Gizmodo got their hands on some official looking spec sheets for the upcoming Dell Inspiron 910. There’s some shiny new pictures and a whole lot of info about the components. And Gizmodo’s source says the laptop will be released on August 22nd. My sources are telling me not to hold my breath and that we won’t see this the Inspiron 910 until the first week of September, but I’d love to be wrong.

Here’s a rundown of the specs. Take everything with a grain of salt, since this info is coming from a leaked document, not an official product page:

• CPU: 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270
• Chipset: Intel 945GSE UMA
• RAM: 512MB/1GB DDR2 800MHz
• Display: 8.9 inch, 1024 x 600 pixel screen
• Video memory: Up to 8MB shared
• Audio: ALC268
• USB: 3 USB 2.0 ports
• Storage: 4GB/8GB/16GB SSD
• Connectivity: WLAN/WWAN, Mini card support for Bluetooth
• Camera: 0.3 & 1.3 MP
• Connectors: 2 full sized minicard slots accessible from bottom of system, VGA port, Ethernet port, headphone, microphone jacks, 3 USB ports, SD-HC/MMC/MS reader
• OS: Ubuntu 8.04 or Windows XP SP2
• Battery: 4-cell, 2.2Ahr, 31Whr or 4-cell 2.6Ahr, 37Whr battery
• Weight: 2.2 pounds with the 31Whr battery

If the product sheets are to be believed, there are definitely some things to look forward to here. For example, while there are no specifics on exactly what type of SSD Dell is using, the solid state disk is described as having “much faster access times” than convention disks on “some tests.” That doesn’t sound too exciting until you read the next part that says Windows XP “loads almost twice as fast.”

Another picture after the jump, because I know you just can’t get enough.

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Unless you’re living under a rock, (or new to the netbook space), you know that Dell is expected to announce a low cost ultraportable laptop any day now. Many folks expected the company to to launch the Inspiron Mini yesterday, but instead Dell announced a business-class laptop that it claims can get up to 19 hours of battery life. Pretty cool, but not the $299 laptop I was hoping to see.

I’m still hopeful that Dell will announce something in the next few days. It’s in the company’s best interest to release a product in time for the back to school shopping rush. But it’s already getting a little late to cater to the college-bound crowd. My guess is that the Intel Atom shortage and/or other technical issues may have caused Dell to miss its intended ship date. I hope I’m wrong, but several sources have indicated that Dell planned to ship its netbook in August, and the month is already nearly half over.

With so many other ultraportables flooding the market, why does anyone care about Dell’s entry? There are at least two reasons. The first is that Dell could charge as little as $299 for the Inspiron Mini, making it the cheapest laptop around with a 1.6GHz Intel Atom CPU. And shoppers love a bargain. But I’m hoping Dell will bring something else to the table that’s been sorely missing from the current netbook lineup: customization.

At $299, I don’t expect the basic configuration of the Inspiron Mini to be powerful. It will likely sport 512MB of RAM and the same slow SSD that you find in the Acer Aspire One, which makes Windows XP run pretty slowly. It might give the Aspire One a run for the money in the low-end space. But this version won’t hold a candle to the MSI Wind or Eee PC 901 in terms of performance.

But unlike Acer, MSI, and most other computer makers in this space, Dell typically lets users customize their orders. Want more RAM? Just check a box on the website and pay a few more bucks. Want to upgrade your SSD or swap it out for a hard drive? Check another box. I’m guessing that for $100 – $200, you can trick out your Inspiron Mini to make it a true Eee PC killer.

Right now, Acer, Asus, MSI, and even HP (a company that typically does allow users to customize their orders) are offering only preconfigured netbooks. If you want an Eee PC with a 7 inch screen and a 40GB SSD, you’re out of luck. Dell could be the first mini-notebook maker to offer the chance to mix and match netbook parts to your heart’s content. You know, if the company ever gets around to releasing the thing.

Looks like we had a false alarm. Dell is indeed announcing 10 laptops today. But as far as I can tell, none of them is the Dell Inspiron Mini. Rather, the company is rolling out a new line of business-focused Latitude laptops.

There are a few exciting things here. Dell is promising battery life of up to19 hours. You get 9 hours from a standard 9 cell battery, and a “battery slice” add-on that gives you another 10 hours. Batteries can be charged to 80% in as little as an hour.

Interestingly, these laptops do carry the Dell E series name, which is the label we had earlier heard applied to the Inspiron Mini.

One of the laptops is a 12.1 inch ultramobile PC that weighs less than 1 kilogram and includes solid state memory. This may be the product that was once known as a “Dell E Slim.”

I’ll keep monitoring the press event to see if there’s any word about the Inspiron Mini, but I’m not holding my breath right now.

Update: It’s official. No netbooks today.

Dell is holding a press event in a few hours to announce some new products. That’s all the company is officially saying. But pretty much everyone in the known universe expects Dell to announce it’s new 8.9 inch laptop, which may be known as the Dell E series or the Dell Inspiron Mini, or something else altogether.

First, according to a leaked product sheet from June, Dell expected to launch the new line of cheap laptops in August. And now DigiTimes says that not only is Dell expected to launch an 8.9 inch notebook, but the company also has a 10 inch model up its sleeve, which should be out in October.

