Looks like a great laptop for business/student use, also a cheaper version without dedicated graphics card for $948.
Compact, very light (1.2kg) with long battery life.
RRP $1600.
Cashrewards offer 7% off Vostro purchases but unsure if that’s off RRP or also applies to discounted prices.
why do they have 13" votros and 14" as well so confusing
Anyone know if the screen on this is ips?
True Life Display
Sounds better than IPS
"INTEGRATED" 8GB RAM.
Some "Video Cards" for models like Vostro just mention Intel UHD - any idea which specific?
Bezel looks XPS-like thin.
Anyone know what "long battery life" roughly translates to in any such meaningful way?
I don't know …. How about hours and minutes perhaps!!??
Well it depends. Are you using processor intensive software or not? Are you using software than uses the GFX card or just the cpu?
So many things can mean the battery lasts for 6 or 13 hours.
The battery is stated as 45wH on the site though.
Yes it depends but a baseline with mid tier usage would be nice to know whether it's in the 2 hour or 10 hour ballpark.
If it can only run the screen for 2hrs then it's useless for my needs, but 7+ hours on light to medium usage is perfect.
That’s a good model too but a very different market, this is for people who need a compact, light and portable machine not a full size/weight PC.
2gb mx230 vs 4gb mx250?
How is this vs the 929 Asus fx505s with gtx1650s that were advertised the other day?
They are full size 15.6” screens, this is a 13” screen. Different machines for different purposes.
This is a smaller, more compact, much lighter machine better for people who need to carry them around all day like students.
Those big ones aren’t designed to be carried all day.
Dell seems to have rushed out these new Intel Ice Lake CPUs with ye olde LPDDR3 RAM whereas you can get a Microsoft Surface Pro 3 model with LPDDR4x RAM which has considerable advantages in performance and power use.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/p/surface-laptop-3/8vfggh1r9…
Plus it has a user upgradable SSD drive which is great.
Yes it's more expensive ($1359) but comes with a free protective sleeve and is well worth the difference in my opinion.
“A different type of machine that costs a lot more and has different specs will likely perform better.”
Ok boomer
Hah. If I can put this in simplistic terms you might understand before rushing to sarcasm it's like buying a Ferrari chassis and putting it on wheelbarrow wheels.
Arguably the best feature of Ice Lake is compatibility with LPDDR4x RAM so paying extra for this CPU and matching it with LPDDR3 RAM is wasting money for features you won't be using, but don't let that stop you if you're desperate to do so.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_Lake_(microprocessor)
Ok cool if that will change my ability to type an essay into Word then I need to know more
These laptops aren't 10th gen Ice Lake, they're 10th gen Comet Lake. Comet Lake is essentially a refresh of Skylake/Kaby Lake/Whiskey Lake but with up to six cores, and unlike Ice Lake which supports quad channel LPDDR4X-3733, along with dual channel DDR4-3200, Comet Lake only supports dual channel LPDDR4X-2933, DDR4-2666, or LPDDR3-2133. Oddly, Intel's Ark doesn't show the correct information for either Ice Lake or Comet Lake with regards to memory support.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but dual LP4X-2933 should have the same effective bandwidth as dual DDR4-1466, as the bus width on LP4X is typically halved compared to regular DDR4. The only reason Ice Lake with LP4X-3733 has more memory bandwidth than previous generations is because it supports four channels of memory in that configuration.
E: That all said, it is possible that Intel is opting to run the memory controller in dual channel, full bus width mode with LP4X. I still don't believe it to be a big performance differentiator compared to the other memory types on Comet Lake.
Hardware Unboxed did some testing of Ice Lake's Gen11 iGPU and found it to be generally slower than a full power MX250. I'm unsure of the configuration of MX250 in this laptop, but worst case it'll match the performance of the 10W MX150 in that video.
If someone is on a stricter budget, I don't think the Surface offers that much more performance than this, especially not for 36% more money.
It’s $1600 for the 256GB version.
$1359 is 128GB
Are you sure about user upgradable SSD? I made a search on Google and found different informations
Seems like the Vostro 14 has one bank of soldered DDR4 memory and one DIMM slot, whereas the 13 only has soldered LPDDR3 memory.
That might be worth keeping in mind if you want to upgrade to 16 GB later on. The 512GB config of the Vostro 14 seems to be pretty well priced at $1178.49. It is a bit heavier and larger at ~1.5kg though. For the extra ~$180, you get the larger screen, a Core i7, expansion options for 16 GB of RAM and double the SSD capacity.
That’s exactly why I don’t want it.
Sure it might have some slight academic performance enhancements but this one’s attractiveness is that it’s small and light.
16 GB of RAM is hardly a slight academic performance enhancement if you're going to be doing things that'll use more than 8 GB of system memory.
Just making sure others who are interested in this deal are aware of the alternative, that's all.
how do you tell it's soldered?
On 13" page says "integrated" , 14" page says "onboard"?
@capslock janitor: I looked at the service manuals.
The 14" manual shows how to replace the RAM stick for the single DIMM slot. The 13" manual didn't show anything similar from memory.
@tmr3: Jan Simon, Managing Director at Jan IT Co., Ltd. (2012-present)
Answered Jul 25, 2018
On-board means that the 8 GB RAM are soldered on the mainboard of the laptop and in general cannot be upgraded. It was correctly pointed out that you could do this with soldering, replacing the chips but it’s in general not practical.
The 8GB DIMM RAM means it has a slot (or more) where you can plug a RAM module in. DIMM stands for Dual In-line Memory Module. That’s an industry standard. For notebooks it’s called SO-DIMM (essentially the same but points out specifically that this slot using the smaller RAM module you usually associate to plug into a notebook).
Those DIMM slots vary depending on what DDR standard your using (e.g. DDR3, DDR3L, DDR4 etc.) which is another box of fun to know about and useful when you consider upgrading/changing your RAM.
Back to the question. Essentially you end up with 16 GB RAM in total and can upgrade/swap one RAM module (e.g. a 16 GB, then you have 24 GB RAM if you want to).
For the follow up question “Why”. On-board memory is in general cheaper to do for the manufacturer (assuming a proper QA process and for sure less parts compared to a DIMM) and allows also to design thinner laptops (because apparently everyone wants super-slim, light notebooks where, when one part fails you need a complete new notebook or do some repair soldering stunts).
My personal preference is having the upgrade-ability on a notebook and don’t mind if it’s 5 mm “fatter” because of this.
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We purchased the Vostro 15 i7 for $999 with expandable memory - https://www.dell.com/en-au/work/shop/business-laptops-ultrab…
Upgrading from similar for a teenager who uses it for CAD, 3D printing etc. They easily last 2 years. We pop another 16GB RAM in from MSY. Kids using it for design need the 15in over a 13.
Non backlit keyboard is poo though.
My 13 yr old doesn't get a say ;)
Lol 👍
I've heard 13 inchers are a bit crammed in general?
14 inches are sweet spot between portability and power choices?
I'm looking for a daily driver requirements - light gaming
At least 14" screen HD or FHD is ok
3 USB A ports
1 USB C port - PD capable would be ok
HDMI
Ethernet
Mini/SD card
Preferable not black.
Backlit KB a bonus
RAM, many seem to be soldered on nowadays I would like 8GB on board with spare slot for another 8gb one day. Anybody knows you can just choose any RAM?
How sturdy are these laptops? Looking to give to junior high school student so will be a lil rough…
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