465 of 533 (87%) customers would recommend this product to a friend.
Customer Reviews for Inspiron Mini 9
Review 21 for Inspiron Mini 9
Overall:
5
[RATINGOF] 5
Reviewed by:kelleyd Location:
vancouver, wa
Duration of product use:
Less than a month
Level of expertise:
Expert
Title: Great Product!
Date: May 27, 2009
Product Uses: Connecting with Friends, Travel
Review:I just got my Dell mini 9 3 weeks ago and absolutely love it! I purchased mine with xp and bought the red color. Very vivid screen, easy to read. I travel alot and use it quite a bit. I have no trouble with the keyboard. It took a little adjustment, but now I am typing away. I use it in my work quite a bit, and it is very easy to travel with. I purchased a broadband plug in Internet so I can use anywhere, and it is great.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Review 22 for Inspiron Mini 9
Overall:
3
[RATINGOF] 5
Reviewed by:cham1158 Location:
N.J., U.S.A.
Duration of product use:
Months
Level of expertise:
Newbie
Title: ??
Date: May 27, 2009
Product Uses: Connecting with Friends, wanted to use while traveling
Review:I purchased a mini dell netbook 8.9 with windows xp as the operating system. The size is good, the weight & the portability. But I don't know why did I have to pay an additional $49.95 to be able to connect to the internet wirelessly while at home (which I had to - just after receiving my netbook from the mail)and now I have to pay an additional $59.95 to be able to connect to the internet using a public wifi (not realizing that I couldn't, thought that was also part of what I paid for). I was confused on what to do or spend again, I told the rep from delloncall im not pursuing it anymore this time since I have to pay again...he hung up!!
5 of 9 people found this review helpful.
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Review 23 for Inspiron Mini 9
Overall:
5
[RATINGOF] 5
Reviewed by:GrandPrixMan99
Title: best netbook
Date: May 26, 2009
Product Uses: Connecting with Friends, Music & Movies, School, Finances
Review:i've used it for a few weeks. the battery life is great. the keyboard is fine with its 92%size but you're not gonna write a book on it. great with wireless networks and great size to bring anywhere. dell puts you in control letting you custom build yours how you want it. i'm very happy
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Review 24 for Inspiron Mini 9
Overall:
4
[RATINGOF] 5
Reviewed by:mauichas Location:
Virginia Beach
Duration of product use:
Less than a month
Level of expertise:
Good
Title: Nice litttle computer
Date: May 24, 2009
Product Uses: Travel, Finances, outlook e-mails for my business
Review:I really like my little netbook Inspiron Mini 9.It's the bomb!
0 of 6 people found this review helpful.
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Review 25 for Inspiron Mini 9
Overall:
4
[RATINGOF] 5
Reviewed by:HankDennemann Location:
Cincinnati, OH
Duration of product use:
Less than a month
Level of expertise:
Expert
Title: Good system with one HUGE exception
Date: May 22, 2009
Product Uses: Travel, remote desktop
Review:Pros:
Faster performance, fewer system hangs, nicer keyboard feel, and better build quality than Asus and Acer netbooks. Touch pad is very responsive, and its flush design makes it far more effective than the touchpad on my XPS M1530. Screen brightness and clarity appear better on this system than on an Acer Aspire One that I own. The Acer system hangs frequently when performing routine tasks (like clicking on the My Computer icon), a problem I have never had with the Mini 9. Streams music and video very well despite the weak integrated graphics chip.
Cons:
Only one, but it is a biggie: The keyboard is smaller than a standard keyboard--obviously--but Dell chose to allocate most of the space to the main keys and cut off keys at the periphery. In some cases, the keys are still there but they are half the size of the other keys (the left tab and right shift keys, for instance).
In an unforgivable design blunder, though, Dell chose to lop off the apostrophe key from the middle row and place it instead in the spacebar row, two rows down, leaving the semi-colon key in place in the middle row. And, since the apostrophe key is normally off to the right of the semi-colon key, touch typists will invariably overshoot the semi-colon key for the key next to it--which happens to be the Enter key. So, every time you go for an apostrophe, you get a hard return instead, and you are left forever hitting the backspace key and hunting for the apostrophe key on the bottom row.
