My mystery Dell arrived! … it’s a cute little red one… looks like I got a 2GB Celeron processor, maybe? There really isn’t any paperwork with it, but the tiny packing list says it’s a Celeron 2G 32 SSD. Was that one if the good ones?!? I’m only mildly computer literate…
Waiting for it to power up completely… ugh… It just (finally) did so but I have to answer a bunch of Cortana questions…
I wish the keyboard had a backlight, but that doesn’t appear to be the case. It seems a little slow… but that could just be because it’s loading all it’s Microsoft crap, I mean, stuff.
Ok, finally. Aww… guess my packing list was wrong and I got an AMD processor with the 4GB of RAM. Oh well, it should still work well for me as a pocket laptop for in-tge-go homework and dissertation research. I’ll just have to be sure I keep it backed up. Not too bad for $170! 
Just as I thought it is over, looks like Dell is trying to clear their inventory. The previous event is here.
Remember most people (60%) will get only a 32GB MMC 
Any idea if converting something like this to a chromebook with cloudready from neverware would result in a better performing machine then a arandard 100-200 chromebook?
I don’t have experience with Chromebook. In any case I would think almost any other operating system would be better performing than windows.
Current model Chromebooks already have a Celeron N3xxx, N4xxx or AMD A4 & A6 so at best you’d gain a touchscreen but CloudReady likely doesn’t support certain ChromeOS specific stuff–if I recall Android application layer & Linux layer is still a Chromebook feature. There are Linux distros which are optimized for touchscreens.
It really depends upon the “Dell Mystery” 2-in-1, if you get an Intel Celeron(N3700) or AMD A6/A9 you’d have a model which is similar to the current Chromebooks in terms of CPU performance–HP uses a slightly higher clocked A6 for their newer Chromebook and the revision of the processor has a “C” which is a sign it may have been for Chromebooks only. On the other hand if the hardware ends up being on the weaker side(Celeron with 2GB RAM or an AMD E2) it’ll be snail slow for Windows and any light weight Linux would be more ideal–AMD’s E2-9000e is slower than a Celeron N3060. In the early days of Chromebooks 2GB of memory was still very limiting.
Excellent, thanks for the primer. The lack of android apps is good to know. In gerneral do you think you would get a better result with a higher end older pc (i3/i5) vs a midrange chromebook? Stated differently, if you had $200-300 and wanted a decent functioning chromebook (not the fastest available, but not one you immediately regret getting), what would you be looking at?
Older i3/i5 your mileage is going to vary may it be the processor being too slow with all the recent Intel specific Spectre security patches(anything older than a 6th gen Core i3 is going to start to feel slow if you have a bunch of browser tabs open), battery life even with a new battery will average 3-5 hrs or the older hardware itself wearing out–off-lease laptops tend to have hinges or screens which may fail due to heavy usage. I recently bought a newer Chromebook(Celeron quad-core) from Woot mostly for the better battery life(12 hrs) and extra two cores made it snappier–the model seems popular as it sold out a few times. If you buy a good Chromebook they tend to handle wear and tear very well compared to some of the budget Windows netbooks out there.
There are a few good deals on Amazon every so often such as the Acer-Aspire-i3-8130U, I bought that to replace my crumbling Thinkpad but sadly you can’t run an EFI based Linux, it’ll default to a non-EFI install mode. Build quality is good, however the two USB 3.0 ports are too close together so a USB hub is necessary.
From a work point of view I always keep a “spare notebook” as a testing grounds may it be to make sure a Linux distro works with similar hardware or I’m afraid to install a current/bleeding edge version of Windows 10. Dell consumer/business models have decent Linux support, most of their Inspiron 11" notebook and 2-in-1 models have reports of usage on various Linux distros which is worth noting. Haven’t had any Linux issues on the “Dell Mystery 11” 2-in-1 notebook so far, Windows on the other hand required booting from a created Win10 USB stick to get 1903 working(Windows Update kept failing)
Finally managed to get Linux Mint 19.2 installed on mine. It runs OK - except when I look at a YouTube video - it seems to flicker b/w dim (because it was on battery) and bright. I am not sure if that is hardware or software issue. This is because I did not really spent much time in Windows 10 at all … it is just too slow.
Anyway … mine is a A6, 4GB RAM and 32GB MMC. The main reason why I switched to Linux Mint is because 32 GB MMC is really inadequate for Windows and it won’t survive a Windows 10 version upgrade. I had experience with anything that has 32GB of storage and … basically my opinion is that it is “unethical” for the Dell, HP, Lenovo and whoever make computers to even offer a 32 GB storage option.
Hope I get time to figure out the flickering issue. If you have Windows 10 and you don’t have similar issue while your laptop is on battery, please reply and let me know.
Well, it does not flicker anymore. I guess adjusting the brigntness of the display helped. It’s probaly a software thing.
Well … although the price could really be better … IMO because this is a mystery deal … this is OK. Again for all of those who ends up with a 32 GB MMC, your best bet is to wipe Windows out and put someething like Linux on.
Of course - I do realize not everyone is comfortable with doing that. Another option would be don’t store any documents in the notebook - use external storage and simply do a clean re-install of Windows everytime Windows 10 ups its version. Yes … it is a little bit of a pain, but at laest you’ll get Windows 10 updated and also get aboud the issue that 32 GB MMC is too small to survive an version update.
I received a red one, AMD A6, 4GB DDR3, with the 32GB eMMc. The 32GB is certainly not going to cut it for most in this century. Therefore, I utilized the Mini SD port on the right side of the laptop. I am now using the laptop with 124GB of SanDisk. Now that I have done this, I am satisfied with the purchase. Hopefully this helps someone else who received the same mysterious setup. 
I got mine today.
AMD A9-9420 CPU (1.8Ghz)
4GB RAM (upgradeable to 8GB)
500GB spinny disk (WD Blue 5400 RPM)
Much better than I expected, but still getting upgrades before I use it. Switching to an SSD (I have a spare 7mm-thick 100GB SSD, and ordered the 8GB Upgrade). Woot has redeemed themselves
Mine is black/grey, Dell Outlet Special. And it looks like new, and still has a warranty until April 2020, too.
Oh, if you want details on the configuration, you can go to Dell’s Support Site and enter the service tag.
Jodyl1, sounds like you were very lucky and got a good find (or should I say lucky shipment). I didn’t order this deal because I’ve struggled enough with the eMMC versions and though could get them to kind-of function, it was a waste of hours/days, re-experienced again with each new windows update. The worst was one budget Dell that had a place in the chassis to add a hard drive, but no SATA connector so it was just wasted space. Dell makes good stuff on the higher-end, but their budget stuff sure pi$*&(s me off sometimes.
Jesus knows what’s in your heart when you write that.