Dell Vostro 1310 Review

by Jerry Jackson

When Dell launched their new Vostro line of computers last year the Vostros where immediately praised for meeting the needs of small businesses and budget-minded consumers alike. The Vostro 1310 is the newest and smallest addition to the Vostro family of notebooks. This compact business notebook comes with a 13.3" display, dedicated graphics option and a slot-loading optical drive, but does it still offer the right combination of features, options, and price that made the Vostro line so popular? Keep reading and you can find out.

The Dell Vostro 1310 is available with a range of Intel processors (from the 1.86GHz Celeron M M540 up to the T9500 2.6GHz Core 2 Duo). There are two 13.3" screen offerings, a 1280x800 WXGA with matte anti-glare coating and 1280x800 WXGA "TrueLife" glossy display. The notebook can take up to 4GB of RAM and Dell offers 32-bit versions of Microsoft Windows Vista Business or Windows XP Professional. The system is priced starting at $749 with integrated Intel X3100 graphics at the time of this writing, but is also available with nVidia 8400M GS dedicated graphics.

Our pre-production Vostro 1310 is equipped with the following specs:

• Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo T8100 (2.1GHz)
• Memory: 2GB - 2 DIMM (DDR2-667) (4GB max)
• HDD: 160GB 5400RPM HDD
• Graphics: 128MB NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS
• Display: 13.3" WXGA Antiglare
• Optical drive: Slot-loading 8x DVD +/- RW
• OS: Vista Business SP1 (available with XP Professional)
  
• Software: 30-day security subscription anti-virus, No trail-ware
  
• Wireless: Dell 1505 Wireless-N Mini Card (802.11a/g/n)
  
• Battery: 6-cell battery
• Other: Webcam and fingerprint reader
• Services: Network assistant; 10GB of Datasafe online; Dell Support Center; PC Tune-up
• Dimensions (HxWxD): 0.94" (front)/1.59" (back) x 12.48" x 9.57"
• Weight: 4.45 lbs (with 4-cell battery), 4.63 lbs (with 6-cell battery)
• Base configuration price: $749
• Price as tested: $1,357

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Build and Design

Dell received some much needed attention in 2007 with the introduction of the sleek, high performance XPS M1330 and XPS M1530 notebooks. While these more expensive notebooks in the Dell lineup were praised for their looks and low weight, the Dell Insipron and Vostro notebooks were criticized for being bulky and unattractive laptops. Dell listened closely to this criticism when they designed the new Vostro 1310. The Vostro 1310 is in fact roughly 20% smaller and lighter than the Vostro 1400.

Unfortunately, the lighter weight and thinner profile come at some cost. Namely, the plastics used in the chassis feel thin and in some areas, such as above the keyboard and on the palmrests, there is a significant degree of flex. The edges of the chassis are also sharper than what we've seen on earlier Dell notebooks and these sharp edges and thin plastics make the design of the Dell Vostro 1310 feel slightly unfinished or unrefined.

Much like last year's Vostro releases, the 1310 doesn't come in multiple colors or display lid patterns. Black is your only option. However, this year Dell decided to get rid of the matte black finish in favor of a glossy black finish with just a hint of metal flake. The black paint with the fine metal flakes is inlaid with the molds so there's no risk of the glossy finish coming off.

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Although I wasn't a huge fan of the glossy black plastic lid with metal flake paint on our pre-production Vostro 1310, it does look and feel nice. Still, the new glossy lid design is a magnet for fingerprints and might not resist light scratches as well as the matte black finish on the previous generation Vostro notebooks.

Another of the new innovations for the Vostro line is the "Hyperband Multi-Antenna" housed inside the LCD lid which Dell claims "can provide excellent reception and help reduce dropped signals" for both Wi-Fi and bluetooth. I've never had serious problems with dropped signals while using older Dell notebooks so I can't speak to whether the new internal multi-antenna actually improved wireless reception ... but I can say that I never experienced dropped Wi-Fi connections during the testing period.

