Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Dell Vostro V131 Notebook Review

Dell launched a thin line and mobile business in its range of entry level Vostro with V130. It is also supposed to convince in terms of design. Intel beach powerful bridge follow the first tests with ULV processors. Some changes were made also in the case. As its name suggests, the new Vostro V131 is an update of Dell Vostro V130. Slight modifications were made to the case and completely renovated inside.

Thanks to the latest processors Sandy Bridge, the Vostro V131 is now equal to 14 desktops and 15 inches in terms of performance. However, it also increases energy consumption, with Dell now wants to dominate with a 6 cell battery replaceable. It's a shame: it exceeds a little outside the box and lifts the handset on the back of a centimeter.

Specifications Dell Vostro V131 :
  • Processor : Intel Core i5 2410M 2.3 GHz
  • Mainboard : Intel HM67
  • Memory : 4096 MB, DDR3 1333MHz, max 8GB
  • Graphics adapter : Intel HD Graphics 3000
  • Display : 13.3 inch , 1366x768 pixel, AUO312C, LED Backlit LCD, glossy: no
  • Harddisk : WD5000BPKT-75PK4T0, 500GB 7200rpm
  • Soundcard : HD Audio
  • Connections : 1 USB 2.0, 2 USB 3.0, 1 VGA, 1 HDMI, 1 Kensington Lock, Audio Connections: headphone/microphone combo socket, Card Reader: 8in1 card reader (SD, SDXC, SDHC, MS, MS-Pro, MMC, MMC+, xD-Picture Card), 1 Fingerprint Reader
  • Networking : Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller (10/100/1000MBit), Intel Centrino Wireless-N 1030 (bgn), 3.0+HS Bluetooth, optional (Dell Wireless 5550 HSPA Mini Card)
  • Size : height x width x depth (in mm): 21 x 330 x 238
  • Weight : 1.85 kg Power Supply: 0.35 kg
  • Battery : 65 Wh Lithium-Ion
  • Price : 780 Euro
  • Operating System : Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 64 Bit
  • Additional features : 12 Months Warranty
Case
Looking at the entire case, one can hardly find any appreciable change. A simple case depth is increased by 8 mm according to the glasses. But with the naked eye is not that really stands out. Dell says the laptop have a maximum height of 21 mm. It is not entirely correct, because the battery out for about 10 mm on the bottom of a laptop in this area.

This is not a significant effect when used on a table and bottom of the base may also be able to treat the waste without even better. However, you must get along with the arms bulging battery of the wireless network. Even if the base would be helpful.

Your V131 looks almost exactly like its predecessor. The concept of enclosing the metal parts will still be a high value recognition. But the V131 is not just your score for its look and feel, will also benefit the stability of surrounding metal parts. Just as the bottom cover and the base of the screen to face a highly selective pressure.

Warping can remain within the limits of both parties. However, a clear admit your loss, as the face of Apple MacBook Air, 13, who was also the seat back in time - and that even if the air is only half as thick as your.

The opening mechanism is substantially preserved. Thus, the hinges are installed behind the screen where the case is high. Thus, the display closest to the customer than they are with traditional solutions. Although the metal hinges to give a strong impression that they can not stop the screen quite heavily on the brink. It was a rather unpleasant trial, particularly when using an unstable surface, such as directly on your lap.

Finally, we would like to deal with the weight. The new V131 adds to your weight of 1850 grams of 6-cell battery, which is a standard configuration in Europe. Your V130 was then about 200 grams lighter than 1638 grams.

Once again we look beyond the horizon, for example, we see the Samsung 13-inch Premium 900X3A, £ 1.35, and the Apple MacBook Air 13 with 1.33 pounds of the best classes. Sony Vaio is pretty close to your SA2Z with 1.65 pounds. The first standard Dell Inspiron 3350 is not only thicker (up to 29 mm), it is also much heavier than the V131 with 2.19 pounds.

Connections
Dell has made a significant improvement in the interfaces. V130 three USB 2.0 ports have been replaced by two Super Speed ​​USB 3.0 ports and one USB 2.0 port, which can supply power to external devices when the notebook is off. Your yet installed the VGA and HDMI video connections. There is no docking port.

There have been some changes in the agreement because of the battery port. With the exception of the takeover and Kensington slot, all ports were moved to the side edges and stay comfortably in the back region. This should keep the obstructions caused by the wires connected inside. Move the card reader from left to right and still no optical drive.

Exchange of information, your 131 has a LAN port (Realtek Gigabit Ethernet), wireless (Intel Wireless N1030), Bluetooth 3.0 + HS, and, if desired, even for mobile broadband Internet (Dell 5550). Integrated UMTS modem costs about $ 100 extra.

While the SIM card slot is still relevant easily accessible on the front of the Vostro V130, had to move to cool.

The Vostro V131 also offers a wide range of security features such as a company of input devices. The fingerprint reader included in the scope of products and services offered to name one example.

However, many of the security services of the available data (Trendmicro Worry Free, DataSafe Online Backup) and support services (up to three years of service with in-situ ProSupport next business day, the optional Accidental Damage Protection). In the three years of service rather than a difference of 160 euros net of the standard warranty of 12 months.

Display
The specifications of the screen set was maintained (13.3 inch, 1366x768 pixels, mat. But the ID screen of our test unit deviates from the V130 built-in display (AUO312C). For example, Dell installs new components here.

