Dell Intros Vostro V13 Thin-and-Light

Dell Intros Vostro V13 Thin-and-Light

Dell today introduced its latest business thin-and-light, the Vostro V13. Measuring 0.65-0.78 inches thin, it features a 13.3-inch display and has a starting weight of 3.5 pounds. The chassis is brushed aluminum. It is available with Intel Celeron/Core 2 Solo/Core 2 Duo ULV processors with 1.2-1.4GHz clockspeeds. It has one RAM slot for expansion up to 4GB. The 30Wh 6-cell li-ion battery is not user-replaceable; Dell claims it can power the system for 4.75 hours. Available operating systems include Windows XP/Vista/7 and Ubuntu Linux.

The Dell Vostro V13 is available today starting at $449; Windows models start at $599.

Dell Vostro V13 Product Link

 

Glad to see they are offering linux on "larger" laptops than netbooks!

 

if only it had a bigger and user replaceable battery.

 

To think I just ordered a comparitively huge and clunky Vostro 1320 ... The not user-replaceable battery is a concern though. And the best news is that Dell has gotten rid of the glossy fingerprint-prone lids ...

 

I like it. But 4.75 = 3.5 hours useful on ekeing? I guess they couldn't enter into the increasingly crowded 'looks like a normal 13-inch thin & light' market. For that reason - not interested. I have a compromised, short-runtime machine already.

I can however see this selling like gangbusters if QC is maintained higher than Apple - not a hard prospect for the Tier 1's I would imagine.

 

Saw this earlier today but without the battery life info...it's disappointing in what is otherwise a nice inexpensive machine.

This is a good example of how Dell is failing to compete with the other top notebook manufacturers and why their share is slipping. The V13 could have had a signficantly longer battery life and taken away some sales from the Acer Timelines.

 

Thats a nice looking and slim notebook.
But i think il wait for the new notebooks that will hit Q1 2010.

 

I really like the looks the of this thing. Reminds me of the old Latitude D series. It has it's flaws, but I think it's a step in the right direction. I think I'll be waiting for something better though. (Maybe ultra-slim Latitude?)

I wonder what these will go for in the Outlet?

 

I was also disappointed by the mediocre battery life in an otherwise amazing system! Then it occured to me- if battery life was much better, it would cannibalize some sales from the Latitude E4300....just a thought...

 

Looks like a cost-down repackage of the first-gen Dell Adamo...

 

Nice idea, terrible implementation. I'm not paying $175 to upgrade to 4GB due to the single RAM slot.

 

Yep, Dell just tried to cut to many corners. Single DIMM, no HDMI/DisplayPort, poor battery life. If they had just not tried so hard to make it cheap they would have had winner. But then Vostros are supposed to be cheap. Maybe they'll come out with full blown Latitude that isn't too expensive someday.

Seriously, I think the gun metal style is my favorite. I wish they'd stuck with it on the Latitude E series instead of the rather ugly one they chose.

 

Then you improve the E4300 features to compensate....especially since that laptop is probably losing sales to HP's Envy 13 which gets 14 hours with it's battery slice and dedicated graphics.

 

I was sort of excited by this until I saw the $599 configuration still only gets you a single core processor. C2S, yeah, but come on. Gross, Dell.

 

But then it would just be a Dell Adamo

This doesn't look that bad, although the cheaper configs are admittedly weak. I'd love to see a review of this that looks at the build, though.

 

I think design wise it looks pretty awesome. Kinda makes me wish I held off on the dm3, though the dm3 is a MUCH better value.

 

Looks like a decent machine, glad they didn't make it too powerful or I would be sad for my Adamo

 

Im actually surprised at the price!

This is a sleek looking notebook for the money. That being said they really have no options stock.

 

So hot right now.

 

A good example of how beauty is just skin deep.

 

This is an Adamo wanna be...after all the high end design on the Adamo line is leaking to the lower ends...interesting move, yet not surprising, and the battery life seems unforgivable considering the components...

 

This sums it up pretty well. It's too bad. I was really looking forward to what this had to offer in terms of computing power and battery life.

 

I couldn't care less about the battery life on the Vostros. They'll be plugged in the whole time. If you are a mobility warrior, get a Latitude.

 

Yet, if you are in a budget, and you are getting a ULV, you should expect a high battery life.
Considering how Acer and ASUS have longer life at around the same price tag, and same components, I see no advantage of this one. Just the BQ.

 

Dell business support > Acer support and possibly Asus support?

 

Indeed. But the laptop itself could not be the best option around.

You can even have a ThinkPad T500 for that price or T400, which I would chose. I dont know, but I still fail to see how this is going to have an edge over the competition.

 

Sad about the battery life being as low as it is ... nice price otherwise though.

 

I also would have loved a dedicated GPU option. A 4330 at least.

 

Well, with this thinness that is a bit pushing it Red, but the major drawback is the unimpressive battery life, considering the hardware and compared to the competition.

