Dell's Della and its new tech designs: Apple-esque?

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Saturday, 16 May 2009 12:24

Opinion and Analysis

With some new designs for its notebooks, netbooks and desktops, and a new shopping site aimed at women, Dell is clearly trying to up the ante in the “cool” stakes against competitors like HP, Apple and others. What’s missing?

When Dell first launched its “Inspiron Mini” range of netbooks, it differed from its competitors by having arguably the sleekest design, but a too cramped keyboard on the Mini 9 and too high a price in dollars and a fixed 1GB RAM limit for the Mini 12.

The Mini 10 soon followed, bridging the gap, but included things like an HDMI port which, for most users, was an unnecessary added extra.

This has now changed with the launch of the Dell Inspiron Mini 10v, which at US $299 is challenging its US competitors priced between US $350 to $399, but by having lower specs.

Where the US $350 and above models come with a 6-cell battery and a 160GB hard drive, Dell manages to save money by eliminating that HDMI port, using a 120GB hard drive and only offering a 3-cell battery at the US $299 price.

“Upgrading” your Mini 10v at the time of purchase to include a 6-cell battery and 160GB hard drive take the price back to US $354, but with a lower price point option that still delivers a netbook with the exact same processing power, Dell will likely try and push this model as hard as it can, until competitors price match it or come out with something even better.

Dell has also been busy showing off some of its latest models in New York, as reported (with images) by eWeek. 

Dell’s Adamo model was on display, as was the Inspiron 15, the Mini 10v and Studio models, including the Studio One 19 “all-in-one” desktop, which is Dell’s take on the all-in-one design, which like HP, offers multi-touch capabilities.

HP didn’t originally offer multi-touch, and most of Dell’s video at its site of the Studio One 19 only shows single touch in use, but at the last minute shows multi-touch zooming in and rotating a photo with two fingers in the well known iPhone style.

So, what’s missing? Please read on to page 2!