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

E. A. Montgomery Say: Dell Inspiron Mini Duo 3487FNT Convertible Laptop Tablet (Foggy Night)
Epic Fail (to) Beautiful & Slow, 2011-02-24
This review is for: Dell Inspiron Mini Duo 3487FNT Convertible Laptop Tablet (Foggy Night)
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.

Michael Say: Dell Inspiron Mini Duo 3487FNT Convertible Laptop Tablet (Foggy Night)
Ram limit 2G, 2011-11-28
This review is for: Dell Inspiron Mini Duo 3487FNT Convertible Laptop Tablet (Foggy Night)
After an hour of research, I confirm that the Ram can't be upgraded to 4G.It is limited by the N550 CPU architecture.Still I bought one for a black friday price. I believe if used carefully, it will 2G ram is still enough.

Edward Walker "ednpatty" Say: Dell Inspiron Mini Duo 3487FNT Convertible Laptop Tablet (Foggy Night)
Excellent handheld tool!, 2011-03-31
This review is for: Dell Inspiron Mini Duo 3487FNT Convertible Laptop Tablet (Foggy Night)
I will start out that this would not be my first choice for a computer since my tastes lie in a Intel Core i5 2500k sitting next to me. That said, I was pleasantly surprised at how useful this netbook actually is. Initially, I saw the small'ish screen and the tiny keyboard and thought that it would be difficult to see and use, but I was wrong. The size issue seems to disappear once you start surfing or pulling up email. After finding myself grabbing the Duo instead of my PC's keyboard for simple tasks, I found the true allure of this device - portability. Where this thing shines is when something pops up in conversation and you want to check it online and you're there. It has the familiarity of Windows 7 which will make many happy and the ease of use as many tablets (others compare it to the iPad, but I will get to that). Over all, this is a great computer without many flaws.Flipscreen:The first thing I did was loaded Kindle software. It is a natural fit for this device. The screen is clear and, being multi-touch, worked very well for books both color and monochrome.Since there is no CD or floppy standard (one could buy an external USB version of either), I used my ISO making software and put several children games on the 320 GB hard drive and mounted as soft cds. Other than a sound issue on one of them (Windows 7 compatibility problem, I think), kids games worked well with just the touchscreen. Obviously, if the game needs a keyboard, it is better to use it like a laptop.At first, I had problems closing fullscreen windows and and selecting small things because my big fingers would block half of what I needed to see. I noticed that I could assume that it was going to pick up the middle of my fingertip and that helped quite a bit.I had problems with Web navigation initially, too. I had a tendency to highlight text instead of scroll, but I eventually worked beyond that. It was followed by my noticing a oh-so-slight delay in scroll response once I got the hang of things. What was nice about Internet Explorer as the standard browser is that it recognized gestures for forward and backward page navigation. Chrome didn't do that so it must be a Microsoft integration thing.I didn't get NetFlix installed in time to review, but I tried an HD MPEG streamed through wireless and it played flawless. No buffering even (but I had a good network signal). I little media player is another way to view (no pun intended) this device.Memory:I felt 2GB of RAM was adequate but I didn't push apps real hard. If I had multiple programs running, it started to feel a little sluggish.A 320GB hard drive was a pleasant plus. A laptop I use frequently only has an 40GB drive and I am constantly shuffling apps, movies, or music around so it doesn't fill up completely.Keyboard:A little small for the average touch typist, but I didn't have a problem getting used to it. Obviously, the layout took some getting used to since some of the navigation keys were moved from standard, but show me a laptop that doesn't do that.An interesting note - 6 year-olds don't even notice that it is a smaller keyboard.The keys have a better feel to them than I expected, as well.Battery:There have been many complaints about the battery, both life and accessibility. No replacing this one easily. Life ran a few hours, but if I was doing any heavy reading, I left it plugged in.Connections:Two USB, a microphone and a headphone for I/O and a power jack. That's it. I know there is a dock available, but it would have been nice to have a video out (my cell phone has a micro-HDMI interface!).I don't like the covers over the USB and audio connectors. I felt like I was going to tear them off if I wasn't careful and they made it harder to plug in peripherals.Wireless worked as expected and luckily, I have an N router. It made pulling the ISOs and movies from my PC over-the-air fairly quick.I have no need for the Bluetooth (although I am tempted to connect my Motorola stereo headset, but not as of this review) nor the camera (no Skype or other tools).iPad:People have compared this to other tablets (iPad) and it fell short. It doesn't have an intuitive, multi-touch interface like IOS nor is everything on buttons. If you want the features of an iPad, then get an iPad. The Duo does so much more for non-Applephiles with multiple windows, standard applications, Flash, Task Management and no iTunes.To wrap up this review, the Inspiron Duo is great at what it does. Browsing, email, Facebook, eBooks, whatever you need a portable computer for, this can do it. Video editing or online gaming? Not so much. But if you want something for your go-to device, I would choose this over most PCs any day. It is light, defaults to hibernation for fast boots and easy to read. Dell did a great job with this one. Make the battery better and it would be even closer to perfect.