Dell Vostro 1400 Review

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by Jason K.

The Dell Vostro 1400 is a 14.1&quot; screen business notebook recently released. Dell is targeting small business buyers with the Vostro line of notebooks, but given the sturdy build, excellent price and option for installing Windows XP and less bloatware, models such as the Vostro 1400 might appeal to consumers as well.

Specifications:

• Core 2 Duo T5470 (1.6Ghz, 2MB L2 Cache, 800MHz FSB)
• 14.1” Wide Screen XGA LCD Display with TrueLife
• 1GB DDR2 667Mhz
• 128MB Nvidia Geforce 8400GS
• 120GB 5400RPM SATA
• Genuine Windows Vista Home Basic
• Integrated 10/100 Network Card and Modem
• 8x CD/DVD Burner w/ double layer DVD+ write capability
• Integrated High Definition Audtio
• Dell Wireless 1390 802.11g Wi-Fi Mini Card
• Integrated 2.0 mega pixel web camera
• 85 WHr 9-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery
• Dell Wireless 355 Bluetooth Internal (2.0 + Enhanced Data Rate)
• 1 Year Limited Hardware Warranty with Mail-in Service

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Reasons for Buying:

Ever since selling my XPS M140, I have been keeping my eyes open for another notebook deal.  For a while, I was seriously considering the Asus W3j, but I just couldn’t justify the high price.  Instead, I bought a desktop to hold me over.

I wanted a notebook that was portable and had good battery life (4 hours or more was my goal).  I also wanted something in the $600-$800 range.  I wanted my future notebook to have a 12-14” widescreen display, have discreet graphics, have a built in webcam and microphone.  The Vostro 1400 met all of my needs and at a great price!

Shopping

I had my eyes on the Vostro 1400 ever since the day of release and before that.  On the day of release I was playing around with different configurations, all which came out to be around $850-$900.  The next day to my amazement I saw that it had dropped down to $700 for the configuration that I wanted.  I ended up ordering the notebook for $700+ tax.

Between ordering and delivery it took about two weeks for me to get my notebook.  I selected shipping via DHL 3-5 days, but it took only about 24hrs to get to me!

First Impressions

The Vostro 1400 came nicely packed in a brown Dell box.  As I opened it up, the power supply CD’s and some instructions were revealed.  Underneath that was the notebook itself.  It was surrounded by 1&quot; thick styrofoam.

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Construction:

I pulled the notebook out of the Styrofoam and examined it very carefully.  The looks and everything exceeded my expectations.  Though one thing I did notice right away was that the battery didn’t snap in very well.  It rattled a little bit after being inserted and was not a snug fit, but it’s something I have seen in other  notebooks as well.  I found a simple, but inelegant solution to the problem.  A small wedge of paper between the notebook and the battery solved the problem and was not visible, unless removing the battery was necessary.

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Everything else on the notebook felt very sturdy.  The build quality greatly exceeds the Inspiron e1405 (Dell’s previous 14” notebook). There is little to no keyboard flex.  There is very little screen flex.  The screen and hinges feel especially sturdy.  The notebook’s lid closes very nicely.  Unlike previous Inspiron notebooks, the Vostro 1400 has no latch, which is very nice for easy one hand opening and closing.

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Ports and layout:

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The picture above shows the front microphone input and headphone outputs.  On the left is the 9in1 card reader.

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The picture above shows the Optical drive, s-video out, two USB 2.0 ports, and an RGB output.

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The picture above shows the kensignton lock slot, the AC input, a heatsink, an IEE 1394 firewire port, two USB 2.0 ports, and an express card slot.

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The picture above shows several blue activity LED’s, the 9in1 card slot, and wi-fi catcher button.

Keyboard:

The keyboard is a typical Inspiron keyboard.  It feels just like the e1405.  I personally am not super picky about the keyboard.  Although it is not a high-quality Thinkpad keyboard, it still is very comfortable to use, and is relatively quiet (good for taking to class).

