Dell Inspiron Mini 9? Possibly the best netbook for the $?

Sharp Sapphire · Post by **Sharp Sapphire** » Fri Sep 05, 2008 7:49 pm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcwxR9kFEnE

The Dell Inspiron Mini 9 was released yesterday, and I just ordered one! Wooh. To keep this from being a blog, I declare we discuss the pros and cons and compare it to the other netbooks...

Keep in mind, WINDOWS ONLY HERE.

Dell Inspiron Mini

* $450 dollars for the 'best' version
* 1.6Ghz Atom
* 1Gb DDR2 ram
* 8.9 inch screen
* Intel GMA (I think this is better than UMA...)
* Looks nicer/sturdier than EEE's
* 16Gb SSD

Asus EEE PC 900

* $550 dollars for the 'best' version
* 1.6Ghz Atom
* 1Gb DDR2 ram
* 8.9 inch screen
* Intel UMA
* 12Gb SSD
* 3-4 Hrs Battery Life

Asus EEE PC 901

* $650 dollars for the 'best' version
* 1.6Ghz Atom
* 1Gb DDR2 ram
* 8.9 inch screen
* Intel UMA
* 12Gb SSD
* 7.8 Hrs Battery Life

MSI Wind

* $500 dollars for the 'best' version
* 1.6Ghz Atom
* 1Gb DDR2 ram
* 10 inch screen
* Intel UMA
* 80 Gb HDD (The fall... in my opinion)
* 7.8 Hrs Battery Life

Aspire One

* $399 dollars for the 'best' version
* 1.6Ghz Atom
* 1Gb DDR2 ram/512Mb Ram (Coincides with Storage option)
* 8Gb SSD/120Gb HDD
* 8.9 inch screen
* Intel HMA
* 7.0 Hrs Battery Life

My reasoning for going with the Mini 9 is that it has a slightly larger SSD than the others, (I don't want a HDD, at all.), decent amount of ram, 1.6Ghz atom (The 900 has a celeron, and it costs more!), it isn't huge (10" is pushing netbook imo), and it might even play a game or two. (Were talkin addictinggames.com here, though. Haha.)

Also, is GMA or UMA better?

Harshboy · Post by **Harshboy** » Fri Sep 05, 2008 9:11 pm

There were tests done and SSD and HDD don't make any difference in speed in these "low powered" netbooks.

SSD is only good if you are worried about dropping it, but if your a person who takes care of your equipment (like me) that will never happen.

MSI Wind vs. Dell Mini 9 is the only real fight.

blackbox_dev · Post by **blackbox_dev** » Fri Sep 05, 2008 9:14 pm

SSD has better battery life compared to the lowest speed hard drives available.

lifeisbetterwithketchup · Post by **lifeisbetterwithketchup** » Fri Sep 05, 2008 9:17 pm

Touchpad? Bleh. That's a HUGE turn-off in my book.

My Lifebook wins against all those in every category except RAM and battery life.

Post by **Triton** » Fri Sep 05, 2008 9:20 pm

personally my choice in the umpc/mininote arena is a bit more expensive but a lot more awesome, im talking about the Raon digital everun umpc/mininote it is TINY as you can see in this link
lifebook b2630 vs acer aspire one vs raon vs pandora vs dslite and here is the size compaired to an MSI wind

and its POWERFUL, here are the specs:

AMD turion X2 1.2ghz dual core processor
1gb ram
ati RS690E graphics
optical mouse pointer
either 12gb SSD or 80gb HDD

7" 1024x600 touchscreen lcd that folds flat!
SD card slot
USB2.0 (x2)
Mobile sim-card slot
MIC-in
Line-out
Mini-USB 2.0
PCI-Express Mini (internal)
built in wifi and bluetooth!

now for the only downer on this thing, its pricey, about 900$ after tax when it comes out, might be less in the us but probably not much, im hoping that it hits a 600$ pricepoint pretty fast

i <3 my lifebook b2630! my second choice would be a P1620 but they run around 1200+$

vskid · Post by **vskid** » Fri Sep 05, 2008 9:55 pm

Holy crap, Triton, that is awesome. Its not even in the netbook category, thats a full fledged, high power UMPC. Its smaller than a netbook, but has the power of a full sized laptop.

