Dell Inspiron Mini IM10-2863 10.1-Inch Obsidian Black Netbook
January 7, 2010
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Posted by netbook
Product Description
The Inspiron Mini 10 allows you to stay connected in style! Choose your choice of colors to carry with you. The Inspiron Mini 10 boasts 10″ of stylish viewing with a suprisingly large keyboard and yet is portable enough to take it anywhere! The large 160GB hard drive makes sure you never leave your music or your life at home!
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #695 in Personal Computers
- Color: Obsidian Black
- Brand: Dell
- Model: IM10-2863
- Dimensions: 1.12″ h x 7.19″ w x 10.28″ l, 2.86 pounds
Features
- 1.33 GHz Intel Atom Z520 Processor
- 1GB DDR2 RAM
- 160GB Hard Drive
- Windows XP Home, 3 Hour Lithium Ion Battery
- 10.1-Inch LED Display (1024×576), 1.3mp Web Cam
Customer Reviews
Not perfect, but a very good start.
So far I’m very impressed with this system. The keyboard is just awesome for a netbook, and with Windows XP Home, it’s really not all that slow. I’ve had several heavier applications open at the same time and didn’t really have any problems. Aptana Studio (My web development IDE of choice), FireFox 3, TrueCrypt, XAMPP (Apache & MYSql) just to name a few. I’ve only got a few real complaints about this computer. One, the touchpad is horrible. It really shouldn’t have had the two buttons integrated into the bottom of it, it’s not possible to have your index finger navigating and thumb clicking at the same time. It’s quite annoying (I bought a cheap travel mouse). The other complaint I have is the video playback quality. It’s really just not that good. It’s actually quite choppy for the most part if you try watching videos in fullscreen. I have however found a workaround for this, and it makes the video quality look awesome (see notes at the bottom).
Pros:
Awesome 10″ display
Great almost full-size keyboard
3 USB ports (one of the left, two on the right)
2.6lbs, it’s super light
Decent speed for a 1.3Ghz system.
Cons:
Cruddy video playback (mostly full screen problems)
Horrible Linux video driver support (Intel GMA 500, google it)
Battery life is a little bit lacking compared to other netbooks.
Touchpad needs to be redesigned.
Video Playback Notes/Quality tweak:
As far as the cruddy video playback is concerned, the one thing that I have found to help with this is the usage of a third party media player. A friend of mine turned me on to a player called KMPlayer [...] which comes bundled with just about every video codec ever made, and not to mention that it’s portable (it runs off of a thumb drive). Anyway, you can customize the video rendering to allow for a much smoother playback of videos even on this slower model. Here’s what I do:
Right-Click in the main KMPlayer window
Click on “Video (Advanced)”
Click “Video Renderer” up near the top.
Down near the bottom select “Enhanced Video Renderer”.
Be amazed at how much better your videos look.
The playback quality that I received from doing this rivaled my full-size desktop with a real graphics card in it. This is definitely the most redeeming quality about this netbook because it really unlocks the ability for this to be a good portable media player. Cheers.
Truly Quiet PC
I got this laptop about 2 days ago and am typing this review using it. The keyboard is great. About half of all netbooks have good keyboards like this one.
The best feature is that this Netbook is completely silent. There is NO fan which means there is no noise. This was the key feature for me because I like recording audio books so using this means I have a 100% silent environment to record my voice.
People complaint about the 1GB or ram but for windows XP that is all you really need. I think they can’t add more ram to this netbook because it is passively cooled which means you can just slap in any module with your greasy fingers. I could be wrong. Anyways I would rather have 1GB with xp that runs everything then 2GB with Windows 7.
Another great feature that I only just noticed yesterday is that it has a sealed LCD. All other netbooks and laptops that I have seen have a normal lcd that is very difficult to clean. You know the type. If you touch it it ripples sort of so you become paranoid about cleaning them. This netbook has a solid plastic covering over the screen which means it is easy to clean.
Another important feature for me was that this included the windows XP reinstall CD. That means I can experiment with Android or Ubuntu and then put XP on later if I like. With other companies they don’t include an OS cd so if you install another operating system on your computer and don’t like it you are in trouble. Also the dell has no bloatware. I looked at the Acer 11.6 and it is full of about 100 useless bonus programs that slow it down. Enjoy doing that with no CD to fresh install.
So if you want a silent pc with an easy to clean screen get this one. Otherwise go with the Asus that has like 8 hour batter life. This one only have about 4 hours on a 3 cell battery.
love it!!!
absolutely exceeded all my expectations!!! Not only is the keyboard the perfect size, the Dell Chat feature is so much fun. I didn’t even know it came with it, but it is free internet chat with anyone with a webcam and now when I travel I can talk and see my kids. Mine came with the 3 cell battery, but with the energy effecient Atom z520 proceesor I get plenty of battery life, almost 4 hours of continous use, probably closer to 6 if taking breaks or letting it go idle. Very slim and light weight and with the wide screen I don’t have to scroll left to right to see everything on the page. It also comes standard with XP, which is awesome and easy to use. Oh, and the Dell Remote Access is so cool, I can access all my files, music and pictures from my home PC and not clog up my hard drive. I liked mine so much, i bought one each for my kids, so we can always stay in touch.
Categories: Uncategorized
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Tags: Dell Inspiron Mini IM10-2863, Dell Inspiron Mini IM10-2863 Best Price, Dell Inspiron Mini IM10-2863 Netbook, Dell Inspiron Mini IM10-2863 Review, Dell Netbooks
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