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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."
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.
http://gizmodo.com/393815/exclusive-dell-mini-inspiron-their-first-mini-laptop link to actual photos
XP home or Ubuntu, according to Engadget.
Absolutely horrendous keyboard! Too small and cramped for me to be able to stand there and type out a few sentences at normal speed.
Not sure how big your hands are, but mine are pretty big, and I've had a 7" EEE since they came out - I absolutely LOVE the keyboard for how small it is. I haven't had a problem typing ~60WPM on it (I normally type ~65WPM). You don't want to type for hours on it, but nobody would want to do that on *any* subnotebook.
It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
The Eee was designed to be low cost AND small/lightweight. The Vostro 1000 is neither small nor lightweight.
"I think an etch-a-sketch with an ethernet port would beat IE7 in web standards compliance."
You are using an Inspiron, the 'value' (read: CHEAP) end of Dell's laptop offerings and complaining about it? You get what you pay for, sir. Spend a little bit more for a Latitude D630 and you will have a much more reliable laptop with higher quality hardware and a more consistent standard of hardware for the overall model line.
If you want a laptop that allows a custom video card, you need to spec the stuff you want BEFORE YOU BUY, and keep a cognizant eye of what gotchas may be involved. Basically, do some research, and not just reviewing halfassed slashdot comments like ours.
After 15 years of experiencing all sorts of good, bad, magical, unreliable, and just plain retarded computer manufacturers, I must opine that you are out of your mind if you think Asus anything better than Dell. They both are cutthroat businesses looking to save a buck where noone might notice, and whenever possible you avoid the lowest end laptops/etc, such as Inspiron.
Don't try to cut corners and save some bucks then complain when you made a glaringly bad decision. (Ubuntu preinstalled on a Dell? Did you do NO research prior to grabbing the first Ubuntu mania inspired laptop you could find?)
Cheers.
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