Dell Inspiron Mini 9 Netbook Debuts

By Michael Santo
Editor-in-Chief, RealTechNews

Looks like Box.net was leaking (er, telling) the truth: Dell’s new netbook, the Inspiron Mini 9 (no longer the 910) launched on Thursday. And yes, you can order it now, though not at the price originally hoped for. Pricing starts at $349 for Ubuntu Linux and $399 for Windows XP Home Edition.

Only the XP edition is currently available, and only black and white (white will cost you an extra $25, BTW). The additional colors and Linux are a few weeks off. Order XP, and the ship date is still at least two weeks off, as well.

While $399 sounds nice, let’s say you load ‘er up with 1 GB RAM (up from 512 MB), 16 GB SSD (up from 8 GB), Bluetooth, 1.3 megapixel webcam (up from 0.3) — but no mice, headphones or any of the extra junk they try to sell you — and you reach $534 (minus a $40 instant savings).

That’s uncomfortably close to the starting price for an Inspiron 15 (1525) with a full-size 15.4″ LCD (though admittedly, that is the starting price).

To reframe expectations, Dell is obviously targeting the device less as a notebook, and almost like a (aagh) Folio:

• Ideal Internet Buddy For Surfing, Shopping and Chatting
• Light, Highly Mobile Device Built For Easy Online Browsing And Entertainment

Spec-wise, the Inspiron Mini 9 was fairly well-known, but here goes:

PROCESSOR - Intel® Atom Processor® N270 (1.6GHz/533Mhz FSB/512K cache)
HD DISPLAY - Glossy 8.9 inch LED display (1024X600)
VIDEO CARD - Intel Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA) 950
WI-FI - 802.11g Mini Card
BATTERY - 32WHr Battery (4 cell)

The deal with Box.net, for 2 GB of free storage, is a nice value add, but not spectacular.

However, Dell told C|Net that there was a deal upcoming in the next few days with an unnamed wireless carrier that would include a free Mini 9 with a contract. This particularly makes sense in terms of the revelation that the Mini 9 has an integrated 3G card which is nowhere to be found in the specs.

And, quietly, something noted in a Direct2Dell blog post, but not in the press release is a deal running September 5th only — and U.S. only:

If you can wait until 6 a.m. Central tomorrow, Sept. 5, you’ll be able to get a Mini for only $99 with the purchase of a Studio 15, XPS M1530 or XPS M1330 laptop through 6 a.m. Tuesday, Sept. 9 (U.S. only).

Adding those deal in (which sorta emphasizes the reframing I mentioned above), does that give the Mini 9 the oomph to overcome HP’s 2133 Mini-Note, MSI’s Wind, and Asus’ Eee PC?

John Thode, vice president and general manager of Dell’s small-screen devices said:

“One of the very interesting aspects of this kind of device is that telecom operators like Verizon or AT&T have the recognition that they’ve got big data networks that are not fully utilized. There’s not a great data experience on a 2-inch handset…why do they pinch and zoom? It’s really because a Web page doesn’t display completely. In this case, you don’t try and change the Web, you change the device.”

Hmmm, which device do you think he’s talking about with that pinch comment?