As if the market isn’t already flooded with netbooks, I guess all that European people needed/wanted was a new netbook release. Despite the fact that most people are nowadays interested in tablets, and would rather buy an iPad for use on the road and on the couch (only because Apple’s tablet is the only reasonable choice available on the market right now), various manufacturers are still boasting their netbooks and releasing new models. The same can be said about Dell. Recently, the company’s latest netbook, the Mini 10, was spotted on Dell’s European sites as the Dell Inspiron 1028.
For the most part, the Dell Mini 1018 is an upgrade to the currently available Dell Mini 1012. The design of the netbook hasn’t changed at all in fact, so unless you read the spec sheet (and the price tag) you won’t be able to tell the two models apart. What’s sad to say, at least when it comes to a Dell product, which is usually sold in a wide variety of colors, is that the Dell Mini 1018 will only be available for black (at least for the time being)…
So what does this netbook bring new to the market, for it to gain any interest in customers? Well, the touchpad on this small laptop has suffered a slight change and it appears to now have separate left and right buttons instead of integrated buttons. The processor has also received a slight upgrade, from the 1.66 GHz Intel Atom 450 to a 1.66Ghz Intel Atom N455chip (that offers support for DDR3 memory). The other difference is the color. The previous model sported a two tone finish, with a white base and a colored lid while the new one is all black.
The rest of the specification sheet remains the same. You’ll be getting a netbook with a 10.1 inch screen with a native resolution of 1024 x 600 pixels, 1GB of RAM, 160GB hard drive and Windows 7 Starter Edition. Other features include: VGA, three USB 2.0 ports, audio jacks, a 3 in 1 memory card reader, WiFi and a webcam. On the not so bright side, the Mini 1018 won’t be available with a higher resolution screen of 1366 x 768 pixels or a Broadcom Crystal HD video accelerator so people who are interested in these features should stick to the Inspiron Mini 1012 which will still be available from the manufacturing company.
You can already see the new model on the websites of Dell UK and Dell Italy. It has a starting price of 279 Euros which roughly equals $358. It will also become available in other regions this autumn, as Dell was so kind to inform. It’s not clear however whether this netbook will also be released in the US, and there’s not sign of it on the US website so far.
