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So, Dell comes out with a new netbook.  At first, the Mini 12 was just a rumor, but it is all official.  It comes complete with a 12-inch display (up from their earlier Mini 9 model), although it is pretty much geared for the same crowd.  According to Dell, it is super for “teens, tweens, travelers and ‘Tweeters’ to surf the Web, chat with friends, blog, stream content, upload photos or enjoy online videos, music and games.” 

Japan gets it first

Oddity of the deal—Japan gets it before the US.  It’s available in Japan for about a month and then will be available to buy online for about $600 base price starting the end of November.  For that price, you pretty much get the standard set of specs for any other basic netbook.  A gig of RAM, Vista, either a 60 or 80 GB hard drive, and Wi-Fi packaged into the system.  No real bells and whistles, but not the worst system out there by far.  They also offer a built in webcam, Bluetooth, and claim to have a battery life of about three hours.

Vista, really?

What makes me wonder with the whole offerings in the basic package is the OS that Dell selected.  Vista Basic?  On this system?  Vista takes a HECK of a lot to run correctly and a netbook with this amount of RAM and hard drive?  Ummmm…I think they just may be asking for some customer complaints until they come out with the XP and Unbuntu versions Dell says are going to show up later this year.  Because just about anyone that has used Vista will tell you, Microsoft’s “suggestions” for the requirements for using Vista are baloney.  Your system is NOT gonna run right on 1 GB of RAM with a 40 or 60 GB hard drive and you really should have a minimum of a Pentium 4 or dual core processor.

Taking on the Macbook Air

Some are comparing the Inspiron Mini 12 to the MacBook Air.  It weighs in at 2..27 pounds and is 0.92 inches thick.  So the comparisons to the Air begin, even though it is slightly thicker, which may be due in part to the row of function keys it sports that the previous Mini didn’t have, as well as additional USB ports. 

Well, it may be a tad thicker, but for that little bit of extra weight you have to lug around, you get to shave about $1,000 off the price tag of the Air.  Although, granted, you are also obviously compromising some in the quality department with the Air offering full CPU and NVIDIA graphics.

Dell is still a name most know and trust.  Definitely at the upper end of the price scale for netbooks, the Inspiron Mini 12 should be interesting to see how the actual hands-on reviews pan out.

Via [dailytech]

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