Review of the Dell Mini 9 netbook

The Dell Mini 9 netbook was originally going to be called the Dell E netbook, but the guys at ASUS weren’t really keen on the idea!

We’ll be dead upfront on this - we are not a fan of Dell. All the consumer pc’s we’ve had or used have had problems. Usually, they come preloaded with loads of rubbish that crashes and makes things slow straight from the off!

The Dell Mini 9 is a decent spec netbook. It comes in a two mains options: an 8gb SSD with Linux or a 16gb SSD with Windows XP. Although its a tiny storage unit, the Linux version seems like a better bet as the Windows version we tested came with the usual bloatware - McAfee, Google Desktop, something called ArcSoft Connect, RealTek HD Audio Manager, a Bluetooth thing and the Dell Video Chat webcam manager. All completely unnecessary and all set out to reduce the Intel Atom to a whimpering wreck.

The keyboard on the Dell Mini 9 is also rubbish. Oddly, the full-stop key is only two-thirds normal size, whereas the Alt and GR keys are full size. Not great when typing using that grammar thingy. The Enter key is only standard height instead of the more common double height, making it easy to miss, and the right-hand shift key is tiny, placed right next to the cursor arrow for maximum confusion.

That said, its boot speed and recovery from sleep mode are pretty keen. 30 seconds boot time and less than 10 seconds from full sleep mode.

Its battery is not great, about 2.5 hours, compared to say the ASUS EEE PC 1000, which is about £40 more and much better spec’d.

One plus about the dell is how amazing quiet and cool it stays. Even with vigorous testing on AC Power, it remained cool. Pretty good for safe net surfing on the sofa with your new netbook.

Overall, the Dell Netbook is a reasonably well built sturdy machine that suffers from the usual Dell bloatware and a poor keyboard design.

Buy the Dell Mini 9 netbook online

Buy Online: dell.co.uk, vodafone.co.uk