New Vostro Lineup (3350, 3450..)

Hi. I would go for 3450 if I were you. First of all, 3350 can have up to 8-cell batery, where 3450 can get up to 9-cell. Secondly, 3450 has a better discrete graphics card. And thirdly, 3350 model has ONLY ONE SPEAKER where 3450 has two of them.
I currently own 3550 model (would have gone for 3450, but they aren't available in my country) and it's great. A dedicated graphics card (same as in 3450) is super powerful (for my needs). I still haven't had a problem playing any new game at medium-max (mostly max) graphic settings. If you decide to get Vostro, make sure you buy one with a backlit keyboard, as it's a wonderful option to have, when you can type in bed freely without straining your eyes to see the letters.
It's a great laptop, runs extra cool. It never exceeds 68 degrees celcius under load and now in idle mode, as I type this, it shows 57 degrees celscius. The fan comes on sometimes for as long as approx 10 seconds and then shuts off for at least a minute or two or even more, depend on what apps are running in background.
The screen is also very bright, I almost never use it at maximum setting.

 

What about the battery life? How long does it last?

 

Yeah, I got the 3350 from a local reseller today. I'm still going through drivers and software installation on a clean OS. Any questions? If not, give me a couple of days to come back with my impressions.

 

photos

is for my girl and she want to see real photos before buy ( and if you can , battery healt...8 or 6 cell on you vconfig ? )

 

Sure, I'll take some pictures later in the week. My config has a 4-cell battery, so it doesn't stick out from the bottom.

 

The 8 cell battery sticks out on the 3350 sticks out?

 

Is the keyboard a typical chicklet? Are the keys textured? I was a little disappointed by their move to chicklet, but was hoping maybe they made their chicklet slightly better than most, especially on a business machine. How is the fan noise?

 

Yes, the 8-cell battery sticks out, which is why I don't have it. I'm considering getting one as a spare, though. The 4-cell, however, seems to be quite efficient. Within two hours of web browsing via 3G (BT on, WLAN on and WWAN on) with the screen at maximum brightness it discharged only by 45%, so it seems capable of providing 4+ hours of on-line work, not to mention using the machine off-line with the screen dimmed.

This is my first experience with a chicklet keyboard and I'm enjoying it a lot. Not sure, what you mean by textured keys... The F, J and down-arrow keys have those kind of bumps, which help align one's hands while typing. The characters are manufactured (no stickers), since it's a backlit keyboard.

The fan behavior is as bad as on other Dells - below 55 deg. Celsius on the CPU it doesn't work at all and beyond that temperature it spins up to nearly 4k RPM to cool the CPU down by 5 degrees... Latest SpeedFan seems to work, but doesn't allow setting a speed between 0 RPM and ~4000 RPM. It's still in beta, though.

 

Hello mkj,

I would like to get a Dell Vostro 3350, like yours.
I only have one question about it : Is it WIDI compatible?

It doesn't appear like it in Dell's website (in the Laptops Enabled for Wireless Display list, there are only Inspiron and XPS) but its specifications make me think it should be compatible.

Any idea about it?

Best Regards,
Nico

 

There is some misinformation regarding WiDi compatibility on the web. There are at least two sources on Intel's website, which contradict each other (i.e. one mentions the i7-2630QM as a WiDi enabled CPU and the other lists all i7 CPUs except for the i7-2630QM, while users have verified that it is WiDi compatible). I'm not sure on what source is the information on Dell's website based on, but it is most likely incomplete. What I am sure is that I've been able to successfully install the Intel Wireless Display software (it wouldn't install until I installed the wireless card driver) and when I run it, it searches for compatible WiDi adapters. So it's a YES