Review of my MacBook Mini

I've had about a week now to play around with my Leopard-installed Dell Mini 9. As a Mac user, I absolutely LOVE it, but then again also as a Mac user, the Mini (unsurprisingly) is not a true Apple device and ultimately does have a few nags.

Pros:

• It's a small, light, portable, fully functional Mac OS laptop!
• It's FULLY FUNCTIONAL. Everything works - wifi, built-in 3G, trackpad, built-in webcam, audio out port (for headphones).
• The built-in wireless broadband is particularly useful. You can go online ANYWHERE without having to look for a hotspot! Even in the car!
• The LED-backlighted screen is gorgeous.
• Has a built-in SDHC card slot, which means that the internal storage space can be boosted by the mere insertion of a SDHC card. To save space on the internal SSD, I'm even running apps off the SDHC - Firefox, iLife '09 etc. Loading may be SLIGHTLY slower than on an iMac, but once loaded, it works flawlessly.
• WIth the internal SSD (Solid State Drive) storage, and no fan nor DVD-reader, the Mini has NO MOVING PARTS. Which should make it more robust to knocks while carrying it around.

Cons:

• The keyboard really needs getting used to. I'm still getting more than my usual amount of typos. The alphabet-keys are OK, just that the other keys are are not aligned the usual way, and some are REALLY tiny! The two buttons adjoining the space bar which are mapped as the Command (Apple) buttons are even smaller than the tip of my fingers!
• I was never really a fan of trackpads, especially on non-Apple products, but the Mini's trackpad is just BAD. It's overly sensitive, and there's too much friction. Remedied this problem by getting myself a Microsoft (!) bluetooth mouse which pairs beautifully.
• It can get really hot after prolonged usage - but that's expected considering it has no internal fan. Anyway, I'm used to having my MacBook Pro literally ROASTING my thighs!
• Maxis 3G is a bit hit-and-miss. If you're in an area with good HSDPA coverage, then it's excellent. But it's rather slow otherwise. Having said that, connection in EDGE areas are not THAT bad, comparable to Streamyx most of the times (which doesn't say much). One problem with connecting to the net via 3G on a Mac is that the built-in dialer doesn't tell you whether the connection is on HSDPA, 3G, EDGE or plain GPRS. But I guess that's a minor problem as you can easily check the type of coverage using any 3G-enabled phone.
• The sound output is a bit dodgy, particularly when playing back movie files using VLC. At first I thought this had something to do with the speakers, but plugging in headphones yielded the same outcome. Probably a driver update would fix this.
  
• The built-in camera, at 0.3MP, is understandably grainy, especially in low light.

So there you have it. Probably the photo above encapsulates the features of the Mini. As you can see, I'm sat outside by the KLCC lake and I'm happily connected to the net, checking my emails, facebook and the latest football news. The photo is snapped using the Mini's integrated camera (which explains the graininess), but I fixed it up a bit using iPhoto '09 software which is readily installed on the Mini.

Anyway, with this Mini, there's less excuse not to blog on a more regular basis!