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The Dell Mini 12

So we all know about Black Friday and the deals (see our previous post here), but what about the new netbook from Dell – the Dell Inspiron Mini 12. Will it come out in time for Black Friday?

The answer is No. The Dell Mini 12 will be coming out on December 8th (though you can order it from Dell’s site now). This netbook will be a first for netbooks as it will be a 12 inch netbook in comparison to the standard 9-10 inch models released by other companies (including Dell with their Mini 9). This netbook seems a perfect match for me as it is bigger than standard netbooks but more portable (and cheaper!) than ultra portable laptops.

This netbook’s basic model will come with:

  • 1.3 GHz Intel Atom CPU- upgradable to 1.6 GHz (if you need your system to run faster)
  • Windows Vista Home Basic
  • 1 GB of RAM
  • 40 GB hard drive- upgradable to 60 or 80 GB

Also, like with other Dell’s, it can be customized by changing design/color of the screen to your personal tastes.

Starting at $549, the Dell Mini 12 won’t win any awards for stellar performance but if you are going from class to class it can be very helpful.

The only thing bugging me is that, for now, the only operating system is Vista which, according to early reports, is not running too well on this low power configuration with a not-so-powerful processor and only a GB of RAM (2 things Vista REALLY needs to have a lot of to run smoothly).

Hopefully, they will soon release the Windows XP version which is slated to be out in the near future and should run very well under these conditions

So will you spring for this hybrid laptop/netbook? Or the smaller Dell Mini 9 we wrote about in our Black Friday deals yesterday? Or will you just go for a regular laptop on Black Friday? Sound off in the comments.

Info and pix from Cnet.com