Dell Inspiron Mini 10 Netbook

Dell’s cheap and cheerful Mini 10v is a firm favourite here at Vulture Central but some potential customers are doubtless more interested in capability and functionality rather than absolute economy. So, with that in mind, we thought it wise to take a quick gander at the top end of Dell’s netbook offering, the Mini 10 complete with all the trimmings, almost.

Externally, the only difference between the 10 and the 10v is the flush fitting screen cover. Aesthetically it makes little difference but it does mean that wiping the screen clean is easier so for that reason alone we will count it as an improvement. Everything else – the size, the weight, the keyboard, the daft sticky-out SD card slot, the rather bulbous 6-cell battery housing, the one piece track pad and click bar, the lack of easy access to the memory slot – is identical to the 10v so we won’t bother repeating ourselves, just take a shufti at the 10v write up.

It’s only inside that things start to differ. The Mini 10 is available with Intel’s low power Z series Atom processor rather than the N series used in the 10v. To be precise, you can have your Mini 10 with either a 1.33GHz Z520 or a 1.6GHz Z530 chip. Both come with a 533MHz FSB, 512KB L2 cache and 1GB of DDR 2 memory and the only operating system on offer is Windows XP. As you would expect, the graphics are handled by the integrated Intel GMA 500.

Wireless connectivity supports 802.11b/g Wi-Fi. As with the 10v, to upgrade to 802.11n you’ll need to cough up an extra tenner. On the plus side the 10 ships with Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, as standard. The only hard drive on offer is a 160GB 5,400RPM SATA HDD – even though the technical spec on the Dell web site lists a 250GB unit as an option, this doesn’t appear when you come to ‘build’ your machine.

The first and obvious difference between the 10 and the 10v – and just about any other netbook for that matter – is the screen resolution. Take one look at the Mini 10’s 10.1in screen and its pretty obvious you are not in Kansas any more, because at 1366 x 768 the Mini 10’s screen has the same glorious resolution and perfect 16:9 ratio as Dell’s current grown up Inspiron 15 range and is equally bright, crisp and colourful.

Not only does the higher than the netbook norm resolution mean you get to see web pages in their entirety – which, as a benefit, speaks for itself – but it also renders video with a clarity you just don’t get on 1024×600 – or 1024×576 in Dell’s case – machines.

Having such a high resolution on such a small screen is not all beer and skittles though, and if your eyesight is less than perfect you could develop a bit of a squint when using the Mini 10. The text in application menus, tool bars and address bars is often rather too small for comfort, especially when using the machine on the lap rather than on a desk. The same is true for the desktop text size, but at least you can increase the size of that.

If you do find yourself going boss-eyed the screen can be set to 1024×768 or lower but that gives everything the look of having been squashed up so it’s not something we would recommend. Before we leave matters screen related we should mention that when we ran Ubuntu 9.04 from a live disc on the Mini 10. However, the system wouldn’t recognise the monitor type and would only operate the screen at 1024×768. Customers in the US can buy the Mini 10 with Ubuntu 8.04 pre-installed and still opt for the HD screen, so a fix may well appear down the line.

Beyond the standard Dell Mini array of three USB ports and a VGA output the Mini 10 also comes with an HDMI port. This makes hooking up the 10 to a suitable TV a cinch – just connect it up with an HDMI cable, select the relevant video output settings and bingo, sound and video through your telly and home cinema system.

Indeed, this turns the 10 into quite a handy little part time lounge PC for watching video or browsing the web on the TV, especially if you invest in a wireless keyboard. You will need to make sure you have a spare HDMI cable though, as Dell don’t supply one.

Another less than common feature of the Mini 10 is the built in digital TV tuner. Unfortunately our review machine didn’t have it fitted, but we have seen it in operation at a Dell presentation. From what we saw, it did a decent job of turning the 10 into a small telly – at least in an area with decent Freeview reception.

Dell ship the TV-tuner equipped Mini 10 with an MCX antenna array that has two telescopic aerials. The MCX cable plugs into a slot next to the SD card slot on the right hand side of the machine – plus an MCX-to-coaxial adaptor and a couple of clips to hold the antenna in place. Judging by comments on the web, early customers didn’t actually get any of the external TV kit. Dell has informed us that has now been rectified, but if you still don’t get your TV antenna just give Dell a call and it will be posted to you.
Source:[reghardware.co.uk]