Dell's Mini 9 selling for just $249 -- who needs a subsidy?
By Tim Stevens 
posted Feb 7th 2009 2:38PM
posted Feb 7th 2009 2:38PM
If you thought last month's $99 Mini 9 was just too cheap (unlikely), or were scared off by the two year contract that came along with the offer (rather more likely), check out Dell's latest deal. The company is selling its lowest-spec Mini 9n, offering 512MB of memory and Ubuntu installed on a 4GB SSD, for just $249. That's $100 less one went for for last September. Can't live without Windows? You'll still need to pony up another $50, but will at least get an extra 4GB of storage out of the deal. Surely one of these two bargain portables will fit into your budget and your lifestyle, but don't spend too long deciding which -- this deal expires on February 12. [Thanks, Justin R.]
ION ION ION ION ION!
Yeah, my... zeal for any netbook has been totally crushed by the thought of the impending Ion.
Sharper Image ions?
There was nothing said about any Apple product, wtf are you smoking
Great for installing Leopard on...
http://www.michaelsmith.tv/2008/11/10/dell-mini-9-leopard-install/
lolwut
Finally people are trying to make them cheaper.
unsubsidized
Really, OS X on my mini is pretty useful lol :/
go, type on it
The Dell Mini 9 is a pretty nice machine. It could have been a serious contender except for one fatal flaw: The keyboard. While in many ways nicer than Eee keyboards, it
s apostophe key is missing from the expected location, so you
ll always be hitting enter if it
s the apostrophe that you
d like to hit. Extremely annoying.
My three-year-old uses it for videos, now.
Doesn't it also lack proper function keys?
By function, I mean F1-F12, not the function key most laptops have to accuess number pads, brightness etc.
Correct, there are no dedicated function keys, the F#s are instead a combination of "Fn" and another key; Which really isn't that big of a deal except that this change was supposed to give the keyboard more room... Something they apparently decided not to take advantage of in the slightest.
I've an Aspire One myself, and my friend has a Mini 9. Your mileage my vary, but from first-hand experience, *I* made the right choice there.
$250 for 512mb ram, 4gd hdd? what is this, 1999... get with the program Dell.
It is a very nice looking device - I currently use an Acer Aspire One running Linux Linpus Lite and its great, fast and does everthing I need of a small netbook.
I have passed the point of spending more time monkeying around with a PC than I do using it. The Acer works and I have left it that way!
S.
www.pcbpolice.com
@ILoveApple (BTW your name implies you're a tool to begin with)
Just FYI, internet and small size does not the iPhone a netbook make... For the umpteenth time.
i see what you did there
You can get an Aspire One with 120GB hard drive and XP for the same price as this "special" on an 8GB Mini 9. Decisions, decisions...
OR, you could get an Asus Eee PC 904HA from newegg. Atom N270,
160gb hard drive,
WinXP,
1 Gig RAM,
9 inch screen in 10 inch form factor,
webcam,
and a 6 cell battery for the low price of: $319.99.
Thats right, 320 bucks. As a matter of fact, I'm typing this on one right now.
The iPhone is 100% pure useless junk compared to this thing...
Stupid statement. As would be a statement that the iPhone rules over the mini 9.
There is no point in comparing the two. They address different needs.
With prices like that, it's getting harder to keep my eyes on the prize (Newer Atom processors, ION, or that sexy little T91). Just gotta hold out for just a little bit longer...
I snagged a mini 9 from the outlet store with a 32GB ssd, 1GB ram, webcam, and bluetooth for $360... Kinda hard to pass it up :)
I saw this deal the beginning of this week, not bad - but 4gb of storage is pretty pathetic. I think 8gb SSD should at least be the bare minimum. I found a Aspire One with a 16gb SSD and a variant of Linux on it for $239; very tempted on that. I just don't know how practical it would be to have it.
Anyone with a netbook, that also has a smallish (13"-15") notebook as well? Was it a good purchase? Would you do it again?
Yeah, I've got a 15-inch laptop at home, but decided to buy and AAO (with 6-cell battery) for my commute and classes. It was definitely the right purchase for me; even though the internet sometimes gives me problems, the fact that I don't break my back carting it around, and that I can do work while traveling (without needs for some kind of table) means that I'd do it again in a heartbeat. All the compliments I've received have also been nice.
