[zrtom]

Updated (at the end)

FWIW, here's what I've learned in two days of intensive use of the Mini 10 with the 1.6 GHz Z530.
Overall: Not very impressed....with performance, that is. My hopes were not awfully high with the RAM limitation but still, I'm not impressed.

The preinstalled XP is sloooooowwwwwww. Lots of junk that can be avoided in a fresh install but I don't really plan on running XP so I had to give it a whirl anyway. I tried to dual boot with Windows 7 but I couldn't. Kept getting an error about the boot manager. I tried different repartition scenarios thinking the hidden system partition needed to be larger to hold the winre.wim and boot.sdi files. But that didn't help. I think it has something to do with the partition "seal" process in the first (diagnostics) partition. So I just happened to have a new Seagate 7200.3 in 320GB. That is close to being the fastest-overall 2.5" HDD available today. And power consumption is lower than most, too, which is a plus for a 3-cell battery computer. I installed Windows 7 build 7057 and it went without a hitch. The only drivers I added were for the trackpad enhancements and the function keys. Everything else worked "out of the box."

Performance with W7 is not on par with the Mini 9; most likely due to the RAM limitation. But W7 is better than XP.

Changing hard drives is a royal pain. Not only do you have to lift the keyboard off, but switching the caddy takes extra time. I won't be swapping HDDs as often as on my M1330 where I have several caddys and can swap drives in literally two or three seconds (I don't bother screwing the drives up through the base).

Touchpad: Jury is still out but not looking good. The gestures are nice but I guess I now realize I prefer the scroll areas on the side and bottom of the trackpad over two finger scroll. At least having the either/or option would have been better. I thought I would like the hidden buttons but I don't. Because the whole surface is sensitive, more often than not, the cursor moves upward just as you go to click. On such a small screen that results in lots of misses. Overall, the cursor keeps moving on you. I'll need to tweak the gesture settings more.

Keyboard: NICE. Fits real well with large hands. Having all the keys and in the right place is a real plus.

Screen: VERY nice; sharp and bright.

SD card slot: SUCKS big time! SD cards stick out half way. Nothing like the nice and flush setup of the Mini 9. I wouldn't plan on leaving one in to use for readyboost because it'll get broken off. Could be a deal breaker because I was hoping to enhance the feeble 1GB RAM with some readyboost.

W7 reboot times (reboot, not boot....per sevenforums.com script) have been variable. Mid-80 seconds at first, but its getting better as Windows sorts out the boot sequence. The last couple were in the 60 second range. MUCH better than XP of any flavor (135 seconds or so out of the box). But I'm not running any virus software yet, either. CPU doesn't drop right down to nothing after booting like on the Mini 9. Could just be the W7 build plus I haven't studied which drivers are making DPCs yet.

Core Temps 75-85 Deg. C without much load (using wordpad with a couple IE tabs open). Outside case temp not overly warm; warmer under the CPU, cooler under the HDD. About like the 9 overall.

Battery: So-so. The 3-cell lasted about 2 1/2 hours on W7 power saver just doing web stuff.

Bluetooth: Dell short-changed those of us who ordered when they went on sale for $299. The only hardware upgrade available was the processor. The specs page clearly listed Bluetooth. Now, the order page offers BT as an option. I have one of those "World's smallest bluetooth" dongles and it works fine (BT modem tethering and mouse) using W7 drivers.

A couple of times it choked. Didn't lock up completely but it took about a 15 second pause. I've never had the Mini 9 do that. I'm sure its the RAM. I'm not a Hi-Def freak but I tried one of my son's Def Leppard videos (coincidence?). XP was able to render it but with some streaky lines. It completely choked in Windows 7 full screen. Locked up and had to do the old "hold the On button down." THAT's not a good sign. Especially with Dell promoting the Hi-Def capability (at least on the Mini 10 v2) and HDMI output.

Overall size: Bigger than I though it would be. Matches the HP 1000 for width but its almost an inch deeper.

Build quality: Very good. I might say TOP NOTCH. Feels solid like the Mini 9. I'm not a fan of the glossy finish but there's no choice.

I guess my hope is that when the next iteration of the Mini 10 comes out with the Ion platform that Dell offers us "early adopters" a deal on the Ion daughter board (yea, right).

Summary: Because of the overall performance, trackpad and SD card slot (a biggie), it may go back. I wish my hands were smaller because I really like the Mini 9 (insert frown).


Update 1. I was able to dual boot XP and Windows 7. Found that, after getting the "Unable to Update Boot Manager" error if I boot again from the W7 disk and select "Repair Your Computer," it finds a problem, corrects it and allows you to start the installation process over.
And I think I know why the battery slides "down" and out instead of "back" and out like the 9..... the DVD slice. The Mini will snap right down onto the DVD slice. Probably why the bottom has no trap doors, too.

Update 2. Convinced Dell to send me the bluetooth module. Got it overnight but they sent the wrong one and without the cable. At least I had a chance to strip the Mini 10 down to the motherboard. Disassembly/reassembly is straightforward. Base is zinc, not plastic. The zinc would provide better heat transfer than plastic. The CPU/RAM board snaps in and out like a SO-DIMM; really easy to upgrade.
Core Temps in W7 are 5-10 Deg. C cooler than XP with both at idle. That will translate into better battery life for W7.

Can anyone spot the connector I broke? A word of caution, I guess, for anyone taking a Mini 10 apart. Be careful removing the Palm Rest Bracket. It snaps on and off and it takes quite a bit of teasing to get it to snap off. When it lets go, just make sure all the cables are unplugged all the way.... LOL It still works, though.

