08
May 12

The mysterious death of Dell Zino

If you’re a fan of murder mysteries, you might enjoy this one — courtesy of Dell.

The body has disappeared. There is no smoking gun. There is a distinct lack of witnesses. And nobody’s talking.

Whatever happened to the Dell Zino?

You may remember that in November of 2009, Dell churned out a somewhat bloated copy of the Mac mini. One of its dubious claims to fame was its selection of colorful lids. (Odd, considering that this device wasn’t to be carried around and shown off like a laptop.)

Of course, there is nothing unusual about a computer being pulled from the market. With scores of PCs being introduced every year, scores must die to make room.

What is unusual is for a computer to suddenly disappear — along with most of the evidence that it ever existed.

For the fun of it, my inner investigative journalist dived into this story, eager to understand what tragedy had befallen our dearly departed. But for the most part, I came up empty.

I started by searching the Dell site. Nothing very Zino-ish, other than a bunch of memory modules for the Zino you already own. (Assuming that ninjas haven’t stolen it in the night.)

I asked a Dell sales rep via email: “Is Zino still available, and if not, do you have similar models?” The answer: ”Zino is no longer available. We have no similar models.”

Surely the Internet would yield some clues. But no luck. All I could dig up were a few meager comments on a scattering of blogs from people wondering why Zino wasn’t on the Dell site anymore. Zino’s exit seems to have generated about as much interest as its entrance.

At that point, I gave up. If anyone has any real information on what happened to Zino and why, it would be interesting to hear. Otherwise, we’ll just have to file Zino away with other Dell ideas that copied Apple’s innovations, only to be quietly escorted out the back door. Like the Streak tablet and super-thin Adamo laptop.

The moral of this story, of course, is that originality sells better than imitation. Clearly Dell has some work to do in the fresh thinking department.

However, it’s not all bad news for our friends at Dell:

They may not be very good at creating magic — but they’re getting incredibly good at making things disappear.

In other news: My book, Insanely Simple, made it to the New York Times Best Seller list in its very first week. A huge thanks to all of you for your support!

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 8th, 2012 at 10:05 am and is filed under dell, observatory, technology. You can follow any comments to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.

  • dnd2som

    I miss this. When I have the money and intend to buy a ZINO. It pull off from the Dell webstore … So sad.

  • Ben_323Williams

    I ready all the daily tech news, but for the last couple of years I have never even heard about the Dell Zino. After seeing these pictures, I can honestly tell you it’s, design wise, a shameless ripoff of the Mac mini. Anyhow, I detest Dell as a company as their products are of mediocre quality …

  • Tim Holt

    I was going to buy it and a Zune…

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_BCA4SRRSPCXRJSEO2WO6Y4D4XM John

    It seems that overheating was an issue with the Zino. From what I can gather, Dell attempted to rectify this problem. But, likely the damage was already done to the Zino’s “real world” performance reputation.

    One link for reference:

    http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/desktop/f/3514/t/19323045.aspx 

    Other instances may be found by searching for “dell zino overheating” or similar keywords.

  • Brian Ferguson

    go to ebay, you can pick up a Zino HD 400 all together for about $250 and you can get the barebones (case + mobo) for around $60

  • Engineer

    Way to bury the lede: congrats on the book!

  • ConcernedITPro

    Smarthome has the Zino HD 400 on clearance for three hundred. 2.1 Audio on an HTPC? Looking at the specs it’s no wonder it died out of the starting gate:

