@hammertime94: touch wood = knock on wood :)

billcanada

@mhlaxp: Thanks!

I'm very likely in, I'm just not sure which yet.

strider_mt2k

@sirIvan3: I actually use it a lot. I am into design so I used it mainly for rendering. Now I have a new laptop so the Dell one is retiring.

billcanada

@bill de canada, dude how the EFFF did you dell last a 5er? is its only purpose a giz read? if you even added online rub out time you would have fried that mofo by now

sirIvan3

@billcanada: I really hope you meant that like "knock on wood"...

hammertime94

Why have I not seen this thing called the Minispiron yet?

regnez

Oh and because Engadget doesn't want to put the meat-and-potatoes right where we want them, here are specs for the 8.9" E and the 12.1" E Slim.

mhlaxp

Meet the death of the Eee. This is priced just right, Dell really packed a whollop with this one. Goodbye Asus, you had your chance and you blew it. I can't wait to get my hands on one of these things.

GiantEnemyCrab

The Wind was looking good, but it really let me down, spec-wise. They top-end E Slim says it will sport 9 hours of battery life and still weigh just 2.6 lbs with all its lovely accouterments. But of course then we'll be out of the lovely $299 territory and probably securely in the the $700 range. I might bite on the E Video + or whatever they named it.

mhlaxp

How can anyone bitch at this when it's starting at only $299? That's a ridiculously good deal, and it's even pretty nice-looking.

ChoadNamath

$299? You serious? I hope so. Hell even $399 would be ok.

Dell's got game, and Asus is shooting their eeePC to the ground with that ugly eeePC 1000 fugly bezel....

This actually looks nice like the HP one, only w/o the awkwardly placed left/right button clicks!

Looks good!

CutePuppyz

@electrikecho: If they're made (or supported) in India would that still make them new Dell-E?

strider_mt2k

@Mammoth: Dude, we're getting a Dell!

MasterJoefus

Hmmm.

Not as excited as I was...I guess we'll see.

strider_mt2k

Should call it Dell-do (a small device)...oh never mind.

billcanada

Stack a few and you get a great Dell-E sandwich.

electrikecho

I have a Dell laptop for 5 years now. It is still working well and I have only formatted it twice so far (touch wood).

billcanada

That's 33% as many E's as the Eee, therefore, 33% as good.

I am holding out for the HP Eeeeeeeeeeee

Hiphopopotamus

On another note, I do like the look of this a lot more than the EEE or the Mini-Note.

sergio_e

Oh boy. A Dell.

Mammoth

Here we go again...

Wess

Deli? Noooooooo... They didn't even try.

sergio_e

Still have 2 Dell 600ms from 5 years ago. Kicking around, not exactly lightning fast but stable, all original components. I think 1 of them got a mobo replacement but that was a manufacturing defect and repaired the first week I bought it.

They're used mainly for outdoors BBQ recipe lookup and other tasks that would put the nicer laptops or my ipod touch in precariously messy situations.

If the upgraded one is nice looking enough and <$1K I may get one as an alternative to the Macbook Air.

meefer

Lame name... and, waiting for more specs. Looks good enough.

Bokusatsu_Tenshi

I thought they had a 10" screen limit size in the XP restrictions for mini notes? Do they have a special deal with Microsoft?
Other than a 8.9 instead of a 10" like the wind I think they have a winner. Personally I like the 12" better. 10 I
m thinking is the minimum I would go. I just sold my M1210 for a M1330 and I think the 12.1" is about right for me. I still need to power of the M1330 though so I would get this for the bathroom. Woops, I mean for the wife.

fastm3driver

Hmm looks nice. Maybe in a year when these mini-notes are mainstream... I think it may be too early for me just yet. But maybe in a year I look at an Eee: Multi-touch, especially for scrolling, is a MUST HAVE feature. I will not buy a notebook without it (the only exception being the trackpoint+middle button combo on my T61). I hate to say it, but I would really love if Apple entered this marketplace. I mean, look what they did to the ultra-thins... Envy 133 (based on Intel/Ziba Metro), X300, X200. Apple is rarely first, but when they do something, they push the whole market segment along rather rapidly. Just look at mp3 players, touchscreen phones, multitouch, etc. Apple was not first, sometimes not best, but they were always most significant. Not bad for what is essentially a cult computer company... one with single-digit market share.

