Dell Inspiron 11z Gets $50 Price Bump

A LAPTOP reader noticed on Friday that the base price for the Dell Inspiron 11z CULV system went up from $399 to $449. A quick check of the specs doesn’t reveal any changes. And the original announcement didn’t mention a limited time price. $449 is still low for a system of this type, but we’re wondering why it was raised. Update: This forum thread on NotebookReview.com indicates that on 8/27 the price was $529 in the morning and then changed to $449 that afternoon. The forum members at MyDellMini were on the case Thursday as well. At the time members were seeing the $399 and $524 prices in different locations on Dell’s site. A Dell rep told one member that $399 was a “one week only promotion.” Another member was able to get a sales rep to honor the original price, but only because the notebook was it was still listed that way on some of the site’s pages. Further Update: A Call to Dell sales revealed that the $399 11z’s sold out fairly quickly and they claim there is a difference between those and the ones currently selling for $449: the screen. The sales rep informed me that the current system has a full high-definition, LED screen. However, commenters on this post claim that their systems, purchased in the first few days, have this screen. Closer inspection of the specs on Dell’s website show this under display: 11.6″ 1366 x 768 HD TLF WLED. The announcement did not mention WLED, but I haven’t been able to confirm if the original spec listings did not, either. If this is the difference between the “original” 11z and the one currently on sale, that explains the higher price. The sales rep wasn’t sure if the $399 version of the Inspiron 11z would be on sale again, though he offered to try and pull some strings for me. Since the original announcement said that there would be more configuration options later, that may mean the base price will go back down to $399 and the WLED screen will be optional. Last Update: LionelatDell said via Twitter that $399 was the introductory price. No word on why this wasn’t mentioned at the time.