The capacitive LCD screen measures in at 7 inches and has a resolution of 480×800 pixels. As expected, this makes for soft detail and an overall lack of crispness. While brightness levels are OK, viewing angles are terrible, reminiscent of some budget non touchscreen handsets. On a large device like this, it makes the 7 inch screen redundant for movies unless holding it directly in front of you, which is a real shame.

The ViewPad 7 offers the full, undiluted Android 2.2 experience, and includes the official Android Market for all the latest and greatest apps. The ViewSonic ViewPad 7 ships with a relatively untouched version of Android 2.2 onboard. This means that despite the 600MHz processor, it stands the best chance of offering a stable and smooth UI experience. In turn, the biggest wow factor of the ViewSonic ViewPad 7 is the fact you have such a stock Android on such a large screen.

With a basic front facing camera and a 3MP rear camera with autofocus (though no flash), the ViewSonic ViewPad 7 isn’t out to blow any minds and that’s good, because it doesn’t. With okay colour reproduction, not so great levels of detail and similarly mediocre exposure, it obviously pales in comparison with the Samsung Galaxy Tab’s shooter. With no flash, night time and indoor performance isn’t great, and while it can handle basic macro photography, it won’t produce stellar results. Video capture caps out at 640×480 and as with photo-capture, is decidedly mediocre. It looks passable on the ViewSonic ViewPad 7′s low resolution screen, however isn’t so great once exported off the device.

On-board software includes Documents to Go, a simple note pad, an ebook reader as well as your usual Android tool kit. With 500MB of memory on-board, the ViewSonic ViewPad 7 really needs a card from the get go. With built in Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and 3G ready, the ViewPad 7 is ready to keep you connected. Battery life is pretty good with 6-8 hours continuous usage and 25 days stand by.

To wrap up, the ViewSonic ViewPad 7 is cheaper than the Samsung Galaxy Tab, and rightly so as it can’t really compete with it on any other point. The 7-inch screen is a nice size, but other than that it fails to present the user with a pleasant experience as far as resolution and viewing angles go. Sadly, this makes the ViewSonic ViewPad 7 pretty uncomfortable for watching movies or simply using the tablet in certain positions. That said, the ViewPad 7 is still a nice touchscreen device to surf the web on the go with. If you’re in the market for an alternative, the obvious contender would be the Samsung Galaxy Tab, with the same form factor, but better specs across the board.

Design
With the exception of the little T-Mobile webConnect sticker below the keyboard, the 3-pound Mini 10 looks identical to the more recent models we’ve already reviewed. And that’s mostly a good thing. We like the sleek, wedge-shaped design and the glossy white border on the sides. The lid and bezel are glossy black, but thankfully the area around the keyboard has a textured finish that resists fingerprints.

The keyboard provided good tactile feedback and zero flex. We also like the direct access keys which let you adjust the volume and brightness without pressing Fn first. However, we pretty much despise the touchpad. It integrates the mousepad buttons, which are stiff, making an otherwise nice machine difficult to use. We also found it harder to select text and to scroll on this netbook than others we’ve tested. It gets worse. Because the touchpad is close to the front lip of the netbook, you have to be careful not to accidentally brush against it when typing so you don’t move the cursor. For us, the touchpad is almost a dealbreaker, but others may feel differently.

Keyboard and Touchpad
The new Dell Mini 10 has a new keyboard that’s not that different from the keyboard used in earlier netbooks from Dell. The new design features keys with raised areas. The result is that the keys almost touch each other, but there’s space between the typing surface of each key. It’s sort of like a cross between one of those island-style keyboards that are all the rage these days and the original Dell Mini 10 keyboard which featured flat keys with little distance between them.

While I really like the keyboard, I really dislike the touchpad. In order to increase the surface area of the touchpad, Dell integrated the left and right buttons directly into the touchpad itself. Instead of pushing a separate button to click, you press down on the bottom right or bottom left corner of the touchpad. This generally works well enough if you’re only using a single hand on the touchpad. You move the cursor around, lift your hand and move your finger to the bottom to click. But if you’re using two fingers to perform an action like dragging and dropping, you might run into some problems. I frequently had trouble clicking down on the touchpad with one finger while trying to drag a program or icon using the other finger. And if you have a tendency to hover your trigger finger over the mouse button while scrolling, you’d best be careful not to set your finger down lest the cursor should jump away just before you can click.

