Michael Arrington over at Tech Crunch wrote an interesting article stating that he thinks netbooks aren’t good enough.  Needless to say, there’s a lot of criticism of Arrington’s article.  I am, of course, am one of those critics.

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You’re not going to be running high end CAD software on this HP Mini-Note. But then again you’ll only be paying $299 for a very compact netbook that with a Linux operating system, 4GB of flash drive space and a webcam. Amazon has this machine with free shipping and no tax to most states. Here are some of the specs:

• Max 2 GB RAM (includes 512 MB)
• Linux Operating System
• 4 GB solid-state flash memory (NAND) storage
• 1 ExpressCard/54 slot (also supports ExpressCard/34)
• 1 Secure Digital memory card slot
• 1 headphone/line-out and 1 microphone
• 1 VGA monitor port
• 2 USB 2.0 ports for connecting a wide range of peripherals–from digital cameras to MP3 players
• 1 RJ-45 for 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet connectivity

Amazon via SD

Yes, the BlackBerry Bold and Touch Pro reviews are coming, but the Mini 9 showed up on my desk two days ago and I just had to post my thoughts on it, since it’s the first “netbook” I’ve really used since I sold off my Eee PC, and I could instantly tell what I thought of it.

Dell Mini 9 in it's Natural Environment

Out of the box the Dell looks great. With its glossy black lid and compact dimensions, it’s absolutely fabulous to carry it around. This morning I left home early so I could go to the coffee shop for a little while before work, and instead of grabbing a laptop bag with my hulking MacBook Pro, I just grabbed the Mini 9, my USB HSDPA modem and was out the door.

Size is the brilliant thing about these cheap little notebooks, they are happy to go pretty much anywhere without being a burden. The problem is to have a small, compact form factor you have to have a small, compact screen and keyboard.

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