Vodafone prices up HSDPA-bundled Dell netbook

Buy the airtime, get the laptop for free

By Tony Smith • Get more from this author

18th September 2008 13:46 GMT

Vodafone will be offering Dell's Inspiron Mini 9 netbook for free when it starts selling the HSDPA enabled version of the Small, Cheap Computer next month.

To get the Mini 9 for nowt, you have to take out a two-year airtime contract priced at £25 per month.

Dell's Inspiron Mini 9: free via Vodafone

Alas, that only gets you 1GB of data transfers per month - rather less than the 5GB Orange us bundling with its latest free laptop monthly data tariffs, though you'll pay at least £35 a month for one of those.

During the summer, Vodafone extended its HSDPA 3G coverage from London and the UK's "major" airports to Birmingham, Bristol, Glasgow, Liverpool, Manchester and Reading. It claimed Mini 9 users would experience download speeds of between 1Mb/s and 5Mb/s.

Dell launched the 8.9in Mini 9 Small, Cheap Computer (SCC) earlier this month.

Netbooks and Mini-laptops Buyer's Guide