Due by August, Dell’s 9 inch ‘Eee PC killer’ seeks to cut through the increasingly crowded mini-note market. Here's the latest on Dell’s littlest laptop.
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The mini-note has a good selection of ports including three USB jacks (one more than this writer’s much larger and more expensive MacBook), VGA output and a memory card reader. A small placeholder sticker indicated a possible location of four status LEDs (for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, caps lock and number lock) above the top-right corner of the keyboard.
The unit also shares some traits of the HP Mini-note 2133 and MSI Wind, which like the Dell model are manufactured by OEM colossus Compal, such as a wedge-shaped chassis and the screen (which we measured at 9 inches) being mounted directly on a hinge sitting on the lower on rear of chassis. It’s expected to be offered in a range of colours, similar to the current Inspiron notebook line (the lid of the unit we saw was decked out in a glossy black, compared to the bright red of Michael Dell’s machine).
Gruzen believes the mini-note will appeal to several types of customers: school students, users in emerging markets seeking a low-cost notebook “where this may be their first PC”, and “a travel companion for someone who just wants to quickly access the Web” for blogging, social networking and a quick fix of news. “This is a 20-30 minute experience, or however much time it takes to have a cup of coffee. You come to a hotspot, check some information like stock prices, upload some photos, then shut it down and go”.
David Flynn is visiting Austin, Texas as a guest of Dell.