The Dell Inspirion DuoThe Dell Inspirion Duo is one of Dells big idea, and it is a great ideas, but it has way to many problems, and glitches for it to be worth the money. 
The Dell Inspirion Duo, in my opinion, could have been great, but it seems like Dell didn't put as much time or thought into it as they should have to make it successful. Within the first two weeks of getting it, I began to notice small glitches that on their own wouldn’t be a problem, but together became a big deal. After trying, and failing, to solve the problems myself, I sent it back to Dell and within a week I received a new one which so far hasn’t had any major problems, though I have found out that 2 GB of ram is insufficient for me. 
The RAM is also not upgradable so you are stuck with a measly 2GB, which is not enough to take full advantage of the Dual core processor. After I got the second one I started to read about other people having the same problems I had, such as the magnetometer not working after a few day of use. Besides that it has some very nice features, such as the unique swivel design, and the 10.1” 1366 by 768 screen, which has a relatively high pixel rate. Another nice feature is the roomy hard drive which comes in 250GB and 320GB flavors. My favorite part of the Dell Duo is the fact that it comes with a full install of Windows 7 Home premium allowing it to run all the programs that you would normally use on your desktop or laptop. 
If you are one of the few people who actually bought one of these things I would like to suggest some software that I’ve found to be useful. First of all ritepen, which allows you to enter text into any text area simply by writing anywhere on the screen. I find it to be particularly useful in tablet mode because I don’t like using up screen real estate with the onscreen keyboard. Another useful program is Inksiene which is for taking and organizing handwritten notes. It doesn’t compare with Onenote but it is free whereas Onenote is more expensive than is necessary (in my opinion). The bottom line is that the Dell Duo, while slightly cool and undeniably fun, is not everything it could be. ProsThe first thing I like about this device is the unique swivel design, which is tons of fun. The next thing is the full version of Windows 7 Home Premium, which is nice for anyone who uses the Microsoft office suite. ConsThe main problem I have with this netbook is the processor, which while fast for an Intel atom processor, it's still just an atom. In my opinion they should have put a low voltage I3 at least. My other problem is the RAM, which I think should be 3 or 4 GB, or at least should be upgrade-able. Specs
Bottom LineThe Dell Inspirion Duo had potential, and if they ever make an updated version of it, then I would want to check it out, but for now it just isnt worth the money. Leave Dell Inspirion Duo, Return to Netbooks New! CommentsHave your say about what you just read! Leave me a comment in the box below. |