Vostro 3700 Owner's Lounge

Well, after a lot of research and debate, I took the plunge on the Vostro 3700 tonight. There's almost no info in this forum on the 3700 so I hope this brings some owners out of the woodwork.

- i5-520m
- 4GB RAM
- backlit keyboard
- Geforce GT330M 1GB graphics card
- 500GB HHD
- silver color

While I would like the cool looks and premium features of something like the Envy 15/17 or even the Studio 15/17 line, this Vostro should meet my needs just as well. I prefer a more traditional keyboard, but the biggest issue I had in choosing a laptop was screen size.

The last time I shopped for laptops was 3 years ago, when I got a 16:10 14.1" Dell Latitude D620 and a Compaq with a 15.4" 16:10 screen. Fast forward to the present and everything is 16:9. I will be doing office suite type work on the laptop and I would much prefer 16:10 screens. It almost made me consider a MacBook Pro 15 sicne Apple gets it right and still uses 16:10 screens.

Once I realized that my old 16:10 14.1" screen is almost the exact same height as today's 15.6" 16:9 laptop screens, I started looking at 17" laptops. This 17.3" screen will be just a little bit taller than my 15.4" 16:10 ratio screen. It will also only weigh about half a pound more, so that's good.

Unfortunately there's not much out there in the way of premium business-style laptops in the 17" arena. Executives gravitate to smaller laptops because they are on the go. Something in between would even be nice, like 16.4" or something, but the few 16.4" laptops out there are so heavy that the Vostro 3700 is right around the same weight.

I didn't go for the 9 cell battery - I'll see what I get with the 6 cell. I thought that $180 for the 9 cell was pretty outrageous. Would be nice if they gave you the option to replace the 6 cell with the 9 cell for a lot less - it's only a battery swap, it's not like customizing something inside the machine.

My concerns?

- general build quality. I will be traveling with this - not frequently, but still

- speaker quality. I will end up using headphones 99% of the time anyway, so no big deal here

- display quality. I would greatly prefer a 1920x1080 premium screen option but I think I can live with the 1600x900. Matte is a plus for me, although if a FHD screen was available in glossy on this laptop I would have jumped on it.

- very wary of the on/off/on/off fan problems a lot of Dells (like the Studios) seem to have lately, and I've seen reports and videos of a Vostro 3700 having the issue. I hope I don't encounter it.


A big factor in my order was the 30 days they give you - no restocking fee, they pay shipping costs. So if there is something wrong, I feel like I"m covered where if I went for a Studio 15 or 17 I would be stuck paying a restocking fee.



Vostro 3700 links I've found:

- a long discussion Dell Vostro 3700 has arrived!

- decent unboxing video YouTube - Unboxing and reviewing Dell Vostro 3700

- another decent unboxing vid YouTube - Dell Vostro 3700 Unboxing

- and one that shows the red color option YouTube - Unboxing Dell Vostro 3700

 

of course this morning I find out that 5 min after I placed my order last night, Bing went to 25% on Dell Home and Small Business. So I got on the phone with Customer Care and the rep really had no idea what Bing Cashback was and would not give me 25% off the order I had placed.

So I canceled the order and just re-ordered the identical 3700 but through the 25% BCB link. Grabbed the screenshot from Bing that says 25% as well just to be safe.

Same delivery date, so that's cool.

 

i just ordered mine last night too with BCB!

i had no idea there were no restocking or ship fees! awesome

180$ for a 9 cell was definitely outrageous. i plan on just getting a 9 cell or universal external battery later

 

Hi Nehcffej, what's you Estimated Delivery Date? Mine's 8/12 and currently has a status of "in Pre-production".

I read a lot of the subforum on Dell Order Status and Shipping, but it seems the info there may be outdated so I don't really know what to make of "pre-production".

I have noticed that people seem to get their orders earlier than the EDD, in general.

 

my EDD is 8/04. i picked the fast track option with the i5-450M

i wish i could have gotten bronze i thought that looked better than silver

 

ah, so you will be able to give your impressions first!

The other colors look nice but since I'll be using it in a corporate setting I decided to stick with the bland silver.

and my status has moved to "In Production"

 

Intel® CoreTM i5-450M Processor (2.4GHz, Turbo Boost up to 2.66GHz, Dual Core/4T, 3MB/L3)
3GB DDR3 Shared Dual Channel at 1066MHZ, 2 DIMM
Backlit Keyboard with Gesture Touchpad
Nvidia® Geforce™ GT 330M, 1GB Graphics
320GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive
Fingerprint Reader with DigitalPersona software
17.3 inch High Definition LED Display (1600 x 900) with Anti-Glare
Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 32-bit, English
90 Watt AC Adapter with cord wrapping
Dell Wireless 365 Bluetooth 2.1 Module
8X DVD+/-RW with double-layer DVD+/-R write capability, Roxio and Cyberlink PowerDVD&#153 DX 8.1
Integrated 2.0MP Webcam and Digital Mic with Windows Live Messenger Video Chat Software
Wireless Network Card 802.11 b/g/n
Aberdeen Silver Base
6-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery
1 Year Basic Limited Warranty and 1 Year NBD On-Site Service

Save $105 on select Vostro 3700 notebooks through Dell Small Business - $105.00
Order Subtotal: $801.00
Shipping and Handling Total: $12.00
Shipping Discount: -$12.00
Total Amount including tax: $849.05
Estimated Delivery Date: 8/12/2010

Ordered this in morning (8:00 AM EST) and it shows up as In Production. Hopefully I will get bing cashback 25% which works out to total of $650. I did get the popup for 25% off but not sure what they would do about automatic discounts ( shipping , 105 off ) .

 

I think (hope!) we're safe with the automatic Dell discount and free shipping. If there was a user-entered coupon code, that's usually when BCB has an issue.

Clearly when Bing and Dell agree to do something like this they know people will be ordering laptops, desktops and expensive things like monitors, etc. where Dell usually offers free shipping, or has things on sale. They would be dolts of the highest order to start a big mess of trouble denying BCB because of $12 free shipping or a sale price that is automatic from Dell.

CrashX, did you do a Fast Track or Custom order?

Does anyone plan on a fresh install of Win 7?

 

I did custom order. I do plan to do fresh install of Win7.

 

I'm planning a fresh install as well.

Also it looks like the 3700 doesn't come with an Intel wireless card (they don't specify what it is, but the notebookcheck.net review says Dell 1520 mini card). Once it arrives I may consider upgrading the Dell 1520 to an Intel Ultimate 6300 card.