Dell Inspiron Duo

The Dell Inspiron Duo is an interesting and innovative design from Dell which is dominated by the swivelling display. While at first glance it appears to be just another 10 inch netbook, the capacitive touchscreen is able to fold over onto the keyboard which turns it from slightly overweight netbook into a touchscreen tablet computer. In addition, there is a dual core Atom N550 processor along with 2 GB of RAM and a Broadcom Crystal HD accelerator which ensures that this little machine hums along nicely.
Storage is nicely taken care of with either a 250Gb or 320Gb hard drive depending on your chosen specification.

The rotating screen is a fantastic gimmick but our primary concern is whether the setup is going to be durable in the long run. The Dell engineers have managed to pull a blinder here with a very sturdy construction which seems like it will be well up to the rigours of day to day use.
The rotating screen has magnets on either side to secure it in place and stop it flapping around.

In an unusual bad design moment from Dell, the 1.3 megapixel webcam is built into the surrounding bezel rather than the display so when you flip it to tablet mode you lose the webcam.  Not the end of the world for most people but a poor piece of design from the usually oh so careful Dell boffins.

We were very disappointed with the lack of connectivity options built in with just a headphone jack and two USB ports.
It seems incredible in this day and age that there is no ethernet fort, VGA out or even an SD card slot.
This all makes sense when you realise that all these are available in the dock which is available separately for around £100.

For users who have to spend a lot of time typing, the keyboard and touchpad have been designed with the segment of the market in mind with a stiff backing and matte style keys that make typing a relative pleasure.

Probably one of the smartest design features is the touchpad which has been effectively molded into the palmrest. It has plenty of room and with the ergonomic styling, is actually quite comfortable for users. This is mainly due to the separate mouse buttons which have dedicated functions for both the right and left sides. The pad is quite responsive to the touch and multitouch gestures are supported very well.
This is certainly a 100% improvement on the simply awful trackpad on the Dell Mini 1012 and 1018.

The ability to swivel the display is the attention getting feature of this model, and the 1366 x 768 resolution would appear to be top of the line quality. While the screen itself has a bright and clear picture, the picture quality suffers a lot if you alter the viewing angle too much. This is going to be a pain when using the Inspiron Duo in tablet guise as you really need to be holding it dead on the get a decent view.

The software underneath is much nicer than the normal stock Windows 7 Premium which comes as standard. A proprietary DuoStage software system automatically starts up when the screen is folded down over the keyboard. This has helped to make the multi-media experience more user friendly. The main menu has icons for quick access to MusicStage, Photostage, VideoStage, Books, Games and the Internet. These shortcuts allow users access to their favorite applications and makes it easy to accomplish a variety of tasks – whether for business purposes or simply for fun.

Battery life is something of a disappointment at around the 3 hours 45 minute mark which doesn’t really stack up against the cheaper netbook market with many models, such as the Samsung NF210 offering in excess of 7 hours battery life.

If you are considering the Dell Inspiron Duo then we would really recommend stumping up the extra for the docking station and the connectivity options it offers.

The Dell Inspiron duo is a unique and novel machine that users will find to be innovative and easy to use. While it does have its drawbacks, they are in our opinion outweighed by the positives that this delightful device provides.

We particularly like the bipolar nature of the Dell Inspiron Duo which means that when you want to get some work done it is a capable workhorse and yet when you flip the screen it becomes a very capable media player with the Broadcom HD chip allowing high quality HD video playback.

If you don’t fancy shelling out the full whack up front for the Inspiron Duo then it now available with a mobile broadband deal from Three mobile for an up front fee plus a monthly payment which includes a vast data allowance.

Click the Three logo below for more details.