14 DAY TRIAL // Two of the world's IT manufacturer leaders, Dell and MSI, announced their plans to roll out new products in the low-cost, mini-note category of notebooks. Last week, Dell said that its "Inspiron Mini" would soon get official, while MSI served us a Wind availability on June 16. The idea of developing low-cost notebooks seems to become a trend these days as more and more manufacturers announce new entries, but all thanks should go to ASUS, as it was the first in the area with its Eee PC 701 4G.
Dell has recently allowed some journalists to take a glimpse at a pre-production Inspiron Mini model, one that differed from the original photos made public. While the first published photos showed a glossy red lid, the pre-production model featured a black one, and there were few minor changes in the keyboard lettering and Function modifiers.
The keyboard layout was an issue capable of making most of the customers really unhappy. The first images given to the press showed that the top row Function keys were missing. Referring to this problem, Dell Consumer Group Senior VP, Alex Gruzen said that the layout "was a trade off so the rest of the keys could be bigger. The reason we were later to the market is we've been working on getting the right keyboard".
The new keyboard design is meant to accommodate the finest user experience for this class of products.
Dell should be very sure of this, and perhaps it sees here something we are not able to figure out yet, but those Function keys may cause some negative responses from some of the customers, although the machine looks quite attractive. This model has the Function keys eliminated due to the intrusion of the battery.
On the same area of mini-note news, Micro Star International announced that it already has plans for a next generation Wind. The present model has received enthusiastic reviews around the web, although it was lunched only a week ago.
The company says that it plans to develop a thinner, lighter version of Wind, although the 10" notebook is already small enough and weighs no more than 2.2 pounds in its base configuration. MSI plans to launch the next generation Wind sometime during the first quarter of 2009. The new model will feature the same processor and chipset as the current one, and it will be intended for business customers.
MSI is determined to walk even further on this path, so it looks at the possibility of designing even a smaller model, one that will resemble more Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs). This model is supposed to feature a 7" or smaller screen and a slide-out keyboard.
