The Official Dell Inspiron Mini 12 Thread!!!

Nah, screen is crappy too...old school CCFL. Mini LED screen is much better IMHO

 

lol, btw, I also ordered a red one... and if they send me a black one I'll be rightly pissed...

mike

 

Thanks Mike! Let us hear the review! Looking forward to it.

 

Mike, glad your getting the red! That was my color choice if I were to purchase the I12, instead of the I9. I went with the I9, its great!

Let us know after you have finally received it, how things are working out with it!

Congrat's on the purchase BTW.

Cin.

 

Anyone get theirs in yet?

 

Mike (a few posts above)...he just ordered his! So, once he receives it we are anticipating his little review on it!


Cin

 

Have you compared both next to each other?

It seems Dell is using multiple types of LED panels on the Mini 9. One of them is very good, the other isn't any better than the Mini 12.

 

Video and review

Photos

 

So, I guess that means there just might be a Mini 10 soon!

 

Read & Saw the vid....A 10" would be nice


Cin

 

Anyone fancy a 13" version of the Inspiron Mini 12 powered by the same Z530 processor? Well now you can, but it isn't made by Dell: MSI have bought out their Mini 12 equivalent, the MSI X320: http://www.mobilemag.com/content/100/334/C16792/

It doesn't say what kind of HD is used but I have a sneaky suspicion that you could take a review of the Mini 12 and globally edit /Dell/MSI/ and /12/13.3/ and have a pretty accurate review of the MSI!

 

According to an MSI official this puppy is going to retail for between $699 and $999. Wow-za! A 'real' notebook can be had for that kind of dough!

 

Change the processor and its a real notebook?

 

Not what he said. Asus and HP has come up with ultraportables - the most direct notebook competitors of netbooks - that fall within the quoted, aforementioned price range.

Not to mention a myriad of other laptops that are not ultra-portables...

 

Hello all, here is the review I promised on the mini12. First, I was a lil peeved with the slow shipping of Dell. I ordered on 26 Dec, and Dell estimated shipment on the 12th of Jan. I was notified on the 12th of a delay til the 15th, but it actually shipped the 13th and arrived on the 15th. But I did purposefully wait on an XP version of this machine, so perhaps that was part of the delay.

Specs: Since the mini12s are pretty standardized, the only “options” are the OS the HD size and battery size. I have the XP version, and an 80GB harddrive (about 65gb usable, and 57ish free upon arrival) and the six cell battery.

Performance: I can’t imagine this machine running Vista smoothly, (of course sometimes I’m sometimes frustrated with Vista on my T61p with 4gb memory and a 2.8ghz proc). So I think XP is the only Windows version usable with the netbooks. For its intended purpose it excels at providing net connectivity on a nice and comfortable screen. It chugs just a lil when I had several screens open (MS Works with a Word doc, 5-6 webpages, and a spreadsheet) but was still usable and not too frustrating. My wife loved the ability to play poker on it comfortably in the car on the way home from Baltimore yesterday (connected to net through my cell phone). She was impressed with the usability and relative quickness (I hesitate to use the adjective “speed”) of the netbook. The 4200rpm HardDrive is of course noticably slower than my 7200rpm, but still useable and not too annoying. The battery life is impressive. I unplugged yesterday morning (in hibernate mode) and took to Balitmore. It was used throughout the day (at the restaurant, my brothers house, and in the car) for about 3.5-4 hours of total usage, the rest of the time it was in sleep/hibernate. When I arrived home it had about 1.5 hours of power left at 17%. I’d estimate about 5-5.5 hours of continuous use (wireless, fairly bright screen, no Bluetooth) on a charge. Overall for the intended purpose I’m very happy with the performance of the netbook and would recommend to anyone wanting a net machine with a larger screen. The weight is a very comfortable 3lbs, and the battery just sticks out about ¾ of an inch from the back, at about 45 degrees downward tilt. This makes it perfect for sitting on a table and creating a lil airflow underneath and making the slightly cramped keyboard (my wife thought it was fine, I have large hands though) a lil more comfortable. The only drawback is when putting in a backpack or large purse the battery is a lil bit of a nuisance since its not perfectly flat. When carrying it in your hand however, the battery is a nice “handle”. The Glossy Screen is very nice for direct viewing indoors but with any glossy screen, reflections are an issue… works ok in brighter environments, but the screen is not as bright as I’d like outdoors.

Overall, its light enough to toss in a small backpack and not feel weighed down, has a battery capable of a full days usage (typical periodic usage of 30min at a time many times a day, about 5 hrs total), great sized screen for comfortable net viewing, and performance is what I’d expect from a “netbook”. Cons: Slightly too large to fit into a purse (tradeoff for screen size), slightly awkward battery in a backpack, I’d rather have a matte screen but that personal preference.

