June 30 - 9:05am EDT   Dell today formalized the launch of the Vostro 1220, its smallest full-fledged notebook to bear the name. The 12-inch system isn't Dell's thinnest at up to 1.5 inches thick but is light, at under 3.4 pounds, and has room for high-end components. A fully-loaded 1220 can take up to a 3.06GHz Core 2 Duo, 8GB of RAM and a Blu-ray combo drive; in a rarity for Dell, it also has the option of Clearwire- and Sprint-friendly internal WiMAX. [full story]

June 19 - 12:10pm EDT   Dell is planning to introduce a fourth, smaller Vostro notebook for the near future, a leak shows. The Vostro 1220 as seen by Engadget would have a thick but small profile with a 12-inch screen and, like larger models, get the option of a red shell. This bulk will also afford room for ExpressCard and SD card slots as well as a fingerprint reader. [full story]

April 15 - 9:40pm EDT   Dell has released the Vostro A90 in the U.S. market, following previous availability limited to Japan. The device is geared for business users, with features similar to the consumer-oriented Inspiron Mini 9. The base-model offers an 8.9-inch display, 512MB of memory and an 8GB SSD, with options for 1GB of RAM and a 16GB SSD. Customers are limited to Windows XP Home Edition as the pre-installed operating system. [full story]

April 2 - 5:00pm EDT   Dell on Thursday announced it has updated its Vostro notebook line-up with three new models, including the 13.3-inch Vostro 1320, the 15.4-inch Vostro 1520 and 17-inch Vostro 1720, which are available now. Dell has outfitted the range with added security measures, including optional shock-proof solid state drives, fingerprint readers, and encrypted hard drives with Wave Systems software. All share standard 80GB hard drives and six-cell batteries, as well as integrated Wi-Fi capabilities. Processing power comes via Intel's 2.66GHz Core 2 Duo chips. [full story]

November 14 - 8:20am EST   Fulfilling an earlier promise, Dell has quietly made the Vostro A860 available for the US. The system is one of Dell's only 16:9 aspect ratio notebooks but, unlike other extra-wide notebooks, is targeted at the entry level that might otherwise consider a netbook; its 15.6-inch, 1366x768 screen is its stand-out feature, while most components skew towards the low end. [full story]

November 10 - 1:00pm EST   Apple's recent MacBook lineup and the iPhone may make it one of the better-positioned companies to survive a likely steep drop in spending during the holidays, according to new data from ChangeWave. The analyst firm says that a full third of all studied US notebook buyers, or 33 percent, plan to buy some form of Apple notebook during the season or within the next 90 days from the start of November. The number represents a slight boost from 29 percent in September and puts Apple's demand on par with Dell; HP continues to significantly trail behind at just 22 percent. [full story]

October 24 - 10:25am EDT   Dell Japan today provided a look at one of the few netbooks explicitly with business in mind. The Vostro A90 is stylistically very similar to the home-oriented Inspiron Mini 9 but comes in a more somber all-black trim and with more features in its base model than the earlier computer, including 1GB of minimum memory, an 8GB flash drive and previously option-only items like Bluetooth and a VGA camera. Windows XP is also its only operating system choice. [full story]

October 16 - 10:35am EDT   Dell on Thursday marked the low-key launch of a new round of tower desktops all aimed at SoHo or just desktop buyers hoping to get better support. The Vostro 420 mid-tower is the company's performance option and comes with many of the better options normally reserved for faster Inspiron systems, including the choice of up to a 2.83GHz Core 2 Quad for the processor, a 512MB GeForce 8800 GT for video and Blu-ray burners for movies and storage. Extra space in the chassis also allows for dual optical drives and up to four hard drives. [full story]

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]