[New] Vostro V13

They're very similar. The only differences is that the V13 comes with an Aluminum outer case and you get more hardware with the V13 for a lower price, i.e. $449 V13 Celeron ULV 2GB Ram, 250GB HDD vs $469 L13 Celeron ULV 1GB of RAM and 160GB HDD. You pay more for the Latitude name as the Vostro is considered Dell's business entry level brand.

 

What type of outer case does the Latitude come with?

 

I don't own an L13 but I believe it's either magnesium or a hard shell plastic. The V13 Aluminum outer case looks utterly stunning, you have to see one. Kinda wished I had jumped on the 50% off Adamo deal back in Feb.

edit: Oops I just went to the L13 page and it has an Aluminum outer case too. They are essentially the same sans the price for configuration. So the V13 is the better deal.

double edit: Looks like you can add an SSD to the L13, don't see it available for the V13 unless i'm missing soemthing.

 

Latitude 13 equips a TPM chip, V13 doesn't.

 

Received V13 today.... love it so far. Good keyboard seems like a really solid laptop as far as construction goes performance is decent with the Celeron processor and Win 7 Home Premium.

Any questions... just ask.

 

In Canada, there is no SU7300 option currently. So, what is the difference in performance between the SU7300 and SU3500? Also because the SU3500 only draws 5w instead of 10w, does that mean the battery longer?

 

The SU7300 is a dual core processor. Between that and a few other things, it might be the better buy.

Note on the power usage though...a 10W processor does not use 10W all the time. It uses 10W if you're pushing the CPU to 100%. Same deal with the 5W processor. Battery life should be similar for general use.

 

given the low battery life (<3 hours w/ wifi on, on the C2D models from what i hear), aren't you guys worried that in a year or so, the battery life will make this thing a liability, since it can't be swapped out by the user?

Very nice laptop otherwise, even though the C2D model's price makes it less worth it for me.

 

A user can change the battery on a V13. You have to remove the bottom panel. It's actually easy to get to. I swapped out a hard drive in one I got from the outlet. It wouldn't boot up, we determined it was the hard drive, they sent me one, and I replaced it. I ended up returning it anyway because it would just freeze up all of a sudden.

When you get the bottom cover off there's a lot of hardware right there. All the wireless slots are there. You can even upgrade the ram memory if you want to. The module is right under the keyboard in a standard slot. I don't know if it would be worth it to go from 2 to 4 gbs. The one I had came with 4 gb but the system only alloted 3 gb. I don't know if that is normal for a 32 bit OS. If it is, it's not worth paying 100 dollars or so for a 4 gb chip just to get 1 more gb. Try the link below, you may have to copy and paste it.

Dell Vostro V13 Disassembly | Blog - ScreenAid.com

 

I've noticed that ebay has a v13 battery on sale. If someone could post a tutorial (w/ pics) on how to replace the battery by hand, this is my next laptop, no question.