Display
The 10.1-inch wide-screen display is the systems’ most noteworthy feature, with a 1,366×768 native resolution. A standard 1,024×600 is also available on other configs of the Mini 10. We were worried that the higher resolution would make text too small to read, but we quickly got used to it. A handful of other Netbooks, including Sony’s Vaio W, also offer these higher-res screens, and we would love to see it become the new Netbook standard. The edge-to-edge glass over the display looks nice, but also adds to the glare–something to be aware of if you’re sensitive to that.

Performance
No big surprises here. The Inspiron’s run-of-the-mill 1.66-GHz Atom N450 processor and 1GB of RAM give you enough horsepower for surfing the web and light productivity chores, but it’s far from a speed demon. After resuming from sleep, it took 7 seconds just to open the Paint program, and we noticed a significant delay between typing items in the Start menu search box and results appearing. Nevertheless, the Mini 10 is fine for surfing the web. The netbook did a fair job juggling multiple tabs in Google Chrome when we visited our favorite news sites, updated our Facebook page, and streamed Pandora. Still, we noticed a pause in a Travis track while loading CNN.com. As with earlier Mini 10s, the twin speakers underneath the front side of the system pumped out fairly loud and clean audio.

Design

The design of the Inspiron 14 looks like an enlarged version of the Dell Inspiron Mini 9 and Mini 10 netbooks. At first glance you can easily see that Dell designers are trying to establish clearly identifiable designs for all Dell notebooks: all Inspiron laptops look similar, Studio laptops have the same general design as other Studio laptops, and one Studio XPS notebook likewise looks like other Studio XPS notebooks. At this point shoppers should be able to identify Dell’s entry-level products (Inspiron), mid-range products (Studio) and high-end products (Studio XPS) with little more than a glance.

The chassis of the Inspiron is constructed from a combination of exterior plastics and an alloy interior framework for a balance of affordability, durability, and light weight. While the Inspiron 14 doesn’t feel quite as durable as the new Studio 14z, the Inspiron 14 should survive the average use and abuse by college students … although the plastics may start to show some wear and tear after some time inside a book bag.

Keyboard and Touchpad

The full-size keyboard features comfortable, terraced keys that offered good tactile feedback and response. We were able to reach our normal typing speed immediately, and none of the keys were undersized or in weird places, so it was also easy to execute keyboard shortcuts. We appreciated the generous, 3.8 x 2-inch touchpad with discrete left and right mouse buttons. Though it’s multitouch-enabled, the touch surface wasn’t overly sensitive as we’ve seen on some other Dell systems. At first we found the sensitivity too low; two-finger scrolling took more precision than we expected, and it took a few hours to get used to. The Synaptics driver offers settings and tweaks (go to Control Panel > Mouse) for the multitouch gestures and a sensitivity slider to make adjustments.

Display and Audio

14r-1The glossy 14-inch, 1366 x 768-pixel WLED display offered decent color depth, but only within optimal viewing angles. We had to tilt the screen in a narrow 10-degree range to keep washed out or distorted colors at bay. We noticed this regardless of whether we were surfing the web, writing in Microsoft Word, or watching video.

Horizontal angles aren’t that wide, either; two people can comfortably share the screen, but beyond that it’s hard to see clearly. Even at the optimal angles we noticed some slight pixelation when watching a 720p trailer for The Discoverers and a standard definition episode of Lost via Hulu.

The speakers, located just under the front lip of the notebook, pumped out plenty of volume, but their placement compromised the quality. Soft ballads like George Michael’s “One More Try” came through a little muddy at 75 percent volume, and even listening to brash dance tracks like t.A.T.u.’s “Not Gonna Get Us” wasn’t completely satisfactory over just a little background noise. Still, thanks to SRS Premium Sound, bass was acceptably present and we were able to hear a distinct distance between vocals and instruments in high-quality MP3.

Performance and Features

We didn’t have an opportunity to benchmark the pre-production unit of the Inspiron 14, but Dell made it very clear that this notebook is aimed at students who want a good laptop for general use at an affordable price and don’t need all of the features found on the more expensive Studio 14z. For example, the Inspiron 14 lacks FireWire and eSATA and the starting price only includes Intel integrated graphics. On the other hand, the optional 1600 x 900 screen, optional Blu-ray drive, and optional ATI discrete graphics give the Inspiron 14 some impressive bang for the buck.

