need to make it worded as a personal attack.
In Dell's case and considering the shoddy build quality of anything that isn't top of the line for Dell I'd definitely get an Asus over the dell even if they put ubuntu preinstalled on both.
Also, for people who don't have a laptop sometimes the ultraportables are perfectly acceptable. I have an E61i that translates to be equivalent to a EEEpc (and 300 bucks, so about the same price...but less capability on the computing side).
It also depends on what you do. Like I said, everyone has preference....but in dells case I'm rather skeptical of this being an improvement and not just cheaper smaller lower build quality.
lkcl meet littlefox. Littlefox, lkcl.
Exactly, so do large heavy laptops and small, light laptops.
To YOU. Consider the possibility that your opinion isn't representative of the population. To me big and heavy is decidedly different from small and light regardless of differences in features. Their function is similar (but so are cars and trucks, they move things) but the function isn't the determining factor.
You assume that twitter is attempting to support free software, and is doing it poorly. I think it's much more likely that he's attempting to poorly support free software, and is performing that task admirably.
I see your informative link, and raise you a pithy comment.
Another example:
When HP was great at making inkjet and laser printers, the motto was, "Let's put ourselves out of business every 6 months because if we don't do it, someone else will."
The best printers in the history of the world came out of that process and HP made megabucks. Then David Packard died and a faceless corporate board took over...
Peter predicted that you would "deliberately forget" creation 2000 years ago...
If we are to believe the pictures, this one will also miss the essential Home/End/Pgup/Pgdn keys.
Maybe I'm too old school, but I really need these keys. I use them all the time. Ctrl-Shift-End is cumbersome enough without needing to add some stupid 4th Fn or whatever key to the mix. Yes, I do have 10 fingers, but I'm not a pianist.
Strike one. Not only are you factually incorrect (the batteries are smaller too), but this doesn't appear to be the reason people are buying them (mostly because it's not true). The VIA nanobook seems to com in at around 4.5 hours, with the eee being arounr 3 to 3.5 hours. Neither is significantly better than a "real" laptop, and they are actually worse than some full sized laptops.
Um, what? I didn't. If you felt attacked, it was your perception, get over it.
How to remove "impossible-to-remove" toolbars: http://lifehacker.com/software/firefox/geek-to-live--consolidate-firefoxs-chrome-210542.php
Or, to get more space: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/307
...the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.
You can get 1920x1200 on 15.4" notebooks these days.
When at work I dock my laptop and use a ergonomic keyboard, however, if I have to type on the laptop's (Lenova T60p, which is a big laptop) keyboard, my hands quickly get tired, due to a poor ergonomic design.
What's the ergonomic impact of these mini-laptops? Is there a 'too small' design or are we sacrificing our hands/wrists to be able to fit a laptop on a seatback tray on a 5 hour flight?
Factually huh?
Strike one?
Since you think you can perceive the world, why don't you tell me more of what you know that I don't, huh? You come off as a rather intolerable individual.
What was I factually incorrect about? The EEE can come in at rather decent claimed hours, even if it's not realistic. Also, people's reviews of the damn thing are not close to as rosy as you would think your market numbers are suggesting.
In the meantime, reply to someone else; you're pretty insulting and I don't value your one-sided debating.
but mine is much much more powerful
They need basic compiz support or similar so you can zoom in. We don't need all the fancy desktop effects but a simple zoom in would be nice for such a small screen.
Not exactly, but close.
Because you're losing, I suspect. Replace "you are right and I am wrong" with "the market is right and I am wrong" and you'll understand what I'm getting at.
You're forwarding an argument. The market is disproving your assumptions on a daily basis, yet you continue to forward them. What does that say about your argument?
"I'm right, even though the market is proving me wrong." That's YOU. How does it look when your argument is simplified to it's lowest level?
And the point is, despite the fact that YOU think otherwise, that 4 inch difference is VERY significant.
THAT is what you were factually incorrect about. The batteries that come with these devices are themselves smaller, reducing battery life. They cannot do "much better" than most laptops, that is simply wrong.
In other words "I'm wrong and I need a cheap out". I wasn't insulting, you're just wrong and over-sensitive. Please don't cry though, I thought we were playing nice-nice...
Score: -1, Wrong
That link you screwed up was to an article on ultra-low cost devices, like OLPC, not ultra-portables, like EEE, Wind, and this mini-Inspiron. But you already knew that, Twitter.
So why, after saying, "There's not much dishonest about what I'm doing." would you post a bald-faced lie like that? Do you think we're stupid? Maybe you just get off on the attention. You can't get it up until the reply count on all your sockpuppets hits a certain quota. Is that how it works?
Nah, can't be that. You need a psychiatrist, not Cialis.
You are misrepresenting what this device can be compared to in order to take a potshot at Microsoft. Nothing bad about that, but at least do it honestly and when it's actually called for.
