Dell Inspiron Mini 10 Laptop

Author's product rating:   

Speed	Fast
Look & Feel	Good
Comfort & Portability	Good
Robustness & Durability	Good
Value For Money	Good

Advantages:	Quite a lot
Disadvantages:	Hard to adjust to

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

I have just been bought the dell mini 10 which is a compact web book.

Now, until now I did not know a great deal to do with web books so my first thought was that it was cute and I was genuinely excited to get using it, however I noted that this product has not been reviewed so I did some research and had a look through some of what this dell has to offer and though I would offer a review on the item.

Design

Firstly I want to comment on the design of this dinky thing, the lid of mine is piano black and glossy which obviously is one of those things which you think, should I take the film off? I have left my film on as I am prone to eating whilst browsing and therefore I do not want my mini 10 to be covered in my prints within the first uses!
Whilst browsing this computer, I noted that it came in other colours, green, pink, blue etc and I’m really glad mine is black as it looks so smart. The keyboard is also black but the hand rest is a glossy silver colour which is a similar design to most laptops and web books nowadays.

The dimensions of this creation are 10.3 x 7.2 x 1.3 (reading the instructions and specification) and it’s slightly thinner and smaller than other similar products that I have seen. I also got a case with it which is easily carried round as the net book is so compact.

Because the keyboard is smaller than a standard computer or laptop it is hard to type on at the start, but I am surprised at how easy it is to adjust to the size and actually the keyboard is the perfect size for me!

What I find strange with the mini 10 is the touch pad is really hard to get used to, the right and left mouse buttons are in the touchpad and they are annoyingly small. This was the first thing I noticed, after typing something I do get cramp quite easily.
However I do understand that these compact machines are made for light browsing and typing and not writing whole essays on, therefore I can understand the need to design everything like this.

Ports

I have read before that net books are not great on ports but the mini 10 is quite impressive, it has 3 usb slots and a 3 in 1 memory card reader and also a hdmi reader, and the usual mic and headphones ports.

These are all the connectors I think I will need so this is not a problem to me, i will however mention that because the mini 10 is so small it does look like the sides of the machine are defaced with ports! I do not think I will notice this though
Display

Resolution

The resolution on this machine is 1024 x 600 pixels and the screen is glass and very glossy and clear, overall i am totally impressed with the specifications and the display, and i love it that the brightness can be altered on computers because my eyes are really sensitive!

Webcam

The mini 10 has a webcam, which I will never use but I find quite exciting, I did give a quick test and the image was clear at the other end, so I am happy that if I ever do need to use it I know that it will perform nicely!

The only thing I did notice whilst testing out the webcam was that the sound quality in this mini 10 is great but it doesn’t give a high sound output that I would like.
I tested this again on YouTube and confirmed that the speakers do not perform that loudly, but are satisfactory.

Of course, amongst all of this I do have to keep reminding myself how amazing everything so far is considering the size of the machine that I am writing about for me the biggest change is going from a laptop to something as small as the mini 10, it’s hard to lower my expectations of things like the sound.
Performance

Processor

The mini 10 uses a 1.6ghz Intel atom z530 Silverthorne processor which I believe is common in similar machines, the mini 10 also has 1gb of ram, I was most surprised at this as this is not too far from an old laptop I have, which is so much bigger.

My mini 10 runs with windows xp which I was quite chuffed about as I am so used to using it, it made the adaptation to a different machine so much easier to handle.

I have noticed that while browsing and making my way round the computer in general, the machine reacts quickly and I am satisfied with near enough every aspect of its speed and performance. Even whilst on the internet or accessing content from sites like YouTube I found that the mini 10 was able to cope really well.
The other thing I like, is that I am a fan of having a few different things running, namely, face book, ciao and Microsoft works, the mini 10 had no problem in allowing me to do this, I know that on an old computer I had, it would only cope with one window, and if I opened more than one it would last about 10 minutes before I knew that I had to save everything and restart.

Boot

I thought I would write a quick paragraph on the boot of the mini 10 as I was really impressed, every time I switch on its only a matter of about a minute before the machine has loaded and I am able to get on with everything that I have to do.
In a similar respect, even the loading of programs is quick and easy, there’s nothing worse than sitting and watching the hour glass flip over a few times before you are able to start browsing the web.

Staying cool

I was quite worried with the mini 10 and I actually still am, it’s hard to think that something small won’t blow up after an hour’s use due to overheating, luckily this has not happened yet, and I am hoping with a name like dell I am safe in the hands of the mini 10 and my machine will not overheat and die!

The most annoying thing that I have found so far is the battery; I would expect that with something compact it should be up to standards so that you can make use of the easy mobility. However, if you are expecting to browse and fiddle about then I would not stray too far from your charger, it’s so easy to get carried away and then once the battery hits the low point its dead and the performance dies with it.
The only up side to this is that obviously the net book does offer a small variety of power saving options (which change the performance dramatically)

I am not sure if this is a plus to my internet connection or my new mini 10, but I have found no problems with the machine connecting to the wifi in the house and I have not experienced any errors...so far!

Price

I cannot comment on the price, as I say it was a gift to me, I have heard that they are going at around 500 pound which seems cheap to me, but it’s worth considering all your options before you splash the cash.

Verdict

My verdict is a good one, I love the new mini 10, the novelty of having something so small and easy to use has still not worn off, however I can see how this machine is not suitable for everyone, it’s hard to adjust to and I wouldn’t expect anyone to start working from home on it!

Browsing the internet, writing the odd review, looking at...yes

I hope my review is helpful, as I get further into the machine I will update you with my opinions accordingly, but so far so good!