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Dell Mini 10 review – with Broadcom Crystal HD chip
Sum and Substance:
Thumbs Up:
Sharp design, has hardware for video acceleration, has big 1366×768 pixel resolution.
Thumbs Down:
Broadcom HD video needs beta software for video streaming, touch pad is elongated and small.
The Whiz Kid Speaks:
Dell Mini 10 is powered by Intel Atom N450 / 1.66 GHz processor, memory installed is 1 GB DDR2 SD RAM, for storing data there is a 250 GB hard drive which has 5400 rpm speed, the display 10.1 inches big and gives a resolution of 1366×768 pixels. Graphic processor is Crystall HD Broadcom Media Accelerator. The system comes preinstalled with Microsoft Windows 7 Starter for Small Notebook PCs (32 bit)
Razzle Dazzle:
This Netbook is similar to the Dell Mini 10 which we reviewed ago. Only the lid color has changed, it is white instead of black. The look of the system has been upgraded and we like the new layout, it makes the Netbook look less like a toy. The computer thin looks in the front because the hinge is at the system’s rear and the entire body is forward sloping. The wrist rest and the keyboard tray have raised texture which looks much better than glossy plastic, flat one. The corners on this Netbook are rounded and this prevents the device from looking industrial.
Inside Dope:
Before this, we reviewed the Dell’s Inspiron Mini 10 Netbook which was a pretty good device with its strong performance and plenty of configurable options. This Dell Mini 10 comes with a new configuration option – Broadcom Crystal HD video accelerator which replaces Nvidia’s Ion GPU in the Netbooks that have Intel’s new Atom N450 CPU. This model will take you back by $409 and the one which we reviewed earlier costs $369. The upgrade is a smart move if you are can spend a bit more because you get a HD video accelerator and bigger 1366×768 pixel resolution on the 10 inch screen.
Crystal HD chip isn’t a full-fledged solution to your video needs, because it does only video playback. It is good for playing HD video files on the laptop and not for streaming HD video from sites like Hulu, which use Flash by Adobe.
Adobe has offered the Flash 10.1 beta 3 for download. It provides better performance in HD Web video streaming. But we still faced some problems with it.
The big resolution of 1366×768 pixels is mouth watering but if you are buying this Netbook exclusively for HD resolution, we will ask you to wait till Adobe and Broadcom stop with the beta updates. We are also waiting for next generation of Netbooks from Nvidia Ion.
Netbook keyboards have come a long way, there was a time when they were equally bad and only tiny fingers could type on them. Since then, manufacturers have experimented a lot with the keyboards from island-style to edge-to-edge keys. These keyboards now emphasize more on the surface area and sometimes it comes at a cost of logical layout. We don’t have any such problems with the keyboard on this Dell Mini 10, all the important keys like Tab, Shift are full size and the keyboard is easy to type on.
Touch pad could have been better though, it is smaller and elongated like most HP Netbooks. There is a rocker for mouse button, we’d prefer two separate buttons because they are more comfortable to use and give nice tactile feedback. Scrolling was difficult due to the short height.
Software-dock on the Dell Mini 10 is just like Mac. It put the settings and programs in one place but it also eats up a lot of desktop space. Also these resources can be easily found elsewhere on the Netbook. On the bright side, we appreciate the easy access to control panels like security and networking. One more thing that’s worth mentioning here is that when we installed Mozilla, it didn’t add itself directly there but we had to drag it manually there.
The display is 10.1 inches big and gives a resolution of 1366×768 pixels. This is a welcome upgrade from the lower 1024×600 pixels which is ubiquitous is 10 inch Netbooks. The bigger resolution gives you smaller icons and text but on the bright side, you will get more real estate on the desktop. You also will have to scroll less in Web pages and word processing documents.
Dell gives you lots of options for connectivity, there are several preconfigured and configurable options available there. You can choose according to your needs. We tried this feature, choosing GPS module cost us $509 and internal TV tuner took the price up to $489.
Almost all Netbooks now use the Intel’s 1.6GHz Atom N450 chip so the performance of these devices are similar. As compared to the non-Broadcom Dell Mini 10, this model was a bit slower when put through our benchmark tests but the difference wasn’t that big.
Full screen playback of 1080p and 720p MOV and WMV clip was great which is what you expect from the Broadcom Crystal HD accelerator. But streaming HD video through Hulu and YouTube was a total disaster.
We uninstalled the bundled Flash software and then downloaded and installed the Flash 10.1 beta 3 player (you need latest drivers of Broadcom as well), the quality improved. Both 720p YouTube and 480p Hulu videos gave smoother playback. The clips were more watchable but we still saw some frame-skipping and stutter, particulary on Hulu.
When put through battery drain tests, the Dell Mini 10 lasted for 5 hours and 47 minutes this is less than non-Broadcom Dell Mini 10 by a hundred minutes. But still we think that the capacity of the battery is enough for most users. However, if you want better battery life, we will ask you to take a look at Asus Eee PC 1005PE which took us well past eight hour mark.
Dell Mini 10 comes with a one year warranty for labor and parts. There is also an option to upgrade it to three years which costs $99. You can visit the manufacturer’s Website for driver downloads and online knowledge base. There is also a 24/7 toll free support over the phone.
Nitty Gritty:
Dell Mini 10 is the same offering which we reviewed before except for the HD video acceleration. It is good for movie watching but needs beta Flash update for video streaming.
