Dell Inspiron 14 Arriving in August for $499

Dell has released another dorm-room-ideal laptop, the Inspiron 14.

Set to arrive in August, the Inspiron 14 proposes to balance work and play for an economy-friendly starting price of $499.

The starting weight is 5.3 pounds, and the dimensions are 1-1.5 inches thick by 13.3 inches by 9.4 inches. The screen (on the diagonal) measures 14 inches.

Inside are Intel Celeron, Intel Pentium Dual Core and Intel Core 2 Duo processors, as well as an Intel GM45 chipset. There’s an Intel GMA X4500HD (STD) graphics card, as well as an AMD 512MB Mobility Radeon HD4330.

Users can add up to 8GB of 800MHz DDR2 dual-channel SDRAM memory, and a SATA hard drive up to 500GB and 7,200 RPMs.

While not as thin or light as the pricier Dell Studio 14z, the Inspiron 14 offers a Blu-ray drive, includes two speakers, and an optional 1.3-megapixel Webcam with facial recognition and a microphone. (That would be the play part.)

There’s also an optional 9-cell battery that’ll reportedly get you more than 7 hours of battery life — which is quite a few movies in conjunction with the Blu-ray and optional HD+ display, which boosts the screen resolution to 1,600 x 900 pixels, up from 1,366 x 768.

The Inspiron 14 offers a choice of Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium or Ultimate SP1 operating systems, there are three USB ports, a 7-in-1 memory card reader, a 34mm Express Card slot, optional Bluetooth, and microphone, headphone and Ethernet jacks.

And, of course, there are the colors. Users can choose from Obsidian Black, Alpine White, Cherry Red, Ice Blue, Gecko Green, Passion Purple and, in the United States only, Promise Pink — for which Dell will donate $5 to the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation. Dell says that, in all, users can choose from 120 designs with which to accessorize their laptops.