Customer Reviews

Dell Mini-9 PDA Win XP 1GB Memory 16GB Solid State Drive w/Webcam, WiFi and Bluetooth Obsidian Black Case

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This is one of many laptops in the house. (Currently five laptops and a sixth on life support for the kids.) Both my wife and I have a Dell mini 9. This computer fills the void of portability perfectly. As was mentioned by another reviewer, buy a cheap version and do aftermarket upgrades for the best deal. I upgraded to 2G of RAM and put in a 64GB solid state hard drive. Because of limitations (I believe placed by Windows not Dell the optimal configuration cannot be purchased directly from Dell - unless you buy the Linux version and install your own version of Windows -assuming you have an extra version lying around.)

Depending what you do with your laptop this is a wonderful laptop for the price. The limited SSD (solid state drive) size does present some problems if you are dealing with large files such as images and videos; however to be used for internet access, e-mail, and word processing this is just fine. I wish I had something this compact when I went to college. Keep in mind that too many programs will quickly eat up the space of the smaller hard drives.

The small size also comes with a small screen. This may be obvious, but apparently I have a lot of crap (ahem, useful tool bars) that I place on my word processor program and browser program. This does limit "useful" space on the screen.

I have found the battery life to be in line with most laptops. It handles being carried around in a bag every day well enough. Having owned many Dells, they can be finicky. I usually buy the support plan (Although, I didn't on my mini 9) I have gotten my money's worth on some computers and never used it on others.

This laptop has limitations and would not be my choice as an only/first laptop unless it was a real on the go application or for college use.

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.

My suggestion would be to buy the cheapest lowest-end model you can, and then put some money into upgrading the ram to 2 gig's and the drive to 32. It runs great with the latest Windows 7 Beta as well. But dont waste your money on a high spec version, as you can get the upgraded components cheaper elsewhere.

I bought a mini 10 from Dell. The issue is the same, 9 or 10, it's the support.

They built it with a broken webcam. The support technician suggested I format the hard drive. It took a bit to explain that, were it a driver issue, that might make sense, but the device wasn't even showing in the bios. So they had me send it back.

They fixed it, and in so doing, messed up the inside of the screen. That was 22 days ago. I sent it back, and they ran a diagnostic on it. Amazing the computer can't report its screen is scratched up, and the people at Dell can't actually look at the thing to diagnose it. I left a note attached to the machine explaining the problem. They don't read. I explained it to the team in India, but they can't convey anything to the team in Texas. It's sat, and sat, and sat, and nothing has been done. They claim they've tried to contact me, but I haven't receive a phone call or an e-mail. I have voice mail on all of my phones. I'm easy to reach.

I've been lied to ("I'll call the depot"/"We don't have the phone number for the depot" "Here's my direct number"/"None of us have direct numbers" "You'll have the machine back the 7th/10th/12th/15th/17th/20th/23rd...") I've been hung up on. I've been rerouted to Latin America. The people in India refuse to understand the problem. I think half the neighborhood heard me screaming "IT'S NOT THE WEBCAM ANYMORE, IT'S THE SCREEN!" last night.

Expect, if you call, that you'll be bounced from department to department, with no one actually helping you. You'll get more empty promises than you'll know what to do with. You'll deal with people so inept at speaking English that you'll have to quiz them to make sure they understand you. You'll be put on hold for hours at a time, and largely, you'll be treated like dirt.

So, if you order this machine, pray it never needs service, because if you do, it'll take direct divine intervention to get it.

This is my first and only review, I am writing it so that others will not suffer the same fate I did


I bought two Dell Mini 9's for my younger daughters. The first was DOA, the second broke after two weeks of light use; then the nightmare began. I called tech support was kept waiting for 1.5 hours, shuttled to various operators none of whom could help me, and hung up on four times. This happened three times with four hours wasted. Each operator seemed ruder than the last, and during the interminable waits I was reminded by the recording that I could pay for better tech support with an operator who understood English....yes this really is the way Dell works. Finally I used the web service got a shipping box sent to my house and sent the computer back, it returned DOA again, and the working battery had been replaced with a non-working one...yes this is true. I called Dell again, got the same run around, was promised a battery would be sent and the unit fixed, that was two weeks ago, so far nothing. I have not even begun to try to get the other unit fixed.

