Okay, I’ll be honest with you this laptop is not necessarily the nicest looking laptop on the market. Furthermore, it does not feel that great, especially the trackpad buttons but it is great buy for just about anyone.
We managed to get our grubby paws onto a Dell Vostro 3350 that boasted an i7-2620M processor. If we translate that into normal English, this laptop with that processor means it is mighty fast. The i7-2620M has a clock speed of 2.7GHz and a max turbo of 3.4GHz. At the time of production in the first quarter of 2011 it was the fasted dual core processor on the market.
The Windows Experience Index rates the processor 7.1 out of 10. Yet, unfortunately, overall scores a very measly 5.5 due to the well poor graphics chipset. Nonetheless, in the defence of the Dell Vostro 3350 it isn’t necessarily the laptop to being purchasing if you’re after graphics power.
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Not a bad 'Windows' Experience
It is not a laptop for gamers or graphic designers. It’s a laptop that’s more suitable for office workers, students who are willing to carry a slightly heavy laptop or just someone who wishes to work, browse or fever away on the laptop at home. As earlier noted, this laptop is slightly heavy, and weighs in at just over 2kg. Now, 2.2kg does not sound like a lot but considering other 13” laptops like the Advent Verona only weighs a mere 1.6kg and the Samsung Q330 weighs a relatively light 1.85kg, 2.2kg does sound like a lot.
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Vostro 3350: On the heavy side
The Dell Vostro 3350 may very well have been officially launched as a laptop that targets business users but for laptops.co.uk liking we think it needs to lose a few stone and the rather ugly bump on it’s underside before it becomes a real business partner contender. This is especially true considering the likes of the Apple iPad 2 and the BlackBerry PlayBook are starting to enter the territory of the business companion.
Let’s ignore the nitty gritty specifications for a minute and admire the design of this rather small laptop. When we took it out of it’s box the laptop seemed to gleam back at us with the rather shiny red glossy coat that covers the front and back panels. The compact case has a simple but attractive design and is rather impressive. Yet, even though the full-size keyboard, function keys and short-key buttons are rather helpful and careful it still feels rather… well…cheap.
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Vostro 3350: Full size keyboard, cheap trackpad buttons
Let me expand. The trackpad is a decent size and is easy to use. However, the trackpad buttons feel cheap, tacky and plastic and makes a rather poor quality sound upon every click. In addition, there is only one speaker. However, before you think this one, sole, lonely speaker is the full size of the keyboard, stop. Why? Simply because the speaker is rather small, weak and unsurprisingly produces a terribly poor sound. This can of course be remedied by plugging in a pair of headphones.
In terms of the keyboard it’s excellent. The keyboard is full-sized, consists of isolated keys and are all lit up from beneath allowing you to work away in just about any lighting condition. Even connectivity isn’t a problem. The laptop maybe small but it still consists two USB 3.0 ports on the left hand side, with a USB 2.0/eSATA port on the right hand side, situated next to a HDMI port, a VGA output as well as headphone and microphone jacks. In addition, there is a multi-card reader at the front.
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Vostro 3350: Plenty of Ports
Even though A laptop that consists of a 13” screen and an i7-processor for under £400 is certainly a bargain. However, is there a catch? Whether you believe it or not there really isn’t a catch.
Overall, the laptop, even though, targeted towards a mobile business user is just slightly off the scale. It is not as slim as the other laptops out there in its domain but does a great job at combining performance and battery life.