Unlike the many free applications that come preinstalled on Windows-based computers, almost none of the applications on the Ubuntu operating system should be considered "bloatware. Click on the "Web" icon and you can select from one of multiple bookmarks or just open the Firefox web browser. Just plug in your iPod and the Music Manager detects the music player and begins importing the songs.
Things just work. Dell is also offering the Mini 9 with Windows XP, so the Microsoft faithful can breathe a collective sigh of relief. This means that passwords get mangled, emails look like gibberish, and playing games that require keyboard commands becomes quite aggravating.
For users who would buy this notebook as their "main computer" in their home or office, a full-size keyboard and external mouse are recommended. The only "major" complaint I have about the keyboard on the Mini 9 is that the function keys are all located in the middle of the keyboard rather than the top row.
Also, there is no F11 or F12 key … which is bad for people who use F11 to maximize their web browser window or use F12 as a programmed shortcut key. Please, Dell, give us F11 and F12 on the next generation of this netbook! The touchpad design is surprisingly nice for a budget netbook. The touchpad in our pre-production unit was a Synaptics touchpad with excellent sensitivity, responsiveness, and smooth tracking. The touchpad buttons are located in the correct position and have nice, deep, well-cushioned presses with no annoying "click" when pressed.
The glossy LED backlit display on the Mini 9 is nice and vibrant with rich colors and good contrast. Colors look excellent with the glossy screen, but at the cost of increasing screen reflections and glare.
The screen might be bright enough to view outside, but with all the bright reflective surfaces outside, the screen is nearly impossible to view comfortably.
Indoors the reflections are not a problem at all. Vertical viewing angles are acceptable, but colors do tend to wash out from above and become inverted when viewed from below. Here is a quick tour of what you get:. We will be publishing a follow-up in the coming weeks with details of how Windows XP performs on the Mini 9, so please keep an eye open for that. In the meantime, we can measure the time it take to perform a number of simple procedures in order to give you an idea of how the Mini 9 performs.
Please keep in mind that the speeds listed below will vary depending on the number of applications you have open at any given time multitasking always slows things down. Meanwhile, a Lenovo ThinkPad T60 with a fast rpm Seagate hard drive has a buffered read speed of True p HD video content might be out of the question based on the specs of the Mini 9, but the pre-production unit used in this review was able to handle up-scaled standard-definition video with stable frame rates and smooth sound.
The headphone jack on the Dell Inspiron Mini 9 works well with the three different brands of earphones I used during the test.
No static or other noise was noticed through the jack besides imperfections in the audio source itself. As we continue to see in our labs, nearly all of the Intel Atom-based netbooks produce a reasonable amount of heat while running. The Dell Inspiron Mini 9 is no exception to this rule. Under normal conditions such as surfing the web, typing a document, or downloading email attachments, exterior temperatures remained at acceptable levels.
The external temperature readings below listed in degrees Fahrenheit were recorded while browsing the Web and watching an AVI movie file for approximately 30 minutes:. At degrees, the keyboard felt like it had a heating pad underneath it.
The bottom of the system and the touchpad weren't much better, registering and 92 degrees, respectively. Dell notes that we reviewed a preproduction unit and that there shouldn't be any thermal issues on production-level systems. We'll update this review once we've received a final unit. We were impressed with the endurance of the Inspiron Mini 9's four-cell battery. We managed to squeeze 3 hours and 12 minutes out of the battery with Wi-Fi on. That falls between the Eee PC runtime of 4 hours and 38 minutes using a six-cell battery and the Linux version of the Aspire one's 1 hour and 58 minutes with a three-cell battery.
The XP version of the Aspire one lasted 2 hours and 22 minutes on a charge. At least for now Dell is not offering a larger-capacity battery with the Inspiron Mini 9. The Inspiron Mini 9's It never dipped below 72 percent signal strength in a foot radius, and we didn't experience a single dropped connection.
Web pages loaded quickly; NYTimes. Streaming an episode of Married with Children over Hulu. Dell's entrance into the mini-notebook market is bound to make the competition take notice.
The Linux version of the Inspiron Mini 9 boasts the most consumer-friendly interface we have seen, its footprint is tiny but sturdy, and it gets more than three hours of battery life. Despite its inferior keyboard, we recommend the Dell Inspiron Mini 9 over the Aspire one for those users interested in Linux. Spending the extra cash for this system is worth it for those seeking a small yet solidly built mini-notebook, and for those who want the ability to configure their system online.
After months of rumors, Dell enters the mini-notebook market with its long-anticipated Inspiron Mini 9. Dell took its time releasing its own netbook, and it is clear they spent the extra days and hours getting nearly everything just right. With a small footprint, sleek industrial design, 1. Even better is the ability to configure the system, from the size of the solid state drive and RAM to the webcam resolution. However, we wish Dell had spent a bit more time on the keyboard. The classy look extends under the hood with a smooth-coated, silver palm rest and screen bezel.
Size definitely matters to Dell: The Inspiron Mini 9 is one of the smallest and lightest 8. Measuring 9. When placed next to the Aspire one and HP Mini-Note , it was the shortest in length and width; the Aspire one, however, is 0. With a travel weight of 2. The glossy 8. When we watched an episode of The Office on Hulu. Horizontal viewing angles were fine for watching YouTube videos with a friend; tilting the screen back to its limit of degrees didn't cause glare. Above the display is a 1.
The camera provided clear images, though we saw a bit of motion blur when waving our hands to our caller.
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