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Touchpad:

The touchpad is very similar to the Inspiron e1405, it is dark grey in color.  The touchpad is easy to use and I haven’t had any problems with it.  I still prefer an external mouse if I’m using the notebook for extended periods of time.

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Screen:

I selected the Vostro 1400 with a 1,280 x 800 WXGA display with TrueLife.  I love the display.  The colors are very bright, images and text are crisp, and it provides quite a bit of contrast.  There is minor light leakage around the edges.

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The viewing angles on the Vostro 1400 are good from left to right.  But if you look from the top, the screen looks dark and it is hard to make out anything.  The backlight is very bright.

Webcam:

Built into the trim of the screen, I selected the 2MP webcam (a $30 upgrade at the time of this review).  The webcam is more than worth the money.  It does exceptionally well at taking pictures of close up objects and people.  When taking pictures of landscapes, it doesn’t do as well.  The camera can capture at resolutions up to 3200x2400.  However, there isn’t much point of capturing pictures at this resolution as the quality is about the same as at 1600x1200.

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Here are some sample pictures I took:

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As far as video recording goes, the 2MP camera can record up to 1600x1200 resolution at very low FPS however (Around 2-3FPS).  Video quality at this resolution is quite blurry when there is movement.  The video does reasonably well at 640x480, and very well at 320x240.  When using the webcam over an instant messaging client, you can select for the camera to use face tracking.  With face tracking it will actually zoom into your face and pan in and out as you move.

The webcam also features a blue LED indicator light, that tells you when your webcam is active.

Sound:

The Vostro 1400 has two tiny speakers on the left and right side above the keyboard.  They appear to be quite a bit smaller than the previous Insprion e1405 speakers.  For their size they really do quite well, and on max volume get loud enough to easily fill a small to medium room.  The quality of the speakers is just average.  The volume these speakers put out is more than enough for one to enjoy a game or a DVD.

Microphone:

The Vostro 1400 comes with two digital microphones which are located in the top trim of the screen, on both the left and right side of the webcam.  Both microphones capture audio very well.  This is great for skype or other VOIP applications.

Operating System:

I selected the Vostro 1400 with Microsoft Vista Home Basic.  I have never used Vista much besides the Beta versions.  There are some really great features that I like a lot in Vista.  But some of the features in Xp that I am used to have seemed to disappear or are harder to find.  It will take some time to get used to, but it sure is a nice looking interface.

Software:

Dell finally started listening to their customers as far as software goes.  You have the option to select if you want various Dell utilities installed on your computer.  Dell also gives you the option to select or not to select trial software and other freebies.

I said no to all of the freebies and trial software.  I did go ahead and opt for installing a couple of Dell utilities.  Even though I didn’t select much, the computer booted up and was running about 60 processes!  In the past when I have purchased a Dell notebook, the first thing I always did, and advised others to do, was to reformat.  Dell would just install so much junk that it made a new computer seem slow.  Out of the box, the machine booted up in about 35 seconds.  After adjusting the startup processes using Microsoft’s “msconfig” utility I was able to shave that number down to about 30.

Benchmarks and Performance

I ran Super Pi to 2 Million digits of accuracy and got 1m 10 seconds as a result.  That’s nothing super fast, but it's not bad for a budget processor.

Super Pi comparison results:

Notebook	Time
Dell Vostro (1.6 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T5470)	1m 10s
Fujitsu E8410 (2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7500)	0m 55s
Sony VAIO FZ (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300)	0m 59s
Dell XPS M1330 (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300)	0m 58s
Lenovo ThinkPad X61 (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300)	1m 01s
Lenovo 3000 V200 (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300)	0m 59s
HP dv2500t (1.80GHz Intel 7100)	1m 09s
Lenovo ThinkPad T61 (2.00GHz Core 2 Duo Intel T7300)	0m 59s
Lenovo ThinkPad T60 (2.00GHz Core 2 Duo T7200)	1m 03s
Toshiba Satellite P205-S6287 (1.73 GHz Core 2 Duo Intel T5300)	1m 24s
Toshiba Satellite A205 (1.66GHz Core 2 Duo)	1m 34s