How this system managed to escape testing with this design I will never know. You do not realize how many more apostrophes you use than semi-colons until you sit down and try to put together an email on this sytem. It will drive you absolutely insane, and the design failure is SO obvious, and SO annoying, that every time you encounter it you are left asking yourself whether Dell employees any engineers who touch type, or if they all just plunk out correspondence with their index fingers.
That said, Microsoft makes a utility that allows you to remap the keyboard, although it is not user friendly and the remapping does not carry over into all programs.
Aside from the keyboard, though, the system is solid, and I would recommend it over an Asus or an Acer. Note, however, that Acer figured out how to leave the apostrophe key in the middle row. If you are the kind of person who cannot deal with nettlesome issues like this, buy a different netbook.
14 of 14 people found this review helpful.
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Review 26 for Inspiron Mini 9
Overall:
5
[RATINGOF] 5
Reviewed by:AtlQ Location:
Atlanta, Ga
Duration of product use:
Months
Level of expertise:
Good
Title: Love My Mini!
Date: May 22, 2009
Product Uses: Connecting with Friends, Travel, Music & Movies, School, Finances, Presentation
Review:Have had my mini for 3 months now and can't imagine traveling without it!. Quick boot-up to XP, silent, and fits in the smallest travel bag...I have the 16GB SSD and by storing my photos and documents at Box.net, have plenty of storage space...The keyboard takes a little while to adjust to, but after a couple of weeks you should have no problems. Battery life is good...I have streamed a 3 hour film on a charge...the only negative was the time it took to ship...but all is forgiven!..
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Review 27 for Inspiron Mini 9
Overall:
2
[RATINGOF] 5
Reviewed by:GaryX Location:
Oklahoma
Duration of product use:
Less than a month
Level of expertise:
Expert
Title: Not quite up to expectations
Date: May 21, 2009
Product Uses: Travel, email
Review:I have mini 9 with 1GB of memory and 32GB SSD. Performance is very choppy. Either the SSD is a dud or the system as a whole is. Either way it has 15-30 second pauses (frequently) where nothing happens.
I got the SSD planning for longer battery life. But so far, battery life isn't better than the big heavy laptops.
It is cute and slow.
5 of 7 people found this review helpful.
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Review 28 for Inspiron Mini 9
Overall:
3
[RATINGOF] 5
Reviewed by:GotLotsOfDELLs Location:
WI
Duration of product use:
Months
Level of expertise:
Good
Title: Lacking in RAM and Solid State Storage
Date: May 20, 2009
Product Uses: Connecting with Friends, Travel, gps, browsing
Review:The RAM should be doubled for use with XP. The little iPod is available with more solid state memory. I have my wife connected to a NAS. She primarily uses it for E-mail and internet browsing for recipes and such. She likes the size for portability. I use mine mostly with a USB GPS.
0 of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Review 29 for Inspiron Mini 9
Overall:
5
[RATINGOF] 5
Reviewed by:WGMI Location:
Michigan
Duration of product use:
Months
Level of expertise:
Expert
Title: Super Computer
Date: May 20, 2009
Product Uses: Connecting with Friends, Travel, Music & Movies, Presentation
Review:I purchased this computer in the Fall of 2008 to have a lightweight, compact and easy-to-use computer on the road. The white is nice for no fingerprints. 16 g. of HD works fine because there are three USB ports for flash drives. XP Pro is loaded without a problem. I take it whenever I need the computer away from the office or home. It does everything my Vostro will do, without the weight and bulk. The CD/DVD drive I bought separately still packs away nicely and is lightweight. We watch movies in the car/on the airplane. Video slide show presentations for my art group at an artists' reception are a breeze. Fonts can be adjusted for size, if a person has difficulty reading smaller print. I would highly recommend this computer to anyone because of its' portability and value for the cost.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Review 30 for Inspiron Mini 9
Overall:
5
[RATINGOF] 5
Reviewed by:lisag2 Location:
Maui,HI
Duration of product use:
Months
Level of expertise:
Good
Title: Great Deal
Date: May 20, 2009
Product Uses: Connecting with Friends, Travel, School, Finances
Review:Got this one day before my trip to Canada. What a life saver.....changing hotels,getting around re-booking,etc. Help so much. The nite I got it I went to Ross' to shop for something totally different and found a case for the mini 9"....a bible carry case!!! Fits great-had pockets on outside and inside. It's ideal and zips right up...$8 out the door!!