The following is a short video overview of the all-new Dell Vostro 1310:

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Screen

Display options for the Vostro 1310 include a matte finish 13.3&quot; Widescreen XGA (1280 x 800), and a 13.3&quot; Widescreen XGA (1280 x 800) with TrueLife (glossy finish). I'm a little disappointed that Dell isn't offering a higher resolution option at the time of this writing. However, the overwhelming majority of &quot;average&quot; business users and budget notebook shoppers will think the WXGA resolution looks stunning.

The screen on our pre-production unit looks flawless from straight on and the horizontal viewing angles are great. Upper vertical viewing angles are good with just a slightly washed out look, but colors did begin to invert at lower viewing angles when the screen is tilted back.

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Keyboard, Touchpad and Media Controls

The keyboard on the Vostro 1310 is quite nice with minimal flex near the center of the keyboard. The keys have a nice matte texture with proper spacing and each of the keys have excellent travel and cushion. There are dedicated page up and page down keys but the home and end keys require the use of the function key, so this might be a little frustrating for users who do a lot of coding.

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The touchpad surface utilizes the same matte texture with just a hint of metal flake that is used on the palm rest surface. The touchpad is nice and responsive but feels a little smaller than it should be. The touchpad buttons have excellent travel and cushion. Unfortunately, because of the way in which the touchpad buttons are slightly recessed and close to the edge of the chassis, the touchpad buttons are uncomfortable to use. The edge of my thumb kept hitting the edge of the chassis when I pressed the touchpad buttons and I ended up with sore thumbs after just a few minutes.

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A series of touch-sensitive media buttons with blue LED backlights are located above the keyboard similar to the buttons on the XPS notebooks. One nice feature about the media buttons is that the blue LEDs only stay lit for a fraction of a second after being pressed, so they won't distract you by staying lit all the time. The power button also features a blue LED backlight, but this light says on whenever the notebook is on.

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Ports and Features

The port selection of the 1310 is reasonably good for a notebook of this size. Here's a quick rundown of what you get:

Front profile view: LED status lights and mono speaker.

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Left side: USB port, FireWire, microphone in, headphone out, multi-card reader, and ExpressCard slot.

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Right side: Slot-loading optical drive, WiFi on/off, three USB ports, and power jack.

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Back profile view: Battery, VGA out, Ethernet and security lock slot.

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Perhaps the most interesting omission from the ports selection is the lack of either S-video out or HDMI. Some older video projectors still use the S-video port and most newer external monitors and high-resolution projectors use the HDMI port. The absence of both the S-video port and the HDMI port means that this notebook won't be 100 percent friendly with all external displays used for presentations. This might indeed be a serious problem for traveling business professionals who never know exactly what type of video-out port they'll need for their next business presentation.

With the addition of FireWire, four USB ports, a media card reader, a headphone jack, microphone jack, ExpressCard slot and Ethernet port you're well equipped ports wise.

I was pleasantly surprised to find four USB ports on the 1310. I was a bit let down by the fact the much larger XPS M1530 only includes three USB ports. The fact that the 1310 packs four USB ports into a reasonably thin and light 13.3&quot; notebook is worth praise.

Audio

The speaker quality was sub par for a notebook of this size and price range. The mono speaker on the 1310 produces dreadfully shallow sound with limited range and no bass. You can get the volume reasonably loud without much distortion, but the audio coming out of this single tiny speaker sounds like a cell phone speaker inside a tin can.

This is unfortunate because many 12&quot; and smaller notebooks (such as the HP tx2000z or HP 2133 Mini-Note) have stereo speakers that produce high quality sound with excellent range of highs, middles, and lows. The Vostro 1310 is a budget business notebook, but I'm certain that Dell can do better than this.

The other negative issue is that the location of the mono speaker is on the front edge of the notebook. If you're using the 1310 as a &quot;laptop&quot; this means the speaker is pointed toward your crotch. The last time I checked, humans don't have ears in that area of the body ... which is why audio will tend to sound somewhat muffled when using the 1310 in your lap.

