Dell Inspiron Duo 'Sparta' 10.1" touchscreen netbook (Intel Atom N550 1.5GHz, 2Gb, 320Gb, WLAN, Webcam, Win 7 Home Premium) - Black

I will admit to being apprehensive after placing my order for this, particularly after reading some of the 'expert' reviews online. Most criticised this for being too slow, having poor battery life, lack of ports and generally being nothing more than a gimmick. They were wrong on all but one...The battery life is unfortunaley poor when compared to your traditional tablets (iPad, Galaxy Tab etc) providing up to 4 hours. You also cannot replace the battery as it is built in.

If like me, battery life is not your primary concern and you are looking for a home browser with the option of tablet mode or netbook mode this is ideal.

As a netbook it performs impeccably. The screen is stunning with an above average resolution and speed wise I have no complaints. The dual core processor is fantastic and handles most standard tasks very well. I do not use this for games so can't comment on those. The keyboard feels good to use and I can type at speed.

I particularly enjoy using this in tablet mode. The multi-touch capacitive screen works like a charm and despite Windows 7 not being the most friendly OS for tablets I find it perfectly acceptable to use. It is an enjoyable experience and i can't understand why its received so much flak. Yes its no iPad in terms of the user experience, but then I wasn't expecting it to be. I would much rather have a full Windows system and be able to browse the web without restrictions and perform simple productivity tasks without having to buy apps in order to achieve this. This is more important to me.

I decided to remove all the Dell preinstalled 'touch' software (Dell Stage) as I found it to be a little slow and buggy. Using their software does not unfortunately do the superb hardware they have produced justice.

In summary I am really pleased with my purchase. Its a great looking machine and the ability to flip between tablet / netbook viewing modes within 2-3 seconds is fantastic. I also ordered the Dell Dock which provides additional ports (ethernet, USB, SD Card) and also offers a convenient way to store the device in Tablet mode. The dock looks really cool and can be used as a clock / picture frame when not in use. Recommended

Also bought as a replacement for a 10 year old laptop and it's much faster.

To deal with the nonsense in the 1 star reviews first...

1. You need to calibrate the screen. Well duh. Software is included to do this. Makes it as accurate as your finger is. Simple fix and advised in the instructions. Can't believe someone with "15 years in IT" didn't realise this. Glad he doesn't work for my firm.

2. It's slow. No it's not, but it's burdened with a load of crapware from the factory. Invest an hour in getting rid of this and it becomes a wonderful little machine. The inbuilt Dell software isn't really worth the time. Uninstall that and simply use Windows Media Center or XBMC and it turns into a perfect media center with the audio dock. Use the Amazon kindle app or similar for ebooks if you wish. You can tweak the size of buttons and scroll bars etc if you've got chubby digits.

Now the 2 star review.

1. No problem playing any videos. Plays AVI, DIVX and MPEG out of the box using standard Media Player. Use VLC for anything else. Reviewer must have some odd videos.

2. Battery life isn't great, agreed. 3-4 hours is your max. This machine wasn't designed for long haul flights though. It's a flop around the living room, checking IMDB and facebook while watching the TV type affair. If you want to do that and be able to fire up Word to edit docs on the same device. This is brilliant.

3. Heavy? Compared to an ipad maybe. Compared to a normal laptop, it's lighter and smaller than most and you can do anything a normal laptop can do. Not just Angry birds and a bit of web browsing.

4. Nothing wrong with the keyboard. Case is robust as is the double hinge.

Yes the battery could be better, but if you want a touchscreen tablet affair with the flexibility of a PC, look no further.

Just make sure you don't have 15 years worth of IT experience getting in the way! :)

This is a brilliant piece of hardware.
Simple computing gets about 4 hours of battery, run it hard and that will drop to 2 but what do you expects. Its a little pocket rocket compared to some notebooks.
The flip is sleek and easy to use and with a bit of practise the touch screen is really quite acceptable. Ok its not I phone / Pad accurate but its good enough for basic usage.

In my opinion it is the ultimate netbook / tablet out there.
I run MS Office programs, surf the net, a few simple games and loads of films and music. Vuze for streaming to my PS3. Excellent all rounder....
This will not replace the High powered home machine with a lot more power, surrond sound systems, dedicated graphics cards and built in DVD/Blueray players and so on.... but I never bought it for that purpose. 3 weeks now and I like it!

My big negative and loss of 5th star is the fact Dell advertise that it can take a SIM card direct in the unit so no need for a dongle to surf the net.

THE UK VERSION CANNOT!!!!!!

The space is there bit the hardware was never fitted so a dongle is still needed. Not happy whaen i discovered this but I got over it and
I did however find a cheap alternative using my unlimited data on my mobile phone contract and a program called "Joikuspot" which has been on my mobile phone since i purchased it 12 months ago.
run the program and the phone becomes a wifi hotspot and the Dell connects and access to the internet is wireless and free on my mobile phone contract.

All in all excellent for mobile computing and Dells false advertising and cheapness regarding the sim insert saved me about £10 a month for a dongle contract.