Official Mini 11z Owners Lounge

For those who want to discuss their Mini 11z, lets make an official thread.

 

***crickets***

 

Maybe everybody is sleeping?

 

I was only kidding...I doubt there is much user traffic here in the middle of the night.

And very few (if any) buyers have received their 11z yet, so I'm sure there will be more activity here once they do!

 

Yeah really people have only had these things like 2 days at most.

One thing I have discovered already is that any owner should update the intel graphics media driver from the one that ships with the system. I went to intel's site and downloaded the one released in July.

Noticeable improvement in playback of higher bit rate video and Hulu is less choppy at full screen.

I'm wondering if anyone else has an opinion on the fan. It seems to run a lot compared to my TT or even my DV2 (after the bios update)

 

I'm considering a 11z but there were no options yet like bluetooth, colors, and I'm waiting for windows7. I'm also considering the acer 1410 but I would want the dual core and win7 so I want to wait a few months to see what develops at dell and acer on these 2 units.

 

i got it...
the machine is really small and light...
people complain about the mouse and keyboard...don't see the problem...
mouse reminds me my wife's uni-body macbook track pad.

the first thing i did was instal w7 64 rc...run extremely smooth...cant complain...

i just ran a performance test on battery and gave me...337 and 517 cpu

 

Anyone else using W7 64 RC (build 7100)?

Having issues with the video card...
720 video doesn't run as smooth as i would expect.
Also i don't get sound through the HDMI...maybe it doesnt have, dont know...

 

Joel, I'm not using W7 but with Vista you do get sound through the HDMI port. I also get decent playback of 720p (from itunes) video

Don't know if that helps

 

thanks!

its probably the video driver. Might try the vista drivers and see what happens...

anyway...the video i tried was the Avatar trailer from Apple...so don't know...maybe i need to wait till it download the whole thing before i play it!

 

Joel, you said the trackpad reminds you of the Unibody MacBook. Is it multitouch, and if so, are the gestures the same?

Anyone know if it'll take more than 2GB of RAM?

 

According to the service manual, the 11z will take a 4GB SODIMM.

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/ins1110/en/sm/comp_spe.htm#wp1038494

I did the same thing last night -- deleted the Vista partition and installed 64-bit Win7. It really runs well on this machine.

 

Wait, the manual says the keyboard is backlit? That's awesome, but how did I miss that before? Can anyone confirm this and the multitouch trackpad? If those are true, I wonder why Dell didn't put that in the specs...

I ordered mine today and will promptly install Windows 7 RTM 64. I've been using Win7 since last November and can't imagine going back to Vista. lol

Are the hard drive and RAM accessible from the bottom? I want to put a 320GB 7200 RPM drive in, but I'll have to hold off on popping a 4GB RAM chip in there; have you seen the price on them?! I'll definitely have to wait for the price on the RAM to come down quite a bit. lol

EDIT:
Just read the service manual for the hard drive; you have to go under the keyboard to access it and the RAM, but it doesn't look hard at all.

 

Hmm, that must be a build to order option because our isn't.

The trackpad does support gestures and is similar to the mac trackpad in that it doesn't have separate buttons.

In actual use however it's nothing like the mac pad. Even the mac isnot my favorite but it's fairly usable.

I find the one on this dell just barely usable. Just one opinion though. Somebody else in our office likes hers quite a bit (on the mini 10)

 

Ah well, wishful thinking. lol Are they just basic gestures like two finger scrolling, or full multitouch (zoom, etc)?

 

i would guess the keyboard will be an option when they also put the 6 cell, the colors, more ram, etc...
The pad is multiouch. i'm not a fan of trackpads and i avoid them as much as i can. The mac multitouch implementation is better, but also it have more area and that might be the real difference. Just one opinion, from an anti trackpad person (i like the little stick like the one in the Latitude 630)...so maybe someone with more trackpad expirience would give you a better assessment. I would put thr 11z trackpad under my wife's unibody macbook and million years over my Inspiron 1520 attempt of trackpad.

good!
i did that too...
I never booted vista!
LOL..only issue i've seen is the video...the w7 drivers doesn't seem to like 720 video that well...many skip frames and stuff...

