Build and Design
The build quality of the Mini 9 is amazingly solid for a subnotebook of this size and weight. The construction is mostly plastic but all of the plastics feel strong enough to handle being tossed around inside a bookbag. Even the glossy plastic surfaces seem to resist minor surface scratches. However, the most impressive build quality element in our pre-production unit was that the inside of the chassis is reinforced with magnesium alloy in at least one location (behind the keyboard and in front of the battery). This helps the Mini 9 withstand much more abuse than a typical all-plastic netbook.
In terms of upgradeability, the Mini 9 is much easier to upgrade than most netbooks currently on the market. Many of the netbooks we’ve seen to date require complex disassembly in order for you to get to the storage drive, system RAM, or wireless cards. Even worse, some other netbooks have slots for upgrades but no connections on the motherboard so it is impossible to upgrade them. This is not the case with the Mini 9.
Dell engineers were wise enough to place all key upgradeable components in one area directly beneath a simple access panel that you can remove with a regular Phillips screwdriver after removing two screws. The Mini 9 uses standard notebook DDR2 RAM (800MHz underclocked to 533MHz), standard wireless mini cards, and a mini PCIe SSD card.
Operating System and Software
As mentioned, Dell offers the Mini 9 with either Windows XP or a customized Ubuntu Linux
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Click on the “Web” icon and you can select from one of multiple bookmarks or just open the Firefox web browser. Click on the “Productivity” icon and you’ll have instant access to the Open Office application (compatible with Microsoft Office) or Adobe Reader for PDFs. Click on any standard movie file and the video plays in either the Media Player application or inside Firefox … you don’t need to spend hours searching for video plugins and codecs, the movies just play. Don’t waste time downloading iTunes. Just plug in your iPod and the Music Manager detects the music player and begins importing the songs. It’s all part of the beauty and simplicity of Linux. Things just work.
On the other hand, if you ever find that you need an application that isn’t already installed in Linux then you need to be familiar with the console and typing strange lines of code like “sudo dash” and “apt-get.” In other words, it’s not as simple as just downloading a Windows program installation file from a website and clicking “install.”
If you’re concerned about Linux, don’t worry. Dell is also offering the Mini 9 with Windows XP, so the Microsoft faithful can breathe a collective sigh of relief.
Keyboard and Touchpad
Most low-priced, full-size notebooks currently on the market feature poorly built keyboards that show significant flex/bounce when typing pressure is applied. Thankfully, most netbooks have remarkably firm keyboards due to the fact that the chassis is so small there isn’t much empty space inside the notebook for the keyboard to flex or bounce.
The keyboard on the Mini 9 is less cramped than what we’ve seen on the 7-inch and 8.9-inch ASUS view large image)
The touchpad design is surprisingly nice for a budget netbook. The surface isn’t exactly “large” but it is larger than what we see on most netbooks. The touchpad in our pre-production unit was a Synaptics touchpad with excellent sensitivity, responsiveness, and smooth tracking. The touchpad buttons are located in the correct position and have nice, deep, well-cushioned presses with no annoying “click” when pressed.
Display
The glossy LED backlit display on the Mini 9 is nice and vibrant with rich colors and good contrast. The white levels are very clear, leaning towards the slightly warm/orange side. Colors look excellent with the glossy screen, but at the cost of increasing screen reflections and glare. The screen might be bright enough to view outside, but with all the bright reflective surfaces outside, the screen is nearly impossible to view comfortably. Indoors the reflections are not a problem at all.
Horizontal viewing angles are good, so you and a friend won’t have trouble watching a movie on the 8.9-inch screen at the same time. Vertical viewing angles are acceptable, but colors do tend to wash out from above and become inverted when viewed from below.
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Ports and Features
Port selection was better than average for a netbook, with a multi-card reader, three USB ports, Ethernet/LAN, VGA, and audio jacks. There isn’t much to complain about here, although there might have been enough space in the chassis design to support an additional USB port or Firewire. Here is a quick tour of what you get:
Front: No ports.
Rear: Battery
Left: Security lock slot, power jack, two USB ports, and a 3-in-1 card reader
Right: Headphone/Mic, USB, VGA out, and Ethernet
Performance
Our regular selection of performance benchmarks can’t be used with the pre-production Inspiron Mini 9 given the fact that it is a Linux-based notebook. We will be publishing a follow-up in the coming weeks with details of how Windows XP performs on the Mini 9, so please keep an eye open for that.
