Why You Can Trust CNET Dell Vostro V13 review: Dell Vostro V13
The Dell Vostro V13 is a compact, stylish notebook that could be an intriguing netbook alternative if only the battery life were better.
- Ty was nominated for Best New Journalist at the Australian IT Journalism awards, but he has only ever won one thing. As a youth, he was awarded a free session for the photography studio at a local supermarket.
Design and features
The Dell Vostro V13 is what the business crowd gets as a cheaper alternative of the Adamo. It's still quite thin and reasonably light, and everything is pleasingly matte from the chassis to the screen. The entire chassis is constructed from magnesium alloy which looks attractive but unfortunately attracts fingerprints as well.
Dell Vostro V13
The Good
The Bad
The Bottom Line
When handling the unit it feels much lighter than its 1.59kg would have you believe and it's easier to hold in one hand than some of the company's other "thin and lights".
The 13.3-inch, 1366x768 screen is pleasant to use and relatively glare free, but viewing angles are reasonably poor, especially the vertical.
While the headphone and microphone jacks are on the front, and ExpressCard/34 slot and SD/MMC/MS card reader are on the right, the remaining ports are relegated to the back.
It's here where the Vostro V13 could do with a little more love, with a USB port, combo eSATA/USB port, gigabit Ethernet and VGA all that you get. By putting them on the rear means it can be awkward plugging some USB peripherals into the laptop and you'll need to leave some space to plug the power cable in as well.
Any form of digital video out is not on the agenda (an interesting anomaly considering Dell's DisplayPort push), and neither is any docking mechanism for port expansion, though we expect Dell could make a USB expansion available.
The oversized touchpad is welcome, as is multi-touch capability — although the only multi-touch action is sadly pinch to zoom.
The keyboard has a satisfying amount of tactile feedback — important for a business notebook — but unfortunately it's not backlit. Following on from this there is also a distinct lack of multimedia controls you would find on a consumer laptop.
To get things this thin, Dell's gone the Apple route and included a non-removable battery, as well as an Intel Core 2 Solo U3500 @ 1.4GHz, guaranteed to keep the heat down. It also contains 2GB RAM, a 300GB hard drive, powers video off an Intel 4500 and runs off Windows 7 Professional 32-bit. Wireless communications include an 802.11g adapter (upgradeable to 802.11n) and Bluetooth.
Unfortunately, the notebook is missing removable covers which would enable easy swap-out of RAM and hard drives. Having to dismantle the laptop to upgrade, or even to pay for a technician to do it for you, is not something we appreciate.
As a thin and light the Vostro also misses a DVD ROM drive so we'd suggest investing in an external one if you're looking to buy one of these laptops.
Performance
Being a single core portable business machine, we didn't expect much in the performance stakes — Windows 7 with Aero enabled is functional enough, and Office runs just fine as expected. The PCMark05 score of 2015 lends credence to this; but more important is the battery life.
Turning off all power-saving features, setting the profile to High Performance and screen brightness and volume to maximum, we played back an XviD file. The battery lasted two hours, 44 minutes and 36 seconds. This is quite a bit shorter than the 4.75 hours Dell quotes, but keep in mind this is an absolute worse-case scenario — significantly better battery life will be found on more frugal power plans and performing less intensive tasks.
While you wouldn't want to use this laptop as a gaming machine, beyond a couple of games of solitaire, its gaming performance actually surprised us. It clocked in a score of 549 marks in 3DMark06 which isn't fantastic but means it may play a few of the older 3D games just fine.
On-board sound is mono, and while it will convey system alerts OK and movies sound reasonable you may want to invest in a pair of headphones if you want to listen to music on it.
Conclusion
Despite its business-oriented facade, we can see the Vostro being used by students or as a replacement for a netbook, though its non-removable battery and low battery life may limit its attractiveness.
Dell's Vostro V13 is an enjoyable, well constructed machine. Its port options are limited, as is its performance, but for the asking price it fits the bill nicely.