Dell wowed us with its Vostro V13 a year back with its sleek styling and aluminum finish; it was very stylish yet extremely functional. There were some minor drawbacks though like no HDMI port, few USB ports and a slightly underpowered processor. A year has gone by and Dell seems to have listened to our complaints (well, some of them at least) and have brought out a new model called the V130. The basic design and ergonomics have remained the same and Dell seems to have stuck to the philosophy, "If it ain't broke don't fix it" and has made some connectivity additions and upgraded the internals.
The Dell V130 is powered by a Core i3 ULV series 380UM running at 1.3GHz. It does not support Turbo Boost but it has Hyperthreading so it should be a bit faster than the older Celeron 743 which also ran at the same speed. The downside of the Core i3 is the higher TDP of 18W which can take a toll on the battery life which wasn't great to begin with. Other than that, Dell has still maintained the low 1.5kg weight and the comfortable keyboard. Let's see how much of a difference these new improvements have really made.
The design hasn't deviated much from the original and this time, we got a ruby red sample which looks really good. The matt finish has a sheen to it which doesn't attract a lot of finger prints and yet looks striking. The Vostro V130 now comes with three USB 2.0 ports instead of two and an HDMI port as well. What's missing is the Express Card slot which is fine since it's hardly ever used. The V130 now comes with a 4GB RAM by default and a choice of 320GB or 500GB 7200rpm hard drive.
The keyboard remains exactly the same and is very comfortable to use. The power button and the status lights have swapped places on the top for whatever reason. The 13.3-inch anti-glare screen sports a 1366x768 resolution which means images and video look sharp and clear.
Overall, the V130 is a nice little upgrade to the earlier V13 in terms of horsepower and connectivity is concerned. Now let's have a look at the performance improvement and more importantly, the battery life.
Performance
The keyboard is taken straight from the V13 so it's very comfortable to type on even for prolonged usage. The anti-glare screen means that it can be used even in sun light without much problem. The trackpad is smooth to use and the buttons have a soft press. On the multimedia front, we tried playing some 1080p flash videos after installing the new Flash Player 10.3 for Internet Explorer. Even though the CPU usage was only at 25 percent, the video wasn't very smooth; there was a slight hint of stutter. Since the onboard graphics is quite weak, we didn't even bother trying out any game. The speakers are not too great as well since there isn't any dedicated vent for sound.
Battery life
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.
Pricing and Verdict
With prices starting at $ 875, 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 V130, 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.
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