On the brighter side, the headphone out port delivered crystal clear audio to my earbuds during the test period.

Performance and Benchmarks

One thing to notice is that this relatively small 13.3&quot; notebook is available with either integrated graphics or a dedicated graphics card option. While most business professionals only need integrated graphics, the optional Nvidia 8400M GS is great for mobile video editing and Photoshop as well as budget gaming. In fact, the Vostro 1310 actually produced a better 3DMark 06 score than the XPS M1330 that we tested last year. Still, the Vostro 1310 is meant for a more mainstream business buyer looking for good productivity features and a low price, not cutting edge 3D performance.

Our configuration of the Vostro 1310 with the 2.1GHz T8100 Intel Core 2 Duo processor performed quite well during testing and this machine will meet or exceed the performance needs of most users.

wPrime is a program that forces the processor to do recursive mathematical calculations, the advantage of this program is that it is multi-threaded and can use both processor cores at once, thereby giving more accurate benchmarking measurements than Super Pi. Lower scores indicate better performance.

Notebook / CPU	wPrime 32M time
Dell Vostro 1310 (Core 2 Duo T8100 @ 2.1GHz)	37.736s
Dell Inspiron 1525 (Core 2 Duo T7250 @ 2.0GHz)	43.569s
Dell XPS M1530 (Core 2 Duo T7500 @ 2.2GHz)	37.485s
Portable One SXS37 (Core 2 Duo T7250 @ 2.0GHz)	41.908s
Sony VAIO NR (Core 2 Duo T5250 @ 1.5GHz)	58.233s
Toshiba Tecra A9 (Core 2 Duo T7500 @ 2.2GHz)	38.343s
Toshiba Tecra M9 (Core 2 Duo T7500 @ 2.2GHz)	37.299s
HP Compaq 6910p (Core 2 Duo T7300 @ 2GHz)	40.965s
Zepto 6024W (Core 2 Duo T7300 @ 2GHz)	42.385s
Lenovo T61 (Core 2 Duo T7500 @ 2.2GHz)	37.705s
Samsung Q70 (Core 2 Duo T7300 @ 2.0GHz)	42.218s
Acer Travelmate 8204WLMi (Core Duo T2500 @ 2.0GHz)	42.947s
Samsung X60plus (Core 2 Duo T7200 @ 2.0GHz)	44.922s
Samsung Q35 (Core 2 Duo T5600 @ 1.83GHz)	46.274s

3DMark06 comparison results for graphics performance (higher scores indicate better performance):

Notebook	3DMark06 Score
Dell Vostro 1310 (2.1GHz Intel T8100, Nvidia 8400M GS 128MB)	1,679 3DMarks
Dell Inspiron 1525 (2.0GHz Intel T7250, Intel X3100)	545 3DMarks
Sony VAIO NR (1.5GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T5250, Intel X3100)	504 3DMarks
Dell XPS M1530 (2.20GHz Intel T7500, Nvidia 8600M GT 256MB)	4,332 3DMarks
Dell Inspiron 1520 (2.0GHz Intel T7300, NVIDIA 8600M GT)	2,905 3DMarks
Dell XPS M1330 (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, NVIDIA GeForce Go 8400M GS 128MB)	1,408 3DMarks
Samsung Q70 (2.0GHz Core 2 Duo T7300 and nVidia 8400M G GPU)	1,069 3DMarks
Asus F3sv-A1 (Core 2 Duo T7300 2.0GHz, Nvidia 8600M GS 256MB)	2,344 3DMarks
Alienware Area 51 m5550 (2.33GHz Core 2 Duo, nVidia GeForce Go 7600 256MB	2,183 3DMarks
Fujitsu Siemens Amilo Xi 1526 (1.66GHz Core Duo, nVidia 7600Go 256 MB)	2,144 3DMarks
Samsung X60plus (2.0GHz Core 2 Duo T7200, ATI X1700 256MB)	1,831 3DMarks
Asus A6J (1.83GHz Core Duo, ATI X1600 128MB)	1,819 3DMarks
HP dv6000t (2.16 GHz Intel T7400, NVIDA GeForce Go 7400)	827 3DMarks

