Thinking of a Vostro 3300...

Hi all,

I cannot see many threads about the 3300, but from the comments I found scattered in the 3400 threads it looks like the 3300 suffers mainly from a lack of battery life and possibly from over-heating. Are there any existing owners out there who can comment on that please, particularly interested in comments regarding the top end model with the Nvidia graphics and i5 520M processor.

I see on the european website that there is at least theoretically an 8-cell battery offered as an accessory (for £109!) but it seems not to be possible to ask for your Dell to be delivered with that battery and instead you have to order with the 4-cell which seems crazy. As an "extra" 4-cell battery ordered as an accessory would cost £79 from Dell, it would have seemed logical to let a new owner order with the 8-cell battery for a £30 increase.......but the sales lady on the chat feature seemed to indicate that they could not do that. Anybody actually got their hands on an 8-cell battery for this?

If I do get a 3300 then I will be using it for multiple operating systems as it seems on the face of it to be very compatible with lots of platforms. Is there any chance an existing owner could post a copy of their DSDT file so I can look at it for modifying potential? It is easy to obtain in Windows (to extract the DSDT from a running system you can use Lavalys Everest - for instance - under Windows) or Linux. This would help greatly.

Thanks for your help.

 

Hi

I am getting the top end model as replacement for my M1330.

The thing with the 8cell battery is that all computers are prebuilt with 4cell battery and therefore you can not change much/any of the system specifications when you order.

I hopefully get the computer next week and can answer on the heat and battery time then.

On battery life it would be really nice if they delivered a bios upgrade so that it could support Nvidia Optimus technique. That would probably increase battery time.

 

In the end I have ordered a 3500. This was mainly because a deal appeared on the UK website with a configuration of i5 430M (instead of the usual 520M), Nvidia 310M, 320GB and Windows 7 Home at the all in price (inc. delivery and taxes) of £640. I then paid the extra £40 for 3 years coverage......so for £680 I get a great bargain.

Although in some ways I would have preferred the 3300, the price I was being quoted for that would have cost me £200 more....and I have just been told the 3500 will be delivered to me tomorrow!!!

I am pretty sure though that the 6-cell battery of the 3500 will be weak and so I will wait for a deal on the larger battery and then buy that.

 

Here's my review on Dell's site on my V3300 --


Title: Good - almost great Date: May 24, 2010
Product Uses: surfing, pictures, music

Review:This is my 6th notebook in the last 5 years. Most were Dells:

Pro's ---

Fast (2.4 with 6gb ram)
Backlit keyboard - super
Relatively lightweight - 4lbs
AC adapter is small in size
Dedicated video card - 512mb
No bloatware ( software )
It's a Dell - great support

Con's--

No HDMI
4 cell battery
appearance is average

Overall, it's a nice notebook. I get about 2 hours of time on the 4 cell battery. The 8 cell is $189 - wow - that is a lot for a sub $1k notebook. I wish it came in black.
I think I got spoiled in that my last notebook was a Dell XPS M1330 --
After much investigation, this is the smallest, lightest notebook in the 13" family that sports i5 processor power at a reasonable price.

 

Does the 3300 also have a lot of flex in the screen like the 3400?

 

Does not feel like it has a lot of flex in the screen --

 

Played with someone's 3300 the other week and battery life is literally 2 hours... I thought people were over exagerrating about how poor it is but it really is 2.

I think it is a HUGE deal breaker. The whole point of a 13" package is to have it mobile and when people or users are mobile, they need the battery life.

2 Hours isn't going to cut it.

 

i might also add that dell has terrible support. i went ahead and bought the 3300 because it seemed like a good deal. i5 520m, 320gb, 4gb ram + 3yrs NBD onsite warranty for a total of AU$994.

I paid via Eftpos Transfer, leaving the reference number to identify me as the buyer. Two days later, I receive an email saying they cant identify my payment and to send proof of purchase. So I did. I didnt hear from them. So another two days later, I spoke to support and asked if they received my proof of purchase email. He couldnt find my email. So he asked me to forward it to his email and he will reorder it. After he read my proof of purchase, I asked if everything was approved and it could be sent out soon. He gave me an unconvincing response: 'it should be ok but heres my number just in case'.

Not exactly the answer I was looking for.

 

Lol 2 hours on 13 inch laptop? My acer from 2007 which has a 15 inch screen and a dedicated gpu (8600m gt) got over 3 hours when it was new. You'd atleast expet 4-5 hours with a 13 inch laptop that was released 2 years later (and has no dedicated gpu in the lower configurations). So much for improving technology...