Dell's new tablet PC looks like a PSP

Can Dell's Mini 5 take on the Apple iPad in the tablet PC market?
Can Dell's Mini 5 take on the Apple iPad in the tablet PC market?

Dell is still developing its tablet PC – tentatively named the Mini 5 – for release later in 2010. But will it be an iPad challenger?

There are plenty of other tablet PCs about to hit the market - all based around Nvidia's new Tegra 2 chips - with numerous companies readying to make tablet computer related announcements at CeBit in March.

But when Dell enters the market, in what is still effectively a new consumer tech category, then the industry sits up and starts to take some notes.

The Dell Mini 5 looks like it will feature a 5-inch capacitive touchscreen with a 5-megapixel camera on the back and, according to Michael Dell, will arrive "in a couple of months."

The Mini 5 will also feature a separate front-facing camera for video conferencing, a 3.5mm headphone jack, Wi-Fi and 3G connectivity and a Qualcomm Snapdragon 1-GHz processor.

Android 2.0, PSP-styling

It will run the latest version of Google's Android operating system, 2.0 or higher and will look closer to a PSP than an iPad, with the smaller screen.

"It's a device optimized for media consumption," Neeraj Choubey, general manager of the tablets division at Dell told Wired.com.

"It will offer the full web-browsing experience so you have something that you are holding in your hand that replaces everything the smartphone does and takes on quite a bit of the features of a laptop."

TechRadar has contacted Dell UK for further info on pricing and planned release dates for the UK.

Via Wired

Adam Hartley