Dell Mini Netbook??

[irish]

okay computer experts, what are your opinions on this new dell. seems to be a great item to take on vacations for email, web surfing, and possibly using with skype.. but i would like to hear your opinions as i am NOT computer savy.

 

[tompalm]

I haven't seen the new Dell computer, but a couple years ago I bought a 12" notebook because it was smaller and easier to carry on airline trips (about five each month) and now wish that I bought a 14". They have 14" computers that are very light and the size doesn't seem to mater when traveling. The 14" is a lot better for viewing the web, reading email, watching movies, etc..

 

[Passepartout]

There are several mini notebooks out now. You can follow the links in the Asus Eee P.C. thread posts 3-and 4. I have the Asus and am happy with it, there are the Dell and others. Some run Linux- instead of Windows- they tend to be lower cost. The ones that run Win XP will 'look' more familiar to you if you run Windows regularly. I got looking at this genre of mini notes with the advent of the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) program to provide networkable, rugged, $100 PCs to students in 3rd world countries. I thought, 'Hey, that sounds just like what I want to travel with!'

Well, the OLPC ends up being about $300 and as it turns out there are a lot of choices in the genre. Asus was the first one to market and it's the one I bought. Sometimes being the early adopter has it's costs.

With today's baggage limitations, if you don't need the capabilities of a full computer, the minis are handy in that you can slip it in you purse or day bag or carry-on.

Jim Ricks

 

[Icarus]

take a look at the Acer Aspire One instead. Much better package than any of the others, especially since the Win XP version comes with a 120G hard drive and it will soon be available with a 6-cell battery. Pricing is expected to be $399. Amazon had an order page up for it at one point.

Update:

It's back, you can pre-order it. You can cancel any time.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001EYV9TM

-David

 

[Emily]

I saw a Dell Inspiron that could be pre-ordered. It has a 8.9 inch screen and I thought it was a perfect size - BUT with no optical drive - NO CD/DVD capacity and only a 16G hd, it really is a very large and expensive PDA.

 

[Fern Modena]

QVC has a Dell version right now on special. Its spendy, almost $600., and delivery is almost a month off. You can see it here. The good parts? First, it comes with (a QVC standard) 3 year Dell warranty. It has Windows XP *and* Linux installed. Here's the rest of the stats (oh, they say the battery is good for 4-1/2 hours):

• Includes notebook, four-cell lithium-ion battery, and AC adapter
• 1.6GHz Intel Atom processor
• Intel PM/GM965 Express chipset
• 8.9" diagonal glossy LED display with 1024x600 resolution
• 1GB DDR2 SDRAM
• 16GB hard drive
• Dell 2GB DataSafe online backup/storage for one year
• 802.11g wireless mini card
• Bluetooth internal 2.0 mini card
• Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950
• One external speaker
• Integrated Web cam
• Integrated 10/100 LAN
• 4-in-1 media card reader: compatible with SD, MMC, MS, MS Pro
• Three USB 2.0 ports
• RJ-45 port
• VGA video connector
• Line-out audio jack

• Microphone jack
• AC adapter connector
• Genuine Windows XP Home Edition SP3
• Ubuntu Linux 8.04 with custom Dell interface
• MS Works 9.0
• Measures approximately 9-1/8"W x 6-7/8"D x 1-1/8"H; with battery, weighs 2.28 lbs
• Cannot ship to PR, VI, Guam, Canada
• UL listed adapter; 3-year Limited Manufacturer's Warranty
• Made in China

Fern

 

[Icarus]

That's the Inspiron mini 9, and I don't see why you would pay $600 for it, when the starting price through Dell is $399. In that configuration, it's probably about $474, but they also added a 3 year warranty.

I've decided that I'm still waiting for something better than any of the ones that are currently out, after reading some reviews last night.

If you want one now (or within the next month or so, to be more accurate), the $399 Acer with the 6-cell battery and 120G hard drive looks like the winner to me. The Lenovo Ideapad S10 also looks very good, but neither are actually shipping yet. The HP mini-note is supposed to be the best in the category, but the pricing is ridiculous at well over $700 for a reasonable configuration.

What's stopping me? For one thing, they are all still overpriced, and the keyboards are not very good, and all the Atom-based designs run pretty warm. The technology is still evolving.

-David

 

[Autoeng]

I have been waffling on this decision for a while and I have concluded: other than sized for travel I can't justify to myself an mini form factor over a laptop that cost the same and has more computing power. I can pick up an IBM T40 series with dock for less than $400.

 

[Fern Modena]

You know what's stopping me? My fingers. I have a wild baby finger (leftover from a previous problem) which hits CAPS LOCK all by itself sometimes. I also have fingernails, so its unlikely I could type well on anything but a standard keyboard. I used to have a real mini thing, with keys about half size, and it was torture. I could write that fast.

Fern

 

[Icarus]

You know what's stopping me? My fingers. I have a wild baby finger (leftover from a previous problem) which hits CAPS LOCK all by itself sometimes. I also have fingernails, so its unlikely I could type well on anything but a standard keyboard. I used to have a real mini thing, with keys about half size, and it was torture. I could write that fast.

Fern

Yep, that's part of the problem, especially with EEEs.

