Dell Vostro V130 Laptop Review

The Dell Vostro V130 is the latest model in the company's Vostro lineup, joining such earlier entrants as the Vostra 3300 and the Vostra V13. With its snazzy anodized aluminum case, thin profile (a hair over 0.75 inch at its thickest) and widescreen 13.3-inch LED-backlit display, the Vostro V130 covers pretty much all the style bases for a contemporary ultraportable. And a respectable audio system makes it a good choice for multimedia presentations on the road.

Measuring a thin 13 x 9.1 x 0.7 inches and weighing a mere 3.6 pounds (just 0.2 pounds lighter than the V13), this ultraportable practically disappears into a messenger bag. Not that you'd want to hide it. For a small business notebook, the V130 is quite stylish. The lid and underside are made of brushed aluminum, and the inside is a matte black plastic; neither surface shows fingerprints, and the entire look is quite classy. Combined with reinforced zinc hinges, the V13 feels like it can survive the rigors of business travel. Similar to the Adamo and XPS 14 and 15, the V130's lid is hinged about half an inch forward of the back edge of the notebook.

The configuration we reviewed, a top-of-the-line $918 model, had an Intel Core i5 U470 CULV processor, 4GB of RAM, and a 500GB hard drive. In this configuration, it underperformed compared to the slightly larger but more affordable Toshiba Portege R705, especially in terms of Dell Vostro V130 battery life.

Inside my review laptop is an Intel Core i5 (not the new speedy Sandybridge i5; this is a 470-UM model, clocked at 1.33GHz which can be boosted to run at 1.86GHz if needed via Intel's TurboBoost, which in effect temporarily overclocks itself when needed). The base spec of this series of laptops is 2GB of Ram; my review unit had 4GB of Ram. The former is fine and the latter is generous in a notebook. The machine runs quiet and cool, thanks to the grandiosely titled Hyperbaric cooling system, which in effect means that the fan acts as an air intake rather than an exhaust.

The Dell Vostro V130 is the kind of business ultraportable that can shave serious weight off your cabin baggage, while captivating onlookers with its thin, seductive frame. Fans of its predecessor and the Latitude 13 will like the extra horsepower that comes with the Core i5 processor, as well as the extra USB port and HDMI. In the process, though, the tiny 6-cell Dell Inspiron N4010 battery suffered from the additional power draw, and 3 hours of battery life is simply not enough for a business ultraportable. You'll get better mileage and a lot more power from the Toshiba Portege R705-P35—our Editors' Choice for the ultraportable category.

During the processor stress test (Prime95 multi-core) the temperature of the Vostro V130 was, in the course of several hours, brought up to a maximum of 47.5ºC—however, this temperature was only present along the 1-cm-wide aluminum strip at the very back of the base unit behind the screen hinges. Besides that, all the sections across the top of the base unit remain a good deal under 30ºC. The 28.8-degree area directly in front of the hot aluminum strip really speaks to the effectiveness of the cooling system.

As with most other ultraportable-class notebooks, the thin form means there's no room for an on-board CD/DVD drive, but you'll find all the other features you would expect in a business laptop. The port selection is good for a budget notebook, and includes two standard USB 2.0 ports, plus a USB/eSATA combo port for connecting the latest high-speed peripherals like external hard drives and Blu-ray drives.

Because it's so thin, there isn't much airflow in the unit and it tends to get warm after a while. You can use it on your lap for a short time before it starts to warm up and feel uncomfortable. The heat comes from the 7200rpm hard drive primarily, so we'd like to see this unit offered with a solid-state drive. There are vents on the rear through which the accumulated heat can escape, and you have to be mindful of these when you do use the unit on your lap, so that you don't block them.

Performance is also limited, as a low-voltage Intel processor has been used in order to keep the chassis slim. We found there was enough power to comfortably run office applications and browse the web, but there are much more powerful options elsewhere.

The real Achilles’ heel of this machine, though, is the built-in, nonremovable battery. Unlike just about every laptop on the market today, the battery in the Vostro V130 is not user-replaceable. That presents two problems. First, if you’re on the road and out of juice, you have to find an AC outlet rather than simply reach in your bag for an extra battery. Worse, when the battery stops holding a sufficient charge, you have to send the V130 back to Dell so that support personnel can replace it. (The pricing for the battery swap has not yet been set; Dell says it will vary by region.) The Dell Vostro V130 battery carries only a one-year warranty, so that replacement will likely happen at your expense. That's not to mention the inconvenience of having to do without your machine for that time (likely one to two weeks, the company estimates), and having your precious business data in the hands of someone you don’t know.
The Vostro line is of course as we've mentioned aimed at the business user on the go, and that's most evident by its small frame. The overall footprint on the V130 is a little large due to the fact we've got a 13.3" monitor. The lack of any ROM drive helps keep the V130 quite thin and more importantly quite light, which for some is going to be the most important feature.
Once up and running the V130 is a beautiful feeling laptop. The quality is there and the keys feel strong. The Black / Silver combination in the design isn't the loudest setup, but is subtle. The chances are in a business environment you don't want bright LED lights that we see in some of the higher end XPS laptops.

Taking a spin around, the front right gives us an audio in and out port along with a power light on the left. The left side is blank with the right side being almost as bear with only a SSD / MMC card reader built in.
Around the back we've got a HDMI, e-SATA and network port on the left with two USB and the Dell Vostro V130 AC adapter on the right. Connectivity is lighter than past laptops we've looked at, but this is of course due to keeping the overall size down.
Performance in business-like tasks is very strong on our model thanks to that extra memory. Internet Explorer, the desktop and Windows on a whole perform strong. Using Battery Eater Pro, we're able to get an idea of battery life in a worst case scenario. With the screen saver, monitor power off and standby disabled we saw 73 minutes come out of the battery.

While just over an hour might not seem like the most impressive number, you have to remember the fact that if you're just using the internet or performing office tasks you will achieve more out of the battery. With the laptop doing nothing but just displaying our windows desktop and battery meter, we managed to achieve in excess of three hours from the battery. The same brightness was used as when BE Pro was used and screen saver, monitor off and standby were all disabled. It just helps give you a better idea of what the battery is capable of.

Looking at Far Cry 2 performance purely just to give you an idea on gaming performance, you discover that it's not an option. With all settings at low we're getting an average of only 11FPS. The Vostro series isn't designed for gaming in any sense of the word.

The big thing about Dell is that ability to customize your laptop when buying. The base model carries an i3 380UM, 2GB of Memory, 320GB HDD, 802.11 b/g networking, Bluetooth and Windows 7 Home Premium, seeing a price tag of $899 AUD or closer to $600 USD.