Basically, it comes down to how often you think you'd use it - mine is with me everyday, I use it more than the 15-inch - but you might have different needs.
yeah, I have a Core Duo 14.1" Dell Inspiron running XP Pro in addition to a Mini 9 I picked up last month. My one's a 8GB SSD, 1GB RAM model and is currently running Win 7 and Office 2007, without problems. I only have about 0.7GB SSD space left, but that can easily be fixed by getting a 16GB SD card. It does everything I need it to do. I can touch type on it after about 4 or 5 days of practice. And trust me, it's much better looking than the Aspire One. My music and videos are stored on my other laptop, but I'm planning to transfer them on to a small portable HD to use on this machine; it won't have any problems powering the drive, since the Mini comes with 3 USB ports and the external HD enclosure only needs 2.
I thought about waiting for the $200 netbooks to come out, but if you can't wait that long, I feel like the $300 is worth it. At the very least, you could monitor the forum mydellmini.com like I did, and wait for an announcement of a 20% coupon at the DellOutlet website (which brought my price down to $250ish.
Or, wait for the Dell mini 10 to come out, at which point I really don't see these selling for more than $200-$250. I'm pleased with my decision. I could easily have gotten an Aspire One, but this does everything I need and looks like a proper computer, while the Aspire One, for all its strengths, still looks fairly primitive.
I have a 12.1 though and ruled out buying a netbook after trying a couple of them, 12.1 serves me good, very good infact. Its a full fledged computer and as convenient as it gets!
I agree with Amon, if you get a 12" laptop it's a nice tradeoff between power and size. You get a full-fledged laptop and portability, although not as light as a netbook of course. But my tx2000 is 4lbs, which is on the heavier side for a 12" I think, but still much lighter than a regular 14 or 15" laptop. Battery life might not be great depending on the laptop, and obviously you get what you pay for. I'm thinking in the future I'd prefer to go with an XPS 13" laptop, since they also pack a decent amount of power.
i have the eee pc 701 (7inch)
and i have a macbook(13.3) and dell xt (12.1)
id do it again.
ILoveApple, what is it with you and moms? Seriously.
Personally, I really can't find the need for a netbook in my life. It seems like a solution looking for a problem. That being said, the space does interest me, and if I were going to pick one up, I'd go grab this new Asus Eee PC 1000HE. For $379 at Amazon, it gets you TEN hours of battery life, the newer Atom chip, and a slightly larger screen. This seems to be the way to go.
Keep in mind its up to 9.5 hours of battery life, with things like the screen at low brightness, no wifi, no bluetooth, etc. Still impressive, you should get at least 5 hours easy in real world usage.
That's the thing that gets me as well. I've seen netbooks in person at BB and Costco, and I'll admit they're really neat. And I can completely understand why someone in a business might want to use them -or- if they have just a large desktop. However, with my MacBook, I can't for the life of me see the actual need for spending $250 for this (or any) netbook.
I so want to pick one up and play with one, but I'm not entirely sure of the necessity. Obviously, it is different for different situations. I'm glad to see them starting to get to a really reasonable price though.
I swear, sometimes I think we're all become a bit TOO connected to the internet & e-mail. Ugh; it's getting worse than cellular phones.
Netbooks are primarily a complementary device, and I feel that they are a great compliment to those that already own desktops myself. They certainly have a use, they are not for everyone but some are very glad they are around. I wish they were more available when I had purchased my Vaio TZ, otherwise I would have purchased a netbook instead as my Vaio TZ has just been used for tasks netbooks can perform just as well. : (
Chinpo,
I completely agree ... I'm not knocking it ... I really like the trend of the low-priced netbooks really. It is great to see what just $300 or a little more can get you. 90% of what I do is connected to the Internet, and maybe some document editing and e-mail. Your phrase of "complementary devices" is spot on though. If I only had a desktop; I would purchase something like this, long, long ago.
We already know he's a moron because the iPhone is NOT $199. It is $199 PLUS your monthly rate for two years....
Just thinking of responding to such an idiotic remark about a product not even mentioned makes me laugh/cry at the same time.
Can your iPhone save actual files? Oops.
I just picked one of these up yesterday for $368.
Ubuntu, 512 meg of RAM, 1.2 mega pixel camera., 32 GIG SSD. How can you pass on it for that price. I have an extra 2 gig stick sitting around and plan on installing OS X on it.
It should be OK for a machine just to check email and browse the internet.
you can just customize the "With Windows" that has the 8Gb HD with Ubuntu, Then upgrade from 512 to 1Gb RAM for a total of $284. What is strange is that way is cheaper than taking the "Ubuntu Only" machine and upgrading to 8Gb HD and 1Gb RAM ($305)
Must...not....get my credit card out.
