Can someone give me information on the Dell Mini?

Question

My husband has been wanting a netbook. Dell is having a sale on their Mini 9s. I know basically nothing about computers. I have a couple of questions: 1) It says no CD/DVD drive. Is that pretty standard for a netbook? 2) This will be used just to surf the web. Will it be sufficient? What are the pros/cons of this unit? Thanks.

-- Inspiron Mini 9 (910) Laptop: Intel Atom Processor N270 (1.6GHz/533Mhz FSB/512K cache) No DVD or CD Drive Ubuntu Linux version 8.04.1
Unit Price: $239.00
Quantity: 1
-- Inspiron Mini 9 (910) Laptop: Intel Atom Processor N270 (1.6GHz/533Mhz FSB/512K cache) No DVD or CD Drive

-- 4 Cell Primary Battery

-- Tech Sheet

-- Software

-- Label

-- 30W AC Adapter

-- No WAN card Slot

-- Resource DVD

-- Obsidian Black

-- Processor Label

-- Intel Integrated Graphics Media Accelerator 950

-- Previously Ordered New

-- Information

-- No Camera

-- No WAN card Slot

-- Shipping Material

-- 1 GB DDR2 SDRAM 533MHz (1 DIMMs)

-- Miscellaneous

-- Ubuntu Linux version 8.04.1

-- Glossy 8.9 inch LED display (1024X600)

-- Notebook Keyboard

-- 4GB Solid State Drive

-- Wireless 802.11g Mini Card

Answer 1

It really depends on what you and your husband want to do with it.



Pros: It's nicely designed and well built. I like the design. Small and light, easy to carry around. At $191, that's a great price.



Possible cons:

- It uses Linux. Takes some getting used to. Many people are used to and prefer Microsoft Windows.



- 4GB solid state drive. SSD is lighter than a traditional hard drive, but at 4GB, it doesn't give you a lot of storage. If you use this netbook as a second computer on the go, but store your stuff on another computer, that will work. Otherwise 4GB will fill up very quickly.



- Smaller screen and keyboard. This is a 9" system so it's too small for any significant amount of work. If you need to type a lot, a 10" system is the minimum you need. The newer netbooks are starting to come out at 10" or larger.



- 4 cell battery. That will probably get you 3-4 hours of battery life. Some netbooks come with a 6-cell bettery.



Other specs are about normal for a netbook.



I don't mean to be negative with the cons - which I say are *possible*. If you plan to use it as a device mainly to surf the web while away from home, that is larger and easier to operate than a smartphone, then it's a perfect choice.



As for the lack of a CD/DVD drive, that's common in netbooks. You can get an external one if you want.

Answer 2

You can connect any number of computers to your home internet connection. You just need to install a wireless router and restart your modem (unplug it for about a minute). If you're looking for internet everywhere, you'll need to go with a separate cellular based card. You'll need to go through your cell provider for that but it will be expensive, slow, spotty, and there have restrictions to how much you can download every month.

Answer 3

No