What you still get no matter what price, though, is the same kind of quality that we're dealing with today, and really this is what makes Dell laptops such an attractive option for people.

The 1,366 by 768 display is impressively bright and colorful. I did my best to search out challenging content, from high-def movie trailers to high-res image editing. Everything looked lovely. And I spent a lot of time listening -- using the Vostro as my office radio with mostly either Pandora or NPR. The sound was, quite frankly, the best of any notebook I've tested to date, good enough that I was happy to listen to it all day.

Last year, the Dell Vostro V13 was an affordable small-business laptop surprise, a thin 13-incher that amounted to an affordable Adamo for budget shoppers. Dell's holiday update, the Vostro V130, keeps the same aluminum and magnesium-alloy flat design as the V13, but gives the innards a boost. We have one here at CNET, and we've been trying it out leading up to a forthcoming review.

In the end the V130 is a sensational laptop for the market it's designed for. Light weight, thin and a huge array of options and features make it a stand out contender for people on the go, or people who want something that's less fuss than the XPS 14 we recently looked at and more orientated around general office duty work.

The battery is exactly the same one fitted in the older V13 which is a 6-cell 30Whr non-removable battery. In our 720p video drain test, the V130 lasted for 1Hr 47min which is a whole 25min lesser compared to the older model. This is mainly due to the higher TDP Core i3 CPU and possibly the 7200rpm hard drive. Under regular usage, the notebook gave us a slightly better 3Hr 15min of back up time which sadly is pretty average today and could have been a lot better. Since the battery is non-removable as well, you can't even upgrade it to a higher capacity one even if you wanted.

Software-wise, the Vostro V130 includes a slew of free software such as Adobe Acrobat Reader 9, Office 2010 Starter, Dell DataSafe Online, Dell WebCam, Dell Backup and Recovery Manager, and Trend Micro Client/Server Security Agent. Although I personally think that you can get away without Acrobat Reader 9, (I recommend Foxit Reader) and Trend Micro Security Agent, I think the other software such as the Dell Backup and Recovery Manager is useful but this is from the point of view of a consumer and not as an IT in a business environment.

Business also means matte dominates over gloss, the only glossy areas being the strip around the touch pad, under the monitor that houses the status lights, and the shiny Dell logos. The screen is also pleasingly matte, making it more usable outdoors, although its colour temperature is disturbingly cool, with everything appearing too blue. Being a laptop, you're not given the controls to adjust this.

We liked the Vostro V130’s compact design, but felt it fell short in everyday use. Performance suffered because of the low-voltage components, but battery life was still disappointing at under four hours. At only 1.6kg it’s incredibly portable, but for all day computing you’ll want to pack a charger. This, along with the unimpressive screen and poor quality audio limits its appeal to home users.

That's the trouble with the Vostro V130: especially when factoring in its poor battery life, there's really nothing that distinguishes it when compared with superior small notebooks such as the Portégé R705 and Apple's new 11.6in. and 13.3in. MacBook Airs. In the middle configurations, especially around £400, the V130 could have been a sweeter choice, especially if its battery performed better.

In terms of its performance, the laptop is a good performer. It will be able to handle most of the applications thrown at it including CPU hogs such as Photoshop and HD videos. The Dell LATITUDE E4300 battery life might be a deal breaker for most as other laptops can achieve longer battery life with the same performance. The Dell Vostro V130 is not only for business users who want a bit of style, students and any person on the go will benefit from the performance as well as not be embarrassed taking it out on a coffee shop to work on that all-important project or presentation for a school project.

The V130's 13.3-inch screen has a 1366 x 786 resolution, driven by the Core i5's integrated HD graphics. It's bright, with a fairly good contrast ratio, but you can't always see full detail in dark areas - and the colour isn't particularly vivid or saturated. Don't expect stunning performance though, as this is still integrated graphics. Local 720p video playback is smooth and has a good level of detail, but while streaming and downscaling 1080p video from the web is generally a good experience it stutters occasionally and fine detail isn’t as crisp as we’d like.

With a dual-core Intel Core i3-380UM, the V130 offers a decent level of performance. It scores 52 on our index! This can be compared to 100 for our reference machine, the Fujitsu Siemens Amilo Xi3650 (equipped with an Intel Core 2 Duo T9400). In practice this 13.3 inch is perfectly at ease with multi-tasking usage and everyday office documents. Although it isn't especially designed for 3D modelling or photo processing, the time required for this type of activity is tolerable.

With prices starting at $500, it's similar to the older model. However, the V130 that we received would cost a bit more, we predict closer to 40K as Dell is yet to give us the final price. For this price, you can get better performing multi-media notebooks but that's not the purpose of the Vostro. The V130 is designed to be a sleek and durable business companion and it does exactly that. The build and finish of the V130 is what sets it apart from the crowd. The revised internals gives it a bit more grunt allowing you to watch HD movies with ease. The extra USB port and HDMI is a welcome addition and the anti-glare screen means it's very usable outside as well. It does not come without its flaws though, with all the changes made to the Dell Vostro V130 charger, the battery life has worsened which is quite an important factor. We also feel the pricing is a bit high for what you're getting.

HP updates ProBook range with AMD A-Series APUs

HP today announced the latest additions to its consumer and business notbook lines with 11 new models utilizing AMD’s latest VISION Technology–the AMD “Llano” A-series Accelerated Processing Units (APUs).The A series even promises to be more powerful than Intel’s competing Core i3 Processors in terms of multimedia performance, while managing to be anywhere from $50 to $75 cheaper. The news is out, HP ProBook 4435s AC adapter has just announced the addition of AMD’s brand new APUs (a combination of a traditional CPU and graphics processing unit) in some of their existing notebook models.

HP couldn’t have left the AMD-Vision event at Berlin without introducing some new gear. Benefiting from the latest AMD LLANO A Series APUs, the new HP ProBooks are here to stay and deliver us high performance computing. The family consists of the Probook 4435s, 4436s, 6465b and 6565b. Other laptops featured at the AMD-Vision offered themselves for your viewing pleasure: the 435, 4535s and 6460s.

HP ships the laptop with an AMD quad-core A6-3410MX 1.6GHz processor or a quad-core A4-3310MX 2.1GHz chipset together with graphics cards. Customers can choose up to 128GB of SSD, 320GB of SED or 500GB of HDD storage. A spill resistant keyboard, three USB 2.0 ports, one eSATA/USB 2.0 combined input and an Express Card slot are also included.Some models have the option of dedicated AMD Radeon graphics as well to use either on HP ProBook 4435s battery power or when performance is more important. All of the dv series uses CoolSense automatic fan tuning and an HD webcam, while the dv6 and dv7 have Beats Audio processing. HP was shy on exact specifications for the mix.

