Dell is a late starter in the growing trend of mini-laptops contained with its 8.9-inch Dell Inspiron Mini 9 (with a larger "mini 12" in the series). It looks a lot like any other Dell laptops - functional - and to some extent it is. There is nothing fundamentally new about the Mini 9, it has what most other 9-inch laptops are in short, Intel Atom 1.6GHz processor, 1GB of RAM and a 8.9-inch glossy screen with Resolution 1024x600.
Size wise, the Dell Inspiron Mini 9 is overall quiteimpressive. It is a hairs breath greater than the original Eee PC 701 and slim enough to weigh little more than a kilo. This is easily the Eee PC 901 - our # 1 mini-laptop.
Connectivity has the usual bells and whistles, Bluetooth and 802.11b / g Wi-Fi, although the inclusion of HSDPA is a big plus. The only problem is that you are bound by a contract with Vodafone - there is no "unlocked" option as the Advent 4213, so far, anyway. More on this later …
The battery life, better than the 3-cells duringMSI Wind is pretty poor in comparison to competing products 6-cell Eee PCs and the like. Dell promises about 4 hours of battery life, reasonable, but not a patch on the same size Eee PC 901 In an effort to keep the compact laptop, the battery eats in the keyboard area wiping out the whole line of keys F1-F12 keys and leave the depth of the fairly flat anyway. The keyboard does not extend to the edge either, so it is not bigger, as it looks. Overall, both the battery and keyboardis somewhat impaired. The touchpad is nice, but with mouse buttons below, not to the side as the HP Mini-Note and Acer Aspire One.
Looks disappointing again, as with most Dell computers - or is it boring? The interface is boring and apart from the slight tapering at the edges - it is a box. And it's only available in black in the UK. Smart maybe, but for the consumer, a little more imagination would surely be grateful! This is particularlyunfair, since some mini 9 is in the States, appear with Dell Studio 15esque systems. Surely this would be down a hit - a hit anyway, compared with black, black, black. Rumour has it that a white but counts the ways.
At a price of 299 for the 8GB model XP (or £ 269 for the 4GB Linux), it is expensive to consider a bit of what the sale of Acer are, though, thanks to Vodafone, you can use it freely on a contractual basis. The cheapest contract at the time of publication£ 21.27 per month for 24 months - to put it frankly, and all reverse Vodafone software marketing - your "free" Dell will cost you just £ 600.
Oh, and the download is only for broadband 1GB, enough (Vodafone claims) and 60 large attachments and 30 video clips, send 600 e-mails and surfing for 30 hours. And you do not dare try and take your Dell Inspiron Mini 9 abroad on Vodafone - £ 9.99 per 24 hours or £ 4.99 per MB, maybe put the money to better use.
Related Linksof mini-laptops on contract, there are many companies offering services - the Carphone Warehouse, for example. Currently, the prices seem quite frightening, even if you do not chip in for the computer in the first place, and with relatively download speeds. Of this expected since more and more larger companies entering the market.
The solid-state memory and passive cooling (ie no fan) give a pretty quiet machine, a nice feature. The storage system itself is a bit on thesmall side, 7:30 GB for the XP version - that will be considered for the Linux, Windows, and especially after pre-installed programs.
Looks, keyboard and battery life concerns aside, the Dell Inspiron Mini 9 is a very good computer. As much as we slam Dell, they are a reliable and trusted brand - this can only be a good thing when everything will be downsizing. But apart from the Vodafone contract, there is another 9 "netbooks, which are worth a consideration, and even 10 inch model in the samePrice segment, namely:
- Asus Eee PC 901 - Our # 1 mini-laptop
- Acer Aspire One
- Samsung NC10
- HP 2133 Mini-Note
The Vodafone option is certainly worth looking at when Internet anytime and anywhere, though download speeds are somewhat restrictive. If you can make it work Moneywise, it is an excellent choice. But it is worth considering, carried away before you sign up for 24 months that some laptop manufacturers (Sony,Apple are the clear two) and mobile phone providers are still not smooth on the netbook train - so better netbooks with 3G, "unlocked", it can be just around the corner.
Dell has managed to go and produce a big brother for the Inspiron Mini 9 - the Inspiron Mini 12th It is already in Japan, now in the United Kingdom with Linux hit, XP and Vista. The problem is that they try Vista with 1GB RAM and the same Intel Atom - awkward movement - Asus have their flagship N10 10-inch versionAtom on netbook, with its big brother N20 on an Intel Core 2 Duo processor.