In the meantime, we can measure the time it take to perform a number of simple procedures in order to give you an idea of how the Mini 9 performs. Please keep in mind that the speeds listed below will vary depending on the number of applications you have open at any given time (multitasking always slows things down).
- Startup: ~20 seconds
- Opening and loading the NotebookReview.com website in Firefox: ~3 seconds
- Starting playback on a 700MB AVI video file: ~3 seconds
- Starting the Open Office application: ~5 seconds
- Opening a 3.84MB PDF document: ~3 seconds
- Opening a 2.51MB PowerPoint presentation: ~10 seconds
For those interested in the speed of the 8GB SSD, hdparm benchmarks the SSD buffered read speed at 26.91MB/sec. For comparison, the 4GB SSD in the ASUS view large image)
The only strong negative I have against the built-in speakers is the fact that the maximum volume level doesn’t get as loud as I like without distortion creeping into the sound.
The headphone jack on the Dell Inspiron Mini 9 works well with the three different brands of earphones I used during the test. No static or other noise was noticed through the jack besides imperfections in the audio source itself.
Heat and Noise
As we continue to see in our labs, nearly all of the Intel Atom-based netbooks produce a reasonable amount of heat while running. The Dell Inspiron Mini 9 is no exception to this rule. Under normal conditions such as surfing the web, typing a document, or downloading email attachments, exterior temperatures remained at acceptable levels. The hottest spot on this netbook was the area around the wireless card, so if you’re on a flight or away from a WiFi connection it might be a good idea to turn off the wireless card to keep temperatures even lower. The external temperature readings below (listed in degrees Fahrenheit) were recorded while browsing the Web and watching an AVI movie file for approximately 30 minutes:
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In terms of noise, our pre-production Mini 9 is quite remarkable in that it makes literally no noise. There are no cooling fans or spinning hard drives to bother you (or the people seated next to you) while you work. Of course, the fact that the Mini 9 lacks a cooling fan is likely why the temperatures on this netbook are slightly higher than what we’ve seen on some other Atom-based netbooks. Still, the Mini 9 never becomes unacceptably warm, so we accept this minor heat increase in exchange for absolute silence.
Battery
Under normal use, backlight at 100 percent and using wireless for web browsing and watching several DivX movies at 75 percent volume, the Mini 9 managed to deliver three hours and 38 minutes of battery life. This is similar to what we’ve seen from Atom-based netbooks with 3-cell batteries, but we were hoping for more given the 4-cell battery in the Mini 9. Hopefully battery life will improve when we test Windows XP on this machine. Still, even with only 3+ hours of battery life, the Mini 9 provides a reasonable travel experience for a netbook priced below $400. Lowering the screen brightness and turning off the wireless card should provide enough battery life for prolonged use.
Conclusion
Dell wants you to believe the Inspiron Mini 9 is “your new best friend.” Well, kiddies, the Mini 9 is a fantastic mobile companion that helps you stay connected and makes your life easier without breaking the bank. However, I can’t shake the feeling that the Mini 9 is more like “the kid you’re friendly with at the lunch table, but isn’t your BFF.”
Yes, the Mini 9 is a great netbook. Yes, it has a great price. Yes, it will probably sell very, very well for Dell. No, this won’t change the world as you know it. The truth is that at least a dozen other manufacturers have released or announced similar netbooks before the new Inspiron Mini 9 arrived. Dell had all the time in the world to develop something that slaughters the competition in a way that only Dell can. Unfortunately, while the Mini 9 is great, it still suffers from a few of the same problems we’ve seen in other netbooks (heat, annoying glossy plastics, bad keyboard, and a small battery that could have been bigger without sacrificing much size or weight).
Ultimately, the Dell Inspiron Mini 9 is a fabulous netbook that is sure to end up on many Christmas lists this year … but it’s only “your new best friend” if you’re willing to overlook a few flaws.
Pros
- Small and light
- Easy to use
- Very well built and durable
- Responsive Synaptics touchpad
- Easy to upgrade RAM, SSD, and wireless cards
- No noisy cooling fan
- Low price for an ultraportable
Cons
- Gets a little hot
- Glossy plastic lid is a magnet for fingerprints
- No F11 or F12 keys, other function keys in strange location
- 4-cell battery is nice, 6-cell battery would be better
Posted under Laptop Reviews
This post was written by admin on September 7, 2008
This is Sean over at Box.net. I just wanted to remind readers that Inspiron Mini 9 users get 2 GB of free online storage from Box.net, along with our simple sharing tools.