 

PCMark05 comparison results:

Notebook	PCMark05 Score
Dell Vostro 1400 (1.6 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T5470, NVidia 8400m GS)	3,853 PCMarks
Fujitsu E8410 (2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7500, NVIDIA 8400M)	4,618 PCMarks
Sony VAIO FZ (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, Intel X3100)	3,377 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
Sony Vaio SZ-110B in Speed Mode (Using Nvidia GeForce Go 7400)	3,637 PCMarks

 

With stock drivers, out of the box, the notebook scored 2,942 on 3DMark05

3DMark05 comparison results:

Notebook	3D Mark 05 Results
Dell Vostro 1400 (1.6 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T5470, NVidia 8400m GS)	2,942 3DMarks
Dell Latitude D830 (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, Nvidia Quadro NVS 140m 256MB)	3,063 3DMarks
Fujitsu E8410 (2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7500, NVIDIA 8400M)	1,925 3DMarks
Sony VAIO FZ (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, Intel X3100)	910 3DMarks
Dell XPS M1330 (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, NVIDIA GeForce Go 8400M GS 128MB)	3,116 3DMarks
HP Compaq 6510b (2.20GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7500, Intel X3100)	916 3DMarks
HP dv6000t (2.16 GHz Intel T7400, NVIDA GeForce Go 7400)	2,013 3D Marks
Dell Inspiron e1705 (2.0GHz Core Duo, ATI X1400)	1,791 3D Marks
Acer TravelMate 8204WLMi (2.0GHz Core Duo, ATI X1600 256MB)	4,236 3DMarks
Lenovo ThinkPad T60 (2.0GHz Core Duo, ATI X1400 128MB)	2,092 3D Marks
Fujitsu n6410 (1.66 GHz Core Duo, ATI X1400 128MB)	2,273 3DMarks

HDtune:

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Heat and Noise:

The Vostro 1400 is very quiet.  The fan stays off unless I start playing a game or run some other demanding application on it.  It puts out a little bit of heat out from the left side of the notebook, but for the most part it runs cool and I can’t feel any heat coming out.

Battery Life:

I ran a battery benchmark application that maxed out the CPU to 100% load and put the sytem under a lot of stress, including the graphics card as it rendered 3D graphics.  The notebook kept going for 2 hours 24minutes, until it shut down with 3% battery life to spare.  This would be the worst case scenario.  I can’t imagine ever getting under 3 hours with the 9 cell battery. 

Dell claims that the Vostro 1400 can get up to 8hrs.  So far the longest I have seen is 6.5hrs.

The battery is an 11.1 Volt, 9 cell 85Wh Li-ion battery.  The battery cells were made in Japan.  Similar to previous batteries, there is a battery tester right on the battery showing you how much of a charge it has.  Right under the battery, I was surprised to find a SIM card reader.  I didn’t pay extra for it, and don’t think it is active, but there might be a way to enable it.

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Service and Support:

The day after I purchased the notebook, the price dropped by $50!  So Immediately I went to the Dell small business site, and tried to chat with someone from Dell small business.  I was connected with a guy from Dell home, who was unable to help me request a $50 refund, or to help me cancel my order and re-order.  He just gave me Dell small businesses’ number and told me that they only work Monday-Friday.  So, I was unable to contact them.  I eventually decided just to write Dell an email asking for $50 credit back.

The next day I was surprised to receive a response, I thought Dell Small Business only worked Money-Friday?  In the email, the rep told me that he would issue me a $50 refund after the notebook had shipped.  I agreed and waited.  A few days after I received the notebook, I got my $50 refund, which dropped the price down to $650+ tax!  (I also used fatwallet to save an additional 1.5% or $10)

What I have concluded from this and previous experiences with Dell is that, they are really hard to get a hold of usually.  You will usually have to play the Dell “game” of phone tag, or wait online from a rep and chat with them.  It usually takes a few tries to get a hold of someone with the authority to address most problems.  Once you do get a hold of them, they are usually quite responsive and help you with the problem right away!  In the past, I have had Hard drive replacements and optical drive replacements sent next day air by Dell, and arrive the next day!

