I've been using a 9" Dell that is working out ok. Like you said, a little difficult getting used to the smaller keys and less of them.
Mine does not have a disc drive, so I bought one from Radio Shack that was obsolete just to be able to load discs onto the thing without having to copy them to sticks. The disc drive cost me $30 and it's bigger then the computer.
It's really nice for those of us who have to fly coach and don't have room for even a regular sized laptop.