Tacos

Is Dell E pronounced like "deli"?

josh_cali

I had no plans to get any of these EEE PC type laptops but now that Dell is bringing one out I cannot wait. They need to hurry I am gonna go crazy if I don't get one.

Krutch

hell, if they start at 299...

i might try and get one of their refurbed units.

hella cheap.

endless

$200 for the laptop... $1000 for tech support for it.

HawkSkater0

@sirIvan3: It's not a dell, but I have an XP equipped Compaq desktop that has been going strong for 5+ years and still happily runs Photoshop, Illustrator, Rhino 3D, etc... Obviously it's not lightning speed, but for a computer that has been turned on 24 hours a day for almost every day of the last 5+ years, it's not doing poorly, and has never had a single freeze up or component failure. I am almost going to be sad to get rid of it this summer when I finally upgrade to a laptop.

Joe-King

if jobs would start another trend in making a bigger notebook (let's say 20+ incher), i'd bet every manufacturer would up and follow!

lomster

Does it taste as good as it looks (and name implies)?

Metkis

I am so glad these mini PCs have FINALLY come down in price. The only thing keeping me from ever buying one was the ridiculous pricetag on them. Something like this would be perfect for toting around campus. (Yes, it's 2008 and I said toting. I also like Ike.) Dell has made huge progress in the general quality and sturdiness of their laptop cases of late. I hope this one follows that trend. I must have it.

coketown

Name doesnt change what it is, Color me sold.

PERFECT road-tuning laptop. Absolutely Perfect. Small, lightweight, more than powerful enough to use a telnet terminal, plus you can chill and steal some wi-fi war-driving, and grab some interbuts on the road.

impreza

@strider_mt2k: Indeed, and in a thousand years, they'll get recycled by Wall-E

electrikecho

To join the small crowd in the old laptop pissing match: in January, I finally replaced my 9-year old Dell Inspiron 7500 (purchased 1st quarter of my freshman year - Oct. 1999). I've been running XP Pro SP2 on it for ages. Autocad 2008, Adobe CS2, etc. all worked...of course not incredibly fast...but they worked. It had some issues early on in it's life, eventually claiming the original hard drive and mobo (both of which Dell graciously replaced). Alas, when my wireless PCMCIA card went the ways of the fishes in January, I finally decided it was time to retire my 9 pound behemoth.

lankysob

certainly not the most original name i have heard.

also looks like the didn't fix the weird acres-of-bezel-above-the-keyboard-for-no-reason problem either... i thought was rumored to be "fixed" by production. guess not.

so far i think i like the MSI Wind the best looks wise.

x23

I like the look but question throwing it on a barbecue.

hardenstuhl

@lomster:
Maybe you forgot, but it was Asus and the eeePC that started all this, not Jobs or Apple.

regnez

Okay, Diamondville processor? Cnet says that's sort of a Celeron descendent? How does this compare performance wise with Intel's Atom chip (performance lifetime etc). Also any solid numbers for the 12 incher? It would be interesting to see price-points. Wish the 8.9 incher had a HD option besides SSD (more capacity). L I think the Wind is still a "win" for me.

SurupaTaygete

Need some more info before I get excited over it though as far as mini notebooks goes this would be the choice probably.

jsin1276

@SurupaTaygete: Diamondville and Silverthorne are both Atom processors.

Oh, and because of Engadget's link-shuffling my old ones appear to be wrong. Here are some updated ones:

8.9" Dell E specs

12.1" Dell E Slim specs

mhlaxp

@RussianMillionaire: LOL that plug had to end up in here eventually. XD

I hope this ends up in the major vendors instead of just online like a lot of other Dells. I really want to test drive one of these suckers.

Kaiser-Machead's got LindsayJoy's cookies on the SuperDrive

Mac Air the BEST!!!

RussianMillionaire

Why E? Just...why?

doobiebros22

I've been waiting for this one. I need it NOW though

LittleBigPlaneteer (Follow me!!)

I like it, but the keyboard sucks. I'd rather spend the extra $50 for an Aspire One with a better keyboard and more capacity, to be honest. But it's still nice to see a 9" mini for under $300, 4GB capacity or no - it's the price of the 2GB, 7" Eee, after all.

