The Dell Inspiron Mini 9 is one of the cheapest netbooks around, with a starting price of just $249. It’s also one of the smaller mini-laptops on the market, wehing in at just 2.3 pounds and measuring about 9.1″ x 1.3″ x 6.8″. But in order to keep the size small, Dell did some interesting things with the keyboard. For instance, there are no Fn keys. And on the standard keyboard, the apostrophe key and a few other keys are in strange positions.
But it turns out that Dell offers a US-International version of the keyboard, which is designed for the Vostro A90. The Vostro A90 is sold through Dell’s business division, but it’s basically the same computer as a Dell Inspiron Mini 9, and the keyboards are interchangeable — but not quite identical.
My Dell Mini forum member hybridsolidr received a US-Intl keyboard by accident when Dell shipped him a replacement keyboard a few months ago. And he noticed that it has a slightly different layout, including the proper placement of the apostrophe key. Some fo the keys are a bit smaller, to make space for the extra keys on the keyboard. But if you can deal with the tiny keys, it looks lke you can order the replacement part for around $15 from Dell by using the product part number U061H.
