Dell Inspiron Mini Duo 3487FNT Convertible Laptop/Tablet (Foggy Night) From Dell

Product Description

Sometimes you want to touch. Sometimes you need to type. With the new touch-sensitive, Flash-capable Inspiron duo, you can do both in style.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1003 in Personal Computers
• Color: Foggy Night
• Brand: Dell
• Model: iMD-3487FNT
• Dimensions: 16.69" h x 3.64" w x 10.16" l, 4.21 pounds
• CPU: Intel Atom 1.5 Hz
• Memory: 2GB
• Hard Disk: 320GB
• Display size: 10.1

Features

• Intel Atom N550 Processor (1.5GHz, 1M Cache)
• 2GB, DDR3, 800MHz, 1 DIMM
• 320GB 7200RPM Hard Drive; Wireless 802.11n / Bluetooth Combo Card
• 10.1" Widescreen HD (1366X768) Multi-Touch Display; Integrated Intel NM10 Express graphics
• Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Product Description

Sometimes you want to touch, sometimes you need to type. With the new touch-sensitive Dell Inspiron Mini Duo convertible tablet, you can do both in style. The innovative flip design lets you switch from type to touch in seconds, allowing you to more comfortably read books, watch movies, and play games on the 10.1-inch high-definition display. It also offers the power of dual-core computing performance via the next-generation Intel Atom N550 processor to help you stay productive on the go.

The Dell Inspiron Mini Duo looks like a regular netbook....

...but it can also convert into a tablet...

It comes with Dell's innovative Stage software, which provides a one-stop entertainment hub. Download movies, play games, listen to your favorite songs, and stream radio stations with RadioTime. Connect with friends on social networks, and view their Facebook and Flickr photos together in a real-time photo stream.

This Dell notebook comes pre-installed with the Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium operating system (64-bit version). You'll also experience new ways to deliver your best work with Office Starter 2010.

Key Features

• Picture perfect. Experience superb visuals on the 10.1-inch HD multitouch display.
• Converts to your needs. The unique flip-hinge design enables seamless transition between touch and type modes.
• Your life at your fingertips. The intuitive touch screen and duo Stage software provide quick and easy access to your music, movies and photos.
• Support for Adobe Flash. View your multimedia the way it was designed to be seen with the fully Flash-capable Inspiron duo.
• See me, hear me. Stay connected to friends and family with the 1.3 MP Webcam5 and microphone.

Specifications

• 10.1-inch high-definition display with 1366 x 768-pixel resolution for native HD 720p display and featuring a 16:9 aspect ratio that brings all your entertainment to life in stunning bright colors.
• 1.5 GHz Intel Atom dual-core N550 processor (1 MB L2 cache, 667 MHz FSB) combines performance and energy efficiency to provide new levels of support for applications like games, as well as Adobe Flash technology for improved access to multimedia sites such as YouTube and Hulu.
• 320 GB SATA hard drive (5400 RPM)
• 2 GB installed DDR3 RAM (800 MHz)
• Integrated Intel NM10 Express graphics with Microsoft DirectX 9.0 support.
• Wireless-N Wi-Fi (802.11b/g/n) for ultra-fast connectivity to home and business networks (plus backwards compatibility with older wireless routers).
• Bluetooth connectivityenables you to communicate and synchronize wirelessly with Bluetooth-enabled peripherals such as printers and cell phones.
• Comfortable keyboard that's 92 percent the size of a standard laptop keyboard with curved keys for a comfortable fit. Also includes a new palm rest that helps resist fingerprints.
• Stereo speaker with 2 watts of power
• 1.3-megapixel webcam with digital array microphone
  

  ...with just a flip of the screen.
• Windows 7 Home Premium makes it easy to create a home network and share all of your favorite photos, videos, and music. And you can watch shows for free when and where you want with Internet TV on Windows Media Center. Get the best entertainment experience with Windows 7 Home Premium.
• Preloaded with the Microsoft Office Starter 2010 2010 free software offering

with selected functionality of Word and Excel for your text and spreadsheet tasks. Plus, if you decide you want the full suite, just purchase a product key to activate an ad-free version that also includes the latest Outlook, PowerPoint, and Publisher programs.

