My Dell Mini 10v

Recently as a small gift to myself I purchased a new computer. I already had a desktop that is fine for almost everything I need, however wanted a small cheap laptop for taking to the coffee shop to update my blog and check emails. I scouted various websites and I just happened to be looking at the Dell page and noticed they had a special offer on their "netbooks".

I looked at the various options and decided to go for the cheaper option the Dell Mini 10v. The "v" here denotes value. I chose the lowest specification as I was planning on using it solely for light use. After two weeks a nice little package arrived on my doorstep. At first I wasn't sure what it was, however upon opening it I realised it was my new laptop. When I unboxed it the first thing that struck me was the size of the computer. The footprint of it is barely bigger than a DVD case. When I booted it up the next thing that struck me was the noise, or more accurately the lack of it. Due to the Solid State Drive (SSD) and the lack of fans this tiny laptop was totally silent. The second thing that struck me was the speed with which it booted. It took barely 30 seconds to boot up. This is due to it booting a slightly optimsed version of Ubnuntu 9.04 and having a SSD, having 1GB of ram doesn't hurt though.

Overall my experiences so far have been extremely positive. Writing this post on the keyboard has been very comfortable and my words per minute are hardly decreased from a full sized keyboard. My main concern is the trackpad. It is very twitchy and is really small.

Positives

* Size and weight: about a kilogram, fits in the front pocket of my rucksack.
* Excellent keyboard
* Good looks
* Extremely quick boot time
* Decent speed for everyday tasks

Negative

* Glossy lid attracts fingerprints
* Slightly cheap built quality
* Terrible trackpad; very twitchy
* Screen resolution fairly low (1024 x 600)