Dell Mini Laptop

Not sure if they are going to use HDD in this model,but the mini they are selling now has an option for 16gb solid state drive.As of right now that is the largest they have for the mini.

FYI:The SSD's are going to be coming down on the price in the near future,so you might find that these are going to be standard on the newer models.They could still have the option for HDD.I agree with you i prefer HDD over SSD any day.

The first option for this laptop,when configuring,comes with ubunto.

And XP on the other 2 choices for configuring.

I would doubt if they will release a HDD version - the solid-state memory is a mini-card and it is unlikely that a standard HDD, even a 1.8" one, would fit without significant modifications to the design of the laptop.

There's a picture of the inside on the Notebookreview.com site, at http://www.notebookreview.com/picture.asp?f=36371

I believe the solid-state module is the one on the top left, next to the memory module.

I'm thinking of buying one of these laptops. Does anyone know what they come preloaded with? The Dell site doesn't say anything apart from XP - do they have Works and other junkware installed?

I'm in the UK, and currently we only have the XP one available.

This is fine - I'd want XP anyway. I just wondered whether it has muchjunkware on it.

There's apparently going to be a 12" model with a magnetic hard drive - see http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/224214/tesco-leaks-12in-dell-netbook.html

I've already seen mention of the 12" one somewhere before - I think it might have been the Endgadget website.

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@coachrob wrote:

Hi I see Dell has a new mini-laptop. I was just wondering why went with a Solid Sate Hard Drive. The drive this model comes with is only a 8 GB - Solid Sate Drive (no moving parts ) Also does any one know if Dell plans to have a mini-lap top in the near future that will have a normal type hard drive...I think more people would but these min laptops if it had a hard drive of at least 80 GB or more...what are your thoughts ?

 

Note: sorry if this is in the wrong forum..this is my first post here.

 

Rob

Rob, the form factor of the SSD that is in this laptop is actually Mini-PCIe.  As a result, there is no HDD that uses this connection type at present.  The SSD in use is actually from an enterprise industrial applications vendor.  This particular model has zero moving parts in the entirety of the dell mini lending quite a bit of stregnth.  Going wtih an SSD in this form factor is preferable to the HDD as the standard platter absed drive is susceptible to possible damage and platter contact errors in a mobility situation.

 The SSDs used in the dell mini are rated at 80MB read / 25 MB write so thier performance is comparable roughly to the performacne of a basic 5400rpm low-cache  HDD in modern budget laptops.

On the hard disk size, realize that the dell mini is not intended to be a desktop replacement here.  Rather, it is targetted as a mobility console.  Think of it more as a dumb terminal to get on the web.  The concept of just enough power to access your email over the web.  Your documents over the web.  Your music over the web.

 The mini does come with a High capacity capable SD card reader so maybe consider getting a larger SD card or USB external drive? 

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@David Bryant wrote:

I'm in the UK, and currently we only have the XP one available.

 

This is fine - I'd want XP anyway. I just wondered whether it has muchjunkware on it.

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Yes.  As with any dell laptop.  Unfortunately.

 I am getting a new mini as of the 23rd and this one I am going to try and rebuild myself so I can control what is installed and the associated space that is used.  One of my colleages at work has already done so. 

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@David Bryant wrote:

There's apparently going to be a 12" model with a magnetic hard drive - see http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/224214/tesco-leaks-12in-dell-netbook.html

I've already seen mention of the 12" one somewhere before - I think it might have been the Endgadget website.

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Different form factor and slightly different platform.

Actually dell has a history of 12-13" models.  If you want something of this class, the most recent example I can think of in this form factor was the Inspiron 700M. 

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@Clocks wrote:

Actually dell has a history of 12-13" models.  If you want something of this class, the most recent example I can think of in this form factor was the Inspiron 700M. 

 

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The most recent ones are the Latitude D420 and D430, which are 12" widescreen ultraportables without integrated optical drives. They both have 18" 4200rpm hard drives although the D430 also had an SSD option.