Updated at 11 p.m. PST with information about Apple.
Dell is doing its part to usher in the age of the super-sized solid-state drive. For the first time, Dell laptops can be configured with the newest large-capacity SSDs from Samsung.
Back in the day (last January), laptop buyers were stuck with a Henry Fordesque choice: order any solid-state drive you want with your laptop as long as it's 64GB.
What a difference a year makes. On Friday, Dell quadrupled this to 256GB. The Samsung SSD is now available as an option on Dell's XPS M1330 and M1730 laptop lines. Apple announced a 256GB SSD option on its MacBook Pro on January 6.
Dell added a 256GB solid-state drive option to its XPS M1330 and XPS M1730 laptops
(Credit: Dell)Upgrading from the base XPS configuration with the 256GB SSD will add $400, Dell said Friday. And Dell said the SSD will "be available on additional laptops in the coming weeks."
Dell has also added a 500GB hard disk drive option that will add $150 to the base configuration price.
Solid-state drives are generally faster at getting data than hard-disk drives (and in some cases, much faster), but pricing is a hurdle for consumers. SSDs still command a premium, but that premium is shrinking. SanDisk said last week that it will begin offering a 240GB SSD for $499. SSDs with this kind of capacity had been priced well over $1,000.
Ubuntu on the XPS M1330: Give it about a week, denizens of the U.S.
(Credit: CNET Networks, Inc.)Dell is expanding its open-source offerings. The XPS M1330 laptop is now available with Ubuntu in Germany, the U.K., France, and Spain. On its Direct2Dell blog, Dell instructs would-be U.S. purchasers to "hold on a week or so."
Currently, the Inspiron 530 desktop and Inspiron 1420 laptop are the only two Dell computers to come preloaded with Ubuntu 7.10. While those looking to put Linux on a higher-end XPS model can always go the self-install route, purchasing a preloaded Ubuntu config saves you the cost of having to purchase Windows.
[Via Engadget]
Microsoft and Dell are seeing Red.
The two companies planned to announce on Friday that they were teaming up to offer three (Product) Red PCs, supporting the charitable effort that benefits women and children affected by HIV and AIDS in Africa. However, their news dribbled out early, after the New York Times' John Markoff mentioned the plans on the paper's Davos blog.
Dell plans to slather its all-in-one desktop PC, the XPS One, in red. The two are also teaming up on Red versions of the XPS M1330 and XPS 1530 notebooks, which, should be noted, were already available in red paint. The difference will be a special version of the operating system.
The PC is Red on the inside, too, with a special edition of Windows Vista Ultimate edition that includes specially themed desktop wallpaper and sidebar gadgets.
Most importantly, the two companies will donate a portion of the proceeds to the (Product) Red effort, a total joint contribution of $80 for each XPS One, and $50 for each notebook, directly to the Global Fund for each special edition PC purchased.
The move is a personal victory for Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, who has been a big proponent of (Product) Red, but it has been Apple that has been first to the market with its (Product) Red iPods. Gates told CNET News.com at last year's CES that he was trying to get his company on board with the effort.
Dell will also offer a (Product) Red printer, the 948 all-in-one printer. Dell will make a $5 contribution to the Global Fund for each purchase.
CNET News.com's Ina Fried contributed to this report.
Pity poor Dell (but not too much). The company finally got its act together on the design side, crafting the critically acclaimed XPS m1330 laptop--a superthin high-end 13-incher that we reviewed quite favorably--but actually getting it into consumers' hands was another matter entirely.
Unfortunately, when people went to order the XPS m1330, they found estimated delivery dates four or more weeks out, a ridiculous number in today's build-to-order world. In fact, while I was in L.A. for the E3 video game trade show earlier in the month, a random guy came up to me and complained that he had ordered an XPS m1330 from Dell after checking out my video and review on CNET, only to get an estimated ship date of late August.
On Dell's official Direct2Dell blog, the company previously blamed component shortages, especially for the system's LED backlit displays. According to a new blog update, Dell is finally ramping up the production line to get this popular system into the hands of consumers in a more timely manner. Alex Gruzen, a senior vice president at Dell, writes, "While we have begun shipping on a limited basis, we expect to begin large-scale production and to ship systems in all regions beginning this week."
The latest in flat-screen technology
(Credit: W. Partridge & Co., Ltd.)I'm in the market for a new laptop, and I was immediately drawn to the Dell XPS M1330 the minute it appeared in the CNET Labs last week. It's easily one of the slickest-looking Windows laptops I've seen in a long time, and despite its ultraportable size, it still packs all the serious computing horsepower and features I'm looking for, including a slot-loading DVD burner, HDMI output, and a built-in flash media reader. I was seriously ready to budget out $2,000 for this thing--until I noticed the screen.
... Read more
(Credit:
Engadget)
Not one, but two of the upcoming laptops we're most excited about made unexpected appearances on the Interwebs this morning.
The Dell XPS m1330--rumored, leaked, and then finally half-confirmed by Dell (in their infamous "23 Confessions")--showed up again today on Engadget, with several new photos and a rumored ship date (from a "trusted insider") of July 10.
This extra-thin 13-inch looks like a real step in the right direction for Dell in terms of laptop design; leaked images have been circulating online for a while.
(Credit:
Akihabara News)
Perhaps even more exciting was an Akihabara News story showing the eagerly anticipated Toshiba Portege R500 in the wild (in, of all places, Paris). Arguably the lightest full-sized laptop in the world at 2.4 pounds and 0.77-inches thick, the 12-inch R500 was officially announced in early June--but has yet to ship to customers.
That's a tiny step closer to reality for two of the sweetest-looking laptops we've seen in a while. Hopefully it won't be too much longer before we have both of them in hand.
- prev
- 1
- next
