Dell Inspiron Mini IM10-2863 10.1-Inch Obsidian Black Netbook

Bought the IM 10 with TV tuner. The touchpad makes me want to scream. The only time the mouse will follow my fingers (for 5-10 seconds) is if I spit on them. Dell owes a fix and an explanation to consumers. The TV Tuner does a poor job of picking up video signals. Out of 5, 4 were local religious stations. I was surprized by the weight of the battery. Certainly not a laptop to hold in one hand. Still exploring for the pros and hope I have discovered all the cons.

I bought this for my youngest daughter who needed a laptop for High School Debate. What a world huh? Laptops have become an indispensable and back saving tool for getting and storing debate evidence and arguments. Her coach is not thrilled about Netbooks, but my oldest son recently bought one (as it is easier for his daily train commute), and had very high praises, so after looking and thinking about it I decided to get the Dell Mini.

What I figured was the big down side was the lack of an optical drive, but I figured well, it has USB ports so I'll just hook up my external DVD writer, and she'll be in business. Unfortunately, Dell in a smart business move but bad consumer relations idea, put no DVD encoder in the unit, and directs you to pay for an encoder. Or, one assumes, if you get the add on DVD unit for the Mini, from Dell (for about $100) one assumes that will take care of that. But here's my deal on that, for the extra money I could have just got her what the coach wanted her to have in the first place.

All in all, it has been working all right for her, and the light weight is a big plus. Several software companies, have accommodating downloads just use the license key on the software disk to activate (for example MS Office 2007), and Kapersky even makes an internet security suite specifically for "Ultra-Portables".

The Netbook has a very good wireless pick-up, it works at any location in the house, which is more than I can say about some of my other devices that were a lot more expensive.

So here's the deal, I'm sold (at least for now) , but not overjoyed (yet).

These netbooks are great. performance is perfect for everyday computing... web browsing, word processing, simple spreadsheets. i use it every day around the house to look up recipes, check my facebook page, google whatever comes to mind without running upstairs to the big desktop.
The keyboard is a great size. the touchpad takes a bit to get used to, but i have never used one like this before. Afrer a day, its no problem. i would definitely recommend this product.

Don't buy a Dell unless you want to talk to an Indian customer service call center where all they are trained to do is say is: "No! No! No!", they are rude and talk over you, and finally disconnect the call. Don't buy Dell! I will never make that mistake again. This company will not survive- sell the stock if you have any!

10.1" netbooks with only 1024x600 resolution, instead of the standard 1024x768 resolution, do not have enough resolution to display many of the dialog boxes that you will encounter. You wont be able to move some of them around to display the accept or decline buttons, for example. This has a way of getting on your nerves.