Dell Inspiron 11z — Between Netbook and Notebook

Have you ever wondered what would happen in a laptop and a netbook had a child? The result might look something like Dell’s new ULV system, the Inspiron 11z, available now for only $399. This new system is about an inch thin and weighs 3 pounds – only .2 pounds heavier than most 10-inch netbooks. It’s hard not to compare it with the discontinued Dell Mini 12 which came with a 1.6-GHz Intel Atom Z530 CPU, only 1Gb of RAM, and a slow 60GB hard drive. By comparison, the Inspiron 11z has a 1.2GHz Intel Celeron 723 CULV processor, 2GB of RAM, and a 250GB hard drive (no word on speed, but it’s likely to be the standard 5,400 rpm). It comes with Windows Vista, naturally, with a free upgrade to Windows 7. The 11.6-inch HD screen is sure to please media lovers, though the 3-hour battery won’t make anyone jump for joy. In the post announcing the system, Dell works pretty hard to play up the limitations of netbooks (“The Dell Minis are designed for typical 30-minute online session…”) to draw a distinction between them and the Inspiron 11z. While I still feel that netbooks are more versatile than Dell and others give them credit for, it is true that overloading a netbook with too many apps can overwhelm it. That won’t be a problem with the 11z, Dell claims. The performance will match that of a regular notebook, but with the convenience, weight, and price of a netbook. We’re looking forward to testing this new machine ourselves. However, if you just can’t wait, the Inspiron 11z is available to order right now. See more images in Dell’s Inspiron 11z Flickr set.