Dr. KillGood · Post by **Dr. KillGood** » Fri Sep 05, 2008 10:57 pm

Bi***es don't know about my IdeaPad S10.

I don't shoren links

edit by mod: Please shorten links like that; nobody wants horizontal scrolling.

Sharp Sapphire · Post by **Sharp Sapphire** » Sat Sep 06, 2008 6:12 am

Harshboy wrote:There were tests done and SSD and HDD don't make any difference in speed in these "low powered" netbooks.

SSD is only good if you are worried about dropping it, but if your a person who takes care of your equipment (like me) that will never happen.

MSI Wind vs. Dell Mini 9 is the only real fight.

I crashed my moms laptop by carrying it upstairs while it was running.. I don't want a moving HDD.

Plus it uses less electricity

@Killgood - Did that cost a years worth of pay, on your GED education?

blackbox_dev · Post by **blackbox_dev** » Sat Sep 06, 2008 9:02 am

My ThinkPad x61 is small enough for me (12.1" LCD). Any smaller and I would imagine it would be pretty cramped to type on.

Also, I despise Dell due to their bad customer service and terrible quality control.

-dev

Post by **Triton** » Sat Sep 06, 2008 9:08 am

i can touch type at ~50wpm on my 10.1" lifebook.

Bibin · Post by **Bibin** » Sat Sep 06, 2008 9:17 am

I've used my friend's P2400 LifeBook, and it's quite usable; it's smaller than the 70x Eee's.

chad78 · Post by **chad78** » Sat Sep 06, 2008 11:48 am

I actually did a blog post about the Dell Mini 9, and netbooks in general. I own a Eee PC 701 4GB Surf with 2 GB of RAM and Windows XP. Basically, I think the Dell is a pretty good system, with a good price point - but what I really like about the Mini 9 is the customization factors. It's really more a preference of how they sell it than anything.

I don't want to have to chose between 42 different model numbers to get the system I want (like the Eee PC) - and I don't want to be limited to only 3 choices - cheap - no frills, bottom feeder model / midrange - some of the features I want, some I don't want - not all that I want / and too expensive - all the features, all the bloat, and all the cost. I want to be able to put Linux on the high end model, or Bluetooth on the el cheapo one. Dell lets me choose the features I want piecemeal. I like that a lot. (The only thing I can't do is put Windows on the cheapest 4GB model - and, since I have it on my 4GB Eee - I can say that's probably a smart move.)

I probably won't be getting another netbook anytime this year - or even the first half of next year. And by that time, anything that's out now will look like crap.

(Although, the $98 wifi enabled netbook from China looks like a good back-up, back-up computer!)

Post by **CronoTriggerfan** » Sat Sep 06, 2008 12:51 pm

Eh, I've got my EEE 701 with 2 gigs of RAM, XP Lite, and just got the supplies to do a touchscreen mod. Though those new Dell's are nice, there's no incentive for me to run out and buy one.

chad78 · Post by **chad78** » Sat Sep 06, 2008 2:53 pm

CTF, please let us know how that turns out (the Eee Touch) I've been thinking about ordering the parts to do that. Since mine doesn't have a camera, it should be simple enough to do (or so I've read).

Sharp Sapphire · Post by **Sharp Sapphire** » Sun Sep 07, 2008 7:27 am

"
I've used my friend's P2400 LifeBook, and it's quite usable; it's smaller than the 70x Eee's."

theres something actually smaller than a EEE PC?

@CTFan - 2 gigs of ram on a 701 is like, the entire hard drive in memory along with all your program's memory. XD