As mentioned before, Dave bought a netbook. I went with the Dell mini 10v, he went with the Asus EeePC 1000HE. Both are almost identical as far as specifications are concerned (CPU speed, screen size/resolution, etc.) What it really boils down to when choosing one of these are the details, such as the keyboard layout, power supply type, battery options, RAM options and so on.

For example the EeePC 1000HE does have a matte LCD display while the mini 10v has a glossy. The trackpad on the 1000HE is “taller” with actual mouse buttons while the 10v has the buttons built into the trackpad near the bottom. The 10v has more of a standardized keyboard while the 1000HE is more chiclet style (and yes that is the way it’s spelled).

Earlier in the week I stopped by with my 10v and put it side-by-side to the 1000HE. It’s not a detailed review by any means, but it gives you an idea of the small differences between makes and models. See video below for details.

Note: There is a video at the bottom of this post of my 10v, so be sure to check that out.

As I had been saying many times since 2009 started, my plan was to get a netbook as my next laptop. So I bought a refurbished Dell Inspiron Mini 10v.

My overall opinion of the unit is that it’s a decent solid build and is definitely the right size. However the one thing that I absolutely must point out is that without a 6 cell battery it’s not worth owning.

Since it’s a challenge at best to run high-powered, high-graphic apps (like many popular game titles) on one of these things, what you would use it most for is web browsing, documents and communication such as email, instant messengers and so on.

On a netbook, where one finds this most useful is not at home. Whether it’s your local coffee shop or restaurant with free wi-fi, a long flight, long car or bus ride, hotel, etc., that’s where you’re going to use this thing.

Being that’s the case, long battery life is what matters more than anything else on a netbook.

It should be absolutely mandatory that all netbooks come provided with a 6 cell battery as standard. This is not the case for any netbook currently. All of them, whether made by Dell, HP, MSI, Acer or the like all come with a 3 cell. This realistically only gets you 3 hours of battery life, and that serves absolutely no advantage over a standard-sized laptop.

On my 10v, I purposely sought out a refurb with the 6 cell battery. This was the absolute best decision I could have made because I get the most usefulness out of this netbook.

Being there are other reviews of the 10v on the internet already, I’m going to point out here (some of which will be mentioned in the video below) the points most people would be interested in learning, in Q&A format.

Does it have an optical drive?

No. What makes a netbook a netbook usually starts with having no optical drive. If you want one, you can purchase the small external USB kind. Here’s an example.

What’s the resolution?

On the 10v it’s 1024×576. Most apps will run in this resolution with no issue at all. In the browser (any web browser), you can get maximum space by pressing F11 for full screen mode, and press it again to go back to windowed. Try it right now if you like; it works on any computer.

The Dell mini 10 (the one without the v) does offer a 1366 resolution, however I know for a fact that for many people the text would just be way too small.

At the time I write this, Dell has introduced the brand new Inspiron 11z, which has, you guessed it, an 11-inch screen. Does a 1366 resolution look any more readable on that? Depends on your eyes.

1024×576 on a 10-inch screen can be read fine even for those with a “heavy” eyeglass prescription. With 1366 there’s squinting. And it is unknown at this point whether an 11-inch screen would serve any better, readability-wise.

It also should be noted that at full brightness, the 10v’s LCD screen beams, as in so bright it would literally bother you. I never have mine set at full bright. I think the only time you would have to full-bright is when sitting outside with it on a very bright sunny day.

What’s the hard drive size?

There are several sizes, starting with an 8GB SSD, then 16GB SSD, then 120GB 2.5-inch and the 160GB 2.5-inch. There’s also a 64GB SSD somewhere in the mix.

In the new 11v there is a 250GB 2.5-inch SATA drive offering. It’s overkill, but available.

The SATA drives are the purposely-chosen slower 5400rpm because they run cooler.

On my 10v, I have the 160GB. For me this is fine given the fact I don’t have anything that would munch up hard drive space.

Even if you chose to stuff your hard drive full of movies and MP3s, it would still take a while to fill this thing up. But if you gotta-gotta-gotta have the extra space, just buy an external 750GB Western Digital MyPassport (brand new at the time of this writing). Problem solved.

How does the keyboard feel?

On the 10v it feels solid and not toy-like. It is, according to Dell, 92% the size of a traditional laptop keyboard. It’s responsive, easy to type on and doesn’t require any huge learning curve.