Although BQ seems superior...

 

Dont flame me, but I kinda like the design:

 

I dunno ... the design doesn't particularly appeal to me. Does kinda remind me of the Adamo though....

 

Based on what I see there's no way this comes close to comparing to HP's ProBook 5310m (and I'm not just saying that because I have one). Not as powerful, the keyboard blows (according to Engadget), battery life is about half of what the HP gets, no DisplayPort/HDMI, and most likely, not built as well. The HP is slightly more expensive but those extra dollars go far.
Jerry put it well in the 5310m review:

Translated for the context of this article: if HP released the 5310m earlier this year, Dell would have scrapped the V13 (or modified it somehow).

That's unrealistic and impractical. There is basically no reason for an ultraportable like this to have anything but integrated Intel graphics.

Also the lack of a backlit keyboard is a trivial item. About 1% of notebooks had them up until mid-2008, which means people have been dealing with standard keyboards just fine. Not sure how else to say this so here goes: get over it.

 

l don't know, I think a 4330 could fit in here still. What if some business person wanted the extra power for something video related? (Like watching a 1080p movie on a external TV). More options is good, and i doubt it would waste much more power then the Intel 4500 to begin with.

 

I like how the traditionally 'budget' lineups of laptops look good once they cut off excess fat.

I'd take a 'budget' thin and light over a Lenovo X301 any day (price considered).

 

Here's one way: it looks sexy. Seriously, I showed this to my girlfriend, who at the time was considering a netbook, and she "fell in love with it" straight away.

It's thin and light, and she'll use it plugged in much of the time. Form over function? When the price is right, sure!

 

Again, T500 and T400 are WAY thicker than this. In a way, your paying for the thinness, the lightness, the premium materials and the style. (go ahead Thinkpaders flame me.... )

I am disappointed at the battery choices and lack of a dual core processor at the base price point though. Perhaps they can implement this through running changes....

I'll hold reservations on the keyboard until the machine gets a proper, full review- No, an Engadget (As good as they are) first look (who knows how long they've had with it..it could have only been a few hours....) does NOT count as a full, proper, review in my book.

That said, It looks great and is a breath of fresh air compared to the rest of the Vostro lineup.

 

Several times I have considered a Vostro for myself or others but I keep having to abandon it because of no displayport or HDMI.

In the whole category of 13" CULV notebooks I think this is the only one without an external video port.

I see a number of complaints about the battery life as well, but that doesn't bother me.

 

I think the main obstacle to offering a dedicated graphics card isn't necessarily the lack of internal space. The much greater challenge would be keeping the GPU operating temps at an acceptable level. I'm afraid it would be like the HP dv2, thanks to the ATI graphics card tucked inside its compact frame!

 

having no HDMI or Displayport is ridiculous, even netbooks are coming with HDMI ports now. I haven't had to use a VGA connection in the last 3 years, every place I had to present at used equipment with a DVI or HDMI port.

Not even going to get into the none swappable battery....

 

To be honest, I'm surprised they made this a Vostro model. It seems like it would have been a natural fit as the second Latitude Z model.

It kinda makes sense for Dell to limit features on the Vostro line. If they had all the features that users wanted, they'd never sell any Latitudes or Precision laptops....and they do have that cutting-edge VGA port, don't forget!

 

But I didn't switch to a Latitute, I switched to a Toshiba. Getting HDMI on a notebook at in this category and price point is easy (all of them have it except this) so it isn't going to move me to a Latitude.

 

Um... the built in GMA4500 graphics handles hardware accelerated HD playback just fine. Go look at the reviews for the Asus ul80vt with switchable graphics:
http://www.techreport.com/articles.x/17939/7 - video playback is perfect with integrated
http://www.techreport.com/articles.x/17939/8 - battery life is >2 hrs longer with integrated graphics active than with discrete.

 

Lacks HDMI or DisplayPort, single SO-DIMM, and the battery isn't user-replaceable. On the otherhand, it's very thin and light, design is eye-catching, and it's very affordable. The base option with Ubuntu is interesting to say the least, because at that price point ($450), there's no competition for 13" notebooks. 13" notebooks IMO are the ultimate medium for future notebook sales. Intel's CULV processor line and AMD's Neo line add up to affordability, great battery life, and the perfect ratio of useability, performance, and mobility. 15" notebooks are too large, and netbooks are too small. Faster processors only lessen battery life, "going green" is the right direction.

It's a decent start, all manufacturers will only improve in this important segment

 

Yes, but as long as future proofing goes...I find it kinda lacking...one SODIMM is not enough nowadays

 

I agree with almost everything you said, however, I recently made a post about getting a Celeron to conserve battery life and everyone in the thread objected, saying that the faster processors have much better battery life.

 

I am unfamiliar with the Neo's benchmarks myself, but if they are comparable to the CULV, then they'll be sufficient for current tasks.