Dell Inspiron Duo Review

The Dell Inspiron duo is both a tablet and a laptop, offering an Intel dual core Atom processor, 2 GB of RAM and a 320 GB hard drive. With a flip of the screen, the Inspiron duo becomes a multi-touch tablet that allows users to browse the web and more with a tap of a finger. Candace Bailey and Chris Hardwick review the $500 device.

What You Need to Know

• This little convertible is about the same size as a netbook at only 1” thick and weighs about 3 lbs.
• Dell has an overlay with shortcuts for touch-optimized apps, but once you get into these, it chugs
• Looking at photos with pinch and zoom or drawing in their paint application has a lot of lag and it gets pretty frustrating
• Browsing the web works okay, but the more complicated the site, the less it works as intended
• You can also use the touch screen with Windows 7 if you don't want to use the Dell overlay, but we found ourselves just using the touchpad and keyboard instead, since the touch screen was laggy
• The keys on the keyboard are a little smaller than we're used to, but you'll get used to typing on it after awhile
• The touchpad is just fine, though; it's got separate mouse clicks and works like it should
• Even with a dual-core processor, it's not very fast
• We ran our normal productivity benchmarks from PCMark Vantage, and it scored a little lower than past netbooks, like the Asus Eee PC 1215N
• It wouldn't even run our gaming benchmarks with its integrated graphics

Price

• $550

Overall Rating

• 2 Seals of Approval Out of 5 (How do we rate gadgets?)
• We had really high hopes for this, and we think the design is innovative, but it just didn't deliver on any of its promises
• If you want a netbook, we'd recommend the Asus Eee PC 1215N, or if you want a tablet, go with the iPad or maybe the iPad 2, which we'll be reviewing on Monday

Want something reviewed on Gadget Pr0n? Email us your suggestions to gadgetpron@g4tv.com.