Dell's Inspiron 13 notebook launched in the US back in 2008 but never made its UK appearance. Given the original system's basic design and average specification, we weren't too fussed.
However, the Texas-based manufacturer now appears to have an all-new Inspiron 13 waiting in the pipeline. The system, appearing perhaps prematurely on Dell's Singapore site, looks very sleek and packs a decent amount of power, too.
Measuring 322mm x 218mm x 31mm and weighing 1.8kg, the system's fairly thin and light, and the 13.3in screen provides a very useful 1,366x768 resolution.
Dell's base configuration includes a 2.1GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T6500 processor, 2GB of DDR2 memory, a 320GB hard drive and integrated Intel GMA X4500MHD graphics. That could be yours for S$1,199 (approximately £500).
Need a little more grunt and you can opt for the next model up, priced at S$1,399 (£600), it'll upgrade the processor to a 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo P8600, and graphics come in the form of a 512MB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4330.
Elsewhere, there's a 1.3 megapixel webcam, built-in Wi-Fi connectivity, a 3-in-1 card reader, two USB ports, FireWire, eSATA, Gigabit Ethernet, and both VGA and HDMI out.
Not as cheap as a netbook, sure, but we'd still class it as an ultra-portable and it should offer decent all-round performance. We can only hope that Dell brings this one to UK shores.
