The new flavor of Mini 10V hit the market for holiday season with RM999 price tag and lower spec. Comparing the specification side by side, you’ll notice the differences are on the hard drive size (250gb VS 160Gb) and battery cell (6 cellss VS 3 Cell). But the fact that it carrying lower price with RM200 price different from the older model making it one of the cheapest netbook in the market that run on Windows 7.
If you already purchase the same netbook before like me, you may upset why Dell doesn’t release this earlier. Paying RM200 more doesn’t seems worth the penny with the size of hard drive and battery cell being the different here.
image credit to Dell
Dell apparently love to release higher spec model prior releasing lower end flavor down the road . Just like Mini 10V, Zino which is the lower end variant of Zino HD (the higher spec) has been available for booking recently with price tag RM899 as compared RM1199 for the latter.Yep, that’s RM300 different!
Dell has stripped down quite a lot of considerably ‘generous’ specs in Zino HD to build Zino. Zino end up with Intel Atom (AMD Athlon), Ubuntu (Windows 7 Home Basic), 160GB hardisk (500GB), 1GB Ram (4GB RAM) and without e-Sata and HDMI port as opposed the spec in the Zino HD in bracket.
Now I feel the RM300 different is quite justifiable with only such specification in Zino . If you’re into entertainment, Zino HD is the obvious choice, but if you’re just looking desktop for typing purpose for instant, Zino is sufficient . However, just make sure that you compare Zino and Zino HD spec before decide purchasing any one of it.
- Thanks to Malaysia Ads that point this out.
The temptation of Windows 7 came to an end with myself grabbing a unit of Inspiron Mini 10v, running on Windows 7 Starter Pack. I opt for lower end netbook and OS, because the other 2 notebooks that I currently own, running on XP and Vista are in my plan to be upgraded, after Microsoft Malaysia announced official price of Windows 7 in their website.
Why Dell?? Inspiron Mini is among the first netbook running on Windows 7 in our market. Furthermore I’m used with their notebooks before. The day I purchased this model, no HP and Acer netbook run on Windows 7 just yet, so it’s a direct decision actually, because I want a netbook running on Windows 7 in the first place. To sweeten the deal, it comes with freebies too (optical mouse, USB hub, headphone).
Generally, Inspiron Mini 10v is an average netbook, with quite sleek & sexy design. The round edge and curve in Inspiron Mini is gorgeous. It is not the thinnest or lightest netbook in the market, but it grips firmly on your hand. You’re not bound to agree with me about this 
Performance wise, as I just use it for few hours, it is a little bit sluggish, and intermittent when I browse the internet (could be the connection). It is noticeable especially when I’m typing this post on WordPress. Other apps seem to work just fine. But overall, it’s fair to say that I’m satisfied with what I pay for. If you’re curious how much it costs, it is RM1299 ( a week ago priced at RM1199).
Other main points on the netbook and Win 7.
- Weighs only 1.17, I can hold and twist it with 1 hand
- If you’re looking for fancy color netbooks, Inspiron Mini offers 6 colors
- Keyboard size is 92% the size of a full size notebook keyboard, quite comfortable
- 6 cells battery that can last about 5-6 hours
- Win 7 Starter pack does not allow you to extend the view to more than 1 monitor.
- Feel a little bit slow, and lagging when many apps open simultaneously
- The touchpad is quite small compared with my huge palm.