What some may have a problem with is where the PgUp/PgDn keys are. They are shared with the arrow keys and accessible via Fn. Page Up would be Fn+Up, Page Down would be Fn+Down.

It also should be noted there are no keys which could act as a number pad via Fn. The only way to type numbers is to use the top row only.

How does the touchpad feel?

You’ll probably hate it at first. It does take a few days to get used to. Once you do it’s not bad though. It’s not great, I admit, but it’s not awful either. This is one of those things where a design had to be made to accommodate the pint-sized nature of the netbook.

What’s the performance like?

Note before continuing: The 11v is reported to have much better performance as it has a next-gen CPU in it.

The easiest way to describe the performance of a 10v is that it is about the same running speed as a upper-mid-grade laptop made 5 years ago.

Some of you may read that and say, “Bleah! That’s terrible!”

Not really. When you take away the high-powered/high-graphic apps, the 10v can basically run anything you put on it, and do so in a way where you’re not sitting around waiting for something to happen.

The OpenOffice suite for example is a chunky set of apps, but runs easily on the 10v.

I have no issues with the 10v choking and I don’t believe anybody else would.

How long does the 6 cell 56WHr battery last?

With the screen dimmed and wi-fi off, 6 hours. And no, not “about” 6 hours. I’m talking 6 hours or more.

With the screen brightness up and wi-fi on, 5 to 5.5 hours. I can confirm this as I have put the unit thru its paces.

This beats the ever-loving crap out of any standard-sized laptop. Like I said, the battery is the most important part of a netbook, no question.

The video below shows what the 6 cell battery looks like. It is significantly larger than the 3 cell, but not anything that would make you run for the hills.

Does it feel like a toy?

Some netbooks do feel like toys, I won’t deny that. But the 10v doesn’t. The overall construction is solid and it doesn’t feel like a child’s plaything. When opening the screen there are no creaks or squeaks. When typing the keyboard doesn’t feel cheap. All the ports have a nice snug fit when anything is plugged into them.

How loud is it?

The 10v is silent when running. So silent you’d think something is wrong with it. Whenever I turn it on I have to purposely look at the power light just to make sure I turned it on because I’m so used to hearing fan noise from older laptops I’ve used.

How is the audio speaker?

Terrible. Sounds chintzy. A compromise of the small design. Even at its loudest volume it’s still too quiet.

Fortunately for most things where you’d want to hear the audio (like YouTube videos or music), you just plug in headphones.

Part of the reason why the speaker sounds crappy is because I believe it’s under the keyboard, so the sound comes from the bottom of the netbook. It’s more or less the only place they could put the thing. Like I said, it’s a compromise in design because of the small size.

A video review

Below is my quick review. It touches on points I’ve mentioned above plus a few other things.

In a very short period of time I’ve found that in order to get along with a netbook properly, there’s 10 things you absolutely must do.

1. Use Google Chrome

Those who know my browser preferences find this a bit of a shock being that I’m a diehard Firefox user, because I’ve made it no secret that I can’t stand the Chrome web browser.

On a netbook however it’s a totally different story.

Chrome gives you the most usable space for your monitor with the least amount of memory munching. Being that you’re only dealing with a 1024×576 (or 600) screen, space is at a premium. Granted, you can F11 it for full screen with other browsers, but it’s better if you see your menus and tabs. Chrome allows you to do this easily.

If you’re using Firefox the tabs will munch up vertical pixels easily, and so will IE 8. Chrome gives the most vertical space because the status appears as a bar that fades in but isn’t locked – and that’s good. And when you open up new tabs, no extra vertical space is taken up either.

It’s the best browser to use on a netbook, period. And coming from me, that’s saying a lot.

2. Spend quality time with your mouse configuration program.

No matter what model of netbook you use, you will probably hate the touchpad. And I mean really hate it. That’s okay because most people do. The netbook format at this point hasn’t exact found the happy medium for a mouse design, so to speak.

Side note: I do know the perfect design for a netbook’s touchpad – no touchpad. It should be the rubber eraser-tip style thing Thinkpads have. This would work perfectly on the netbook format. Yes, you lose your mouse gestures but I’d happily give them up for the mid-point joystick and two tactile buttons below the keyboard.

Fortunately on the Dell mini 10v and all other netbooks, you can control every single thing it does. It even has sensitivity recognition, so not only does it detect touch (obviously), but also how hard or soft you touch.

