Dell has launched an inexpensive laptop with a small keyboard and screen, dubbed a netbook, four months after it was originally anticipated that Dell would enter the netbook market.
The Dell Inspiron Mini 9 has a 8.9-inch LED display (1,024x600) and weighs 1.035kg, the company said in its launch announcement on Thursday. It is available in the UK, Ireland, France, Germany and Austria immediately via Dell online and will be available in Spain and Italy starting in October.
Standard Wi-Fi is built in, and the Mini 9 can also be customised with the addition of Bluetooth or a webcam.
For the price of £299, the version comes pre-installed with Microsoft Windows XP. An open-source version, loaded with Ubuntu 8.04, will arrive in the next few weeks for £269, Dell said.
There has been speculation about whether the introduction of Mini 9 has been delayed from an earlier date. Back in May, Dell's chief executive, Michael Dell, was spotted with a version of the system, and it was believed that its launch was imminent.
Talkback
The picture above shows a nice red one but they only come in black.
Shame we have to pay the Microsoft tax if we buy one of these.
I was very pleased to see that this new mini notebook comes loaded with Dell Video Chat powered by SightSpeed, continuing the cooperation that Dell started not long ago when they announced the Studio line of laptops.
are all the new netbooks being released with MS windows XP some significant time before being released with Linux.
Do I smell a rat?
Dell and Canonical have been at this for a year and they missed the release date for the Mini 9?
That's a regular Ubuntu Linux under the hood, all they had to do is design that kiosk-like dummified easy interface and they couldnt release it on time?
Every day I use my sister in laws Acer One (there is an advanced mode her husband discovered), is one day less that Im willing to wait.
Were planning on getting my wife one soon and she sees no need to wait when the One is available about 500 metres from our place.
At least you can pre-order Dell Mini 9 Ubuntu on the US site. On the canadian there is not the three choices but only one, and w/ no Linux and when I asked Dell.ca, they said not before a few months for the Linux.
I want to like the Dell MIni 9 (its one advantage over Acer is better battery life) but they dont make it easy.
As mentioned on Gizmodo/Engadget, paying more for the Linux version is also sleazy.0