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Dell's Vostro collection of small-business-oriented PCs has become a bit more complete with the addition of the Vostro 1310 laptop. As with earlier Vostro models, this notebook's allure is a business-friendly mix of features, dedicated tech support, handy utilities—and no preloaded trialware. In the $1,416 configuration we tested, the Vostro 1310 delivers good performance and most of the features a professional could need. Built around a 13.3-inch screen—an increasingly popular size for mobile pros weary of the 12-inch displays typical of ultraportables—the Vostro 1310 is smaller than the 14.1-inch and 15.4-inch Vostro models Dell released previously. That said, the Vostro 1310 doesn't feel quite as compact as it could. It weighs 4.8 pounds; by way of comparison, Dell's own 13.3-inch XPS M1330 weighs less than 4 pounds. The design of the Vostro 1310 is rather subdued, with an angular chassis done in black-on-black, though the metallic-flake paint on the lid adds a bit of flair. Open the lid, and you'll find a generic-looking (though comfortable) keyboard and palm rest. The touch pad gives smooth action but is a bit small, a complaint we've leveled against a lot of notebooks lately. The mouse buttons have a positive action without being too stiff. We are happy to see the touch-sensitive multimedia control and volume buttons—rare on a business notebook. Oddly, however, there's no mute button, or even a marked Function-key combo to mute sound. Not that it matters much: The monaural speaker is so tinny and muffled, and produces so little volume that you'll never have the sound on anyway. If you need a notebook to make presentations with and those presentations involve audio, look elsewhere. The screen, on the other hand, is a winner: bright and crisp. The matte finish (not glossy, as we've grown accustomed to) robs the panel of some of its vibrancy, but that also means no glare when you're working under harsh fluorescent lights. The Vostro 1310 makes a decent portable DVD player when work is done; colors in Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl were accurate, though we did notice motion blur in action scenes. Features include a slot-loading DVD burner, a fingerprint reader, a Webcam, a memory-card reader, 802.11b/g wireless (Bluetooth is a $20 option), and a 160GB hard drive with an accelerometer that parks the drive heads if the machine takes a tumble. Dell has included the ports you would expect in a business notebook (FireWire, LAN, VGA, and four USB ports) and omitted one you might need on the road: a modem jack. For road warriors who still happen upon motels with just dial-up, you'll need to buy and carry an external USB modem. Also, the included card slot is an ExpressCard slot, so if you have older PC Cards, you're out of luck. Beyond the hardware, the Vostro line is just as much about the software, and the Vostro 1310 is no exception. We like the inclusion of 10GB of online storage via Dell's DataSafe Online backup and recovery service, as well as a one-year subscription to Dell Automated PC TuneUp for periodic system maintenance. Dell also preloads the Dell Network Assistant utility, which can help IT-challenged business users get connected, set up simple printer and file shares, and perform similar tasks. Refreshingly absent is all the 30-day trial software and other come-ons that most other PCs are laden with these days. Performance is solidly above average for a mid-priced business notebook. Our Vostro 1310 came equipped with a 2.1GHz Core 2 Duo T8100 processor, 2GB of 667MHz RAM, and a 128MB nVidia GeForce 8400M GS GPU. That's more than enough to power the included Vista Business OS (Windows XP is also an option), and the Vostro 1310 scored a respectable 2,967 on Futuremark's PCMark Vantage. (As with other Windows Vista Business machines we've seen, the older PCMark05 would not load.) The Vostro 1310 should also prove fine for multimedia work, judging from its 695 score on Cinebench 9.5 and 4,270 on Cinebench 10. The machine completed our Windows Media Encoder test in a good 7 minutes and 16 seconds, and our iTunes conversion trial in a quick 4 minutes and 42 seconds. As we expected from a business portable, the Vostro 1310's 3D capabilities won't thrill gamers. The machine mustered 1,899 on 3DMark06 (at 1,024x768 resolution)—not terrible, and enough to play the occasional game at low resolution. The system lasted 2 hours and 15 minutes on our harsh DVD rundown test; normal use should net you 4 hours from the 6-cell battery. (A 9-cell battery is a $100 option.) Dell backs the Vostro 1310 with a one-year mail-in warranty on entry-level models, and on-site service with the more expensive configurations. The company claims the Vostro technical support staff (available 24/7) is specially trained to handle small-business issues. It's hard to find fault with the Dell Vostro 1310 laptop. It isn't the most exciting notebook out there, but it delivers a solid mix of features and performance at a good price. Maybe that's as thrilling as it needs to be. Discuss this product in our laptops forum. Dell, 800-999-3355 www.dell.com Direct Price: $1,416 Related Laptop Reviews on ComputerShopper.com Fujitsu LifeBook S6510 HP Compaq 2510p Lenovo ThinkPad X300
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