Inspiron Mini 9 Released

chavezychavez

So the Mini 9 is finally here - and its a whopping €399.

For that price, I've a feeling its being knocked off a lot of lists of purchases.

http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/laptop-inspiron-9?c=ie&cs=iedhs1&l=en&s=dhs&ref=homepg

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/09/04/dell_launches_scc/

The Medion being sold in Aldi almost looks like a better purchase

http://www.aldi.ie/ie/html/offers/2867_6877.htm

Col_Loki

I think it looks fantastic, would be great to know how the battery performs.

Oafley Jones

Terrible price. I was expecting this to be a game changer, but as it stands they've just handed the market to Acer, MSI etc.

What make it even more galling is the fact that they're offering it for $99 dollars when you buy a studio 15 (which I've just bought)or XPS in the states.

Run_to_da_hills

As i have mentioned on another thread, is it just a rebadged Asus 901? It seems to be a similar set up, also will it support SDHC?

Any mention of the ssd hdd configuration? I am put off the 901 having seperate 4GB(Master) and another seperate 8GB PCIE internal drive.

chavezychavez

Col_Loki wrote: »

I think it looks fantastic, would be great to know how the battery performs.

Specs are OK, but the price lad??? I was expecting somewhere between €200 and €250 to make it a sure fire netbook beater.

Run_to_da_hills

chavezychavez wrote: »

Specs are OK, but the price lad??? I was expecting somewhere between €200 and €250 to make it a sure fire netbook beater.

Come on, Dell's second name is not Vincent. :rolleyes:

I expected it to be around e400 MK, it may win on styling, like to see one in the flesh first.

Oafley Jones

Run_to_da_hills wrote: »

Come on, Dell's second name is not Vincent. :rolleyes:

Alot of people were expecting the dell - given Michael Dell's criticism of other netbook prices- to start off around the €200-250 Mark.

chavezychavez

Run_to_da_hills wrote: »

Come on, Dell's second name is not Vincent. :rolleyes:

I expected it to be around e400 MK, it may win on styling, like to see one in the flesh first.

You're right, its not Vincent, its Saul

Nay lad, my line of thinking was that I'd prefer for Dell to perhaps drop some of the specs and bring the price down to something that you go out and impulse buy.

For the setup it has at the moment, 4 ton is about right, but it will only share the market now and not dominate it.

Alanstrainor

Meh, i can't say i was expecting it to be cheaper tbh, but the specs just dont cut it. I was actually just about to head off and buy an advent 4211, think i might go with it, even after seeing this.

Thirdfox

I was waiting for the Dell to come out...and then hoping the Asus 1000H might drop in price and get that

The Dell is 349 dollars here in the US (if you go with Ubuntu) and 399 for XP Home (after discount).

Run_to_da_hills

chavezychavez wrote: »

You're right, its not Vincent, its Saul

Nay lad, my line of thinking was that I'd prefer for Dell to perhaps drop some of the specs and bring the price down to something that you go out and impulse buy.

For the setup it has at the moment, 4 ton is about right, but it will only share the market now and not dominate it.

It would only draw my immediate interest if it had a built in SIM card reader for mobile internet, a 12GB at least master SD chip and not this 4 + 8 SD chip system used on the EEEPC 900 / 901 platforms. It looks to me that they are using the exact same motherboard as the EEEPC 901 so they are working off a very tight profit margin hence the same price.

I wonder what the delivery time is on these?

dpower

Thirdfox wrote: »

The Dell is 349 dollars here in the US (if you go with Ubuntu) and 399 for XP Home (after discount).

The Ubuntu version doesn't seem to be available here. Maybe when it comes available the thing will be cheaper. As it stands, 400 is just too much. willing to pay 350. A little disappointed.

AlmightyCushion

Oafley Jones wrote: »

What make it even more galling is the fact that they're offering it for $99 dollars when you buy a studio 15 (which I've just bought)or XPS in the states.

That's a pretty good deal. If they had that offer here and I was buying an xps or studio, I would definitely get one too.

Run_to_da_hills

dpower wrote: »

The Ubuntu version doesn't seem to be available here. Maybe when it comes available the thing will be cheaper. As it stands, 400 is just too much. willing to pay 350. A little disappointed.

Wait for the 4 or 8 Gig Linux version, it should be less than e350, Remember that XP and what ever else is loaded would be about 30% of the cost of this thing.

awhir

http://www.anandtech.com/mobile/showdoc.aspx?i=3399&p=1

AlmightyCushion

Threads merged.

Alanstrainor

3 hours out of the battery sounds pretty good to me, and the lack of a fan is also a plus. Price is a bit high, but it does make a tempting proposition away from the eee 901.

awhir

lads my brother is getting a laptop off work , would you reccomend this or the advent ? ( must be sold of irish vendor due to ex.vat)

Alanstrainor

Both have pro's and con's, it's really up to the buyer, i'm torn between the 2 at the mo.