The move makes sense, as some of the netbooks generating the most buzz these days are the MSI Wind and Eee PC 1000 series, which both have 10 inch displays. If Dell wants to compete, it makes sense to have a wide range of choices available. While the difference in an 8.9 inch and 10 inch display might be minimal, a larger display gives computer makers an excuse to use a slightly larger case and a slightly larger keyboard. And the closer you can make your keyboard to full sized, the better the user experience is going to be.

I’ll have more details after the Dell press event, which is scheduled for 9am PST/noon EST.

Update: Nothing to see here. Dell announced 10 new business-oriented laptops, including a 12.1 inch ultramobile PC with a solid state disk and 9 cell battery, But no word on the company’s anticipated 8.9 inch consumer focused laptop.

Dell is holding a press event next week to announce new products which could include the company’s first entry into the netbook field. We’ve been seeing leaks and rumors about the upcoming Dell Inspiron Mini laptops for months now, but this could be the first time we get the official rundown from Dell.

Here’s what we (think we) know so far:

• Dell’s netbooks will come at several levels, with prices starting at $299.
• The Inspiron Mini will have an 8.9 inch, 1024 x 600 pixel display, 512MB of RAM, a 4GB SSD and a 1.6GHz Intel Atom CPU.
• The low end computer will weigh about 2.2 pounds and measure 9.13″ x 6.9″ x 0.82″ to 1.22″.
• Dell will also be releasing a 12.1 inch laptop with a higher price and a stronger focus on performance.

I’ve been hearing for a while that the Inspiron Mini would be available in August. So there’s a good chance the laptop will be among the products Dell announces next week. And as long as I’m placing stock in rumors, I’ll go ahead and predict the laptop could be available immediately following the announcement. I could also be totally and completely wrong.

Thanks Wilson Azevedo!

The folks at Brazilian blog Zumo say they got a chance to tour the Dell complex in Austin and get some more details about the upcoming low cost laptop from Dell. We’ve seen reports that the laptop would be called the Dell E, while other reports say it will be dubbed the Inspiron Mini. Zumo’s going with the latter. Here’s what they say you’ll get for your $300:

• 1.6GHz Intel Atom CPU
• Intel 945 Express/GMA950 graphics
• 1GB RAM
• 8.9 inch 1240 x 600 pixel display
• 8GB SSD
• Windows XP or Linux
• 3 USB ports
• 802.11b/g
• Ethernet
• 32 Wh battery
• Card reader
• Black, white and red colors

There’s really not much in here that we hadn’t heard before, so there’s no reason to doubt the specs — aside from the odd screen resolution. I’m going to assume some numbers got transposed and that the actual resolution is 1024 x 600 pixels.

[via Small-Laptops]

Good news for anyone looking for a cheap subnotebook. The Acer Aspire One, which is officially the cheapest Intel Atom-based computer you can buy right now, just showed up at Newegg for $380. And as of this morning, it was actually in stock.

In other news, the MSI Wind, which is the second-cheapest Intel Atom-based computer, got a small price cut at Amazon. A few weeks ago, when MSI announced it would be replacing the promised 6-cell battery with a 3-cell battery due to the global battery shortage, MSI promised to drop the price for the Windows XP version of the Wind notebook from $499 to $479. But for some reason up until this week, Amazon was showing a $499 price for the Wind. Now the shopping site is showing the same $479 price as the MSI Shop. I’d still rather have a 6 cell battery.

Of course, if the MSI Wind and Acer Aspire One are both too expensive for your tastes, you can always wait until next month when Dell will reportedly begin offering a $299 subnotebook. Dell’s base model will most likely sport just 4GB of storage and 512MB of RAM though, so if you want a bit more power, you’ll have to pay a few bucks more, which will likely bring the cost in line with the Acer Aspire One.

[via Small-Laptops]

While we already had some evidence suggesting that Dell would be getting ready to unleash a low cost ultraportable in August, DigiTimes has found some industry sources who are confirming that Dell should be ready to ship the computer next month.

When Engadget first broke the news that Dell’s upcoming Eee PC-killer would be called the Dell “E,” a lot of folks lamented that the name seemed a bit silly. Now that Dell’s web site has its first official mention of the computers, the name makes a little more sense. It looks like the E series will follow Dell’s usual naming convention and you’ll be able to pick up a tiny laptop with a name like the Dell latitude E630 in the not too distant future.

There’s not much more information available on the web site. The only way you can even find this little image (which doesn’t look much of anything like the laptop Michael Dell was carrying around earlier this year) is by searching for E-Family. And when you click the link, you get taken to the D-Family landing page. But at least Dell is acknowledging the fact that the letter E exists… and will be used to label some upcoming PCs.

[via Engadget]

Update: As readers here and over at Engadget have pointed out, it’s quite possible this Latitude E-Family has nothing whatsoever to do with the upcoming Dell netbook. But then again, maybe it does. Or maybe it doesn’t.

Engadget snagged what appear to be some top secret slides that shed a little light on Dell’s upcoming low-cost ultraportable laptop series. The slides seem to have been leaked in violation of a non-disclosure agreement, and it’s entirely possible that these specs aren’t set in stone yet. But here’s what we can glean from them: