The Mini 9 from Vodafone Español | Deutsch | Français | Italiano | Português

So as I've mentioned before Dell's new netbook, the Inspiron mini 9, is going to be available for free with an 18 month mobile broadband contract on Vodafone here in the UK.

The launch date is the 13th of October, but the netbooks have already started to arrive at Vodafone's offices in Newbury. Disappointingly it looks like the rumours were correct, and I won't be able to just install a WWAN card in the off-the-shelf mini 9 which I picked up a couple of weeks ago.

Netbooks causing a stir at the Vodafone offices...

Posted to Flickr by jonmulholland.

Perhaps I should grab another from Vodafone, and then install Mac OSX on my current mini 9?

The mini 9 running OSX

CREDIT: UNEASYsilence

Tempting, but I'd really like to see how integrated the WWAN is into Windows before signing up for an 18 month contract. Or, thinking about it, whether anyone can get Vodafone's card to work under OSX if it comes to that. One of the things that seriously put me off the HSDPA USB dongle I had on loan from 3 was the hassle involved in actually using it...

Update: Dean Bubley has a cost analysis of Vodafone's offer, comparing it against an off-the-shelf mini direct from Dell with a 3G dongle. To cut a long story short it's more expensive, which at least to me, isn't exactly unexpected. You're paying, or at least being charged, for the extra convenience of having things built-in rather than having to carry around extra "stuff". Essentially you're paying an early-adopter premium.

I must admit I'm still very disappointed that I was unable to specify a vanilla 3G module when I bought my mini 9 directly from Dell. To be honest I wouldn't even mind having to post-purchase a WWAN card from Dell's co-marketing partner, in this case Vodafone, and slot it into my mini myself. However if the off-the-shelf mini's really are lacking the internal antenna infrastructure needed to support the card, that's probably a non-starter. Oh well...

First impressions of the Dell mini 9 Español | Deutsch | Français | Italiano | Português

Quite unexpectedly on Thursday morning, over a week before my predicted ship date, my new Dell Inspiron mini 9 arrived. I wasn't alone of course, it seems that they were arriving on doorsteps everywhere, and after playing with it over the weekend I thought I'd post my first impressions of Dell's new netbook.

Posted on Flickr by aallan.

The mini 9 with my 13-inch Macbook for comparison

It's hard to convey how small this thing is, none of the pictures I've taken so far show that, it just looks laptop sized, although the above with the mini perched on top of my Macbook comes close...

Ergonomically then, things are a bit of challenge. I'm still getting used to the keyboard, and I'm unsure whether I'll ever be able to touch type properly on it, and here the somewhat eccentric placement of some of the keys doesn't help. However, it's useable. The same can be said of the processor, I've found the mini somewhat sluggish, although that could be my frustration with Windows shining through. However, again, it's usable...

More than useable in fact, I'm impressed. The screen is just big enough, at least for me, the keyboard isn't really all that bad. It's fast enough and it hardly weighs anything. The power brick isn't huge and, so far at least, the battery seems to last the predicted three and a half hours.

My current plan is to try and use the netbook as it one is intended to be used, and fortunately Dell hasn't loaded XP down with the traditional bloatware. I've installed Google's new Chrome browser and generated desktop icons for Google Mail and Google Reader. I've installed Jungle Disk to access my Amazon S3 buckets, and as much as possible I intend to live in the cloud.

We'll see how that goes...

The Mini 9 with built-in HSDPA? Español | Deutsch | Français | Italiano | Português

Hot on the heels of the official release of Dell's new netbook, the Inspiron mini 9, is the news that Dell has shaken hands with Vodafone on a co-marketing deal.


However the rumour is that, unlike similar deals, the Dell netbook will ship (at least here in the UK) with built-in HSDPA broadband. Which will certainly set the cat amoungt the pigeons...


If true, and initial reviews of the netbook certainly suggest that there could be more than a grain of truth here, this is exciting stuff.

Update: Okay, that's official. Although there isn't any news as to cost as yet, Vodafone would be mad not to significantly subsidise the already fairly moderate cost of the mini 9. Free with a contract data plan sounds like a decent price point to me...

Now I have to decide whether I should pick one up now, or wait? If I buy now, can I get an HSDPA board for it later, or will I be stuck without WWAN access? Decisions, decisions...

Update: The Vodafone press release...

Update: If true, the news that the stock version of the mini 9 "...doesn't have the internal antenna infrastructure needed to support mobile broadband", isn't good...

The Dell Inspiron Mini 9 Español | Deutsch | Français | Italiano | Português

The much rumoured and long awaited Dell Insipron mini 9 was released officially today, both in the US and in the UK. Although from the looks of things the US rollout isn't going that smoothly, with XML errors and unreachable web pages that are appearing and disappearing at random...


The bad news is that while there are three models in the US, priced at US$349, US$399 and US$449, only the top end model has seen the light of day here on the other side of the pond, priced at £299. The UK version is also only shipping with Windows XP, there isn't an option for an Ubuntu installation, as there is in the US...

However, taking the exchange rate into account, and the fact that the US prices aren't quoted with sales tax included, the UK price is actually (for once) fairly comparable with the US price for the same hardware. Well done Dell. But unfortunately there is more bad news...


There isn't any sign of the red version of the new notebook, either here or in the US. While in the US you can have the mini 9 in either white or black, shades of the Apple Macbook there? On the UK side of the pond you can have any colour you like, so long as it's black. Unfortunately for Dell, the red version was the reason I wanted one in the first place, it's certainly the reason my wife wants (wanted?) one.

The good news? Apparently additional colours and a version shipping with Ubuntu are "coming soon"...

Update: Also coming soon is a version of the mini 9 shipping with built-in HSDPA broadband from Vodafone...