    SpecificationsProcessorTypeAMD Athlon 2650e 1.60 GhzL2 Cache512 KBDRAM Bus Width64 bitsExternal Bus Frequency200 MHzDrives and DevicesExternally AccessibleOne 12.7mm tray load for SATA DVD+/-RW Super Multi Drive or Blu-ray Disc comboCommunication (optional)Mini PCIe WLAN card (802.11 b/g or 802.11 a/b/g/n)Internally accessibleOne 3.5 inch bay for SATA hard driveMemoryConnectorsTwoMemory Type800 MHz DDR2 SODIMM;non-ECC memory onlyInstalled Memory (RAM)2 GBHard Drive230 GBComputer InformationSystem ChipsetAMD 780GData Bus Width64 bitsFlash EEPROM8 MBMemory Speed800 MHzExpansion BusSATA 2.01.5 Gbps and 3.0 GbpsUSB 2.0High speed: 480 MbpsFull speed: 12 MbpsLow speed: 1.2 MbpsVideoVideoUMA: ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3200Video MemoryUp to 256 MB (UMA)512 MB DDR3 (Discrete)AudioAudio TypeIntegrated 2.1 channel, High Definition AudioVolume ControlsSoftware program controlledMemory Card ReaderCards SupportedSecure Digital (SD) cardMini Secure Digital cardMicro SD cardSecure Digital High Capacity (SDHC) cardSystem Board ConnectorsMemoryTwo 200-pin connectorsChassis FanOne 4-pin connectorGraphic FanOne 4-pin connectorSATATwo 7-pin connectorsExternal ConnectorsFront PanelUSBTwo USB 2.0-compliant connectorsAudioOne headphone connectorMemory Card ReaderOne 4-in-1 memory card readerBack PanelNetwork AdapterOne RJ45 connector (10/100/1000)USBTwo USB 2.0-compliant connectorsAudioOne microphone connector, one line-out connectorVideoOne VGA connector, one HDMI connectorPowerOne AC adaptereSATATwo connectorsBatteryCoin-cell battery3-V CR2032 lithium coin cellPhysicalHeight7.77 inches (197.6 mm)Width7.77 inches (97.6 mm)Depth3.5 inches (89 mm)Weight (without AC adapter)4.41 lb (2 kg)AC AdapterInput Voltage100-240 VACInput Current1.7 AInput Frequency50-60 HzOutput Power65 WOutput Current3.42 ARated Output Voltage19 +/- 0.95 VDCHeight1.24 inches (31.5 mm)Width1.79 inches (45.5 mm)Depth4.25 inches (108 mm)Weight (without AC adapter)0.55 lb (0.25 kg)Weight (Auto-Air adapter without AC/DC cord)0.57 lb (0.26 kg)Computer EnvironmentTemperature RangeOperating50 to 95 degrees F (10 to 35 degrees C)Storage-40 to 149 degrees F (-40 to 65 degrees C)Relative Humidity (maximum)20 to 80% RH (non-condensing)Maximum vibration (using a random-vibration spectrum that stimulates user environment)Operating5 to 350 Hz at 0.0002 G2/HzStorage5 to 500 Hz at 0.001 to 0.01 G2/HzMaximum shock (measured with hard drive in head-parked position and a 2-ms half-sine pulse)Operating40 G +/- 5% with pulse duration of 2 msec +/- 10% (equivalent to 50 in/sec [127 cm/sec])AltitudeOperating-50 to 10,000 ft (-15.2 to 3048 mStorage-50 to 35,000 ft (-15.2 to 10,668 m)Airborne Contaminant LevelG2 or lower as defined by ISA-S71.04-1985

  • robroberts2009

    Ken, don’t forget the Dell DJ Ditty Mp3 player … Another spectacularly stinky turd that landed with a steamy thud in the marketplace … Its horrific marketing implied that it was an iPod killer, just as the Zino was probably made out to be a Mac Mini killer.

    Dell’s DNA is as a provider of commodity PC’s, and lately its reputation is that it provides inferior, defective PC’s that last about a year before suddenly dying or having their capacitors explode.

    Whenever I see a Dell product that comes with multiple colored covers I just laugh. Somebody at Dell obvioisly thinks it is hip and cool to steal an Apple idea from 15 years ago. Hey, we’ll show them, we’ll release this laptop with a plaid fuscha pattern with purple highlights and glowing blue lights!

    I wouldn’t waste a dime on a

  • Zino’ed

    I own one of these and it worked for about 6 months, then the hard drive died.  It was replaced, and then died again 4 months later.

    I can wholeheartedly tell you that the whole design was flawed and it’s a lemon.  I await someone with the gumption to start a class action lawsuit!

  • http://www.facebook.com/jim.kuenzer Jim Kuenzer

    You know what this reminds me of? Roger Corman. He’d find out what the big studios were producing, produce a cheap knockoff in half the time it took the big studios and be the first to market with the dinosaur or tornado or giant asteroid movie. Of course, the big difference: Corman’s projects made money.

