Digitimes is reporting that the Dell E mini notebook will be available in August for just $299, and that Dell is expecting sales of 2 to 3 million this year.
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The MSI Wind ultra-portable is now shipping but due to battery shortages it is only available with a 3-cell battery instead of the 6-cell battery originally in the spec.
If you want a 6-cell battery you will have to wait until at least September.
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Well this news is disappointing: according to a couple of websites that contacted Gigabyte their M912 inexpensive tablet PC will be sold in Asia and Europe only.
Do they think that there is no demand in the US for a $699 Tablet PC with 8.9" touchscreen and 1.6GHz Atom processor?
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Liliputing is reporting that the MSI Wind is delayed for a second time and that we won't be seeing them here in the US until July 7th.
This delay is on top of them cutting back the battery from a 6 cell to a 3 cell (while cutting the price by a measly $20).
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LaptopMag has published a review of the Asus EeePC 1000h, this is the 10" version of the EeePC that has a similar spec to the MSI Wind but is $150 more expensive and half a pound heavier.
Here's their verdict:
"We concluded our review of the Eee PC 901 by saying "with the promise of the 10-inch Eee PC 1000 and Eee PC 1000H just around the corner, some may want to play the waiting game." And we were right. Those looking for a larger mini-notebook with a good sized screen and a spacious keyboard will find nearly everything they are looking for. However, the similarly configured MSI Wind NB offers comparable performance and endurance for $150 less, although some will prefer the 1000H's slick aesthetics. We like the Eee PC 1000H, but we'll like it a lot more if the final pricing for the system winds up being less."
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"Dell E" Delhi, does Dell have a customer support call center there?
It looks like "Dell E" is actually the name of the Dell Mini Inspiron we have been telling you about.
Engadget got their hands on a bunch of slides detailing market positioning and specifications and after reading those we think the Dell E will definately exceed our expectations.
The basic configuration "Dell E Classic" is only $299 (Wow!) and comes with an 8.9" screen, 1.6GHz atom processor, 512MB RAM, 4GB flash drive, and 802.11g wireless.
Want more than that? if so then you can upgrade to the "Dell E Video" which has 1GB RAM and 8GB flash drive, plus a webcam, or upgrade further to the "Dell E Video+" which has 12GB flash and adds bluetooth.
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Yesterday we complained about how the Acer Aspire One's website was lacking in information.
The gods of irony must have been watching as right after posting we heard about three sites taking a more detailed look at the Aspire One:
LaptopMag got a pre-production version and wrote a great in-depth review along with a video and a bunch of photos, PC Professionale.it posted a video (in Italian) where they take one apart, and Blogeee pointed out some highlights of that video.
Overall this seems like a great inexpensive ultra-portable, just as long as you aren't interested in opening it up and upgrading the RAM or flash drive (both are soldered in place).
Comments (in French) at Blogeee
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Acer has officially announced their competitor to the Asus EeePC and the MSI Wind: the Acer Aspire One.
So what do we know? not a lot as their Aspire One fancy marketing site has no substance. We can see it has an Intel Atom processor, a 8.9" screen at 1024x600 resolution, comes in multiple colors, runs Linpus Linux Lite, and weighs under 2.2lb. The message seems to be "as long as it has style, feeling, vision, and power, who cares about specs, dimensions, and price".
Update: The Aspire One has shown up on German price comparison sites, I doubt their numbers are official but they list the Aspire One with 8GB storage and 512MG RAM for 329 Euros or 80GB hard drive and 1GB RAM for 399 Euros (10% cheaper than the older less powerful EeePC 900!).
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APC magazine got to play with the Dell Mini Inspiron at a press briefing and they reported back on a few things:
It does have a 9" screen like we told you a few days back.
It should be available to purchase by August.
It has a fancy new keyboard design with larger alphanumeric keys and the other keys shrunk or (as in the case of the F1-12 keys) removed altogether.
It has 4 status LEDs (which would indicate at least one version of it will come with wifi and bluetooth).
It will come in multiple colors including the red and black we have already seen.
If Dell releases this with a similar price and spec to the EeePC 901 and MSI wind, and markets it well we are convinced it will be a big seller.
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jkkmobile opened up an Eee PC 901 and found there are loads of possibilities for upgrades (both user performed and available from Asus in the future.
So what did they find? they found an unused PCE-e spot plus space for a sim card so 3G HSDPA could be added, and they found there was room for a 1.8" hard drive or another SSD.