Run_to_da_hills

Alanstrainor wrote: »

Both have pro's and con's, it's really up to the buyer, i'm torn between the 2 at the mo.

I think the DEll has a higher quality glossier screen (Some people prefere the standard screen). I am going to upgrade shortly from the 900 and am deciding between the 901 and the Dell, only thing holding for the 901 is that I have an additional extra long life battery and the makings of a car adapter. I am also assured that the 901 works well with the SDHC cards, unlike other sub notebooks.

Ghost Train

would be good if you could get it cheap when you bought a normal laptop, but no sign of anything like this on the dell site yet

eVeNtInE

This post has been deleted.

Overheal

Im surprised nobody is talking about the 3G chip in this. No longer to you need to have one of those stupid USB modems dangling off your laptop!

311

Do Pcworld stock all dell models instore ? I.E the mini 9?

Doodah7

I've been waiting for this too. The only thing stopping me is the pathetic 8GB SSD hard drive. Way too small. I think I will wait until a further iteration of this with a better HD...

JackieChan

Tallboy, if you go to order from Dell.ie itself a 16Gb SSD you get.

Doodah7

JackieChan wrote: »

Tallboy, if you go to order from Dell.ie itself a 16Gb SSD you get.

True but it is still too small. With Acer Aspire One it is a 120GB HD and the Advent has 80GB

mjsmyth

Incredible... $349 in the US (€244 at todays rate) and 399 here in Ireland.... a whopping €150 ($213) more to buy it here in Ireland.

It is also cheaper to buy it in the UK, Germany and France!! There is something wrong there....

I did want one of these, just for use when travelling, but now I think I will look at the Acer Aspire One or an older Eee PC.

mj

Trotter

I didnt realise theres a 3G chip in the new Dell from Dell.ie!!

How would that work with the existing o2 modem? Do I just take out the sim card and put it into the Dell somewhere?

I ordered one last night!

biologikal

Overheal wrote: »

Im surprised nobody is talking about the 3G chip in this. No longer to you need to have one of those stupid USB modems dangling off your laptop!

Does anyone have a link to a spec where it lists the 3G chip as part of it?

machalla

Trotter wrote: »

I didnt realise theres a 3G chip in the new Dell from Dell.ie!!

How would that work with the existing o2 modem? Do I just take out the sim card and put it into the Dell somewhere?

I ordered one last night!

I think the 3G model is supposed to be a vodafone only deal. Based on what little info I've seen it may be a special model due a few weeks from now for Vodafone (UK only at the moment I think). You have to signup for vodafone 3g package of some sort. I may have misread it at the time.

It looks like the Dell Mini 9s from Dells own site won't have the 3G option. The mind boggles really but thats business for you.

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/09/04/vodafone_dell_deal/

And it'll be the only carrier to do so. It has the European carrier exclusive on sales of the Small, Cheap(ish) Computer with a built-in HSDPA modem.

That's an accessory notably absent from Dell's own website this morning, despite the fact that the vendor's own support site reveals the SCC has a user-accessible slot for just such a device.

Overheal

biologikal wrote: »

Does anyone have a link to a spec where it lists the 3G chip as part of it?

http://gizmodo.com/5045701/dell-inspiron-mini-9-has-hidden-built+in-3g

When Michael Dell mentioned yesterday that he thinks telcos will subsidize netbooks to sell integrated 3G services, he wasn't quite talking out of his ass—an unmentioned feature of the Inspiron Mini 9 is an integrated 3G card. The first carrier to sell the Mini with 3G is Vodafone in the UK. No carrier announcements in the US yet, but since it's HSDPA (assumedly, because Vodafone UK is, and they aren't letting you pick your 3G card) AT&T would pretty much be your only option here. Pretty nice trick up your sleeve, Dell.

biologikal

Thanks for that. Chance that the 3G chip might be locked to a particular provider then. Maybe that's why they're not blowing trumpets about it.

AlmightyCushion

biologikal wrote: »

Thanks for that. Chance that the 3G chip might be locked to a particular provider then. Maybe that's why they're not blowing trumpets about it.

I'd be very surprised if it wasn't locked to the network.

311 wrote: »

Do Pcworld stock all dell models instore ? I.E the mini 9?

Nope, they carry only a very few select ranges.

Run_to_da_hills

biologikal wrote: »

Thanks for that. Chance that the 3G chip might be locked to a particular provider then. Maybe that's why they're not blowing trumpets about it.

:mad:


By locking out other service providers they are turning away customers like myself. Can they not just have a PCI card or slot that takes a sim?. Im sure spurious ones will be soon on the market.

ongarite

mjsmyth wrote: »

Incredible... $349 in the US (€244 at todays rate) and 399 here in Ireland.... a whopping €150 ($213) more to buy it here in Ireland.