  • http://marketingwizdom.com/ Robert Clay

    I wonder how many they ever sold. Can’t have been many.

  • http://pageplane.com/ ChuckGreen

    About Dell: Is it just me? I think of Dell as a faceless company — faceless to the extent that I think that’s why they’re stock has washed around for the last few years. 

    I was once a big advocate of Dell, recommended them to everyone, bought a bunch of their computers and so on — but I had no impression of who they were. I had read a little about Michael Dell but I never saw him anywhere. I didn’t love them — I didn’t hate them, I just thought of them as the folks who supplied reasonably reliable boxes.

    And they treated me the same way. Never a “thanks” for buying thousands of dollars worth of equipment, never a contact to follow up. I felt our relationship was one way. As if we dated, but nothing ever came of it.

    Apple, on the other hand, is very different. Apple, has a big personality. A style. A design. An opinion. When I think of Apple, I feel attached. When I think of Dell I think about nothing more than price and specifications.

    Guess I’m restating the obvious.

  • Lucky Love

    I made the mistake of buying a zune.
    After that, Microsoft lost me…
    Bye bye…

    Dell lost me even before that.

    Now, I’m an Apple zealot.

  • http://profiles.google.com/xrousseau David Rousseau

    I use a Zino as my HTPC. 
    Windows Media Center is still the best piece of software I know if you want a DVR.

    Too bad. I liked the form factor.

  • jellifish

    We have quite a few in our company. They were ideal for us. We run Ubuntu and use them as desktop machines not media centers running bloated windows media software. Obviously we are not the target market, but for us there simply was nothing better. Mac minis suddenly doubled in price and their use of laptop drives and hard to get to cases meant that the Del Zino HD with its standard desktop drive and easy open case along with better spec and lower cost were ideal.

    Small, reasonably good looking, low power, reasonable performance and easy to manage hardware. Was perfect.

    I can’t find anything to replace the Zino HD so far.

    The Dell rep I spoke to hinted that once Windows 8 is released there may be a new product appearing and to watch the Del website. It was his own opinion really though, I doubt anyone knows who makes the decisions or why in such a big company.

  • Cesnj

    I bought a Zino in Jan 2012 from the Dell outlet with the AMD P940 with the AMD MXM 5450 video card after comparing white boxes with Atom and/or nVidia, ASRock, Zotac and others.  While the Zino wasn’t the cheapest, at $450 WITH OS it makes a great HTPC.  It is really a hybrid of desktop & laptop parts.

  • bkgofjfoig

    Microsoft and dell lost me on a netbook :P

  • speculatrix

    I think they had overheating problems.
    we have one which gets very hot and crashes despite swapping memory, and occasionally reports disk errors.
    when cold it can run just fine.

  • anne

    Sorry if this is dumb but…so Zino 4 is on my inspiron and was here when I bought it. I always think of removing it but did not know if I should. Thought maybe someday I would figure out what it was and say damn I uninstalled that. So, is it safe to uninstall it?

  • TF

    The Dell Zino HD was a great concept that could have been improved to address the overheating issue – but Dell decided to dump it. Mine ran into the overheating issue (specifically the graphics card overheating) after about a year. I disabled the Windows Media Center cover art scroll background and dropped from 1080 to 720p + added a notebook cooling base fan. After another year, it started overheating again so put a Thermaltake external USB Cooling Fan to pull heat out the back. That has dropped the graphics card temp 20+ degrees. Overall, the SATA drive throws lots of heat & box is essentially a furnace due to the lack of air flow. I am guessing the a SSD drive would help but redesigning the interior for better cooling is possible – especially since ultra books are much “tighter” in their design. CMOS (BIOS) battery just went but I’ll keep this running until it goes no more!

  • John

    I have two zino and know why the dell disappeared with them, because the processor used and other hardware components are slow, I notice that the slowness of the machines. the reason for the immediate abandonment was an error building the machines. they are slow!!

  • dk

    I have had mine for over two years as a media center. I stream hours of tv a day off it as I live in Europe now and so I use a vpn client to access US sites. It has never overheated and has never had a lag problem streaming. It has been fantastic. I came across this article searching for newer versions with expanded capacity as I like to update my hardware about every two years. there is still a need for desktop computers and the compact nature of the Zino made it ideal for the living room as a media center control.