We’re going to start off our round off minis with the Dell Inspiron Mini 9 Notebook. It’s one of the more popular models out there for the mini notebooks, and has a fairly affordable price tag. This mini has the 8.9 screen size that seems to be the common thread among the mini lineups.

The Dell Inspiron Mini has a Intel Atom processor and an Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950. Interestingly, the most affordable version of this mini has the Ubuntu Linux version 8.04.1 operating system on it, instead of the usual Windows Vista or XP. Of course you can upgrade and select Windows XP as your operating system if you’d like.

The price difference between the base model and the next one up isn’t much, so if I were to choose Dell I’d probably go for the second one, for the extra storage space. Base model is $349 and the next upgrade comes to $399, which gives you the Windows XP (which is a bonus for me since that’s what I have running on my main computer) and an 8GB hard drive instead of the 4GB that the base model has. It could come in handy depending on what your plans are for using the mini.

I’ve been looking around for some reviews of each model since I don’t have them in hand myself, and here’s a bit of what I found about the Dell Mini 9:

Laptopmag.com says: Dell took its time releasing its own netbook, and it is clear they spent the extra days and hours getting (nearly) everything just right. …. the Inspiron Mini 9, starting at $349, has all the specs to make it one of our favorite netbooks. Even better is the ability to configure the system, from the size of the solid state drive and RAM to the webcam resolution. However, we wish Dell had spent a bit more time on the keyboard.

The Inspiron Mini 9 is one of the smallest and lightest 8.9-inch mini-notebooks we’ve seen. Measuring 9.1 x 6.8 x 1.3 inches and weighing just 2.3 pounds, it is lighter than both the 2.4-pound Acer Aspire one and the 3.2-pound HP 2133 Mini-Note. The spill-resistant keyboard on the Inspiron Mini 9 is solidly built and provided good tactile feedback without too much flex.

TestSeek.com reviewers said: Sleek, simple Linux OS, compact, sturdy design, decent battery life, configurable online, but with awkward keyboard.