First Look: Dell Inspiron Mini duo, a netbook/tablet combo

Will tablets replace netbooks as the mobile computing device of choice, as many have speculated? Dell is hedging its bets with the Inspiron Mini duo, a netbook/tablet combo. (Dell hasn't released the mini duo's price or ship date yet.)

Like a netbook, the Mini duo has a 10-inch screen and uses the new dual-core Atom processor. It weighs 3 pounds. Switching between netbook and tablet is easy: Just open the netbook, then flip around the display, which is housed within a frame. Close the netbook, and you've got a tablet.

One unique feature is the speaker dock, which also serves as a charger. When you pop the tablet into the dock, you've got a compact entertainment system for viewing movies and listening to music. However, I was unable to get the speakers to work in the pre-retail unit we received from Dell.

Since the Mini duo is a tablet, it has a touch screen. It runs Windows 7 and uses that operating system's touch technology. Dell also added its own touch interface that gets you to the browser, a music player, videos, blio e-book reading software, and more.

Unfortunately, Windows 7's touch, at least as implemented here, wasn't easy for me to use. It required very precise placement of my fingers to press what I wanted. I often missed, and my fingers aren't particularly large. It was also difficult to scroll. Rumor has it that Windows 8, now on the Microsoft drawing board, will have a more touch-friendly interface.

The virtual keyboard, which had letters placed in the upper left corner of each key, was a bit hard for me to read. You have to click twice to get the keyboard to appear, once in the box you're typing into and again on the keyboard symbol that pops up, which gets to be inconvenient. The keyboard can get in the way if the area you're typing in happens to be behind it. I found the delay when going from landscape to portrait mode too long.

I liked how the display looked, and the speaker dock is a great idea. (It's also how you charge the device). As a netbook, the Mini duo has a full-size chiclet-style keyboard. Without the speaker dock, I found the sound acceptable—better than what you'd get in most netbooks.

Unfortunately, in trying to be two devices in one, the mini duo compromises both. While the screen is more than ample for a tablet, the Mini duo weighs too much for that type of device. Even as a netbook, the 3-pound Mini duo is heavier than most of the netbooks in our Ratings.

While Windows 7 is fine as a netbook operating system, the touch technology falls short, seriously detracting from the tablet experience. We'll do a full review of the Dell Inspiron Mini duo, with performance Ratings and battery life, as soon as models go on sale.

What do you think of the idea of a netbook/tablet combo? Weigh in below.

—Donna Tapellini