Dell Inspiron Mini roadmap leaked

Netbooknews.de got their hands on a very interesting Dell Mini roadmap for the next quarters. It includes some interesting infos about future upgrades for the Inspiron Mini 10 promised by Dell some time ago. The new features include a 6-cell battery and a 250 GB hard drive.

According to the roadmap, a 11.6-inch Dell Argos model is planned, too. Based on a ULV Celeron/Pentium and equipped with a 250 GB hard drive and 2 GB memory option, it will cost around $499. The Dell Argos will then replace the Dell Inspiron Mini 12. On the other hand, it also seems like the company will focus on netbooks with a screen size of 10-inch and more, while the Inspiron Mini 9 line may be canceled in the future.

Another good news is that Ubuntu Linux is coming to the Dell Mini family for almost all models which should make the netbooks a bit cheaper. Possible model will be the Dell Mini 1011 Bear with standard netbook features (Intel Atom N270, 1 GB memory, 160 GB hard drive) and Ubuntu for a price of $299. Personally, I’m very happy about this since Linux is an excellent alternative for XP, especially on netbooks. It may also once against boost the development of Linux a bit.

As always, that’s just a rumor and not confirmed, so be cautious. Also, the roadmap refers to “Financial Year” quarters, not regular quarters, so 2010 is actually 2010 minus 3/4 year or something, which makes it a bit hard to read. However, it’s nice to see that Dell is actually pushing it’s netbook line forward with quality components and some minor innovations.

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