Dell Inspiron duo
Specifications

Price comparison
Average of 20 scores (from 26 reviews)
Reviews for the Dell Inspiron duo
Innovative. The well thought-out screen-flip design of the Inspiron duo 10" convertible notebook/tablet is an interesting innovation. But does this mean that has Dell crafted the finest convertible yet or just another high-tech toy?
Source: Tech Advisor

It's too early to make a true judgment on the Dell Inspiron Duo, but early impressions are that despite the marketing hype this product is more heavy netbook than svelte tablet.
Single Review, online available, Very Short, Date: 03/11/2011
Rating: Total score: 70%
Source: Reg Hardware

At £450, the Duo isn’t cheap, but if you are already reconciled to spending £350 on something like a Samsung N350 then the extra hundred quid for the trick lid, touchscreen and the extra gig of RAM doesn’t look like such a bad deal. The facility to swap between netbook and a tablet, from keyboard to touchscreen was something I started to appreciate when casually watching videos or surfing the web in my armchair, so Dell might just be on to something. Yet it’s hard to overlook the missing ports, the poor battery life and the glacial performance of Stage.
Single Review, online available, Short, Date: 03/10/2011
Rating: Total score: 65%
Source: T3

The concept is bang on, and were we in the market for a convertible tablet this is what we'd go for. Unfortunately the Stage software isn't there yet, while poor battery life and connectivity doesn’t help.
Single Review, online available, Very Short, Date: 03/08/2011
Rating: Total score: 40%
Source: Wired Magazine

Of course, the biggest problem here really isn’t Dell’s fault, it’s that Windows just doesn’t work very well for touchscreen devices, especially not on a small scale like this. Use the Duo in tablet mode for more than three minutes and your skin starts to crawl. You want to get something done quickly. You try to hit Control-C. Soon you find you’re reaching over and over for a keyboard that isn’t there. Except, of course, it is. Thank God for that.
Single Review, online available, Very Short, Date: 02/28/2011
Rating: Total score: 50%
Source: Pocket Lint

Of all the convertible tablet PCs we’ve seen over the years, the Inspiron Duo is the most stylish and the most fun. We expected the in-place rotating screen to be a gimmick but it’s sturdy and easy to use. The keyboard is one of the best we’ve used on any netbook and the combination of the dual core Atom N550 with enough memory and the Broadcom graphics accelerator with a high resolution screen makes this a high end netbook. We love how light, portable and robust the Inspiron Duo feels - although that’s light and portable for a netbook or Windows tablet rather than standing comparison with the iPad (and the delightful design hides the fact that it’s actually a little on the heavy and thick side compared to some netbooks). But we hate the battery life; it’s a compromise too far for real portability.
Single Review, online available, Very Short, Date: 02/21/2011
Rating: Total score: 70%
Source: Techradar

There's no doubt the Inspiron Duo is flawed by a few issues, but we thoroughly bought into Dell's vision of combining the netbook and tablet, and flipping between the two to carry out different tasks is intuitive and fun.
Single Review, online available, Very Short, Date: 02/21/2011
Rating: Total score: 70%
Source: Comp Reviews

For those looking to get a netbook with a touchscreen, the Dell Inspiron Duo is a very attractive and unique system. The high resolution 10-inch multitouch display function well but the software really could use more than a netbook processor. It does come with more memory and hard drive space than similarly equipped netbook and can in some instances playback HD video.
Single Review, online available, Short, Date: 02/10/2011
Rating: Total score: 60%
Source: Hot Hardware

The overall user experience is sluggish, and to have a netbook/tablet that can't even last three hours on a charge isn't very useful outside of the home -- where it's most expected to be used. We really hope that Dell continues with this design, and incorporates a better performing and more power efficient GPU/CPU setup in the next revision.
Single Review, online available, Long, Date: 02/08/2011
Source: Stuff TV

As a netbook, the Inspire Duo is actually rather good. It’s fat, and compromises involving that screen action have lead to a smaller display than would otherwise be the case, but the keyboard is comfy and accurate and it’s an attractive little package. The glossy lid is smart and the slightly rubbery finish to the shell gives it a mildly ruggedised feel. If money was no object or Windows 7 wasn’t the world’s most challenging dexterity test, the Inspiron Duo would be a hit. As it is, the Duo’s market is limited to those who want to combine an adequate netbook with a fidgety internet TV and casual music streamer.
Single Review, online available, Very Short, Date: 02/03/2011
Source: Electricpig

The Dell Inspiron Duo is certainly unique, but don’t let the shiny TV spots and “Oooh” factor of the flipping screen distract you: no one else has done this for a reason. Windows 7 doesn’t work for casual use on a touchscreen, and we can’t see that changing – in the meantime, opt for an Asus Eee PC with a better battery life and slimmer shell, or a full size super slim like the Toshiba Portege R700.
Single Review, online available, Long, Date: 02/02/2011
Rating: Total score: 40%
Source: Bit-Tech

Although we were quite taken with the Inspiron Duo's spinning display, ultimately it's not very good either as a netbook or as a tablet. Although its Windows performance is good for a netbook, its poor battery life, small keyboard and missing ports limits its usefulness compared to competing models. Its touchscreen, Windows 7 and heavy weight make it a poor tablet. Unless you need an affordable touchscreen tablet for using existing Windows apps, we'd rather have any other netbook or an iPad.
Single Review, online available, Very Short, Date: 01/06/2011
Rating: Total score: 50%
Source: PC Pro

Lovely physical design and a keen price can’t mask a selection of serious flaws
Single Review, online available, Very Short, Date: 12/17/2010
Rating: Total score: 50% price: 50% performance: 33% features: 66%
Source: Laptop Mag

