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Dell laptop using Intel Core i3

In the latest pre-CES leak, a Dell laptop based on Intel's just-announced Core i3 processor appears on a Costco site.

Brooke Crothers Former CNET contributor
Brooke Crothers writes about mobile computer systems, including laptops, tablets, smartphones: how they define the computing experience and the hardware that makes them tick. He has served as an editor at large at CNET News and a contributing reporter to The New York Times' Bits and Technology sections. His interest in things small began when living in Tokyo in a very small apartment for a very long time.
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The newest crop of notebooks and Netbooks are not just leaking but beginning to flood out of reseller sites. The latest: a Costco Canada posting of an upcoming Dell Inspiron laptop based on Intel's Core i3 processor.

Costco's Dell Inspiron with Intel Core i3 chip
Costco's Dell Inspiron with Intel Core i3 chip Costco

At the Consumer Electronics Show, which starts on Thursday, PC makers will debut laptops using Intel's freshly minted Core i3 processor, as was previously reported. Core i series processors are based on Intel's Nehalem microarchitecture. The Core i3 is the first Nehalem chip targeted at mainstream and lower-cost laptops.

The Dell offering, at least as posted at Costco, is a bit more expensive than other leaked models from Gateway or Hewlett-Packard, so we'll have to see how pricing shakes out in the coming the weeks. And note that Costco lists the Intel processor as the "future Core i3 processor," and further states that "all orders will ship the week of January 17, 2010."

Dell Inspiron as listed by Costco:

  • Processor: Core i3
  • Display: 15.6" TFT
  • Memory: 4096MB
  • Hard disk drive: 320GB 7200rpm
  • Optical drive: DVDRW
  • Operating system: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
  • Video card: Intel Integrated Graphics Media Accelerator HD
  • Price listed by Costco: $1,029.99 Canadian dollars or about U.S.$983.