I've had my netbook since the middle of January, running Windows 7 from day 1. No, my netbook doesn't have a DVD drive. However, a USB to IDE adapter gave me the ability to hook a drive up to the netbook to get Windows installed.

Everywhere I take it - user groups, coffee shops, hotels - I'm asked what "this little laptop" is. I call it my laptop's laptop. Check this out for a size comparison:


15" ASUS G1 laptop on the left, Dell Mini 9 on the right

It's such a great conversation piece. I've had total strangers - both male and female - stare for a bit and then come up and ask me about it. So look out cute kids and puppies, the netbook is the new pick-up icon!

So what do I tell people about it? I love traveling with it - smaller footprint than my 15" laptop, much lighter, and great for things like checking email, reading things on the Internet, chatting online, and basic office functions. Going away for work and want to stay in touch with the fam? This one has a webcam built-in, great for video chatting. I had tested it with one of my friends, who was amazed with the webcam's clarity, as if he was looking directly into my house. With wi-fi, wired, and Bluetooth capabilities, I can get my Internet fix in a number of ways. The SD card reader is nice for offloading pictures from my digital camera to a hard drive while I'm on trips.

Ah... but the hard drive. So the Dell Mini 9 that I have has a 16GB solid state drive. That's right, only 16GB. So I have to watch my space. Now I know I can upgrade my hard drive and that Dell is shipping Minis now with bigger hard drives, but from my personal basic setup, 16GB is what I have to work with, which isn't really that much space for storing pictures - especially when 7GB alone is eaten up by the operating system.

Battery life is good enough for me. With wireless on and full use, I can get a couple hours easily. However, I'm typically not promiscuous with my netbook, so the wireless is usually off and the display brightness isn't super bright. This means I get about 3-3.5 hours of battery life.

The processor and the memory are my limiting factors. I've got 1GB of memory, with a 1.6GHz Atom processor. So it's great for the stuff I mentioned above. However, as a developer, I wouldn't compile code on it. Writing scripts, HTML pages, and other notepad tasks... sure. Working on a Silverlight app... probably not.

There are little quirks, but I had to expect something had to change, considering the size. One of the other things I struggle with sometimes is the keyboard layout. For the most part, it's a QWERTY keyboard, but my tilde (~) and my apostrophe (') are in different spots, and that throws me off, for as much as I use those characters.

Despite the headache it was to get it shipped, I am fairly content with my netbook. If you're doing simple tasks on a computer while on the go, I'd recommend the Dell Mini 9.

Labels: Dell Mini 9, netbook

After a lack in communication, several delays, and a reorder, my Dell Mini 9 has arrived.



The first thing I did after taking it out of the box was installed Windows 7 on it. So far, I'm extremely impressed - all the drivers loaded nicely, and I haven't had to do anything special to get it to work. Of a 14GB drive, the operating system took up around 7GB of that. Even with a 1.6 GHz Atom processor and 1GB of memory, I'm not seeing any performance issues so far.

I can't get over how small this is. As I mentioned last night, if my laptop had a lap, this Mini 9 would be its laptop. This would have been perfect for CodeMash - lightweight, with all the basic features that I would use.

You won't see me playing EVE Online or any of my graphics intensive games on this. However, you may see me blogging, IMing, Twittering, and even video chatting with this. It has its own built-in camera, making it even easier for me to stay in contact while traveling.

So within my first 24 hours of playing with this, I'm liking it so far. It just stinks that Dell and Adobe dropped the ball and made the process of getting it such a huge ordeal.

Labels: delayed shipping, Dell, Dell Mini 9

I've chronicled my journey so far with Dude, I'm Not Getting a Dell - Part 1. It doesn't help the situation that the rep is on vacation, and all that his backup can do is say that it will ship soon. How long does it take to come up with a real explanation for the delay? And why are they evading the question?

They have put free overnight shipping on the order supposedly, but at this point, it doesn't matter. I don't have time to prep a new machine in time to use it for CodeMash. The damage is done - they haven't conveyed a reason at all for the delay.

This experience is enough for me to never consider buying a Dell for a personal purchase - not even with our employee purchase program. Although they may make decent quality hardware, their lack in communication to the customer when it comes to delays is enough to make me want to take my business elsewhere.

...

Apparently I'm not the only one out there seeing Dell's shipping issues. I hope others who search this see this thread on the Consumerist before they even consider buying a Dell Mini 9.

Labels: delayed shipping, Dell Mini 9

I'm interrupting the countdown for a post to find out what others' opinions are of Dell. My awesome husband ordered me a Mini 9 for Christmas, as he saw it as a great tool for me, especially with giving presentations and stuff. When I found out about that, I was psyched! He ordered it for me at the beginning of December (12/5), and today, he got another shipping delay. It was supposed to ship on 12/19, but they delayed it until today (12/29). Sure, they were going to ship it today. Or maybe now it's delayed until 1/12.

Looking at their blog, they aren't saying anything about a delay in shipping, a shortage in parts, etc. So... what's up with Dell? Why is it that they are going to take more than a month from order to shipping?

I understand that back orders happen, parts can't get shipped because of strikes, etc. But honestly, with Dell not saying anything, this doesn't seem right.

He's got a call in with his rep to find out why there's such a delay. Unfortunately, the rep didn't get back to him at the end of the day.

More details will follow.

Labels: delayed shipping, Dell Mini 9