Digital Home Thoughts: Engadget Reviews the New Dell Mini 10

"Michael Dell may not be a fan of netbooks, but you wouldn't know that from the newest Mini 10. Joining the current Mini 10v, Dell's completely overhauled the chassis and added Intel's new Pine Trail processor. But that's not all: come February the little laptop will be available with Broadcom's Crystal HD accelerator, which promises full HD playback on a high-res 1366 x 768 display. But does the $425 package rid us of our tireless complaints that Atom can't handle HD, and does it rival netbooks based on NVIDIA's Ion platform? And perhaps more importantly, can we count on the Mini 10 to be a valuable member of the growing Pine Trail netbook fraternity when it comes to battery life and ergonomics? Read on to find out!"

I've got one of these on order from Dell, and am still waiting for it, but the gang at Engadget snagged one and put it through its paces. The most notable changes? It's a bit chunkier than the previous Mini 10, largely to incorporate a 6-cell battery into the chassis without having the hump out the back. That's a big leap forward - but there's also no longer an HDMI port (apparently the Intel Pineview chipset doesn't support it) which some may consider a loss. I'm not sure I like the white chassis - and it sucks that Dell is still charging $40 to change the colour of the lid. What do you think about the design?