I think HD is accessible on the bottom. Ram is not. You would need to remove the keyboard (couple of screws and you are done)...
4 gigs of ram on one stick is WAY too expensive...and more if you use the 800 one. I'll wait for em to drop price too!

enjoy it!

 

I'm middle of the road on trackpads. My favorite is on the macbook pro that I have which is previous generation and has a separate button.

The woman I made mention of that likes the trackpad on her 10 thinks my problem is that i'm trying to make it work like my mac instead of learning this one.

She gave me a 30 second tutorial with the multiple gestures including the swirl and I'm a little more impressed. The two finger scroll (when apps support it) is useful.

The more I play with the unit, the more impressed i am overall with it especially for the price. It's not perfect, but has potential and the overall form factor is great compared to a netbook.

PS. I just got word that I can load W7 RTM on it to test. Going to do that this afternoon

 

I guess the 11z is about to get bash in the notebookreview review...Kevin dint like it may end up been "the worst netbook"...

he dindt like the touchpad (well...he like to use 2 hands on it), and he say Hulu on IE is really bad (big surprise...IE is a really bad browser)...

it looks like the review will come up on Monday...will see...

 

He likes to use 2 hands on the touchpad? That seems odd. Also, Hulu has a dedicated application now; I wonder if the performance is better through that. I'll have mine before then (Thursday is my delivery date), so I guess I won't have to wait for his review. lol

 

I just noticed looking at the detailed specs that the screen only supports 16 bit color.

That may not make some of the photogs happy.

 

other thing he said, "performance wise is slower than an atom"...
i dont know...but i think this might be because something else...
maybe the OS?

hey desert...how was the w7 installation?

 

Installing as we speak. I have a slow DVD drive so it's grinding away

 

Ordered two of these for me and my sister for college purposes. Studio 1555 will be for use at home

Free next shipping + Dell EPP was really something else, They should be here tomorrow. I was going to get a Mini 10 but the HD 11.6" screen is just great for such a small form factor (I checked out the Gateway 11.6" in person and really liked it, and I expect the Dell to be around the same size) and the price was fantastic. 2GB = Plus, Vista... not so much, installing W7 RTM ASAP.

 

The dell is slightly longer than the gateway but not as wide and is overall thinner. The gateway has kind of a wedge shape to it.

 

is there a caps locks indicator on the laptop?

 

Just got mine today,was pretty sluggish with vista so i installed windows 7 64bit RC.

To clear things up the keyboard is NOT backlit, the screen DOES support 32bit color, and the trackpad supports pinch/zoom, 2-finger scroll (Like a MacBook) as well as some 3 and 4 finger gestures that i have not looked into.

 

I think I'll jump on the bandwagon when they throw in a TV tuner as an option like the mini 10.

 

any vista user...
does the 11z have a cap locks indicator...
i dont see any light on 7

 

Joel, there is a software based caps lock indicator with the vista build that comes with the computer

Shoulin- yes you can set it to 32 bit color but the panel itself is limited to 262K colors (16 Bit). Below is from the detailed tech specs from dell

Display

Type

11.6-inch HD+ WLED with TrueLife

Dimensions:

Height

144 mm (5.7 inches)

Width

256.12 mm (10.1 inches)

Diagonal

293.83 mm (11.6 inches)

Maximum resolution

1366 x 768 at 262 K colors

Refresh rate

60 Hz

Operating angle

0° (closed) to 135°

Luminance

180 min. 200 typ. cd/m²



Also we talked to dell and the CTO models probably wont ship until windows 7 is the default OS

 

thanks for the info...

so what does the 16 bit colors means in terms of image viewing and stuff...
would i notice the difference?

 

95% of the time you wouldn't notice it. In really fine graduations of color, you might notice "stair stepping" where pixels right next to each other are visibly different. Some people describe this as "grainy" when it occurs

Also with a screen this size makes it even harder to see.

 

Just got mine (a day early!). As a photographer, I can say that I haven't noticed any graduations of color; in fact, the screen is extremely crisp due to the high pixel density and the color reproduction is wonderful (after calibration to remove that blue hue) due to the WLED backlight. Now, that could just be me, but in Lightroom, I'm not seeing any degradation to the quality of my photos, though, as stated, that could simply be to the high pixel density and small screen size.