PCMark05 measures overall notebook performance (higher scores indicate better performance):

Notebook	PCMark05 Score
Dell Vostro 1310 (2.1GHz Intel T8100, Nvidia 8400M GS 128MB)	4,813 PCMarks
Dell Inspiron 1525 (2.0GHz Intel T7250, Intel X3100)	4,149 PCMarks
Dell XPS M1530 (2.20GHz Intel T7500, Nvidia 8600M GT 256MB)	5,412 PCMarks
Dell Inspiron 1520 (2.0GHz Intel T7300, NVIDIA 8600M GT)	4,616 PCMarks
Dell XPS M1330 (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, NVIDIA GeForce Go 8400M GS)	4,591 PCMarks
Lenovo ThinkPad X61 (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, Intel X3100)	4,153 PCMarks
Lenovo 3000 V200 (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, Intel X3100)	3,987 PCMarks
Lenovo T60 Widescreen (2.0GHz Intel T7200, ATI X1400 128MB)	4,189 PCMarks
HP dv6000t (2.16GHz Intel T7400, NVIDA GeForce Go 7400)	4,234 PCMarks
Fujitsu N6410 (1.66GHz Core Duo, ATI X1400)	3,487 PCMarks
Alienware M7700 (AMD Athlon FX-60, Nvidia Go 7800GTX)	5,597 PCMarks
Sony VAIO SZ-110B in Speed Mode (Using Nvidia GeForce Go 7400)	3,637 PCMarks
Asus V6J (1.86GHz Core Duo T2400, Nvidia Go 7400)	3,646 PCMarks

HDTune measures the performance of the notebook's hard drive in terms of both transfer rate (read/write speed) and access time (how long it takes to find data stored on the drive):

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Heat and Noise

The Vostro 1310 does an impressive job keeping heat under control. The system fan and heatsinks in the 1310 do a great job managing heat when the system is under load ... as we discovered when we ran multiple benchmarks back to back. What we found most impressive was the fact that the bottom of the notebook (usually the hottest side) ended up being slightly cooler than the surface of the keyboard and palm rests. This is quite nice and makes for a more enjoyable &quot;laptop&quot; experience. Below are images with temperature readings listed in degrees Fahrenheit:

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Fortunately, noise was likewise a non-issue with the fan on the 1310. The fan moved a significant amount of hot air and the noise was exceptionally quiet. The fan was so quiet, even when running at full speed, that the air rushing past the heatsink actually made more noise than the fan itself.

Battery Life

The 6-cell 58WHr Li-Ion battery provides excellent battery life for the 1310. With Vista's power management running in &quot;high performance&quot; mode, screen brightness set to maximum and wireless on, the 6-cell battery delivered 3 hours and 18 minutes of battery life. The 6-cell delivered 3 hours and 52 minutes of life while browsing the web using Wi-Fi with the notebook set to &quot;balanced&quot; mode and the screen brightness turned down to 50 percent.

There is also an available 9-cell 87WHr Li-Ion battery for those users needing extended battery life and a 4-cell 38WHr battery for those who need a laptop to be as light as possible. Unfortunately, Dell was unable to provide us with the 4-cell and 9-cell batteries during our testing period, so we cannot provide any information on battery life with these batteries.

Conclusion

Overall, the Dell Vostro 1310 is an impressive budget notebook with clean looks and solid performance. Whether you need a simple business notebook or a budget portable laptop with modest gaming capabilities, the Vostro 1310 makes an excellent choice.