HP ProBook 4435s, 4436s and 4535s Specifications:

• Operating System: Windows 7 Professional, Windows 7 Home Premium, Windows 7 Home Basic, Windows 7 Starter, SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 11, FreeDOS (Windows XP Professional supported).
• Accelerated Processing Unit: AMD Quad-Core A6-3400MX APU with Radeon HD 6520G Graphics (2.3GHz/1.6GHz, 4MB L2 cache), AMD Dual-Core A4-3300MX APU with Radeon HD 6480G Graphics (2.5GHz/1.9GHz, 2MB L2 cache), AMD Quad-Core A6-3400MX APU with Radeon HD 6540G Dual Graphics (2.3GHz/1.6GHz, 4MB L2 cache), AMD Dual-Core A4-3300MX APU with Radeon HD 6510G Dual Graphics (2.5GHz/1.9GHz, 2MB L2 cache)
• Memory: 1/2/4 GB SODIMMS (up to 8GB total) DDR3 1333MHz
• Storage: 250/320/500/750 GB 7200rpm SATA II HDD or 320/640 GB 5400rpm SATA II HDD
• Optical drive: Blu-ray ROM DVD+/-RW SuperMulti DL Drive, DVD+/-RW SuperMulti DL Drive, DVD-ROM Drive, or weight saver
• Display: 14.0-inch (1366×768) HD anti-glare or BrightView (4435s and 4436s) or 15.6-inch (1366×768) HD anti-glare or Brightview (4535s)
• Wireless: Optional WWAN (available only on HP ProBook 4535s with integrated graphics), WLAN (available on all models) 802.11b/g/n or 802.11b/g/n with Bluetooth combo card.

In tems of industrial design, the "identical boxes" to which Hockey referred are nice boxes, indeed. Gone are HP's annoying "Christmas lights" multicolored LEDs, and the cases are smoother, sleeker, and apparently sturdier, based on HP's Forge design platform. The ProBook 6565b and 6465b have aluminum and magnesium cases, and the ProBook 4535s, 4436s, and 4435s cases are plastic and aluminum.

Meanwhile, the business class notebooks of the HP ProBook s-series – the ProBook 4535s, 4435s and 4436s – will come in an appealing aluminum finish. These machines will have price tags starting at $519. Both the b-series and s-series devices will be available on 27th of this month.

Business productivity is improved with AMD VISION Pro Technology and AMD Radeon™ Dual Graphics on the ProBook s-series and UMA graphics on the ProBook b-series, enabling optimal multitasking for video-conferencing, web browsing and graphics-intensive applications. Additionally, AMD Turbo Core Technology balances performance and HP ProBook 5320m battery life for more efficient computing, while AMD AllDay™ Power allows for extended notebook runtime.
The HP ProBook s-series (ProBook 4535s, 4435s and 4436s) combines a durable brushed-aluminum finish in a metallic gray color in addition to a touchpad with gesture support and an integrated high-definition (HD) webcam. HP is dedicated to providing customers a choice when it comes to HP ProBook 4435s adapter,” said Ted Clark, senior vice president and general manager, Notebook Global Business Unit, Personal Systems Group, HP as the worldwide leader in notebook sales, HP continues to develop customizable, reliable and affordable PCs with innovative designs suited for on-the-go consumers to corporate road warriors.

The new ProBook and Pavilion laptops provide longer HP ProBook 4435s battery life than its predecessors, HP said. The laptops will become available in different parts of the world in various configurations, though the company did not provide specific release dates. The A-series chips in the laptops have CPUs running between 2.3GHz and 2.5GHz and Radeon graphics processors running between 1.4GHz and 2.1GHz.

Although there is plenty of new technology under the hoods of these new laptops, the laptops themselves should look familiar to anyone acquainted with HP’s current notebooks. In fact, these new AMD-powered PCs have the same chassis designs as the Intel-equipped versions on the HP Pavilion and HP ProBook 5310m battery.

HP is currently the number one PC manufacturer with shipments of 15.3 million units at the start of the year, but sales of traditional computing equipment are on the decline. The company will be hoping that the TouchPad is able to secure a share in the lucrative and ever expanding tablet market.

Dell Vostro 3750 17.3 inches Review

The Dell Vostro 3750 laptop is one of the recent models of the best series of Dell Vostro under the Dell incorporation. This model has especially bee developed for the small markets and small business enterprises. Everybody knows that the business require the performance and the Vostro 3750 is very helpful to increase the performance and competence on a business. The DDR3 memory can play active role to move your business to the next upward level. The speedy transferability of data ensures the speedy transactions of the business. There are different three colors with an attractive design of the dell Vostro 3750 laptop. The casing is made by the sturdy aluminum to ensure the durability and safe and smart investment for future progress.

The Dell Vostro 3750 is a desktop replacement laptop and the size shows just that with a width of 41.8 cm, depth of 28.7 cm and a thickness of around 3.5 cm. It weighs a little over 3 kg, thus rendering it almost not portable, unless you are okay with carrying around that much of a dead weight in your backpack. The case is made of a combination of aluminium and plastic and the build quality Dell Vostro 3750 AC adapter appears to be very good. The matte finish makes sure that it doesn't gather fingerprints. The piece we received came with Aberdeen Silver colour scheme, while the laptop is also available in Brisbane Bronze and Lucerne Red.

 

Hard drive is 500 GB, which is ample for a regular business user who will just need to keep running a disk cleanup after every few weeks. Moreover, the battery option is between 9-cell battery and 6-cell battery. Usually people prefer 9-cell lithium ion Dell Vostro 3750 battery for long hours working capability. In addition to this, Dell also provides a backup facility in the form of Data Safe Online system and Dell Backup and Recovery Manager.

 

Dell Vostro 3750 sequence heading with newest function greater than earlier. This series equipped with substantial performance multimedia by applying voice enhancing technologies SRS Premium Voice Pro software program, plus a complete HD webcam for online video communications.

 

The notebook is backed by Intel’s Core i7 2630QM, which runs at 2.0GHz with the ability to turn up to 2.9GHz. Besides this, there is 6GB RAM, a 750 GB hard drive and Nvidia’s GT 525M with the Optimus technology. The Vostro 3750 also has the Intel WiDi technology that enables the user to clone your desktop to a TV wirelessly.

