I had never been a fan of Dell’s product designs, but that has changed a bit today when Dell introduced the new Studio Hybrid mini desktop and the new S2409W LCD display. Apple’s Mac mini has been the king of mini desktops for past two year and this is the first desktop that can seriously challenge Mac mini’s position. The new Studio Hybrid is an eco-friendly PC that uses notebook components to reduce both size and power requirement. The Hybrid use just 65 watts power and is 80 percent smaller than any Dell’s desktop. It measures 7.75” x 2.8” x 8.35” and weighs 4.8 pounds. Though it is bigger and heavier than the Mac mini, specification-wise it’s cheaper than mini. A Studio Hybrid system with 2.0GHz Core 2 Duo processor and 1GB RAM is priced at $619 after $180 savings compared to $799 for a comparable Mac mini.
The desktop can be personalized with various available acrylic shell colors or a bamboo finish shell. The starting price for the system is $499 that will get you a 1.73GHz Pentium dual-core processor, 2GB memory, DVD writer and 160GB hard drive. You can customize your system by scaling the processor up to 2.6GHz Core 2 Duo, adding WiFi, more RAM (up to 4GB) and bigger hard drive (320GB). The Studio Hybrid is available now on Dell’s website and should be available through other channels during fall. You can check out Dell Studio Hybrid reviews below.
CNET Review
PC Mag Review