Dell Mini
I passed a Vodaphone shop on my way to the university this evening and, having read that the Dell Mini Inspiron 9 was now available in all Vodaphone stores, I ducked in for a look-see.
Only brochures were on display and it had to be fetched from a back room.
First impression:Yeurgh! I’m glad I didn’t wait for that!
It was hot, very, very hot to the touch. Unacceptably, out-of-the-question, you-must-be-joking, forget-about-it hot.
I commented on this and was told that it had been left plugged in to charge up. Memories of Dells bursting into flames anyone? (Disclaimer: sample size = 1).
The screen was shiny and difficult to read. Reading it was made harder by a crashed Windows XP application which had been interrupted while communicating with the Dell mothership and it remained firmly on top of the screen.
The keyboard was horrible. Flat, shapeless keys with very little travel.
It had an 8Gb drive; it was supposed to be 16Gb in total but this one definitely only had one 8Gb drive. A demonstration unit perhaps.
For £25 a month you get broadband Internet via HSPDA — 3Gb worth– and the machine is free on a two year contract.
If it came with the Xandros Linux distribution that comes on the Asus EEE PCs it just might make a good first PC for grannies without email. It would be a good match, a basic computer and basic user interface.
However, as it comes with Windows XP this is just not a computer I’d give as a gift, as is, to any first time PC using granny. You face all the same problems of viruses and spyware, just on a very small machine.
There was no sign of the promised Linux version.
Meanwhile, Carphone Warehouse (the biggest UK mobile phone retailer) down the road, is selling a rather nicer “webbook” with Ubuntu Linux (although the web ad shows only XP). The webbook has a hard drive, and only half the memory, but it’s not nearly as hot and it has a decent keyboard. Pricewise there’s nothing in it.
The Dell does have one a redeeming quality however. It’s reportedly more readily hackable. Here’s an Engadget story on adding a GPS receiver, e.g.
The Asus 1000 offers
- 802.11n networking
- Gigabit Ethernet
- 40Gb SSD
- Linux already available
- Much better battery life (5+ hours v 2+)
- A larger screen (10″ v 8.9″)
- A built-in 1.3M pixel webcam and microphone
- A far better keyboard (mine has a larger return key, unlike the one linked to above)
- The same 1Gb RAM, but it’s expandable to 2Gb
- A nice matt finish (non-reflective) screen ; I much prefer this
- Twelve function keys, not ten
- Cool running, not just by comparison
- A superior build quality; the Dell really feels as if it’s been built to be given away
The list price of the Asus is £369 (I paid £350). On a 24 month contract the Dell costs £600. Ignoring the time factor, that’s a £250 difference.
Current UK wireless broadband prices (here) are about £10-15 a month on on a 24 month contract. The slightly cheaper deals tend, I’ve been told, to offer inferior coverage or performance or both.
From the table above (previous link) the Dell component of the Vodaphone subscription is probably about £15 a month, or about £360. It sells in the US for $349, with a webcam, so the old change the currency sign pricing tactic is alive and well still.
Conclusion:
This will be a very hot little number financially for Dell if it sells at this kind of price all of the 1 million it has supposedly built.
Alas, there’s nothing inspirational about it. Boron would be better name. Qualitywise it seems cheap and nasty and even some big price cuts won’t change this — I expect to see significant discounting before the end of the year, even then I’d avoid it.
Related posts:
- Asus EEE PC 1000 With Ubuntu & Chrome: An Inflection Point Inflection Point Most of us remember getting a first laptop, using the web for the first time, getting an immediate reply to an email from...
- Ubuntu 10.04 On Asus 1000 EEE PC Yesterday I decided it was time to upgrade my netbook to Ubuntu, v10.04. It didn't go smoothly. Here's how I got the wireless connectivity working....
- Netbook And Phone Convergence It seems that Samsung will be the first to upsize a netbook to a mini laptop with a decent keyboard while retaining many of the...
- It’s The Keyboard, Stupid A Mac-using friend sent me this link to an article on how Mac users were taking matters into their own hands and installing OSX on...
