Dell Mini 10 hands-on

We just caught up with the Dell Mini 10, and while it's not as crazy hot as the white Adamo, it's still pretty sweet -- much nicer looking than the Mini 9, and more compact than the Mini 12. No wonder Dell's calling it a "perfect 10." The multitouch trackpad is really similar to the one on the newest Macbooks, but it's a little less intuitive -- the buttons are pushed into the corners, so a middle press doesn't do a lot. On the other hand, it's a little more useful -- not only can you do the usual zooming and scrolling, laying three fingers on the pad brings up a slick little launcher screen. Too bad we don't have pricing or availability -- if this thing comes in at a reasonable number, it's going to be our favorite netbook. We stacked the 10 up against the 9, the 12, and a MacBook Air, check it all out in the gallery below!

Gallery: Dell Mini 10 hands-on

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[Neeko @ Jan 10th 2009 10:38AM]

The industry has gone NETBOOK crazy. im now torn between the HP and Dell got my GF a wind for xmas and she loves it. Id like something diff.

[foo @ Jan 10th 2009 7:40PM]

I love my wind. Can't wait for some dual core love and some nvidia Ion action. Really
hoped we would get some more info on that at ces.

[Student Driver @ Jan 10th 2009 2:53PM]

It seems pretty nice, but I still love both of the Mini 9 netbooks I have at home. I would rather have a dual core x64 CPU that will still let me have no fans or moving parts. This is the big thing that drew me to the Dell Mini 9. After that, I like the use of fairly standard, generic parts within (simple SODIMM RAM, and not something soldered on the mainboard). The only "problem" I had was that it didn't use a normal HDD interface, but with 32GB and 64GB drives available during the build process, I probably wouldn't care now. I ended up with a 64GB Runcore, and now I have a great deal of extra space on the unit (40GB+ free space) so it can be addressed.

[protozoider @ Jan 12th 2009 9:08AM]

Why does everyone forget about MSI? They are the only brand I trust in this whole netbook thing. The Acers are really nice too. I don't understand how Dell gets one new product and everyone flocks into their arms begging for their products. Sure forget their horrible customer serivce (worst in the industry), and the fact they make huge employee cuts yearly, and the fact they have bad hardware. Then there's HP, which hasn't made a solid standing product for years. Everything I have bought from HP has had a major hardware issue in the past 2 years. 3 printers all had wireless failures and various other hardware issues. 2 laptops with wireless issues, one the wireless just stopped working and had to be replaced... twice and a disc drive that failed. If these companies can't make a full size laptop that is stable, how could you trust them to make it smaller? Besides all that, Dell's laptops always look chunky and ugly.

[Gnormie @ Jan 10th 2009 10:45AM]

Actually looks pretty good, the keyboard looks like the one HP use in the mini note which is very nice.

[dodo @ Jan 10th 2009 10:45AM]

that trackpad looks kind a familiar to me from another company every second pc-user likes to get pissed off because they have nice sleeky designed stuff...

[Wyatt @ Jan 11th 2009 12:24AM]

Dodo, your name reminds me of that stupid bird. I wonder what ever happened to it. oh yea, it DIED.

Go join it

[Adam @ Jan 10th 2009 10:45AM]

Love the coverage, guys but just one photographic piece of advice - depth of field. Sometimes a small aperture isn't desirable; like, when trying to clearly see a new product. Many of the recent photos seem to use F 1.8 more or less - so the touch pad is in focus, but nothing else.
Just a little pointer from an otherwise happy reader!

Adam

[yyan @ Jan 11th 2009 1:25AM]

While I agree, look at the lighting in the picture. They might have needed to use lower f/stops just to be able to snap the picture without blur. Blurrypix are not better than bokehpix. To snap at something reasonable like f/8 or more, they would need a tripod in that lighting, which i'm guessing they didn't have.

[Reggie @ Jan 10th 2009 10:46AM]

What's with all the bokeh? Sure you have a high-end DSLR and lens, but please stop shooting images at a shallow DOF! How the hell can we see how the device looks like when all that is sharp is just a strip?

Unless you are really emphasizing on a certain component of the device, shoot at f/4 or f/5.6 at minimum.

[LloydChiro @ Jan 10th 2009 10:54AM]

Plus one. Many of those pictures are worthless because the depth of field setting it at zero. We don't want to see creative. We want to see the gear.

[adam @ Jan 10th 2009 10:56AM]

Better yet, they should hire me as their photographer. Always wanted to go to CES (even in a bum economy ;)

[Carson @ Jan 10th 2009 12:13PM]

Agreed. Please stop it with the narrow depth of field. I can't see anything. This is AS BAD as Mr. Blurry Cam, okay?

