Testing The Limits
4 years ago
Showing posts with label Laptop. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Laptop. Show all posts
The Dell Vostro V131 delivers a great balance of price, performance and battery life if you can live less than perfect build quality.
Pros
Good performanceSuperb battery life (9 hours)Two USB 3.0 ports15 months of Trend Micro security includedComfortable backlit keyboard
The 13.3-inch Dell Vostro V131 is a solid small-to-medium business notebook with exceptional battery life, a backlit keyboard, a business-friendly matte display, and plenty of power to handle any office productivity task you throw at it. Keep reading to find out if this is the right notebook to purchase for your office.
Build and Design
The Dell Vostro V131 has a clean, business-casual design wrapped in black surfaces and silver accents. The notebook is mostly encased in matte, but has a few glossy silver lines around the touchpad and keyboard. The lid is a bit more stylish; it's mostly silver and has a design that is close to glitter in appearance. There is a trademark Dell logo in the center, also glossy silver, and you can see the screen hinges on the lid.
It's one of the thinnest notebooks I've reviewed to date, at .63 of an inch thick if measuring the thickness from the front and .83 of an inch if measuring from the back. It's a bit thicker from the back because the battery is of a higher capacity and it sticks out; but that's OK, we'll take more battery life over a thinner form factor. Its full dimensions are 12.96 x 0.63 (F)-0.83 (B) x 9.36 inches and it weighs 4.03 pounds.
The build quality is about average for a small-to-medium business notebook, with a few weak spots. The chassis backbone is much more solid in some places than it is in others. For example, when the palmrests are pressed down upon, they hardly flex; when the keyboard is pressed down upon from the center it folds easily. The notebook also bends inward slightly when you twist the corners. Ripples form on the display when you bend the corners of the display; it seems cheaply made. In the end, the design is stylish and works for business purposes; while the build quality is average and lacking a harder structure, even if it is brushed with aluminum on the outside.
Users can reach the RAM and hard drive by removing one screw on the bottom panel and pushing the panel toward the back. That sounds easy in theory, but it took two of our editors and a lot of innovation to actually remove that panel (even though it has tiny springs that were supposed to help with its removal). We had to pry a credit card along the panel's crevice and press with so much force that we were afraid we might break something in the process. Although the memory and hard drive may be upgraded after removing it, since we were afraid of harming the laptop while we got to the hardware, we recommend purchasing the final hardware that you'd like to have rather than purchasing and installing it later. Up to 6GB of memory can be installed in total.
Ports and Features
The V131 has a very good array of ports. It not only has one USB 3.0 port, but two; it also has HDMI, an 8-in-1 card reader, one USB 2.0, and VGA. I would've liked to see another USB 2.0 port - or at least a docking station port so users could have the option of more. Other than that, some potential buyers might be put off by the lack of a SmartCard reader, but this notebook does have a fingerprint reader - so that might replace it in some terms, such as general notebook security. The notebook is also missing a DisplayPort - which may or may not be a big deal because it has VGA and HDMI instead.
Front: Activity lights
Back: Battery, a/c adapter slot
Left: HDMI, USB 2.0, exhaust vent, 8-in-1 card reader
Right: Headphone/mic jack, USB 3.0 x2, VGA, Ethernet
View the original article here
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Pros
Good performanceSuperb battery life (9 hours)Two USB 3.0 ports15 months of Trend Micro security includedComfortable backlit keyboard
The 13.3-inch Dell Vostro V131 is a solid small-to-medium business notebook with exceptional battery life, a backlit keyboard, a business-friendly matte display, and plenty of power to handle any office productivity task you throw at it. Keep reading to find out if this is the right notebook to purchase for your office.
Build and Design
The Dell Vostro V131 has a clean, business-casual design wrapped in black surfaces and silver accents. The notebook is mostly encased in matte, but has a few glossy silver lines around the touchpad and keyboard. The lid is a bit more stylish; it's mostly silver and has a design that is close to glitter in appearance. There is a trademark Dell logo in the center, also glossy silver, and you can see the screen hinges on the lid.
It's one of the thinnest notebooks I've reviewed to date, at .63 of an inch thick if measuring the thickness from the front and .83 of an inch if measuring from the back. It's a bit thicker from the back because the battery is of a higher capacity and it sticks out; but that's OK, we'll take more battery life over a thinner form factor. Its full dimensions are 12.96 x 0.63 (F)-0.83 (B) x 9.36 inches and it weighs 4.03 pounds.
The build quality is about average for a small-to-medium business notebook, with a few weak spots. The chassis backbone is much more solid in some places than it is in others. For example, when the palmrests are pressed down upon, they hardly flex; when the keyboard is pressed down upon from the center it folds easily. The notebook also bends inward slightly when you twist the corners. Ripples form on the display when you bend the corners of the display; it seems cheaply made. In the end, the design is stylish and works for business purposes; while the build quality is average and lacking a harder structure, even if it is brushed with aluminum on the outside.
