Dell offers naked laptops!
As it seems to have captured my attention this evening, and since I kept adding to my original neatlink on Dell offering OSless laptops, I decided to promote it to a full blown post.
Hilariously, Dell still co-opts the Windows logo to convey “operating system”. How ironic…for Microsoft.
Here’s a system I just priced, based on Dell’s 3lbs ultraportable laptop, the D420:
$1100 Base Latitude D420N Duo w/ FreeDOS +30 1.20GHz processor (up from 1.06) +69 60GB hard drive (up from 30GB) +0 D-Bay w/ CD-RW/DVD (the only option I can't deselect) +39 9-cell battery w/ ~7hrs charge (up from 4 cell) +19 additional AC adapter +44 1.0GB memory upgrade from crucial.com (see below) ----- $1301
I just learned something I probably should have known intuitively. The D420 has 512MB of memory integrated on the system board. According to the User’s Manual, you can add either an additional 512MB or 1GB, for a max total of 1.5GB.
Here are their memory configuration options (note the out-of-place Windows Vista recommendation).
I’m not sure how they plan to squeeze 2GB in there, but they’ll happily charge you $349 for it. That aside, they charge $79 to add 512MB or $139 to add 1GB. Meanwhile over at crucial.com, those upgrades only cost $23 and $44 respectively, nearly a $100 savings in the latter case. Obviously, I’ve updated my price outline above.
Will I buy one? I would, but I’m such a sucker for three features on my ThinkPad: the TrackPoint (which actually the D420 has something like) plus the scroll button (which it doesn’t), the ThinkLight, and the keyboard layout in general.
So what’s keeping me from getting another ThinkPad X-series? The LCD screen is still 1024×768 (XGA), same as my 5+ year old X23. Here’s what that looks like compared to the D420’s 1280×800 (WXGA):
Update: Damn the computer world moves fast. It’s only been 10 days since I posted this, and it appears that the D420 has been phased out in favor of the new D430, which is not available without Windows. That’s a shame.