The Lenovo Ideapad S10 is promising for the keyboard. It's supposed to be 85% of full size. We'll see the reviews when it finally ships.

-David

 

[Icarus]

I ordered the Lenovo S10 from Circuit City today. I should have it in hand next week sometime.

You can order them now from Lenovo or Circuit City, but CC seems to be the only place that has it with the larger hard drive. Both the hard drive and memory are user expandable on the Lenovo S10. (512M is glued onto the motherboard, and there's a user accessible DIMM slot. Apparently the motherboard will only recognize a total of 2G memory, so if you add a 2GB SO-DIMM, you will still only be able to access a total of 2GB. Either way, that's more than enough for a secondary netbook with XP Home)

It also has an express card slot for expansion and bluetooth built-in.

User expandability, the express card slot abd bluetooth are features that other netbooks lack.

I guess I'll find out if I like the keyboard or not.

I also ordered a portable usb optical drive and the 2GB so-dimm module from newegg, so I'm in for over $550 so far.

I still think if you don't need one, you should wait for the next generation, which should hopefully run much cooler than the current generation of Intel Atom-based netbooks.

-David

 

[Aussiedog]

looking at Lenovo S10 too

I have a really stupid question -

Can it handle Microsoft Office Standard and can this software be completely installed via a download? I really need Office and per the Microsoft website one of the system requirements is a CD or DVD drive. I would prefer to just download.


Thanks!


Ann

 

[Nobylspoon]

I love my Dell Mini 9! I purchased it the week they released. The keyboard takes about a day or two to get used to if you are a fast typer but after that it feels natural.

If you have a home network setup you can just use the CD/DVD drive from another computer by right clicking on it and turning on Share Drive then you can access it and install from it on the Mini9.

The max ram Dell ships the Mini9 out with is 1GB but the chipset supports 2GB, you can buy a 2GB stick of ram for about $30. The Mini9 is one of the easiest netbooks to upgrade too.

Although just a word of advise Intel has already announced the dual core Atom processor so they will probably be hitting the Mini9 in the upcoming months which is something that might be worth waiting for.

A great resource for the Mini9 is www.mydellmini.com

 

[Nobylspoon]

I have a really stupid question -

Can it handle Microsoft Office Standard and can this software be completely installed via a download? I really need Office and per the Microsoft website one of the system requirements is a CD or DVD drive. I would prefer to just download.


Thanks!


Ann

It handles MS Office just fine but I would recommend Open Office instead, it does everything MS Office does but it is open source (free) and it takes up less resources. www.openoffice.org

 

[Icarus]

I have a really stupid question -

Can it handle Microsoft Office Standard and can this software be completely installed via a download? I really need Office and per the Microsoft website one of the system requirements is a CD or DVD drive. I would prefer to just download.


Thanks!


Ann

Yes, I installed MS Office Standard on my S10. I bought a USB portable dvd rw drive for it in order to install software, but I think you might be able to download it. I had an upgrade version on dvd already, so I just used that. I had to put my old Office XP cd in the drive during the install to let it find it.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136136

-David

 

[Aussiedog]

Great tips - thanks!

Ann

 

[bigrick]

I still don't understand why anyone would buy a mini laptop when you can get a full functioning laptop for about the same price. Isn't this like buying a Celeron chip for the same price as a Pentium chip?

 

[Gordo1111]

Mini

Bought one - Dell Mini 9 xp operating system 1gig ram.
Super computer if you are going to use it to surf as well as travel.
Very light, quick start up.
Surprisingly the battery holds a very nice charge.
Thumbs up!

 

[mecllap]

I still don't understand why anyone would buy a mini laptop when you can get a full functioning laptop for about the same price. Isn't this like buying a Celeron chip for the same price as a Pentium chip?

I think the purpose is generally different -- a mini is/was not a workhorse do-everything computer. I got an Asus EEE for a trip to Europe on bus tours, and it was very handy for e-mail and blogging my travel journal, without the extra size and weight of a much larger laptop. And it's also a fun conversation starter! It certainly has it's drawbacks -- small screen and keyboard, but the convenience out-weighed that for me. And it also runs on any voltage without a converter (except for the plug changer), also a weight saver. I have the smallest of the small -- I'm sure that the newer mini-books have much improved features (but maybe also are creeping up in wieght and size).

 

[Nobylspoon]

I still don't understand why anyone would buy a mini laptop when you can get a full functioning laptop for about the same price. Isn't this like buying a Celeron chip for the same price as a Pentium chip?

I'm a college student and my Mini9 is perfect for class, especially if I am riding my bike. I love not having to carry a bulky laptop and case when I travel, especially at the airports. I wish I had this thing a couple of years ago when I was backpacking in Europe, it would have been perfect.

It wasnt designed as a full sized laptop killer, it has its purposes just like a $3500 XPS Gaming laptop and a standard $900 Inspiron laptop have their purposes.

As soon as they release the dual core version I am picking up a second one that has Ubuntu.

 

[bigrick]

It wasn't designed as a full sized laptop killer, it has its purposes just like a $3500 XPS Gaming laptop and a standard $900 Inspiron laptop have their purposes.

OK, this makes more sense to me. Some day if I ever get/use a laptop it may make even more sense.