Wayne N. Kawamoto
Managing Editor, www.smallbusinesscomputing.com
For budget-conscious customers, Dell expanded its value notebook family with the introduction of its Inspiron 2650. The new notebook features Intel’s Mobile Pentium 4-M processor combined with NVIDIA graphics and is priced starting at $1,299.
According to the company, its Inspiron 2650 offers the performance needed for productivity applications, digital photo editing, music management, DVD viewing or computer gaming applications. Taking advantage of new power management technology, the Inspiron 2650 may offer up to three hours of battery life. For fast e-mail access and Internet connections, the Inspiron 2650 includes an integrated modem, 10/100 Ethernet port and an optional Dell TrueMobile 1150 wireless networking PC card.
All Inspiron 2650s can be configured with up to 512 MB SDRAM, up to 40GB hard drive, and a choice of 14- or 15-inch display. Choices for the permanent integrated optical drive include CD-ROM, DVD, CD-RW and a multifunction DVD/CD-RW combination drive that allows users to burn their own CDs and watch all their DVDs.
To meet a range of home productivity and entertainment needs, the Inspiron 2650 comes with Microsoft’s Windows XP Home Edition operating system with Works Suite 2002, Music Match software for listening to digital music and Dell Picture Studio for processing and sharing digital photos and six months of America Online or DellNet by MSN membership (new members only).
In addition to its all-in-one design that features integrated optical and floppy drives that alleviate the need to swap modules, the Inspiron 2650 system is designed with several ports and connectivity options to take advantage of the latest digital applications.