Dell Intros 13" Vostro V130 Business Notebook Discussion

Dell has introduced its latest business ultraportable, the Vostro V130. It weighs 3.5 lbs and measures less than an inch thick.

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Ah -_- I just bought a refurbished Latitude 13, which I will review once I receive it, the Vostro V13 at the time I bought it at the Outlet store didn't have the Core 2 Duo ULV processor I wanted around 500 dollars.

 

Kudos to Dell for finally coming out with Ubuntu 10.04 LTS.

The downside is that Dell has took a laptop with a weak battery and replaced it with a laptop that had an even weaker battery! The 40WHr battery in the Adamo was widely ridiculed, the report 32Whr battery in the Vostro V13 with wimpy, but the Vostro V130 now has an even less impressive 30WHr battery. Fail.

Does anyone really need an-ultra thin subnotebook with an ultra-short sub-3 hour battery life? What's the point of tidy dimensions if you're shackled to a power plug?

Dell appears to have the pricing right, improved connectivity, but the battery life issue really dampens any enthusiasm. With this fatal weakness, it isn't hard to imagine that potential Vostro V130 buyers will go to the MacBook Air line instead, despite the dated, 2008 vintage hardware and much higher pricing.

Is the 11 inch MacBook Air worth twice as much the least expensive, Ubuntu pre-loaded Vostro V130? I can't answer that question, but I might speculate that the smallest MacBook might have almost twice the battery life, despite being fairly mediocre in this regard.

 

The Vostro V130 hasn't decreased battery life from the older Vostro V13/Latitude 13, it's still 30 WHr

And people were saying the V13/Latitude 13 can still get 4 hours battery life, 2.5 with heavy use

 

No, the battery of the Vostro V13 tested by NotebookCheck was rated at 32WHr - although Dell might have made the battery downgrade later on. It's pretty clear that Dell is taking a step backwards, although you can argue about how big a step backwards.

In any case, Vostro V130 undeniably has a pitiful battery life, and looking at the tests and Dell's own claims, it isn't an improvement on much criticized V13 in this regard.

As previously stated, I'm glad to see that Dell is offering a $429 subnotebook with Ubuntu 10.04 LTS, although with that battery life, I really can't imagine what anyone would do with one, other than leaving it plugged in on desk somewhere.

 

Perhaps, I see on Dell's outlet store it's 30 WHr.

Anyways my Latitude 13 comes on Thursday, I will post up a review then.

 

Not sure if the specs changed at some point, from 32 or 34 to 30 WHr, but 30 Whr is unimpressive.

Just to be clear, you're talking about a now last generation Latitude 13? From what I've seen, the only real difference between the old Vostro V13 and Latitude 13 was the TPM chip.....and about 30 bucks.

 

Well on the Latitude they don't offer the ULV Celeron as the base price notebook. Latitude only comes with Core 2 Solo as entry level. I was actually looking at a V13 because it fit my budget but the cheapest model with a Core 2 Duo as of yesterday around 2 PM was 689, way out of my budget. I saw a Latitude 13 with Core 2 Duo, Windows 7 Pro for 529 so I jumped on that quick.

 

So a lower WHr battery and doesn't the ulv-core-i use more power than the c2d counter part?

 

Imagine that, and it's $129 less than the version that comes with Windows 7. Unlike Dell's other linux systems that are only $20 less or in some cases more expensive than a comparable Windows 7 system.

 

Just ordered a V130 off Dell.com. Estimated ship date is December 20th. This should make a nice xmas gift... to myself.

 

It's still ULV Core 2 Duo, just dual core so it's 10 watts vs Core 2 Solo and Celeron @ 5.5 watts. Plus single care is major handicap, hard to use Windows 7 with them and it's only like 60-70 bucks more to go with Core 2.

 

I believe the CULV Core processors are all 18 watts, while old Core 2 Duo was 10 watts and the Core 2 Solo was 5.5 watts. So yes, it does make a difference.

 

For a while Dell had a $399 special on the old V13, but it was pre-loaded with Ubuntu 9.04 and it had a really old fashioned Celeron that didn't support a 64-bit operating system.

The $429 Vostro V130 is a much, much better deal, although with the battery life issue, I can't imagine how I'd use one. After all, what the point of using CULV equipped thin and light subnotebook as a desktop replacement? Why do I need to save bulk if I'm shackled to a power cord?

 

Yea the battery life here is pretty much a disaster - if they knew this was going to be an issue they should have held off on releasing it, but they're hoping some people don't care and the red color will sell well for the holidays.

They will be proven wrong. Battery life counts as much as processor speed for most people now, maybe even more so for the typical mobile user. Apple figured that out, I'm surprised Dell hasn't.

Hopefully they can quickly go back and fix it. HP made some quick processor adjustments to the new DM3t Pavilion very soon after it was released in Sept '10, making a good notebook even better.

 

Meh for me when I ordered my Latitude 13, battery life isn't the breaking point. If worst comes to worst I'll look for an outlet to plug into...lol

 

You're wrong. For Core I3/5 the TDP is measured INCLUDED the GPU and memory controller that are integrated with the CPU on the same chip.

Core 2 Solo + GS45 chipset = 5.5+12 = 17.5 watts
Core 2 Duo + GS45 chipset = 10+12 = 22 watts
Core i3/5 UM + HM57 chipset = 18+3.5 = 21.5 watts

So no (as for Core 2 Duo), it does NOT make a real difference.

Source: Intel

 

Looks similar to Adamo, or is it just me?