Just look at this beautiful Dell E laptop. On a news day with a sea of press releases about me-too lappies from Sony, Lenovo, Acer, Samsung, Toshiba, HP and Fujitsu packing Intel’s Centrino 2 mobile platform, this tiny 8.9-inch Dell E mini-note casts a long shadow across all the revelry.

According to industry sources, this baby will be shipping next month (August '08) for $299, and we expect all the other laptop sellers to scramble to keep up. The 2.2-pound Dell E will have an instant-on Linux operating system on board, perfect for doing most basic tasks, especially if you’re into Gmail and all the other excellent and convenient web-based apps.

Meanwhile, Dell throws down another pricing gauntlet, adding the option of choosing a 128GB solid-state drive (SSD) for most of its laptop lines. The company’s slipping the quick, energy-sipping SSDs into its Latitude, XPS, Alienware, and Precision notebooks. The big news: Dell will only charge $600 more than the price of a notebook with an old-timey spinning disk inside, undercutting the entire industry in one swoop. You go, Dell!

Via Digitimes and Crave