Hands on impressions: Dell Inspiron Mini 9

Standing out from the crowd, or getting lost in the pack? T3 investigates

Dell's Monte Carlo event came to a close with a long-awaited glimpse of the Inspiron Mini 9, an 8.9" netbook that has joined the massing ranks of similarly specced, similarly priced mini-subnotebooks.

The first thing that stands out is how incredibly light the gadget is. Weighing in at 1.04kg, it is at the lighter end of the netbook scale. We have to admit that it feels a little plasticky for its light weight, but it still attempts to look like proper part of Dell's polished laptop range. Well, at a glimpse anyway.

There wasn't Windows version available to gawp at; the Ubuntu Linux model was on display instead. It was very quick to boot (around a minute) and was fairly quick at dipping in and out of applications like Firefox and OpenOffice. Once applications were running though, things took a turn for the sluggish, especially when using multiple tabs and/or application windows.

Despite this, instead of being a 'me too' alternative to XP, Dell's Ubuntu version felt very usable, even if you're someone who has never ventured beyond Windows in the past. Aside from minor differences to the layout, everything was laid out very logically and punctuated by big user friendly icons.

Like other 8.9" models the keyboard has taken a squeeze to fit on the tiny surface. We were able to get up to a fairly decent typing speed on the diminutive keys despite this and without spilling over into garbled nonsense too often. We would have liked the keys to be a little more spacious, but that's a tall order given as there's little room left on the titchy area.

The mouse trackpad was more of a concern, proving much trickier to master. Because of its small size, it felt a little too sensitive and turned attempts at subtle pointing into violent lunges. It was compounded by the fact that your hand tends to brush over it while typing, more than once selecting vast swathes of text by accident, and promptly deleting it as you keep typing. It could prove very annoying, but hopefully, part of the problem could be solved by lowering the sensitivity or just taking some time to get used to it.

Our lasting impression is that the Inspiron Mini 9 is a solid addition to the booming netbook craze, but apart from Dell's image and support network, it doesn't have a whole lot to make it really stand out. The 3G version could have provided that extra sparkle - afterall, who doesn't want a netbook that has instant access to mobile internet without requiring you to sniff out a WiFi hotspot?

However, Vodafone will be the only network selling these and Head of Marketing, David Clifton, confirmed that Dell won't be selling its own SIM-free 3G capable versions, essentially leaving your hands tied to Vodafone's 3G network and data contract, along with whatever contract pricing structure it comes up with.

There's hope on the horizon though: Tesco accidentally blew the whistle on an upcoming 12" version. There's no word on a mobile internet version of this one however (the specs are still officially under wraps anyway), but it shows that Dell isn't simply going to be content with a single Eee PC clone in the long run.