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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Take it everywhere!, December 24, 2008
This review is from: Dell Inspiron mini 9 - Black , Intel® Atom Processor® N270 1.6 Ghz , 512MB DDR2 at 533MHz, 8GB Solid State Drive, EXTERNAL Portable CD/DVD-RW, Glossy 8.9 inch LED display (1024X600), Intel Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA) 950, Wireless 802.11g Mini Card, Genuine Windows® XP Home Edition (Personal Computers)
When I saw the Eee PC's, I knew I would eventually get one, or some other kind of netbook. This Dell is a dream, and it does the basic stuff I want-- email, web, video playback, iTunes, and word processing. This is not a gaming PC, something for graphics or modeling software, not for any kind of software that takes up a lot of RAM and processing power, and it's probably not suitable as a main PC for most people. It's a glorified PDA for people who want something more than a PDA, but love the portability. That said, if this is making your mouth water and doesn't sound like a step backward in technology, you've come to the right place.
I looked into the Dell Mini 12s, but decided against one because they're simply not as portable. The Mini 12 has a bigger screen, keyboard and hard drive space, but that also makes the PC bigger and less portable. The Mini 9's smaller keyboard will require a bit of adjustment, epecially if you use the F keys very much since they're integrated with the second row of letter keys. I don't have a problem with the size of the screen, but I can see how some might. Try to look at one of these in person before you buy if you think it might be an issue.
The Mini 9 will handle 2GB of RAM, but it can only be shipped with up to 1GB because of the software license with Windows XP. Thank you Miscrosoft for another slap in the face! I mean, anything's better than getting a machine with Vista on it, but REALLY. Dell also put the RAM cap on the Mini9s with Ubuntu, which really makes no sense... Anyway, it's nothing to pop open the cover, put in your extra GB of RAM, close it, and have the zippiest little netbook around. (I think it will handle a 4GB stick, but then you're looking at power and heat issues.) When you turn it on, it's ready to go in no time, even without a memory upgrade! Also, decompress the drive. Compression doesn't save that much space and it runs better. If hard drive space is an issue, add an external drive, thumb drive or SD card.
It doesn't come with a DVD drive, but how often do you really use one? I only use mine to install software and to rip my CDs to iTunes. I don't do either of those things when I'm out and about, and remember, it's all about that portability! Eventually you will need to buy a DVD drive, but you might not need one right away. Also plan on investing in an external mouse if you don't like touchpads. This one is particularly irritating because it's so small. I can't really comment on how this or anything else affects battery life, since I rarely run on the battery. The speakers are really small, so have some headphones on hand if sound is a problem for you.
I got it and immediately covered it with one of those sticker skins later to keep it from getting scratched. It's a glossy finish that you just know is going to get sandpapered if you carry other stuff in your bag. (And who doesn't?) I also got the webcam and bluetooth options, even though I have no use for either of them. That was because hubby will eventually inherit this when I buy something else, so I wanted him to be able to expand this however he would need.
My only other gripe is that when you use this in public, you get a lot of people coming up to interrupt you to talk about it. It's not Dell's fault, but if you need to get something done, don't do it in Starbucks where you'll be interrupted about every 30 seconds. Come on, it's the 21st century! It's difficult to accomplish anything in an environment like that. I had the same problem with my PDA and folding keyboard, and when it started to happen again, I wanted to cry... but my Mini won't let me.
Overall, this is 4 1/2 stars, but the drawbacks are nothing when I can put this in my purse, go to Borders, do my thing, and get out without the achy shoulder. I always wanted a small laptop like this, light enough to carry around, small, with PC power and feel. Now that I have one, the sky is clear, birds are singing and velvet ropes have parted-- well, not really, but this is about as close as I can get.
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1.0 out of 5 stars
Another Inferior Dell POS Laptop!, June 22, 2009
This review is from: Dell Inspiron mini 9 - Black , Intel® Atom Processor® N270 1.6 Ghz , 512MB DDR2 at 533MHz, 8GB Solid State Drive, EXTERNAL Portable CD/DVD-RW, Glossy 8.9 inch LED display (1024X600), Intel Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA) 950, Wireless 802.11g Mini Card, Genuine Windows® XP Home Edition (Personal Computers)
Wow! I wish i had this customer's Mini 9 instead of the one I bought. I've owned mine for 3.5 months now & can honestly say that it's the biggest P.O.S. I've ever owned. Currently I'm fighting Dell about all the issues I've experienced owning it - it freezes up constantly (3-4x a day) requiring a reboot to fix the problem, overheats after 2 hours of use, mine advertised a 4GB SSD hard drive, but have only 1.7GB free space (we've downloaded nothing onto it and 1x a day-we clear the cache, delete temp files, etc...and it still states only 1.7GB free space), you cannot use java applets on the Mini 9, streaming audio/video is choppy at best/doesn't work at all at worst...and the list goes on & on. Dell's official stance on the Mini 9 (which, btw, Dell discontinued selling as of June 1st) is that it's purely for checking email only. Seriously...3 of their tech support managers have told me this. All these problems have been reported 5 different times (and it's been sent into Dell for repairs 3x), and I'm tired of screwing with Dell & their lack of customer service. Michael Dell should be embarrassed by his company's customer service/tech support (which he's outsourced to Bangalore, India). They lost a lifelong customer (over the past 4 years, I've spent $6,000 with Dell). Run fast & far from anything Dell.
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