World First Review of Dell's 12.1in Netbook 133
An anonymous reader points to what's claimed to be "the world's first look at Dell's 12.1" netbook," running at Australian Personal Computer Magazine. There's a bit of gushing at the beginning, but this is followed by some informative pictures, informal battery-life tests, and interesting background about the machine's components. Upshot: it's a well-made, decent-performing small laptop with a better keyboard than smaller netbooks and more wireless options than most. However, it's shorter on battery life (bigger screen, smaller battery) than Dell's smaller Mini 9, and less easily upgraded.
Australians (Score:5, Informative)
At $1000 I'm not sure who this is targeted at.
1000 AUD is about 600 USD, which seems in line with the competition.
Working mobile (Score:5, Informative)
I think it is quite useful of you want to work while travelling in an airplane on a train. The 9" netbooks are not really good for anything that involves a lot of typing.
A bought a DELL latitude x200 off ebay a couple of years ago for exactly that reason and I have never regretted it. Back then this was still a business notebook and costed $3000+ (I paid $250, years later). The $999 price point is not too bad.
The main drawback seems to be the battery. But did you know they had outlets in many european trains?
Re:Australians (Score:3, Informative)
In all fairness, the RRP costing might have been done before the recent dramatic devaluation of the $AU - A couple of months back it was around $US.95 - The Australian price could actually go UP in coming months to cushion Dell Australia's profits.
But anyway, as I noted in another reply, I purchased an HP 'notebook' for a similar Australian price about a month ago. I mightn't be Dell's target user but, at the same price, I would still prefer to buy the 12" HP.
Re:Captain Obvious to the rescue! (Score:5, Informative)
I question too. $1000 (CDN) bought me my current laptop (an HP tx2512) in August, which has a 1.9ghz AMD X2 processor, 3GB ram, 250GB hard drive, half decent video (ATI 3200HD), same 12.1" screen size (same 1280x800 resolution too), and is a convertible tablet. About the only thing the Dell does better is that it is thinner, a little lighter (mine is only 2 and some pounds), and has a built-in 3G modem, though I can stick one of those in my expresscard slot (which the Dell lacks) if I had need.
Glad I didn't buy a first gen Netbook (Score:4, Informative)
The "netbook" market has moved so fast over the last year, I'm glad I didn't stump up for an early Eee PC. This looks like it may hit my sweet spot of price/performance/size.
I'm at least a year from buying a new laptop and I can't see me replacing my current MacBook with another mac. As much as I like MacOS, I can't justify the cost of a full spec laptop. Currently, little of what I do stretches my MacBook's performance, no games, no video editing. A cheap, portable and rugged netbook running linux is just up my street. Another MacBook would be a nice to have, but at a price-tag that I just cant justify.
I think this is something some manufacturers are missing, fewer and fewer people are pushing the limits of their existing hardware. There just doesn't seem to be the pressure from software as there used to be. I know there are applications that need more power than a cheap latop can deliver (games, high-end graphics work, video editing), but this is becoming an increasingly small segment of the whole market.
Paul
Vista rating of 1.0? (Score:1, Informative)
Just FYI, the article says that the system has a rating of 1.0 in the Windows Experience Index, but if you look closely at the screenshot it actually says that the system is unrated, and Vista just shows 1.0 by default if it hasn't been rated.
Re:This is going the wrong way (Score:2, Informative)
The EEE had me hopefull we would see really affordable laptops. But then it was a big hit. Prices went up specs went up.
The eee 1000 with 40 GB SSD is less than $500 now. I call that a real bargain. I'm just waiting a respectable interval before I pick one up to round out my eee collection, currently consisting of a 9" model. I justify this by being able to hack more comfortably on the road. Admittedly I'm stretching but the only reason I contemplate this extravagance is the low price. Two of them and barely half the price of the Thinkpad I just got rid of. Admittedly the Thinkpad is much more powerful, but in my experience, not a lot more useful, and I certainly would not carry it around in the flap of my camera bag like I do the eee.
Re:pricey (Score:3, Informative)
well this is being posted from a netbook.
Screen size is 9 inch with 1024 by 600 resolution. This is quite a comfortable size and is sharper than my old hp 15inch with 1024x768 resolution. Smaller Screen with Smaller pixels. Admittedly the netbooks with smaller screens are a bit too cramped with 800x480.
Keyboard size on 9inch versions seems adequate I can type at a reasonable rate without hitting the wrong keys.
Processing power is good enough in ubuntu and Linux in general. 2000 in a Vm isn't super fast but its quite usable.
in short its probably roughly equivalent to my old HP, The Atom processor isn't quite as fast but its good enough. Really thats the key too the whole thing. It is good enough.
Now what makes it better than my old HP is the size its small enough to fit in a glovebox or for the ladies a handbag. power wise it uses about 22,23 watts and even with the stingy battery Acer supplied a comfortable 2 hours can be had. Better batteries can increase that to 5 or 7 hours.
Storage ranges from 4Gb to 120Gb depending on model and extra space is easily added with Sd cards and usb sticks. When you consider that a show such as hero's can be just 300 Meg for an episode a 2Gb Sd card will keep you entertained for hours, if you want to work on a document you could do that too. Wifi and wired connections are built in, some have 3G adapters or you can use a usb hspda dongle or a cell phone as a modem (i use a 10mm usb bluetooth adapter to get net access most places it costs me £5 a month or 50p a day if i feel a need for it).
It's the portability and price that really makes a netbook and i really wonder if by buying a 12inch dell it really isn't too big and pricey. Your starting to get into regular laptop territory and they are just too big, toting a full size laptop soon becomes a chore.
Well you might say well get a pda then, however they have extremely small screens and pretty terrible keyboards if they have them at all picking away with a stylus is a terrible way to type and handwriting recognition far too hit and miss. If you have a net enabled mobile, you probably find that web pages are hard to navigate and interact with. Yet the same mobile when used as a modem suddenly becomes useful for more than just phone calls (or in the case of the pda sat nav).
Storage is easily added when needed, yes you can burn a DVD with a usb connected drive. (mines recycled + an external case) and if I need a bigger screen keyboard or mouse I can plug them in. Off course once I am in contact with my home Lan everything is accessible. I generally print using my samsung lazer printer.
When I'm out and about i have an inverter which allows me to charge my netbook when it needs it. I can park up and still sit behind the wheel and work or pop it on the dashboard and watch a film. My Car stereo has an aux jack but in cars without a small fm transmitter or even a cassette adapter will work as well.
I could choose to read an ebook too.
So its replacing a few devices I might have bought, a full size laptop just can't be used so easily. Airports are good places to have a netbook too, even a kitchen worktop or a coffee table. Students love em, they replace full size laptops and are easily transported from class to class.
They could be better, touch screens, webcams that can face away from the keyboard. screens that can lay flat and usable, would it be useful to record a lecture whilst taking notes maybe. maybe use it as a sketch pad capture an image with the webcam and annotate it perhaps.
So yes there are plenty of uses for a netbook it certainly calls into question the need for any other pc and a dedicated area of the home.
Re:Captain Obvious to the rescue! (Score:5, Informative)
AU$1000=US$620=CN$788=GBP391=EUR492