Dell E mini notebooks

I heard that Dell is coming out with the Dell E mini notebooks in August of 2008 to compete with Asus and Acer. The starting price for basic version will cost $299 and comes with only 512 MB of RAM, 4 GB SSD, Linux. Being that I will use this notebook mostly for web surfing I think this is a great price. Would you people much rather get the Acer Aspire One or Dell E?

 

4GB SSD is too tight for me. I like to have my music collection as well, and god knows how much space will be left after the linux installation, the usual applications and the swap space. I got the A1 for $340 in canada while it was on sale, so it was a no-brainer for me.

It has some good points though:

Ubuntu
Typical Dell customization options
No function keys - the wireless/brightness/etc functions will be mapped to a single Fn key = bigger keyboard; I'm going to miss alt+f4 if they don't have it linked to the Fn key though..

If reviews are good, I may consider buying it for my parents for travelling.

 

I liked the look or the E when it first appeared on Engadget, but have yo seen the keyboard? it's a qwerty, but the buttons are laid out in a grid-like fashion...

 

I would have to say that keyboard usability and looks would go to the Acer, while Dell would have a slight edge on price and performance. The Dell will also be a little bit smaller, which means that no matter what they do with the F-keys on the keyboard, it still won't be as wide as the Acer one,

I'm going to wait until August 8th to make my decision, since that's when the Aspire One with 1gb and 6-cell is out here in Canada.

 

Is there any news on the screen? That could make or break the deal.

I agree that 4GB is tight. It depends what card readers it will have. One of the great things about the One is that it has two (plus 3 USB sockets) so it is possible to keep an SDHC card in one slot and still have one free.

The price is also very likely to go up. Almost every laptot announced has been pricier once it's actually released.

 

As interesting as the Dell E sounds, every dell user i know including me and every member of my family, has had problems with Dells within 6 months of purchase

 

Most interesting about the Dell: Ubuntu (NetBook Remix?). Will it be as fast as Linpus lite on the One?
Expecting the hardware platform to be pretty much the same as the One, a simple restore from the Dell DVD might give a very nice Ubuntu release for One users.

 

Will the Dell E have an optical drive? or will it need an external?

 

Guess three times how much of an optical it'll have...


Indeed, zero. A ) It won't fit in a tiny Netbook, and B ) it would hike the base price up something seriously. It's usb and external probably on all of these, folks.

Regards, R

 

you can pick up a decent external reader (not dvd writer tho) from amazon for 30 or so pounds

 

I got my DVD writer at PC World with my One for £40. Not a deal or anything, it was just in store for 40 quid...
Rory

 

I remember at a local college I went to in jr. high school for some accelerated classes the computer lab I had a progamming class in was all Dells and I managed to get 5 of them to have fatal errors requireing hardware swap out from using QBASIC, and then the next 3 I tried wouldn't print (yet the schools Powerbooks worked flawlessly when hooked to that room network) so the teacher had to read through my program on the screen so I could get a grade. And for the best part that lab had it's computers upgraded just 4 monthes earlier.

 

thats a pretty wicked deal, you got a make/model???

 

theyre a bit sh*t then.........

 

Yeah it seems to me a lot of people have a Dell laying around somewhere that they consider to be a piece of sh*t. Including the laptop I'm on right now lol. There seem to be a lot of people out there that say Dell's are really nice, but then no one ever has one that they think is nice. Go figure.

 

i wouldn't waste my money on a cheap dell. let alone an expensive one..

i used to have an xps M2010. beautiful 20inch laptop with an immense spec for about £3000

lasted 2 months.

never again

 

http://gizmodo.com/5038298/leaked-dell- ... lease-date


aao still rules the day...dell e users weep...hope the graphics chip ant limited to 8mb of video memory cause this will fail for sure if it is...and lets hope the base 910 has 2 memory slots