Boot from Off – Approx 2:40 till connected to the internet from a cold boot. The primary culprits of the slow boot seem to be McAfee (my corp version, not the trial) and possibly Skype (which I will remove from the boot sequence). Overall not too bad on the boot time, and given my primary use for this netbook, I probably won’t be investing a lot of tweak time into this machine since it will almost never be turned completely off…
Resume from Sleep – 0:12 til screen on and re-connected to my wireless.
Resume from Hibernate – 0:28 til screen on and re-connected to my wireless. (this is why I’ll rarely ever turn off this netbook)
Shutdown – 0:40

let me know if you have any specific questions, happy to help...

Mike

 

Great review! It was very thorough! Nice to know that overall you and your wife really enjoy it!!!!

If you can and want to, sometime you should post some pic's! We all love the pic's!


Cin

 

gunshipmike - Thanks for the review; it's always nice to hear real world reviews.

 

What are the options available if you want to upgrade your mini 12 to SSD? Anyone done it yet?

 

I hope we get some pic's, also


Cin

 

Hands on video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMBGqbDlUWE

 

Like always, boot times are significantly affected by all the junk dell loads on their PCs.

First thing to do is a clean install of the OS.

Netbooks have been free of this junk for the most part, however dell has chosen to put this on mini 12 (probably because of larger available disk space).

I have cut the boot time in half when i did a fresh vista install on my studio 1535.

I should be recieving the mini 12 soon, will post results with and without fresh install of vista.

My intent is to run Windows 7 on it, since it seems to be a more netbook friendly OS than vista is.

 

Mine just shipped and is on its way. I can't wait to get it .

 

I got my mini 12 in Dec. with Vista. Very, very slow!!!!! Called Dell to ask for Xp and they told me to go buy it. Do not buy this system with vista. Any thougths on how we can make Dell be responsible for terrible product? Thanks

 

First step imo is to go through vista and clean out all the excess junk.

There is a thread on doing so here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=157838
It assumes things like having an optical drive, but it's most likely worth checking out anyway.

If you had xp i could guide you through it, but the only thing i've done with vista is format it and install xp


This guide:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=166532
Doesn't appear to require an optical drive, so i'd probably start there.


I don't think you're going to have much luck getting dell to help you, as you did buy the laptop with the understanding that it had vista on it.

 

What version of Vista?

 

CD, You have it by now?? Yes??


Cin

 

I just received my mini 12 today.
Fedex tossed it off on the side of my 3/8's of a mile driveway cause they were afraid to come up due to the snow I had to find it before it froze.
I installed XP ULCPC sp3 right off the bat.
BTW if you don't know this... Dell is offering XP on the mini 12 now Drivers are available at dell.com/support.

Ok I made an unboxing video and might add it later.
Here are some pictures and comparison shots to my mini 9.

 

E! Those are just awesome! *drools*

How do you like that battery the way it's sitting on the back??

Again...great job with the photo's....The peep's who frequent this thread will surely enjoy them!

Cin

 

Great pics for the rest of us who are lusting over another mini of some kind. That keyboard looks huge in comparison to the I-9, but it looks like a comfy, easy to use keyboard. And I really like the idea of XP on the I-12. Looking forward to hearing your take on the whole I-12 experience!

 

Love the pics, thanks!!

I12 with XP is looking slightly better. Ah where art thou, AdamO! Lmao (sorry I cant help it......the WAIT!)

 

Ooooh! Great Pics!

 

Glad you all like em
Windows XP runs great on it. I installed windows xp sp3 for ULCPC's from the Disc that came with my mini 9.

The battery does stick out and lift the rear of the laptop up about 1/2"
I hope I can get a smaller battery later. As you can see in the pics, the mini 12 is even thinner than the mini 9.
I notice that it is slower than my mini 9 but that's obviously because it has no SSD.
The screen is a real beauty and the 1280x800 rez is just right.
The keyboard is also very nice. There was no noticeable flex that I could see.
The mini 12 has no access panels on the bottom. I think the only way to open it up would be the panel above the keyboard(if it is removable).
When carrying the laptop around it seems very light weight. Also it feels nice and thin
This laptop is as silent as my mini 9. No noise from the HDD and no fans. Even though it has no fans, it still doesn't get hot on my lap.
This is basically an enlarged mini 9. The touchpad is exactly the same but stretched larger which is nice.

I purchased this from the dell outlet on the 22nd for $399 after 20% off coupon. So far I am blown away by the sleekness of this netbook.

 

E...Yes, we likey pictures very much
Esp. good ones like those!

I like the comparisons alot! You got a geat deal on that I12, that's for sure!

I would probably want the smaller batt'

Here's to continued enjoyment for you!

Cin

 

I was in the same situation.
Vista was simply unusable.
I got the Windows 7 beta free.
Now it runs much faster (usable).
I might try Ubuntu Netbook Remix (no! not the dell's slow Ubuntu, which had some problem). That should be fastest, I guess.

