So, I got a little a little surprise from my grandparents today. What, you may ask? Well, it was quite a shock, but I recieved a Dell Inspiron Mini netbook. Pretty damn cool, I won’t lie. So, what does the Mini 9 have spec wise? Well, this model features a 8.2″ widescreen display, 1.6 Ghz Intel Atom CPU, 8GB SSD, 1GB of RAM, an Intel GMA 950 graphics chipset, and a webcam. Ports? 3 USB, 1 analog VGA, power, ethernet, and a multmedia card reader. Since I wasn’t planning on owning one of these, I really wasn’t planning on writing a review. That being said, this is part one of two. In this section, I will give you my initial impressions of the device.
First off, the screen may seem small when you think about it, but in all reality it isn’t that small. I do not have perfect eyesight, yet the screen is very crisp ande clear from a foot and a half to two feet away. But, once I set this bad boy on the table a few feet away, 10 point text becomes very difficult to read. But, if you have the machine realativlety close, this should not be a problem at all.
As for the keyboard, it is small. Yes, very small. While at the end of the day the keyboard does not make or break the device for me, I can see where it could become an issue for someone with larger than average hands and fingers. My biggest gripe with the keyboard, besides it’ts general size, is the random key sizes, and in a few instances, the placement of the keys themselves. For example, the shift keys on each size of the keyboard are different sizes. Secondly, the apostrophe and quotations key isn’t next to the Enter key like a standard key, yet it is at the bottom by the space bar, in between the right-click button and the left arrow. Also, this may just be me, but the spacebar is a tad finiky when it comes to actually inserting a space into a sentence.
The battery is probably my favorite part of the netbook, next to portability of course. So far I’ve been using this bad boy for almost two hours, and I still have 60% battery remaining, which is quite nice. I also do not have the screen at full brightness, but at Level 4 (of 15 possible brightness levels). The trackpad has some issues, but I still need to configure it to my needs. Finally, the speaker (for their small size) are very loud and surprisingly clear.
Well, that is it for my initial impressions of the Dell Mini 9. I hope to have a full review up within the next week, and a video review on the first episode of Prognosis. See ya soon!