Dell Mini 12

[zylander]

Recently I have started looking at netbooks for taking to class and when traveling. I originally had it narrowed down to the HP 1030NR, MSI Wind, Acer One and the Asus 1000HE but as much as I like them, I have problems with each one;

HP - Love the design and size, dont even mind the touch pad buttons but battery life sucks.
MSI - Ctrl and Fn keys are reversed, kind of annoying and again, battery life sucks.
Acer - This one I liked a lot but again battery life is crap, unless you get the high capacity battery which seems you can only get by chance.
Asus - Seems to be the best one though its kind of bulky but its probably at the top of the list


So now I have been looking at the Dell Mini 12, its considerably more than any of the netbooks listed above, but its thin, has a larger screen and supposedly has decent battery life with the 6 cell battery. Unfortunately BB doesnt carry this one, only the Mini 10 which has a horrible touch pad/buttons but from looking at pictures of the Mini 12, it seems to have a different touch pad and buttons. I also like that with the Mini 12 you have the option to go with linux. Dell also has an AT&T WWAN card which I also really like. Does anyone here have the Mini 12 or have you seen it in person? Can anyone comment on Dell's claimed 6+ hours of battery life?

 

[mpilchfamily]

Well as you have seen the battery life sucks on all netbooks unless you get the larger 6 cell batteries for them. 6 hours is about the most you can get out of the netbooks with the better battery and 4 is the most you can hope for on all of them. Really it comes down to comfert on these things.

 

[IlllI]

dell mini 12 sucks. look at my sticky. its got a review

 

[zylander]

I did read the review in your thread and it is out dated. Its based off of a Mini 12 running Vista, which it seems is their primary complaint against it. The Mini 12 is now available with XP or Ubuntu, both of which seem to give bettery performance and in the case of Ubuntu, supposedly better battery life.

 

[IlllI]

i'm not sure if the os would effect battery life that much, though its good they offer more options than vista. never understood vista+ netbooks. screen size of the lcd + 3 cell battery = less than 2hr battery life from everything i've read. switching to ssd hard drive and upgrade to 6 cell to get something decent. looks like 6 cell is default for the $449 model. the linux model only offers 3 cell but no upgrade option. i didnt see ssd option, but 40,60,80 pata hd, though you can buy ssd drives from newegg etc. also the build quality is only average, or the keyboard specifically. running wifi etc eats into battery time as well, dell isnt the only company that offers that cellular wifi option.. i think lenovo and hp, maybe some others but i forget exactly. maybe you can find a mini 12 at the dell outlet, and if its not that great at least you didnt pay full price for it. http://www.dell.com/content/pr...?c=us&cs=22&l=en&s=dfh

 

[zylander]

Yea I have been looking at the outlet and seen them pop up from time to time. You can get a 6-cell battery with linux if you click the customize with ubuntu button under the middle priced configuration. On the outlet it seems that for a 1.6ghz/ubuntu/60-80gb/6cell goes for about $420.


edit: after checking, looks like they are going for about $380 on the outlet.

 

[Parasitic]

Mini 9 is a better choice than the 12 unless you really crave the larger screen and keyboard. The Mini 12 is not upgradeable thanks to the lack of access cover.

 

[boomhower]

The mini 9 would be a horrible classmate, the keyboard is close to useless. I would have to vote for one of the new Asus models. From the reports I have been seeing 7 hours of battery life is pretty realistic and the keyboard is pretty decent.