Dell Announces Updates to Vostro Lineup

Today Dell announced updates to all of the Small Business Vostro notebooks, with design and hardware changes for all models. The new lineup consists of the Vostro 13.3” 1320, 15.4” 1520, and 17” 1720. The Vostro 1320 and 1520 lost a bit of weight compared to the older models, dropping from 4.6 to 4.1lbs and 5.73 to 5.38lbs respectively. The new Vostro 1720 managed to gain a bit of weight going from 6.5 to 6.8lbs. Dell also managed to make all three models thinner than their predecessors.

All models offer expanded memory options with a maximum amount that was previously limited to 4GB now bumped to 8GB. Video cards were updated across the board, moving from the 8000-series NVIDIA GeForce up to the newer 9000-series. The Vostro 1320 and 1520 now offer NVIDIA 9300M graphics with 256MB of memory and the Vostro 1720 has an optional NVIDIA 9600M graphics.

Dell Vostro 1720 Specifications:

• Up to Intel Core 2 Duo 2.66GHz T9550 processor
• Up to 8GB DDR2
• Intel 45 Express chipset
• Intel X4500 or NVIDIA GeForice 9600M GS graphics card
• 17" WXGA+ or UltraSharp WUXGA LCDs
• Optional 128GB SSD
• Optional Blu-ray burner
• 6-cell and 9-cell batteries
• WxHxL: 15.47" x 1" x 11.26"
• Starting weight: 6.8lbs

Starting prices are $679 for the Vostro 13.3” 1320, $893 for the 15.4” 1520, and $699 for the 17” 1720. for more information on this new lineup, checkout this Dell comparison page.

 

looks good

 

yeap,quite promising! waiting for official reviews!

 

Very nice weight on the 1520, but taking away the WUXGA screen? Thats the cheapest WUXGA notebook gone...

 

You can still get the Studio 15 with a 15.4" WUXGA:
http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/laptop_studio_15?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs
$749

 

I see I see! But the 15's keyboard is off putting. But its also really good to see a light 17'' notebook! So light!

 

The Dell 1320 looks especially yummy. 256GB Nvidia GeForce 9300M offered for like $100 more would certainly place this thing in direct competition with Apple's Macbook.

 

I am really impressed by it's weight!it is only .2 pounds heavier then 17" mbp

 

No quad core support, and they are sticking with the lower end 9600. I sure am glad I got my 1700 before then got rid of the GT. Still a sweet looking system though, but lacking a few features for current times.

edit: Glad to see dell continuing on with 16:10.

 

I believe 9600gs is more powerful then 8600gt.

 

9600mGS is just an other (one of MANY) die shrinks of 8600mGT with a high clock. lol...

Its just a lower clocked 9600mGT. Same core, different clocks.

 

Any idea if they got rid of the lame mono speaker on these? I am not sure if the larger screen models had it but I know tha the 13" Vostro had a horrible sound system--something that made me reconsider buying one last year, in fact. I mean, I can deal with 2 lame speakers but in this day and age we deserve at least stereo sound since the cheapest netbooks have that!

 

I like that the 1320 has 4 usb ports and an option to take out the optical drive, but no LED screen option?

 

FINALLY! What took took them so long?

 

Wonder if many xps m1330 owner's would buy the vostro 1320 over the fatter,heavier SXPS 1340.....I know I would,but then I like boring black look's.
Pity they didn't offer LED screen on the 13",would have broadened it's appeal you'd think,and although I liked the vostro 1310 I had,it had one of the worst screen's I've ever seen [lg trulife]

The single speaker never bothered me personally,was good enough for system sound's,plug in speaker's for music.

Very pleasing to see new model's still coming with 16:10.

 

I'd just pickup a E4300 from the Dell Outlet for $700 or so.

 

No bluetooth option though. I just checked. I've been going back and forth between the 1710 and the Precision M6400. When I heard of this update to the Vostro, I was excited. Configured and bingo, no bluetooth. Dell sales confirmed it will come, just not sure when. Bummer. I like having wireless headphones to use without an extra dongle.

 

Is it only me, or is anybody else thinking . . . Thinkpads?

 

I think that is their idea.

Willing to bet the cheaper Vostros will be of better quality than thinkpads.

 

hmm, there is the option for no optical drive. Can one be put in later or can there things go there? This is on the 1320.

 

I wonder why do Dell have to repeat the Inspiron model numbers and rebrand them as Vostros anyway. When I read it I was thinking they "converted" the Inspiron 1720 to a Vostro 1720.

And an Inspiron 1520 to a Vostro 1520.

Would be better if they'd offer a 9600M GT instead and maintain the older previous 1500, 1700 with 8600M GT midranged lineup. Anyway, the GS is about as good as it gets though - Perhaps a little bit of OC will help.

