Digital Home Thoughts: Dell, Why Don't You Know The Definition of HD?

I placed an order for a Dell Mini 10 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.

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 Dell Mini 9, the Mini 10 doesn't use the Intel 945 chipset. Instead, it uses the Intel US15W chipset. 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 Atom Z530 CPU 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.