News Bits: Dell Says SSDs Are Reliable, Intel Netbook Revealed, Notebook Demand Drops

Dell denies problems with SSDs

It was reported on Monday that notebooks with SSDs had a 20% to 30% return rate, which is far higher than the return rate of notebooks with traditional hard drives. Dell refuted the claim it was experiencing high return rates on Tuesday; Dell spokeswoman Anne Camden said in an email that "The recently published analyst report estimating a high return rate for Solid State Drive technology (SSD) in Dell products is unfounded and wholly inaccurate, by orders of magnitude."

Read More (ExtremeTech.com)
Special thanks to forum super moderator Greg for submitting this bit.

ECS introduces Diamondville-based notebook

(view large image)

ECS unveiled the G10IL netbook today, a small notebook available with either a 10.2- or 8.9-inch widescreen glossy display. Features include integrated tri-band HSDPA and HSUPA modem, three USB 2.0 ports, wireless, Bluetooth, 4-in-1 card reader, and a 1.3-megapixel camera.

Read More (DigiTimes.com)

Dell Latitude X2 specs leaked

Image courtesy Engadget (view large image)

The new Dell Latitude X2 tablet PC pictured here is expected to hit the market in November 2008. It will be based on the upcoming Intel Montevina Centrino 2 platform and have low voltage (LV) and ultra low voltage (ULV) CPUs. It will retain the XT's current 12.1-inch WXGA (1280x800) widescreen display.

Read More (Engadget.com)

Intel Netbook revealed

Image courtesy Engadget (view large image)

The so-called Intel Netbook pictured above may be Intel's entry into the sub-$400 notebook market. It features a 9-inch display, 900MHz Celeron processor, 512MB of RAM, a 40GB hard drive, WiFi/Ethernet, and will weigh less than three pounds.

Read More (Engadget.com)
Primary Source (Flickr.com)

Notebook demand down until July

Customers in the market for a new notebook are apparently taking a "wait and see" stance due to the current US economic situation and the upcoming launch of the Intel Centrino 2 platform. Intel is planning to drop the prices of its Santa Rosa inventory after Montevina is introduced in May to clear inventory. Another factor resulting in reduced demand is the entry of the low-cost notebooks such as the Asus Eee PC.

Read More (DigiTimes.com)

 

Chaz, you spelled "Denies" incorrectly.

 

I fixed it...

Glad to see another competitor in the sub-400 category.

 

Digitimes also has prices for Echo Peak/Shirley Peak modules:
http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20080319PD204.html

Nehalem is going to be awesome because it is the end of the single core (except for Atom)!!! Only AMD with its White swift will have single core processors.

 

The Avian Securities report might actually refer to HP. HP has recently removed the SSD option from its notebooks citing "issues", and this before they even went into volume shipments.

It's interesting that everyone expects it to be Dell as they seem to be shipping out SSD units in greater quantities.

 

Intel, just because it costs less than $400, doesn't mean it needs to look like it costs $40.

 

LOL. That's the best description of the Netbook that I've read so far.

 

Seriously, that thing looks terrible. I think Asus still has the best looking computer in this niche.

 

hahah, no kidding. I can't think of a notebook that looks worse.

 

That ECS laptop looks pretty slick - hopefully a cheap 10.2" laptop in the near future eh?

 

the ECS machine really does look nice. Can't wait until all the upcoming UMPCs get shipped.
i just hope they all do actually come to Canada!

 

Problem with SSDs is not the reliability, it's that people call Dell when they run out of disk space after installing Vista and MS office.

 

Hardly. Did you read the articles? 15-20 second freezes, system lock ups, every 10-15 minutes sometimes. Samsung knows it's a problem, Dell knows its a problem.

There was a rather large thread over @ Dell's support forums about the Latitude D430 and SSD issues. It seems to have 'mysteriously' disappeared...or my search skills are lacking again.

 

As I've mentioned, Dell isn't the only manufacturer with this problem. I'm pretty sure Dell, like HP, has stop shipping SSD configs in the meantime.

 

The Netbook reminds me of a mini-Latitude. The ECS notebook does look rather sleek with that black trim.

 

Whwreas the ECS G10IL reminds me with 13.3" White Macbook while the Intel Netbook needs to be thinner and sleeker please

 

The Intel Netbook looks like something my preschool kids would use. Maybe Intel head-hunted some designers from Leap Frog or Fisher-Price?

 

Pict of that new Dell doesnt show much. Hard to see.

I want to know more about the Latitude E.

 

http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/20/dells-latitude-e-series-roadmap-revealed/#comments

 

I know it looks horrible. Damn, I seen fake(little kid) laptops that look better then this........

 

What kind of os will be run on this Intel Netbook? The specs are pretty low, so I'd say that Vista is out (unlike other offerings in the sub-$500 market)....

 

Could be wrong, but in the pic, it looked like the XP login screen?

 

Yep, but I assume it is for testing purposes. Since XP's end-of-sale date is coming soon, I figure that Intel must have some other alternative in mind (unless this product is going to have a very short shelf life)....