Thứ Bảy, 12 tháng 3, 2011

Vostro 3700 Owner's Lounge

Well, after a lot of research and debate, I took the plunge on the Vostro 3700 tonight. There's almost no info in this forum on the 3700 so I hope this brings some owners out of the woodwork.



- i5-520m

- 4GB RAM

- backlit keyboard

- Geforce GT330M 1GB graphics card

- 500GB HHD

- silver color



While I would like the cool looks and premium features of something like the Envy 15/17 or even the Studio 15/17 line, this Vostro should meet my needs just as well. I prefer a more traditional keyboard, but the biggest issue I had in choosing a laptop was screen size.



The last time I shopped for laptops was 3 years ago, when I got a 16:10 14.1" Dell Latitude D620 and a Compaq with a 15.4" 16:10 screen. Fast forward to the present and everything is 16:9. I will be doing office suite type work on the laptop and I would much prefer 16:10 screens. It almost made me consider a MacBook Pro 15 sicne Apple gets it right and still uses 16:10 screens.



Once I realized that my old 16:10 14.1" screen is almost the exact same height as today's 15.6" 16:9 laptop screens, I started looking at 17" laptops. This 17.3" screen will be just a little bit taller than my 15.4" 16:10 ratio screen. It will also only weigh about half a pound more, so that's good.



Unfortunately there's not much out there in the way of premium business-style laptops in the 17" arena. Executives gravitate to smaller laptops because they are on the go. Something in between would even be nice, like 16.4" or something, but the few 16.4" laptops out there are so heavy that the Vostro 3700 is right around the same weight.



I didn't go for the 9 cell battery - I'll see what I get with the 6 cell. I thought that $180 for the 9 cell was pretty outrageous. Would be nice if they gave you the option to replace the 6 cell with the 9 cell for a lot less - it's only a battery swap, it's not like customizing something inside the machine.



My concerns?



- general build quality. I will be traveling with this - not frequently, but still



- speaker quality. I will end up using headphones 99% of the time anyway, so no big deal here



- display quality. I would greatly prefer a 1920x1080 premium screen option but I think I can live with the 1600x900. Matte is a plus for me, although if a FHD screen was available in glossy on this laptop I would have jumped on it.



- very wary of the on/off/on/off fan problems a lot of Dells (like the Studios) seem to have lately, and I've seen reports and videos of a Vostro 3700 having the issue. I hope I don't encounter it.





A big factor in my order was the 30 days they give you - no restocking fee, they pay shipping costs. So if there is something wrong, I feel like I"m covered where if I went for a Studio 15 or 17 I would be stuck paying a restocking fee.







Vostro 3700 links I've found:



- a long discussion Dell Vostro 3700 has arrived!



- decent unboxing video YouTube - Unboxing and reviewing Dell Vostro 3700



- another decent unboxing vid YouTube - Dell Vostro 3700 Unboxing



- and one that shows the red color option YouTube - Unboxing Dell Vostro 3700

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