May 28 - 8:10am EDT   Dell this morning has launched a new, relatively thin-and-light portable that nonetheless promises to be fast. The Studio 14z is the first notebook in the Studio line to drop the optical drive and does so in the name of both size and weight: unlike the 15 or 17, the 14z measures 1.2 inches at its thickest point while also weighing 4.3 pounds. A 14-inch, LED-backlit, 1366x768 display contributes to the thinness as well as to battery life that can run as long as 6.75 hours with an optional 8-cell battery. [full story]

May 6 - 8:25am EDT   Dell this morning said it had added a WiMAX choice for three of its higher-end home notebooks. The Studio 15, Studio 17 and Studio XPS 16 will all have a $60 or less upgrade that offers 4G speeds on either the Clearwire or Sprint 4G networks in Atlanta, Baltimore and Portland. In peak conditions, this lets the portables connect at up to 13Mbps downstream and 3Mbps upstream. Typical speeds are still faster than 3G with downloads between 2Mbps and 4Mbps. [full story]

April 28 - 10:10am EDT   As promised, Dell today made its Studio One 19 all-in-one desktop available in the US. The 18.5-inch system in US trim starts at $699 and has slightly better performance than the Japanese version launched in March. A 2.5GHz Pentium dual-core, 2GB of RAM, a 320GB hard drive and GeForce 9200 integrated video serve as the baseline in the system, which is more consciously designed as a lower-priced alternative to an iMac. [full story]

April 21 - 10:15am EDT   Dell today slipped out a quiet but significant update to its Studio 15 notebook. The new version switches from a standard 16:10 ratio screen to a 15.6-inch, 16:9 display with a minimum 1366x768 resolution capable of playing 720p video without losing screen real estate. LED backlighting is also now standard even on the base model and both lengthens the battery life and improves the screen's color performance. [full story]

March 12 - 7:35am EDT   Dell today unveiled the company's first all-in-one PC to bear the Studio badge. The Studio One 19 is more consciously fashionable than the XPS One and has the same basic "hanging" design concept as the iMac. Like the Studio Hybrid, though, Dell lets users customize the Studio One's colors (here the outer frame and wireless input devices). It centers on an 18.5-inch display with a 16:9 ratio, 1366x768 resolution that optionally supports multi-touch input for media playback as well as image, music and video editing. [full story]

March 3 - 1:20pm EST   Dell today unveiled a limited run of its 15.4-inch Studio notebook, appropriately named the Studio 15 Special Edition. Compared to the standard Studio 15s, the Special Edition gets an LED-backlit display and a Black Vapor exterior paint scheme. Technically, the Special Edition is available in three separate trims with various levels of equipment. All share a 2.0GHz Intel Pentium dual core CPU and Intel's integrated 4500MHD graphics processor, while the display has a 1440x900 resolution, a step up from the regular Studio 15's 1280x800 resolution. [full story]

February 24 - 1:00pm EST   Dell is using Singapore as the first venue to offer its upgraded Studio 15-series notebook, the Studio 1555. It sports a new LED-backlit, 15.6-inch screen with a 16:9 aspect ratio and a 1366x768 resolution. The notebook offers the first application of ATI's newest mid-range graphics chip, the Mobility Radeon HD 4570, with a dedicated 512MB of video memory. [full story]

February 18 - 4:00pm EST   A new page on Dell's support site has revealed that the PC maker's Studio 15 notebook will soon be available with a new, yet unreleased graphics card from ATI first announced at CES, the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4570. The support page lists a support driver for the new GPU as well as the existing GMA 4500MHD processor, both dated as of Tuesday, for a new notebook model called the Studio 1555. This suggests the new HD 4570 GPU will be offered as an option on the new notebook. [full story]

January 7 - 8:45am EST   Dell today held an early, low-key launch for its promised Studio XPS notebooks. The 13-inch Studio XPS 13 and 16-inch Studio XPS 16 are both treated as Dell's new upscale competition against the MacBook and come with a new black-and-silver trim as well as new, edge-to-edge display and a revamped keyboard unlike the company's other models. [full story]

December 21 - 10:45pm EST   Dell Malaysia has quietly become the first recipient of the Studio 14, the company's first sub-15-inch Studio model. The new design puts a 14-inch, 1280x800 display with an LED backlight into the more upscale design of the series and is customizable with any of seven different lid colors. comes with relatively fast parts that include a 2.1GHz Core 2 Duo, 2GB of RAM, and a 250GB hard drive. The system is nonetheless relatively minimal in graphics with the previous-generation GMA X3100 for video. [full story]

December 16 - 12:40pm EST   Dell today fought to regain a reputation as one of the most eco-friendly PC builders by launching a new effort to reduce the impact of its packaging. The company hopes to reduce the total amount of boxing and other material it uses by about 20 million pounds, or the financial equivalent of $8 million, from now through 2012. Computers in particular should drop about 10 percent of their packing material and will have as much as three quarters of their packaging made recyclable over the same four-year period. [full story]

November 17 - 9:35am EST   Dell today quickly seized on Intel's Core i7 debut by launching two new systems, including one completely new line. The Studio XPS upgrades the regular Studio desktop with features friendly to gamers and high-end media with Core i7 processors and dedicated video as the baseline. They further exploit the new Intel hardware with three memory sticks that both up the minimum storage and also the available bandwidth. [full story]

November 9 - 11:00pm EST   Dell's plans to relaunch into MP3 players have been shelved in what may be a permanent cancellation, according to claims made by the Wall Street Journal late Sunday [subscription required]. Alleged sources say that at least one miniature player scheduled to launch alongside a media jukebox and sharing suite from Zing has been delayed past its original fall target while the software alone goes ahead. The unnamed device is currently postponed "indefinitely" and so may not be released at all, the reported insiders note. [full story]

October 7 - 9:45am EDT   A design decision from HP could lead much of the notebook business to making small 16:9 aspect ratio displays, according to alleged tips from manufacturers. The American PC builder is purportedly set to focus much of its energy on portables with 13- to 13.9-inch LCDs in the significantly wider proportions starting from the fall, pulling much of the industry with it by making the extra-wide displays common. The shift is said to be prompted by the lower price of making 13-inch screens versus 14-inch equivalents with the same ratio. [full story]

September 23 - 9:20am EDT   Hoping to do the same for its towers what it did with the Studio Hybrid mini PC, Dell today launched two new entries to the Studio line for desktops. The Studio Desktop and narrower Studio Slim Desktop both have a sleeker, glossy black design and make features standard that are left out of the similarly-shaped Inspiron line and are suited to home theaters, including HDMI video out and IEEE 1394 (FireWire) input. Blu-ray combo and full burner drives are also available. [full story]