*starts praying for the N280s to hit the scene quickly*
Wait for the Dell Mini 10. Do you think they are giving it a 720p screen without running the ION platform? The one thing that has been keeping me from buying a netbook is that I refuse to buy anything with an Intel GMA. I've seen those things fold under pressure viewing flash websites.
Go buy it Canada.. with the current exchange rate it'll just cost ~280USD Taxes included.. for the 8GB one
And do not buy it in Sweden, it will cost you 500 USD here. Really nice deal... not.
$289 for the full fledged mini 9 with 16GB SSD an 1MB RAM at the outlet store!
http://outlet.us.dell.com/ARBOnlineSales/topics/global.aspx/arb/online/en/InventorySearch?c=us&cs=22&l=en&s=dfh
I sincerely hope you mean 1GB of RAM...
I just installed OSX from a 10.5.6 installation disk on a dell mini 9 just today following this guide:
http://mydellmini.com/forum/howto-install-os-x-the-right-way-type11-boot132--t1106.html
Everything works flawlessly.. no swapping of any parts.. the keyboard kinda sucks, but for 250 bones, nice macbook nano.
If its true then it is a big yay!.
Odd that you go for the 4gb version and customize it with an 8gb of space you have to pay $35 more for it or something, but if you go with the one that has 8gb already and click customize with Ubuntu instead of windows you get the 8gb mini with Ubuntu for only $259. Interesting.
I would prefer to pick up the Acer Aspire One for $299: http://tinyurl.com/b6cyrr
The 16gb SSD 1gb ram version of the Aspire one is only $239 on newegg
$150 for ( refurb ) + 24months * $80/month ( $40 for voice, $30 for data, $10 for misc/taxes ) = $2070 to own an iPhone for the length of the contract!
It's a slick device, but over $2k is insane.
Your mama jokes are lame, ironically, that's what yours told me last night.
And of course, its 349$ here in japan...
Why?!!!!
I have to agree with you iEye.
And by June we will laugh at those who bought this junk at $250 when some new amazing machine of awesome comes out for $200.
It's the way of technology. You have to only buy when you need it, and turn a blind eye to everything else for three years.
j'aime le maïs!
"You could get an iPhone for that price. The iPhone would do more and be more useful, too."
Really? Did you include the monthly fees you HAVE to pay? And did you catch the thing that a unsubsidized iPhone is 600$+? So you can get two of these for the price of the iPhone, and they are WAY more useful.
ubuntu has my heart. also, now i want a mini...however, i would rather spend my money on a different brand than dell; the bf has a netbook that's pretty sweet (except it's so small it's hard to type comfortably on) good for taking to classes though, in addition to longer battery life than a regular laptop
@ILoveApple
You're a douchebag.
Hey ILoveApple, do you see how low ranked you are? Being rude talking about peoples' mothers like that. nobody likes you...go away. Even Steve Jobs would be ashamed of you.
we really need a user blocking feature here at engadget
small netbook vs. larger notebook.... I have an Asus Eee PC 701 I bought over a year ago when it first came out, and a Mac G4 Powerbook 15" I acquired recently. I've gotta say I enjoy typing on the Powerbook *much* more than on the Eee PC. The keyboard on the 7" and 8.9" models is cramped. Yes, you can learn to type on them, but I don't feel as relaxed or efficient with them as I do on the full-size notebook keyboards. I've heard that the keyboard on the Asus Eee PC 1004 HAE is much improved, and substantially larger, than on the earlier models. For this reason, and the increased vertical resolution (701 has only 480 vertical pixels vs. 600 on the 1004), it looks like the 10" netbooks have hit the sweet spot in terms of usefulness vs. portability. But of course, YMMV.
I am having the hardest time deciding between the Dell Mini 9 and the Acer Aspire One. Here is where I am stuck. The Hard Drive space on the Dell is maxed out at 16 GB for a extra fee where the Acer is 120 GB standard. I would jump on the Acer in a second if it weren't for all the issues with the fan noise. I am buying this for my wife for school and don;t want her to be nervous about pulling a netbook out in class and having a bunch of noise. I know there are fixes to this by setting the temperature triggers, but that is risky in damaging the machine.
Anyway, those are my two issues, the HD availability on the Dell and the fan noise on the Acer....Help me!!