 

Surprisingly, the trackpad on the Vostro is rather small, and doesn't feel like Dell has made the best use of the chassis. There is ample room either side, so it could easily have been a bit bigger. There are also two large mouse buttons that encroach on the trackpad, reducing room to manoeuvre your fingers. It's possible to use the multi-touch features on the trackpad, but these are nowhere near as good as the revamped gesture-based controls on the Mac OS X Lion interface. Vostro buyers are strongly recommended to invest in an optical mouse to avoid a frustrating experience.

 

Dell currently offers three different processing units based on the new Sandy Bridge CPUs for the Vostro 3750. It starts off with the Intel Core i3-2310M as an entry level dual core that we are reviewing here. It has a clock rate of 2.1 GHz and a TDP of 35 watts. This solution's drawback is the lack of support for the intelligent Turbo Boost 2.0 technology, which excludes an automatic overclocking. However, multi-tasking activities are processed quickly thanks to Hyper Threading (2 cores, 4 threads). The faster dual core CPU, Intel Core i5-2410M (2.3 – 2.9 GHz, 35 watt TDP) and the quad core alternative i7-2630QM (2.0 – 2.9 GHz, 45 watt TDP) are available for a surcharge. Fortunately, Dell could provide us with another sample that has the stronger dual core. We will compare the entry and mainstream model in the following.

 

One would typically expect a 17-inch notebook with a high end CPU and GPU to cost a bomb, but oddly that’s not the case here. You’ll be pleasantly surprised to know that the Vostro 3750 with all the bells and whistles will cost you a reasonable Rs. 60,900 which makes it cheaper than the Vostro V130. This is very good pricing on Dell's part and makes the Vostro a good option for someone looking for a desktop replacement with good productivity and multimedia features. There are a couple of things that are stopping this notebook from being really good like the annoying trackpad and the below average Dell Vostro 3750 battery life.

 

This is really a Ferrari with the 2nd Generation Core i7. It runs right up to its advertized speed of 2.9 Gzh. It has made me buy a new router and modem to handle the speed. Battery life with the Lithium Ion Dell J1KND battery approaches 7 hours using bright LED screen settings and the 17 inch screen provides plenty of viewing area. Speakers are more than adequate even if the volume leaves you wanting a little more. I love the back-lit keyboard for night work. Based on the operation of this machine to date, I believe this DELL will give me years of use before I need to replace it. For that reason alone it's a big bang for today's hard earned bucks.

 

The graphics subsystem makes use of both the CPU-integrated Intel HD Graphics 3000 with up to 384MB of shared video memory and Nvidia's GeForce GT 525M with 1GB of dedicated video RAM. Thanks to Nvidia's Optimus technology, the system will automatically switch the integrated GPU and the more powerful (and power-hungry) discrete GPU depending on the graphics-heaviness of the workload.

 

Turning to the left, there is a eSATA/USB 2.0 combo port, audio sockets for microphone and headphone, and an 8-in-1 card memory reader supporting memory card formats including SD, MMC, MS, etc. An HDMI 1.4a port is also present over here to connect to external Dell Vostro 3750 adapter. Because it is version 1.4a, and since the NVIDIA GeForce GT 525M supports NVIDIA 3D Vision, you can connect this to a 3D TV to view supported content. It must be mentioned here that all the USB ports support PowerShare functionality, which lets you charge devices even when the laptop is switched off.

 

Available in Aberdeen Silver, Brisbane Bronze, and Lucerne Red, the Dell Vostro 3750 also features two USB 3.0 ports, a large 1600 x 900 resolution LED-backlit anti-glare LCD, HDMI compatibility to hook up your TV or another monitor, an HD webcam, an optional back-lit keyboard, 8-in-one card reader and Windows 7. The 3750 is also customizable up to a Core i7 CPU, 4GB of RAM and 500GB of HD space.

 

Dell Vostro 3750 Specs:

• Processor: Intel Core i7-2630QM, Intel Core i5-2410M, Intel Core i3-2310M
• Operating System : Windows 7 Home Basic/Premium 64-Bit
• Memory : Up to 6GB4 DDR3 SDRAM at 1333Mhz – 2 DIMMS
• Chipset : Mobile Intel HM67 Express Chipset
• Color Options : Aberdeen Silver, Lucerne Red, Brisbane Bronze (Color offerings vary by regions)
• Graphics : 1GB NVIDIA GeForce GT525M , Integrated Intel HD
• Display : 17.3-inch HD+ WLED Anti-Glare , 1600×900 resolution
• Audio and Speakers : Integrated FHD camera with array microphones, Dell Webcam
• Hard Drive : Up to 750GB5 SATA hard drive (7200RPM)
• Optical Drive : 8X DVD+/-RW with double-layer DVD+/-R write capability , Blu-Ray combo
• Battery : 6-cell (optional 9 cell) Lithium Ion battery Standard

HP ProBook 4425s Laptop Computer Review

The ProBook 4425s is the AMD-variant of the popular small and medium business notebook from HP. Designed as a near carbon copy of its Intel-based siblings, the 4425s features a quad-core Phenom II processor with integrated ATI Radeon 4250 graphics. In this review we find out how well the AMD offering stacks up against its Intel competition.

While the ProBook 4425s may be light on performance, the HP software extras may make up for it, depending on your business' needs. Most notable in the machine we tested is the slick new HP DayStarter utility. While your notebook boots up, instead of staring at the Windows splash screen, DayStarter puts up a snapshot of your calendar, scraped from Outlook. As on past ProBooks, you also get the new version of HP QuickLook preboot environment, which lets you get to your Outlook contacts, e-mail, and calendar without booting into Windows. The new HP ProBook 4425s AC adapter allows you to add items (versions 1 and 2 were read-only), then syncs them with Outlook when you do open Windows. The ProBook 4425s also comes with HP QuickWeb, a full-featured browser you can use without launching Windows.

HP ProBook 4425s Specs:

• CPU Options: AMD Phenom II Quad-Core, AMD Phenom II Triple-Core, AMD Turion II Dual-Core, AMD Athlon II Dual-Core, AMD V-Series Single-Core Processor
• Display size/resolution: 14 inches/1366 x 768
• Hard Drive size/speed: 250, 320, 500GB/7,200 rpm
• Graphics: ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4250
• Optical Drive: DVD SuperMulti DL, Blu-Ray
• Wireless: Realtek 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.1
• Size: 13.2 x 9.2 x 1.1 inches
• Weight: 5 pounds

Users looking to quickly swap out components will be in for a bit of a shock. To access the processor, hard drive, or even the system memory, you need to fully dismantle the ProBook 4425s. On this small and medium business notebook HP opted for centralized support and maintenance, with very little work being done by the end user. In terms of looks this gives the bottom a clean appearance without any access panels, but in terms of difficultly, it adds a lot of work to swap out components. To open the system, you remove four screws underneath the HP ProBook 4425s battery, pop off the speaker bezel, remove four additional screws that hold the keyboard in place, slide the keyboard up. This gives you access to the system memory. To get at the hard drive, you remove three more screws that hold the palmrest in place, slide it carefully to the right to release it from its clips. Once that is removed you simply take out three more screws that hold the hard drive in place, and take it out (with four more screws holding it into its cage). To say upgrades on the ProBook are difficult or confusing is putting it lightly.

