We caught wind of Dell's Inspiron Mini 10v a little under a week ago, and the system, dubbed as "the affordable, portable internet companion", promised to be a lower-cost alternative to the existing Inspiron Mini 10.
True to Dell's word, that very system, pictured below, is now available to order at a starting price of $299. That comfortably makes it Dell's cheapest netbook option, and it's equipped with the innards we've all become accustomed too - namely Intel's 1.6GHz Atom N270 processor, 1GB of RAM, a 120GB hard drive and Microsoft's Windows XP operating system.
Not a bad deal, we reckon, but the same can't be said for UK customers. Over here, the Inspiron Mini 10v is available with Windows XP at a cost of £279 (roughly $420), albeit with a slightly larger 160GB hard drive. A cheaper option is the Inspiron Mini 10v configured with the Linux Ubuntu operating system - that'll bring the price down to £199, but you'll be limited to an 8GB solid state drive with no option to upgrade.
Worse still, UK shoppers don't have the option of a 6-cell battery on any Inspiron Mini 10v system. Good thing the national minimum wage is going up a touch, seems we need all the help we can get.