[Andrés @ Jan 10th 2009 1:36PM]

Arrrgh! I got laser eye surgery a couple months ago, and had totally forgotten how things would look when I'd take off my glasses.

Now I can remember...

[lostmotel @ Jan 10th 2009 2:01PM]

I suspect the main reasoning for it is the light in there's rubbish, but that's still no excuse. I'm sure Engadget could splash out on a D700 and whack it up to ISO 6400.

[Boards of Canada @ Jan 10th 2009 7:08PM]

Its cause its so low light... they have to use 1.4 or 1.8 for avoid blur...

I have too admit a new IS canon lens would help a lot here...

[rymo @ Jan 12th 2009 11:30PM]

is flash photography banned or something? fuck's sake.

[jecosgro @ Feb 16th 2009 1:26PM]

Yea guys, I know you can afford some $35 flood lamps from Lowe's or something...

Also, try a tripod? Low light doesn't mean anything if you have a tripod and your subject is stationary.

[doug @ Jan 10th 2009 10:47AM]

That's one pretty little bugger. Dell has really upped their game in this CES.

[HYE_TECH @ Jan 10th 2009 10:47AM]

Im considering a netbook myself but I never actually thought about getting a DELL until I've seen this one...decisions decision decisions.......or just get a LENOVO all in one.....

Is this little bugger running Windows 7??? Screenshots 12 and 13.....

[gonintendo @ Jan 10th 2009 10:54AM]

No, that's vista with large quicklaunch icons.

[Chris @ Jan 10th 2009 11:04AM]

that indeed would be windows7. anyone here have a netbook running vista or 7 i wanna know what kind of score the atom cpu gets under the windows experience index.

[gonintendo @ Jan 10th 2009 11:28AM]

http://www.vista4beginners.com/Larger-Quick-Launch-icons

[lazerpenguin @ Jan 10th 2009 4:05PM]

I think that gonintendo is right, my first thought was that it was win7 too but you can see a few telltales of vista in the tool bar. Altho windows 7 is supposed to run much smoother than vista on netbooks and laptops. I have yet to try it out, but I have read that its memory and cpu management make it faster on laptops and it has better battery life management supposedly giving you more browsing time than vista. I'm sure there will be a few netbook benchmarks coming in the next few days.

[Chris @ Jan 10th 2009 10:48AM]

its nice to see more manufacturers adopting the near full-size keyboard that of the hp 2133. dell has also stated that the mini 10 comes with a 720p display and susposedly they also made an external tv tuner to go along with it. looks like the samsung nc10 and the hp mini 1000 have some competition.

[ridestp @ Jan 10th 2009 10:54AM]

Please, Engadget, fix the autofocus on your cameras! I want to see details in the whole picture, not just a small spot in the middle! Most all of the CES shots have been like this.

[Yem @ Jan 10th 2009 1:51PM]

It's pretty amusing really. First they get criticised for poor quality pics, now they use a nice camera with fast lens and get abuse for not stopping down. Next up, strobist tips!

[andy @ Jan 10th 2009 10:59AM]

Would this be considered a wide screen?

[Chris @ Jan 10th 2009 11:01AM]

I'm so glad people are bringing up the DOF issues within all of the engadget CES pictures, I was going to say something about it the other day, but got lazy.

I don't know if they are trying to be creative or just don't know how to use their camera, but please give us a wider DOF. We'd like to actually see the whole product!

[RyanTV @ Jan 10th 2009 11:07AM]

If this thing comes in obnoxious pink, my wife wants one.

[Valentina Pierce @ Jan 10th 2009 11:17AM]

All the current Dell Mini come with 4200RPM HDD, which is a deal-breaker for me. This one must be the same.

[Miguel Henriquez @ Jan 10th 2009 12:25PM]

what do you mean by 4200 RPM HDD? i dont know about the 12 but i have a mini 9 and it is solid state 16GB

[STINK @ Jan 10th 2009 11:26AM]

After the CES insanity is over, would you guys please make an excel spreadsheet of all the decent netbook specs and prices?

[Eugenia Loli-Queru @ Jan 10th 2009 11:27AM]

Well guys, is it possible to stop using DSLRs with very shallow DoF to take these pictures? You are not the principle photographers of DELL, you are reporters. Because your pictures have such a shallow DoF, I can't see at all if the Mini10 has the F11 and F12 keys in it -- keys that are missing from the Mini9, make lots of apps unusable, and has angered many of its users.