The full-size keyboard near to the HP ProBook 4425s is effortless to sort on and extremely relaxing for lengthy typing sessions. every sole vital is pretty flat getting an ideal matte texture along using the keys sit above a glossy dark help frame. The frame surrounding the keys is instead organization many thanks toward the design belonging toward the chassis, which adds additional help for that keyboard. The dude or ladies vital presses are quiet without any loud clicking seems when you type. The depth of every sole vital press is excellent, although some individuals may properly dislike the flat, chicklet-style keys. basic the spacing and layout HP chose for that 4425s is extremely great for just about any 14-inch notebook, without any sensation cramped from as well numerous keys.

The ProBook 4425s' eight-cell battery took 1 hour and 10 minutes to reach a 80-percent charge. To get to 100 percent, it needed a total of 1 hours and 55 minutes. During that time, the system used an average of 45.3 watts. Its LAPTOP Battery Efficiency rating of 28.6 was slightly worse than the 22.2 category average (lower is better). EPEAT gives the ProBook a rating of 21 out of 27.

This is primarily a business notebook, meaning battery life is important. HP Power Assistant gives battery information so users view and monitor battery consumption. With either a 6 cell or the optional 9 cell HP ProBook 4425s battery, you will have plenty of power. To protect your mission-critical information HP is providing security both in software and also features like HP 3D DriveGuard, which kicks in if the notebook is dropped. The accelerometer detects the drop and parks or freezes the hard drive so you won’t lose data.

Port selection on the ProBook 4425s is very nice for a small and medium business notebook, featuring three USB 2.0 ports, one eSATA/USB combo port, VGA and HDMI-out, LAN, modem, and headphone/mic jacks. The notebook also features a SDHC-card slot and ExpressCard/34 for future expansion.

Performance is comparable to that of the HP 5310m, which uses a previous-generation Intel Core 2 Duo processor. Against the Core i5 CPUs of the Lenovo T410s, Dell V3300, and Dell E5510, the HP 4425s didn't stand a chance in tests like video encoding (1 minute 5 seconds), Cinebench R10 (4,999), and PCMark Vantage (3,835). Even the Core i3 processors found in the Lenovo Edge 15 and Toshiba R705-P25 were speedier in these tests. The ATI Mobility Radeon HP ProBook 4425s charger is an integrated graphics chip and performed about as well as the Intel GMA HD (Core i5), such as the one found in the Dell E5510. Its 3DMark 06 scores (1,972) indicate that it can handle non-3D intensive games like World of Warcraft and StarCraft 2.

The new ProBook also features up to 8GB of DDR3 memory, a DVD writer, a 1366×768 LED-backlit anti-glare display, ATI Radeon HD 4250, and a hard drive that can be upgraded up to 500GB. You can also choose from Windows 7, Vista, or SUSE Linux Enterprise 11 OS. And, you can start building your HP ProBook 4425s right now, with a starting price of $619.

Dell Latitude D820 Overview

Dell Latitude D820 is a powerful and complete portable laptop. The laptop is a portable desktop-replacement notebook capable of strengthening any workforce. Brandishing a Vista Capable logo, the Dell D820 with an Intel Core 2 Duo 2.16GHz T7400 CPU is Dell’s first laptop to include the 64-bit processor. At the same time, t has a sleeker look and therefore is more portable.

Dell Latitude D820 Specs:

• Core Duo T2400 CPU
• 2 GB DDR2 SDRAM
• 100 GB drive
• 512MB NV120 Graphics card
• 15.4″ WSXGA+ (1680×1050) display
• Weight: 6 pounds
• Size (LWH): 14.2 inches, 10.3 inches, 1.4 inches
• Wireless Type: 802.11G

The silver-gray chassis with dark accents is conservatively styled, offered the craze in pc design these days, but is ideal using the boardroom. At 6.6 pounds and extra than 14 inches wide, the D820 isn't using the street warrior who should drag a appliance by means of airports. Rather, it's a terrific compare to using the cubical jockey who should tote the appliance affordable the hall for an occasional meeting.

The system is powered by a 1.83 GHz Intel Core Duo Processor T2400 CPU and boasts 512 MB of RAM, a 60 GB hard drive, a CD burner and DVD-ROM combo drive, wireless ethernet, 4 USB 2.0 ports and a 15.4" Widescreen display powered by Intel Media Accelerator 950 graphics. Windows XP Professional Edition with Service Pack 2 is the platform that ties all this hardware and software together, giving you a great portable computer backed by the Dell name.

Running a stress test which maxes out the CPU, GPU, and screen brightness, I measured a Dell LATITUDE D820 battery life of 2 hours and 14 minutes. This represents the absolute lower limit. Under normal usage like word processing, web browsing, and a little light movie-watching you can expect times of about 4 hours or possibly even longer. The battery features a thoughtful external indicator that consists of five LEDs to indicate the approximate charge of the pack. This allows you to determine how much battery you have left without booting the notebook.

Contrast is better than average on the 15.4in LCD (1650x1080 resolution) and viewable angles are also good. On vertical angles where many notebooks lose image quality, the Dell Latitude D820 AC adapter maintained good clarity, though some colour inversion was evident. Two speakers on either side of the keyboard produce an even tone at medium volume, which is good for watching movies, but tend to buzz a little on high notes when the volume is turned up to max.

Security-conscious business users will appreciate the integrated fingerprint reader, and we love the Dell Wireless Broadband option, which lets you connect at near-DSL speeds wherever there's a Verizon Wireless EV-DO signal. In our Manhattan offices, surfing the Web didn't feel quite as fast as Wi-Fi, but it was nonetheless more than adequate.

The professional look of the Latitude D820, paired with a workstation class video card, is reason enough for Dell to call it a business notebook. While I agree that it would be a great tool for a business, the D820 could also be an excellent notebook for a student looking for performance, ease of use and occasional gaming. I really like my Dell Latitude D820. It performs like I was expecting, the battery life is excellent with the additional 6-cell media bay Dell LATITUDE D830 battery and it's gaming power is close to what I was hoping for. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this model to any professional looking for a solid system for work related task or to students looking for a good machine that can game a bit on the side.

