NetbookTech

UK news paper, Times Online, is out with a look at six different netbook systems – several of which are somewhat obscure models. Each review is short – basically a summary of what they liked and didn’t like about each model. The six reviewed netbooks include the Toshiba NB100, Dell Inspiron Mini 9, Medion Akoya Mini E1210, Advent 4213, HP Mini-Note 2140, and the LG X110. Both the HP Mini 2140 and the Dell Inspiron Mini 9 received the highest marks – 4 out of 5. The worst was the Medion Akoya Mini E1210 which was given a 2 out of 5.

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If you’ve been thinking about getting a new Dell Inspiron Mini 9, then President’s Day might be the best day to get one. Dell will be offering the Inspiron Mini 9 for a mere $199 – that’s $50 dollars off the regular price of $249.

The $249 model is the baseline Mini 9 model featuring the Atom N270 processor, 512MB of RAM, a 4GB SSD, Intel Graphics, a 8.9 inch display, and Ubuntu Linux 8.04.1. The $199 price is for the Jet Black model. Pink, red, blue, green, or white is available for $30 dollars more.

The offer ends on the 17th at 5:59am CT.

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Looking for a netbook and not afraid of refurb systems? Head on over to the Dell Outlet website and look at some of their refurb Inspiron Mini 9/12 systems. The inventory is constantly changing so make sure to check on it often to see if the prices meet your criteria.

At the time of this posting, the lowest priced Dell Inspiron Mini 9 is for $249. Specs for this system include an Intel Atom 1.6GHz processor, Ubuntu Linux, an 8.9 inch display, 4GB SSD, 1GB of RAM, Intel graphics, and Wi-Fi. 

On the 12 inch side, the lowest priced Inspiron Mini 12 is currently at $379. The specs for this system include an Intel Atom 1.33GHz processor, Windows Vista Home Basic, a 12.1 inch display, 40GB PATA HDD, 1GB RAM, Intel Graphics, and Wi-Fi. For $50 dollars more, you can get a faster 1.6GHz Atom processor coupled with a 60GB PATA HDD.

Of course, if you look around, you just might be able to find some additional Dell coupons to lower the price even further.

via CNET News.com

Dell has finally released their long awaited BIOS update for the Inspiron Mini 9 – the A04 BIOS. This update provides the following:

• Fixes the resolution problem on XP boot
• Critical battery alarm now below 7% – down to 4%
• Fixes the battery power reporting issue for KR batteries (reads the 3200mAh correctly now).

You can get the new BIOS update here. Enjoy!

via Ubergizmo

While we’re on the topic of netbook deals, Dell is still offering the base configuration of the Inspiron Mini 9 for a mere $299. The specs for this configuration include:

• Choice of either Obsidian Black, or Alpine White colors
• Ubuntu Linux version 8.04.1
• 512MB RAM
• 4GB SSD
• Intel Atom processor
• 8.9 inch LED display
• Intel GMA950
• 802.11g mini card
• 4 cell battery

Of course, you can also customize the colors of the Inspiron Mini 9 for additional costs.

If you’re interested in this deal, you better hurry. The deal is over today (December 10th) at 6am CT.

Just in case you missed it, Dell will be offering a Thanksgiving deal for their low end Inspiron Mini 9 netbook. For $299, you’ll get a system with the Atom processor, the Ubuntu Linux OS, 512MB of RAM, a 4GB SSD, an 8.9 inch widescreen LCD, and Wi-Fi. Oh yeah – there’s free shipping and you can choose from black or white. The offer runs on Thanksgiving Day and ends on Friday

[Check out the ad at bfgear.com for more info]

If you’re thinking about getting a Dell Inspiron Mini 9, you might want to hold off until Black Friday. According to BlackFriday.info, Dell will be offering up a sale of the Inspiron Mini 9 on that day – selling the system for a mere $299. One would expect this to be the low end model of the Inspiron Mini 9 (which currently sells for $349) which features 512MB of RAM, 4GB SSD, and Ubuntu Linux.. but who knows? Maybe Dell will surprise us and add a few upgrades here and there. Start saving that hard earned cash!

[Check it out via jkontherun]

Don’t forget – Dell is currently running their “10 Days of Deals” campaign and today happens to be Day 3 which involves the Inspiron Mini 9.

The first deal is actually a package deal (and probably the best deal of them all) called the “Studio Desktop + Mini 9 Bundle” and it goes for $999 (after $419 off). This deal gets you:

• Dell Studio desktop tower with:
• Intel Core 2 Duo processor E7200
• Windows Vista Home Premium
• 4GB RAM
• 500GB SATA HDD
• 16x DVD burner
• Intel GMAX4500HD graphics
• 7.1 audio
• Keyboard and mouse
• Dell Inspiron Mini 9 netbook
• Alpine White color
• Ubuntu Linux
• 512MB RAM
• 4GB SSD
• 19 inch SE198WFP widescreen LCD display

The second deal is for the Dell Inspiron Mini 9 itself. For $399, you get the Mini 9 (model 910) with the following specs:

• 1GB RAM
• 8GB SSD
• No Camera
• Intel Atom N270 processor
• 8.9 inch display
• Intel GMA 950 graphics
• 802.11g Mini Card
• 4 cell battery
• 4GB SDHC card
• Windows XP Home Edition

If you try and configure this separately, the system normally goes for $449. So basically you’re getting $50 dollars off the normal price that Dell would charge for the system. Not a bad deal though I wish you had the option to choose Ubuntu over Windows for the deal.

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Beginning tomorrow, Vodafone UK will be offering a mobile broadband service which includes a free Dell Inspiron Mini 9 netbook. Two packages will be made available – a 1 GB two year package for £25 a month and a 2GB two year package for £30 a month. Each package comes with a free Dell Inspiron Mini 9 netbook which the folks at TrustedReviews reviewed here on their website. They had this to say about the netbook.

If you want a “connected” netbook then the Dell Inspiron Mini 9 on Vodafone is your best bet right now. Available for free on some attractive contracts, it’s the only netbook to offer integrated HSDPA. That it’s found inside a cohesively designed, attractive and highly portable chassis only adds to the appeal.

Again – if you’re in the UK and you’re thinking about getting mobile broadband services, then check out Vodafone’s offerings – especially since the Mini 9 comes free as a result.

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What do you do when you really want OS X on a netbook but Apple won’t come out with an Apple branded netbook? You take some other vendor’s netbook and install OS X on it of course. That’s what this guy did with his Dell Inspiron Mini 9 netbook. He grabbed a version of Leopard 10.5 that was actually customized for the MSI Wind netbook and got it running on the Inspiron Mini 9 (with some additional patches to get audio and Wi-Fi working too). In fact, he even patched his system to 10.5.5 with the system updates! Very nice!  In the comments section of the article, the author notes that the boot time for the system is 24 seconds and the entire install consumes around 7GB of disk space. If you’re interested in doing this then you should probably get the 16GB model of the Inspiron Mini. And as far as the OS X distribution that he used – it’s called “MSIWindosx86.iso” and can be found here.

Oh and if you do have an MSI Wind netbook, you can read this article here detailing how to install the same distro on the netbook. You’ll want to upgrade the memory and swap out the Wi-Fi card for a Dell Broadcom DW 1390 or 1490 internal mini-PCI Wi-Fi card to get things to work well.

If there’s anything Apple can learn from all of this, it’s this – there are people out there who love OS X and would love to see this OS available in a cheap small form factor system like a netbook. If Apple were to only create a comparable netbook system – heck maybe brand it as a MacBook Mini.. consider how many units it could possibly sell if it was priced around 400-500 dollars?

[Check it out via CrunchGear]