The Mini 9 is Dell’s take on the netbook concept - very small, very cheap laptops designed for travel, simple document editing and Web surfing. It comes with an Intel Atom 1.6Ghz processor, 1GB RAM, a 16GB flash drive and Windows XP Home Edition.

Pros: As netbooks go, the Mini 9 is nicely built, with a good keyboard, a nice screen, and well laid out trackpad.

Cons: Performance was a little more sluggish than we would have liked, especially reading from USB flash drives. The lack of real function keys might also annoy some, and like a lot of netbooks, battery life is adequate but not really exciting

Verdict: A good contender in the netbook space - but wait until Dell gets price competitive and offers specials.