Dell Inspiron Mini 9 was a critical Netbook that some reviews didn’t rank it as one of the top-leading Netbooks in the market such as PC Magazine while Cnet thinks Mini 9 was one of the cutting-edge electronic devices in 2008. Pretty soon after releasing Mini 9 Dell worked out a 12-in Netbook which is the second one in the market after pricey 12-in Asus Eee S101- premium system in Eee line up.
Nicely, three website could have their hands Dell Inspiron 12 Netbook immediately after the Netbook was announced. So, before the Netbook is release we can have real idea and have better decision before selecting any Netbook. APC, laptop magazine, and Laptop magazine first impression, and Cnet Australia, are the reviews available in Web, that you can read any of them you like. However, here I have tried to collect all the advantages and disadvantages that Mini 12 offers mentioned through these three reviews and an interview with Dell senior product manager John.
(Pros)
- A starting weight of only 2.72 lbs
- Only 0.92 in. thick that reminds you the expensive modern ultra slim 76-inch MacBook Air, 0.92-inces ThinkPad X200 and Voodoo Envy 133.
- Next generation single core the Silverthorne-class 1.3GHz Atom Z520 or 1.6GHz Intel Atom Z530 processors which are more energy efficient as they come with lower power of 2.0 watts. Atom N270 is a Diamondville processor that uses power of 2.5 Watts.
- Enough storage of 60 GB or 80 GB HDD (but with slow speed of 4,200 RPM). It is like the one you can find in Acer Aspire One or Eee PC 900.
-A sharp 12.1-inch WXGA display offering wider viewing angles and exceptional brightness.
- Ample 3 ports and full-size VGA out
- Built-in Bluetooth and 802.11b/g wireless and 10/100 Ethernet jack
- A roomy keyboard with near full-size keys; also the availability of function keys. The trackpad is in decent size
- The extra 6-cell battery is priced at $79 which is affordable
- The Linux and Win XP variants will be available by the end of year
- Quiet system
- Availability of full version of Microsoft Works Suite 9.0
(Cons)
- Pricey
- Sluggish performance and more than one minute booting time
- The Z520 and Z530 only support up to 1GB of RAM. So, you can not upgrade the memory of this system.
- Windows Vista Home Basic with 1GB of RAM
- There is no choice for SSD
- It comes without any switch or indicator light in sight
- There is no Express card like the one you can happily find on Lenovo IdeaPad S10
- There is only a mono speaker!
- Yet the keyboard feels some cramps as the gaps between keys is slightly little and need spending some time for adjustment
- It is only nice to use it on tabletop but while using on the lap you will have to control it not to fall over
- The battery is some short
Mini 12 vs. Mini 9:
Mini 12 comes with many similarities with and some differences from Mini 9. In the following first you can learn about the similarities and their differences:
- Mini 12 looks like exact the same way that mini 9: the same glossy finish over the black exterior, glossy silver-clad display frame, silver palm rest and a matte black keyboard with blue highlights inside.
- Mini 12 receives the same sturdy build quality of Mini 9
- Both Netbooks will be available with 3G or mobile broadband in beginning of 2009
- Mini 12 lacks SSD while mini 9 comes with fast hard drive of SSD
- Mini 12 has the same mediocre viewing angle as the Mini 9
- The Mini 9 is upgrade-friendly while Mini 12 is not. It takes has more traditional style. If you flip over the system you will see that you have to uncover the system with screw driver like a typical laptop.
- Like Mini 9, the Mini 12 provides extra software tools such as Google Desktop and a 90 day trial edition of McAfee 2009.
- The default battery life on Mini 12 is not more than the battery run time on Mini 9.
- Mini 12 comes only with SD/MS memory card slot, But Mini 9 comes with 4-in-1 media card reader
- Mini 12 comes with bigger keyboard that provides all the function keys while Mini 9 has a more cramp keyboard and the F11 and F12 keys are omitted
- the boot time on Mini 12 is over than 1 minutes while mini 9 boots up about 20 seconds.
-The two speakers on Mini 9 are impressive while Mini 12 comes with a mono speaker which is not fair or a 12-in laptop.
- The screen resolution is nice and fair on Mini 12 (1,280x800) while it is low in Mini 9 (1,024x600)
- Mini 12 was able to perform the PCMark05 and 3DMark06 benchmarks scorings at 891 marks and 76 3DMarks respectively, while Mini 9 is not able to perform any benchmark.
It would like to compare the PCMark05result of Mini 12 (done by Cnet Australia) with the result test of Lenovo IdeaPad S10 and Aspire on done by NotebookReview here. As you saw, Mini 12 scored 891 Marks (well it is not clear that the processor clocked at 1.3GHz or 1.6 GHz I nthis review). However IdeaPad S10 has scored higher 1,446Marks and Aspire one scored some better score of 1,555 PCMarks.
So, I think now it is more understandable why Cnet Australia has given the rating of 6.1 out of 10, while Mini 9 got rating of 9 out of 10 from the same Editors and became the Editor choice of Cnet Australia.
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