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Monday, August 22, 2011

Dell refreshes mainstream Inspiron and Vostro notebooks

Dell has slathered a fresh coat of paint on its mainstream Inspiron 13z and 14z notebooks, updating their specifications and aesthetics. The 14-incher offers a 1366x768 display, an Intel Core i3-2330M 2.2GHz or i5-2410M 2.3GHz processor, 4GB or 8GB of RAM, 500GB, 640GB or 750GB of storage, a DVD burner, and a four, six or nine-cell battery. The 13z loses the optical drive along with the nine-cell battery and is limited to 320GB or 500GB of mechanical storage, but gains an optional 128GB SSD. Strangely, the 14z doesn’t offer a flash drive upgrade.


Dell has also refreshed its budget business line with the Vostro V131. Pricing ranges from $500 to $800, which gets you a 13.3-inch 1366x768 anti-glare display, an Intel Celeron, Core i3 or i5 Sandy Bridge-based processor, 2GB to 4GB RAM, up to 500GB of storage, and mobile broadband options alongside the usual band of ports and connectors.

Dell Refreshes Inspiron, Vostro Laptops
The Vostro V131, meanwhile, may impress with its thin profile that measures 0.83 inches at its thickest point (the $1000 MacBook Air is a little thinner at 0.68 inch), but you'll have to deal with a much slower 1.1 GHz Celeron processor.

Dell Inspiron 14z

Ports include two USB 3.0, one USB 2.0, mini DisplayPort, HDMI, and an SD card reader (also supports MS and MMC).
Storage options are a 500GB, 640GB, 750GB hard drive or a 128GB solid-state drive.








Vostro V131

The small business-focused Vostro V131 includes a 13.3-inch display with 1366-by-768 resolution, 1.1 GHz dual-core Intel Celeron 847 processor, up to 2GB RAM, a maximum 320GB hard drive, 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 3.0, and 3G and 4G mobile broadband options. The Vostro V131 starts at $500 and runs Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit).

A quick search on Best Buy, for example, shows the big box retailer is selling a 15.6-inch Dell Inspiron laptop with a non-Sandy Bridge 2.53 GHz Core i3, 4GB RAM and a 500GB hard drive for $400. There was also a similar Toshiba Satellite laptop with a Sandy Bridge chip for $380. The downside is both laptops tip the scales past 5 pounds and neither had a USB 3.0 port.

The Vostro V131 and the 14z are available online now from Dell.com.

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