Dell, Why Don't You Know The Definition of HD?

[Jason Dunn]

<p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/dht/auto/1236631641.usr1.jpg" style="border: 0;" /></p><p>I placed an order for a <a href="http://www1.ca.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/laptop-inspiron-10?c=ca&amp;cs=cadhs1&amp;l=en&amp;s=dhs" target="_blank">Dell Mini 10</a> last week, and I noticed something odd about how they list the products on the Dell.ca Web site: you can see that above. A 10.1" "Hi-Def" screen? 1280 x 720 is the resolution of 720p, and that's the minimum resolution that can be considered "HD". What's the screen resolution on the Mini 10? 1024x576. While it might look close in terms of numbers, it's a jump that we have yet to see any netbook make, and it irks me to see Dell's marketing department abuse the term HD. If it's not at least 1280 x 720, it can't be called HD.</p><p>Here's an interesting fact that I noticed when plumbing the depths of the Dell Mini 10 spec sheet: unlike virtually every other netbook out there today, including the <a href="http://www1.ca.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/laptop-inspiron-9?c=ca&amp;cs=cadhs1&amp;l=en&amp;s=dhs" target="_blank">Dell Mini 9</a>, the Mini 10 doesn't use the <a href="http://ark.intel.com/chipset.aspx?familyID=22817" target="_blank">Intel 945 chipset</a>. Instead, it uses the <a href="http://ark.intel.com/chipset.aspx?familyID=35443" target="_blank">Intel US15W chipset</a>. Why does this matter? The 945 chipset uses 7 watts of power; the US15W uses 2.3 watts. That's roughly 300% less power consumption, and when you consider the fact that the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Intel_Atom_microprocessors" target="_blank">Atom Z530 CPU</a> in the Mini 10 only uses 2 watts under full load, you can see that the new chipset is a much better choice for this netbook. Will it have any measurable impact on the battery life of the Mini 10? It's too soon to tell, but it's nice to see Dell advancing the technology inside netbooks.</p>

[Darius Wey]

A 10.1" "Hi-Def" screen? 1280 x 720 is the resolution of 720p, and that's the minimum resolution that can be considered "HD". What's the screen resolution on the Mini 10? 1024x576. While it might look close in terms of numbers, it's a jump that we have yet to see any netbook make, and it irks me to see Dell's marketing department abuse the term HD. If it's not at least 1280 x 720, it can't be called HD.

Someone definitely needs to update their marketing department, unless that 1366 x 768 configuration that was revealed in February comes to fruition.

On a different note, I do find the discrepancies between regional models interesting. The Australian model ships with an 802.11n card by default, whereas the US model only ships with an 802.11g card with no option to upgrade to 802.11n, at least for now. Unless I'm missing something? :confused:

[Nurhisham Hussein]

Isn't that the Poulsbo chipset? The driver situation is really screwed - the graphics chip isn't from Intel, and nobody is taking responsibility for driver development. The upshot of it all, ironies of ironies, is that none of the netbooks running this combination (Z530 and US15W) are currently capable of 720p playback.

[Jason Dunn]

Someone definitely needs to update their marketing department, unless that 1366 x 768 configuration that was revealed in February comes to fruition.

Yeah, that's a separate post I'm going to do - Dell has announced a "Coming Soon" model that will have a bunch of new features, which is bizarre for them to do...

[Jason Dunn]

Isn't that the Poulsbo chipset? The driver situation is really screwed - the graphics chip isn't from Intel, and nobody is taking responsibility for driver development.

Yeah, that's the Poulsbo chipset - though the Intel spec sheet says it comes with integrated graphics...I assumed that would be Intel. Who made it then? Very strange because Dell lists it as Intel Integrated Graphics Media Accelerator 500.

The upshot of it all, ironies of ironies, is that none of the netbooks running this combination (Z530 and US15W) are currently capable of 720p playback.

Wow, really? The 1.6 Ghz Atom + GMA945 can do 720p WMV files, though not h.264.

[Nurhisham Hussein]

Who made it then? Very strange because Dell lists it as Intel Integrated Graphics Media Accelerator 500.

It's a Power VR core - apparently Intel didn't have a graphics chip with low enough power characteristics ready to go when they launched this, so they outsourced.


Wow, really? The 1.6 Ghz Atom + GMA945 can do 720p WMV files, though not h.264.

There's apparently a workaround - just don't use full screen mode (which is bizarre). Apparently installing Cyberlink PowerDVD also helps with h.264 but not wmv, which points to unoptimized drivers as the problem.