When Dell launched their new Vostro line of computers last year the Vostros where immediately praised for meeting the needs of small businesses and budget-minded consumers alike. The Vostro 1310 is the newest and smallest addition to the Vostro family of notebooks. This compact business notebook comes with a 13.3" display, dedicated graphics option and a slot-loading optical drive, but does it still offer the right combination of features, options, and price that made the Vostro line so popular? Keep reading and you can find out.
The Dell Vostro 1310 is available with a range of Intel processors (from the 1.86GHz Celeron M M540 up to the T9500 2.6GHz Core 2 Duo). There are two 13.3" screen offerings, a 1280x800 WXGA with matte anti-glare coating and 1280x800 WXGA "TrueLife" glossy display. The notebook can take up to 4GB of RAM and Dell offers 32-bit versions of Microsoft Windows Vista Business or Windows XP Professional. The system is priced starting at $749 with integrated Intel X3100 graphics at the time of this writing, but is also available with nVidia 8400M GS dedicated graphics.
Our pre-production Vostro 1310 is equipped with the following specs:
- Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo T8100 (2.1GHz)
- Memory: 2GB - 2 DIMM (DDR2-667) (4GB max)
- HDD: 160GB 5400RPM HDD
- Graphics: 128MB NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS
- Display: 13.3" WXGA Antiglare
- Optical drive: Slot-loading 8x DVD +/- RW
- OS: Vista Business SP1 (available with XP Professional)
- Software: 30-day security subscription anti-virus, No trail-ware
- Wireless: Dell 1505 Wireless-N Mini Card (802.11a/g/n)
- Battery: 6-cell battery
- Other: Webcam and fingerprint reader
- Services: Network assistant; 10GB of Datasafe online; Dell Support Center; PC Tune-up
- Dimensions (HxWxD): 0.94" (front)/1.59" (back) x 12.48" x 9.57"
- Weight: 4.45 lbs (with 4-cell battery), 4.63 lbs (with 6-cell battery)
- Base configuration price: $749
- Price as tested: $1,357
Build and Design laptop Dell received some much needed attention in 2007 with the introduction of the sleek, high performance XPS M1330 and XPS M1530 notebooks. While these more expensive notebooks in the Dell lineup were praised for their looks and low weight, the Dell Insipron and Vostro notebooks were criticized for being bulky and unattractive laptops. Dell listened closely to this criticism when they designed the new Vostro 1310. The Vostro 1310 is in fact roughly 20% smaller and lighter than the Vostro 1400. Unfortunately, the lighter weight and thinner profile come at some cost. Namely, the plastics used in the chassis feel thin and in some areas, such as above the keyboard and on the palmrests, there is a significant degree of flex. The edges of the chassis are also sharper than what weve seen on earlier Dell notebooks and these sharp edges and thin plastics make the design of the Dell Vostro 1310 feel slightly unfinished or unrefined. Much like last years Vostro releases, the 1310 doesnt come in multiple colors or display lid patterns. Black is your only option. However, this year Dell decided to get rid of the matte black finish in favor of a glossy black finish with just a hint of metal flake. The black paint with the fine metal flakes is inlaid with the molds so theres no risk of the glossy finish coming off. Although I wasnt a huge fan of the glossy black plastic lid with metal flake paint on our pre-production Vostro 1310, it does look and feel nice. Still, the new glossy lid design is a magnet for fingerprints and might not resist light scratches as well as the matte black finish on the previous generation Vostro notebooks. Another of the new innovations for the Vostro line is the "Hyperband Multi-Antenna" housed inside the LCD lid which Dell claims "can provide excellent reception and help reduce dropped signals" for both Wi-Fi and bluetooth. Ive never had serious problems with dropped signals while using older Dell notebooks so I cant speak to whether the new internal multi-antenna actually improved wireless reception ... but I can say that I never experienced dropped Wi-Fi connections during the testing period. The following is a short video overview of the all-new Dell Vostro 1310:
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Screen laptop
Display options for the Vostro 1310 include a matte finish 13.3" Widescreen XGA (1280 x 800), and a 13.3" Widescreen XGA (1280 x 800) with TrueLife (glossy finish). Im a little disappointed that Dell isnt offering a higher resolution option at the time of this writing. However, the overwhelming majority of "average" business users and budget notebook shoppers will think the WXGA resolution looks stunning.
