The long and short of Dell Vostro 1310. Review on Dell Vostro 1310

I bought the Dell Vostro 1310 in Feb 2010 for Rs. 32K. The config is Intel Core 2 Duo 1.8 GHz, 1GB RAM upgraded to 2 GB, 160 GB HDD, DVD RW, 13' widescreen matte LCD. 1.3 MP video camera, Wifi, Bluetooth, Ethernet, RGB Video Out, 5-in-one card reader, 4 USB ports, 6 cell bttery with approx 2 hrs of backup. MS DOS factory installed, which I later upgraded to Windows 7 and installed MS Office 2007(both genuine)

After almost year and half of use here is my take on it.

First the pluses. Its a basic laptop which ticks all the expected boxes. The size is compact with the smaller screen but decently spaced keyboard. The laptop is a tad heavy when compared to newer lighter business PCs but you can live with it. Processing speed and startup/shutdown times are impressive. No complaints regarding computer hangups or any blue screen errors. Features and functionality match is adequate for most business tasks like word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, accessing the internet over wifi or ethernet. Battery backup is ok at 2 hrs.

Next the Minuses. First the major disappointment. After 13 months of moderate use, I had a faulty dsiplay with colour distortion when the lcd lid was tilted more than a certain angle. Even to my untrained mind, the logical reason was that the fault was due to a bad video connection. The most common reason in faulty laptop displays is the video cable gets frayed or damaged at the hinges where it travels from the mother board(on top of the keyboard) through the lcd hinge into the back of the lcd panel. Closing and opening  of the lcd lid damages the delicate cable. This is more common in the cheaper/older laptop chasses and less so in the newer chasses which have solved it by improvements in the hinge and cable layout design. I carried the laptop to the Dell Service Centre in Jaipur as my PC had just run out of the 1 year warranty. I expected them inspect and replace the cable in whatever time it took. They asked me to check the next day. Surprise, surprise when I called them the next day I was told the problem was not with the cable and the entire LCD panel was faulty and needed to be replaced. The replacement estimate that was give to me was Rs. 9000. This was totally unexpected as I already knew that lcd displays are very robust and need replacement only when brocken or certain exceptional circumstances. Further, since the display was ok and turned faulty when the lid was turned at the certain angle. Had it been an lcd issue the colors would have remained distorted at all angles.

Next I took the laptop to my friendly neighbourhood computer wala who immediately diagnosed the problem from my description to be the damaged video cable. He opened the laptop, drew out the cable from the mother board, straightened it with a little pressure and reconnected it. Lo and behold the display was perfect. My charge only Rs. 200. Although he said that I will need to change the video cable sooner or later as it is damaged and cautioned me to be careful with the lcd lid.

I had avoided taking the laptop to this guy in the first place as I thought the Dell Service Centre would do a thorough job and I will get accurate diagnosis and genuine spares. I didn't believe that I will be taken for a nice Rs. 9000 ride. Thank God, good common sense prevailed on me and I trusted my logic more than the'expert' advice of the service centre, Dell must definitely do something about the quality of service at the service centres as this is outright extortion and robbery in broad daylight.

Now the minor hiccups. The Dell website doesn't provide drivers for Windows 7, It only supports WinXP and Vista. The PC runs fine with generic Win 7 drivers except the bluetooth driver which took some time to configure. Possibly due to the lack of win 7 driver support and use of generic drivers, very ocassionally either the keyboard or the touchpad don't function at startup. This resolved by a restart. A design issue is that the PC only has a single tiny speaker. The sound is very tiny and has no depth at all. So listening to music is nearly impossible and movie experience despite the satisfactory display is totally destroyed by the speaker. It is ok for audio/video calls.

To wrap up, it is an ok machne which gives you plenty bang for the buck with decent performance, Dell must do something about the faulty design and layout the video cable and display so that it doesn't give up so early. Dell Service is highly untrustworthy you are better off with the local computer repair guy. At least thats my experience.