KitGuru KitGuru.net – Tech News | Hardware News | Hardware Reviews | IOS | Mobile | Gaming | Graphics Cards
The Dell WLED screen on the Vostro is perfect for office work, offering modestly saturated images and clear, sharp text. It does fall down a little when trying to create a vibrant platform for viewing high definition video files, but this is clearly a decision from Dell to balance this product towards the business professional. We noticed no motion blur and viewing angles were perfectly acceptable unless sitting off to the sides or looking down from above. Overall the first impressions are positive.
We used Displaymate to test the monitor and we were quite happy with the overall image quality. Gamut range in GamutVision was below average and we recorded a slight blue tinge to grey screen which is not really that noticeable under real world conditions. This is slightly more pronounced at the edges of the screen which is something we are seeing more recently. The gamut is wide enough to deliver a realistic image, however the dull anti glare screen doesn't help to enhance the colour depth or overall contrast saturation. For text based purposes however it is great.
To test the screen today we are using a LaCie industrial measurement gun.
There is a slight shift when testing black definition and minor leaks are recorded from all corners of the panel. It does look bad in our technical data image, but under real world conditions its only slightly noticeable from the bottom of the panel. The shift was just above 15 percent in the bottom sector which is actually rather good for a laptop screen.
The minor leaks recorded on black definition testing are basically mirrored here with minor shift between 5%-20% across the width with slightly higher levels recorded at the edges. In real world terms however the results are actually good and whites tend to look quite clean although we did notice a little hue at the bottom of the screen.
Good overall results for a laptop screen and while a high definition media enthusiast might not be overly impressed, the business professional will not find a fault with the display. The anti glare coating works exceptionally well, even in high ambient light conditions.
I love it. I am actually comtemplating it for college. I dont need massive battery life, but it seems somewhat of an oversight from Dell to only get 2 hours or so out of it. businessmen on the move might need at least double this a day.
I am glad you didnt score it down too badly though, it does a lot of things right.
My colleague in work has this and his overheats a lot, as our office is very warm. I might fire in an SSD for him next week and see if it helps.
I agree completely with the review. the internals are great and the design is beautiful, but the battery technology just doesnt cut it. for a business orenited machine this is a huge problem. there are a lot of complaints about it on dells forums.
I bought this last month and agree with most of the review. the design is brilliant, but my battery barely lasts 1.45 when watching youtube videos 🙁 I find this unacceptable and I wish I had read reviews before buying. apart from this is great. I hope Version 2 is better.
good review Zardon. seems like a decent all round machine unless you need a lot of battery support during the day. I suppose some business professionals might just need it for a presentation over lunch or something, then its ideal as the size is great.
Typical of Dell really.
Make an adamo style pc for the masses, keep the sexy looks, put a nice keyboard in, good screen, great design, then copy Apple and put the battery inside to keep the shape lovely.
Then cock up the battery life completely ruling it out for the target market. this is the third review on this machine ive read, this is the most detailed and unfortunately id have scored it much lower as the primary function for businessmen is a battery that lasts at least 4 hours. not 2.
I like it a lot, and the entry level one is cheap. shame about the battery, and you cant even buy another for replacement during the day. as you need to take the whole machine apart. what a stupid idea 🙁
ID buy it if I had the money, but a netbook is my limit, ordered a dell 10 inch last week, still hasnt arrived
That is a gorgeous laptop for the price, just a shame they didnt manage to get battery life to 4 hours or so 🙁 2 hours is terrible.
I just ordered one for college work, I dont need long battery life, just 1 hour at lunch, then it will be in mains at night. thanks for detailed review. I got an SSD in mine.