Dell
Dell

As expected, Dell has begun offering an optional TV tuner for the Dell Inspiron Mini 10. And it’s kind of cheaper than expected… depending on how you count.

The built-in ATSC tuner adds just $20 to the netbook price, but there is a catch. You’ll need to upgrade from the 1.33 GHz Intel Atom Z520 CPU to the 1.6GHz Intel Atom Z530 CPU in order to purchase the TV tuner. And that’s a $50 upgrade.

In other words, if you were planning on paying for the faster processor anyway, the TV tuner upgrade is an excellent deal. If not, it’ll cost you $70.

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3 replies on “Dell Inspiron Mini 10 TV tuner is a $20 upgrade… sort of”

  1. Can the Dell mini 10 really handle HD video from this TV tuner? I tried playing HD dvr-ms files on a dual core atom desktop and the thing choked in XP or 7. Am I missing something?

  2. I’m guessing they do this to save costs on their end. More configuration options = more complexity = more cost to Dell.

    I doubt that they make very much money off the lower-end version (the base 1.33 GHz model). Hence the hefty $50 upgrade cost for the 1.6 GHz processor. Kind of like a car dealer hitting you up for options that are only worth 1/3 of what you are paying.

  3. Lately we’re really seeing the hard limits of the Atom processor lately. Or at least I hope that’s the case here, as I see no reason for Dell to arbitrarily force a CPU upgrade on you…

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