It is required for you to sit with this and spend a good amount of time tweaking the settings. There is no fast n’ easy way around it. Fortunately once done, it’s done and you don’t have to do it again.

Or if you still hate it, spring for a laptop mini-mouse.

3. Spend quality time with your monitor settings.

Like with the touchpad, this will take time to set correctly as well. In my situation, the screen was just too bright and too blue. And this wasn’t fixed by putting the brightness setting down a few notches. I had to manually go into the config program for the colors/brightness and set it that way. Once I did, I said to myself, “Okay, that’s the way it’s supposed to look.”

The Dell mini 10v in particular has a really, really bright screen. This is a good feature, but it’s set to FULL-ON BRIGHT out of the box.

4. Know your keyboard.

On more or less all netbooks, certain keys on the keyboard do double duty. On the mini 10v this is seen in the function and arrow keys. This is a non-standard layout, and you won’t take it to like a fish to water. For example, I use PgUp and PgDn a lot – but these are on the arrow keys whereas I have to do Fn+Up to page up and Fn-Down to page down. Being that I’m a keystroke freak, this takes time to get used to.

It should also be noted that most netbooks do not have the faux number pad, that being where the right-side keys serve as number keys when Fn is pressed.

5. Purposely seek out lightweight apps.

Instead of using AIM, use AIM Lite.

Instead of using WinZIP, use 7Zip.

Consider using AbiWord instead of OpenOffice Writer or Microsoft Word.

It’s not that the “heavy” apps won’t work on a netbook as they’ll work fine. But whenever you can use less processing power, the better because it increases battery life and they obviously run faster.

6. Purposely seek out apps that can be installed with no media required.

This means to use apps that can be downloaded and installed rather than something that requires a CD/DVD installation method. You could get around this by purchasing a 50-dollar USB external optical drive or creating ISOs and virtually mounting disks within XP, but that’s a pain to do. You’re better off if you use apps that can be downloaded. Sourceforge will be your best friend here.

7. Spring for the 6-cell battery.

This screen shot speaks for itself:

This is not Windows XP making a mistake as to how long the battery will last for. It literally will run for over 5 hours on a single charge. And that’s with wi-fi enabled! You can easily get 6 if you decrease the screen brightness a few notches and disable wi-fi when you don’t need it.

8. Know your wi-fi hotspots.

Most people don’t bother taking their laptops with them to open wi-fi hotspots because the laptop is too big, too heavy and barely holds a charge over 2 hours and 30 minutes. The netbook gives you over 5 hours with a 6-cell battery and it’s under 3 pounds, so yeah, you’ll want to hit more wi-fi spots.

How to find them? There’s two ways:

First way: OpenWiFiSpots

Punch in your ZIP code and you’ll see the closest wi-fi spots near you.

Second way: Searching for “wifi” in Google Earth.

Use the Google Earth software and position the map close to where you live, then search for “wifi”. Both business and user-contributed wi-fi listings will appear.

Obviously both ways are dependent on where you live. If you live in a more metro area, you’ll find more spots. For example, the metro downtown area of Tampa Florida has an entire area covered for wi-fi called the S.U.R.F. Zone.

9. Get familiar with netbook specific resources for your model.

Each netbook offering has at least one independent web site that is dedicated to what you use. The Dell Inspiron mini for example has www.ubuntumini.com. If you wanted to know everything and anything about Ubuntu on the Dell mini, well, there you go. No matter which make/model you decide to go with, chances are there’s a world of informational resource available to you outside of the company’s web site who manufactured it.

This happens because there’s almost a cult-like following for netbook computers. Except this is a really good type of cult.

10. Know your operating system choices.

The most popular OS on netbooks right now is Windows XP. However Ubuntu does have a “Netbook Remix” version of their own OS. The best part? You can install the whole thing to a single 1GB USB stick and test it out if you like. I’ve done so on my Dell mini 10v and yeah, it runs great.

You can expect other Linux flavors to offer “remix” versions of their own distributions in the near future.

Side note: You’d be surprised how much faster a netbook remix version runs compared to the ‘full’ version of a Linux distribution. If you have an older laptop, you may want to check it out.

I just bought a Dell Inspiron mini 10v. It will be arriving either later this week or early next week.

