Dell Inspiron Mini 10v Netbook Computer – The Small Cheap Computer Is Back

Sum n substance:

Thumbs up:As good as a laptop, easy to read, typing is smooth and uncramped, Small size, long battery life, huge hard drive, decent performance for standard office applications, web camera, built in wireless, 3 usb ports, awesome execution of the Windows 7.

Thumbs down:Keyboard is still a bit small for the average touch typist, funky screen resolution makes loading some applications difficult, Adapter housing thin and cheap.

Inside the trunk:
Dell Mini 10v is customizable, but a basic 10v includes:

• 1.6-GHz Intel Atom N270 processor
• Windows XP Home Edition SP3
• 1 GB of RAM
• Integrated Intel 945 GSE UMA Graphics Media Accelerator
• Glossy 10.1-inch screen
• 160 GB hard drive
• Wi-Fi 802.11 g – half mini-card
• Bluetooth internal mini-card
• Built-in 1.3MP webcam
• 3-cell battery
• 2.86 lbs

THE WHIZZ-KID SPEAKS:Though the world of netbooks is been ruled by Asus and HP and Dell has hardly been there in the picture… yeah, true it did try its hand out with the Dell Inspiron mini9 and the Dell mini 12, but then again they are slowly being phased out and here we have the new one from Dell… the Dell mini 10 which surely has more to offer than its previous predecessors at least as far as the cost is concerned. It’s available at $299. Anyways, let’s take a deeper look to find out if its even worth the low price it is being quoted for.

Razzle-dazzle ell has never actually been known much for its sense of styling and trust me nothing seems to have changed with this one too. The same old drab look, but the only change being that instead of the silver glossy edges that the mini 9 and mini 12 displayed, this one has a matte black edge which looks classier any given day. But for a few 40$ extra you could upgrade to any of the other 6 available colours.
The 10v’s body takes much more of the deck space luckily, avoiding anymore of the cheap looking black plastic. Also the body has been adorned with only two marketing stickers, thankfully. It has been tightened well together with no groans coming from the chassis or the screen hinge for that matter. The display has a quite unusual resolution of 1024×576 pixels, though the images are quite vibrant and bright to say the least.though sometimes I had trouble in viewing a few web documents because the wyerent exactly fitting into the screen  and I had to keep on adjusting again and again to have a better view. It is ultra light at 2.86 pounds making it ultra transportable.

Inside dope:

The dell ships the 10v with Ubuntu 8.04, but I would suggest that an upgrade to the 9.04 would prove to be more efficient. Upgrading to 9.04 also frees up more of the SDD for data storage – my machine had 2.6GB available when running 8.04, but 4.6GB following the Jaunty install. The onepiece trackpad is something new added too the dell line up of netbooks with a highly tactile surface which is pleasant to use over long periods.

It is loaded with a 1.3MP webcam with the help of which you can directly click and upload the photos on photobucket, though the photos and the video are quite coarse and of low quality . The integrated Intel GMA 950 graphics core struggled with hi-def H.264 files, it managed to play a 1080i .AVI file at full screen in VLC without any problems. If HD movies are your bag, Dell will sell you a regular Mini 10 with a 1366 x 768 screen, HDMI port and GMA 500 GPU. Also the shutdown and start up time of the Dell isn’t all that bad. Its quite quick and also there is hardly any sluggishness even if there are many programs running at the same time.

I was quite impressed by the battery life of the mini 10v. The maximum it could run upto was eight hours 32 minutes with the Wi-Fi radio off and the screen brightness turned right the way down. On a more parsimonious note, Dell doesn’t provide you with a slip cover where you can tuck it in when it’s not in use.

Nitty-gritty:I wont say that it’s a headturner or anything even close by, but I seriously hope that Dell tries to come up with something new atleast in  the looks department. Apart from that I guess the price is pretty much worth the features if not more. And I just hope that this one doesn’t die a slow death like its predecessors. Go ahead give it a shot if u just need a netbook to jot down notes probably or at the most browse a few web pages. But if your looking out for a dandy high end piece this definitely shoudnt be anywhere in your list of choices.

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