When handling the notebook, its robust case gets soon apparent. The base unit except of the region in the middle above the keyboard can really take a lot of pressure and is insensitive on deflection forces. Once in a while we could observe creaking noises, however, in total you can neglect these. The case should be made out of a kind of magnesium alloy, and the cover at the top side is out of plastics. The magnesium display cover is also very robust and bears resemblance to a light Clamshell design, which on the one hand improves the flexural rigidity of the display and on the other hand the stability of the closed notebook.

The screen is most likely the Achilles heel of the D820, if it has one. The screen is 15.4" diagonal and is matte, not glossy. The trend in most consumer notebooks is towards the glossy screens which feature vivid colors and higher brightness for the benefit of gaming, movie-watching, and photo-viewing. Most business machines, however, still come with the old-style matte screens which are more suited for office rather than multimedia tasks. Unfortunately, the D820's matte screen is not very bright and the higher brightness settings drain the battery quickly. A cool feature is the automatic light-sensor which adjusts screen brightness based on ambient light conditions. This is useful when running on Dell LATITUDE D531 battery power or when using the notebook in different settings but I ended up turning this feature off because it oftentimes results in an unacceptably dim screen.

The Latitude D820 is designed for users who require quality, ease of use and long term value in a performance notebook. Starting at 6.0lbs* (2.73kgs), the Latitude D820 meets the customer need for a durable notebook where unyielding performance meets mobility.

Another area in which the Latitude D820 excels is wireless networking. For starters, the case incorporates a switch on its left edge that functions like a Wi-Fi finder: Slide the switch to the right, and the built-in 802.11 wireless card automatically searches for available networks, alerting you to the presence of those networks by illuminating the LED status light next to the switch. Since this Dell Latitude D830 AC adapter works whether the system itself is turned on or off, it will come in extra handy for those who don't want to boot up unless they can get online. Other networking options include the integrated, latest-generation Bluetooth + EDR (Enhanced Data Rate).

The Latitude D820 is a sleekly designed notebook. Because of all its features, widescreen being one for example, it is not one of the smallest notebooks, nor the lightest. It weighs about 2.5kg (6lbs). When you look at the screen you can see it is not a high gloss screen, but rather a matt finish one. Which of these you prefer is a matter of taste and how you intend to use the system, but Dell does not seem to offer a choice.

Overall, the D820 is a very sturdy and quite portable business notebook from Dell. And it's a bargain at its price range. Not to mention the high performance component s such as the Core Due processor or the 1GB of DDR2 RAM. The Dell Latitude D531 AC adapter will surely not disappoint any business or academic user at all.

Dell Inspiron M5040 15.6″ Review

The Dell Inspiron M5040 is great for those hampered by a tight budget, but who still want a competent and power-efficient thin-and-light notebook with a decent design. With the new Dell Inspiron M5040 Simplify your every day tackle daily tasks in style with the newly updated Inspiron M5040’s latest features and technology.

At a mere 16mm thick, the Inspiron M5040 is one of the slimmest ultra-portables around at the moment. But Dell Inspiron M5040 battery not just the slimness of the chassis that impresses: the laptop also looks the business, thanks to its twin-tone brushed-aluminium and matte black finish. It's surprisingly sturdy too -- despite its petite dimensions, there's very little give in the chassis and lid. It's not the lightest ultra-portable you can find, but, tipping the scales at 1.5kg, it's hardly going to weigh you down when you're on your travels.

Specifications:

• Processor: Intel Pentium Dual Core T2390 (1.86GHz, 533FSB, 1MB Cache)
• Memory: 2 GB DDR 2 RAM 667 MHZ
• Storage: 160 GB HDD (5400rpm)
• Optical Drive: DVD +/- RW (Slot loading)
• Wireless: 802.11 b/g
• Graphics: Intel GMA X3100 Integrated Graphics
• Camera: Integrated 2.0 MP webcam
• Battery: 56 Wh (6 cell)
• Ports: 2 USB 2.0, FireWire, VGA, Expresscard, card reader, headphone, mic.
• Dimensions: 12.52″ x 9.37″ x 1.5″
• Weight: 4.8 lbs (2.2 kgs)

It's a sad reality that little in the laptop world can match the likes of Apple's ultra-thin MacBook Air when it comes to that metal-clad look and feel. Some of the few alternatives are Dell's Adamo and Adamo XPS, but with prices starting at $750, neither is exactly affordable. That's why we were excited about last year's Vostro V13, which wasn't quite as sexy but a lot cheaper. The Dell Inspiron M5040 AC adapter we're looking at today shares the same 13.3in, ultra-slim, metal-clad chassis, so let's see if it's the ultra-portable for you.

The Dell Inspiron M5040 laptop features a 13.3 inches Widescreen WLED Display screen , running on an Intel Core i3/i5 processor, upto 8GB DDR3 RAM module, with a choice of Intel HD graphics or ATi Mobility Radeon HD 5470 1GB graphics card, and upto 500 GigaByte SATA hard disk storage drive.

The screen on the Inspiron 13 rates about average, with the only drawback of the panel being poor viewing angles. Screen brightness is great for around the office or classroom, but may not be the best idea outside on a sunny day. Not only would the screen brightness be fighting against the sun, but the glossy panel would be blinding you if you were not able to get into some shade. Colors and contrast rate above average, as with most glossy display panels, which made for impressive picture viewing or movie watching. Viewing angles were not the best, with colors not only inverted when out of the sweet spot, but the entire panel going nearly black. This was the case for both vertical and horizontal viewing angles, with the vertical range being more limited than side to side.

What's more, it's not a bad-looking machine. You could mistake it for a substantially pricier laptop. Specifically, Dell's premium 13.3 inch laptop, the XPS M1330. It shares the same general size and shape, and even the styling owes something to its stablemate. All right, so the brushed aluminium lid and wrist rest have been sacrificed to the budget, but it's still got it where it counts.

Besides Dell Inspiron M5040 with I3, has now also present Dell Inspiron M5040 with i5 processor as an alternative option for those of you who want a greater power. Design remains the same with Dell Inspiron series M5040 (3010) with I3 but more expensive.

The new Dell Inspiron M5040 sports a very stylish design which is inspired from both the Dell Studio range as well as the Dell XPS range, more precisely the Dell XPS M1330. The design is very attractive and much better than the older Inspiron notebook designs. It has a sloping design with a glossy exterior. The screen hinges and chassis design is very similar to the XPS M1330. Inside, the Dell Inspiron M5040 adapter has a simplistic design mostly made of high quality plastic. The interiors are almost fully black and look quite sober compared to the exterior part. The keyboard, touchpad, palmrest and the touch sensitive controls situated above the keyboard all blend in with the design quite easily.

