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Dell to launch Eee-alike
Author: Gareth HalfacreePublished: 29th May 2008
The new Dell Eee-alike: no specs yet, but you'll either love it or hate it from the pictures alone.
Gizmodo's Brian Lam managed to buttonhole Michael Dell in the corridor of the D: All Things Digital conference, and spotted him carrying a rather tasty bright red mini notebook, which Lam snapped a photo of before Dell could jam it back into its secretive (and rather Eee PC reminiscent) black jacket.
Figuring that once it's on Gizmodo you might as well tell the world, Dell has since released a couple of images of the machine on its blog. The idea for the notebook appears to have come from Dell's IdeaStorm website, as part of an article entitled “Design a UMPC to counter HP's mini-note 2133”. In that article, the specifications of the theoretical HP beater are listed as 2GB of RAM, an Intel Silverthorne or VIA Isaiah CPU, Vista or Linux as the OS, multiple USB ports, a multi-card reader, choice of 7,200 RPM hard drive or SSD, gigabit Ethernet, 802.11n WiFi, Bluetooth, and perhaps most wishfully of all – a graphics solution capable of running Windows Vista in Aero mode.
These specifications have been neither confirmed nor denied by the PC manufacturer, but it's clear that HP's svelte notebook was playing on Dell's mind during the design phase: the two photos released demonstrate scale through having a yellow pencil in the same shot, which is exactly how HP conveyed the size of their UMPC. I guess originality really is dead.
What is perhaps most interesting is comments made by Dell regarding the target audience for the new notebook: the Dell Blog has him describing it as “perfect for the next billion Internet users,” a clear indicator that Dell is looking to expand on its work shifting low-cost hardware to developing nations. Hopefully that doesn't mean that it won't be available to denizens of the UK and US.
Pricing information, final specifications, even confirmation that the thing really exists beyond an engineering prototype and a couple of pictures are not yet forthcoming. Perhaps Dell is looking to scope the market out a bit further before finalising the design, or maybe it's waiting for a large quantity of Atom chips to make themselves available at a reasonable price. Either way, it's clear we'll be seeing more competition in the low-cost ultra-portable notebook market in the not-too-distant future.
What ultra low cost PC – as this new breed of ultra portables seems to be branded – has your eye at the moment? Do you even see the need for such devices outside the developing world? Share your thoughts over in the forums.
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Comments (23)
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seems like it's no time to buy now...... wait for the war to heat right up, then grab a cheap deal :)
LOL I was thinking this..... if its cheap I'll probs buy it but not until the aforementioned price war
Yeah, like those ones you get at places like Blackpool or something.
Seriously, though, if it's priced right, I might buy one.
the only thing i know i defo want is SSD, decent size screen and linux.
just like everyone else though, i'll be waiting for the market to really open up
Still, i love it.
I'm still waiting until someone to make an idiot-proof pre-hacked OS X for one of them. Whichever has that available first gets my money.
Firehed, I agree - I want Atom, OSX and the HP 2133s chassis.
i would never buy on the first day (or Week) of release, as later in the "price wars" and you can get a far better deal
Im planning to get one of these 9-10" jobs before my next course at uni starts in september so hopefully they will all be out by then, things might be quite close between all the competitors, hp2133 (hopefully the Isiah refresh will be out by then), Msi wind, dell jobby, and the ECS and Acer models look quite interesting too. They need to sort out better battery life on these things to make me buy one tho, rumours of 7 hours from the msi wind seem a bit too good to be true tho :(
Tho you can get an ibm/lenovo x60 tablet for under 600 quid these days so that might win out in the end :)
+1. A nine inch screen, SSD, and Linux are non-negotiable. I think I'll wait for the second revision of most of these products - should be better developed and lower priced, and I want to see if the Atom processors really live up to the hype. Plus as much as I want one, I really can't justify throwing $500 at it right now. I need to buy car insurance instead... Maybe in another year.
However, I just found this one out, and I'd want it over the Eee PC...check it out:
http://www.viaopenbook.com/
I love via's technology
For a niche market, I can see one of these with a big HD 320gb, for example, and Photoshop elements and you would have an excellent system for digitial photographers to carry around for quick field work. Something to offload your images to, maybe check out a few and then submit them to whoever you're shooting for. Lugging a larger notebook around for this does get a bit tiresome after awhile.