Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Take it everywhere!, December 24, 2008
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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2.0 out of 5 stars
No Dell support, May 2, 2009
First off, I need to mention that I am a big fan of Linux and in particular Linux mint 6 (a version of Ubuntu) for it's free assortment of software and improved security over windows and OS 10. Linux lets me do everything I need to do with a computer such as Internet, office, bit-torrent, videos, and music. If it had software to let me use/sync my iphone to it's fullest I would probably never use windows again ... but I digress. I was in the market for an affordable netbook for my wife. All she uses a computer for is to word process, do email, and surf the internet. She isn't the most savvy internet surfer and I'm concerned when she shops online about her letting hackers gain access to sensitive financial accounts. I initially considered a mac but decided against it for financial reasons. The Eeepc was also a choice but the odd arrangement of the touchpad was a turnoff. After seeing a similar linux netbook made by Dell (with their great reputation), I was sold. The netbook was easy to purchase from dell with plenty of options and arrived promptly. It worked great right away and behaved perfectly. It has it's own flavor of Ubuntu 8.04 and made it easy for my wife to interact with it according to her limited needs. Eventually the Ubuntu automatic update kicked in and wanted me to update. Being a pc user this was not out of the ordinary since pc users are used to daily antiviral updates, firewall updates, spyware updates, and windows security updates ... so I updated. After the restart it would not start, oops! I also did not have an external dvd/cd drive, double oops and couldn't restore with the provided backup disk!! I called dell tech support but they told me that they did not support the os and that I should call canonical. Canonical said that they didn't have a financial arrangement with dell and would not be able to help me. Being used to making linux flash drives I tried to make a flash drive out the provided dell software ... didn't work. I checked online for the dell linux OS iso image but dell deleted it. I called dell and they were of little support and didn't know why the software was removed. Eventually I used an Ubuntu 8.04 flash drive and reinstalled the OS. I Could not get sound to work but my wife doesn't do music or youtube and was content so I stopped there. I tried a Linux mint 6 flash drive but even it with all it's extra drivers could not get the sound to work. Probably in time the necessary dell drivers will come out with one of the Linux versions and I'll try again. The purpose of this review is to let potential buyers know that dell will not support you if you go the Linux route. If you do you may have a lot of work to do on your own to get it running once it crashes. Lastly even if you have an external drive you probably will still not be able to restore the OS. See the following link.
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