Computer.co.uk

It’s fair to say virtually all manufactures now produce a Netbook of some description. Dell is of course no exception - however you might be surprised they don’t promote it a little harder on thier website! I had to route around until I found it. You’ll find them hiding in the ‘Inspiron Laptop & Mini‘ category.

With Dell you get a choice of 2:

Inspiron Mini 9
Inspiron Mini 12

As the name suggests the main choice is screen size. Either 9 inch or 12 inches. In my opionion, if you’re looking at a Netbook it’s normally for a reason - portability or price. The 9 inch is going to deliver on both counts.

Weighing in at just 1.035kg and a price starting at £249 - it’s a good looking machine. Price is a little more expensive than the Toshiba Netbook equivilant the NB100 - butif you ignore that for a moment - it seems to have a lot going for it.

So what’s included:

• Intel^® Atom^TM Processor (1.6GHz, 512KB L2 Cache, 533MHz FSB)
• Ubuntu Linux 8.04 with custom Dell interface
• Memory - 1GB 533MHz DDR2 SDRAM.
• Intel^® 945PM / GS Express Chipset
• Graphics - Intel^® Integrated Graphics Media Accelerator 950
• Glossy 8.9 inch LED display (1024X600)
• Up to 16GB configured with a Solid State drive
• USB 2.0 (3)
• Integrated 10/100 LAN (RJ45)
• 15-pin VGA video connector
• Audio jacks (1-line out, 1 mic-in)
• 3-in-1 Media Card Reader
• AC adapter connector
• 4-cell 32WHr Li-Ion Battery
• Integrated 1.3MP webcam
• Wi-Fi 802.11g mini-card
• Bluetooth^® Internal (2.0) mini-card
• Width: 9.13″ (232mm)
• Height: 1.07″ (27.2mm) front / 1.25″ (31.7mm) back
• Depth: 6.77″ (172mm)

What’s Good?

• Looks great and solid
• Good size keyboard
• Ubuntu - works great and has a standard version as well as a Dell version
• Good quality sound from the headphone socket

What’s Not Good?

• Don’t go for the Windows version. You can’t upgrade from 1GB to 2GB - therefore windows will not be fun! Stick with Ubuntu.
• Vertical screen resolution is not so good because of the size. If you don’t mind scrolling it’s not to bad.

Overall:

It’s great looking, you get the normal reassurance of buying from Dell, but is it the best…probably not. For this type of machine where you’re going to be typing and emailing, there are better options out there.