Dell Inspiron Mini 9 Reviewed: Refining the Netbook Market
by Anand Lal Shimpi on September 4, 2008 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Laptops
A Display That’s Not Half Bad
Again, this is a $350 computer and the display isn’t half bad - I don’t mind staring at it. Off angle viewing is of course not very good, but the glossy screen coating and LED backlight actually give the Inspiron an edge over the Eee PC 901. Color reproduction is a lot better as is peak brightness, even on battery power.
Eee PC 901 (left) vs. Inspiron Mini 9 (right)
Eee PC 901 (left) vs. Inspiron Mini 9 (right)
The size and resolution of the Mini's display are identical to the Eee PC's: 1024 x 600 and measuring 8.9" along the diagonal. Going back to the Sony Picturebook reference from earlier, it's actually a lower resolution panel than what I had on my old Picturebook (1280 x 600), despite having the same diagonal measurement (8.9"). That being said, my main complaint on the Picturebook was a lack of vertical resolution, since most web content is longer than it is wide. The 600 pixel screen height is an issue and is bothersome given that the focus of a netbook is to, well, surf the net. It's not a show stopper though.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
55 Comments
View All Comments
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