The Dell Vostro 1700 Review
Aimed at small business customers, Dell has launched its latest range of laptop devices under the Vostro brand. The Dell Vostro 1700 notebook is a perfect deal for the office bug cum roadie. Intended to be a ‘desktop replacement’ this computing gizmo is meant to give the small business manager as well as the high flying professional value for time and money.
These latest notebooks come with fully customizable operating system as well as hardware component options. If the buyer is not well versed with Windows Vista operating system, and wishes to check-out his Dell Vostro 1700 using pre-installed XP Pro, he can do so. Whenever an upgrade to Vista is required, the Vista CD provided can do the job with Dell’s support.
The Dell plan is to give the customer what he wants in terms of component configuration, so no need to go in for package deals. The knowledgeable buyer has the option to choose from Celeron to Dual Core processors; from 1GB to 2GB of memory; from DVD combo to DVD burner; from 80GB single to 320GB dual hard drives, just to mention a few of the choices.
The 2.0 GHz, 1M L2Cache with a bus speed of 533MHz is quite sufficient for normal to high-end computing processes, and takes lesser time for data retrieves. For regular professional computing, the Intel Celeron Processor more than does the job; but for more advanced usage like high multitasking and bandwidth-intensive applications, a Core 2 Duo T-5 series processor can be opted-in for.
When on the move, a laptop is prone to bumps and falls. Dell has taken care of this too with an amazing feature. The 7200rpm hard disks are equipped with a Free Fall Sensor. This means that if the Dell Vostro 1700 is about the hit the floor, the sensor detects this in advance and takes immediate action in order to avoid damage to data on impact.
A dedicated GeForce 8400M GS video card takes care of all high resolution graphics and image processing needs without putting additional burden on the processor or memory. Moreover, it supports Microsoft DirectX10 giving more resolution and color saturation. The 17” high resolution screen makes office presentations as well as multimedia viewing pleasurable.
The 1505 Wireless-N PCI card makes Internet as well as intranet and other home-office networking needs easy for the professional who needs cable-free connectivity. The numeric keypad is an added bonus. The Lithium ion batteries that come with the Dell Vostro 1700 can make outdoor usage last for more than 5 to 6 hours on average.
With a one year basic warranty, the Dell Vostro 1700 is priced at around $830 to begin with, depending on the chosen configuration. Although a free webcam offer is not much of a big deal, who would have problems with it?
On the downside, the size is a little bulky. The USB ports are not to easily accessible in case a flash drive has to be used. The absence of a docking station is a letdown considering the fact that it is supposed to be a desktop replacement. A bulky port replicator is provided instead. Also it is difficult to find a fitting case, so get a good one from Dell itself.