DO YOURSELF A FAVOR STAY AWAY FROM DELL, NO COMPUTER IS WORTH THIS.

Add: We bought our daughters a refurb macbook to share, it works perfectly and we have had no isssue with apple.Dell Mini-9 PDA Win XP 1GB Memory 16GB Solid State Drive w/Webcam, WiFi and Bluetooth, White Edition

I have used mine for a couple months with no problems. The battery life is good. It is quick and snappy to run and connects with Wi-fi with no problem. I have done lots of work for my graduate classes on mine, as well as basic web surfing. I love the fact it is so light and portable. I have test driven both the Ubuntu and XP versions and I have nothing but good to say about them. This is a great second computer!

A friend of mine jokingly called this a "palmtop" and he was right; I have, in fact, used it while holding it on one hand and typing with the other. The light weight and ability to fit in my purse make it incredibly convenient. Since I got it, I can't immagine my life without it. I have a "better" laptop at work, which is more than twice the size, and feels like at least tripple the weight. I use that at my desk, and bring my mini to meetings, which I'm sure saves me a great deal of asprin by not lugging the monster around :p.

I've seen a few people mention aftermarket tweaks; I believe I have this model (though purchased directly from Dell a month or two after they were released, rather than Amazon) and have never changed any of the hardware. I *have* run World of Warcraft on it, to impressive success. I had to load it onto an SD card, the program being slightly larger than the hard drive capacity (WoW is, by far, the largest entity on my desktop), and I cranked the video settings down to their minimum. I did get the BSD once or twice (aka it crashed and required a reboot to function again), but it ran fine again after rebooting; given that it's a netbook, I count that in the "win" column.

Potential drawbacks:
- It's *TINY* - that's the point, but it still might take some getting used to for some people. You can't fit a standard keyboard in that amount of space, so it takes a little bit of getting used to (for example, the apostrophe key is somewhere silly, though all the letters *are* still in the right places). I wouldn't reccomend it for someone with large, clumsy fingers, or very poor eyesight (such as the elderly). If you're not sure, you might want to find someone who has one, and test it out.
- The windows version is XP home. Not really a huge drawback, but (being used to pro) it was an adjustment. Nothing dreadful, just a few WTF? moments.
- It's a Dell. I haven't had any major problems (though I had one small problem that was easily taken care of by tech support telling me to reset something and reboot, which worked). That said, Dells *are* notoriously a bit hit-or-miss, and can be a lot of hassle when things go wrong.
- It doesn't come with MS Office, which I bought for ~$100 on ebay (which was a good deal). It does come with decent freebie MS office-like things (enough to handle spell-checking my French homework), but count on the extra cost if you need more than the basics.
- You *are* rather limited on space. This is fine for most people, but insanely huge programs will eat up that space, or require somewhere else (*cough*WoW*cough*) to load them, but an SD card can be kept in the slot (16g is pretty cheap, 32g isn't). External hard drives are an added cost, but a nice, portable one is probably worth it if you plan to use this as your only computer for awhile (such as college students)

As other reviews have said, you might not want this as your one-and-only computer, but it's definitely a wonderful thing to have, if you have something else to keep the bulk of your data, and your more intense programs (which you'll probably want a larger screen for, anyway).

Also, as a note, Dell doesn't sell these things new anymore; I believe their smallest now is the mini 10, which I hear has a slightly better keyboard layout. I still wouldn't trade my 9 in for anything; it's my baby and I love it!

It looks like as of today, Dell no longer offers this netbook on its website, so resell channels will be the only way you can get your mitts on the sweetest hackintosh machine around. I'm sure these are destined to be instant classic netbooks and will likely increase slightly in value as a result.

Hackintosh users - guard your Mini 9 with your life!