Is the Dell Inspiron Mini 12 on its way out, and will anybody notice?

Dell may be preparing to phase out the Inspiron Mini 12. The Mini 12 was arguably the first mini-notebook to blur the line between a netbook and full sized notebook. Like a typical netbook, it sports a low power Intel Atom CPU and a low price tag. But it has a 12 inch, 1280 x 800 pixel display making it larger than most netbooks.

Last week Dell announced that it’s 9 inch Inspiron Mini 9 had reached its end of life. Now APC Magazine reports that the Mini 12 is quickly following suite. The Inspiron Mini 12 has been pulled down from the company’s Australian web site. While it’s still available from the US store right now, the computer is also missing from the UK, Hong Kong, and Singapore stores, which seems to be in keeping with a product roadmap that was leaked to the press earlier this year.

That same roadmap indicates that we should see an 11.6 inch laptop with a CULV processor from Dell soon.

The Dell Inspiron Mini 12 had a low power Intel Atom Z5xx series CPU, GMA 500 graphics, and wasn’t exactly known as a speed demon. But it was one of the first 11-12 inch laptops with an Atom processor, and you could make the case that it led other computer makers to follow suit expanding the definition of a netbook. What do you think? Will you miss the Mini 12? Did you ever own one? Let us know about it in the comments.

Dell Inspiron Mini 12

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Dell Inspiron Mini 9

Posted on Tuesday, June 9th, 2009, 5:43 pm by Brad Linder

Claudio Miranda

This model really just did not make any sense to me, so I'm not surprised to see it go soon. I doubt it will be missed much, if at all.
Nate

This is a “netbook” that never should have been released.

Underpowered. Over sized. Over priced. Cruddy battery.

There's not a lot to like about this computer.
jer85008

I almost went for one in the Dell outlet when they were under $300, but the poor hard-drive kept me away. I ended up getting the Mini 10 instead.
ioDara

I won't miss the mini 12 with it's bad keyboard and awful hard drive but I am excited by “argos” and its gone from the Irish store too
Fanfoot

Nope, not a loss at all. Never should have been released.

Bad keyboard. Bad battery life. Slow disk. Slow CPU. Difficult to upgrade.

The Mini 10 is a much better computer.
Bart

I bought one a couple of weeks ago after reading about how well Windows 7 runs on it. It's light, has great battery life, excellent large screen, and 7 is very fast on my Mini 12. All in all, a great little machine.
REMF

11.6″ with a flush-fitting 6-cell is lovely.

but please use the AMD congo platform instead.

a real GPU would be appreciated.
REMF

stop press, as per this news story:

http://www.fudzilla.com/content/view/14152/1/

I am happy to have an Intel CULV CPU with the nVidia Ion GPU on my 11.6″ ultra-mobile.
http://www.facebook.com/ Mike Altamore

I have had a Dell Inspiron 700m since 2004. 12″, Pentium M, big battery sticking out the back. But it's under 5lb, fairly thin and has a higher rez screen. And it out performs the Atom proc. And it has a pretty solid run time on batts.

The Mini 12 is a dumpy version of the 700m without a DVD drive. Ill concevied like all of Dell's initial offerings in the netbook / light mobile class. In fact if you look at the new Latitude and Vostro laptops… they are all terrible. Dell has taken a step back across the board.
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I almost went for one in the Dell outlet from online shopping website http://dealshunt.com/search-catid-42.html where i find best price of this laptop, The Mini 10 is a much better computer.i like it
Brian Goodwin

I had one, and I liked it. Used as intended (for surfing and email) it performed just fine and certainly gave a more comfortable viewing experience than the usual bread and butter 10 inch Netbook….
http://www.facebook.com/ Mike Altamore

I have had a Dell Inspiron 700m since 2004. 12″, Pentium M, big battery sticking out the back. But it's under 5lb, fairly thin and has a higher rez screen. And it out performs the Atom proc. And it has a pretty solid run time on batts.

The Mini 12 is a dumpy version of the 700m without a DVD drive. Ill concevied like all of Dell's initial offerings in the netbook / light mobile class. In fact if you look at the new Latitude and Vostro laptops… they are all terrible. Dell has taken a step back across the board.
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I won’t miss the mini 12 with it’s bad keyboard and awful hard drive but I am excited by “argos” and its gone from the Irish store too

Is the Dell Inspiron Mini 12 on its way out, and will anybody notice?

Dell Inspiron Mini 12

Dell Inspiron Mini 9

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