Dell Inspiron Mini 12 laptop computer

For some time Dell stayed out of the burgeoning mini notebook market, but at the end of 2008 the company unveiled its first model, the Inspiron Mini 9.

That was a 9in model in the vein of the Asus, Acer and MSI computers we'd seen previously.

The new Inspiron Mini 12 is a slightly different proposition. It has a 12in screen, making it similar in size to the smaller full-size notebooks, but it's extremely thin and extremely light, with no optical drive, which helps reduce size and weight. In fact, given its dimensions and weight, its closest relative is the Apple Macbook Air, although, while fairly stylish, the Mini 12 doesn't match the Macbook Air in terms of looks.

Unlike on the Mini 9, there is no option to install Windows on this computer – Microsoft doesn't allow the Windows XP operating system to be loaded on computers with screens this big, only onto true mini notebooks, and it's not powerful enough to run Vista – so it uses the Ubuntu edition of the Linux operating system. There is an upgraded version that can run Vista, for an extra £70.

That's a good choice, because it's easy to use, faster than Windows would have been, and we had no trouble starting it up and getting going.

Some versions of Linux make it hard to connect to wireless networks, but we've never had a problem with this on Ubuntu, and that proved to be the case here: it connected straightaway to our test wireless network once we'd supplied the password.

Linux is also, on the whole, safer than Windows in terms of viruses and spyware, so there's no need to install any kind of anti-virus program, and the Mini 12 isn't supplied with one. It does come with a bundle of software, which is free to download anyway, but it's nice to have it installed and ready to go. That includes the Openoffice suite for word processing, spreadsheets and making presentations, the Firefox web browser, Skype for internet phone calls, an email reader and a bunch of other tools and games.

It uses the Intel Atom Z520 processor, which is a little slower than the Atom processor found in, say, the MSI Wind, but that difference isn't noticeable. The 1GB of memory again might have been a problem for Windows but for Linux it's more than enough, and there's 30GB of free space on the disk for your documents, photos, music and video files.

There are three USB ports, a memory card reader, wired network connection, headphone and microphone sockets and a VGA socket to plug in a monitor. There's also a webcam mounted on the top of the screen.

In use the Mini 12 was fast and simple, and while it's not exactly 'mini' in comparison to some of its rivals it's extremely portable and, at just 1.2kg, it's certainly light. It's solidly built despite that, so while it may not stand too many knocks it will not be badly affected by the knocks of daily use. Battery life is not great, at a maximum of around two hours.

The keyboard is quite shallow making it slightly uncomfortable over a long typing session, but the mouse trackpad and buttons are large and easy to use.

Like all mini notebooks, the Inspiron Mini 12 is not suitable for hardcore games (as a Linux computer it won't run shop-bought games anyway) or video editing, but if you want a portable computer for the internet, email and office tasks, it is a great choice.