Dell Inspiron Mini 9: Up Close

Awhile back during the weekend Singapore was hosting the first ever F1 night race, I had the opportunity to chill out at the F1 Paddock Club courtesy of the dudes at Dell Singapore. Dell happens to be a sponsor for the BMW-Sauber team, and had a couple of invites for members of the media. While waiting at the Dell Singapore offices for our ride to the Paddock Club, I had the opportunity to get some hands-on time with a production unit of the new Dell Inspiron Mini 9 laptop.

Dell Inspiron Mini 9 - in perspective

First impressions: the laptop is seriously small, ss you can see in the picture above, with my Nokia N82 placed next to it for some perspective. Then again, netbooks are meant to be small and compact; the Inspiron Mini 9 is no larger than most other netbooks i’ve had the opportunity to check out in recent months.

Dell Inspiron Mini 9 - wide open

Opening up, you can see that the keyboard is a little cramped; a necessary evil considering the limited space available. The inner aesthetics are simple, to the point of being almost plain. Then again, i’ve never known any Dell Inspiron laptop to ever win awards for being pretty. On the flip side however, build quality is excellent. On this particular unit at least, there were no creaky bits, and the unit felt quite solid overall, unlike the Asus Eee PC for example, which feels a little like a plastic toy.

Dell Inspiron Mini 9 - the keyboard, close up

Of immediate concern on the keyboard is the first row of keys; touch typists will definitely struggle to get accustomed to the key layout. The directional keys and the rightmost shift key too, are a little too small for comfort, especially for people with fat fingers such as myself.

Dell Inspiron Mini 9 - shiny

The LCD cover is adorned with a glossy coat of paint. If you look closely you can just about see the flecks of metallic bits. On the outside at least, the Inspiron Mini 9 looks great.

Dell Inspiron Mini 9 - the left side

On the left side you’ll find a pair of USB 2.0 ports and the card reader slot, as well as the power jack. One thing I do have to point out is that the power connector itself is overly long (large?), in comparison with the overall dimensions of the Inspiron Mini 9. Dell really ought to design something a little more compact that doesn’t lookso out of place.

Dell Inspiron Mini 9 - the right side

On the right side is the RJ45 jack(10/100 Ethernet only, unfortunately), another USB2.0 port (for a grand total of three), the VGA output jack, exhaust vents as well as the microphone and headphone jacks.

Dell Inspiron Mini 9 - HSDPA?

Removing the battery, I noticed a mobile SIM card slot, presumably for a unit that was 3G/HSDPA enabled, though the unit pictured doesnt have the necessary 3G/HSDPA hardware installed. This isn’t a new feature on Dell notebooks, mind you, as my Dell XPS M1330 laptop has a similar slot behind the battery, but the laptop also lacks a HSDPA modem.

As I write this however, Dell’s already launched the Inspiron Mini 9 in Singapore; the corresponding product page is located here, which also means you can go buy one for yourself, if you so fancy. Full specifications are listed on that same page as well.

There’s only one problem though.

Time to hotfoot it to your nearest Dell retail outlet.

It’s only available at retail stores, and not online.

Riiight.