The PC Report

And I thought it was cancelled? Looks like the guys in one of our favourite TV shows, The Big Bang Theory on CBS, has got their hands on the sleek-looking ultraportable for the latest episode. Now go off and watch it

If you’re wanting to be an early adopter to WiMAX then you may be wanting to take a look at the Dell Inspiron Mini 10 with WiMAX that is coming via Clearwire on April 1 this year. The Mini 10 sports an Intel Atom N450 “Pineview” processor at 1.6 GHz along with a 250 GB hard drive and 1 GB of RAM. It also includes a Broadcom Crystal HD chip that is capable of playing back 1080p flash through Flash Player 10.3 beta and is also capable of playing 1080p .wmv files.

Other features of the netbook include a 10″ 1366 x 768 display, three USB ports, Ethernet, VGA, headphone + microphone jack and an SD card slot – no HDMI though. The Mini 10 is also slightly heavier and thicker than its competition coming in at 1.3 kg heavy and 3.3 cm thick at its thickest point. The Dell Inspiron Mini 10 with WiMAX will be available for US$249.99 after an instant rebate, and the WiMAX plan will of course set you back further.

Surely you all remember the 9.9mm thin Dell Adamo XPS, one of the thinnest laptops you can buy – well it appears to have been discontinued by Dell. The Adamo line of laptops will continue but the Adamo has been pulled from the shelves and listed as “discontinued” by places such as Best Buy. Dell however claims that the laptop was a proof of “Dell’s design and engineers capabilities” and said that the ultraportable was more like a “limited edition” model.

Whether the model is a true, but unannounced Limted Edition model, or just been pulled due to faults or lack of purchases is yet to be discovered by inside sources. One thing still remains though – you can no longer order or purchase the Adamo XPS.

Watch out Adamo XPS, we have a new, much more affordable ultraportable offering from Dell hitting us right now. The previously unnamed US$450 Vostro has been named and spec’d as the Vostro V13 – a 1.5 kilo, 1.65cm thick ultraportable with a lovely 13-inch display packing nice internals and many more ports than the Adamo XPS could offer us. Unfortunately though, the USA has yet to receive the word go to sell this laptop, with most other countries such as the UK and Australia offering it before the States.

The V13 comes with either a 1.2GHz Celeron, 1.3GHz Core 2 Duo or a 1.4GHz Core 2 Solo alongside up to 4GB of DDR3 memory, 320GB or 500GB hard drive, Intel GMA 4500MHD graphics and enough connectivity to keep you going, including eSATA, an Ethernet port, SD card slot and an ExpressCard slot. Add Windows 7 Home Premium or Professional and slap on a US$450 price tag and you’ve got a good bargin.

The world’s slimmest laptop is now on sale; the Dell Adamo XPS. Coming in a 9.9mm, you would think the laptop wouldn’t be that powerful, however the XPS packs more power than your average netbook. It comes with an 1.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo SU9400 processor, 4GB of DDR3 RAM, a 128GB solid state drive, CS45 integrated graphics and a 13.4 WLED 720p display. Oh, and it has that weird opening latch we saw before.

The bad part? Well, the laptop starts at US$1,799 for the aforementioned specifications, and has some (but not many) upgradeable parts for those that can afford it. While it doesn’t beat the MacBook Air in terms of power, it does beat it in terms of slimness, which is far more appealing in this type of laptop. For all those buying one – the Adamo will ship out December 22.

I saw the shots of Dell’s newest Adamo XPS ultraportable and thought: wow – that laptop is bloody thin. Turns out it’s also bloody expensive, with Dell announcing a few days ago that the XPS will be launching on October 22 (same day as the Windows 7 launch) for US$2,000. Expensive, but I suppose that’s the price you pay for a 9.99mm (0.39-inch) thick ultraportable.

While Dell has been keeping rather quiet on the actual specs, we do now know that it has a cool open latch. Business Week notes that the Adamo XPS comes with a cool “heat-sensing” open-latch that, when swiped along with your finger, glows white and automatically opens the lid of the laptop. Sounds like a pretty cool feature; I can’t wait to try it and the rest of the laptop for myself. MacBook Air or Adamo XPS? I think the XPS is winning…

Looks like Gizmodo has got some nice shots of that super thin 9.99mm-thick Dell Adamo XPS, which is almost half as thin as the Macbook Air. No other details were given about the ultraportable other than it’s really, really thin, however I would have to expect that the battery life would be poor because of how small the battery appears to be. I also wouldn’t expect it to be too powerful.

But anyway, hopefully we can get some more solid specifications in the not too distant future.

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Now here is a nice looking ultraportable from Dell: the new Latitude Z Series (also known as the Latitude Z600). This laptop is only 1.2cm thick, and weighs just 2kg with its nice 16″ screen, and is being advertised as “the world’s thinnest and lightest 16″ laptop.” Sad thing is that it still can’t pack an optical drive in it, one of the things I like to have in my laptop.

The insides of the laptop are almost as nice as the outside package: an ultra-low voltage Intel SU9600 or SU9400, GMA 4500M HD graphics, 2GB/4GB of DDR3 RAM, up to two 256GB solid state drives, a 4- or 8-cell battery and all the usual array of connectivity features. The base model starts at US$1,799 and will start shipping out later this month; head over to the Dell store if you’d like one.

It looks like Dell has posted all their Windows 7 drivers for their laptops and desktops to help customers prepare for the switch over to the new operating system. It is also good news for those Dell customers already running Windows 7.

Unfortunately though it appears as though the drivers are only for new/current laptops and desktops, so if you have an old machine you are out of luck. Head over to the Dell website to grab the drivers if you want them

The new Dell Vostro All-In-One made a debut in Japan a few months ago, and now it has reached the North American shores. The system is nice and cheap, with the basic model costing US$599 for an E5300 processor, 2GB RAM, 160GB hard drive, and that nice 19″ panel with built in DVD drive. If you want to fork out US$900, however, you’ll get some upgraded specs, such as an upgraded Core 2 Duo, 4GB RAM and a 250GB HDD

If you wanna grab one of these, or take a closer look at the specifications, head down to Dell’s website