TrekkieTechie

In a previous post, I detailed the death of my desktop’s hard drive. After recovering the data, obviously the next step is to RMA the drive… but I can’t wait weeks for the bad drive to get shipped in, processed, and a new drive shipped out — I need to have a working home computer, both for personal reasons and because my second job is completely reliant on it. I could either order a replacement hard drive from Newegg, slap it into my aging desktop, and hope for the best; or I could order the laptop I’ve been eying since I first ran across it months ago.

Image taken from Dell's Business website.

I bit the bullet and ordered the laptop. I’ve wanted a laptop ever since I started my second job as a transcriptionist for a variety of reasons. I’d no longer be tied to my desk when I received a transcription assignment, meaning I could work anywhere in my home or outside it; as a corollary to the last, I wouldn’t have to refuse assignments just because I went out of town; I’d have a built-in battery backup for when my hometown’s notoriously poor power grid cut out on me. Dell’s Vostro V13 (or Latitude 13, depending on which branding you prefer) appeared perfect for me. I’ve loved netbooks since I got one of the original Asus Eee PC 701s; the V13 is more or less a netbook on steroids, and competitively priced with them, too (I picked up the base model on sale for $399).

Unboxing this thing was exciting. Many reviews I’d read indicated surprise at seeing and feeling how thin it is; knowing ahead of time that it’s a mere 0.65″ thick isn’t enough to prepare you for it. It’s easily carried in one hand while moving around, and when you’re holding it under your arm you may forget it’s there. The fit and finish is good; it’s a very solid build, helped by the aluminum case and reinforced zinc hinges. I’m actually quite impressed by the hinges. They operate smoothly with no unwanted travel or looseness, and once you put the screen where you want it it stays there. The lid closes just as smoothly as it opens, without harshly snapping shut.

I see you.

The screen is very sharp and crisp. At 13.3″ diagonal with a resolution of 1366×768, reading, writing, and watching video is great. So far the integrated Intel 4500MHD graphics chipset has handled what I’ve thrown at it, mostly YouTube videos and DivX-encoded AVI files, and runs smoothly at fullscreen. I finally got it to choke and stutter on the full-resolution 2048×872 MPEG-4 version of Sintel. The surface of the screen isn’t glossy and isn’t matte, but somewhere in between — Dell calls it “anti-glare” — and it’s LED-lit, so that’s nice. I was surprised to open mine and find a webcam, as the base model isn’t supposed to come with one, but I’m not going to look a gift 1.3MP camera in the mouth… aperture… whatever. It’s just your basic webcam, but the video quality in Skype seemed pretty decent.

Basic and functional. What more would I want?

I love the keyboard. Eschewing the chiclet style popularized by Apple and promptly copycatted by the rest of the laptop manufacturers, the V13′s is smooth and quiet. I find I type as fast if not faster than on the Microsoft Comfort Curve 2000 I have at work or the Dell 104 Quiet Key I have at home. In fact, after getting my desktop running again I was so used to my laptop keyboard I could no longer handle my old Dell Quiet Key — I had to pick up a scissor-style laptop-type keyboard for my desk too. The layout is fairly standard, with extra functions like volume and wireless available by way of an Fn key plus the F-keys at the top. Above the keyboard is a glossy black bar with indicator lights for wireless (it comes with WiFi b/g and Bluetooth 2.1) and keyboard lock indicators on the left, and the power button on the right. On the front edge of the laptop, “below” the keyboard, are two indicators for power and charging on the left, and the standard 3.5mm microphone and headphone jacks on the right. On the right side of the laptop are a 5-in-1 card reader (SD, MMC, MS, etc.) and an ExpressCard 34 slot. On the back you find a 10/100/1000 Ethernet port, one USB port, one USB/eSATA port, a VGA port, and the power port. There’s a standard security lock slot too, though the last thing you want to do is chain it to a desk.

The brushed aluminum is very nice.

Because this thing is portable! 0.65″ thick with a footprint not much bigger than a sheet of paper, weighing less than four pounds — pick it up (in one hand) and take it with you anywhere. I’ve been checking email on the sofa and watching movies in bed, reading forums in the bathroom and finding recipes online in the kitchen. The brushed aluminum case is super-sturdy with no real flex to it, and I’ve been unafraid to pick it up from any angle I can get a good grip on it. For extended typing, I find I can’t beat the ergonomics of the typical chair-desk arrangement, and spend most of my time composing at my desk. On the subject of portability, it doesn’t come with a case, but I picked up this neoprene sleeve from Amazon, and it fits almost perfectly (slightly roomier than I’d prefer for what should be a formfitting sleeve, but you can’t beat the price and it looks fine).

Now, on the subject of the operating system… as I said, I ordered the base model, which comes running Ubuntu Linux 9.10. As much fun as Linux is, I live in a Windows world. I had a spare copy of Windows XP, so I installed that (even if I’d had a Windows 7 install available, I would have been afraid to try and run it with only 2GB of RAM — will be upgrading to the maximum possible 4GB at some point in the future). The XP install went swimmingly until it came time to install the necessary drivers. Dell has them all available on their support page, but a few aren’t filed all that intuitively — for example, the driver for the built-in WiFi is marked as an Application, not a Driver, so I didn’t notice it for days, not until after I’d already ordered a replacement Intel WiFi card. But other than that, everything works great in Windows XP, and it’s very fast, booting up in less than a minute. I’m looking forward to installing an SSD in the future to further improve responsiveness, and possibly cut down on heat (the palmrest can get a little warm after extended use).

All in all, I’m thrilled to have this machine. Sadly, it looks like the low-end Vostro V13 model has been discontinued; it’s now only available with a Core 2 Duo processor — good for your computer speed, bad for your wallet. However, it looks like the Latitude 13 (again, same hardware, different branding) still has the lower-end Celeron-based model available.

Update 1/3/2011: I was on Dell’s website and discovered they’ve released a refresh of the Vostro V13, dubbed the V130 — and it is awesome. A dual-core Celeron processor, HDMI out, and an extra USB port (for 3 total) come standard on their base model, along with goodies I’d never use like a SIM slot for mobile broadband, all for $429. Do want.