X-bit labs

Dell Vostro 1400 Business Notebook Review

Category: Mobile

by Alexander Britvin

[ 03/17/2008 | 10:58 PM ]

This notebook has a robust case, balanced configuration, reasonable mass and weight parameters, neat and official appearance (which is important for a business machine), and long battery life. The Vostro 1400 is up to its positioning as a reliable companion for businessmen who travel a lot. Read more!

Table of contents:

• Package and Accessories
  
• Design and Ergonomics
  
• Configuration
  
• Test Methods
  
• Performance
  
• Synthetic Benchmarks
  
• Real Applications
  
• Graphics Benchmarks
  
• Gaming Benchmarks
  
• Battery Life
  
• Conclusion
  

The release of a new product series is nothing special for the modern IT market. Product updates, press releases, expositions and announcements help the manufacturer remind the potential customer about his brand. However, this may have a negative effect if product series change too frequently: the technological stuffing doesn’t keep up with the exterior design updates, and the customer begins to perceive the term “new model” as meaning “the same model as before but in a differently colored case”. So it is the more interesting when a manufacturer not only develops its old products but also tries to reach out into new areas.

That’s what Dell has done with its new Vostro series which includes a few notebook models that are meant to fill in the gap between home and corporate machines. These are models for small businesses, companies with a few dozen employees, for which it wouldn’t be effective to establish an IT department to keep the equipment up and running. So, such companies need reliable and reasonably priced solutions with a strong support on the manufacturer’s part for solving everyday tasks. Today, we will discuss one model from the new series, the Dell Vostro 1400.

Interestingly, the new series may come with either Windows Vista or Windows XP (whereas the Inspiron series, for example, comes with Windows Vista only). Each model has its own targeting. The Vostro 1000 is intended for solving office tasks. The Vostro 1400 is adapted for working on the run. The 1500 model is a top-performance electronic assistant while the 1700 model is a full-featured desktop replacement.

The notebook supports all modern types of wireless communications including 3G. Otherwise, it is a sturdy workhorse without any claim for high performance or record-breaking compactness.