The Mysterious Dell Mini-Notebook
Those people who have shown interest in Dells mini-notebook project thats been labelled the Dell E, (or Dell Inspiron 910, or Mini Inspiron, or a host of others) should probably be looking at the Dell Latitute E4200, because it’s remarkably close to the rumoured mini-notebook, and has a decent screen, keyboard, and up-to 16 hours of battery life.
The big similarities between the E4200 and the rumoured 910 are;
Weight : Around the 1kg mark for both.
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Storage :** Both use SSD (the E4200 goes to 128GB with “ultra performance” options to 64GB)
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CPU :** The “Core 2 Duo ULV” quoted in the E4200 specs could quite easily end up being an Chip from Intels Atom family.
Connectivity : Both have 802.11a/g/n & 3G/EvDO options.
Size : I haven’t seen dimensions for the 910, but taking Acers Aspire One (249x170x29mm) or the MSI Wind (260x180x19mm) as a model at the E4200’s 291x204x20mm doesn’t seem too far off.
The main differences seem to be;
Screen Size : 8.9" @ 1024x600 (rumoured for the 910) to 12.1" @ 1280x800 for the E4200 (A common complaint about mini-notebooks is screen size and readability, so a bigger screen may make for a big win with customers)
Installed OS : Linux (rumoured) -v- Windows shown for E4200 (but it’s not that hard to install Linux, and shipping an E4200 with Linux would result in a cheaper machine).
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Chipset :** Intel 945GSE with 945GMS graphics (rumoured) -v- GS45 Express with 4500MHD graphics _(The GS45/4500MHD is a more recent chipset combination, it would seem strange to build a new laptop around an old chipset spec which doesn’t support DirectX 10)_
With Dells history of having “Coming Soon” products on it’s site (as is the case with the E4200) it seems strange that there’s no mention of an Inspiron 910 on Dells website, yet some of the tech news sites have been saying that it was due to already have been released..