[New] Vostro V13

just for comparison's sake, this was my upgrade from a Latitude D430 (12.1"). This v13 is definitely much faster - I can stream HD movies over my wireless N network at home, where my D430 would struggle/choke with this.

It is fairly quiet - I think the minor noise there is comes from the 7200rpm hard drive.. I'd like to replace it with an SSD, but Dell has sealed this thing up fairly tight - there are no removable access panels for memory, hard drives, etc, so I'll let somebody else open it up before I attempt this dissection procedure. The hard drive is a Seagate ST9320423AS which looks like a standard 2.5" SATA drive.

The screen looks nice.. not a very wide viewing angle though, but you can't expect that with a notebook.

The black finish around the keyboard shows fingerprints and smudges fairly easily.. a different finish/coating would have been nice. The keys are very flat - I like a bit of shape/edges to keys.. but not a deal breaker.

When closed, its so flat/thin and smooth that its almost difficult to hold onto.. i'm a bit cautious carrying it around as i don't want to squeeze it tight enough to break anything, but it feels like it could slip out of my hand easily... guess it needs a case.

I am impressed with the sound quality - watched a movie on it last night and was better than I had expected.

Overall, I think this was a great upgrade from my D430.. and the price was great..

I ordered mine on 12/16, they told me that I wouldn't receive it until January 25th or so, but it arrived yesterday (12/29). The box it arrived in was a bit odd - it was just a slip-close cardboard Dell container - no tape, seals, etc to prevent somebody from opening up the box and snagging it.. strange.

 

hi res pictures would be great =D

 

can i know what is the material used for the top surface of the lit?

 

So I have been playing with this for a few hours and really like it. This is my first Vostro but I'm deeply impressed of the build quality especially the speakers. They have lots of bass, maybe too much bass IMO.

This thing is super thin, when closed, it is as thin as my Nokia N97 (0.63"). It's light too, compared to my previous Sony SZ 13", it's even lighter.

Build quality is supreme, although I wish Dell could choose a different color outside. The color looks quite metal and not glossy and sleek. The material used is aluminum, to prevent finger prints. There are lots of vents underneath, and it runs quitely. I even don't notice when it's sleeping or not.

The screen is matte, not glossy, so it doesn't give you a sleek screen, but for some people, this is perfect. For me I don't care as long as the screen quality is good, which is what this laptop fully delivers.

The keyboard is quite too, and I don't have to use a lot of pressure to stroke a key, and that's a good thing.

The design is super simple and the LCD hinge is sturdy. I don't feel any noticible heat in the palm rest area, which I think is taken care by the low voltage CPU.

I'm typing on it right now and the experience is very pleasing. I use Chrome browser and I am able to open 10 tabs and a full screen youtube clip without any chokes, which is good for this kind of laptop. I wish Dell could offer a higher ULV processor because I had a coupon at that time

I dont have my camera here so I used my phone to take some pictures.





















I already have the Dell bluetooth mouse, now I'm looking for a sleek case for it.. any ideas?

 

I got my V13 today and been playing with it since morning. Super impressed. For what I paid, $600 (+tax) for SU7300 processor, 3 year warrantly, 4GB RAM and Win7 Pro its got pretty amazing value and style. I used Bing 5% cashback & $370 vostro coupon to get that price.

Just a month back, I had to return a brand new Studio 14z for its noise levels and my tolerance for fan noise is very minimal. V13 feels like fanless Mini minus all the excess heat on long usage. Ok, I am exaggerating but you get the picture . If I keep my ear close to the palm rest, I can slightly hear 7200 rpm harddisk spinning but nothing of big concern.

Keyboard is little clacky but again not too annoying. Multitouch trackpad is lot lot better than what Studio 14z has. So thats a huge relief. Display was what I expected. Initially I wanted a backlit keyboard and glossy screen but was never ready to pay 1500 bucks for Dell adamo, so I will suck this up .

As soon as I got this laptop, I completed my usual rituals of uninstalling trialware and crapware (pleasently not much to do. There was only Norton and Windows Live toolbar & writer) and setting up other software & changing defaults. During this time, I would probably catagorize my usage as heavy, so battery drained fairly quickly (got around 2 hours 30 mins). I still need to see battery life under normal usage.

I am also very impressed with even distribution of weight on this laptop. It feels very stable on a desk or a lap, solid while opening the lid and perfect grip for carrying it around.

Bottom line is that V13 has adequate hardware specs (with no hopeless cons) but style and price really makes it stand out among rest in its class. I consider this as a great high end netbook with some added style .

BTW, does anyone know if there is any way to force Vostro laptop to wake up from sleep just by opening the lid and without any need to press the power button? All my other Dell laptops work that way and I am little obsessed with wake up speeds . I checked Bios options on V13 but couldn't find any such setting. Any pointers would be greatly appreciated.

-Hemchand

 

I love the fact that it has no heat issue at all, thanks to the aluminium case. Glad I purchased this, not the XPS 13" for about the same price (700-ish)

 

Thanks for the pictures and impressions, I'm warming up to this little gem, if it only had a backlit keyboard I'd buy it instantly. However the lettering looks like it's bright enough that I won't mind.

 

Where did you get the $370 off coupon?

 

12/31 was expiry date on those coupons. I got mine directly from Dell through snail mail. Some folks were also selling them on ebay for around 5 bucks or so.

 

I asked for it on slickdeals.net and people were kind enough to give me for free