It is also cheaper to buy it in the UK, Germany and France!! There is something wrong there....

I did want one of these, just for use when travelling, but now I think I will look at the Acer Aspire One or an older Eee PC.

mj

Ehh, learn to read first. If you check the Dell.ie and Dell.com website, Dell Ireland are offering only 1 Mini9, the top spec with 1GB RAM & 20Gb SSD HDD & free delivery.

The equivalent Dell.com Mini9 cost $449 before tax & shipping.

mjsmyth

Not the point, if i want an Inspiron mini, I have to pay $250 more than in the US. Why not have the same spec here?

What about the differences in price between Ireland and the rest of Europe?

Oh and $449 is still only €315, that makes it €84 or €120 dearer here.

Alanstrainor

Alright fellas, after waiting to see what this whole dell machine would be like before purchasing my next netbook, i finally took the plunge on one. The advent 4211, and to say i'm impressed would be an understatement, for me it strikes just the right balance between being v.portable and being large enough to see the screen and type comfortably on. The integrated bluetooth is also very handy. There's a few small annoying little things however, the position on the "fn" key! my god that's annoying, they swapped the positions of "ctrl" and "fn". And the battery life i suppose is a bit on the short side, 2 and a quarter hours, but i figure, i'll be near a plug most of the time anyway so it's not that bad.

Trotter

Well here I am, typing away on my little Dell. The keyboard is weeny but I was glad of that when I had it in a busy Dublin coffeeshop today.

I've put lots of software on it, itunes, skype etc.. and all work just fine. I have an 8GB SD card that acts as the harddrive for photos, documents etc. I stuck open office on it and thats doing the trick for typing.

All in all, I'm impressed!

Its a pity they didnt supply any kind of cover for it though.. I need to get one asap because it looks far from scratch proof.

Alanstrainor

So you got it in 9 days from order, pretty good! Nice to hear all went well, i've seen a good few neoprene 9" cases floating around the likes of Pcworld for around thw 15 quid mark, probably worth checking out.

bnt

awhir wrote: »

http://www.anandtech.com/mobile/showdoc.aspx?i=3399&p=1

Sounds like the keyboard is on a par with the Asus eee Pc 901 - that is, too small for me, so I'm not sorry I got the eee Pc 1000. I happen to have a dime handy, so I took a (cameraphone) pic of it on the keyboard, for comparison with those in that review. Doesn't look like much of a difference, but it helps...

Dime1000.jpg

Doodah7

Trotter wrote: »

I have an 8GB SD card that acts as the harddrive for photos, documents etc. I stuck open office on it and thats doing the trick for typing.

Is that a SDHC card?? I can't find anywhere that confirms that the Mini 9 is sdhc compatible. I would assume so but it would be great if you could confirm...

Trotter

Yep... SDHC is written on the card and its working just fine.

Placebo

harddrive is a turn off.
what would ppl use this for, considering space is only 16gb btw?

Alanstrainor

Placebo wrote: »

harddrive is a turn off.
what would ppl use this for, considering space is only 16gb btw?

Well considering it's not really a main machine, i suppose a massive Hd is not a requirement. You can have all the essential programs, open office, firefox picassa etc. It's mainly for internet on the go, and other office apps.

bnt

Placebo wrote: »

harddrive is a turn off.
what would ppl use this for, considering space is only 16gb btw?

16GB is plenty for XP, MS Office, and a load of documents. You can save a GB or more by not using a swapfile, which is good policy on SSD anyway.

It's definitely not a rebadged Asus: you can see this in the hinges in particular. If you wish it was just a bit bigger, inside (SSD) and outside, check out the EEE PC 1000.

ongarite

How is the SSD on the Dell Mini 9? Is it like the other netbooks with 4GB of fast flash RAM and then 8-12GB of crappy slow flash RAM giving painfully slow read/write speeds?

bnt

ongarite wrote: »

How is the SSD on the Dell Mini 9? Is it like the other netbooks with 4GB of fast flash RAM and then 8-12GB of crappy slow flash RAM giving painfully slow read/write speeds?

Dunno - you'll have to wait for a proper review that tests that. On the EEE PC 1000, the 2nd disk is slower, but not painfully slow: installing apps is the only time I notice, and I don't do that often. Compared to the extra $1000 that Apple and IBM charge for a 64GB SSD, I'm quite happy.

leavo08

whaat does spec mean???

Alanstrainor

leavo08 wrote: »

whaat does spec mean???

specification. The specifics of what's inside a pc in this context. Like RAM, Hard drive type/space, processor, Gpu etc:pac:

leavo08

thanks..so what is a decent spec? for first year college..high speed internet access?