Early last week, Dell officially discontinued its Inspiron Mini 12, claiming that "10-inch displays are the sweet spot for netbooks". Intrigued by the decision, we suggested that the Inspiron Mini 12 may have been creeping into Intel CULV territory, adding that it may have been discontinued to make way for a range of CULV-based notebooks.
Turns out we were right, and Dell's first CULV-based notebook is arriving today in the form of the Inspiron 11z. Dell's calling the system its "first step into the thin and light with great battery life space", and it's looking a very useful ultra-portable machine.
The first model to surface, pictured above, measures under 26mm at its thickest point and features a 1.2GHz ultra-low-voltage Intel Celeron 723 processor. That's joined by 2GB of DDR2 memory, a 250GB hard drive, integrated Intel GS45 graphics, and a 11.6in display that offers a 1,366x768 high-def resolution.
Elsewhere, users will find a 1.3 megapixel webcam, Wireless a/b/g connectivity, Microsoft's Windows Vista Home Premium operating system (plus a free upgrade to Windows 7) and a three-cell battery that'll provide "more than three hours" of use from a single charge.
Put it all together, and Dell reckons the Inspiron 11z becomes "a netbook-like device with a netbook-ish price point that is capable of handling traditional laptop activities".
Not a bad description, we reckon, and the Inspiron 11z's price tag of $399 is certainly appealing. There's sadly no mention of UK pricing yet, but Dell tells us Carphone Warehouse will be selling the system on August 25th. Not quite sold by the specification? Stay tuned as Dell plans to introduce a number of configuration options at a later date - we're expecting to see Intel's ultra-low-voltage Core 2 processors, larger-capacity storage drives, Bluetooth and 3G connectivity, and hopefully a six-cell battery, too.
