Don't forget that it has Bluetooth!
Very important to me (PAN internet with my phone)
As far as I can tell, it's the only reasonably spec'd and priced netbook with Bluetooth.
Considering their mobile design, you would have thought it was critical.

Also, you can buy it from Tesco Direct in the UK for £249. Spec doesn't mention Bluetooth though, so I don't know if that made the cut with the Tesco version. Search for Inspiron N270.

J1M.

The reason why Dell would say a 1Gb limit is the license that computer companies have now when selling a netbook with XP. They cannot equip it with no more that 1Gb of RAM and no better than a Atom processor (or a chip with less than a Ghz in speed). I have upgraded my Mini 9 with a 2Gb chip and it works just fine in both XP and Ubuntu.

I can confirm that the memory is just as easy to replace as any other notebook - I also removed the 1GB SO-DIMM and replaced it with 2GB - works like a charm. Count that as another customer however that is disappointed to find that the space for the 3G card does not have a socket soldered on - it would have made for a quick upgrade if it did. Im sure its only a matter of time before its standardised.

Dell have confirmed that 1gb is the maximum RAM - so you can't upgrade to 2gb even by removing the original 1gb.
Which makes the Mini 9 a 'No Thanks' from me.


I've had a Mini 9 for about a month now. It has some quirks, mostly noted in the review, but I like it a lot. It is half the size (and weight) of the Thinkpad T42 I have for work, and is ideal to take on non-business trips.

Some comments about comments. The "productivity tools" consist mainly of Microsoft Works, which can save in Word 2007 format. There is also a PowerPoint 2007 viewer, which makes the Mini 9 a great presentation display source.

3G is obviously coming - there is a space on the mainboard for a 3G card, but I was annoyed to find that on my unit, there was no socket soldered onto the board. I had thought that I might be able to add a card later. Dell already has drivers for a HSDPA card on its web site.

It comes with 1GB of RAM, but I just replaced that with a 2GB card for $30. When you get the Windows model, they have the SSD drive set to "compressed", which impairs performance. You can uncompress it and this speeds things up a lot, but you then lose some storage space. There are 32GB SSDs available on the market (note that the Mini 9 uses a PATA/IDE interface and not SATA as the Eee models do), but most are slower than the stock STEC 16GB card. I expect this market to improve over the coming months.

Unlike the reviewer, I found the "Wireless select switch" tool to be automatically loaded. It allows selection of Wi-Fi, Bluetooth (if you ordered that option), both or neither. The only issue I have had with the Wi-Fi is that it is stubborn about connecting to my home router. I sometimes have to "Repair" the connection two or three times to make it work. However, it has not had this issue anywhere else I have tried it (and all my other Wi-FI devices are happy with the router. Strange.)

I do wish the screen would tilt back a few more degrees.

The Mini 9 feels like a quality device, unlike the original Eee which reminded me of my old Sinclair ZX81. It has lots of useful ports (unlike the Macbook Air) and the size is perfect for portability. I would not want a larger screen for this use.

The oddball resolution has two drawbacks I have encountered so far. First, Windows initially boots with a different resolution (800x600?) which causes the desktop to auto-rearrange every time I log in. So any icons I place on the right side of the screen get reset to the left. The other is that the Canon ZoomBrowser software that came with my camera refused to install, saying the resolution was too low. However, Google Picasa 3 worked fine and supports my camera, so no worries there.

A surprisingly good bargain and highly recommended by me. I am delighted with the Mini 9.

What are "productivity tools"? Can you speak English not Powerpointese, please. Did you mean "word processors and that sort of thing" or "office applications" or "disk defragmenters"?

The bad: what's not to like??? WELL...um....

1.no dedicated function keys, no f11, f12 AT ALL
2.odd rearranging of other keys
3.odd offset of the letter keys
4.no hard drive option
5.screen angle severely limited
6.no 3g
7.bad wifi
8.no extended battery option
9.webcam optional??
10.The Aspire One with SIX cell battery, 120gb hard drive, XP, webcam and bigger keyboard is CHEAPER!! Other models cost even less!

The inspiron range is aimed at home users - comes with one year warranty. Couple of weeks and Dell are due to launch the Vistro version which is aimed at businesses - with the above spec's but also includes 3G and a longer more suited warranty for business purposes 

free plug dell ;)

I sent them a email but never got an answer, maybe I will call. If you choose the linux version you can upgrade the SSD drive and the RAM to equal the high end XP version. When you do it comes out the same price. OK, either XP is free or they are paying for Ubuntu, not. They are trying to rip us Linux guys off. But at $450 for the upgraded Linux model looks nice and would be my choice over all of them right now.

It seems like you can upgrade from 4GB to 8GB for $10 in the USA if you "customize", but Dell UK seem to think that customisation is adding another year to the warranty. Still, that's better than what the Microtards in the home and small business department at Dell Norway are offering: Linux - they may have heard of it, but that's about it.