Mobile Computing News

Dell has confirmed in front of US journalists that the “Inspiron Mini”, an affordable laptop along the same lines as the Eee PC, will hit markets in the summer of 2008. But Dell is still keeping the laptop’s exact specifications secret.

“We’re starting this summer”, Dell’s president of the consumer department told APC magazine. While Dell has already referred to the device on their website as the “Inspiron Mini”, the company does not want to reveal any information regarding its specifications. However, insider circles have discovered that the computer will be imbued with Intel’s Atom processor. Whether they will use a trimmed down version of Windows XP for cheap computers or Ubuntu Linux, has yet to be decided according to APC.

The journalists have discovered that Dell is working foremost on the computer’s keyboard. Some of the standard function keys are missing, but the rest of the computer’s operating keys should be larger as a result. According to APC, the current device even differs slightly from the version that Michael Dell introduced at the “All Things Digital” conference at the end of May.

The rest of configuration appears, based on the information gathered so far and pictures released by Dell, to correspond to the general standards of mini-laptops today: 8.9 inch display, three USB ports, and a VGA output are most likely certain to be included. It’s still unclear whether Dell will include the smaller SSD or instead opt for the larger, but more expensive, 1.8 inch hard drive. In the booming market of inexpensive PCs, Dell is definitely going to face some competition with an August 2008 release: Acer, Asus, Gigabyte, HP, MSI and VIA have all already announced similar devices, which should appear even before the Inspiron Mini. All of these mini computers should cost around 300 US dollars (£150). Dell has yet to reveal whether the Inspiron Mini will fall in the same price range.