 

there are a crapload of mini 12's in the outlet right now, they just uploaded 6 pages worth. of course, the coupons have all expired otherwise i would buy one!

 

They are all vista...weird...if it wasn't for that I'd be all over it

 

Just get it and install the Win7 beta or Ubuntu Netbook Remix.

Win7 beta
http://slickdeals.net/permadeal/17245

or better Ubuntu Netbook Remix.
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1014534&page=10

 

Guys I know I promised to put pictures up but there was a problem with my Dell Mini 12 unfortunately . I got one with a couple of sticky keys and it has to be sent in for repairs. For anyone wondering, the Ubuntu Netbook Remix makes this laptop run great. I was able to watch youtube, write papers, browse the internet, and stream videos from my home media server. On the 3 cell battery, I got around 3 hours of battery life. It is a great and underrated system .

 

CD...OH NO I'm so sorry..You had to send it in for repair? Too bad they wouldn't replace it for you. Within 21 days...a brand new one..or refund.

You did all that on your I2! That's awesome.

When will it be back from being repaired??

Cin

 

I just looked at the mini12 on dell.com, and they don't offer anything but XP now. At least that's the only option the give me, maybe they know how i feel about vista

Picturing a Dell Inspiron Mini 2, with a two inch screen...

I'd totally buy one if they were cheap enough

 

Yes, you should be happy. They must have changed it for you!
Was the pricing pretty good, still? I havent been to the Outlet in about 1 day! lulz.

Yes, they made the Mini 2's just for me...for my tiny hands... lol.
If you want, let me know and I can get a good deal on one for you. It will look really sweet, with your I9


Cin

 

Base mini12 costs $399 new, but that's with a 1.3ghz chip and a 3 cell battery (and ubuntu). They want $50 for the cpu upgrade, which is straight up piracy as the 1.6 costs them $43, and the 1.3 isn't much below that. Ahh well.

Weird, you can't upgrade the battery on the base model. Wonder why.

The next level up comes with the six cell battery and costs $26 more with ubuntu, plus of course $50 for the 1.6 chip.

In the outlet, they're out of stock!
Didn't see that coming, they had a bunch yesterday.
Only have two mini9's too, $269 and $279, both 8gb/1gb/xp.

I'd really like a mini12 just for the larger keyboard, the mini9 keyboard is literally the size of one of my hands from the wrist to fingertips

 

Out of stock at the Outlet already! OhMY!

LOL..the I9 fit's my hands just right! Who knows maybe they will come out with a Mini 11~


Cin

 

Quick question, were you able to get Aero working on your mini 12?

Just want to see what the GMA 500 is capable of?

 

Ummm, I did not even try that. The Vista came with Aero disabled, but the slow response of the machine discouraged me to do anything machine intensive.

 

I did not see any stock on the outlet either. What I did was hitting refresh every few minutes until one came up. I got 20% off the price using some code from slickdeals.net. So that was $390 + tax for a 1.6ghz, 80GB, 6-cell black with Vista. 3% cash back using fatwallet, too. Shipping was free.

 

It would be great if I can run the UNR with Win7 dual-boot. I might give UNR a shot next weekend.

 

Ya, I didn't really think of that . Oh well its not a big deal as long as it comes in ok. I only used it for a day and a half.

If anyone is wondering, there are two main ways of setting up the UNR. The most functional way is downloading UNR. It will be dreadfully slow when you start. I mean DREADFUL. Do not worry this is what is suppose to happen. After you download it, switch desktop modes in preferences or administration(I forgot which one).

Now you should have a functional UNR working, but its still going to be a little slow. Go to Session properties in the System Menu and disable maximus and the launcher from starting on bootup. Finally, download the xserver-xorg-video-psb from synaptic(I dont think there is a menu you have to go into terminal and type sudo synaptic).

After that, I was able to get it working fairly well. Some people on the Ubuntu Forums claimed that they have 1080p video with only 17 percent CPU usage. I did not have any High Definition videos to test it out on, but I was able to play normal videos without a hitch. I also downloaded powertop to get some more usage out of the machine while it is on battery.

Hope this helps for anyone trying to get it to work faster.

 

Thanks sooooooooooooo much, CrazyDesi!

I don't have any benchmark comparison, but oh my! UNR runs much faster than Windows 7 beta.

When I got with Vista, it was unusable.
When I install Win7, it was a little slow.
When I tried UNR, it was a functional laptop! No more frustrations!

 

No problem . I am actually very satisfied with it. It goes very fast on UNR. There is a way to get direct rendering and 3d setup so that you can play Quake and stuff, but it made my computer non functional. I find that the way I have it set up is the simplest and most efficient. Hopefully, we will get more support for the GMA 500 chip when netbooks start coming out with it.

I noticed that most complaints on this laptop are for software. Can't really blame Dell because I think they have third party driver development on this one.