Dell DataSafe Online optional online backup service (additional charges applicable) offers data protection by enabling you to back up data to a safe, remote storage site using a broadband connection. Dell DataSafe Online is designed to be easy, flexible and secure. After setup, it will automatically back up data and help protect against software, hardware and catastrophic failure.

4-cell battery

Measures 11.22 x 7.66 x 1.13 inches (WxDxH)

Weighs 3.05 pounds

Warranty: 1-year limited hardware warranty; 24/7 phone support

Connectivity & Expansion

• 2 USB 2.0 ports for connecting a wide range of peripherals--from digital cameras to MP3 players to external hard drives.
• 1 headphone, 1 microphone

What's in the Box

This package contains the Dell Inspiron Mini Duo 3487FNT notebook PC, AC adapter, rechargeable battery, and printed documentation.

The centrally located, easy-to-use Dell Support Center application offers provides personalized support resources. Conveniently located on your PC's desktop with quick links to service, support and system resources. You'll be able to keep your system up-to-date and running efficiently through automated fixes for common configuration issues.

Included Software

McAfee SecurityCenter with Anti-Virus, Anti-Spyware, Firewall (6-month subscription); Microsoft Office Starter 2010

Learn More

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium

Pre-installed with the Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium operating system (64-bit version), you'll be able to easily create a home network and share all of your favorite photos, videos, and music. Windows 7 is the easiest, fastest, and most engaging version of Windows yet. Better ways to find and manage files, like Jump Lists and improved taskbar previews, help you speed through everyday tasks. Windows 7 is designed for faster and more reliable performance, so your PC just works the way you want it to.

Dell's innovative Stage multimedia software.

The Stage That Sets Itself

Dell Stage delivers the things that matter to you right to your desktop, with your most recent content always front and center. Seamlessly toggle between your favorite applications (photos, videos, music, Web pages and more) with ease, all from Stage's sleek, movie-reel style interface.

With Stage, you can easily edit and crop your photos, then share them with family and friends on Facebook or Flickr--no extra software required. Want to find that song you love? MusicStage lets you search your music collection by artist, title or even genre. And when you're ready to share your home movies, PhotoStage makes it easy to play and upload video files to Facebook.

When you buy a Dell system equipped with Stage software, you get a one-stop entertainment hub. Download movies, play games, listen to your favorite songs and stream radio stations with RadioTime. Connect with friends on social networks, and view their Facebook and Flickr photos together in a real-time photo stream. Stage delivers the things you need, right where you need them.

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Customer Reviews

Most helpful customer reviews

109 of 112 people found the following review helpful.
Awesome little machine
By Dan A.
I got this a week ago and have been playing with it nonstop since.

There are three things you need to be aware of when purchasing this:

1) The screen is even smaller than on most netbooks because of the flip design. The versatility more than makes up for it though.

2) The battery is not removable and is good for about 3 hours.

3) Windows 7 Home Premium only likes to view drives on other machines running Windows 7. My home PC was running Vista. It could look at and access the drives on the Duo; but the Dou will only look at drives in it's Homegroup. Only Windows 7 supports homegroups. I upgraded my desktop to Windows 7 Home Premium and now they network amazingly well. Setup was a snap.

I have thick fingers, but I haven't found that I need to use the stylus (bought separately) with it. The keyboard is well laid out. The touch screen took a little getting used to. Voice recognition works very well in a quiet environment. Between the three, I haven't even bothered to install the wireless mouse I got to use with it.

It boots up quickly. It's nice and fast. It has a lot less bloatware than most machines come with.

I was surprized at how solid it feels because it's so tiny. The entire unit looks and feels well made.

It's small and light enough to go anywhere; but powerful enough to do real computing. It's a great second computer. It syncs easily with my desktop now that both run W7. I was able to share my internal and external drives between both machines, including the DVD burner in my desktop.

163 of 183 people found the following review helpful.
Epic Fail (to) Beautiful & Slow
By E. A. Montgomery
I will be updating this review in about two weeks, but I think what has happened with the product so far warrants review as it's an experience I would want to know about when making my purchase.

