Dell Vostro V130 - Too Expensive for What it Does

Dell added the V130 to its Vostro family of notebooks in December last year. The notebook is supposed to be light weight and is aimed at business goers who are looking to carry their documents and spreadsheets along. So is it really worth buying a notebook at this price?

Design and Build Quality

The Vostro V130 looks really classy at first glance and the sleek design of the notebook is bound to get some heads turning. The metallic matte finish of the lid ensures that the V130 gets the suave business look that it deserves and at the same time, doesn’t attract too many fingerprints. Also, weighing in at 1.6 kg, the notebook is quite light to carry around.

All ports move back

Coming to the insides, the V130 has a 13.3-inch screen which looks big enough for comfortable viewing. The problem is only when you try to view the screen from an angle. Even at small angles from the screen, it’s easy to notice the difference in colours and details as it gets darker even from a slight angle.  The screen is best viewed from the middle and nowhere else.

The keyboard is one aspect of the V130 which we really like. Even though it doesn’t sport a Chiclet design, the keys are all placed and spaced out well enough to type comfortably. Even the matte-finished palm rest goes very easy on the wrists thanks to the smooth texture and makes typing a very good and comfortable experience. There’s a small depression made in the middle to house the trackpad. Speaking of which, the trackpad lacks a little in terms of response and could have been better. The mouse click buttons are separated and are definitely easier to use.

Nice addition of HDMI and eSATA ports

All the ports on the V130 are placed at the back, which is not the most conventional placement of ports that we have seen lately. Not that they are completely inaccessible, but then even a single USB port on the side does make life a lot easier, especially when a user has to transfer files time and again. It is worth mentioning that the V130 comes with two USB 3.0 ports, an HDMI port and an eSATA port.  Also, the sleekness of the notebook comes with the slight disadvantage of not having an optical drive.

Trackpad's response is a little less than ideal

To sum it up, the V130 is sleek, good looking and is quite portable for its weight.

Features

There’s not much new that the V130 has to offer. The specifications are okay-ish with an Intel Core i3 U 380 dual-core processor and 4GB DDR3 RAM (in comparison to the 2820QM it uses less power but also gives a very low output and low performance as well). There’s a 320GB HDD included, which seems to be sufficient.

The V130 uses the Mobile Intel HM57 Express Chipset that has features like the HDMI and eSATA port and there are two USB 3.0 ports as well.

Sleek and sexy

Along with the mundane RJ45 Ethernet port, the notebook also has WiFi 802.11 n and Bluetooth 3.0 connectivity features. There’s a card reader at the right side of the V130 so that adds to the options of accessing stored data.

Comfortable Keyboard

Unlike ASUS’ U36J notebook, the V130 doesn’t have any quick start options where you can access some quick features like a browser or watch a movie.

Performance

The notebook is powered by Intel’s Core i3 U380 dual-core processor that clocks in at 1.33 Ghz. It’s a ULV (Ultra Low Voltage) processor with a max TDP of 18 W which is quite low in comparison to the Intel Core i5 480M processor which the U36J uses. We ran the notebook through its paces and found out that this notebook couldn’t meet our expectations in any way. Video encoding took 2 minutes 49 seconds which is a whole 50 percent higher than the U36J’s result. Also, copying a single 2 GB file to the drive saw speeds of 81 MB/s while copying files from the drive was slower at 55 MB/s. The tests took place in the same drive.

Scores of the V130

The battery tests we ran on the notebook saw the V130, which has the standard 6-cell Lithium Ion sealed battery give an ordinary 1 hour and 23 minutes of battery backup. Considering it’s a six-celled battery, the battery life looks a lot better than the eight-celled battery that the U36J has.

Verdict

At a price of Rs. 64,000, the V130 is very expensive if you look at the kind of performance it offers. In terms of features, looks and design the notebook satisfies us without any doubts. If you’re looking for portability and a light weight notebook that you want to carry around frequently, the V130 looks quite decent. However, the ASUS U36J which performs better and is priced cheaper than the V130 is another option that you can consider. There’s also the ThinkPad EDGE 11 from Lenovo which comes approximately for Rs. 25,000.