Conclusion:

The Dell Vostro 1400 is an excellent choice for the price!  It offers a wide variety of special features, including a webcam (optional), microphone, discreet graphics card (optional).  It also provides impressive battery life for its size and price.  The notebook is very business looking and has some tough features which include:  a magnesium alloy chassis, spill proof keyboard, and shock resistant hard drive.

Pros:

• Excellent Price!
• Impressive build quality
• Optional Webcam and dedicated Graphics
• Great battery life, especially with the 9 cell battery.
• Great looking screen, bright and crisp

Cons:

• Battery didn’t snap in as tight as it should.
• Notebook lid easily smudges and shows your fingerprints
• Dell’s always hard to get a hold of

 

Nice review and nice notebook!

 

Great, thanks for the timely review! I am looking to "retire" my e1705 from active work duty (except for games of course)

 

$700 and change?

Damn good value, and nice review.

 

I think the resolution should be 1280 x 800, not 1280 x 1024 which is 4:3.

 

I have that exact configuration of Vostro 1400 sitting in a box next to me right now. i did not have a chance to get it setup this weekend, looking forward to opening it up tomorrow. Mine was $649 + tax.

I bought the Intel 3945 wireless card listed in my sig separately. I got it just on the off chance that I run into some 802.11a networks while traveling. Also I trust Intel to be better with driver updates over time.

 

It is 1280x800, but 1280x1024 is actually 5:4, not 4:3. 1280x960 is 4:3

Nice review but I would have expected more about the case/screen hinge sturdiness and other such things.

 

Where do you live ?

 

That is correct. That was just a little typo in the review. It is 1280x800. I was considering the higher resolution screen, but really I think I prefer the 1280x800. The icon size and everything is just perfect. And for games I can run at at the native resolution without sacrificing FPS.

I'll try to run a few gaming benchmarks and maybe add them to the review. So far I can tell you that in the CSS stress test with everything set to high no AA or AF it got 79FPS. Fear on Medium settings, runs quite well at ~30FPS.

 

hello, can you tell us real travel weight of your laptop. congrats thx for answering

 

I think that the battery life being at 6.5 hours must be with the notebook idling completely.

I was just in a coffee shop surfing with it at 35-40% brightness, and I think that it would go about 4 hours.

I was in powersaver mode.

 

I hope the notebook suits your needs in the present and the future.

 

Does your 1400 have the buzzing noise in the headphone jack, like a lot of 1500 users have reported?

 

You sure you got the right screen? Looks matte to me.

 

Nice review, and very nice notebook! How is the build quality compared to say, the Asus A8 or the HP dv2500? Its nice that they have improved it over the predecessor, but whats more important is how it stacks up against its competitors.

At first, based on the thread at asusreviews.com, I thought that you had gotten an M1330 (except that was Goren, I think - I got my mods mixed up ), which is why I asked how you managed to get it for $650...

 

do a side by side comparison of the screen against your e1404 screen

 

wow nice review!! now i cant wait more to get mine

reading your rev make me realize, I would preffer 9cell batt over 2gb ram.....

 

Nice review Jason! For that price, the machine offers really good value.

 

The design looks a bit 90s

 

What was the laptop doing when you got 6.5 hours? What brightness, was wifi on?

 

what abt gamin performance??
if possible keep some screen shots

 

Hmm... all black laptop with blue LEDs. Now that's nice

Now if only they could make it thinner...

I still think the webcam has issues... especially outdoor pics show too much contrast - looks as if the sun is about to slam into the earth LOL

 

Minor light leakage LOL! If that's not major light leakage then I don't know what is....

