Another human's concise review of the Vostro 1400

First impressions:

"Solid"
"All this for $689?"
"What are people talking about? This is easily the best bang for the buck out there."
"What graininess on the screen? I have no idea what you're talking about, and I'm picky."
"The screen's brightness, color accuracy, and viewing angles are way better than the ASUS that I used to own. I could not get comfortable with that screen."
"White is actually white on this notebook's screen."
"Hey, the battery doesn't stick out nearly as much as I thought it would."
"It's heavier than I thought and thicker than I thought"
"Mother of Pearl this is a nice keyboard. It reminds me of a thinkpad's keyboard, really."
"No XD card slot. I didn't know that."
"Speakers are solid."
"I'm glad it has physical buttons for media playback. None of this touch-sensitive business."
"Rock solid construction. The lid is made of magnesium, I think. No ripples when you press on the lid."
"The Dell's battery life with the 9 cell is going to be good. But it's not magic. It's a larger battery = heavier laptop. With the same components inside, all laptops are going to have nearly equal battery life. I choose to have longer battery life, so I choose to have a heavier laptop. If I went with a low capcity six cell battery, my laptop would weigh as little as some of the other 14 inchers out there."
"Fan is on but not intrusive."
"Laptop looks nice, utilitarian, the type of laptop that you want to keep once all the hoopla dies down from the ultra expensive laptops out there."
"Touchpad is good. No play or indentation when you touch it. Rock solid."
"Glad I got 1440x900. Works well for programming and just less scrolling."
"Wish the AC adapter was smaller, but it seems to pack well."
"Webcam is pretty tweakable. Solid picture."
"Absolutely the best bang for the buck out there--including the el cheapies. I've tried them."

 

Sounds like you're happy and you got a great deal too I'm happy for you...I hope that fan isn't too loud though because I myself am expecting an Inspiron 1420 (same as Vostro 1400 just not all black). My previous laptop was an Inspiron 4150 (haha a higher number and worse model) and its fan was always on and so loud...eventually I got used to it but I've stopped using it for the past couple of months. I just turned it on the other day again and I thought I would go insane from that fan noise...

Yep so how loud is that fan noise exactly ?

 

The display is a little bit grainy and blurry. You should see the sony vaio screen to note the difference. The speakers sound muffled atleast in vostro 1500 coz the front of the speakers face the bottom (crazy design by dell!).

I have the true life wxga screen.

 

yay I like happy reviews like this one

 

pics dude??

 

How much battery life do you get with the 9-cell? Does it run hot?

 

I'm finding that my 1400 does not run hot at all, much cooler than my fiance's macbook when I use it on my lap. I don't have terribly accurate numbers for the battery life yet, but I believe that yesterday I ran it on battery for about 3.5+ hours before it shut off. This was while doing a large variety of tasks, including loading XP twice, and frequently rebooting. I have been web surfing for a little over an hour now, and my battery has gone down a little over 20%, so in the 4-5 hour range should be expected.

 

Great!! I am looking forward to mine. Hopefully Dell will not give me issues when I transfer my ownership from US to Canada.

 

XD, what's that? Do you mean SD card slot? Dell's spec page says there's an "8-in-1 media memory card reader"... this should be an SD card slot.

 

my freind got his 1500 and said his toshiba runs way hotter than the dell just fyi

 

An XD slot is yet another memory card spec that is widely used by Fuji cameras.

They have the best low-light cameras that are point and shoot.

I'm pretty bummed about that. No XD card support with the native reader, meaning that's one more card reader that I've got to bring on a trip. But it's really Fuji's fault (and Olympus') for trying to support a non-standard format.

 

Pufftissue Can you please post some pictures of your new lappy? Thank you in advance!

 

No xD card slot.

if you want to complain to dell, this was in the manual.

 

If I may add to the list:

"What!? I have to plug the power adapter into the SIDE of the laptop? Now my new laptop has an appendage!!"
"I need a head brace to keep my head still, otherwise, the horrible angle of view makes the screen dark and light as I move my head around" (Samsung LCD panel in mine)
"No lid latch? How long before the flapping of the cover in my bag jars something loose in the lid?"
"I like the SD card slot in the front, finally, and also now works with 4GB SD cards!"
"Why is the 1400 the only VOSTRO model that XP is not an option? Vista is so slooooooww.."

 

I just checked again: no xD slot. I can't make my card fit inside the media reader slot, despite the manual saying that it has an xD slot.

 

I want to add that I am happy with my LCD Screen.
It's a Samsung WXGA+....

Monitor ID SEC4457

I did have an AUO screen in an ASUS laptop that in my personal opinion was absolutely terrible. I could not find one comfortable viewing spot on it. The colors on my Samsung also seem to be better when watching movies.

 

There is a memory card reader in the 1400? WOOHOO!!!!!

 

Just bought the 1400. And there is an xD slot on there (I spoke to Dell, they only have one type of reader in this Vostro, so all are the same).

But I couldn't get it to read my card for the longest time. I spent over an hour on the damn thing. Finally I figured it out. It's difficult to explain it, but once you see it you'll understand.

Take a flashlight and look into the memory card slot. On the very bottom you'll see two horizontal pieces of metal that run the width of the slot. Immediately you'll think that those metal pieces are the bottom of the reader. Not quite so. The very bottom one is, but the one right above it (so close that it seems like it could be one piece) is actually a spring loaded strip of metal responsible for forcing the xD card to the bottom (against the lowest horizontal strip of metal). You have to put the xD card in between those two pieces of metal. I actually had to use the card to force the higher one up before the card would fit in.

Think of it as a double decker reader, where the bottom part is reserved for the xD card.

I hope this helps someone!