We know that Dell was working on a Netbook-style laptop already known – the same kind of small, low power, inexpensive system made popular by Asus eee pc.
Design
In person, the Inspiron Mini 9 battery is similar in design to 9-inch Eee PC from Asus. It is slightly thinner, at 27mm, tapering slightly toward the front. Our system has a glossy black finish, the only color is available in the United Kingdom today. The U.S. gets a white version, and most of the leaked product shots we’ve seen to date, a red model.
The challenge for each mini laptop is to squeeze as much keyboard as possible into a very small space, and the Mini 9 is as good as everyone has a job for them. The Dell letter keys are larger than the Eee PC 9-inch, but certain keys – Tab, Caps Lock included – are reduced to small pieces.
In addition, the entire F-key row has been removed. F1 through F10 are now alternate keys of the AL series. It is an interesting compromise to get the surface for food daily, and we need to spend more time with the system before, if we like it or not decide.
Features
Component-wise, the Dell Inspiron Mini 9 as other netbooks like the Eee PC 901 and Acer Aspire One, and includes Intel Atom, 1GB of RAM, a 16GB solid state disk drive and Windows XP. Our American cousins may bring down the price by opting for a smaller hard drive, less RAM, no webcam or using Ubuntu Linux operating system. We receive no adjustability in the United Kingdom, which is unusual for Dell.
The Dell Mini 9 has three USB ports, headphone and microphone jacks, a VGA output, SD card reader and an Ethernet jack – a fairly standard set of connections in the netbook world. Open the lid, the 8.9-inch, 1,024 x600 pixel screen shares space with a Webcam above and two small speaker grilles below.
Performance
We found the Mini 9 is very suitable for surfing, email and even play music – its speakers were surprisingly strong, if predictably thin probe. The combination of Intel Atom processor, 1GB of RAM and Windows XP in almost every current Netbook works well for simple tasks, keep it as long as his expectations modest and do not mind occasional slowdown if you open too many browser windows at the time. try
The Mini 9 lasts 3 hours and 21 minutes on our video playback test battery drain, using the four-cell battery supplied. This is second only to the six-cell battery of the Asus Eee PC 901 and easily beats the Asus Aspire One and MSI Wind.
The system will boot completely from a cold start in 45 seconds, and thankfully, the desktop is not cluttered with links to more advertising and promotion – just a few icons for Dell Support Center application and storage service online (2 GB free online storage is included).
Conclusion
Dell’s entry in the Netbook market means it’s time to make low price for low-power PCs seriously. The Inspiron Mini 9 is an excellent example of the form, if not radically different from the competition.