New Vostro Lineup (3350, 3450..)

I wanted a 3350 too, also chatted, and was repeatedly told that the North American ETA is unknown. Sadly they're all over the Dell sites in Asia and Europe. Sigh.

But the rest of the North American Vostro models aren't at all configurable. So, I went and bought a Latitude E6320 instead. They're letting customers configure everything on the Latitudes right now.

 

Is this thread also for the Vostro 3750? I am considering getting one. I'm glad they went to the chiclet keyboards, they feel better to me. Though im curious what the new vostros will feel like, as I heard the old ones had some flex to them. Also I am unsure if i should go i5 or i7, it's a pretty big price jump. They are available to order right now but it says ETA on shipping is 4/13/11.

 

I am extremely interested in these, particularly 3450 with discrete graphics. Any idea whether I will be able to use the discrete graphics under Linux? The graphics are switchable, which makes me wary. I hope they have a proper BIOS switch to let me use discrete all the time even if it eats battery life.

 

I'm interested in buying the 3450 but i was wondering if is it easy(possible?) to upgrade the ram and change the hard drive for a ssd? Does anybody know that?

 

here in Italy, there are no news about 3350 release.

until now, only 3450, 3550 and 3750 are sold.

Dell Customer Services has no idea on 3350 availability (as far as they told me).

 

I was wondering the same thing, and had contacted a sales rep who forwarded this question to the engineers. I am still waiting on a reply and will post here with the results. I also asked if the back-lit keyboard requires a specific software driver, because I want to be able to use it while running Linux.

 

Thats awesome! Will wait for the update

 

This was my reply from the Dell associate:

1) The backlit keyboard should work with Linux.

2) You can’t disable switchable graphics.


I am still weary about the backlit keyboard, I replied asking for more information. Also these questions were specifically for the 3750 model which uses Nvidia/Intel Optimus setup. The 3450 you were referring to uses an ATI setup so i'm not sure if it would be different or not. Sucks that Linux currently does not support Optimus. I might still get the i5 with intel graphics if he can confirm the backlit keyboard will work under Linux.

 

Anyone?

 

Does anyone know is the CPU changeable or fixed to the motherboard? I would like to buy a Vostro 3450 with Radeon HD6630M, but it is too expensive with Core I5 CPU...