Comments on: Review: Dell Mini Inspiron 9 v Asus EEE 1000

By: Eats Wombats

Eats Wombats — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 23:27:03 +0000

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?

By: Eats Wombats

Eats Wombats — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 04:08:49 +0000

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.

By: does it matter?

does it matter? — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 02:45:27 +0000

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.

By: Eats Wombats

Eats Wombats — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 09:10:04 +0000

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.

By: Optimaximal

Optimaximal — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 08:43:37 +0000

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!

By: Eats Wombats

Eats Wombats — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 19:20:22 +0000

How to add GPS to the Mini 9.