Some of you may remember that a few weeks back, I promised to give you a full review of Dell’s Inspiron Mini 9 netbook, as given to me to review by the lovely people at Vodafone. Well, here it is.
My first foray into the world of the netbook was through work, and namely, our Asus Eee. The screen is tiny, with an unnecessarily small display that I’ll come back to, and very stiff metal left/right mouse keys. So, my hopes weren’t that high. But the beauty of the Inspiron 9 (named for its nine inch screen) is that it contains embedded mobile broadband. That for me was enough to raise an eyebrow, and wipe my expectations clean.
First things first, it’s a beautiful book. The curved corners and trim, as well as a glossy plastic exterior smack of Mac design (well, if you’re going to base it on something – an Apple isn’t a bad object of inspiration). You’ll hear everyone under the sun reviewing this saying that ‘the lid is a magnet for fingerprints’ – but so is everything; phones, laptops, glasses. It’s no big deal.
There is, as with most netbooks I’ve looked at, the vastly unnecessary inch and a half of plastic at the top of the display – that could surely have been replaced by actual screen? Maybe that would have messed with standardised screen sizing, but surely that’s not a reason to limit the amount of space? Regardless of size, the LED backlit display is vibrant with rich colours and good contrast, despite being slightly pixilated for certain sites.
The keyboard is much less cramped than most netbooks, but the keys still stop a fair distance from the sides – which just means more redundant space in my eyes.
The placement of the ‘left’ arrow on the Inspiron 9 led me to discover that I use the ‘down’ arrow key a ridiculous amount of times in a day. When my little finger reached over to the right to click ‘down’, I’d inevitably end up clicking ‘left’ due to it’s positioning. It’s a small thing, but it forced me to actually change the positioning of my hands when typing.
I think the thing to remember though is that this is a netbook built for those ’on the move’. It is a stripped down, lightweight (1kg) laptop – and with that in mind, it’s one of the best in its class. It’s not only robust, but feels well built. The chassis is part reinforced with magnesium, and this makes it the strongest of all of the netbooks I’ve ever used that’s for sure. Mine was walked around London and beyond in my bag for a fair few weeks, and has really stood the test.
I had a bit of a clunky first boot-up (probably because I’m comparing it as a Mac user to my super quick iBook set up), but it was simple process – and one that took less than 15 minutes. The SIM I was sent was easy to slot in under the battery – and I was away.
The most impressive part though was the speed at which the SIM was activated. Via Vodafone Mobile Connect, the ‘mobile device’ was found almost immediately. It connected within 30 seconds, despite me being underground in the land of no signal. Even on the train (which is notoriously inconsistent for mobile signal) there was never an issue with connection – which I’d fully expect from something powered by Vodafone.
I was annoyed by the restrictions when downloading Skype, but that was a Vodafone issue, nothing to do with the netbook itself. And it was slightly amusing that my start-up kit came with a variety of discs, even though the Inspiron 9 doesn’t actually have a disc drive. Although I have the same issue with the MacBook Air, I have to ask myself how many times during the month did I actually need to read something from a CD? Honestly? None.
I am a fan of the three USB ports, as I’m constantly charging camera/phones/ etc at the same time. This in itself sucks the hell out of the battery when on the move, but under normal use (and using wireless for web browsing) the Inspiron 9 gives you about 4-5 hours of usage. And that’s not bad at all.
A few times I found myself sans battery on my iPod, so tested out the sound. The headphone jack works well, and the quality is good. There’s no static, but when left to play freely – the built-in speakers really don’t play very loudly before distortion kicks in.
The Inspiron 9 comes pre-loaded with a host of useful stuff, including an inbuilt video-call function (Dell Video Chat), MSN suite and Microsoft Works. I removed a load of bits and pieces that slowed down when first booting up, but there’s hardly any superfluous rubbish forced upon you.
But, for me, the main thing to remember is that this is not marketed as a primary or home computer. You can purchase it for £250 (but then have the cost of a dongle to consider), or take out at 24-month contract with Vodafone and pay £25 a month to get it for free. For a netbook that connects so quickly, and does exactly what it says on the tin – it can’t be beaten. It really did make working and travelling so much easier for me, and won’t break the bank.