July 31 - 12:40pm EDT   In a surprise move just after a flyer confirmed the introduction, Dell today quickly but quietly rolled out the Vostro 2510. The 15.4-inch system marks a few key changes from the outgoing 1510 and comes in a two-tone black and red body instead of the more conservative exterior of the old system. It also switches to a slot-load drive like that of the Studio 15 and uses a new cooling system that vents heat away from the bottom of the notebook to make it more comfortable on its owner's lap. [full story]

July 31 - 10:55am EDT   The second generation of Dell's Vostro small business notebooks has already been revealed and will likely appear very soon, according to a flyer discovered by a member of the Notebook Review forums. The Vostro 2510 appears to be a slimmer replacement for the 15.4-inch Vostro 1510 that also crosses into the home user field: customers will have the option of buying the notebook with different-colored rear lids and side panels rather than the all-black design of the existing models. [full story]

July 25 - 4:10pm EDT   Dell this afternoon provided a list of its notebooks affected by a chronic graphics chip flaw as well as a firmware fix that should reduce the risk of the problem. The company is the first known PC vendor to do so and says that its new updates modify the fan behavior on each of the notebooks to make sure they remain cooler than normal and thus prevent the heat problems that trigger the failures. [full story]

June 18 - 2:25pm EDT   Dell is charging some customers as much as $50 to switch from Windows Vista to XP on their systems, according to the company. Buyers picking a system from the company's Vostro business line can choose to install XP Professional instead of Vista Business but must pay an additional $50 beyond the price it takes to upgrade to Vista Business itself. Users face a reduced fee for the downgrade if moving from Vista Ultimate but still pay more than for the upgrade to a higher Vista edition than what comes preloaded on the system. [full story]

May 28 - 4:50pm EDT   Dell today announced it will soon be updating its Vostro 400 desktop PCs with the 410 model, adding to its line of PCs made for small businesses. The PC's tower has also been enlarged to allow it to hold twice as many drives as in the Vostro 400, as well as more expansion slots and bays. Newly introduced is a Gigabit Ethernet card for faster network access. Due to customer feedback from its site, Dell claims it brought out the new PC six months earlier than originally planned and with different specs that include a choice of Intel Core 2 Quad processors, 512MB graphics cards and 800MHz memory. [full story]

February 8 - 11:35am EST   Dell has caused a stir in recent hours by pulling some of its AMD-based systems from its online store, creating a concern that the PC builder would switch to Intel-only systems. With the exception of three systems -- the Inspiron 531 desktop as well as the Vostro 1000 and Latitude D531 notebooks -- all non-business AMD systems have been removed from the company's store. The company has since been directing customers to offline stores to buy the systems. [full story]

December 18 - 2:10pm EST   Continuing with a series of releases, Dell on Tuesday released the Vostro 1200 first to a Japanese audience. Bucking the trend created by the AMD-based Vostro 1000, the 1200 switches to Intel-based processors and uses Intel's GMA X3100 integrated video in place of the Radeon X1250 dictated by the AMD platform in the original. The new 12.1-inch Vostro also packs an unusually large 160GB hard drive as standard and comes with full-size ExpressCard and 3-in-1 memory card readers. [full story]

December 4 - 3:40pm EST   Dell is about to update its budget notebook lines to capitalize on end-of-year sales, a pair of leaks from Les Delliens. The Intel-based Inspiron 1525 and its AMD equivalent, the 1526, are expected to provide minor speed upgrades to the current 1520 and 1521 models. Both 15.4-inch systems will be close in spirit to the existing design but are likely to reflect the introduction of new processors and storage options since the original release. HDMI output will still be an option for at least dedicated video chipsets. [full story]