DELL VOSTRO 13

The auntie was looking for a light notebook. She has quite handsome budget on hand. She wanted her new laptop to be fairly small and light, not too small like 10” netbook. She also wanted her laptop to be smooth sailing and not too dull figure of an ordinary black notebook. So I get her the Dell Vostro 13. It is sleek, it is elegant, it is small, it is strikingly and unordinary designed, it is fast and it is indeed impressive.

The Vostro 13 is very light and thin, beautifully designed on an ultra-light aluminum body. The Dell Vostro 13.3” is strikingly thin for a 13.3” notebook, with brushed-aluminum finish. Built is sturdy and stable, with no spot of loose hinges or joints. It also features a full sized keyboard, which is pretty fair for its price range. The LCD screen is 13.3” led lighted display is HD, and on the upper part of it, is the 1.3M built in webcam. The battery is however is sealed with the notebook itself, using a 6 cells battery. Design wise, it is like a sheet of brushed aluminum thing, getting slice perfectly in the middle. Awesome.

The Ultra-Low voltage processor (SU7300) is fixed on the Mobile Intel® GS45 Express Chipset, enables the notebook to run around 4-6 hours on single charge. Pretty impressive for a notebook. The Vostro 13 comes with a 500GB hard disk, 4 GB DDR3 RAM and other built-ins normally we find on other notebooks (Bluetooth 2.1, Gigabit Ethernet, USB 2.0 (1), Speaker, Stereo headphone jack, Microphone jack and integrated microphone array,  webcam, USB 2.0/eSATA combo (1), 5-in-1 card reader and 34 mm ExpressCard Slot). The Dell Vostro 13 unfortunately, doesn’t have an internal optical drive. That would not be much of a problem anyway, since we are now on the age of flash! As a whole, it is only 30.3cm x 23 cm, with a mere 20mm thick! Weighing only 1.6kg with the 6 cells battery, you will be amazed on how light you notebook bag will be. Even the Acer Iconia Tab is nearly 2kg and keeping it and going back and forth in your pouch pose a threat to your shoulder to. Physically, the Dell Vostro 13 is simply awesome. I wish it had better graphic processor, and oh, I wish I had it too, LOL.

Upon testing, the notebook went on gracefully, with a little pause here and there while the operating system is adjusting itself with its home. The keyboard and palm rest is fairly easy to adjust oneself. Since the notebook is very thin, adaptability is quicker than ordinary notebook.  I had configured the pre-installed Windows 7 with the needed applications and adjustment, and within an hour later, the notebook is ready for shipment. The supplied notebook bag is pretty colorful Targus bag, a shoulder type of bag, fit for women. Oh, I found that the Vostro 13 is short of USB port, but that doesn’t matter at all, whereas it awesomeness covers it quickly. Unlike Acer Aspire, this is the kind of laptop that would turn heads to you in coffee shops and public restrooms.

I had the system run for 5 hours, to enable the notebook to pick up updates from Microsoft and so on. The heat level is quite low for a notebook. It is very impressive. It must have been due to the goodness of ultra-low-voltage processor and the aluminum casing. The sound quality is crisp and sharp.  The provided 500GB is roomy enough for the aunt to store and work on her spreadsheets and costing figures. I have a feeling that she will at most used up only 10% of it. The graphic performance is not that bad either for a thin notebook. It can run Warcraft 3 upon testing it and other heavy applications too, Photoshop, Dreamweaver. I bet this thing can bot for Diablo 2 LOD. By the way, the aunt will not be needing this, so I had to uninstall them.
Picture taken from: Dell.com