So not only you didn't report on this easily to verify thing, but you took pictures that are completely useless to most of us who have been following this DELL line of laptops.

[Fanfoot @ Jan 14th 2009 1:21AM]

Can't see if that's a DisplayPort like on the Adamo (on notebookreview.com's pictures anyway) or an HDMI port like laptopmag.com says. Note that of course neither of the sites I mention is Engadget!

You don't mention what the screen resolution was. Dell says 720p but laptopmag says 1024x576. You could have cleared this up. Hands on maybe?

How big was the hard disk? No comment apparently.

Was it a HDD or an SSD? No comment.

Is there an access panel on the bottom like the Dell Mini 9?

Lots of other stuff, but you guys don't seem to be interested...

[Joseph Larson @ Jan 10th 2009 11:28AM]

I refuse to get excited about a mini-laptop until they replace the keyboard with a touch screen. Like the theoretical OX-2.

[Nigel @ Jan 10th 2009 11:48AM]

Dear Engadget,
Would please use a smaller aperture? All i can see is the touchpad. I mean cmon.
If it wasn't enough, you were "creative" enough to take not one, but 4 pictures of the touchpad(and even then i can barely see anything else) at different angles.
If you're trying to be creative, do it somewhere else(maybe flickr?) please.
Some of us actually want to actually see the product, instead of your excessive "creativity".

thank you.

[Giga @ Jan 10th 2009 11:52AM]

The whole entire time I was looking at the gallery I was like "Wow, they really need to use smaller apertures." Good thing I'm not alone here.

Anyway, what size % is the keyboard?

[jd @ Jan 10th 2009 12:18PM]

wow. dell totally "gets it" this time.they took the success receipe from apple:1. slick design 2. multi-touch, touch pad button.

[HD Images @ Jan 10th 2009 12:18PM]

Wow, this is going to be SOLD OUT for months if its priced right.
Dell is the only netbook choice as they run cool and are FANLESS.

This Dell 10 is going to be a smash, it will only be topped when the dual core Atoms hit later this year.

[CPOKurt Nance @ Jan 10th 2009 12:51PM]

Arg!!! Decisions..decisions...

[helios220 @ Jan 10th 2009 1:01PM]

I'll admit that that is a pretty sexy notebook, especially the 'white' one with the brushed/polished mix. Sure is one sexy notebook, let's just open it up and turn it on and huh... oh no... aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah Vista!

I'll never escape WIndows completely, but I don't think I'll ever utter 'Windows' and 'Sexy' together.

[Hawkman @ Jan 10th 2009 1:14PM]

That's one very cool machine. But it's bigger than I thought it was! Would be very interested to see how it compares to an olde-worlde 12" PowerBook.

[Andrew @ Jan 10th 2009 1:54PM]

Does anyone can tell if that's 1000x600 resolution or higher? I've been waiting for something decent with above 1000x600. Thx

[lostmotel @ Jan 10th 2009 2:07PM]

It's apparently a 720p screen, so 1280x720 if it's going for 16:9 ratio. It would be seriously nice.

[Mike Bson @ Jan 10th 2009 2:26PM]

OK 2 things. Seriously.

1. I have been hitting my refresh button for the last 30 hours since you reported this sweet little machine, dying to find out the actual resolution. We are assuming its either 1280x720 or 1280x768 but can you guys confirm the resolution one way or the other?

2. You said there were comparisons photos against the macbook air? Yet I dont see them. My 3 current laptops are also the Dell Mini 9, Dell Mini 12, and the Macbook Air. I am considering ditching all 3 for this if the specs pan out, price is irrelevant.

[golfreak @ Jan 10th 2009 2:37PM]

Its 16:9 720hd so it must be 1280x720 or 1366x768....cannot be 1280x768.
My guess is 1366x768 because its the most popular resolution for 16:9 but either way it will be one of 2 netbooks that has resolution over 1024x600. The other one being HP mini 2140.

[Mike Bison @ Jan 10th 2009 3:30PM]

Yes it could be 1280x768. A 1280x768 display IS capable of displaying 720p 1280x720.

[cuban, the paris hilton of tech @ Jan 10th 2009 4:47PM]

1366 is not 720p, it would be stretching 1280 pixels ...

[golfreak @ Jan 10th 2009 4:11PM]

Yes it could be 1280x768. A 1280x768 display IS capable of displaying 720p 1280x720.
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What don't you get about the screen being 16:9 ratio ??
1280x768 is not 16:9 ratio.