Update 3. Well about a month of testing completed. Still can't deal with the 1GB RAM.
In an attempt to supplement the meager RAM I thoroughly researched SSDs and after reading this article and its update, I purchased a couple OCZ Vertex 30GB drives which happened to be on sale at Newegg.
AnandTech: The SSD Anthology: Understanding SSDs and New Drives from OCZ
It's a long article but worth reading all of the 30 pages.

Anyway, the Vertex really sped up some things like reboot times (reboot in 39 sec.) but didn't do anything for the video rendering problems/lockups/100% CPU use which leads to overheat and throttling. I realize the SSD really has nothing to do with the video RAM but thought that, being so fast, it would lighten the CPU's load and improve the efficiency of the limited RAM.
The Vertex doesn't help as much as it COULD because of the Mini 10's SATA interface. Technical details are very lacking but it does not appear to support SATA2 and benchmarks on the Mini 10 are nowhere near as high on my XPS m1330 or XPS desktop. And the Vertex has issues on resume from sleep/standby on the Mini 10. OCZ is working with me on that but for now, it usually locks up on resume and needs to be shut down and restarted.

One cool thing about the SSD is battery life. I've stretched it from 2 3/4 hours with a dino-drive to over 4 hours (doing basically the same things). And of course, the SSD makes it dead silent, like the Mini 9.

I'm starting to get accustomed to the touchpad but from time to time it misbehaves; the scrolling speed goes from normal to almost nonexistent, then it will resume where it left off and flash down to the end of a page. Dell released new drivers the other day but I don't see any difference besides the UI of the touchpad settings. Dell also released a new BIOS (A03) two days ago. I'm resistant to try it because A02 was never available to download so I would have no way of reverting to A02 if I needed/wanted to.

So this is my second Mini 10. My third one is "In Production." They still haven't got the original order correct but this third try may be correct. As I wait for replacements, Dell offers me to use the ones I have so use them I have. Don't feel so worried about taking it apart down to the base when its going back when the new one arrives. I think I'll sell the new one in the sealed box and wait, patiently, for the 2GB model.
If anyone has questions feel free to reply or send a PM.

Best-Shot-of-Video-Connector.gif

[khakiman]

wow whats with the sd card sticking out? that sounds like a terrible design. can anyone else confirm this?

[rodmeister]

Originally Posted by khakiman

wow whats with the sd card sticking out? that sounds like a terrible design. can anyone else confirm this?

My guess is Dell figured that a recessed SD card wasn't an absolute necessity as the Mini 9 which has limited hard drive.

[1manparty]

Its not the first time Dell has done this. My Inspriron 1505 does the same thing. SD cards stick out, not much but it does.

[zrtom]

Originally Posted by rodmeister

My guess is Dell figured that a recessed SD card wasn't an absolute necessity as the Mini 9 which has limited hard drive.

Yea, I was thinking along those lines too. Problem is, the Mini 10 needs something to supplement RAM at least as much as the Mini 9 needs extra storage. I realize the ones with 2GB RAM will be okay, I just can't see why they even contemplated 1GB. They probably should have waited as planned for Windows 7 and built them all with 2GB without any issues from Microsoft. Problem is HP and all the others are out there scooping up customers who are settling for a netbook because of the economy.

And it doesn't stick out just a little. It sticks out just about half way. That is a LOT! It's not a spring loaded socket, it's like on a desktop where the card sticks out half way. I have 2GB hanging off to see if the Readyboost helps.

[deeshr]

Yes the protruding SD card is definitely an annoyance. Pretty much limits my SD usage to just quick transfers or MAYBE viewing the occasional divx file

[bjd223]

We just got a MINI 10" in at my work. We have a lot of mini 9's (over 30) so I am partial to them.

I must say the 10's keyboard is awesome compared to the mini 9. I think it is quite strange the screen is a smaller resolution. I do not think I will switch over to the MINI 10. I do not like the RAM and SD card slot situations.

The MINI 10 will let you set the resolution to 1024x768 interpolated, so when you try to run on of those pesky applications that have buttons offscreen.

[aidil]

zrtom, since you have opened your mini 10 to swap HDD, how about the WWAN & TV tuner upgrade?

I know the online manual shows the internal components, but given the fact that Dell has dissabled the option for self easy WWAN upgrade in Mini 9 (and Mini 12), it's best to find out the possibility of self upgrading the internal WWAN/3G/GPS and TV tunner mini pci express cards for the current mini 10 from the real machine.

Do they install the SIM card slot, the mini pci express slots and the antennas this time?

[zrtom]

Originally Posted by aidil

zrtom, since you have opened your mini 10 to swap HDD, how about the WWAN & TV tuner upgrade?

I know the online manual shows the internal components, but given the fact that Dell has dissabled the option for self easy WWAN upgrade in Mini 9 (and Mini 12), it's best to find out the possibility of self upgrading the internal WWAN/3G/GPS and TV tunner mini pci express cards for the current mini 10 from the real machine.

Do they install the SIM card slot, the mini pci express slots and the antennas this time?

They did it like the Mini 9. No WWAN card slot, no TV tuner slot, no SIM card slot; just blanks. No antennas except for the WLAN.

[aidil]

Wow... Great info Tom. Appreciate it.

Then I would definitely wait for the 3G model, cause internal WWAN is the most important consideration for me for buying notebook recently.