Dell Vostro 130 Review – the svelte business laptop

The Dell Vostro 130 left us with mainly positive feelings. The Intel Core-i5-470UM processor is certainly powerful enough … passing all our performance testing with flying colours.

The build quality is excellent and the keyboard, track pad, and WLED screen are quality additions which enhance the feeling of buying a high value for money system. We are particularly fond of the chassis design, as it is sexy, slim and extremely portable.

It could almost have been a Macbook Air beater, but there are some glaring issues. The primary letdown for me is battery life, which is extremely disappointing. The six cell integrated battery lasts around 2 hours under general use which is certainly going to rule this machine out to a sizeable portion of the potential business oriented user base.

Replacing the battery isn't a simple job either as you have to remove the rear panel completely with a screwdriver set, hardly ideal on a plane or bus. We dread to think how much life you would get from this system without the ultra low voltage Intel processor. The lack of optical drive might be an issue for some, but it is to be expected with a 20mm chassis design.

Overall, the Dell Vostro 130 can be recommended. The design is beautiful, the screen and keyboard are great and being so thin, it is easy to carry around all day. Sadly, the battery will only last part of the morning before it needs a recharge and we think this is the biggest weakness of the machine. It is built to be portable, while utilising Intel's high performance ultra low voltage Core i3 and i5 processors, but the battery life cripples it.

KitGuru says: If you do purchase the machine, we strongly recommend the addition of an SSD drive. Performance is massively enhanced and due to the chassis design, internal temperatures drop by several degrees.

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