While the gorgeous rubberized chassis and responsive touchscreen make the Inspiron Duo seem compelling, its short battery life, sluggish touch software, mediocre media playback, and lack of ports make it a tough sell. For much less than the Duo's $549 price, we recommend buying either a dedicated tablet such as the iPad, a high-quality netbook such as the discrete-graphics-packing ASUS Eee PC 1215N, or a sleek ultraportable such as the Toshiba T235. We'd like to see Dell refine this exciting design and pair it with an operating system that's designed for tablets.
Single Review, online available, Medium, Date: 12/12/2010
Rating: Total score: 50%
Source: PC Mag

The flip screen implementation is an original and refreshing take on the convertible tablet, but the Dell Inspiron Duo completely ignored the part about features and tablet performance.
Single Review, online available, Very Short, Date: 12/09/2010
Rating: Total score: 50%
Source: CNet

Dell is making a bold move on the emerging tablet market by getting the inventive new Inspiron Duo into consumers' hands just as the holiday shopping season kicks into high gear. Unlike traditional convertible tablets, which have screens that rotate 180 degrees horizontally, the $549 Inspiron Duo screen flips 180 degrees vertically; it's hinged in the middle of the lid.
Single Review, online available, Medium, Date: 12/08/2010
Rating: Total score: 60% performance: 60% mobility: 50%
Source: Engadget

It makes us sad, but the Inspiron Duo is far from being that perfect tablet / netbook hybrid we've been waiting for. As a netbook, it has a number of redeeming qualities, including a stellar keyboard and solid build, but it's heavy and its battery lasts half as long as some $299 netbooks out there. And then there's the Duo as a tablet, where it not only lacks a decent LCD, but the software and its sluggish performance make it incredibly frustrating to use.
Single Review, online available, Long, Date: 11/30/2010
Rating: Total score: 50%
Source: Trusted Reviews

With the suddenly rejuvenated interest in tablets thanks largely to Apple's iPad, there are a lot of contenders already on the market. We've previously looked at the Samsung Galaxy Tab, and will be bringing you a full review of the ViewPad 7 later this week. But what if you want the convenience of a tablet with the keyboard and functionality of a laptop? Aside from full-blown laptop options like the HP TouchSmart tm2 or underpowered netbooks like Asus' T91, there's no option between the two – until now. Because despite being based on an Intel Atom processor, the Inspiron Duo is a far cry from your average netbook!
Single Review, online available, Short, Date: 11/23/2010
Foreign Reviews
Dell Inspiron Duo Notebooks für jeden ZweckSource: Notebookcheck

Single Review, online available, Long, Date: 01/04/2011
Rating: Total score: 80% performance: 40% display: 64% mobility: 89% workmanship: 86% ergonomy: 82% emissions: 93%
Source: Mobicroco

Single Review, online available, Short, Date: 11/18/2010
Source: Netzwelt

battery runtime very bad
User Review, online available, Medium, Date: 04/13/2011
Source: Netzwelt

expensive, heavy, no optimized touch interface
Single Review, online available, Medium, Date: 02/27/2011
Source: Retera

Single Review, online available, Medium, Date: 04/16/2011
Rating: Total score: 40% performance: 21% display: 42% mobility: 48% emissions: 45%
Source: Geeks.hu

Single Review, online available, Medium, Date: 04/20/2011
Rating: Total score: 60%
Source: IT.com.cn

Single Review, online available, Short, Date: 12/01/2010
Comment
Intel Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA) 3150: Integrated (shared memory) graphics card in the intel Atom N4xx CPUs. Minimally faster than an old GMA 950 and therefore not suited for 3D games or HD videos (only MPEG2 acceleration).
These graphics cards are not suited for Windows 3D games. Office and Internet surfing however is possible.
» Further information can be found in our Comparison of Mobile Graphics Cards and the corresponding Benchmark List.
Intel Atom: The Intel Atom series is a 64-Bit (not every model supports 64bit) microprocessor for cheap and small notebooks (so called netbooks), MIDs, or UMPCs. The speciality of the new architecture is the "in order" execution (instead of the usual and faster "out of order" execution). Therefore, the transistor count of the Atom series is much lower and, thus, cheaper to produce. Furthermore, the power consumption is very low. The performance per Megahertz is therfore worse than the old Pentium 3M (1,2 GHz on par with a 1.6 GHz Atom).
N550: Dual core Atom with a TDP of only 8.5 Watt. Because of the slow clock speed of 1.5 GHz it may be sometimes even slower than a N465 Atom CPU.» Further information can be found in our Comparison of Mobile Processsors.
10.10":
This is a standard display format for tablet computers or small convertibles. You see more on the screen than on a smartphone but you can't use big resolutions well. On the other hand, mobility is not a problem.
» To find out how fine a display is, see our DPI List.Dell: Dell is a U.S. manufacturer (based in Texas) of computer hardware founded in 1984 and is one of the largest international manufacturers in terms of both market share and notebook models. Its product line includes desktops, notebooks, storage systems, monitors, servers, printers, consumer electronics and peripherals. Dell offers laptops that are suitable for various applications, such as business laptops, gaming laptops, ultra portables and workstations. Dell's business laptops from the Latitude and Precision series are an option for professional users and businesses.
In 2023, Dell had an approximate 17% market share of global PC sales, ranking #3 after Lenovo and HP.
For gaming enthusiasts, Dell's Alienware brand is for gaming notebooks.
59.6%: Such a poor rating is rare. There are only a few notebooks that were rated even worse. The rating websites do not give a purchase recommendation here.
» Further information can be found in our Notebook Purchase Guide.
Devices with Same Screen Size and/or Weight