The Dell Inspiron Mini series is a series of netbooks -- laptops that are smaller, less expensive and more power-efficient than other laptop models. Not as powerful as other laptops, they often run stripped-down versions of common operating systems such as Windows XP or Linux. The Dell Mini 9 was one of Dell's early netbook version, but it was discontinued in favor of its more recent model, the Mini 10.
About Netbooks
As smaller, cheaper laptop versions, netbooks such as the Dell Mini 9 are not as powerful as other laptops. They have fairly small screens, 9-10 inches wide and weigh 2 to 3 lbs. To save on battery power, the early netbook generation used small, solid state storage drives instead of hard disk drives. These solid state drives were more expensive per gigabyte, so to keep costs down, the default drive size was very small, 10 gigabytes or less.
Features
The Dell Mini 9 has a 1.6 gigahertz Intel Atom processor and 1 gigabyte of memory, though it can be upgraded to hold 4 GB of memory. Like most graphics cards, the graphics card is integrated into the motherboard, giving reliable but not gaming-quality graphics. Its screen resolution is 1024-by-600. The Mini 9's keyboard has a non-standard layout, with the apostrophe key located on the bottom row. It also has a built-in wireless card. For inputs, it has one Ethernet jack, three USB ports and an SD card slot.
Battery Life
The Dell Mini 9 has a 4 cell, 14.8V Lithium ion battery. Thanks in part to the solid state drive, the Dell Mini 9 achieves about 3 1/2 hours of battery life. At the time of release, this was impressive for a netbook, but subsequent netbook models have double the battery life thanks to stronger batteries. For example, the Inspiron Mini 1012 boasts an 8.5-hour battery life on a 6-cell battery.
Customization Options
When the Dell Mini 9 was first released, customers could choose between a Windows XP and Ubuntu Linux operating system. The default hard drive hold only 8 GB, but you could upgrade it to 16 gigabytes for $40. It also had optional Bluetooth and webcam functionalities.
Tags: Dell Mini, Inspiron Mini, solid state, battery life, early netbook, other laptops