Inspiron Mini 12? (or any of the Minis)

[JimJ]

Anyone have experiences with the Dell Minis?

Thinking about picking up a refurb'ed Mini 12, I need a new laptop anyway, and it'd make a great frontend for FLAC.

Just wondering if anyone's heard of any major issues with them...

[Spider Monkey]

I think Toasty was talking about those things in a thread a few days ago.

[Toasted1]

I got a Asus 1000HE and upgraded to 2GB for about $360 shipped and love it. I did look at the minis and there were a few things I did not like about them. I suggest reading reviews and some of the netbook 'showdowns' where they compare a few different models.


SorrY I can't really remember what I did not like about the mini as I did like the look of it best but something made me not buy it plus my 1000HE has a 9.5 hour battery life and was more powerful for less money I beleive.

If you are going to 12" though you are getting close to notebook size you can probably get more bang for your buck especally if you are going to have it plugged in all the time and battery life is not that much of a concern.

[JimJ]

I got a Asus 1000HE and upgraded to 2GB for about $360 shipped and love it.

Do you have a link for that?

I'm not limited to 12, I just need to convince myself that I can work with a smaller screen :) For music playing, even an 8.9" would be fine obviously, but if I'm using this for work or whatnot also, I think it'd be too small...

[MOT]

Acer makes a good 8.9" that can be had for around $350.00 (http://kandmcomputers.com/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=60&category_id=18&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=2) with your Crunktimes discount from yours truly.

Buddy of mine at work brings his with him every day. He uses it for music and writing a book. only down side is no dvd drive.

[Toasted1]

Do you have a link for that?

I'm not limited to 12, I just need to convince myself that I can work with a smaller screen :) For music playing, even an 8.9" would be fine obviously, but if I'm using this for work or whatnot also, I think it'd be too small...

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=10010057&prodlist=celebros

That is where I got mine it came with a 2GB chip included in the deal when I bought it and it was $373 shipped. I still have the 1GB stick it came with I can probably squeeze a few bucks out of also.

The big things about the 1000HE for me were the battery life is as far as I can tell the longest lasting on the market now. It has the Atom 270 and is one of the only ones on the market with it, not much of a bump (.06ghz) but every bit helps, VGA out which a lot of them don't have, The resolution is one that does not require any left to right scrolling when on the web, many do and it also has an SD slot and 3 USB ports as opposed to 1.

It also has bluetooth which I use when linking my cell phone to the net, I could use the USB cable but it just makes it that much easier for me.

Finally the keyboard layout is something like 93% of actual size, I have fat fingers and after using a few (esp the <10" screens) and with this one I was almost instantly able to type as fast as I do on my desktop.

It looks like it is $350 now with no memory upgrade which is still a hell of a deal IMO.

The one thing I would have liked is a SSD drive because I will be traveling around a lot with it. I will probably get an SSD drive when they drop in price some though I am not that worried as I am a lot more gentle on laptops now after being through many HDs over the years.

[pl8er]

Tapout found a GREAT deal recently, let me see if I can find the thread.

[pl8er]

http://www.buy.com/prod/HP-Mini-1033CL-Intel-Atom-N270-1-60GHz-Netbook-1024MB-RAM-60GB-HDD-10/q/loc/101/210958196.html?adid=17653&dcaid=17653

I know it isn't the size screen you wanted....but 279.99?

No issues at all. Actually with a great external USB DAC, this would make a terrific transport. Other models (not thinking the HP, but who knows) have mods that let you make the screen touch, which is a nice little feature (especially with the small ass keyboards)


To Toasties comment on SSD, yes they are nice, they use less power and a bit more durable, currently they are still not as reliable as regular drives. Very high failure rate. Battery life on the netbooks is already terrific!

[Toasted1]

I was not sure how open you were to lower end models but woot has this going today http://www.woot.com/

Asus EeePC 900 Netbook

$149.99



+ $5 shipping

Condition:RefurbishedProduct: 1 Asus EeePC 900 Netbook 8.9" LCD 4GB SSD 512mb DDR2 802.11b/g Linux Color:Black, White

[pl8er]

Damn fine price!

One thing to pay attention to on this one that makes it much different than the HP that tapout posted recently, this is not using an atom 1.6 proc. This is using an intel mobile 900mhz processor. Speed should not be a big issue if you have one of these, but the Atom should have better power management than an intel mobile (the mobile gets around 2 2.5 hours of battery life, some atoms can get up to 8).

If you are wondering if I think the 1.6 is needed over the 900mhz mobile...I don't know LOL...I still have woot open and thinking about hitting "I want one"

[ngsm13]

If it had the atom, I'd get it.

nG

[pl8er]

If it had the atom, I'd get it.

nG

Oh yes, very much so. I decided against it. I need more battery life and a bit more power. 900 would be taxed to run some of the sites I visit.

[MrBones]

I'm running on an MSI Wind Netbook and its great.

10" non gloss screen so its not tiny and does good in the sun
full sized keys (alot of the mini's don't have decent keys)
160gb hd and the wifi's great. good battery life and for like 60 bucks you can get a 9 cell that will last close to 10 hours.

and was $230 after tax