Considering how bad customer service has become from Dell in the EU, they'd have to give the thing away for me to even think about it. I spent almost 2 weeks trying to buy an XPS laptop recently, what a farce that was. I will never EVER (try and) buy Dell again.
The inspiration or any dell line other then the business ones (optiplex/latitude) can and do have different hardware components in them. If you buy an abc123 business laptop from dell and six months later buy another abc123 business laptop from dell the motherboard is going to be the same. The same is not true with their home line. The same model can have completely different motherboards and other hardware. It doesn't surprise me that dell has different motherboards for 533 RAM and 800 RAM in their home line of products. The motherboard determines the RAM speed not the laptop model.
...where are mini laptops with trackpoint instead of (too small) touchpad?!
One that hath name thou can not otter
I've always thought a trackball would be more use. I've never liked those little joystick things (aka 'clitmouse'). A trackball the size of a small marble in the upper right would be nice. With left click being pushing the ball in, and right click on the shoulder of the laptop, like the R button on a game pad. My main reasoning is, you can roll a ball faster or slower, but with a trackstick, it's either digital, and therefore one speed, or it's analogue, but it's so small it requires too much subtlety to move the cursor slowly.
Admit it. You post strawman arguments as AC so you get modded Insightful for refuting them, rather than Troll
Well, while I disagree with you when it comes to personall preference (I find trackpoint much better than trackpad or small trackball of past laptops - though Logitech Marble Mouse is really nice IMHO), we can certainly both say that its frustrating nobody gives us a choice...especially since miniature trackpads those minilaptops have are sub-optimal even for people used to trackpads...
:/
At this point I think I'll have to hunt for some old X series Thinkpad...
One that hath name thou can not otter
I have no mod points to give you. There's insightful, informative and funny in there.
Twitter's antics are amusing. The anti-twitter trolls are also amusing. Sometimes I wonder if Twitter isn't trolling himself for added drama. Is there a munchausen trolling syndrome? That would be expressing some extreme dedication to our amusement.
Oh, I need to post an on-topic tidbit. The Atom products released next week are going to rock! Not all of them are mini-laptops like this one. There's lots of stuff from in-car audio to ebooks to phones to refrigerators and more! Your dryer will be able to browse the Internet to discover the ideal drying temperature and relative humidity for your permanent press slacks. You'll be able to google the provenance of your archeology find without surfacing from your dive in the Mediterranean. You'll be able to work on your spreadsheets at the beach! Your email will find you everywhere. Isn't that great?
Help stamp out iliturcy.
Touch screens are probably the only path to the future for sub notebooks, IMO. Have a look at some videos on Youtube of Eee PCs modded to have a touch screen. It really seems to make a difference. That would probably add a few dollars to the production cost, but since the sub-notebook class seems to have been hijacked by higher-priced machines, it wouldn't be all that much more expensive.
Admit it. You post strawman arguments as AC so you get modded Insightful for refuting them, rather than Troll
Please name such models. The eeePC 900 (and soon also the eeePC 901, powered by Intel Atom) cost more than 500$. The only cheaper one is the MSI wind, which comes with an HD instead of SSD.
VGA looks terrible on LCDs, and lousy on everything except those mythical high quality CRTs, which I've never seen in real life. Personally, I was happy to ditch mine for a DVI LCD. And I've got half a dozen of those dongles (from video cards and such) sitting in a junk drawer.
The computer market is huge, and a solution doesn't have to be right for *everyone* or even some imaginary majority that you invent from your own use patterns.
Dell's a big company. If this thing is appealing to just 3% of the market, that's a lot of cash.
If it's a hit? Cool. But it doesn't have to be.
In Capitalist America, bank robs you!
I'd take the Dell PC solely for environmental concerns. After all, you'll save a lot of money on your power bill (AND save the environment) when your power supply dies in 4 months or your battery catches fire.
Random Thoughts From A Diseased Mind (Not For Dummies)
Does it blend?
I would have to say that explosives are the most abused technology in all of history.
Hahaha, being a Colorado Springs resident myself, I find this quite amusing. Thanks for the laugh.
I agree that small acceptance can still = market impact, but if only a small group adopts your idea you won't recoup development costs. Sure, say for example you make 20mil off your product but your net is still negative after all associated costs, distribution, etc.
Thus, no, if it's not a hit, the company won't necessarily make a profit (or a significant profit) off it.
You can run it in full screen, you can use Littlefox, and you can use Fuller Screen. The entire screen becomes content.
I don't know if anyone has noticed, but Amazon and my local PC shops have the same problem. Seemingly always out of stock on the Linux ones but have lots of XP.
This is the first time in many years users have had an OS choice in the consumer space, it will be interesting to see the sales numbers once they can keep the Eee PC (Linux) in stock.
Is it just me or do the shadows just look wrong in the picture posted in the blog article?
Integrity is what you are when nobody is looking.
You can get 1920x1200 on 15.4" notebooks these days.
Heck, I have a 3 (nearly 4) year old Precision M60 with a 15.4" 1920x1200 screen.