Slip-up spills beans on Dell notebooks

Apparent specifications for Dell's future notebooks were briefly exposed by Google's search engine Tuesday, before the spreadsheet was removed from a Dell FTP site and from Google's cache.

The basic configurations for the Dell Inspiron e1405, Inspiron e1505, Inspiron 640m and Inspiron 6400 were available, along with several other unannounced Dell products, via a Dell FTP (File Transfer Protocol) site. A poster at technology review site NotebookReview.com noticed the spreadsheet and posted the link in one of the site's discussion forums.

A base configuration of the Inspiron 6400 is expected to come with Intel's Core Solo T1300 processor for $830, with a 6400 notebook with the dual-core T2300 processor available for $880, according to the spreadsheet. The e1505 appears to be virtually the same notebook. Dell often releases very similar products under different brand names to target different audiences.

The Inspiron 640M is expected to feature the T1300 Core Solo processor for $859 or the T2300 Core Duo processor for $959, according to the spreadsheet. The e1405 look like it will be available in similar configurations for similar prices.

Dell appears to be planning to introduce Intel's Core Duo processor into its consumer and small-business notebooks before moving over to its larger corporate customers, who are generally steered toward Latitude notebooks. Dell gets the majority of its revenue from corporate accounts, but Intel's decision to accelerate the launch of the Core Duo processor has forced PC vendors to pick and choose their spots when introducing notebooks based on Intel's most powerful notebook processor yet.

Dell's prices for all of the dual-core notebooks revealed by the spreadsheet range from close to $900 to about $1,500, depending on the particular notebook and the configuration. Dell's ordering system lets customers pick and choose several different components while ordering a system. There was no information about other specifications, such as memory, hard drives, optical drives or display size.

"We do not comment on unannounced products," a Dell representative told CNET News.com.

Without Dell's confirmation, it's impossible to say with absolute certainty what the 36M-byte file represents, but the specifications and pricing of the Dell Core Duo notebooks match the expectations of analysts and company observers. The Excel spreadsheet was created in 2003 by Dell Computer Corporation and was last updated on Jan. 26, according to the properties tag on the file and the index of the spreadsheet. In the spreadsheet, prices and specifications for older Dell products appear alongside recently introduced products and unannounced PCs with Intel's Core Duo processors, which were expected to ship in February.

Google's search engine technology delivers an exhaustive list of responses to most queries, but information that companies and individuals would prefer to keep private sometimes gets caught by Google's crawlers. The search engine keeps a cache of pages from the last time it crawled the Web, but Webmasters can use an automated system on Google's Web site to remove links that were not meant to be shared with the public.

A Google representative declined to comment on whether Dell requested the removal of the link to the cache. The dead link to the FTP site could also be found with Yahoo's search engine, where the cached link had also been removed.

[Llib Setag]

MacBook Pro trumps Dell ...

January 2006 Intel Core Duo in all the new Apple MacBook Pro notebooks...

http://www.apple.com/macbookpro

Also in AIO iMacs too...

Michael Dell, doesn't get cold standing in Steve Jobs' shadow all the time?

[jturnbow]

Message has been deleted.

[darrius3365]

re:

Although Apple announced the Core Duo based notebook in early January, it will not SHIP until Feb 15 (plus or minus a week). The PC vendors whose websites have Core Duo based notebooks listed (some on the same day as Apple announcement, like Gateway, Sony, and Acer) won't SHIP until mid-Feb (plus or minus a week). Dell, HP, Alienware, etc probably won't be posting new models on their websites until they can actually start shipping them.

Bringing up the iMac is not that big of an advantage inasmuch as PC desktop users have been able to buy Hyper-Threading processors (HT Technology) since 2002 (?) and dual-cores (Pentium D) have been used in PCs since 2005. Additionally, Intel has the Intel Extreme Edition processor, which is a dual-core processor with HT technology, which as been out for a couple of months. The Intel Core Duo seems to be a notebook chip, making it less powerful than the Pentium 4 (HT), Pentium D (Dual Core), and Intel Extreme Edition. Apple is using the Core Duo in its iMac to maintain it's small size.

I am not bashing Apple, for I respect them a lot. I just needed to make sure the facts are straight. Apple will eventually produce their pro lines with whatever the best Intel processors are at the time.

[Charleston Charge]

Is it that surprising

with Apples switch to Intel that MacBook Pro will be using the new Intel chips? Dell has been using Intel for years so is it really that surprising that Dell will be using this chip also?

[redstarSQD]

Dell already shipping core duo

So i'm not sure what your point is...?

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=36118&page=50

and on jan 9th you could order the 9400 and apply the secret 650$ cdn off coupon towards it.

[Peter Bonte]

Intentional slip?

The prices seem low for a dual core notebook, did they
intentionally slip the specs to bugger Apple?

OSX vs Windoze is worth $500 EASY!

Dell can scam its lemmings all they want, in the end, the hardware
from Dell and Apple will be comparable on price and performance
(Apple still wins with their design though).

But no matter what Dell puts into their ugly bricks they call laptops,
it will still run that train-wreck of an OS called Windoze. I'll pony
up another $500-$750 for the productivity of OS X any day!

[NWLB]

No news there.

Gee, a MAC user that doesn't like Windows or Intel hardware, thats news.

[Stan Johnson]

I would pick Windows over OSX any day!

I would pick Windows over OSX any day! After all there is real work that needs to be done.

[darrius3365]

re:

I don't understand what all the flap over Windows is about. I have had a Windows XP based computer since 2002 and I have not had any reinstalls or viruses. The only time I am forced to reboot is when I install software that requires a reboot after installation.