That said, the chassis isn't as nice as we hoped ... the edges are sharp and could be smoother or more rounded, the case feels more flimsy than the earlier Vostros, the touchpad button placement is bad, and the mono speaker does not provide a good audio experience. Still, none of these issues are &quot;deal breakers.&quot;

The other huge advantage to the Vostro line is the support, lack of bloatware, and excellent return policy. Dell will let you purchase a Vostro, use it for 30 days, and if you don't like it you can send it back for a full refund without any restocking or shipping fees. That's just amazing.

In short, the Vostro 1310 is an excellent addition to the Vostro family and gives business professionals and consumers on a budget a low-cost alternative to the Dell XPS M1330. Unfortunately, the price as configured ($1,357) places it neck-and-neck with the XPS M1330. Although the Vostro is a great system at the entry level price of just $749, once the price exceeds $1,000 most consumers (and even many business professionals) would be better off with the XPS M1330.

Pros

• Thinner and lighter than the Vostro 1400
• Reasonable battery life
• Nice screen and easy-to-use media buttons
• Good selection of ports
• Solid performance
• No bloatware
• Available with Windows XP
• Excellent return policy (NO restocking or shipping fees within 30 days!)

Cons

• Glossy LCD lid is a magnet for fingerprints
• Chassis plastics feel too thin and hollow
• Mono speaker is painfully weak
• Uncomfortable touchpad buttons
• No S-video or HDMI port
  
• Price as configured is a little expensive compared to the XPS M1330

 

Thanks for the Great Review..

 

Thanks for the review.

It is at the heavy end of the range for 13.3" and price will be one of the factors in the selection of this notebook.

The performance results are good. One factor is, I suspect the 160GB which I believe is a 1 platter version of the WD 320GB, so it has top end data transfer rates.

John

 

$1357, I think it's pretty expensive, considering the middle graphic class it's packaged along with. But probably because it's equipped with 2 gb ram and high-clocking 2 intel core 2 duo processor.

 

At that price, an XPS M1330 seems much better. Especially with HDMI and a thinner chassis.

 

Since the graphics and overall performance is the same, or better as the XPS M1330, maybe they're gonna upgrade the XPS to the 9-series nVidia gfx?

 

Actually, I don't quite understand what's impressive about the surface being hotter than the bottom of the notebook. Also, 15 degree difference between the left and the right palm rest doesn't look too appealing either.

 

Considering that the bottom of most laptops we review reach temps of the 90s and 100s (or even 110s) the fact that the Vostro 1310 stayed in the 80s and 90s after several hours of use and intense benchmarking is impressive.

I've used too many notebooks that get hot on my lap and it gets uncomfortable after 20-40 minutes. The Vostro 1310 was one of the few full-featured laptops I've reviewed that didn't get very hot at all.

As far as the temperature variance ... that was a little odd for a smaller 13.3" notebook, but if you look at the temperature reading we've recorded for other notebooks over the last year you'll see that it's actually normal for a laptop to have some variance in temperature. It's just a matter of different components inside different areas of the chassis producing different amounts of heat.

 

Damn...

The notebook is scary thick with 1.6 inch (for 13 inch factor notebooks, anyway) Don't you guys agree?

 

Not to mention heavy. Clearly portability wasn't a priority for Dell with this notebook.

 

Looks good. Nice review (as always)

 

Dude, if it isn't thick and boxy it isn't a Dell!

Seriously, it isn't as bad as some Dells we've seen ... but this isn't an XPS.

 

Wonder why Dell decided to release a Santa Rosa notebook this close to Montevina launch?

 

It's easy to toss a Montevina processor inside this thing at a later date, but IT managers who have to get approval for purchase orders need to see notebooks well in advance and need time to make sure it's the right purchase for their company. Most businesses start making decisions about next year's purchases in the Fall ... and they base those decisions on what was released in the Spring and Summer.

 

Yet most IT managers know that Montevina and Puma are coming out in the summer and the potential benefits each platform offers. They probably wouldn't be interested in buying obsolete hardware at premium prices. Sure, Dell can stick a new motherboard (which is what Montevina and Puma would require) in these units, but they have Montevina Latitudes coming out by this summer. Plus HP, their main competitor, will be updating the entire line this summer with the new platforms. So I really don't get this move, especially at these prices.

