Dell Inspiron Mini 9 display bests Macbook Pro in color accuracy

While plenty of folks will try to tell you that mini-laptops like the Dell Inspiron Mini 9 are only good for some light web browsing (which has led to the popularity of the term “netbook”), the truth is that these little machines can come in handy in a variety of situations. As a freelance radio journalist, I’ve used several different netbooks to edit audio interviews and upload sound to an FTP server on the road.

And professional photographer Rob Galbraith says his Dell Inspiron Mini 9 has become an essential part of his gear bag. He can use it to import, peruse, and transmit images on the go. And if you look at the picture of his gear bag, you’ll note that the laptop is substantially smaller than his camera, taking up virtually no space at all in his backpack!

But the most surprising thing Galbraith found is that this $300 laptop actually has a screen that is better in some ways than the latest Macbook Pro displays. Galbraith compared the screens of 4 different notebooks and found that the Dell Inspiron Mini does a better job at accurately reproducing colors than the Macbook Pro.

Of course, the Dell laptop’s screen is substantially smaller and cheaper. And that image quality breaks down if you try viewing the screen from an angle, where things will start to look a whole lot crappier. But given the price difference between the Mini 9 and the $2000 Macbook Pro, the findings were pretty surprising.

Now, take this with a grain of salt. I don’t have a Dell Inspiron Mini 9 or a Macbook Pro handy so I can’t really judge Galbraith’s statement. But I’m pretty sure he knows a lot more about display quality than I do, so I’d value his opinion more highly than mine anyway.

via Wired

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Posted on Tuesday, January 27th, 2009, 4:49 pm by Brad Linder

Nate

It's really not a fair fight. Macbook Pros have a long history of having crappy LCDs.
Linc (MonkeyKing)

In the least two years Netbooks have changed to the point where what was offered by the first Eee PC is a different device then the average netbook offered today. The switch to bigger screens, the Atom N270 processors, Win XP, more memory, and bigger batteries have really made then far more capable then the “Netbook” name implies.

I always felt the term Netbooks was not a hindrance, but maybe it does undermine how they are viewed ‘too much’. We have a situation where the media, manufactures, and even the marketplace all struggle to sell people these netbooks while also whispering, “Buy a REAL computer too…”

That I would say is the biggest threat to Netbooks, even the people profiting off of them are fearful of them selling instead of devices with better profit margins. That is where places like this must come in to provide a little balance to the whispers that these machines just aren’t good enough for most people.
Mikez

Not really relevant. All of those machines could, or might have, loaded
color and gamma correction files with the display driver.

Now if the tests (observations?) where made after each had optimized
correction files loaded – then you might have a comparison basis.

Check with the Kodak web-site – they used to make tools for testing
and generating the correction files, I expect they still do.
RTFA

Considering the article lists 5 different colorimeters/spectrophotometers that were used in the tests (did you even look at the article, Mikez?), I'm guessing the displays were calibrated.
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Lauri

I've been using a macbook pro and the display is bright and nice to use but actually compared to a lot of other displays (even my nokia 5800) the colours are very dull so I'm not entirely surprised about their findings.
david

these werent done under scientific conditions and i would have to question whether this guy works for dell?! its disgusting that people can lie on the internet like this
v

well you're speculating in his affiliation with Dell. it's just a subjective comparison on his part, not meant to be some marketing ploy. so, take it for what it's worth.
JC

Umm….right……..

I have a Macbook and a Mini 9 and I can honestly say the Mini has the worst screen of any laptop or LCD I've used in the last 10 years. Everything looks a bit fuzzy and washed out. Luckily it was a freebie from work, otherwise I would be pretty dissapointed. It's hard to look at for more than a few minutes at a time. I know other netbooks have better screens, but the Mini 9 is one of the worst by far.
Mikez

As you said, your guessing.

Any calibration applied would have been a significant enough factor
in the tests to mention in the article along with the equipment used.
trey a.

why dont you google his name you lazy bastard?

i had no idea who he was either, then spend 2 mins looking him up.
i later found a discussion on Slashdot and he seems to be a very respected person in his field and a Mac user.

you, on the other hand are the typical Mac fanboi (I add those annoying firs time Linux users, the Ubuntistas), who right away gets defensive when someone dares question their precious.

YOU are the douche sir. Deal with it.
trey a.

why dont you google his name you lazy bastard?

i had no idea who he was either, then spend 2 mins looking him up.
i later found a discussion on Slashdot and he seems to be a very respected person in his field and a Mac user.

you, on the other hand are the typical Mac fanboi (I add those annoying firs time Linux users, the Ubuntistas), who right away gets defensive when someone dares question their precious.

YOU are the douche sir. Deal with it.

Dell Inspiron Mini 9 display bests Macbook Pro in color accuracy

Dell Inspiron Mini 9

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