Users can reach the RAM and hard drive by removing one screw on the bottom panel and pushing the panel toward the back. That sounds easy in theory, but it took two of our editors and a lot of innovation to actually remove that panel (even though it has tiny springs that were supposed to help with its removal). We had to pry a credit card along the panel's crevice and press with so much force that we were afraid we might break something in the process. Although the memory and hard drive may be upgraded after removing it, since we were afraid of harming the laptop while we got to the hardware, we recommend purchasing the final hardware that you'd like to have rather than purchasing and installing it later. Up to 6GB of memory can be installed in total.
Ports and Features
The V131 has a very good array of ports. It not only has one USB 3.0 port, but two; it also has HDMI, an 8-in-1 card reader, one USB 2.0, and VGA. I would've liked to see another USB 2.0 port - or at least a docking station port so users could have the option of more. Other than that, some potential buyers might be put off by the lack of a SmartCard reader, but this notebook does have a fingerprint reader - so that might replace it in some terms, such as general notebook security. The notebook is also missing a DisplayPort - which may or may not be a big deal because it has VGA and HDMI instead.
Front: Activity lights
Back: Battery, a/c adapter slot
Left: HDMI, USB 2.0, exhaust vent, 8-in-1 card reader
Right: Headphone/mic jack, USB 3.0 x2, VGA, Ethernet
View the original article here
An affordable laptop that mixes good performance and attractive design with poor battery life and mediocre build quality.
Cons
About 3.5 hours of battery lifeBelow average build qualityEasily smudged up: glossy surfaces everywhereOn the bright side, the Toshiba Satellite L735-S3220RD is an entry level notebook with good performance thanks to the Intel Core i5-2410M dual-core processor and enough memory. It also has a fashionable design that's light enough to travel with. On the other hand, the notebook was only able to provide about three and a half hours of battery life and has an all-plastic, somewhat flimsy construction.
Build and Design
Like most of the entry level notebooks in the Toshiba Satellite series, the new 13.3-inch Satellite L735-S3220RD is made almost entirely out of molded plastics and has the familiar rounded clamshell construction on the display lid and around the chassis. This notebook sports a red and black dot matrix design with a glossy Toshiba Fusion finish. The glossy finish embodies the display cover, screen surround, keyboard, and palmrests. To add a touch of style, the area just below the LCD has a bumpy textured feel to it along with the dot matix design. The overall dimensions are 12.95” x 8.7” x 1.10”~1.45”, and it weighs 4.6 pounds without the battery. This notebook is meant to appeal to those who want to have a travel-friendly notebook with a slightly bigger screen size than your typical ultraportable netbook.
All in all, the structure and design of the Toshiba Satellite L735-S3220RD is made to fit the average budget-conscious consumers' needs while on the go. The design is quite stylish, even though the glossiness tends to collect fingerprints easily almost entirely throughout. Our only question now is, how will its build and construction hold up while traveling?
Pressing down with a good amount of pressure in the center of the keyboard resulted in the chassis giving way; this is due to the all-plastic construction. Although it didn't dip down horribly, it was certainly still noticable and might be a problem with users who normally press down hard while typing. The area above the keyboard and beneath the display gave way even more when we pressed down on it, which may cause problems while traveling. Likewise, the display lid flexed too much for comfort and caused "ripples" when bending the corners inward. The palmrests and bottom of the notebook were the only areas with firm construction. Overall, though, the build quality is not what we would call travel-friendly and it is of questionable durability--the notebook could be easily scratched or beaten up if you are a heavy traveler.
The L735 is somewhat upgradeable and getting to the hardware that you can upgrade is simple: remove two screws and pull upward on the access panel and you can remove the Toshiba hard drive and RAM. The L735 has two RAM slots for up to 8GB of memory.
Ports and Features
The ports and features selection on the L735 is considerably above average. It has HDMI, VGA, three USB 2.0 ports, and an 8-in-1 memory card reader (not to mention a Blu-ray player). On the downside, it does not has a USB 3.0 port or eSATA. The memory card reader supports SD, SDHC, SDXC, miniSD, microSD, Memory Stick, Memory Stick PRO, and Multi Media Card formats. Strangely enough, you will not be able to notice the memory card reader unless you lift the notebook up...it's nearly beneath the chassis.
Front: Activity lights
Back: Screen hinges
Left: AC adapter, USB 2.0 x2, 8-in-1 memory card reader, Blu-ray disc player
Right: Headphone and microphone jacks, USB 2.0 'sleep and charge' port, HDMI, Ethernet, VGA, exhaust vent, lock slot
