Dell Mini 10 Review – It’s SOOOO Small!

My good friends over at Dell were kind enough to let me test drive a Mini 10 for about a month.  I was so excited for the day it was going to arrive!  It was perfect timing too, because my husband was about to go into surgery and was going to be laid up in bed for a week or so.  The FedEx man rang my bell, and I ran to the door.  As is Maddie’s nature she asked if the package was for Mommy or her.  I told her it was most definitely for Mommy!  (we’ll have to revisit that statement later though).

I brought it out of the box and turned it on.  It came packaged with Windows 7 Starter, which was a little difficult for me to navigate at first, being used to Windows 7 Ultimate.  First thing I noticed was that it was quite “sexy”.  With it’s silky sheets design the netbook is incredible to look at. 

I immediately wanted to compare it’s size to my current baby (Dell XPS M1330).  I was suprised how big a difference 3 inches can make!  The Mini 10 in TINY.  This system is extremely portable.  It has rounded edges that remind me a bit of a Dell Inspiron.  The keyboard didn’t feel too small for me, but then again I have very small hands.  I almost couldn’t even tell a difference between it and my 1330.  My husband on the other hand said it felt a little bit cramped for him. 

I installed Skype and tested out the webcam with some video chatting.  The quality was great!  My daughter had so much fun sitting on my lap using the webcam that she ended up wanting to use the laptop a lot!  She is 4 years old, and has been able to use a laptop for at least 2 years when she started on my 12 inch XPS.  It was really the perfect size for her.

The only thing I felt it lacked was some good speed.  Then again, I’m used to a powerhouse of a laptop, so obviously it’s going to be a bit slower than I’m used to.  Also, on the default resolution, it was hard to navigate around the web.  Web pages are typically designed for higher resolutions, and therefore in order to see them, you’ll have to sacrifice icon and text size. 

Basically who do I think would be perfect for owning a netbook like this?  Definitely a lot, first I think it’s perfect for children just learning their way around a computer.  They even have a Nickelodeon Edition that starts at just $299.  I also know there are a lot of Moms that are going back to school.  Again, this is the perfect system for you.  It’s a great size and will perform the majority of tasks that you need (word processing, spreadsheets, internet on the go).  If you are a stay at home mom, this may not be the system for you.  It really depends on your needs.  I would definitely go to the store and check out the size of any 10 inch netbook so you can see if you like the size or not.  For the typical stay at home mom, portability isn’t exactly top priority.  I would also say that this is not the system for a work at home mom.  It’s just a bit too small to be staring at all day long. 

The verdict?  Great tiny system!  Perfect alternative to buying your child a desktop computer that may take up too much space, and perfect for getting some work or homework done while hanging out at soccer practice.

*Disclosure – Dell sent me a Mini 10 that I sent back after writing this review.  They did not pay me or compensate me for this review in any way.

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