 

lol, i got excited for a second when i saw 9600gs i was thinking the 9600gs would have been inside the 1320. I was going to say that would be pretty sweet The 9300 should do the job though especially if its DDR3. A LED screen option would have sealed the deal and made the 1320 a top choice for people looking for a business notebook on a budget...'

ITs also surprising this 13" has a dedicated GPU option but dell's much more higher end model the E4300 only comes with a 4500....weird.....

 

When hasn't Dell`s sub-14" business laptops come with only Intel`s integrated graphics

 

I really hope that the new 13" and 15" Vostros will have a STANDARD european keyboard, with the good old small left Shift key!
For me, this non-standard layout (big Shift left, small Shift right, like the US one) is very annoying to work on.

Yes i think for most people, it seems to be a bit ridiculous but... you know, the force of habit.

 

wow the 15" vostro is 5.38 pounds. That is lighter than the Macbook Pro and what most 14.1" laptops weigh!

 

I am in the US and I do not like having a small right shift, I do not get why they can not just move the arrow keys down a little bit to make room.

And does anyone know what the advantage of not putting in a optical drive is besides cost?

 

I can see the options on the US site...

 

I wasnt comparing my 8600mGT to a 9600mGS, even though they are basically the same card (since mine is OC'd it could be a 9600m ). I was referring to how they switched from the GT to GS (1700 to 1710 update)and stuck with the lower version. Thats all.

 

Lower version in name only,from what I remember of my vostro 1500,the 8600GT,should never have been called a "GT" anyway,with such low clock rate's and low DDR2 memory speed's ....there's a reasonably tangible improvement between the GT in the vostro's and the ddr3 version in the M1530

Smaller die fabrication is never a bad thing though,better performance for the same TDP,or the same performance with less heat and power usage.....either way,it's an evolutionary improvement.

Still.....doubt most buyer's of this notebook will probably care less,and would probably just be glad that the GPU model start's with 9,rather than 8

 

I'm not nearly as familiar with the mobile variants, but a desktop 9600GS is a while lot more powerful than an 8600GT. The 9600GS is basically an 8800GT with 128 or 192-bit-wide memory rather than 256-bit.

 

they are completely different things.
a desktop 9600gso has 96 shaders, mobile one has 32.

 

Xirug is accurate a 9500M is about the same as an 8600 so yes a 9600 gs would be better.

 

Why does the
Vostro 1720
* Up to Intel Core 2 Duo 2.66GHz T9550 processor
* Up to 8GB DDR2
* Intel 45 Express chipset
* Intel X4500 or NVIDIA GeForice 9600M GS graphics card
* 17" WXGA+ or UltraSharp WUXGA LCDs
* Optional 128GB SSD
* Optional Blu-ray burner
* 6-cell and 9-cell batteries
* WxHxL: 15.47" x 1" x 11.26"
* Starting weight: 6.8lbs

only have ddr2 why not ddr3

 

Congrats for passing 1000 posts E

If they gave it DDR3 that would drive up the costs.

 

Agreed on who buys this probably wont care. With a 100mhz OC across the board my vostro sees 4k+ 3dmarks and games well at 1920x1200. I may be off but the 1530 run in the 4k area stock if Im not mistaken. But yes the XPS is a performance model, while my vostro was made for the business environment. I always wished they offered an 8800 variant in the 17in vostro, heck I would have paid a lot for such an option.

 

I like business laptops much better. They perform faster & they last longer. The only turn off of the 1720 is theirs no ddr3 ram. They should at least have one of the vostro's with a ddr3 option

 

ddr3 yields negligable performance increase in montevina.

 

DDR3 is nothing to fret over as noted; it provides no tangible performance increase; even in synthetic benchmarks, it barely adds anything relative to DDR2.
DDR3 is only worth having in notebooks where power consumption is important, since it runs on less voltage than DDR2.

 

I think the average difference between DDR3 and DDR2 is ~0.3V; might add a few minuscule minutes to the battery life, but certainly nothing to write home about.

 

that is correct, battery life difference is difficult to test though, since no laptop i heard of can use both ddr2 and ddr3.
OT why don't we have any thing on wattage of sodimms?

 

Ordered a new Vostro 1720 for my wife on the 35% off coupon deal today. She wanted more real-estate and a dedicated numeric pad and the 35% off coupon (+$30 online order discount + 1.5% FWCB + free shipping) really made it attractive. I'll post up my thoughts some pictures (if anyone wants to see some) after it arrives. ETA 6/9 currently.

Specs are listed in my signature. $1,236 less all discounts = $784 before tax. I'm pretty happy with the price.

As usual, plan on doing a clean install once it arrives. And then I'll do some undervolting (I enjoyed the process with my M1330).