Dell Inspiron Mini 9 from Vodafone notebook review

Comments

• Could you not use an SD card to increase the size of the storage? Posted by Bob, uk
• You're right Bob you could, although it's just another factor to have to think about. Posted by stuartmiles, United Kingdom
• I had a brief try out of this device at lunchtime today and initial impressions were solid build and an excellent display. Keyboard was a little cramped compared to say the MSI WInd but the trackpad was superior to the MSI Wind and also the Acer One I have been looking at. The device did connect instantly to the web. The laptop included Microsoft Works but I didn't get chance to check the storage capacity and a little disappointed if your report of 8gB rather than 16gB is correct. Overall very impressed and considering purchasing one for my home business Posted by Martin, Scotland
• Nice but for an XP machine you need a hard drive and for Linux they should be selling it with a bigger SSD. Additionally, built in 3G is only available with a contract and with the way prices for 3G bandwidth are falline the offer is flawed.
  
  A 12 month, 12G contract free deal from 3 is available for £97, so after buying 2 of these and e-baying the free dongles for £30 each you have 2 years worth of mobile connectivity, albeit not heavy usage for £134 and a netbook like the Advent 4213 onsale online for £250 means that your total outlay would be £384 for 2 years. The Mini9 from Orange would cost you £600 over this period. Posted by Jasebabe, United Kingdom
• ive got one of these and im not at all happy with it, even though its light looks very classy (as my son told me 1st time he saw it), ive had loads of problems with it, over heats quite quickly even when im sat infront of the patio doors (wide open) the battery goes down very fast when you do any work, for the battery to last the hour you cant do alot, memory is very small cant hold alot of my work on it till i was done i find i had to print things off before its complete, ive had to have it sent back to dell for a few things like monitor just went off, it was firing up but you couldnt see the screen at 1st i was using my spare monitor which you can connect up ( which is a good thing if you cant cope with looking at the tiny screen, (i find my eyes hurt after awhile reason why i use the monitor) then it just stopped working, turned it off as normal and when i went to use it on the night it wouldnt work) which resulted in me loosing everything that i had done, pictures and the kids opening there xmas prezzies videos my son lost his homework which he had spent most the weekend to do (which is rare for him to do, he always waited till day before, mind you homework at the age 10 and some the things they do i even have to look up on the net as im cluesless on some of it) and the lastest problem i now have is a blue error (also named the death error) has come up, ive tried all the things it says on dells support site but its having none of it the only way it would work was in safe mode using networking, i went to do a restore and its swtiched off (its already set that way) but it advises you that it takes up 12% of the memory to have it on, and now i cant even use it on safe mode as the blue error pops up straight away, and yet again i'll have to send it back to dell, where credit is due they were rather quick in returning it, was a week last time but i think it will be longer this time, and yet again more work lost (just glad we havn't taken picture or videos) you can transfere anything onto a disk unless you go to pcworld and they charge you but for the little space and memory im not going to even bother sending it back to dell as it seemes to be 1 thing after another going wrong and all the time you have your cover its ok but 1 it runs out its not going to be worth the price you pay in the end (i know as mines all paid off and do wish i listened to my son and brought a normal laptop (least you get a floppy disk drive and a dvd/rw with them,) i can truly say that the only good things about this is that it fits in my handbag for when im traveling (unless its mileage then it aint)its easy for the kids to use, and they cant upload games or anything as the space soon fills up. i have only added msn live, winrar for my files and updated windows everytime they popped up (which is alot) and i was getting low on memory space so had to delete msn and then i got the error which has shut it down and is looking like a kids fake toy laptop. i have been looking for 2days for spare parts as a friend gave my son theirs as there nephew was abit heavy handed and got the power button stuck and when he took the back of he found he had snapped the circuit board for the power button.. he nor i have yet found anyone on the internet who sells the part, and he also needs 2 get a new keyboard as its worn when he used it at collage all the time and there are parts for all the Dell Inspiron apart from the mini 9 and the 910 (why ? not as if they are unbreakable or solid... its flimsy metal between the keyboard and the motherboard)
  sorry for going so long but i have been going out of my mind looking for bits on the internet via the libary when i have wireless internet at home for the notebook and i cant even use it but i still have to pay for the internet as i have only just signed up for 12mths !!!
  i dont mean to put anyone off i just wanted you to be aware that its not all as good as the adverts say.. the signal was great always strong never disconnected... but if you go over your browsing limit it does become exspensive (i always went over as i was always engrossed in my work and not clock watching, i dont even think i ever checked my limits) its fast searching the net for what ever your looking for, it has the modern look its slim easy to use ( the small buttons are hard at 1st if your used to a keyboard) takes awhile before you suss the Fn keys (all ya short keys like F1, stand-by, print screen etc) thats another bad point because when your notebook the keys are not as they say the @ is shift 2 and whats ment to be the @ is " so you will need to work them out (think its just afew thats out) you can go onl the dell support site and read what the keys are and how to work them... you must always press the blue Fn button to work any of the short keys, took me awhile to remember it. i cant think of anything else to say good about it or bad but will would like to say if you do buy one it might be wise move to buy a fan for your motherboard as i dont think there is one (dont remember seeing one in the one i have to fix) due to being quite warm when i used it and also after a short charge it would be hot.. i always turned it upside down when charging as the air vent for the motherboard is underneath. Posted by nicola mcdonald, United Kingdom