Like so many other manufacturers, Dell has entered the 10″ netbook market this week with the launch of the Dell Inspiron Mini 10. Despite the machine being fairly standard in its hardware specifications, it does make a few peculiar choices – especially when it comes to its resolution.
At first sight, nothing new under the sun, you’d say. The Inspiron Mini 10 still sports the same look – a look that I personally find quite attractive. You can opt for a 1.33Ghz or a 1.66Ghz Intel Atom processor, with a default of 1GB of RAM. There’s lots of interesting optional equipment coming in the future, such as a built-in TV tuner, GPS module, and a HSDPA 3G module. You will also be able to choose between a 160Gb or a 250GB HDD.
The display is interesting. It’s 10″, but sports a 1024×576 resolution, which is better for 16:9 movie viewing. Still, it’s less than other netbooks, and therefore Dell promised an optional 720p display, but whether or not the Intel GMA 500 chip can actually power HD content remains debatable. It also comes with a HDMI-out port, which is unusual for netbooks.
Shipping starts February 26, at 399 USD. For now, the model is Windows XP only, a Linux model is promised for “later this year”.
the Intel GMA 500 can power HD content. Just thought i would let you know.
Yeah, it’s not like the poor GMA950 that’s in the other netbooks.
might be able to power it under windows, but nobody has done shit with the linux driver in ages
dont give up hope yet: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/msg02786.htm…
but the current state is more like this: http://www.happyassassin.net/2009/01/30/intel-gma-500-poulsbo-graph…
It is being worked on though. Tungsten Graphics doesn’t have a time line for when it will be finished but they are activly working on it and devoting a ton of time. I would guess a month, maybe a bit longer but no more.
Edited 2009-02-23 18:38 UTC
Yeah, people wanting to put linux in these beware of the GMA 500:
“Intel’s Poulsbo Driver A Bloody Mess?” —
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=NzAyOQ
They promised a 720p screen, and 1024×576 is not that. That’s a 576p PAL widescreen screen, not 720p HD. I hope DELL offers us what they promised.
And I just read on Engadget that the Mini 10, like the Mini 12, won’t be upgradeable beyond 1 GB of RAM.
I had high hopes for this model to replace my Acer Aspire One, but I won’t touch it now.
I was waiting for the Mini 10, but GMA-500 graphics and non-upgradable RAM are deal killers for me. I went ahead and ordered the Lenovo S10 I had been eyeing.
The summary got me hoping the vertical resolution would be a little taller than the usual 600, but instead it’s shorter. Dagnabit, people use computers for more than just watching movies! Cutting vert res to 576 not only hurts text-editing and web-browsing, but also shuts out all the low-power games that otherwise could’ve run at 800×600 fullscreen.
At the other extreme, 720p makes stuff too small on anything below 13″, IMO. I understand there’s some demand for it though.
I agree! My current laptop has 1280×800 16:10 widescreen, and I’m finding the 800 pixel height to be about the minimum of what I need. I wouldn’t want to go to 600 pixels high, much less 576.
Still, it’s less then other netbooks…
Still, it’s less than other netbooks…
Sorry, but I felt this needs to be said. OSnews is one of the few sites on the web I still expect to live up to certain standards
Mmm, I rarely make that mistake. Will get it fixed. Reminder, though: English is still not my native tongue.
English IS my native tongue and I still make that mistake. 😉
I never make that mistake…and I don’t have a tongue.
When will these netbooks release a backlit keyboard?
I’ve seen a few ‘hacks’ but these aren’t the real thing.
I want something from the factory.
You could learn to touch-type in the meantime.
And only 1GB of RAM thanks to Microsoft. Cheers for that Microsoft, love you lots – enthusiasts everywhere -x-.
What do you mean?
It has only 1GB of non-upgradable RAM because Microsoft only permits XP on netbooks if they have <=1GB of RAM.
More specifically, the licence for the cheap cut-down netbook version of Windows XP only permits 1GB of RAM, and the software only utilises 1GB of RAM. If you want to use more RAM and Windows on netbook that was supplied with the netbook edition of Windows, you need to upgrade Windows.
Perhaps they did it for anti-trust reasons, i.e. they can’t very well offer a cheaper version of Windows just because it is in a sector where the competition are very successful – so they offer a cheaper version which is more limited. Or perhaps I am being paranoid, perhaps they just wanted to protect their revenue streams – offer cheap Windows for netbooks, but not offer something that would be useful on most other PCs (otherwise, what is to stop Dell putting the netbook edition of XP on all their machines, making it cheaper as well as better* than Vista).
http://www.techspot.com/news/31996-microsoft-retains-1gb-ram-limit-…
* whether XP is better than Vista is debatable, personally I don’t think so, but I know many do.
Edited 2009-02-25 13:53 UTC
Is it a better value then the Mini 9?
http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?oc=dncwxa1&c=us&…
Honest question. New to the netbook thing.