Is Dell's Mini Inspiron netbook imminent?

Is the Mini Inspiron finally being released?
Is the Mini Inspiron finally being released?

Minilaptops, ultraportables, netbooks – whatever you want to call them, small portable computers are all the range at the moment, with Asus Eee standing tall (or should that be small?) at the top of the pack.

Rumours abound, however, that Dell is to finally enter the netbook frame, with the much-anticipated Inspiron 910.

Specs of the laptop that we reported on back in May have been leaked online, which show that the computer will support SSDs up to 16GB, carry 800MHz of memory, and come with either Windows XP or Ubuntu 8.04. So, this should make Linux users very happy indeed.

Eagerly awaited

We spoke to Michael Browne, the editor of What Laptop, and he told us this: "Dell is the last major player to officially announce a Netbook (it first hinted at one in May) and its game of cat-and-mouse with details and release dates has made it one of the more eagerly awaited machines.

"That said, we're not expecting it to offer anything the other machines out there currently don't offer, so it may be a little too late to make a grab for huge market share."

Pressed about whether the Inspiron 910 can take the Asus Eee PC crown, Browne said: "If the Dell Netbook is to be a real Eee PC killer it'll need to do more than just deliver on time – it'll need a great price, which means being under £200."

With speculation that the US price for the Dell subnotebook is to be around $299, this could well be the case.

Marc Chacksfield

Marc Chacksfield is the Editor In Chief, Shortlist.com at DC Thomson. He started out life as a movie writer for numerous (now defunct) magazines and soon found himself online - editing a gaggle of gadget sites, including TechRadar, Digital Camera World and Tom's Guide UK. At Shortlist you'll find him mostly writing about movies and tech, so no change there then.