Dell's not the only company putting out new Santa Rosa notebooks this time of year. But I would have expected Dell to be a bit more forethinking.

 

Great review... I personally see no reason to get ir right now, when a XPS M1330 is slightly more expensive, just as business-looking, and far better built.

If they brought the price down of this speced version to 1100, then it might be a good cheaper alternative. I mean i personally like the all-black style better, but the lack of an HDMI port is a deal breaker.

 

Man, I sure wish our IT works the way you think they do. Our company has just issued an edict in Feb '08 that all D600 laptops still in use will be replaced with D620, our standard laptop for the foreseeable future....

And frankly, given there is an IT prohibiter or something like that in Dilbert, I think our company is not alone in this kind of atrocity.

 

The M1330 lacks two things that a lot of business users need... a docking station and it has no screws to keep VGA cables secured (seriously, this is a huge annoyance).

 

I can't believe Dell will release such an ugly 13.3" notebook. I am sure this is just another contract supplier's design. Can Dell find some better company? The current Vostro 1400 looks even better than this 1310.

I hope they won't screw up the upcoming Inpiron 1425 (or 1325 if they drop 14.1" screen altogehter).

Bottom line, HDMI, web cam, bluetooth should be standard features, business or consumer laptops.

 

Yours might be an pretty exceptional exception given that Dell doesn't even manufacture the D620 anymore.

But yes, there are a number of IT departments out there that are more price conscious than technology conscious which only underscores this strange move by Dell. The pricing is all wrong, the specs are a bit off, and the durability is questionable considering the intended client.

I'm worried about Dell. But we'll probably get a better gage of them in June/July.

 

I'd be surprised if webcam and bluetooth weren't cheap options... I think everyone would have preferred they had atleast gone with a HDCP DVI. That way, if you need a VGA out, you can get a converter dongle.

A bigger issue that i forgot to ask about, is ethernet. Do you guys know if its gigabit or 10/100? I was amazed that the XPS M1530 didnt have that.

Finally, do you think you guys could post some pics comparing this to a macbook, just to give me a better idea of scale?

 

Vostro is the business value line. The Latitudes are the high end, full-featured and better designed business models.

 

The Ethernet on the 1310 is gigibit.

We don't have a MacBook in house ... but we've got a MacBook Air and an XPS M1330:

 

Nice pics... it looks huge!

 

Actually, you can't toss in a "Montevina processor", as Montevina is the name of the next generation Centrino. That means New motherboard, using a new chipset with new CPU socket. The Posibility of DDR3 RAM. Some other new stuff, like Displayport and whatnot. The CPU is still Penryn.

HDMI should not be included on business laptops. Dual-link DVI-I is a much better choice. That mean that it can both connect to analogue sources and the 30" behemoth screens from Dell/Apple etc. as well as HDTV's and projectors. And you wouldn't need to give up space, as you can take away the VGA port.

Nice reviews you guys.

 

^^^
I'm sure he meant Montevina type CPU or Montevina compatible CPU, or Montevina "stuffs".

 

thing looks perfect! cheap, no frills...(who needs an HDMI? I've had one for a year and never even thought about using it!) lightweight (as opposed to Toshiba M5 or Dell 1420) this thing looks near perfect! and for about a $1k?

I think you can't really complain about Dell's styling...this isn't what this machine is about! it aint a Mac Air or a sexy Sony SZ..it's a plain jane, get 'er done (somewhat) thin and light. Kudos's Dell!!!

BUT the question now is...why isn't it up on the Dell site for sale?

 

It doesn't really float my boat.

The Vostros are not something I would get for the company as they are not that much better than the consumer Inspirons. And at the "as tested price", I am wondering if the M1330 might be a better deal. Its a close competitor to the similarly priced and sized Toshiba M600.


Only thing that might interest me is that is still available with Windows XP and if perhaps the 1710 comes with a dedicated number pad.


