Predictions for Back to School (End of June to July)

Post your predictions on what might happen for the Back to School time period. Last year Dell unleashed their new Inspirons at that date, so it probably is no surprise that the new Inspirons will be coming out around then as well. Other guesses are probably 320GB hard drive available for the M1530 as well as 1680x1020 LED backlit display. What's your guess?

 

It was leaked out that some awesome new Inspirions are planned from Dell this year, too. Maybe Dell will release a XPS M1530 refresh with better video cards and processors when Montevina is released.

 

I think this year the releases will come after the back to school rush.

 

Here are the aforementioned leaked pictures of the new inspirons:

http://www.engadget.com/2008/05/08/dell-inspiron-1435-1535-and-1735-leaked/

They look pretty slick actually, much better than the old ones. No reliable indication of a release date for these, though it will probably follow the pattern the XPS laptops took by releasing the 13" and 17" first, then waiting longer for the 15".

 

I got a feeling the XPS M1330, M1530, and M1730 are all getting illuminated keyboards around the same time the new Inspirons come out.

 

I certainly hope so, they should have all had illuminated keyboards from the beginning anyway. However I think with the future release of Montevina, and the currently new 9xxx video cards, plus the possibility of a backlit keyboard, Dell probably wouldn't upgrade the m1330/m1530/m1730 for all that (well, maybe for the processors just to keep up if the competition does). They would probably wait a bit and release new, slightly different but mostly similar notebooks with all the upgrades. Perhaps m1350/m1550/m1750. It's all hearsay but I'm just throwing it out there.

 

That article at the end says, "Apparently the 1435 isn't due until October, but the 1735 is coming on June 9 and the 1535 on the 26th of this month."

Is it just me or is the article stating that the 15" are coming out first, then the 17", and finally the 13"?

 

Although i am no Nostradamus, if i where a betting man I would bet all I own that dell offers a 320 gb hdd, in the M1530....

 

heeyyyyy, no fair, you already knew the answer to that one, lol, i for one, have wide eyes for those new latitudes, want me one of those e6500s

 

God damnit, just when I need to buy a new machine, the 1435 is coming in October!?!

 

A bit offtopic, but anyway:

I'm wondering if the current price levels (12 may '08) on dell.com for inspiron and xps are going to change a lot for the next month. I.e. I can buy Inspiron 1525 with a 250gb hdd upgrade for $664 and xps 1530 with the same disk for $1049. I see there is some sort of sale of them - mothers day, so
I wonder whether next month it would be possible to buy at about this price, or maybe even better?

The whole point is that I'm not in the US, so I'll have a friend buy it and transport it for me, so do I rush and order it now, or wait, since he's not flying home till the end of june?