Dell Vostro V13 Notebook Review Tweet

18th March 2010

Dell Vostro V13 Notebook

Dell Vostro V13 much resembles Apple’s MacBook Air or Dell’s expensive Adamo range. The aluminium-clad machine is a gorgeous sliver of technology whose quality feel and good looks easily disguise its bargain-basement price. Inevitably there are compromises. A chassis this slim is hardly going to constitute a PC that you’ll want to make your primary system. So while it’s disappointing there are only two USB ports – one of which doubles as eSata – it’s not surprising.

More contentious is the lack of an optical drive, a necessary sacrifice to bring in a system only 15mm thick. A DVD-free existence may not be troubling day to day, but it does raise a few potential annoyances when initially installing applications or attempting to re-install Windows. For a machine this good-looking it’s something we’re more than willing to forgive, though.

Dell Vostro V13 Notebook

The VGA port on the back is the only ‘serious’ disappointment – we’d have preferred an HDMI port, but those business types like VGA to hook up their presentation projectors to. The meagre external features are rounded off by a media card reader compatible with SD, MMC and Memory Stick cards, and an ExpressCard 34 slot.

The thrill of the V13′s exterior palls somewhat when you open it, as the interior is standard Vostro fodder. The shiny metallic finish of the shell gives way to a sea of matte black – it isn’t ugly per se but it hardly quickens the pulse.

The keyboard is good rather than spectacular. The base doesn’t feel incredibly solid but it’s not spongy, and the keys feel a little on the flimsy side.

The 13.3in screen is left un-glossed, which means no distracting reflections while you work. It’s bright and sharp, and the 1366 x 768 resolution is fine for the kind of jobs the V13 will be doing. Vertical viewing angles appeared a little tighter than normal, but colour reproduction was top-notch and our gradient tests revealed no stepping between shades.

Dell Vostro V13 Specifications

The V13′s screen has enough vertical resolution to show HD videos, but our performance tests were the one area where the V13 really disappointed. Running PCMark Vantage resulted in an overall score of 1776, but it’s in use that the inadequacies of the single-core 1.4GHz Intel Core 2 Solo SU3500 come to the fore.

This particular model of the V13 is best saved for those who have already made the jump to cloud-computing – editing with Google Docs rather than Word, for instance. The V13 has 2GB of DDR 3 memory, but without sufficient computational oomph multitasking is all but out of the question.

Upgrading is a potential problem as well. It’s unlikely you’ll want to change the spacious 320GB hard drive, but getting at the Ram and battery is a real challenge. Both are concealed under a solid slice of aluminium, and even with all the visible screws removed we couldn’t figure a way to get the bottom plate off without employing a small crowbar.

Dell Vostro V13 Notebook

The V13 isn’t flawless. The features list is rather bare – Dell says an optional HSDPA 3G module is “coming soon”, and a fingerprint reader is standard issue on most business laptops but absent here. The top-end model begins to look distinctly pricey at a shade under £600, but you’re getting a laptop with capable performance, good looks and excellent portability. The single-core models may be cheaper than the dual-core V13, but we’d pick the latter every time for its greater performance.

Business PCs aren’t supposed to evoke a little shiver of pleasure each time you pick them up. In the V13’s case, the pleasure is doubled: there’s usually a significant premium attached to this kind of design and it’s pleasing to see that you can spend – at the bottom of the range – almost netbook money on a machine with looks that give Apple and Sony’s finest a run for their money. And it comes from Dell. Who would have imagined?

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