Dell Inspiron Mini 9 Reviewed: Refining the Netbook Market

Final Words

At some point there's got to be some convergence here between the smartphone and the netbook. A smartphone is too small for some of the things you want to do with it, and a netbook is too large. We'll need a new interface (multi-touch anyone?) and thinner, faster, more power efficient hardware but it's bound to happen.

I will admit, before the Inspiron Mini I didn't really show much affection towards netbooks. I understood their appeal and their purpose, in my mind the current netbook revolution is simply taking the ultra portable Sony Picturebooks of the early 2000s and making them affordable, which is great, but I never really fell in love with the design of the Eee PC or its competitors. The Dell Inspiron Mini 9 changed that for me; it modernized the netbook and at $349 I no longer felt like I had to justify why I was spending so much on slow hardware. And I can't stress enough how pretty this thing is, especially for something that costs less than $400. We always give credit to Apple for good industrial design and while I wouldn't put the Inspiron Mini on the same level as the ID of the MacBook Air, I'm quite impressed.

ASUS got the equation nearly perfect with the Eee PC, but I believe that the Eee and the Mini are really good for two different types of users. The Eee is more of the tinkerer's netbook, it's got a bit more storage, 802.11n and comes more feature filled out of the box. Dell's Mini ships at a lower price and with a correspondingly reduced configuration, but it targets the heart of what I believe the netbook user is: someone looking for a simple, relatively comfortable way of getting online and doing basic computing tasks. MSI aimed much higher with the Wind, with larger hard drives and attempting to beat ASUS based on specs alone but I'd argue that with a netbook it's not the specs that will crown a winner, it's the efficiency of the package.

At $349 I'd like to see the Mini ship with 1GB of RAM standard and with at least the 0.3 megapixel camera, as it stands my desired configuration ends up being $384. Of course I'd want it to be cheaper, the $299 price point being the magical target, but there is something to be said for Dell's current promotion. Buy a Studio 15, M1530 or M1330 and Dell will sell you the Mini for $99, treating it as an upgrade to a notebook rather than a standalone device. While the promotion is short lived, I do think it's one that makes enough sense to bring back as often as possible.

When ASUS launched the Eee PC I'm not entirely sure it knew who was going to use the device, nor am I sure ASUS expected the sort of overwhelmingly positive response it got. Dell has the luxury of seeing what ASUS did and coming out with a more focused, more targeted product - which is what I believe the Inspiron Mini 9 is.

The two do compete on some levels, but I fundamentally believe that the Inspiron slots in just below the Eee PC. If you wanted the performance of the Eee PC 901 but were put off by the price tag, the Inspiron Mini 9 may be what you've been looking for.

See the gauntlet? Yeah, it’s over there on the floor. Dell has done something very dangerous here, the netbook war is one that isn’t incredibly profitable for anyone involved but my standards are higher after using the Inspiron Mini 9.

Begun these netbook wars have.