I currently have an iPad but was given the opportunity to review the Dell Inspiron Mini Duo. My first impression out of the box was that this is an impressive product. The casing appeared to be high quality, with good button response and a firm swivel to the screen. The back was much nicer than my iPad, the grip is smooth and comfortable. Certainly on specs alone I was extremely interested in what this tablet / laptop combination had to offer. During set up I was also impressed with the the ease of using the touch pad. (Non-responsive lap top touch pads are a key issue for me.) All the signs were good. Setup took an extremely long time, with what seemed to be numerous unneeded 'I Agree' and set up screens. I expect that when working with Windows, so no points off there. Just as all of the set up was complete and it was time to configure the security software preinstalled, the screen went black. The system crashed completely, and the error beeps indicate a motherboard failure. Still no points off, while unfortunate, defective hardware can occur. I called the help line.

After 14 minutes on hold, I reached a person. She was extremely polite but it was very difficult for us to understand each other so a lot of repeating was involved. At 25 minutes into the call she had taken my name and we were discussing the problem. Despite telling her the screen had gone black she wanted to know what error code I saw. Nothing, the screen is black and the unit is beeping. (I can't turn it off either.) Despite telling her I had gotten the unit less than an hour ago, she went over the data loss I would be experiencing and explained that I needed to return the unit for repair, sans attachments. I explained I had no attachments and asked why I was sending a brand new unit in for repair. Why wouldn't it be exchanged? The answer was that it needs to be repaired. At 32 minutes into the call she had taken my address and explained it would be two weeks for the unit to come back to me. I let her know I had a review on the product due, was this the only option? It was.

If I had purchased this unit at retail price, I would be extremely upset with Dell. Here the points start coming off. She transferred me to a supervisor to rate her helpfulness. I said she was quite polite, and the supervisor asked if she had informed me there would be data loss. I told him there was no data to lose, the unit had arrived this afternoon and failed during set up. I explained I needed to review the product, was there an exchange option open? He assured me the unit would be back from repair in 8 to 10 days if I mailed the unit in promptly. I thanked him. I will update this review when the repaired unit arrives, but if I had purchased this product I would have refunded it. I am disappointed in the product so far and could not in good faith recommend it. Hopefully, my impression will be more favorable when I have the repaired unit to test.

UPDATED to 2 stars 2/26 - I was called by Dell technical support today and told not to send the unit in as this was a 'known issue'. Tech support said they found this problem could be solved by booting up in test function, and then ignoring the test. (In order to do this, I turned it on while holding down the FN key, then bypassed the screen when it did boot. I did not get a repeat of the black screen.) No explanation was offered or understood as to the cause of the black screen or not being able to turn the unit off, but the unit is working now. I am charging it overnight and should update the review again by the 28th. I still don't know the cause of the initial failures, and tech says if the problem becomes chronic (we weren't able to agree on a definition of chronic) that it should be sent in for repair. I spoke with two people at tech support today and they were as helpful in the phone call as they were unhelpful in the prior. Both apologized for the problem occurring and not being resolved prior, both urged me to contact them via an email they sent to me (received) for future need. A cynic would think they read the review, but I think it's more likely someone caught the work order and questioned it.

UPDATED to 3 stars 3/1 - I've been using the Inspiron Mini Duo for a few days. I have my reservations about it because of the CS experience and the lack of explanation for why it bricked, giving a false code for motherboard failure. Knowing that could happen again at any time means backups have to be religious and external. (A good idea, but not one the average netbook user is going to follow). Setting that aside, I do like the design of this unit. The touch screen was responsive even before I calibrated it for personal use. Flipping the screen from netbook to tablet in the middle of a task works seamlessly. I can see a solid use for this at once as an e-reader replacement. Start a book with the keyboard, flip the tablet, and you can read without having to angle your head. The keys have a nice responsive feeling, the tracking pad is smooth and accurate. As a netbook, I think this is a better choice than many I have used. As an iPad killer, not so much. While the much larger drive and built in keyboards are welcome, the Inspiron is not a true tablet computer. The load time for initial use and individual programs is still much longer than an iPad. You won't quickly and effortlessly move between applications. As with my laptop, there's plenty of hurry-up-and-wait with the netbook. It will probably gain speed when I strip it of the pre-loaded software, but it will still be a netbook with added functions, not a tablet with a keyboard and track pad. All of that said, for the price point it's a nice machine with above average looks worth considering. If I hadn't had the early CS problems, or if I had a better understanding of the chances of recurrence, I'd probably go four stars. As it is, from one to three is as far back up the scale as I can comfortably go.