Gizmog

Every Dell that we tried failed. It's absurd. Worst quality ever. You may as well get a cheap Chinese clone!

altus

@altus:

I don't know how wide your experience is, but the company I worked for some years ago had nothing but Dell laptops and they worked remarkably well. That was in an environment with several hundred employees and a ton of travel. There were laptops that were all banged up from being "on the road" but they still worked great. I had always considered Dell computers to be of poor quality but that experience changed my opinion completely. E.g. the Dell D-series (D600, D610, D620 etc.) are very sturdy and reliable machines!

At my current job it's all IBM / Lenovo Thinkpads and while I think they look and feel much nicer and higher quality I wouldn't necessarily say that the Thinkpads are more robust or reliable in terms of failures. The Dell's were built like tanks (but also looked like it!).

In any case, I can only comment on my experience of those models that I've used so other models could be very different.

Kim98

I gotta hand it to Dell...
They can sure pack a lot of ugly in a small device!

ThriftyTechie

dell must be taking advantage of the eee name, so retards who are thick go onto dell and think 'ooh its one of those eee things... and only 300 bucks!!'

hired_geek

@hired_geek: Except faster and cheaper than one of those eee things.

If they were looking to poach, they should have called it the Dell Wind.

Hiphopopotamus

I am kinda wondering what OS's are gonna be on the table at these price ranges.
Hopefully we won't see them drift up as we get closer to release.

strider_mt2k

@altus:

Dells are cheap clones, where do you think they are made, Austin? Try Malaysia. But they work and if you dont like one you can send it back for a full refund. Try that with a Sony or Lenovo or Toshiba from Newegg or Mwave or J&R, etc.

Rick36

at $299 it's probably going to be about as powerful as an abacus.

buyj3llo

Resolution specs or STFU IMO. (unless I missed them somewhere, then I'll STFU) K thanks

PJ_the_jackass

@altus: Agree with Rick36. Dell never was sold as they were Apple/Sony. I now have a Sony, yes it is more quiet, less hot, a bit better looking... You get what you pay for. Their technical service/customer service was excellent. Thumbs up. The Apple customer service would not even talk to you if your computer was over 5 years.

billcanada

I can't wait for the MSI Wind, Eee, E battlemodo!

trendspotter

@PJ_the_jackass: 1024x600 on the small one. (I like it)

Someone posted links a bunch of comments back.

strider_mt2k

@trendspotter: Indeed!

I have to admit I'm kinda jazzed over these.
I'm digging the small one...well...big time.

strider_mt2k

This looks perfect! I have been looking for a small laptop to take on vacations... something that is inexpensive, in case it gets stolen or damaged. All I want it for is email and mapping while I travel. I think this is the answer!

GentryRacing

Considering the stories I read on Consumerist about Dell, I would think twice about getting one from them.

theblackdog

But, will it float, blend, play WoW, or be an iPhone-killer??

ackthbbft

@ThriftyTechie: Really? The general sentiment on here is that they look pretty good.

I might rock the the E Slim in about a year when I'm due for a new notebook.

DomZ

Hi, Just trying to decide whether to buy a Dell D630 or Thinkpad T61. Lenovo has a current promotion and the pricing is very close to the current Dell pricing for the D630. Any thoughts ?

JoannaKnulf

hired_geek: "...and think 'ooh its one of those eee things... and only 300 bucks!!'"

I don't know, that could cut both ways, like "Eewww, one of those Eeee things and it's $300, eewww!!."

gadgetplay

I for one love that the Ultra Thin Laptop Warsare on! The fact that Dell is going to have Ubuntu as an option at release is going to make the world wide launch that much more significant. Countries like Brazil, Lebanon, China, the whole darned EU, etc. are going to go crazy for a decent piece of Ultra Mobile Linux hardware that doesn't come with an over-bloated Licensing fee that they would never use. That plus the fact that a NEW piece of hardware is going to have Linux drivers out the gate from the manufacturer is just going to make it that much more enticing for those looking to try Linux for the first time ( Vista pushes more people to new OS's ). http://www.jackpicks.com

SaryuDuck