Chances are that you have seen this quirky new Dell Convertible laptop on TV by now. Not only has the device been in commercials of its own, it’s made several “guest appearances” in commercials for other products fusion marketing at its finest folks! But up until now, you have not been able to get your hands on one. Well rest easy, the Dell Inspiron Duo Tablet/Netbook thingamajig is now available for purchase just in time for X’mas.
The device is a standard 10 inch netbook with a twist. The touch screen inverts so users can interface with the machine while the lid is closed. No longer will you have to choose between productivity and the “cool” factor or a physical or digital keyboard. This new Dell gives you everything you have ever wanted all in one.
When you look past the obvious gimmick of the convertible screen, what you have is a pretty standard netbook device. It runs on an Atom N550 processor and comes pre loaded with Windows 7 Home Premium edition. You can choose between a 250GB and a 320GB hard drive but you’re stills tuck with only two USB ports! With 2GB of DDR3 RAM you’re not going to be able to conquer the gaming scene but the machine is being marketed to “students” so they don’t need to play games, right?
The new Inspiron will be available for pre-order in the near future and should ship in the first week of December for $549. Bundling the Duo with the JBL dock raises the price to $649, but stand-alone pricing isn’t known.
Even with the mediocre stats, the Duo sports a $549 price tag. Basically, you can get a netbook for less or a tablet for more but if you want both, this is your only real option. I wouldn’t be surprised that some more serious machines will hit the market shortly after this model paves the way though.
