Hasta La Gadget!

Ready for another round of Microsoft’s Laptop Hunters? This time it’s Lauren — not the infamous original LH — and mom seeking the perfect PC to take with her to law school. Top on the list of needs is a portable with speed and battery life, all for less than $1700. Shying away from the more expensive MacBook Pro — a pretty tame jab, much like the last ad — the dynamic duo settle on a Dell XPS 13a 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 4GB RAM, 320GB HDD, and a $899 price tag. All in all, not the most exciting commercial the series has fostered, and with Apple finally going on the offensive, we really hope the gang in Redmond take it up a notch. See the relatively bite-free video for yourself after the break.

Update: Looks like Microsoft’s pulled the video, probably due to some audio sync issues — can we get Sheila on the case? We’ll let you know when it springs back up.

Update 2: It’s back online and now in HD.

Continue reading Laptop Hunters part five: same schtick, different Lauren

Filed under: Laptops

Laptop Hunters part five: same schtick, different Lauren originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 14 May 2009 18:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Here’s a question: given the vagueness of the definition and the trend towards larger screen sizes in general, how soon do you think Dell will start calling its new $399 Inspiron 15 configuration a “netbook?” Seriously, it’s not like the 2.16GHz Celeron and 2GB of RAM running Vista are going to majorly outgun the usual 1.6GHz Atom / XP setup, and the pricing is about the same as a nicer 10-inch netbook, so we can totally see some marketing droid at Dell getting a bright idea. Any bets on this happening? We’d put the odds at 50/50.

Filed under: Laptops

$399 Dell Inspiron 15 makes the scene originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 13 May 2009 17:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Looks like Dell’s Stateside online store has put the new $299 Atom N270-powered Mini 10v (née Inspiron 1101) up for order after it went on sale in Denmark late last night. Preliminary ship date is listed as June 1, but we’re guessing it’ll arrive a little sooner, as the original date was “mid-May.” Anyone taking the plunge?

[Thanks, MethodicJon]

Filed under: Laptops

Dell’s $299 Mini 10v now officially on sale originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 11 May 2009 22:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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As a retired civil engineer and quarry administrator, my father is a typical user: savvy enough to deal with some technical issues, but unwilling to rip apart his PC to solve the problem. In other words, a perfect customer for Best Buy’s Geek Squad.

But Dad faced a problem about a year after he purchased his PC: who handles a support call? When the power supply failed, Geek Squad took the case. But after Microsoft asked for the license key for his copy of Office that he had misplaced, the headaches began.

The process was typical: without clear, defined responsibilities for support, Dell support tried to hand off the problem to Best Buy’s Geek Squad, who blamed Microsoft and Dell, respectively. Dad’s currently stuck in a he-said, she-said situation that seemed to have no hope of resolving itself, until today.

The ray of hope? A change in Dell’s public support policy, which the company put in place Friday night. Dell finally took charge and tried to create a process by which Dell-Best Buy customers could finally find some resolution.

Regardless of its efforts, when discussing desktops, laptops, and even rumored smartphones, there are few brands in the business capable of inspiring a deep, consumer yawn as quickly as Dell. That can’t be said about Dell’s display business however, which has consistently provided sleek monitors offering some of the best bang for the buck in the business. Dell’s newest 20-incher is already out in Hong Kong where we expect it will soon begin its journey west. This entry-level monitor speaks the new design language of Dell’s XPS and Studio rigs and comes packing HDMI and VGA inputs with specs that include a 1600 x 900 (that’s a 16:9 aspect) pixel resolution, 5 millisecond response, 1000:1 contrast and 250 nits of brightness with a 160-degree viewing angle. Not great, but decent specs for the HK$1,098 (tax inclusive) price which we expect to be about $120 – 130 by the time model ST2010 lands Stateside.

[Thanks, John]

Filed under: Displays

Dell’s ST2010 20-inch monitor to bring HDMI for about $120 originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 11 May 2009 01:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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