Dell Inspiron Mini 9 Reviewed: Refining the Netbook Market
by Anand Lal Shimpi on September 4, 2008 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Laptops
Performance & Battery Life
The Inspiron Mini 9 is designed to be used as an appliance, a box that can give you access to email, the web and applications. It happens to be a computer, but that's not the focus. Performance in any of its individual tasks such as web browsing or document editing is acceptable on the Mini. The Atom processor is fast enough and with 1GB of memory you can keep a couple of applications active without running into any slowdown.
Boot time is the only area where the Mini really falls short compared to the ASUS Eee PC 901. While the 901 can start from an off state and take you into its Xandros OS in 27 seconds, the Mini needs 40 to do the same. I'm not sure if this is an Ubuntu issue or a Mini hardware/BIOS thing at this point.
While the Eee PC 901 has a 6-cell battery (48WHr), Dell cut costs by using a 4-cell 32WHr battery in the Inspiron Mini 9. I scripted a quick web/MP3 playback test, similar to what I’ve used in some of our Mac coverage. With the display set to never shut off (simulating a real browsing scenario), looping through a bunch of locally stored MP3s, I had both the Eee PC 901 and the Inspiron Mini surf through a bunch of webpages (over the local WiFi network) designed to forward to one another after pausing for 20 seconds (simulating "reading time"). The web pages were predominantly text and images, there was no Flash but the system isn't given any breaks other than the 20 second pause between pages - for a netbook, this is pretty much a torture test.
| ASUS Eee PC 901 | Dell Inspiron Mini | |
| Boot Time | 27 seconds | 40 seconds |
| Battery Life (Web Browsing + MP3 Playback) | 287 minutes | 178 minutes |
Dell claims that the Inspiron Mini should be good for over four hours of battery life, running the test I just described it ran for 178 minutes, just two minutes shy of the 3 hour mark. If you lighten your load I'd expect that hitting 4 hours could be a reality, but for all intents and purposes I'd expect the Mini to be good for 3 - 4 hours of usage.
ASUS' Eee PC 901 did a bit better as you'd expect; with 50% more battery capacity, the Eee PC lasted for 287 minutes , nearly 5 hours of continuous use. Here's where positioning really comes into play though.
I honestly couldn't find myself using either notebook all day, they aren't ergonomic enough and they are still far from pleasurable to type on. Dell views the Inspiron Mini much like I do the iPhone, it's a device to carry with you when you're out to a quick meeting, class, lunch, etc... and happen to be away from your more, um, normal sized computers. If you use it as intended, I believe Dell's battery life tradeoff is a nonissue. If the Inspiron Mini is going to be more of a constant-use machine for you however, the longer battery life of the Eee PC may tempt you away from the Mini's stunning good looks.
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mmntech - Thursday, September 4, 2008 - link
#3 is the most important IMO. While SD drives deliver great speed and load times, 8gb or even 16gb really isn't a lot. Once you get your music and videos on it, that space is going to get eaten up quickly. Carrying around portable HDDs or SD cards defeats the purpose of these systems. I don't understand why they aren't offering a HDD as an option as MSI, Asus, and Acer did.Other than that, this definitely looks like a solid system. Any chance on getting some Cinebench 10 benchmarks? I'd like to be able to compare the Atoms to my current laptop, which is a PowerPC Mac.
JarredWalton - Thursday, September 4, 2008 - link
A 2.5" HDD is absolutely huge compared to the form factor of these netbooks. At best, 1.8" HDDs are what you should look at, and honestly I think 4-16GB (and future 32 and 64GB probably) SSDs make a ton of sense. No moving parts, less heat, and lower power requirements are all things you want in such a small computer.advillain - Thursday, September 4, 2008 - link
Nice detailed comparisson. Why wasnt the Acer Aspire One included? maybe i missed an explanation in the article. For the price, the Aspire Ones are very nice. I have one with a 6 cell, and am able to web browse, msn, watch a vid or two, and have the battery last 5.5-6.5 hours (with lcd brighness turned down of course)Anand Lal Shimpi - Thursday, September 4, 2008 - link
Thanks for the comments :)Unfortunately I didn't have the Aspire, although the Eee PC 1000 is on its way to me. I'll definitely do a followup with the 1000, although it is clearly a larger netbook.
I'll see about getting my hands on the Acer model...
-A
rvikul - Thursday, September 4, 2008 - link
A netbook round-up would be perfect (pushing my luck?). Thanks for this review.(btw, Chrome is doing funky things with this comment box).
Lonearchon - Thursday, September 4, 2008 - link
I agree the Acer Aspire One is closer in design to the Dell Mini. They both have glossy screens with LED back light. But the keyboard on the Acer is larger making it easier to type on. It does sacrifice the touch pad to accomplish this.Chadder007 - Thursday, September 4, 2008 - link
I thought the ASUS had an LED backlight also, I'd like to see the Lenovo thrown in for comparison too though.rvikul - Thursday, September 4, 2008 - link
Yes, why wasn't it compared with Aspire One which is more comparable to dell mini?I was really looking forward to that.
dsity - Thursday, September 4, 2008 - link
6 cell is 50% more than 4 cell?piroroadkill - Friday, September 5, 2008 - link
dear god