Engadget has found the Dell Mini 5 as it passes through the FCC. Not a lot of info here except for the fact that it has the right bands for AT&T, Rogers, Bell, and Telus data. Which means it’ll probably be launching with AT&T. The question that remains is whether or not it’ll be officially with AT&T with a subsidy, or sold directly through Dell unsubsidized.

The device which was known as the Dell Streak for quite some time was officially unveiled during CES 2010 as the Dell Mini 5. Personally, I think that the name “Dell Streak inch was actually pretty sweet, but if they insist…

We’ve heard rumblings of a Dell smartphone for a while. They used to have a line of PDA’s called Axim, but they have been discontinued since 2007 and never picked up the phone component. Now we’ve catching glimpses here and there of the Dell Mini 5 which has be popping its head up once and a while since sometime back in October of 2009. At CES, Dell said that the device is a MID first and a phone second. The first major hands-on with the device came in the form of a video from Vietnamese site tinhte.com.

Dell was happy to show the device off at CES 2010, but were pretty reluctant to give much specific information about it. I don’t think Dell is trying to keep this thing under wraps, it’s likely that they have simply yet to nail down the details themselves. Retail pricing, availability, and carrier affiliation are all unconfirmed at this point.

Here is what we do know:

• 5 inch 800×480 capacitive screen
• Phone functionality with GSM SIM (despite being rather large for a phone)
• Accelerometer
• MicroSD slot x 2
• GPS
• Android 1.6 apparently heavily customized by Dell
• 1GHz Snapdragon CPU
• WiFi/BT
• 5.0MP camera with dual-LED flash, as well as a front facing cam
• 1530mAh battery
• Dock
  • HDMI out, speaker output
• Will be available in several colors, it’s been seen in black, white, pink, and red

Recently Michael Dell gave a very brief demo of the Dell Mini 5 to TechCrunch and stated that it would be out “in a couple of months inch. We’ve also heard release dates ranging from mid-year or as far out as the holiday season which is quite a while from now.

It seems like we’ll have a bit longer to wait until we’ll find out when we can get our hands on this sleek MIDphone.

I’m wondering if I’m the only one looking forward to this device? We’ve already got similar (albeit smaller) devices on the market, like the Nexus One, which has the same screen resolution, same camera resolution, and even the same 1GHz Snapdragon CPU (and it is running the latest version of Android). I couldn’t quite tell you why the Dell Mini 5 seems so compelling when compared to some of the devices that are already out there, but it just seems like Dell could do really well with this device if they can nail the right price-point. What do our readers think? Given what we know, would you buy one for, say, $400 with a contract, or $600 unsubsidized?

Three stories merged into one today when Techcrunch posted a 30-second demo video by Michael Dell proving that the Dell Mini 5 exists and will be out in a ‘couple of months.’  (MWC, CeBIT?) Techcrunch also added (‘recap’ was the word they used) some information from the Tihnte teardown and an interesting Chinese PC Online story (translation) that talks about a prototype Dell Mini 5 called the M101M. Apparently this was picked up on the black market for over $1000 which is clearly not the price it’s going to hit the ground with. Based on the (similar) HTC HD2 it could reach $700 but with the Archos 5 8GB [info] at around $300 and the iPad 3G 16GB [info] at $629 it would be crazy to ask for such a price; especially given the Dell Mini (low-cost) brand.

If we were to guess at a price we’d say $499 but we see a sweeter spot for this at the $399 level.

Specs seen so far:

• 1Ghz Snadragon
• 4.8 inch 800×480 capacative touchscreen
• 5.5Wh battery
• 5MP cam with LED flash
• Android OS
• 2 x MicroSD slots
• 3G, Wifi. BT

Via Slashgear.

The Archos A5 Android device is a great value mini tablet but what about 3G? Tethering (with certain phones) seems to work well but there’s nothing like built-in 3G and that’s what’s inside the Dell Mini 5 MID that appears to be getting nearer to launch (MWC, Feb perhaps?)

2 MicroSD card slots and a 1530mah (5.6wh) battery sit alongside the 1Ghz Snapdragon platform. Battery life could turn out to be on the low side for heavy users but if the Dell Mini 5 has a true Google Android experience built in along with the camera, a gps, compass and a ‘smart’ price, this could make things tough for Archos, especially as they are looking to release a 4.3″ Android phone.

Dell Mini 5 Dissected.