I have the e1405 and it's exactly the same screen with light leakage problems. My bro who has an e1705 swapped his screen out with his old 17" fujitsu and that screen is 100 times better. Dell aren't known for making great screens. In fact possibly some of the worst screens out there, most people don't seem to realise/care because they have such good prices and the rest of the components give u a lot of value for money but please don't bs the consumer, the screen is not very good at all.

And the viewing angles are poor, unless u are looking at the screen in the middle from a perpendicular angle, you're going to see color and brightness variations from top to bottom. Which oddly does have it's own useful purpose on public transport

 

I was assuming that the massive light leakage was the result of how the image was taken. If it really is bad, please let people know.

Also, on the NBR front page the article says "option for installing Windows XP". There is no XP option on the Vostro 1400, they are Vista only, and people can jump through hoops later to install XP on them if needed.

 

AFAIK the light leakage is really that bad. Im assuming that Jason probably doesn’t know any better because he is comparing to his old e1405 which is also known for having a pretty bad screen. That’s why I asked him to compare is side by side with his e1405 to see if it uses the same crappy screen. I also have the vostro 1400 and compared to my older dell 700m, d620 and e1505, the 1400’s screen is BY FAR the worst. Light leakage covers about 30-50% of the screen when looking straight on and the top half of the screen is a completely different brightness/contrast compared to the bottom… if you tilt the screen up. The bottom part of the screen becomes good but then the top becomes completely dark… if you tilt it down, then the top part of the screen looks good, but the bottom is waay too bright.

 

I have one of the original Intel MBPs and I think the screen is pretty bad on the vertical viewing angle, so hopefully its not much worse than that.

 

I got the same config that should be getting here tomorrow. Only difference is that mine was 639.00 before tax cause I got in during the few hours when the starting price for smart value 1400 was 589.00. However I didn't do fatcash so I guess that makes us even. Total came out to be 684.22 for me.

 

what was the computer doing when u got 6.5 hours of battery, settings ?

also if the laptop was at about 50% brightness, wifi on, note taking and browsing
what do u think the battery life would be
thanks

 

The light leekage issue seems like an issue for most! Too bad as I was gonna go for a Vostro.

 

lol I did. but then I switched to the Vostro 1400 as well.
my version is exactly the same as Jason's, except that I opted for the wxga+ screen.

my sentiments are pretty much the same as Jasons:
build: very solid, no flex in keyboard or palm rests. my battery doesn't rattle or shake, it sits in there pretty well. good hinges.
heat: at worst, just a slightly mild on the bottom
sound: good for a laptop speakers. i don't hear any buzzing noise when using headphones in either of the ports.
screen: probably the weak point of this laptop. some what grainy, poor vertical viewing angles, not too bright. light leakage is moderate, not as bad as some others I've seen but the angles and the graininess are issues I have..
however at $700...

 

my vostro 1400 got here really fast. I ordered on 7/31 and i got it today. only 6 working days. I live in Diamond Bar in LA county and it was shipped to me in one day even tho i also got dhl 3-5 days

 

^ wow thats weird..i ordered 7/31 and DHL came by today to deliver...to bad i was out :/
Imma try to go pick it up later tonight...

 

*sigh* I hate seeing all of you guys getting your vostros before me when you ordered on the same day..

 

At least your luckier than those people who got delays after delays when they order during early July.

 

I was thinking of buying this laptop, after reading comments on the quality of the screen I have second thoughts. I wisj Dell put more efforts into their screens.

I own D600 and thinkpad T22 and T23 I think IBM screens are much better. I have viewed the screens from D610 and D620 both of them are inferior to IBMs.

 

Probably a good idea to wait until some more user reports start coming in. Vostro 1400 have only been getting delivered in the US for the last 7 days or so. This could turn into a fairly large issue, or remain an isolated problem.

Personally I wanted a Thinkpad for myself, however I could not justify the extra $400.

