Vostro 3350 Owner's Cafe

My last laptop was nearing the end of its life ( 6 year old mac book pro). Along with a clapped out battery, It didn’t run win 7 particularly well, and as I require this for work, I saw it as time for an upgrade.

My requirements were:

-Small, light, portable.
-excellent battery life.
-solid build.
-comfortable keyboard.

After spending a loooong time looking for the perfect laptop I purchased a Thinkpad Edge 420s.
Terrible screen, not particularly great build, so I sent it back the same day ( lot of hassle getting it returned and refunded but that’s for another day).

About this time the dell vostro 3350 came out. It fulfilled all of my criteria above. Also, it was significantly cheaper.

From dell I got this configuration:

-Intel core i5 – 2410m 2.3GHz
-2gb of RAM.
-320Gb 7200 Hard Disk
-HD 6470m Graphics card
-Intel Integrated graphics for low power graphics usage.
-backlit keyboard.
-8 cell battery
-3 year warranty
-the rest of the items that come with this particular package

Also with the laptop I picked up a 23” display from dell ( 220 euros, how can that be bad!)
Microsoft wireless keyboard and mouse.

This means I will be able to have a pretty good desktop experience and still portability when required.

I purchased the lowest spec RAM and Hard Disk as I had ordered the following from crucial:

2x 4GB ram dims
256GB Crucial M4 SSD

The old 2gb that came in the laptop was sold for pennies. The stock 320GB hard disk is now for backup. I could have gotten this from dell I guess, but I saved about 300 euros by purchasing from crucial and doing it myself. Also, with crucial I know exactly what SSD im getting, with dell, you can just order a “256 GB SSD”, with no regard to what model it is, and we all know SSD performance varies wildly from model to model.

(All of the above (laptop, big monitor, nice keyboard and mouse, 8gb ram and SSD still cost less than a lower spec macbook with only 1 year warranty, no external mouse, no keyboard, no external monitor, no ssd, 2 gb ram!)

First impressions:
The laptop is very stylish. Sure, its no apple, but it’s a third of the price, and I can upgrade it myself without voiding the warranty! I like the style and finish of the vostros, which is pretty consistent across the line.
Keyboard is very useable. I have no complaints about it. Touchpad is a little “bouncy” for my liking, and nowhere near as good as on an apple, but its as good as they come on a PC really (comparing it to a HP pro book and a dell insprion which is awful)

The screen hinges are as solid as I have found in a notebook, and there is no flexing of the notebook case when you open the lid, which I find on my HP Probook at work.

Performance:
I don’t know how it performed stock, but with the SSD and 8GB ram it burns along! Quickest boot up time I could measure was 11.6 seconds from cold boot to desktop ( using a tool to measure boot time).
Apps open as quickly as you click on them. Don’t have any accurate numbers here, I can get them if needs be.

Battery has not been tested to completely flat yet, but so far I have gotten 5:30 hours out of it, and it still had juice left.

Screen is lower res than I would like, but for a portable laptop its fine. Don’t want HD res from a 13 inch screen anyway, whats the point?!


All in all I would totally recommend this laptop. Diespite some small flaws, it’s a workhorse, and stylish to boot. Hopefully I will have this one for the next 3+ years!

 

Had my Vostro for a month or so now and replaced the hardrive with a Corsair Force GT and now want to add the 500GB as my second drive via a caddie in the optical slot but i'm not sure which one to go for.

Some are 9.5mm and some 12.7mm?

Anyone fitted one?

 

Does your machine have ATI graphics adapter only or dual-adapter (Intel+ATI) setup? If the latter, does it work for you in Linux? Or perhaps there is BIOS switch which card to use by default?

Thanks in advance.

 

Hi,
Some days ago I ordered a 3350 with the following specs:

• Processor : Intel Core i7-2620M (2.70GHz)
• Memory : 4096MB (1x4096) 1333MHz DDR3 Dual Channel
• Hard Drive : 500GB Serial ATA (7.200 Rpm)
• Graphics : 13GB/sec AMD Radeon HD 7450M graphics with 160 cores+ ultra-fast GDDR5 memory

Anyone has more info concerning the ATI 7450M GPU?
Seems this adapter has not been released yet...
After my order this GPU disappeared from DELL website, and 6470M adapter is now proposed..

 

The 6490m is the ati card that ships with the 3350 with switchable graphics. They've even got their "right" one slightly wrong It's decent at gaming. Not bad at all.

Oh, the first one you mention, the 7450, seems to be just a typo....

 

I won't go without a 3 year onsite...doesn't have to be prosupport...prosupport only covers software problems in addition to hardware problems...I've never needed software support.

Don't go two years....might as well stay with one. If something is going to happen, it will be AFTER the 2nd year

 

Well for some people warranty is important. Also you know lemon laptops do exist.

 

They main reason I started buying from Dell in the first place was onsite warranty....I can't ship off my laptop in the heat of tax season if something goes wrong...that just wouldn't work

 

Whoa...just noticed...you've got over 5K posts since last October? Wow! That's almost 20 posts per day, day in, day out all month long, all year long......... Hat's off !!

I've got nearly that many but have been here for 4 years.

 

I am thinking of getting a 3350 when college starts. What is the battery life of the 6-cell battery in light web surfing and moderate screen brightness? Is the 9-cell stick-out battery annoying when putting the laptop in sleves or backpack?

Thank everyone so much.