The screen on our pre-production unit looks flawless from straight on and the horizontal viewing angles are great. Upper vertical viewing angles are good with just a slightly washed out look, but colors did begin to invert at lower viewing angles when the screen is tilted back.
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Keyboard, Touchpad and Media Controls The keyboard on the Vostro 1310 is quite nice with minimal flex near the center of the keyboard. The keys have a nice matte texture with proper spacing and each of the keys have excellent travel and cushion. There are dedicated page up and page down keys but the home and end keys require the use of the function key, so this might be a little frustrating for users who do a lot of coding. The touchpad surface utilizes the same matte texture with just a hint of metal flake that is used on the palm rest surface. The touchpad is nice and responsive but feels a little smaller than it should be. The touchpad buttons have excellent travel and cushion. Unfortunately, because of the way in which the touchpad buttons are slightly recessed and close to the edge of the chassis, the touchpad buttons are uncomfortable to use. The edge of my thumb kept hitting the edge of the chassis when I pressed the touchpad buttons and I ended up with sore thumbs after just a few minutes. A series of touch-sensitive media buttons with blue LED backlights are located above the keyboard similar to the buttons on the XPS notebooks. One nice feature about the media buttons is that the blue LEDs only stay lit for a fraction of a second after being pressed, so they wont distract you by staying lit all the time. The power button also features a blue LED backlight, but this light says on whenever the notebook is on.
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Ports and Features The port selection of the 1310 is reasonably good for a notebook of this size. Heres a quick rundown of what you get: Front profile view: LED status lights and mono speaker. Left side: USB port, FireWire, microphone in, headphone out, multi-card reader, and ExpressCard slot. Back profile view: Battery, VGA out, Ethernet and security lock slot. Perhaps the most interesting omission from the ports selection is the lack of either S-video out or HDMI. Some older video projectors still use the S-video port and most newer external monitors and high-resolution projectors use the HDMI port. The absence of both the S-video port and the HDMI port means that this notebook wont be 100 percent friendly with all external displays used for presentations. This might indeed be a serious problem for traveling business professionals who never know exactly what type of video-out port theyll need for their next business presentation. With the addition of FireWire, four USB ports, a media card reader, a headphone jack, microphone jack, ExpressCard slot and Ethernet port youre well equipped ports wise. I was pleasantly surprised to find four USB ports on the 1310. I was a bit let down by the fact the much larger XPS M1530 only includes three USB ports. The fact that the 1310 packs four USB ports into a reasonably thin and light 13.3" notebook is worth praise. Audio The speaker quality was sub par for a notebook of this size and price range. The mono speaker on the 1310 produces dreadfully shallow sound with limited range and no bass. You can get the volume reasonably loud without much distortion, but the audio coming out of this single tiny speaker sounds like a cell phone speaker inside a tin can. This is unfortunate because many 12" and smaller notebooks (such as the HP tx2000z or HP 2133 Mini-Note) have stereo speakers that produce high quality sound with excellent range of highs, middles, and lows. The Vostro 1310 is a budget business notebook, but Im certain that Dell can do better than this. The other negative issue is that the location of the mono speaker is on the front edge of the notebook. If youre using the 1310 as a "laptop" this means the speaker is pointed toward your crotch. The last time I checked, humans dont have ears in that area of the body ... which is why audio will tend to sound somewhat muffled when using the 1310 in your lap. On the brighter side, the headphone out port delivered crystal clear audio to my earbuds during the test period. Performance and Benchmarks One thing to notice is that this relatively small 13.3" notebook is available with either integrated graphics or a dedicated graphics card option. While most business professionals only need integrated graphics, the optional Nvidia 8400M GS is great for mobile video editing and Photoshop as well as budget gaming. In fact, the Vostro 1310 actually produced a better 3DMark 06 score than the XPS M1330 that we tested last year. Still, the Vostro 1310 is meant for a more mainstream business buyer looking for good productivity features and a low price, not cutting edge 3D performance. Our configuration of the Vostro 1310 with the 2.1GHz T8100 Intel Core 2 Duo processor performed quite well during testing and this machine will meet or exceed the performance needs of most users.