Source: Tinhte

The 5-inch tablet was shown today at CES 2010 in Dell’s suite at the Palm’s hotel in Las Vegas and given an official name.  The Dell Mini 5.  It will be part of the Dell Mini line of Netbook offerings included with the Dell Mini 3 and other Mini devices.  No launch date was given and very few technical specifications are known at this time, but the device will be available in several colors including Red, Black, and Pink.  It will also have a SIM slot for use outside wireless range.  According to Pocket-lint, the device was running Android 1.6, but it remains to be seen which version of the popular cell phone OS will be included when the device ships.  There are some great pictures over at Pocket-lint of the device at CES 2010, so head on over and check them out.

The Dell Mini 5

A couple of interesting points come up from this Techcrunch article. Its something I wrote about when the Dell 12 first came out. Dell are now discontinuing the Mini 12.

The Dell reasoning:

Dell say: “It really boils down to this: for a lot of customers, 10-inch displays are the sweet spot for netbooks…Larger notebooks require a little more horsepower to be really useful. inch

The real reasons:

Firstly, a point missed by Michael in his article. With a 12″ screen the customer expectations are way higher than with 10″ screens leading to dissatisfaction and returns. Secondly, the point the Michael makes. By setting netbook pricing you lower profit margins! Finally though, you do something extremely risky. You lower pricing expectations for the more powerful devices with higher profit margins.

What Is The Real Reason Dell Is Discontinuing 12-inch Netbooks?.

I think most of us realize at this point that netbooks have gone mainstream. While most consumers probably still couldn’t tell you the difference between a netbook and a more powerful, full fledged laptop, that hasn’t stopped companies from taking advantage of the term ‘netbook’ as a buzz word. Case-in-point, Comcast and Verizon are now both offering deals which provide their customers with a ‘free’ netbook. Each company offers a different netbook to new customers:

Verizon has teamed up with HP owned Compaq to provide the Compaq Mini 110, which is essentially just a rebranded version of the HP Mini 110 [Portal page]. Of course it is just about the most stripped down version of the computer and comes with a small 3-cell battery, and a slow 16GB SSD.

And what good would marketing be if they were just giving these things away without any hassle? There is definitely some tape you need to run through before actually receiving your Compaq Mini 110. Verizon requires that you claim your prize at least 60 days after your instillation, but no later than 90 days after instillation. If you don’t claim your prize within that 30 day window, you are no longer eligible for the ‘free’ netbook. I mentioned ‘free’ because they also charge you $50 for shipping and handling.

Meanwhile, Comcast has jumped on board with Dell to offer customers the Dell Mini 10v [Portal page]. I have been unable to track down the exact specs of the Mini 10v that Comcast is offering, but we’ll assuming that it is one up from least equipped model: 16GB (instead of 8GB) SSD, and 3-cell battery.

So who emerges victorious in the battle to win customers over with a netbook? If we look just at the netbooks that each is offering, its actually a really tough call simply by the fact that both netbooks are so similar. I don’t think there is any differentiating factor that would make me pick one of these over the other, if not simply by brand. I would personally stick with Dell, but hey, maybe you are a die-hard Compaq fan? In the end, these netbook offers really aren’t adding that much value to your purchase. Sure they might make a nice computer for the kids, but if you are really in the market for a netbook, you should buy some of the value packed netbooks that are available these days. You wouldn’t sign up with one of these companies if they were offering a free TV and expect to get a nice TV would you?

Welcome to this week’s netbook roundup. In this space every Monday I’ll highlight netbook news items from around the web.

• AT&T Rolls Out Barely-Subsidized Acer, Dell, Lenovo Netbooks Across the Country AT&T fires up a bit of netbook subsidization, offering the Dell Mini 10 [Portal page], Acer Aspire One [Portal page] and Lenovo S10 [Portal page] for $200 with a two-year, $40/month (minimum) contract.
• ASUS Eee PC T101 tablet reportedly facing uncertain future Though the Asus Eee T101H [Portal page] was seen quite a long while back on an Asus’ Eee roadmap, it seems to have a questionable release at this point. Most likely the success or failure of the Asus Eee T91 [Portal page] will decide what comes of the T101H.
• Samsung Go (N310) reviewed, gets 8.5 hours battery life The Samsung N310 [Portal page] which we saw several months ago is being branded as the Samsung Go in the US. Apparently its standard 6-cell battery is good for 8.5 hours which is quite impressive.
• Sony- Netbooks are Here to Stay; Touch Enabled VAIOs This Year Sony recently hoped into the netbook game after sitting on the sidelines since the genre appeared. Now they are recognizing the netbook as something that they need to get involved in. In addition to the release of their VAIO W [Portal page] netbook, they are planning on releasing touchscreen computers after Windows 7 lands.
• Asus Finally Launches the Eee PC 1004DN Another one that we’ve known was coming for a while: The Asus Eee 1004DN [Portal page]. Asus’ first netbook with optical disk drive and the Intel GN40 chipset. Asus has now released it in Taiwan.