Other tidbits:

The multitouch trackpad works like a charm, and most of the gestures mirror that of it's MacBook cousin (scrolling, clicking, zooming). I primarily use a mouse, but for the first time in a laptop I've owned, I actually like the trackpad. The keyboard isn't cramped or uncomfortable at all, and not having to hold the FN key to use the media controls is wonderful.

Swapping the hard drive was easier than I expected. Using the keyboard as an access bay is pretty handy. Too bad a 4GB RAM chip is almost as expensive as the laptop itself, or I would've been installing that too!

This little guy was made for Windows 7; the manual even has Win7 instructions printed next to the Vista stuff. I honestly can't comment on performance between Vista and Win7 RTM as I didn't even boot it once with it's hard drive in before I put in my 320GB 7200RPM drive.

After a few hours with it, I'm pretty impressed. It's exceeded my expectations, and while a bit slower due to the single core Celeron, it's completely usable, even in heavier applications like Lightroom and Photoshop.

All in all, I love it. It's a sleek, compact, and wonderfully priced laptop!

 

I'm thinking about buying one of these for my wife who just started back at school. She really wants something that can run Windows Office, mostly Word. She's fine running one app at a time. Any idea if the 11z can manage that reasonably well?

Thanks in advance.

 

It'll run Word (or any other Office app) with no problems. You don't have to limit it to a single program either. This laptop is a step up from netbooks, despite the low price.

 

Runs Office 2007 very well. no issues and I concur that the screen looks great.

 

Since there is not hardware caps lock indicator i tried re-installing the software that came with the unit for Vista that shows an onscreen indicator and it also appears to work under W7

In case anyone wonders...

 

What is everyone getting for battery life?

 

i did installed it but doesn't work...
will uninstall and reinstall later today!

getting around 3 hours while browsing...
2.5 with video...

the price of the unit went up to 529!
(now...thats overprice!)

 

Yes I'm shocked at the jump. Decent value at $400, not so much at over 25% more.

I wouldn't bother with the caps lock app. It did work sort of, but i also started getting freezes so I took it back off.

 

Saw these posts and checked the price and it was $529 then went to lunch and it is down to $449. Wonder if they are messing with the price to control the volume of orders coming in?

 

maybe...
but if they keep the 449 price that would be retarded!

how the plan to compte with the new acer when the acer is a better machine for the same price...

 

I thought about getting a 2nd one -- I'm on the edge of replacing my Mini 9. I spoke to a sales rep via chat this AM, and she would honor the $399 price after pointing out the price on two different URLs this AM.

I've seen stranger on Dell's website...

 

Sure glad i bought it when i did, this thing runs windows 7 like a champ. Perfect for programing in Visual Studio 2008 in class.

Battery life on the 3 cell is about 2 hours and 40 minutes with the wifi on and screen brightness at 3/4. I think i would have bought the six cell if it was available when i bought it.

 

Does this thing handle x64?

Anyone that also a mini9 - is the 11z snappier than the 9? I'm seeing mixed benchmark results for the atom vs celeron.

 

I haven't compared the two side-by-side yet, as I have both a Mini 9 and the wife's 11z, however the install of Win7 went much faster on the 11z.

And yes, it will take a 64-bit OS install. That's what I installed on my wife's, although i'm now regretting it because there are some drivers not in 64-bit yet (touchpad for one.)

 

I have a 4GB 800mhz dimm but when I put it it the machine wont power on. Dont know if it's the DIMM or not. System work fine with the 2GB that came with it.

 

yup...
and video is flaky...ussing vista 64 drivers from dell, i used the HDMI on my 42" and worked great...
my 11z was crashing when reading from the SD till i put vista 64 drivers for the reader...

now its all good..

 

keep us posted...
how much you (or your company) paid for it?


---------------------

as expected...
bashed!

i will do run my own test and compare!
dammit!

 

I think my company paid $369 (we are a dell shop for servers and desktops)

The memory works fine in my HP DV2 so I'm not sure what's the issue. Going to try swapping RAM tomorrow.

 

I assume you tried re-seating it a few times?

Would be great if you could try it in another notebook to check if the SODIMM is ok.

EDIT: Seen that you now have. It could simply be that the machine cannot accept that. It uses the GS45 chipset, which accepts up to 4GB, so that should be fine, but maybe Dell Nerfed it somehow? Not sure how or why they would have done such a thing?!