Dell Inspiron Mini 9

[Zephik]

http://img167.imageshack.us/img167/7858/76615386eq8.jpg

So what do you guys think about the new Dell Inspiron Mini 9? FTW? FTL? or somewhere in between?

I'm actually considering about getting the one above as soon as I get paid. Should I hold out for now for an upcoming new product or maybe consider a different current one? You guys seem to always be in the loop of things, so whats your thoughts and opinions? (Just looking for a basic setup. Web browsing, movies, pretty much stuff that you could run on any computer after the year 2000 and even some before lol)

By the way, what would you guys compare the power of this laptop to? Would it be more powerful than my old Pentium 4 @ 2.8ghz rig (with a gig of ram) or more around my old Pentium M @ 1.7ghz laptop (with half a gig of ram)? Just trying to gauge what kind of performance I would be seeing from this thing compared to my old setups.

[Zeus]

I have to admit, I am pretty curious about these too. I just don't really see myself paying much for a pc that has very limited capabilites.......then again, I did buy an iPhone. :-P

[Luke122]

I think that this is the future of notebooks. Smaller, lighter, bigger batteries.

I havent used one of these processors yet, so I'm hesitant to say what performance would be like, but I'd be inclined to believe it would outperform your 1.7ghz laptop.

I like that it has XP, I wonder how much ram it'll take? 2gb would be sweeeeeeet.

[Xpirate]

The mini 9 is fanless, so it should be a quiet little machine.

[TheGreatSatan]

That's a really damn good price.

[Zephik]

Does anyone know how the payment plans work? or if I would be eligible for that or not?

Its pretty much completely new territory to me so I'm kind of drawing a blank. Do I need good credit? or any at all? Are there any kind of requirements to be able to sign up for that sort of thing?

[First time really living on my own and making my own decisions and paying for my own stuff and what-not]

[Spawn-Inc]

if you can i would just pay it in one shot.

i am pretty sure it can at least be on par with the 1.7GHz laptop you have if not better.

[Zephik]

if you can i would just pay it in one shot.

i am pretty sure it can at least be on par with the 1.7GHz laptop you have if not better.

Yea I can't pay in one shot. I wish though, that would be nice. lol

Sweet, that would be really nice. I heard it was comparable to a 2Ghz Pentium 4 or something like that.

Question: Do you guys think I'll be able to play Spore on this thing?

[Omega]

Does anyone know how the payment plans work? or if I would be eligible for that or not?

Its pretty much completely new territory to me so I'm kind of drawing a blank. Do I need good credit? or any at all? Are there any kind of requirements to be able to sign up for that sort of thing?

[First time really living on my own and making my own decisions and paying for my own stuff and what-not]

I think it'd be much wiser to save up enough and buy it all in one shot. Don't finance $500 for a laptop.

If you want to build credit, however, buy it on a credit card and pay off the credit card as fast as possible (Interest means you will pay more than sticker price). It's essentially financing except you can build credit that way.

[Xpirate]

I was looking forward to seeing this little mini-laptop. If I get one soon, I doubt that it will be the Dell. I use the F11 key a lot when I'm using my 1024x768 laptop to let the browser fill the screen and the Dell Mini 9 does not have an F11 or F12 key.

After reading all the reviews, I think I like the Acer Aspire One better. I would need to see them both in person to make a final judgement though.

Zephik, I would definitely just save up your $$ instead of using credit.

[Zephik]

Hmmm, maybe I should then. I just kind of need a laptop asap whereas I would have to wait two or three more paychecks to afford one all at once. (4-6 weeks)

Is there any reason why you guys think it would be better to buy it all at once?

Also, I thought that that would build up good credit? Doesn't it all go to the same files on me somewhere? or is it just building up good credit with Dell? Either way, I was thinking that if any company wanted to know how faithful I am with payments they could look that up?

[Xpirate]

Borrowing less than $500 from Dell's financing probably won't have much inpact on your credit rating and it will cost you in interest.

When I was your age (around 21 or so), I got a "student" credit card with a $400 credit limit. Then I just used it as a convenient way to pay for stuff that I already had the money for and paid the balance in full each month. This will help you earn a credit history without costing you any interest. That is my advice for building your credit score.

[TheGreatSatan]

It says it has a 32WHr battery. How many hours do you get? 32?

Who's selling these competitor pc's?

[Zephik]

It says it has a 32WHr battery. How many hours do you get? 32?

Who's selling these competitor pc's?

Well it depends on the technology being used really, but with the Dell Mini 9...


Under normal use, backlight at 100 percent and using wireless for web browsing and watching several DivX movies at 75 percent volume, the Mini 9 managed to deliver three hours and 38 minutes of battery life. This is similar to what we've seen from Atom-based netbooks with 3-cell batteries, but we were hoping for more given the 4-cell battery in the Mini 9. Hopefully battery life will improve when we test Windows XP on this machine. Still, even with only 3+ hours of battery life, the Mini 9 provides a reasonable travel experience for a netbook priced below $400. Lowering the screen brightness and turning off the wireless card should provide enough battery life for prolonged use.

As far as I know Dell is selling them straight out of their website only.

[TheGreatSatan]

I thought someone said Acer has their own version.

[Zephik]

I thought someone said Acer has their own version.

I was thinking that you might of been talking about that one, but wasn't sure.

Its called the Acer One.

It seems the Acer One has two different battery options. With the three cell version bit-tech (http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2008/08/04/acer-aspire-one/4) reported it lasting 2 hours and 40 minutes. They didn't test the six cell version, but I would guess it would be at least or around 3 hours and 30 minutes. The acer one website reports the three cell as three hours of battery life and the six cell as seven hours of battery life. Yea. Maybe with everything turned off and everything else turned on low? Even then, seven hours would be impressive.

As for your question, I don't know. I'm guessing if it used one watt an hour then it would last as many hours as stated? 32? idk.

As for who is selling them... amazon and newegg are the only ones I know of that are selling the Acer One.