7 of 7 people found this review helpful.
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Review 31 for Inspiron Mini 9
Overall:
5
[RATINGOF] 5
Reviewed by:Inspiredmini Location:
Texas
Duration of product use:
Less than a month
Level of expertise:
Expert
Title: Excellent Product Exceeds Expectation
Date: May 20, 2009
Review:Beautiful mini laptop and easy to use.
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Review 32 for Inspiron Mini 9
Overall:
4
[RATINGOF] 5
Reviewed by:malaka08 Location:
Florida
Duration of product use:
Less than a month
Level of expertise:
Expert
Title: Dell mini 9
Date: May 20, 2009
Product Uses: Travel
Review:I have been waiting for the Pandora Project for more than a year, several delays made me try this computer. I am really happy with it. I hope Dell make more PCs and Servers with Linux pre-loaded in the future. Only one concern, the SSD drive is too small, there is no much choices out there to replace it. Runcore or Runcore. But the PC is really good, so far in my 3 weeks of use.
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Review 33 for Inspiron Mini 9
Overall:
5
[RATINGOF] 5
Reviewed by:DGSC Location:
Toronto, ON
Duration of product use:
Months
Level of expertise:
Good
Title: Great Product
Date: May 17, 2009
Review:extremely light and portable - I take it everywhere - easily fits in a small knapsack. bright sharp screen. very good battery life for weight and size. keyboard has some compromises but quite reasonable for a 9 inch netbook. decent sound. good 1.3mp webcam. 16 GB solid state drive is ample for XP and important apps. I keep documents and images on a thumb drive.
for the critics who want a bigger screen, bigger keyboard, 6 cell battery, big HDD -- what's the point? you end up with a "netbook" more than 3 lbs and might as well just lug around a regular laptop. I hope Dell continues to offer a 9 inch netbook for some time.
I would purchase this product again.
9 of 9 people found this review helpful.
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Review 34 for Inspiron Mini 9
Overall:
5
[RATINGOF] 5
Reviewed by:olybey55 Location:
St Louis, MO
Duration of product use:
Less than a month
Level of expertise:
Good
Title: Great little laptop
Date: May 14, 2009
Product Uses: internet browsing, email, messaging
Review:Overall, the mini 9 is exactly what I was looking for. It's small, light, has a very nice display, and good battery life. Durability seems good as I have dropped it a couple of times. No moving parts!
I had been using a desktop and a large laptop in the past. Here are some things to be aware of if you select the mini 9:
1. The mini keyboard is different. The keys are smaller, particularly the ones that are non-letter/numbers like the shift and tab keys. Even so, it is very usable for touch typing. After 3 weeks of use, I can type on it almost as fast as a standard keyboard. The biggest learning curve for me, by far, is that the quote/apostrophe key is moved to the right of the space bar. My fingers think it should be the next key to the right of the colon/semi-colon key. Actually the Enter key is there, so I end up typing (it Enter s) instead of (it's) quite often.
2. The lack of a fan and hard drive makes it tricky to know when the mini is suspended or off. It takes a few seconds to wake up from suspended mode, so I often hit the power button and ended up shutting it down. I learned to look at the LED light on lower left to be sure.
3. I bought a refurbished model with 8GB flash to save a few dollars. It had windows, MS works installed. I added anti-virus, printer software, acrobat, and skype and now have about 1.7 GB free. So, if you're going with Windows, you may want to go with more hard drive storage if you want to save a lot of files on the flash drive.
6 of 7 people found this review helpful.
