Dell seems to have picked up on a trend: shoppers really like the idea of low-cost, small-screenednotebooks. Dell’s dabbled in this category already with its Studio 14z.

Now, the company has expanded its small business-oriented Vostro line to include the 1220, a 12.1-inch ultraportable starting at $799, a price that, before this year, would have been unheard of for a notebook this size, particularly in the business category.

The notebook, available in Obsidian Black and Deep Cherry Red, has an integrated DVD burner, standard six-cell battery, webcam, and Dell Video Chat software. The base configuration has an Intel Celeron CPU, but you can upgrade to a Core 2 Duo processor.

Hard drive sizes range from 160GB to 320GB; a 128GB solid-state drives is also available. While a 3D accelerometer does not come with the $799 configuration, it’s available in higher-end skus. 802.11n, Bluetooth, and a fingerprint reader also do not come standard.

The 1220 is available today on Dell’s site.

blog.laptopmag.com