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Sandisk has announced a new line of solid state drives (SSDs) designed with ultra low power computers in mind: many SSDs are designed to fit in a standard 2.5" or 1.8" hard drive enclosure but often ULPCs can't spare the space for a full drive so a SSD on a circuit board like this is a better solution.
The press release is full of marketing speak but light on facts: no size, no power consumption and no prices are specified... so what do we know? they will come in 4GB, 8GB and 16GB sizes with read speeds of 39MB/sec and write speeds of 17MB/sec.
Full press release follows:
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Wouldn't it be great if you could get an ultra-portable the size and power of the EeePC combined with the usability of a touchscreen tablet pc for well under $1000?
Well it looks like that is what Gigabyte will be announcing this week at Computex in the form of the M912 which has just shown up on their website with the following specs:
We like the look of this, you get the convenience of a UMPC or tablet PC for simple web browsing, reading books, watching movies etc but can open it up and use the keyboard for more intensive work such as email or blogging.
Lets hope the price is good.
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It's official launch isn't until tomorrow but Asus are showing off the EeePC 901 at the WiMax Expo and have revealed that they will be coming out with a WiMax enabled version.
Full specs of the version being shown at the WiMax Expo are: 1.6GHz Atom processor, 8.9" screen, 1BG RAM, SD card slot, Wi-Fi, bluetooth, and either XP and a 12GB SSD or Linux and a 20GB SSD.
In other words exactly the same as the EeePC 900 except that it has the Intel Atom processor instead of the Via one.
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Will the Dell Mini Inspiron have a 8.9" screen, run Ubuntu or XP Home, and cost under $500?
That's what engadget seems to think.
We decided to do some measuring in photoshop to see if they are right about the screen size and here's what we came up with.
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A guy by the name of "doody" on the MSI Wind forums has run a bunch of benchmarks on the MSI Wind.
As expected don't plan on playing the latest games on the MSI Wind but it seems reasonable for standard web browsing, email, word processing etc.
3 cell battery life with WiFi on and screen at 50% was a surprisingly good 2hrs 19mins - with WiFi off I would hope to get over 3hrs which makes it a good ultra-portable to own and use on planes and trains.
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No that isn't a typo, and don't worry - we aren't going all religious on you: Jisus is an ultra-portable from Dutch company Van Der Led and they have just announced a V2 of Jisus.
The Jisus V2 costs about $525 (349 Euros), is wrapped in a brown leather skin and comes with a 10.2 inch 1024 x 600 pixel display, 1.6GHz VIA C7-M CPU, 1GB DDR2 RAM, 80GB 5400rpm HDD, Bluetooth, Ethernet, 2 USB ports, SD card slot, 1.3 megapixel webcam and a 3 cell 2200mAh battery, and runs Ubuntu Linux OS.
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3K have now officially released the Razorbook 400 eeepc clone and have reduced the price by $100 to $299 which makes this copycat device slightly more appealing.
So what do you get for your $299? a 7" 800x400 display, a 400MHz processor, 512MB RAM, 4GB flash drive, Linux, Wi-Fi, and 3 USB ports.
Is it worth buying? only if you can't afford more than $300 and really need a 7" screen instead of something bigger. If you can afford a bit more then check out the MSI Wind, the EeePC 901, or wait a bit until there is more info on the Dell Mini Inspiron.
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It looks like Dell are getting ready to announce their answer to the HP2133 and the EeePC.
Michael Dell was spotted carrying around this sexy little ultra-portable at D6 yesterday, and now Dell have released a couple of photos.
There are no real specs yet but the filenames on the dell site include "mini inspiron" so that may be what it's called (or it could just be an internal product name).
What do we know? 3 USB ports, card reader, VGA out, what looks to be a 7" screen, and a red case. What do we hope for? atom processor, good battery life, and under $500.
We want one!
Update: We're pretty certain after doing some measuring that the mini inspiron comes with a 8.9" or 9" screen, and engadget thinks it is under $500 and you get a choice of xp home or ubuntu.
New update: full specs released, it's called the Dell E and it's just $299! Full Dell E Specs
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It looks like Asus is going to officially reveal the 10" version of the EeePC at Computex in Taiwan in an attempt to keep haead of MSI and their 10" Wind.
Maybe it's just this picture but the EeePC 1000 looks a bit too bulky to still be called an ultra-portable.
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Somone on the VR-Zone forums has disassembled a MSI Wind so we can get a good look at what's inside.
Brad at Liliputing took a look and noticed something that is a disappointment: the Wind has no access panel for upgrading the RAM so no upgrade for you unless you want to completely disassemble the case.
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