 

thanks for your comments, I use the laptop on the road, I need a good screen not an excellent screen. If I buy I will purchase end of the year maybe the quality will change for the better by then, personally I don't it will improve.

 

Well I'm one happy camper. Called the automated thing and it said "testing stage" Woohoo!

 

Every notebook has light leakage. The picture I took was slow shutter so it is much exagerated. It's really not nearly as bad as it looks. I actually have never noticed the light leakage except for when the screen is completely black.

I'll try and post a better picture showing how minor the light leakage really is.

It was just sitting here for the most part, I touched it every once an a while. Lowest brightness, wi-fi off, battery save mode. I would say typical every day battery life would be 4-5hrs with Wi-fi on and mid brightness.

Also to add to my feelings about the notebook. This is the best $650 I've ever spent.

It's really not bad at all. VERY minor. I do know better. I have used the following Dell notebooks for at least 10 hours: 700m, XPS m1210, 600m, 640m / e1405, XPS M140, 9100. The 600m and 9100 had the worst leakage out of them all.

For me, I don't notice ANY leakage unless the screen is completely black in color and the room doesn't have very bright lights.

Your taking a picture taken from a $100 camera and baising your opinion about the screen on that. Take my word for it, the screen I got has very Minor light leakage. The picture was taken using slow shutter, and so it gathered a Lot of light.

Dell isn't known for making any screens actually. The screens they use are made by companies like Quanta and samsung etc. Dell is also known to use several different companies screens in one line of notebook. For example, you might find a Vostro 1400 with a samsung screen, and might find one with a quanta screen. One screen might be good, and one might be junk. The screen on my m140 was junk. Not because it had terrible leakage or anything, but simply for the terrible contrast ratio. It was the worst looking screen I have ever seen. I tolerated it however, simply because I got it for a good price.

 

Jason,

I would like to know how can you get your laptop from Dell so cheap?
I have tried to customize with the same config. as your Vostro 1400 but the site shows like $838 + Tax........

By the way, is there any ways for an ordinary consumer to buy a Vostro? It seems that Dell only sells Vostro to business customers.

 

Anyone can purchase through the small business division, just use your name as the business name.

I tried out my 1400 last night and the light leakage was not too bad. By no means was it perfect, however it was not distracting.

 

I remember reading something like if you don't put your business name (or don't have one) then you can just put your name there instead. The package might read your name twice, but whatever.

With Dell prices go up and down. Thats around how much the notebook was the first day of release. The 2nd 3rd and 4th day of release were the cheapest days to purchase it so far. If your looking to get a good deal on one, I'd just be patient and on a regular baisis check the deals secion on NBR as well as check slickdeals.net.

 

Nice review Jason.

But do you know who made the screen on yours? Mine's an LPL0000, it's listed in the Device Manager > Monitor > Details > Hardware Id.

 

Mine says: MONITOR\AUO1644. I believe this is the monitor I have.

Thanol your screen appears to be made by LG.

 

It seems like people are only having problems with the Samsung screens. I'm glad I didn't get one.

 

I have a samsung and have very minor light leakage

 

Here is another picture showing the light leakage more accuratly. It was Not taken using slow shutter, so it is not exagerated like the picture in the review. There is only minor light leakage on the bottom of the screen.

 

Jason, I'm having trouble figuring out which processes to get rid of on my 1400. I've eliminated everything obvious (to me), but I've only dropped from 60 to 48 processes. I'd appreciate any advice you could give.

BTW, my monitor is listed as Generic. What's up with that?

 

It should tell you what monitor yours is if you go to Device Manager -> Monitor -> Right click -> Properties -> Details tab -> Under Property select Hardware ID's -> Under Value it should tell you what monitor yours is. I think you might have the same one as me.

As far as what tasks to end, just go into msconfig -> startup and select things you don't use very often.

Here are a couple screen shots:

 

They all are, which is why in the device manager you have to double click on it to get that popup, then click on the "Details" tab and on the pull down menu choose hardware id. It took me forever to figure that out last night lol.