During the years of 2004 to 2010 Netbooks were the rage. These little laptops were powerful for the basic jobs they were slated for: Small Home Businesses, and Students. Using a Single Core Atom Intel Processor – a branch of the Celeron CPU, at maximum, it can hold 2GB of RAM, sometimes 3GB, depending on the maker of the system. Some say they were able to get 4GB out of their Netbooks, but I personally never tried that hack. That hack involves using a very specific 2GB DIMM units to work.
 
Netbooks came in various sizes, mostly depending on screen size, from 12 inches to 10.5 inches with the majority being 10.5 inches, and a few oddball smaller sizes. They all ran on Windows XP, the mainstream OS of the time. There were a rare few that ran Linsphere, a distribution of Linux on various Off-branded Netbooks made from China. They were mostly sold in WalMart. Most Netbooks had a 40GB hard drive. The resolution of the screen depended on the LCD panel being used: the 10.5 inch Netbooks were 1024 x 576, the 12 inch Netbooks were 1280 X 800. At the time Netbooks went for under $200 for the 10.5 inch models and under $350 for the 12 inch models.
 
The Dell Inspirion 910 is none of that, being a much smaller Netbook with a 9in screen. 1GB of RAM with have a 4GB, 8GB or 16GB solid state PCIe hard drive. The 9 inch LCD screen had a resolution of 1024 X 600, though the pixels were smaller than a typical screen.
 
What is has:
 
Video            8.9in LCD at 1024 X 600 and VGA-out
Audio            Stereo speakers, headphone/microphone
Data Ports      3 USB 2.0, SD card reader
Expansion            None, 1 slot for RAM – already occupied with 1GB Module
Networking      Ethernet, 802.11 b/g Wi-Fi, optional Bluetooth
Optical drive      None
 
Processor      Intel Atom, 1.6GHz
Memory      1024MB DDR2 SDRAM 533MHz
Hard drive 4, 8 or 16GB SSD
Chipset      Intel GMA950
Graphics      Mobile Intel 945 Express Chipset
OS            Windows XP Home Edition SP2
Dimensions 9.1 X 6.8 inches
Thickness      1.25 inches
Screen size      8.9 inches
System weight      2.3, 2.7 pounds with AC adapter
 
Price: $514 for the 16GB system, $349 for the 8GB system.
 
These prices are 3 – 5 times more than the average Netbook at the time.
 
The question is, is such a Netbook still viable today? First and foremost, Netbooks were never meant to be game machines. They have the minimum specifications to run office software and have internet access for moderate services like email and researching information on the web; not for playing games.
 
For a Basic System, they are viable systems for doing office work and research data collection. Coding and program testing one can also do on Netbook systems. Nothing more. If one keeps within the limitation of the system, they can be very useful, and their size makes them valuable through ease of carrying and storage. But its small size also limits its ability to be upgraded. The PCIe SSD needs to be tiny in its size, and there is only one slot for RAM to be placed in, with 2GB being the limit it can go into the slot.
 
Current prices on eBay for a Dell Inspirion 910 is around $50; $35 for the unit and $15 for the shipping. But some may have a PCIe SSD which would be small or no PCIe SSD at all. PCIe SSD that would fit inside the system is about $25 for a 16GB unit. And a 2GB stick of RAM is about $10. So for about under $100, one can have a simple laptop system. As for OS Upgrades, many Netbooks can be upgraded to Win7. Some can be taken to Win8 if one can find the 32bit version of it. The Dell Inspirion can be taken to Win7.  
 
The problem here is the availability of various small at about this price. The Evolve Maestro III, a Quad Core Atom CPU with 4GB of RAM and 64GB SSD with a 11.5 inch screen for under $100. Dell, HP and others have various low end laptops for under $250, with many going on sale for around $150. All run Windows 10 and many can be taken to Windows 11. But one comes close to the size of this tiny unit outside of a DIY Raspberry Pi Lap or Palm Top.
 
One has to decide and balance as to what they want vs. what they need and is the value of doing either. I received one as a gift because somebody erased SSD and installed Ubuntu on a 4GB SSD. No Password and a shit load of booting issues until it got to the desktop. Formatting the SSD and the 1GB RAM was not enough to install Win7 or most Linux images. So I have to think about doing some upgrades to this system in order to install a proper OS.

With 2GB, it can act like any other Netbook and have XP or Vista, or Linux. The issue here is the PCIe SSD, it can only  be 4in long. The biggest one in that format id about 16GB, that is just enough to fit a Bare bones Windows XP or Vista. The one I had, had Ubuntu 11 (or so), and it was very limited in what it could do as its SSD was only 4GB in size. If the SSD were bigger, then more could be added to it.
 
These things are cheap on Ebay, around $35. But you need to upgrade the RAM and SSD, and that can be hard or expensive with the SSD. For the same price of one with an upgrade you could get a Maestro Evolution III Mini Laptop from Microcenter (under $75) or a bit more get a large 15in screen Dell or HP for under $150.
 
It depends on one's needs. if you need something tiny you can sneak and hack networks, this could work for you, but so can the Maestro Evolution III as it is a small laptop. But if you need basic laptop functions and software, you should look elsewhere.

I hear that.
 
The Dell 910 is a rugged little thing but it is rather limited but semi expandable. Today's low end laptops are not; sort of. The Maestro Evolution III is under $100 if you can find it, Microcenter ran out of them but they are available on Amazon and ebay; they sold on Microcenter for around $60 last year.
 
The Maestro Evolution III has a Quad Atom CPU (Netbook Celeron CPU @ 1.1GHz), with 4GB and 60GB SSD. Strangely it has a cellphione in it to connect to service for data, plus regular WIFI. The Cellphone can be removed to add a PCIe SSD. It has an 11in screen and is less than an inch thin. But there is no metal in its case or frame except for the screen hinge, so it bends easily. It runs Win 10 and can be upgraded to Win 11. there is long story about it, which I think I put up as a review. The one thing I hate about it is that the Power button is part of the keyboard and it where the "Delete" / "Back Space" key is on other keyboards, so when blind typing, I'm often hitting it thinking it is the delete/back space key and the unit goes to sleep. Hitting it puts the unit to sleep, pressing and holding it down shuts it off.
 
The HP 14DG series laptop is found everywhere, and is under $200. A friend gifted me one, as it was under $150 on sale. There are several models of this laptop but newer ones (2021-present) are not expandable but the older (2015 - 2020) can be expanded. My gift could only be expanded by replacing the 1 RAM SIMM it has from a 4GB to GB. There are no slots and the SSD is built-in to the board. The system is much like the Maestro Evolution III but with a bigger screen (14in). The logic board in the one I have is actually smaller than the one in the Maestro Evolution III. At best it is a student or office laptop. It is definitely not Gaming laptop. It can be a used as a hacking laptop. But like the Maestro Evolution III, there is no metal frame in the case except for the screen hinge, so it flexes easily.