UPDATED April 20th - this has been used pretty much daily without a repeat of the initial failure to respond. I'm beginning to think it was a one time event as operation has been fairly flawless with the usual issues you might find with a net book. The tablet is holding up very well, no signs of stress to the hinges at all. Connecting it to the home network has shown we're more likely to use this tablet than the main machine, the longer I own it the more I like it.

45 of 49 people found the following review helpful.
Little guy packs a lot of punch!
By Kula
We got this computer Saturday and have not stopped playing with it. My first impressions were that the size was perfect and the flip screen was an excellent added bonus. Just the flip screen alone would make me buy this over other computers, and then the fact that it is a touchscreen sealed the deal. All in all this, is a wonderful mini computer with a few flaws, but nothing that is a deal breaker. This computer comes with all the features standard on Windows 7. Also comes with a trial version of Microsoft Office, but I do not find the need to buy the license since this is not my primary computer.

Touch Screen
-The thing I was most excited to try out, it is responsive and easy to use.
-when the screen is flipped a little slide out keyboard can be seen midway up on the left side, one touch and it slides out.
-here you can type with the keyboard, or you can draw letters with your fingers and it will automatically turn it into text
-the touchscreen takes a little bit to get used to in terms of learning where to touch to get the right letters hit, but what helps you to learn where you are actually touching the screen, is a little tiny diamond appears where your finder hits the screen, so you can see if you need to go more to the left or the right to get a precise touch.
-if the computer included a stylus that would be a much welcome addition.
-I love the fact that I can flip the screen and use it as an e-reader. Works will with the Kindle app as well, plus you get the bonus of a color screen when you're reading.

Camera
-We used google chat to test out the camera an it worked really well, no bells and whistles (there is a camera program that you can use to make different backgrounds, etc. But nothing special)
-the camera program takes a minute to load, but works well once it is loaded

Storage
-With a 320GB hard drive, it had more space than my first 4 computers did, combined! Need I say more?
-Immediately loaded over 4,000 songs onto the hard drive and this did not slow down the computer or even put a dent in the available space.

Keyboard
-I do not think the keyboard is small and the keys are just the right size
-the keys are reasonably spaced, like that of a MacBook and look nice

Battery
-The battery life isn't spectacular, but 3.5 hours and it runs a whole computer I think is pretty good.

Flash
-Love that it has flash (Sorry iPad)

Cons
-with only 2GB of RAM to run most programs, sometimes things load slowly (well, most of the time things run slowly). When next to a MacBook Pro, the MacBook took 2 seconds to load most web pages while the net book too about 10 seconds. But this isn't supposed to be a primary computer, and it has half the RAM that the MacBook has, so thats not a big deal.
-no card reader, but it has 2 usb ports which is nice for loading media
-I really wish it came with the dock, which has a card reader
-I wish it came with a stylus, but this can also be ordered separately
-sometimes the cursor gets lost on the screen while using the touchpad. The only way to bring it back is to touch the screen.

So long story short, this is definitely the best mini computer in its class because of the large hardrive (most are about $200 less and have 1GB RAM and a 250GB hardrive) with all the advances in technology, I think it is definitely worth the investment to get the bigger hard drive. This netbook is so portable, I cannot wait to travel with it, yet nothing is compromised or left behind because its large hard drive. Overall, I have to keep telling myself that this is a netbook, not a regular computer. As a netbook, this Dell does the job and does the job well. Dell hit the mark with the touchscreen, and I can't wait to see what they come out with next!

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