Vostro 1310 - Any issues to be concerned about?

Hi,

I'm considering the Vostro 1310 for purchase.
I wanted a basic 13" notebook for my daily use. I'm not planning to game on it, but would like to be able to watch video's on it. Not really sure how much HD content, but as long as it plays DVD's well, that's fine.

I've found some reviews on it, but I guess there hasn't really been that many interest in this laptop. Not sure if 13" is just too small for most people.

I like the basic design. HDMI would have been nice, but for the price, that's ok.
Should I upgrade to the NVIDIA 8400M or does that card still giving problems?
My brother has the XPS 1330 and they already had to come out to replace his LCD and graphics card on it. I think it had the same NVIDIA card.

Anyway, just looking for some owners to comment on likes and dislikes.
Thanks!

 

Vostros don't get much press here, hopefully because there aren't many issues with them. I have a 1710 and I'm very happy with it.

The basic unit is very tough, though there's rather more flex on the scratchable lid, though pressure doesn't get through to the screen. That shouldn't be so much of a problem on the 1310. The screen is great, but the sound is awful without headphones.

In summary, it was very cheap for the spec and works very well.

 

Ah, yes. I read about the mono speakers.
Just how bad are they?
I'm not expecting them to be really high quality, as long as I can watch some shows or dvd when sitting about 2 feet from the notebook with some people around me.

I currently have the NC10 Samsung netbook and those speakers are reallyyyyyy low. Really painfully annoying. I hope with a "full" notebook, they would be slightly louder.

Also, do you have the NVIDIA graphic card? How is it?
Does it produce a lot of heat? More importantly, does your fan kick in a lot (loud)?
Thanks

 

I've got the 1510, its 15" cousin and Nankuru is right, theres not alot of attention to the Vostro series on the Dell forums - and knowing the dell forums, no news is GOOD news.

I'm very satisfied with my 1510 (specs in sig) except that the fan does come on a little more often than I like. However, it does keep the system cool, and if you're in a low-noise - not silent - work area, you wont' even hear the fan.

The integrated graphics will get you less heat and longer battery life. The 8400m gs is useful if you play some older games (pre-2007) but it won't stand up to the latest - and greatest? - games.

I've seen the 1310 get numerous recognitions for being 'best buys'.

I actually wish I had the 13" myself, but a vostro 1400 warranty exchange netted me the 1510.

 

I have a Vostro 1310, kitted out with 4 gigs Ram, and a 1.8 Core2. Am dual booting Vista and Ubuntu on it, and its an excellent machine.
The speaker is really sad though.. you WILL need to use external speakers / headphones with it.

 

Thanks for all the replies.
Placed my order.
I really hope I can live with the speakers. That seems to be the only thing that worries me at this point.

Thanks again for all the input.

 

are the speakers on the models bigger than the 1310 any better?

 

Other than the concerns with the 8400, sholdn't be any problems.

 

I think it's the 1510 that has the best sound but that isn't very good. The 1310 and 1710 are the bad ones. I've never heard a laptop that I thought sounded half as good as it did with headphones so I don't find that important.

My 8600GS card is fine touch wood. The fan doesn't cut in very often and it's very quiet, but these things seem to vary between the models.