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Right side: Slot-loading optical drive, WiFi on/off, three USB ports, and power jack.
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3DMark06 comparison results for graphics performance (higher scores indicate better performance): Heat and Noise laptop The Vostro 1310 does an impressive job keeping heat under control. The system fan and heatsinks in the 1310 do a great job managing heat when the system is under load ... as we discovered when we ran multiple benchmarks back to back. What we found most impressive was the fact that the bottom of the notebook (usually the hottest side) ended up being slightly cooler than the surface of the keyboard and palm rests. This is quite nice and makes for a more enjoyable "laptop" experience. Below are images with temperature readings listed in degrees Fahrenheit: Battery Life The 6-cell 58WHr Li-Ion battery provides excellent battery life for the 1310. With Vistas power management running in "high performance" mode, screen brightness set to maximum and wireless on, the 6-cell battery delivered 3 hours and 18 minutes of battery life. The 6-cell delivered 3 hours and 52 minutes of life while browsing the web using Wi-Fi with the notebook set to "balanced" mode and the screen brightness turned down to 50 percent. There is also an available 9-cell 87WHr Li-Ion battery for those users needing extended battery life and a 4-cell 38WHr battery for those who need a laptop to be as light as possible. Unfortunately, Dell was unable to provide us with the 4-cell and 9-cell batteries during our testing period, so we cannot provide any information on battery life with these batteries. Conclusion Overall, the Dell Vostro 1310 is an impressive budget notebook with clean looks and solid performance. Whether you need a simple business notebook or a budget portable laptop with modest gaming capabilities, the Vostro 1310 makes an excellent choice. That said, the chassis isnt as nice as we hoped ... the edges are sharp and could be smoother or more rounded, the case feels more flimsy than the earlier Vostros, the touchpad button placement is bad, and the mono speaker does not provide a good audio experience. Still, none of these issues are "deal breakers." The other huge advantage to the Vostro line is the support, lack of bloatware, and excellent return policy. Dell will let you purchase a Vostro, use it for 30 days, and if you dont like it you can send it back for a full refund without any restocking or shipping fees. Thats just amazing. In short, the Vostro 1310 is an excellent addition to the Vostro family and gives business professionals and consumers on a budget a low-cost alternative to the Dell XPS M1330. Unfortunately, the price as configured ($1,357) places it neck-and-neck with the XPS M1330. Although the Vostro is a great system at the entry level price of just $749, once the price exceeds $1,000 most consumers (and even many business professionals) would be better off with the XPS M1330. Pros ConsNotebook / CPU wPrime 32M time Dell Vostro 1310 (Core 2 Duo T8100 @ 2.1GHz) 37.736s Dell Inspiron 1525 (Core 2 Duo T7250 @ 2.0GHz) 43.569s Dell XPS M1530 (Core 2 Duo T7500 @ 2.2GHz) 37.485s Portable One SXS37 (Core 2 Duo T7250 @ 2.0GHz) 41.908s Sony VAIO NR (Core 2 Duo T5250 @ 1.5GHz) 58.233s Toshiba Tecra A9 (Core 2 Duo T7500 @ 2.2GHz) 