Dell’s Inspiron Mini 12 is now available in the US as of today. The sleek notebook will aim for it’s market share against the Asus Eee PC S101, in a two notebook’s enter one notebook leaves kind of Thunderdome fight. Both feature 12″ screens and have that same sleek look. You can choose from two versions: A $549 model powered by an Intel Atom 1.33GHz processor, with 1GB RAM, a 40GB hard drive and Windows Vista Home Basic. If you need more power, the faster 1.6GHz processor with a 60GB hard drive and 6-cell battery is your other option.

Dell just officially announced a new member of the Inspiron Mini family, the Inspiron Mini 12. This is either a 1.3GHz Atom Z520 or 1.6GHz Atom Z530 processor, up to an 80GB drive, 1GB of RAM, Bluetooth / WiFi, Windows Vista Home Basic, Webcam and a 12-inch, 1280 x 800 display. The whole deal weighs just 2.72-pounds and is less than one inch thick. Don’t get too excited just yet. It’s Japan-only for the moment, but late next month it will land in the States with a starting price under $600. At that price with it’s performance, it may just be able to snag sales from the Envy 133 and MacBook Air.