The Dell Inspirion Mini 9 comes in an extremely compact and solid chassis. In spite of the small form factors, it remains absolutely true to the classic notebook form.  In terms of color, the Mini 9 is produced with silver and black surfaces.  The visual highpoint is the high-gloss finish of the display cover, which is also described as "piano-lacquer finish."

While the Dell Mini 9 certainly profits from its appearance, a few drawbacks for practical use arise that are not negligible.  Fingerprints accumulate quickly on the display cover, but fortunately are relatively easy to wash off again.  Somewhat more problematic, however, is permanent wear and tear, for example subtle scrapes and stress marks, which collect immediately and without fail during the use of an intensively mobile netbook like the Mini 9.  The danger of such wear and tear is much more present with a compact netbook, since they fit easily in nearly any possible container, and don't come with their own carrying cases.

In this regard, a second risk factor must be mentioned.  The display is held in its closed state only by the tension of the hinges.  There is no latching system to fix the display in place.  When one pushes the notebook the the front of side edges into a backpack or other bag, foreign bodies, including any number of office utensils, could get into the space between the display and keyboard and cause damage to the device: a point that one should absolutely pay attention to during transportation.  An adequate protective cover would fit well into Dell's product line.

Nonetheless, the compact pipsqueak  offers a very robust case, which allows for somewhat careless handling of the netbook without having to put up with excessive deformations or creaking noises.  The Inspiron Mini 9 may in good conscience be grasped by the display cover - optimal with an ultra-mobile netbook.

Both of the generously dimensioned hinges allow light play with with flyweight display in the 8.9 inch format.  This remains in position with absolutely no teetering and can nevertheless be moved within the opened angle with little expendeture of force.  At least inside of the possible area.  Unfortunately, because of the position of the hinges, the opening angle of the display is restricted to 135°.  In most situations, though, this always suffices, nevertheless, we came across situations during mobile application in the test when we would have gladly opened the panel a few degrees farther to produce a better picture.

Whether the port configuration of the netbook is sufficient is certainly debatable.  Nevertheless, it is a fact that these mini-PCs are primarily intended to allow for the use of basic office functions and WLAN communications (internet, mail), which is clear from the name "net-book."

One extremely important factor in the sale price on the current netbook market is the discipline of a manufacturer to include connections for only the most important features.  To this end, the Dell Inspiron Mini 9 comes equipped with a 3.5mm stereo connection for headphones and a microphone, a LAN connection for wired network communications, an analogue VGA connection to connect an external monitor or projector, and 3 USB 2.0 ports.
In the VGA port test, the Samsung SyncMaster 900NF connected through the port delivered a thoroughly good picture at a resolution of 1280x1024 pixels.  With higher resolutions, however, a decrease in the sharpness of the picture is observable.

One should keep in mind that Apple equipped its high-performance prestige device, MacBook Pro, with only two USB ports, and found it sufficient to equip the Air with only one USB port, so one could almost describe the port configuration of the Dell Inspiron Mini 9 as generous.  In any case, the provided ports fulfill all the purposes of a netbook.  That a docking port would be helpful every once in a while is clear, but this would hardly be practical both because of price considerations as well as the Inspiron Mini's compact dimensions.

In terms of communications, the Dell Inspiron Mini 9 offers a 10/100 ethernet connection from Realtek (RTL8102E Family PCI0E Fast Ethernet) as well as an integrated WLAN module from Broadcom (802.11 b/g).  A unique Bluetooth 2.0 module is integrated into the notebook.  This can be of great use, especially for communication with a cell phone or PDA.

Another thing that would be an advantage for the Dell Mini 9 in the realm of professional communication: wireless broadband internet, that is, UMTS/HSDPA.  That this option is currently not offered is astounding, above all because there is a obviously a sim card input around the battery slot, and there is also an empty space around the internal slots with the label WWAN.
For the time being, Dell offers the Inspiron Mini in the UK and France in combination with a Vodafone contract, with which the netbook can be obtained practically for free with the appropriate contract, after the fashion of cell phones.  In Germany as well this could soon be the case.
The Inspiron Minis that are currently obtainable are still, however, not fitted with the appropriate antennae or the contacts for a sim card.