As it is, come September (our year end) I'd be having a problems with Dell. With the New E-series coming out now, there is a huge possibility it wont work well with my D series fleet's peripherals (Docks, batteries, etc). Its going to be quite the budget expense to replace the D/ports. I still dont understand why the Dell D/ports are 2x the price of HP Business Notebook's docking solutions.

 

Any word on the ODM who built these?

 

Kind of looks like Dell is leaning toward the highly successful Thinkpad design. Square and industrial looking.

 

Thanks for the good review.
Wow that thing is kinda ugly for a 13.3 notebook..

Anyways, does anyone know what happened to the Vostro 1200??

 

Where is my Dell Vostro 1410? If its under 5 pounds with 7 hours of battery life and around $500, I'm selling my 1400.

 

At first I thought it was looking pretty horrible, now I am slowly getting used to it. Still a bit cheap-ish looking with those sharp edges. Like imitating a serious business-look without archiving it. Also there is the super-small touchpad.

 

A little thinkpadish.

 

This look like one of those HP business laptop.

Yah at 4.5 lbs, that is heavy for a 13.3".

I might just get the Latitude E at 13.3" and hope for a review soon.

 

Nice review Jerry!

 

7 hours is beyond wishful thinking... 2.5-3.5hours seems more realistic.
They would need a 9 cell, ULV chip, LED display, SSD, and running the most ruthless power-saving profile to come near 7 hours.

 

Wonderful review. I just decided to wait for the E series Latitude laptops. The reviewer just saved me some doe as I was very interested in buying the newly designed Vostro's.

 

Good notebook and nice review!

 

For the love of GOD, why can't manufacturers fit 1440x900 into a 13.3" screen? WXGA does not cut it.

 

It's like the M1210 was reborn as a 13" Vostro!

 

How sad are the fingerprints on the lcd lid?

Anybody know some about this "problem" or have more pics about it?

 

Anyone knows which Brand the intergrated Webcam on the 1310 is?

 

Well, I guess I don't regret my Vostro 1400 purchase, all things considered.

 

Here is a photo of the lid on the 1310. I took this photo one hour after I had cleaned the laptop lid. Those fingerprints and smudges showed up after just one hour of me carrying the 1310 around our office. You'll also notice there are some light scratches ... due to the fact that the plastics used in the construction of the 1310 aren't very scratch resistant.

 

why is it much more expensive than the M1330?

is there any rumor on the XPS replacement coming very soon?

I configured the XPS at Dell many times and every time, I got cheaper , shockingly cheap considering what you are getting in that kind of price.

And why is there no 13.3 WSXGA or WXGA+ at least?

If this Vostro 1310 or XPS M1330 had WSXGA+resolution , I would get in a heart beat.

 

Is this notebook build better than Hp 6510B ?
In Italy its price is very interesting but I don'know about its keyboard and display quality...

 

Hey there,
thanks for this nice and well written review!

Could you compare the Vostro1310 with the Samsung Q45 in terms of fan noise?!

I don't know which one would be the better companion for daily (quiet) work at the university...

On the one hand the Q45 is smaller but very (!) high. Seems to be very quiet and has a good keyboad. But lacks the dedicated graphic card. (At least with the config I'd buy)

On the other hand the Vostro1310 is really cheap at Germany, has the better graphic card and very good support. But it's a bit clumsy and I don't know if it's as quiet as the Q45...

Any suggestions which one would be better for me?!

At this moment I'd choose the Vostro 'cause of the 8400GS which supports HD/x.264 acceleration (afaik). (The 1.66GHz C2D + X3100 of the Q45 Danyal isn't the best combo for 720p x.264, is it?!)

Thanks a lot and best regards,
bearmann

 

Dell finally released the 1310 and 1510 online. Real time prices are now available on their website.

looks like a good deal, a little cheaper than the XPS M1XXX

 

I'd like to know if the 1310 is really build "less well" than the amazing 1330...