Dell Mini 9 (910) with 3G on o2

All the UK Dell Mini netbooks are tied to vodafone - and mostly available only through Vodafone deals.  PC World have it on offer for £259 http://tinyurl.com/cmyexm to take away, no contract and no mention of vodafone until you get the box. 

I couldn't get an answer on if it was SIM locked to vodafone - I wanted to use o2 so had to chance it!

The machine comes with Vodafone connect on it which wouldnt recognise the o2 sim card. Interestingly the SMS application did and showed previous text messages.  Finally I found some software on the Dell site to use instead of the vodafone software!  Its a generic dell connection manager. 

So - to use any SIM in your Dell netbook with 3g from PC World (at least):

1. Download Dell Wireless 3G Software and install.
2. Uninstall Vodafone Connect (Control Panel, Add/Remove Software)
3. Insert o2 (or other) SIM card

Automatically connects!


 Specification from PC World:

    * Intel Atom N270Processor - Energy efficient
    * Operating System - Windows(R) XP Home
    * Memory & storage - 1GB Memory & 8GB FlashHD
    * Portable - 8.9" Widescreen Display
    * Connectivity - Built in mobile broadband
    * Wireless Enabled
    * Built in speakers
    * Built in bluetooth and webcam
    * (1.6GHz, 533MHz FSB, 512MB cache)