RIP Dell Mini 9
Posted on 02 June 2009, at 6:03 am, by Jessica Fritsche
The sad rumor that I heard this weekend was confirmed today on the Direct2Dell blog…Dell is discontinuing the Mini 9. They are pushing the Mini 10 and 10v as the replacements to the popular 8.9 inch laptop, Dell’s first in the hot new netbook genre.
I am pretty bummed about this, though I am glad that I got my hands on a Mini 9 before they were phased out. I am constantly getting compliments, questions, and requests for netbook buying advice based on people seeing my Mini or knowing that I own one. The fact that I have been able to Hackintosh it into a perfectly functioning Mac netbook certainly adds to the charm of the Mini 9. I know that the uber hackability of the Mini 9 was a big draw for many geeks.
The Mini 10/10v seems like a viable replacement, but I’m of the opinion that anything above the 8.9 inch form factor is pushing the netbook envelope. 10 inches and above is really toeing the line between the netbook and a full-size laptop. I mean, my beloved iBook was 12 inches (and feels like a beast compared to a netbook!) The computer industry seems to disagree with me, since the 10 inch netbook seems to be the current sweet spot, but I am incredibly happy with my 8.9 inch (purse-sized!) workhorse. I’ll miss being able to recommend the Mini 9 to my friends and interested parties at Starbucks!
via Direct2Dell
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June 2nd, 2009 at 8:07 am
Jessica, you are so right, I bought mine last year and upgraded immediately with a 64g Ramcore SSD drive and the 2g RAM upgrade.. I didn’t hackintosh as the Mini 9 was my Windows machine alongside my MacBook.
Sad to see it sidelined, but techno-progress is always the way and off we go!
I’m presently of the mind that my new HTC Touch Pro2 might supercede my need for the Mini 9, we’ll see
June 2nd, 2009 at 9:36 am
The problem is always size … the Dell Mini 9 was a nice size – the 10 puts it into the standard netbook range. Yet I know I love the added bit of screen from my Lenovo s10 compared to my older HP Mini-Note 2133.
… I still lament the loss of the ‘power’ form factor from my 12″ Powerbook G4 …