In addition, the Inspiron Mini 9 possesses a webcam integrated into the display frame with a resolution of 1.3 megapixels.  In the test, this still delivered at a video resolution of 640x480 pixels a reasonably passable reaction rate for undemanding video transfer.  The Dell Webcam Central Tool that is included is thoroughly helpful here.

In the test, we have lacked for the most part an optical drive.  The Inspiron Mini would be suited optimally as a mobile entertainer on a train or an airplane.  For video playback the only possibility that remains is to store the videos as files on the device and to play them back directly from the hard drive, or to attach an external optical drive to the notebook.

For an operating system, the unit comes with Windows XP, or, alternatively, a version with Ubuntu Linux is also offered.  The standard warranty contains 12 months of pick-up and return service, and an extension to 2 years with a price increase of 37.- euros.  This option should be considered well, since conceivably a cost estimate for a possible repair will certainly exceed this price.

The Dell Inspiron Mini 910 uses the usual netbook format with an 8.9 inch display and a resolution of 1024x600 pixels.  The width of the screen under this format is sufficient, and it can serve well for the most common uses.  A multitude of websites are still optimized for a screen width of 1024 pixels.
The screen height of a mere 600 pixels, however, is considerably more restrictive.  It makes frequent scrolling necessary in nearly all situations, which is actually pretty easy to manage with the scroll bar on the right edge of the touchpad.

In the illumination strength test, the installed LED display produced an excellent measure of brightness of at least 241 cd/m² in the central area of the display.  Since the loss of brightness in the corners of the screen also stays within good boundaries (208 cd/m² in the lower right corner), a good result of 86.3% with regards to the illumination level can be reported.

A 16GB solid state drive serves as the mass storage device, and in the test it showed, via HDTune, a good access time performance typical of SSD of only 0.4 milliseconds and convincing read rates of up to 70-80 MB/sec.  A considerable weakness of this particular SSD could also be identified, however - the write rate.  HDTune displayed a value of around merely 10 MB/sec concerning this matter, a bottleneck that consistently makes it self unpleasantly noticeable particularly while working with large amounts of data.  It deals here with a problem that many current netbooks struggle with.  Presumably, the reason for this may be presumably financial boundaries involved in the choice of the respective memory chips and controllers for the installed SSDs.

One can get by thoroughly well with the gross capacity of 16GB, depending on the intended use.  Videos or MP3s could also be stored alternatively on an external SD card, and the integrated SD card reader could be used as a sort of auxiliary drive.  Appropriate data carriers with around 4GB can be obtained at this time already for less than 10.- Euros.
Also, using a USB stick as a storage expansion would be conceivable.  With this, the capacity limits already reach up to 64GB.
In the American region, the Inspiron Mini 9 is also optionally available with 4 as well as 8GB.  Although this pushes the price of the laptops even lower, it could quickly backfire with standard use.

System Noise

In a notebook without mechanical, moving parts, one can only speak ill about loudness.  The Inspiron Mini 9 expels its heat exclusively through the case, thereby eliminating a bothersome fan noise entirely.  And since the mass storage device is set on a solid state drive, the data carrier is also eliminated as an emission source.  Every now and then in the test, only a quiet and barely perceptible buzz could be heard coming from the back right corner of the base unit.

Temperature

Since the cooling system puts up with a high amount of case warming so that it can do without a fan, the high measurements, particularly on the underside of the base unit, are not very surprising.  Here, a maximum of up to 43 °C could be measured, which makes the case feel very warm, subjectively, but would rarely if ever be reached during normal use.
Top side of the base unit heats up only marginally from less demanding office-related functions.  In this context, the maximum heat values under high performance move to about 39.0 °C.