38.343s Toshiba Tecra M9 (Core 2 Duo T7500 @ 2.2GHz) 37.299s HP Compaq 6910p (Core 2 Duo T7300 @ 2GHz) 40.965s Zepto 6024W (Core 2 Duo T7300 @ 2GHz) 42.385s Lenovo T61 (Core 2 Duo T7500 @ 2.2GHz) 37.705s Samsung Q70 (Core 2 Duo T7300 @ 2.0GHz) 42.218s Acer Travelmate 8204WLMi (Core Duo T2500 @ 2.0GHz) 42.947s Samsung X60plus (Core 2 Duo T7200 @ 2.0GHz) 44.922s Samsung Q35 (Core 2 Duo T5600 @ 1.83GHz) 46.274s Notebook 3DMark06 Score Dell Vostro 1310 (2.1GHz Intel T8100, Nvidia 8400M GS 128MB) 1,679 3DMarks Dell Inspiron 1525 (2.0GHz Intel T7250, Intel X3100) 545 3DMarks Sony VAIO NR (1.5GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T5250, Intel X3100) 504 3DMarks Dell XPS M1530 (2.20GHz Intel T7500, Nvidia 8600M GT 256MB) 4,332 3DMarks Dell Inspiron 1520 (2.0GHz Intel T7300, NVIDIA 8600M GT) 2,905 3DMarks Dell XPS M1330 (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, NVIDIA GeForce Go 8400M GS 128MB) 1,408 3DMarks Samsung Q70 (2.0GHz Core 2 Duo T7300 and nVidia 8400M G GPU) 1,069 3DMarks Asus F3sv-A1 (Core 2 Duo T7300 2.0GHz, Nvidia 8600M GS 256MB) 2,344 3DMarks Alienware Area 51 m5550 (2.33GHz Core 2 Duo, nVidia GeForce Go 7600 256MB 2,183 3DMarks Fujitsu Siemens Amilo Xi 1526 (1.66GHz Core Duo, nVidia 7600Go 256 MB) 2,144 3DMarks Samsung X60plus (2.0GHz Core 2 Duo T7200, ATI X1700 256MB) 1,831 3DMarks Asus A6J (1.83GHz Core Duo, ATI X1600 128MB) 1,819 3DMarks HP dv6000t (2.16 GHz Intel T7400, NVIDA GeForce Go 7400) 827 3DMarks
PCMark05 measures overall notebook performance (higher scores indicate better performance):Notebook PCMark05 Score Dell Vostro 1310 (2.1GHz Intel T8100, Nvidia 8400M GS 128MB) 4,813 PCMarks Dell Inspiron 1525 (2.0GHz Intel T7250, Intel X3100) 4,149 PCMarks Dell XPS M1530 (2.20GHz Intel T7500, Nvidia 8600M GT 256MB) 5,412 PCMarks Dell Inspiron 1520 (2.0GHz Intel T7300, NVIDIA 8600M GT) 4,616 PCMarks Dell XPS M1330 (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, NVIDIA GeForce Go 8400M GS) 4,591 PCMarks Lenovo ThinkPad X61 (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, Intel X3100) 4,153 PCMarks Lenovo 3000 V200 (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, Intel X3100) 3,987 PCMarks Lenovo T60 Widescreen (2.0GHz Intel T7200, ATI X1400 128MB) 4,189 PCMarks HP dv6000t (2.16GHz Intel T7400, NVIDA GeForce Go 7400) 4,234 PCMarks Fujitsu N6410 (1.66GHz Core Duo, ATI X1400) 3,487 PCMarks Alienware M7700 (AMD Athlon FX-60, Nvidia Go 7800GTX) 5,597 PCMarks Sony VAIO SZ-110B in Speed Mode (Using Nvidia GeForce Go 7400) 3,637 PCMarks Asus V6J (1.86GHz Core Duo T2400, Nvidia Go 7400) 3,646 PCMarks
HDTune measures the performance of the notebooks hard drive in terms of both transfer rate (read/write speed) and access time (how long it takes to find data stored on the drive):
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Fortunately, noise was likewise a non-issue with the fan on the 1310. The fan moved a significant amount of hot air and the noise was exceptionally quiet. The fan was so quiet, even when running at full speed, that the air rushing past the heatsink actually made more noise than the fan itself.
- Glossy LCD lid is a magnet for fingerprints
- Chassis plastics feel too thin and hollow
- Mono speaker is painfully weak
- Uncomfortable touchpad buttons
- No S-video or HDMI port
- Price as configured is a little expensive compared to the XPS M1330