The laptop is powered by Intel Core i5 480M Processor (2.66GHz/3MB cache) with a choice of i3 processor. Main memory has 2GB capacity and hard disk up to 500 GB capacity. There is no built in CD/DVD drive for this small laptop. For connectivity, there are Wi-fi and Ethernet and optional Bluetooth. Additional features include 2 USB 2.0 ports and 1 e-SATA/USB combo port, stereo speakers, integrated webcam and microphone, 7 in 1 card reader and VGA and HDMI out ports.

Where the Inspiron 13 truly shines is in its battery life. Based on MobileMark 2007 battery benchmark, the portable with a six-cell pack ran for an impressive four hours 22 minutes before shutting down. Even on the more demanding DVD playback test this Inspiron managed to last two hours 46 minutes before giving up the ghost. Unless you decide to watch epics such as Pearl Harbor or Titanic, a single charge is all you need for most full-length features. Though the configuration we tested was with a six-cell Dell Inspiron M5040 battery, the system available online comes with a nine-cell by default which means you'll see even longer uptime.

There have been times when Dell should have been imprisoned for crimes against tasteful design, but the Inspiron M5040 shows that the company can produce a great-looking -- and sturdy -- ultra-portable laptop when it wants to. Our laptop's performance wasn't wonderful, however. The Inspiron M5040 is a machine best suited to light office work, rather than tasks that require serious number-crunching capability.

HP unveils 11 Pavilion and ProBook laptops powered by AMD’s A-Series APUs

HP has introduced new AMD LLANO A Series powered laptops at Berlin. They are called the HP Probook 4435s, 4436s, 6465b and 6565b and we got enough time to find out more about the specs and even take some photos of the 435, 4535s and 6460b. Check out the details inside.

Hewlett-Packard is expanding its consumer and business notebook catalogs with 11 new laptops utilizing the latest version of Advanced Micro Devices' Vision chipset. All of the new machines are powered by AMD's A-series APUs (Accelerated Processing Units) with CPU cores and discrete graphics baked into a single silicon die. There are several new features, but the main one to take away from this launch is that all of these notebooks are so power-efficient and cool-running that no heat is apparent coming from the device. "Check this out," Mike Hockey, HP's personal-systems marketing manager, told eWEEK during a demonstration in San Francisco. "This HP ProBook 4436s AC adapter has been on for hours. And it's cold." He was right; it was cold. No heat was emanating from the laptop. "It's because the processors are so efficient now, they don't waste any energy. Heat is just wasted energy." These new ProBook and Pavilion notebooks range in price from $400 to $750, depending upon options. All of these models will be released by the end of July. Check out the details in this slide show.

The HP Pavilion dv-series (Pavilion dv4, dv6 and dv7) provides the final word entertainment notebook experience and is supplied with innovative features equivalent to HP CoolSense, HP True Vision HD webcam and HP Beats™ Audio (Pavilion metal dv6 and dv7). The dv-series also offers greater than twice the graphics performance compared with previous-generation integrated graphics.

From the release of mobile version of the Llano APU has been in the past three months rift level service, and now mainstream entertainment notebook on the market also have been positioned according to their a series published APU equipped with different products rift, but after a period of test , A Department of APU ‘s performance and characteristics have been fully presented in front of everybody Rift: Planes of Telara, low price Warrior, performance rift: planes of telara review, graphics tend to have these characteristics more suitable description of main price APU advantage of the use of entertainment . It is precisely the above reasons Mage, the business applications in positioning the APU models are rarely seen in the figure rift power level, but everything has an exception , today we are bringing to the evaluation of this HP ProBook 4436s.

AMD today announced its new A-Series APUs (accelerated processing units) and HP immediately unveils eleven consumer and business notebooks powered by those new hybrid CPU/ GPU units.

The HP ProBook b-series (ProBook 6465b and ProBook 6565b) features the same bead-blasted aluminum display enclosure and smudge- and wear-resistant HP DuraFinish as the other ProBooks but these new models also include AMD VISION Pro technology. The 14-inch ProBook 6465b and 15-inch ProBook 6565b are both available with the same 3-cell, 6-cell and 9-cell HP ProBook 4436s battery options as the Intel-equipped systems but HP reps claim these new AMD-equipped notebooks deliver battery life “as good or better than” Intel configurations with similar performance.

It seems that HP has something for everyone with its latest announcement. Just in time for summer, HP has unveiled 11 new notebooks. Covering business and consumer needs, the new additions are powered by AMD’s A-series Accelerated Processing Units. Codenamed Llano, AMD’s new chip partners discrete graphics and CPU cores, creating a hybrid for increased speed, graphical performance, and longer HP PR06 battery life. Together, the new notebooks are a heady combination of power and affordability.

AMD's manager of client product marketing, Raymond Dumbeck, was equally circumspect. When asked how the AMD-based HP notebooks compared to their Intel-based siblings in processor and graphics performance, he said, "You're going to have to tell me," and also steered the conversation to battery life, instead.

The HP ProBook B series will come with the option of a 2.1GHz Dual Core AMD A4 processor, a 1.6GHZ Quad Core A6 processor or the 1.8GHz Quad Core A8 AMD Fusion processor. The HP ProBook 4436s adapter will have these same processor options as well as one more lower end option, the 1.9GHz Dual Core AMD A4 processor which is in line with the budget focus of the ProBook s series. All of these new AMD Llano A series processors feature the ability to Turbo up to 2.3GHz to 2.5GHz when you need extra speed to finish a demanding work task.

The HP ProBook s-series (ProBook 4535s, ProBook 4435s and ProBook 4436s) combines a durable brushed-aluminum finish in a metallic gray color with either 14-inch or 15-inch HD displays. These notebooks come loaded with the new ArcSoft TotalMedia Suite that allows you to play, edit and create video and audio files. The notebooks are also equipped with HDMI ports for connecting to modern external displays or HDTVs.

The HP ProBook 6465b (14-inch) and ProBook 6565b (15-inch) will pack the quad-core AMD A8-3510MX clocked at 2.5GHz with an 128GB SSD option. These two will represent HP’s newest business laptops and HP PR06 battery will be equipped with EVDO or HSPA+. A FireWire 400/1394a port and a a combo eSATA/USB 2.0 port are only in the b-series. The s-series does have one bennie not found on the b-series, however: a single USB 3.0 port. The b-series ProBooks will start at $679 when they hit the market on June 27. The s-series models will start at $519, and they are due to be released to production on the same day.

