14 DAY TRIAL // It is coming! Dell's Inspiron Mini, that small candy-red sub-notebook that Michael Dell was caught carrying around a few weeks back, is just around the corner. And, as you might have expected (who didn't?), the "Inspiron Mini" is going to be powered by an Intel Atom processor, which means that we still have to wait a while before we can get our hands on one. The same goes for the Eee PC, Wind and Aspire One, as we already know by now.
However, the one thing that you have to forget about Dell's netbook is its name since, from now on, the Inspiron Mini will be known as Dell E, at least until Dell finally decides to offer its netbook the official treatment. Just bear in mind that, until that happens, even the Dell E name can be subject to change. Oh yeah, and it appears that we could be seeing the netbook in many different colors, just like in the case of Dell's current Inspiron 1525, 1720 and others.
Engadget is responsible for posting the details about Dell's upcoming netbook, as they succeeded in getting their hands on a couple of displays featuring it. From what we can see in the slides provided by them, Dell will market its netbook in two different models, one having an 8.9-inch display and the other a 12.1-inch one. Apparently, the 8.9-inch variant is meant provide users with an alternative to Asus' Eee PC 900, while the 12.1-inch one is aiming at competing with the MacBook Air and Lenovo's X300. But don't get your hopes high for the 12.1-inch version, because it is not going to offer the computing power its supposed-to-be competitors can provide. It is still based on the low-energy Intel Atom processors and will provide a maximum storage capacity of 40 GB, with 1 GB of RAM memory.
As you might have expected, Dell's netbook will come with strong Internet support, on both the hardware and the software side. Both models bring Wi-FI 11g, BT, WiMAX and WWAN support, and can run either a Linux or a Windows XP operating system. They will come with built-in 0.3 MP web cameras and are said to provide a maximum of 9 hours of autonomy (for the 12.1-inch model, running on a 6-cell battery).
These netbooks are expected to come out on the market sometime in October or November this year, with a second version expected in Q2 2009. And, just to get you more excited, the price for Dell E starts at $299.