After examining all the different ways I could purchase it, I decided to go refurb.

Why?

Because it’s nearly $100 less than new.

For a laptop that’s in the sub-$500 range, $100 is a pretty big consideration. In my situation, I paid 23% less compared to buying new, and I got more for the money besides that.

With netbooks you either love or hate them, and you certainly don’t purchase one for speed and power. You want it for the portability factor; this is why I bought one. Later on when I actually get the thing I’ll write up more about it, but for now I’m concentrating on price.

Resale value

Netbooks will not have any significant resale value because laptops of this size are meant to be disposable tech to a degree. I know that in 2 years the 10v I bought will barely be worth $100 at best – and that’s being generous.

This is going to be a cold hard fact no matter which make or model you go with, mainly due to the reason they were designed from the ground up to be inexpensive.

Those who are anti-refurb will do nothing but pay more for the same thing

I know there’s a whole lot of you out there who are decidedly anti-refurb and say, "If it’s not new, I don’t want it." You may change your tune on that when it comes to netbooks.

Refurbs today (at least with Dell) are not like they were years ago. You get all the same warranty choices including extended options with new OR refurb. In yesteryear this was not the case as refurb warranties didn’t offer the same coverage, but now they do and have for some time.

This being the case, those who choose to go new for the same model as a refurb do nothing but spend more money for the exact same thing.

By the numbers

These are the specs of my Dell Inspiron mini 10v. Items listed in bold/red are things you have to pay extra for when buying new as upgrade options.

• Obsidian Black
• 10.1 inch WideScreen True Life Laptop Screen (1024×576)
• Processor: Intel Atom Processor N270 (1.6GHz/533Mhz FSB/512K cache)
• 1 GB DDR2 SDRAM 1 DIMM
• 160 GB SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM)
• 6 Cell, 56WHr Lithium-Ion Primary Battery
• Dell Wireless 1510 802.11a/g/n Draft Mini Card
• Integrated 1.3M Pixel Webcam
• Genuine Windows XP Home
• Microsoft Works 9.0
• 32BIT Operating System CD
• Windows Live
• 30W AC Adapter
• Service Software
• Intel Integrated Graphics Media Accelerator 950

The price I paid for the refurb: $309.21. That’s with tax and shipping included.

If you were to price this new for the exact same model with same upgrade options, the price is $384 and that does not include tax and shipping (if included that would go over $400 easily).

In other words, with new I’d pay $100 more for the same thing.

With netbooks, you are so much better off concerning the pocketbook by going refurb. If interested in a Dell refurb netbook, the site is http://www.dell.com/outlet.

What about other makes and models of netbooks? How do they compare in price?

At present the best price for a netbook is in the high 200s (US Dollar).

The MSI Wind at NewEgg at the time of this writing sells for $289.99. With shipping added in, it still stays under $300 and it’s very close in specs to the Dell Inspiron mini 10v, HOWEVER.. the battery life sucks.

The best part about the refurb Dell I bought is that I specifically sought out one that came provided with a 6-cell 56WHr battery. Netbooks are supposed to be super-duper portable by design, but all that portability means nothing without a really good battery under the hood (literally).

If you are interested in a netbook, the battery should be the first thing you examine. If it’s a 3-cell/24WHr, you’re only going to realistically get 3 hours of use per charge. For a netbook, that’s terrible. Aim for the 32 and 56WHr batteries.

You should always go for the better battery. This is true for any laptop, but it’s especially true for netbooks.

What will the prices of netbooks be in the future?

They’ll most likely stick around the high 200s for a good while yet. However in a year or two it’s possible you may see low 200s for new netbooks.

The one I just bought will definitely not be the only. Future models (and this is happening very soon) will have integrated GPS and more television/tv tuner options for media center use. The existing Inspiron mini 10 already has an HDMI output for such a task.

Portable computer tech is looking really good right now, and it’s getting better. But most importantly, it’s cheap.

Yes, this is a netbook 9-inch screen model that I’m talking about.

The computer industry is hurting right now so most of the larger OEMs are slashing prices left and right and Dell is no exception.

The Inspiron Mini 9 is selling well, but evidently not well enough so the price has been dropped significantly.

With Ubuntu Linux installed, the price is $249. With Windows XP, $299. But even with XP, that’s still cheap. I mean, seriously, you can’t even buy used decent units for that cheap.

New laptop, anyone?