Dell Mini 12 Hits UK

@Xiphias - Yes, I suppose it's the Macbook Air factor - the reason why some people buy the Air instead of a Macbook or heavier laptops, and why it's doing so well. Still, I think the Mini 12 does seem a bit underpowered for its size.

It's a bit of an old fashioned idea to equate size with capability isn't it? ;)

The air is just popular because of it's looks as it doesn't offer any material advantages (quite the opposite) over it's competition while the mini 12 is significantly lighter (and more portable) than a similarly priced Core 2 duo laptop - I had a quick check and the lightest sub-£500 12" I could find was 1.81kg, and that was with a very poor battery that'd probably only give you half of the three hours the mini 12 is supposed to do.

While some people are going to prefer heavier Core 2 duo laptops, at this price there's going to be a lot of people buying it as a second machine or for only occasional use in which case the processing power doesn't matter as much and the much lighter weight is going to be very attractive.

Xiphias is right on the money. In weight/price/screen size terms Dell are the only game in town. Unfortunately this laptop isn't worth anything until they sell a version with Linux or XP.

One thing that people miss with the device - even now, months later, is that it fanless and therefore completely silent. In fact it boasts one of the biggest screen size in fanless laptops out there, if not the biggest.

That for some people is a valuable attribute and generally not somethign one can find in 12" screen, unless you are willing to pay up $1800 dollars for a japanese spec import. Many of those devices have ultra low voltage CPUs that are about the same power or less than what is in this one. Which also begs the question why Intel and Microsoft suddely decide that low power laptops must only have 10" screens. I mean has anyone here tried a Panasonic W2 or W5 from the old days? Same poky CPU, but it worked great for many people. This artifical distinction is about margin protection, not practicality.

This device is a great acheivement by Dell for consumers. And the nature of that achivement shouldnt be glossed over, in the rush to make rather less relevant comparisons with 10" screen devices.