The introduction of AMD’s Llano chip into HP notebooks marks the beginning of AMD’s plan for a bigger piece of the processor pie. According to The New York Times, AMD is preparing to roll out its chip in more than 150 notebooks priced between $500-$800. If AMD can deliver on its promises of longer HP ProBook 4436s battery life, faster page loads, and better graphics, it has good chance of taking off in the marketplace and could also give Intel a run for its money.

On the business side, come HP ProBook b-series (HP ProBook 6465b and ProBook 6565b), which offers enhanced security and increased performance in tungsten-colored design with a bead-blasted aluminum display enclosure and smudge- and wear-resistant HP DuraFinish, along with ProBook s-series (ProBook 4535s, 4435s and 4436s) which combines a durable brushed-aluminum finish in a metallic gray color in addition to a touchpad with gesture support and an integrated HD webcam.

The HP ProBook b series starts at $679 and is expected to be available on June 27. The HP ProBook s series starts at $519, but no release date has been given.

Dell Vostro 3350 Laptop Review

The Dell Vostro 3350 is a 13.3-inch ultraportable laptop that's geared towards small business users. It has fantastic battery life and mobile broadband capabilities, but it only has average performance in the end.This Dell Vostro 3350 measures 13 x 9 x 1.2-inches (wdh) and weighs about 4.5-pounds, which makes it an ultraportable laptop that is definitely compact enough to carry around with you throughout a long day of work. It has a sleek, attractive design that has a silver color (also available in bronze red) and feels quite sturdy too.

Specification and Features:

• Supported Processor (Intel Core i3, Core i5 and Core i7)
• Genuine Windows® 7 /Home Professional / Ultimate / Premium 64-Bit
• DDR3 RAM Up to 6GB
• Intel® Mobile HM67 Express Chipset
• 512MB AMD Radeon Graphics card
• 13.3 inch HD WLED
• Audio Speakers
• DVD+/-RW optical drive
• Up to 500GB
• 6-cell Lithium Ion battery Standard
• LAN Port (RJ45)
• USB 3.0 (2) 10 time faster
• USB 2.0/eSATA combo (1)
• Microphone jack Port
• Headphone/speaker out
• 8-in-1 multi card reader
• 34 mm ExpressCard
• HDMI™ connector
• 15-pin VGA video connector
• Standard Multi-Touchpad key pad
• Weight: 4.50lb/2.04kg

The icing on the cake is the 80WH Dell Vostro 3350 battery, which is bigger than every other battery in this group. This resulted in the kind of battery life international travelers and road warriors long for—9 hours 36 minutes on MobileMark 2007 tests. That's nearly triple the battery life of the Dell V130 (3:02) and Lenovo X1 (3:20) and double that of every other laptop in this group. It simply had no equals in this department.

The decent-sized touchpad was also great to use; the smooth plastic finish let our fingers glide across its surface with minimal resistance, making cursor movement in Windows feel very responsive. Multi-touch scrolling was enabled by default, but we had to manually enable pinch-zooming and rotation. Once we had, they were recognised accurately and were very quick to activate, unlike other touchpads we’ve seen. There was very little travel in the two touchpad buttons, but they felt firm and emitted a noticeable click when pressed.

At the price, the Vostro 3350 is great for someone who wants a compact but powerful notebook. Note that you can also configure the 3350 with a Core i3 processor for as less as 41,990. To match our review unit, an alternative in the same price range is the Sony SB18GG/B notebook —similar specs but without the HD webcam and 8-cell Dell J1KND battery for 69,990. However, the Sony does have a magnesium body and a lower weight of 1.7Kg for the same screen size.

At 4.5 pound starting weight and measuring 1.07-1.17 inches thin, the Dell Vostro 3350 supports Intel's 2nd generation Core i3 / i5 / i7 dual-core processor, up to 6GB DDR3 memory, 512MB Radeon HD 6470M discrete graphcis and more. The Vostro 3350 also features two USB 3.0 ports, HDMI, eSATA, 8-in-1 Card Reader, DVD+/-RW optical drive, LED-backlit anti-glare LCD, 802.11n WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1, optional backlit keyboard, HD Webcam, Windows 7 Pre-installed OS.

A multiformat (SD Card, MultiMediaCard, Memory Stick) card reader is on the right of the front outside edge; to the far left is a tiny strip of indicator lights for Dell Vostro 3350 AC adapter, hard-drive activity, battery, and wireless connectivity. Our test laptop came with 2.4GHz 802.11n Wi-Fi and built-in support for Sprint's EVDO-Rev. A mobile broadband network (but you must purchase a plan, of course). I would have liked to see dual-band (2.4/5GHz) Wi-Fi since the 2.4GHz variety tends to choke in a crowded urban environment with lots of legacy 2.4GHz networks.

While there's nothing particularly wrong with it, the Vostro 3350's touchpad doesn't hold up quite as well as its keyboard. It's large, doesn't interfere with typing and offers a pleasant smooth surface, while well-placed individual buttons give a reassuring click. However, there's a slightly 'sharp' edge between the pad and its buttons on which - in rare circumstances – you may catch your finger.

Dell equips the Vostro 3350 with a large 8 cell lithium ion battery, which is supposed to also make a whole work day possible remote from a power outlet. This power supply is really anything but compact with 80 watt hours. Moreover, the device is lifted by 21 millimeters. A nice side effect. The protruding battery lip can be used well as a handle, provided the Dell Vostro 3350 battery is locked in properly and you're not worried about your laptop.

On its side, you'll find an 8X DVD+/-RW optical drive with double-layer DVD+/-R write capabilities. An embedded webcam can be found above the LED as well. The Vostro 3350 features two USB 3.0 ports, one USB/eSATA combo port, an 8-in-1 card reader, a VGA port and HDMI output among others.

In keeping with the business-notebook mantra, the Vostro 3350 is (thankfully) bloatware-free. In addition to Windows 7 Professional and the aforementioned security, Webcam, and support software, you get Roxio Creator Starter Edition, which provides DVD-burning, backup, and restore capabilities, and CyberLink's PowerDVD 9.5 media-player software. On the whole, the software that's included is mostly a good, useful mix.

Compounding this was the fact that our review model was supplied with the wrong Dell Vostro 3350 adapter, offering a mere 65W to the Vostro’s recommended intake of 90W. When a replacement 90W unit was procured, things worked a little more reliably. Thankfully, we're assured by Dell that this was a one-off mistake, and that any units sold with the add-in graphics cards - the hardware that demands the extra oomph from the PSU - are shipped with the 90W model.