Tech Burn

Small, light-weight and super cheap, Netbook’s are the latest sensations in the Tech world. There is a new Netbook launched every second day literally. So cashing in on the fever, Dell has launched the Dell Inspiron Mini 10, a 10 inch netbook with almost all features of a full-fledged notebook minus an optical drive (CD / DVD / Blu Ray – Reader / Writer)

The Lenovo Ideapad S10, so far has been the most popular and complete netbook but with the Dell Mini 10 now available for purchase, it is quite close between the two although as of now I would still pick the value-for-money Lenovo S10 for its price.

Dell Inspiron Mini 10 Specs

• Intel Atom 1.6GHz Z530 processor
• 160GB Hard Disk (5400 rpm)
• 1GB DDR2 SDRAM
• Intel GMA 500 graphics (64MB)
• 10.1 inch display, LED backlit, 1024 x 576 screen resolution
• Wi-Fi 802.11g
• Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
• 1.3MP built-in Webcam
• Ports – 3 USB 2.0, HDMI and Ethernet
• 3 in 1 Card reader
• Windows XP Home Edition – Operating System
• Size – 10.3 x 7.2 x 1.3 inches
• Weight – 2.6 lb (1.2 kg)
• Battery – 3 Cell 24WHr Li-Ion Battery

Build Quality and Design

The Dell Inspiron Mini 10 is a solid device with excellent build quality and a very stylish design. The quality of the plastics used is good, the form factor is great and the Mini 10 has to be one of the better looking netbooks in the market. Its pretty sleek too with dimensions of 10.3 x 7.2 x 1.3 inches.

Ports and Slots

Most standard ports seen in mainstream laptops have been squeezed into the Dell Mini 10 – Ethernet, HDMI and 3 USB ports, which is more than what you can ask for in a netbook. Headphone and 3 in 1 card reader slots are also included.

Keyboard and Touchpad

The Dell Mini 10 comes with almost a full-sized QWERTY Keyboard, which is quite surprisingly larger than the Dell Mini 12! What’s great to see in the keyboard is the full right shift key, placed right under the enter key. The ergonomics of the keyboard are great. Working with the touchpad though wasn’t a great experience. Dell has decided to do away with the right and left mouse keys, much like the new aluminum Apple Macbook’s, and merged it with the touchpad. The results were quite annoying. The cursor would more often than not move, before the click. The multi-touch gesture like two finger scrolling and zooming and rotating, on a bit of practice, worked quite well.

Glossy Display and Webcam

The Glossy display in the Mini 10 is good with literally no glare. The viewing angles both ways is great. But in an attempt to achieve the 16:9 aspect ratio, the resolution at 1024 x 576 pixels is slightly lesser than those seen in most netbooks (1024 x 600). Vertically, the viewing space is about 1 or 2 lines lesser. The webcam worked pretty well over Skype and Yahoo, producing clean images without any blurring.

Netbook Performance

The performance of the Dell Mini 10 with the Intel Atom 1.6GHz Z530 processor is smooth when powered by the Windows XP operating system. XP took just 51 seconds to boot which is fantastic compared to other netbooks. In comparison, XP on the Lenovo Ideapad S10 consumed 57 seconds to load. Most applications like browsers, media players were quick to load. Firefox loaded in just 6 seconds, we did notice slight slowdown in performance with a few flash based websites open. Overall, no compliants, Dell Mini 10 does the job well and quite quickly at that.

Wi-Fi and Bluetooth

The Signal Strength on Wi-Fi was above average to good. About 20 feet away from the access point, with the signal strength at full, we did have a few issues with Youtubing (Video streaming). Normal browsing was smooth, no issues whatsoever.

Bluetooth worked well too, pairing the Dell Mini 10 with my Nokia E71 and Motorola S9 Bluetooth headset was successful on first attempt and so were file transfers.

Battery

The netbook comes with a 3 cell battery. On continously surfing the web on Wi-Fi with brightness set at 75%, the Dell Mini 10 lasted about 2 hours and 55 minutes. Better than Lenovo S10, but unfortunately as of now Dell does not provide the 6 cell battery upgrade.

Dell Inspiron Mini 10 Colors

Dell Mini 10 Price

Value for money is the key for netbooks and that’s where the Dell Inspirson Mini 10, priced at $399, looses out. The price is on the higher side and Dell should have ideally priced it at around 50$ lesser. What makes it worse is, only the Black color is included in the price. The other color options like Blue, Pink, Red, Green and White will cost you 35$ more.

Verdict

The Dell Inspiron Mini 10 gets the basics right and does most things well. The only annoying negative is its awkward Touchpad. With a slight price drop or Dell discount coupons, Dell Mini 10 is a Highly Recommended Netbook.

Product Rating – 4 / 5