Unlike your V130, V131, unfortunately, your lost about 15% of its maximum brightness of 185 cd/m2 and the center of the screen. The new display is an average of 170 cd/m2. Lighting 82% is still good.

V130 was not a model, which has a contrast ratio up to 144:1. The V131 is not much better: 165:1 to black value of 1.12 cd/m2. These figures are also likely to be responsible for our only moderate overall subjective impression of the color reproduction. This is just a small problem with office tasks, but the media is suffering from a case.

Reproducible color space differs from the screen than its predecessor, but it plays basically the same series. sRGB is clearly unattainable, which is not bound to decline, with the exception of professional photo editing and graphics.

This applies as soon as you venture to the Vostro V131. You must accept a greater or lesser degree change and loss of brightness depending on the viewing angle on the screen and the position of the sun when the sun provides ambient light. Anti-reflective surface can effectively prevent the light from the field, but the brightness is not enough to provide a perfect outdoor use in any situation.

The screen installed could not impress us with respect to viewing angle stability, either. Work areas show very narrow, especially along the vertical plane of vision. Therefore, the angle of inclination must often be adjusted by mobile use. As usual, the screen is better on the horizontal plane. But the narrow viewing angles also cause increased loss of contrast here.

Performance
One of the most important points in the catalog to update the Vostro V131 is likely that the new hardware. ULV processors Arrandale after his predecessor, Vostro V130, the latest Intel sand range jumper is done in the new V131 - that is, regular 35W TDP chip.

The only remains are ULV Intel Celeron 847 CPU. It is clearly behind the choice of selecting a core clock of 1.1 GHz and turbo functions: i3-2310M (130 €) and i5-2410M (180 €).

Main memories are also moving faster on the new Vostro V131 with Sandy Bridge. The Vostro has a capacity of 8 GB of memory in two banks of the model (2x4096MB) DDR3 1333MHz. The basic configuration of 2 GB only in the online configurator is not far off, however.

You are well equipped with 4 GB (90 €) today. 8 GB makes sense for special applications (190 €). A brief description of current market prices for Module 4 GB of 1333 MHz (new) question the policy of additional Dell.

The corresponding components can be purchased for from (gross) 20 euros and simple even for inexperienced users, introduced by keeping the lid on the bottom of the unit.

Processor: Intel Core i5-2410M
Our test car was equipped with the strongest available to the V131 your CPU, Intel Core i5-2410M chip is classified as a mid-range processor, the Intel portfolio. However, it includes the most important and useful to the latest range of Sandy Bridge Hyper Threading and Turbo Boost 2.0. The basic CPU clock of 2.3 GHz, but not automatically clocked up to 2.9 GHz under load.

They alternately available i3-2310M processor is the gateway to Sandy Bridge range dual core standard. In addition to the basic clock lower than 2.1 GHz, particularly distinguished himself with his lack of turbo boost. You are better off with the chip i5 in high performance applications. But Intel Core i3 is sufficient for undemanding office use. You can find a comprehensive comparison of the new Intel dual core here.

Unfortunately, we have no solid comparative data on the Celeron 847. According to the model number of the chip, it is on par with the old Intel i3 330UM. This equates to loss of performance was higher than 50% compared to the Core, and I processors.

The test of Cinebench benchmark we executed for i5-2410M is in low-end laptop with a Core i5-2410M. This could be a sign that the CPU turbo not operated at its maximum. When we look at the clock in the CPU Cinebench R10 rendering test single-core, the frequency of both cores are typically 2.7 GHz. CPU does not perform several times its maximum clock of 2.9 GHz for a split second. Both cores were constant at 2.7 GHz for multi-core test.

We go to the application benchmarks. They evaluated our your V131 to test the system as a whole, including all components installed. We reach the composition of the excellent 7736 points PCMark Vantage, and moves well in the first third of all notebooks we've tested.

You'll find machines like the HP EliteBook 8460p is a powerful AMD processor i7 2610m and 6470M HD graphics (7734 points), or the Lenovo ThinkPad T420 also i7 Processor 2620m (7845 points) in the immediate vicinity. Dell V130 with an Intel 470UM managed only 3813 points in the test itself. So, V131 can more than double the performance of its reserves in its current configuration.

The last 7 PCMark 2359 Vostro V131 rewarded with good points and also starts at the front. In comparison: Toshiba Satellite 2936 R830 comes to points with the same processor, but installed the solid state drive (SSD) is compatible with a large amount in this case. Lenovo ThinkPad E320 Edge with i3-2310M processor accused clearly behind with 2009 points.

Western Digital hard drive WD5000BPKT installed in our unity gives us a taste of its performance with 4900 points in PCMark Vantage score. It is the current standard portfolio model V131 Vostro 7200 rpm. Dell no longer wish to use the models otherwise still normal 5400 rpm.

However, there are SSD faster to choose from. A 128 GB model is not identified can be selected for an extra € 220 instead of a hard disk 320GB/7200 rpm. More than 256 GB model is also expected to be available.

Back to our WD5000BPKT hard drive. Support data transfer rate reached an average of 88.9 good MB / s in the HDTune benchmark test. However, the access speed of 21.1 milliseconds remained very high, of course, below the level of a 7200 rpm hard drive.

Vostro V131 is not really suited for gaming with Intel Graphics HD 3000 graphics solution. However, one game at least equal in low and medium graphic details. More information about the games that work on the graphics card HD 3000 can be found in our Comparison of mobile graphics cards games.

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