I’ve got a new Dell Mini 9 headed my way later this month. It’s one of those teeny-weeny micro laptops — “netbooks” — that have all the kids excited these days. I’m curious if it can be an iPhone-with-a-keyboard for me as I bounce around from meeting to meeting inside and outside the office.
I live much of my worklife in Google Apps now, so simply having a keyboard, a reasonable screen and live ‘Net access is enough for me.
I’m also going to hand it to a couple of in-house journalists to see if this might make a good field laptop for remote reporting, including video chatting and such. I only wish Apple had made one of these first. Or maybe after I try it, I’ll understand why Steve Jobs skipped out on this party.
The cost was under $500 with shipping and I configured it with a slimmed-down copy of Windows XP, 1GB of RAM, a 640×480 webcam, and a 16GB solid state drive. Plus I’m picking up a 16GB SDHC card to pop into the side and a wireless mouse. I ordered a couple days after launch earlier this month and in theory I should see it next week sometime.
More info after I’ve played with it for a while.
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