Dell Vostro A90: A Corporate Mini 9

Dell today introduced a new netbook -- strictly for businesses -- but it’s nothing we haven’t seen before.

Now available for U.S. companies is the Vostro A90 netbook. It has your usual Intel Atom N270 at 1.6 GHz on a 945GSE chipset. It’s also equipped with an 8 or 16 GB SSD, has an 8.9-inch screen and weighs 2.36 lbs.

Sounds familiar. But that’s because we’ve seen it all before.

You see, the Dell Vostro A90 is nothing more than a repainted Mini 9. Businesses seem to have this thing about having serious business-like machines for their employees, so they won’t have anything to do with those Inspirons or Studios. They also have special credits and accounts, and those credits do not apply to machines meant for consumers. This means that places that want a Mini 9 can't purchase one on business credit, but now, thanks to the all-business, all-black Vostro A90, they can.

From our inspection, it seems that companies will be paying a small premium for their work-oriented version of the netbook. The base Vostro A90 with Windows XP, 512 MB RAM, 8 GB SSD, Bluetooth and webcam runs $349. A similarly configured Mini 9 gives you more for less with 1 GB RAM standard for $334.

Oh and for those interested, with innards the same as the Mini 9, the Vostro A90 should still be one of the best candidates for converting into a Hackintosh.