- Bluetooth Keyboards Again I considered bringing my Ubuntu-powered Asus 1000 netbook on this trip but decided in favour of the much larger Samsung R60+ (which I reviewed here)....
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How to add GPS to the Mini 9.
I don’t think this ‘review’ is entirely fair, nor does it really compare the two models – You simply wrote down why you believe the netbook which you paid money for is better.
The Dell will be hotter too the touch because it is entirely passively cooled – I was under the impression the EEEPcs have fans. Also, the screen comparison is fairly moot because they are different sizes – you paid the extra £100 for your 10″ screen (among other things) and got a larger netbook as part of the package.
The battery comparison is also poor – you’re comparing a 3 cell battery too a 6-cell, meaning when you look at the numbers, the Dell could in theory run for 6 hours in the right circumstances if it had the same battery.
In addition, the Vodaphone pricing is incredibly skewed, as is any mobile broadband package that offers something free – if you look at the retail pricing, Dell are asking £299 for the XP model with a confirmed 16GB SSD or £269 for the 8GB Custom Ubuntu Distro model, which puts it well in line with the EeePC 901, which it is designed to compete with.
Just my £0.02!
Saying it’s hot “because…” is missing the point. It’s HOT. I don’t care WHY it’s hot. As far as I am concerned it is simply too hot.
I didn’t compare batteries. I compared battery life.
I postponed buying a new laptop for about 2 months while waiting for this machine (the non-Vodaphone version, which is only slightly different) so I feel entitled to record my take on it: poor quality and bad value.
The build quality of the Asus EEE 901 is far superior. If the Dell is now actually shipping with Ubuntu that’s a point in its favour but not a big one. Ubuntu support on the Asus machines is almost perfect and will probably be 100% later this month when v8.10 ships.
BTW, a correction: I said above the price would be £25/mo for 3Gb, which is what I was told. It turns out to be wrong. For £25/mo you get 1Gb and 3Gb costs £30/mo. A bargain this is not.
I have used several netbooks and the Dell mini isn’t as bad as you make it out to be. We have one at work (for testing purposes) and I have gotten 4 hours of battery life doing regular stuff like word and internet (this is with screen at about 80%-90% brightness). Our model has 2 GB memory and a 8GB SSD. We got it with Windows XP Home, loaded Windows Pro on it, Vista, and then Windows 7 (which worked 10x better than Vista). The reason theres was so hot was probably because it was charging all night and then on all day. Probably playing some demo videos or something. Ours doesn’t get ‘scary’ hot but it will get warm if you are beating on with movies or a ton of WIFI.
We also bought the Linux version ($199.00US) for the 4GB SSD and 512 MB of RAM. Which is a great price in my opinion. Easy enought to install Windows XP pro or Windows 7 on it (and as far as our testing has gone Windows 7 will run fine with 512 MB of memory).
In my opinion;
Pros
Price, $199US for Linux version.
Build, it feels rather sturdy, and there is no keyboard flex.
Battery, battery life can always be better, but for the size (3 cell) it is not bad. A 6 cell would be cool, but it would take up too much room in my opinion.
Cons
Warm, it will get a little warm if you use it for long periods of time.
Price, cheaper is always better. $299US for the windows version isn’t terrible though.
WLAN, the built in HSDPA card slot is missing.
My Asus EEE 1000 never overheats when charged up and lasts for a minimum of 5 hours. There’s really no comparison in the overall quality feel.
Both have come down considerably in price and my impression is that Dells I’ve seen lately seem better built, but I haven’t checked them out too closely.
As I documented later, I need a machine I can touch type on and the Asus was still too small, though I liked everything else about it. I’m using a Samsung R60+ now for word processing and I use the Asus for reading email and surfing. The long battery life is terrific but I find that after the machine has been asleep I often have to restart to re-establish a wireless connection. It’s a minor annoyance that will hopefully go away with the next version of Ubuntu.
Am looking forward to getting my hands on a Samsung NC20.
Does it matter if it gets hot?
Well, if it can burn your house down…
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/Dell-mini-fire-burn-overheat,news-32459.html?