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Review 35 for Inspiron Mini 9
Overall:
4
[RATINGOF] 5
Reviewed by:JQuilty Location:
Chicago
Duration of product use:
Months
Level of expertise:
Expert
Title: Nice, but a few small things.
Date: May 13, 2009
Product Uses: Connecting with Friends, Travel, Music & Movies, School, Presentation
Review:I like my Dell Mini 9 and I would recommend it. However, the default version of Ubuntu Dell ships is horrible. One of the first things I did with it was making a LiveUSB of Fedora 10, which runs fine on this netbook after installing some drivers. Dell should consider the customer before cripping an operating system because the name is unfamiliar.
Also, the RAM prices are obscene from Dell. What they wanted $60 for, I went to TigerDirect and got a 2GB stick for $20.
2 of 6 people found this review helpful.
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Review 36 for Inspiron Mini 9
Overall:
5
[RATINGOF] 5
Reviewed by:zbarnhardt Location:
Graham, NC
Duration of product use:
Less than a month
Level of expertise:
Good
Title: Great for the intended use
Date: May 13, 2009
Product Uses: Travel
Review:This was not intended to be a substitute for a work computer. I wanted something small and handy for e-mails and light web searching while travelling. It is perfect for that. So, not having all my computer tools handy is not a hindrance. I love it.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Review 37 for Inspiron Mini 9
Overall:
5
[RATINGOF] 5
Reviewed by:rattaroaz
Title: Excellent netbook
Date: May 13, 2009
Product Uses: Connecting with Friends, Travel, Music & Movies
Review:Disclaimer: I wiped off the existing Dell version of Ubuntu, and reinstalled Ubuntu 9.04 myself.
This is really an excellent notebook. Remember, this is not a full notebook, nor is it a desktop. Because of its small size, it is really difficult to do long typing. Great for surfing. Great for making small notes. Great for e-mail. I also use it to watch video files.
Battery life is good, but not excellent. Certainly Good enough to take around the house for several hours at a time.
Mostly, this is for portability, and not power. With this understanding, I give it a 5/5.
6 of 6 people found this review helpful.
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Review 38 for Inspiron Mini 9
Overall:
4
[RATINGOF] 5
Reviewed by:lovebird28 Location:
St. Louis Missouri
Duration of product use:
Months
Level of expertise:
Good
Title: Needs something
Date: May 13, 2009
Product Uses: Connecting with Friends
Review:Cute fun little computer, but it needs the option to upgrade the hard drive with XP.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Review 39 for Inspiron Mini 9
Overall:
2
[RATINGOF] 5
Reviewed by:Jlennon53 Location:
Florida
Duration of product use:
Months
Level of expertise:
Good
Title: Ispiron Mini 9
Date: May 13, 2009
Product Uses: Connecting with Friends, surveys
Review:Loved the concept but trying to use the UBUNTU system is not without its moments. Would rather have had the Windows XP but it was never offered. Firefox is the browser you become "stuck" with and it doesn't work with all web sites or some applications. Support is nonexistent as Dell won't talk to you when they find out you have the UBUNTU system. Good luck you"ll feel like you're on your own.
1 of 7 people found this review helpful.
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Review 40 for Inspiron Mini 9
Overall:
4
[RATINGOF] 5
Reviewed by:Polecats Location:
Ontario
Duration of product use:
Months
Level of expertise:
Good
Title: Good product; ordering online needs changing
Date: May 13, 2009
Product Uses: work
Review:Very happy with the computer, though even smaller than I had anticipated. Very fast and quiet.
I was quite disappointed and suprised over one thing. I chose not to order an external cd/dvd drive b/c this is not my primary computer. However, Dell sent me the operating system back-up on CD-Rom. This is quite stupid.
I ordered the product online and I am shocked that there was not a warning flag, notifiying the purchaser that Dell only sends OS back-up in CD form, so if you do not buy a drive, you will not be able to reinstall your OS. I don't consider myself dumb, and I thought if I don't get an external drive, the OS backup will come in some other form (flash drive or something).
Other than that irritating experiece, very happy indeed.