This is where the $449 starting price of the Inspiron 14 looks extremely impressive compared to the $649 starting price of the Studio 14z. Sure, the starting price of the Studio 14z includes a better processor, NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics and a better selection of ports, but the Inspiron 14 still offers a built-in optical drive and dedicated 7-in-1 media card reader. Bottom line, back-to-school shoppers are going to have two very impressive options from Dell this year.

Design

After churning out umpteen NV notebooks with updated specs but the same design, Gateway has re-thought this line of laptops. Following a trend set by HP and Dell, Gateway ditched its super glossy lid and instead went with a subtly patterned one whose finish has a bit too much kick to be called matte, but is still subdued enough that it’s not reflective. The result is an attractive, more understated surface that masks fingerprints. The lid and palm rest’s silver color and fine pattern of wavy lines should also prove gender-neutral.

Gone, too, are the touch-sensitive multimedia controls above the keyboard. Instead, there’s a thin chrome strip above the keys that houses LED lights for Wi-Fi and battery status, as well as a discreet power button. The multimedia keys are now baked into the top row of the keyboard, as they are on Macs. In addition to multimedia keys, there’s a dedicated button for launching Social Network Service—Gateway’s own dashboard for Facebook, Flickr, and YouTube (more on that later).

The chiclet-style keyboard—basically, Acer’s FineTip design—is new to the NV series, too, although Gateway still fits in a full number pad, something many other 15-inch systems lack. As a result, though, the touchpad is placed left of center, so that it falls in the center of the keyboard, but not the palm rest itself. The NV59C09u feels surprisingly compact at 15 x 10 x 1.3 inches and 5.4 pounds; it weighs the same as the Editors’ Choice–winning HP G62t and is lighter than the minimalist 5.6-pound 15-inch MacBook Pro and older 5.6-pound Gateway NV.

Keyboard & Touchpad

Its full size keyboard uses very large chiclet keys so that mistypes are rare. Like the R580, a full size numeric keypad lies adjacent to the keyboard—great for accountants and number crunchers. The mouse buttons aren’t completely silent, but their resistance is minimal and pleasant to use. The large, gesture-enabled touchpad responded smoothly to pinching and zooming, as well as to one-fingered scrolling. With a smooth, low-friction surface and an easy-to-press touch button to match, this redesigned NV is an improvement over its predecessors.

Display and Sound

When we watched the first Iron Man movie on Blu-ray, the picture looked bright and sharp on the 15.6-inch screen, as did a lower-resolution SNL Digital Short on Hulu. Still, the benefits of having a Blu-ray drive are mostly lost on a 1366 x 768 display. A higher resolution would have been nice, although we suppose that’s a reasonable trade-off to make in a sub-$800 machine. The speaker strip, barely noticeable above the keyboard, produced slightly metallic bass notes when we played “Telephone” by Lady Gaga and “Paint it Black” by the Rolling Stones.

Ports

With the built-in HDMI port, the NV59C09u can double as a standalone Blu-ray player—all you need is an HDMI cable and an HDTV. It has your standard connectors, such as 3 USB ports, VGA, audio jacks, and Ethernet port. A multimedia card reader (SD, xD, MS, MS Pro, MMC) can be found in the front bezel. The 320GB hard drive is in line with its peers, although the Samsung R580 also gives you 500GB of storage space and an eSATA port for expansion.

Performance

The NV59C09u’s list of specs echo what we’ve seen on lots of budget notebooks lately: a 2.13-GHz Intel Core i3-330M processor, 4GB of RAM, and a 5,400-rpm, 320GB hard drive. In general, it performs better than the average mainstream laptop. Its score of 4,846 in PCMark Vantage, for instance, falls almost 700 points above the average. Then again, the less expensive HP G62t ($599) comes with the same processor and amount of RAM, as well as a larger, faster 7,200-rpm hard drive, and it notched a much better score of 5,306. The Dell Studio 15, which packs a more powerful Core i5 processor and a 7,200-rpm hard drive, also steamrolls the NV with a score of 5,735. The Samsung R580, which has a 2.26-GHz Core i5-430 CPU and 4GB of RAM, bested them all with a score of 5,804.

The NV converted a 114MB MPEg-4 file to AVI in 1 minute and 4 seconds using Oxelon Media Converter, which is faster than average. The machine was powerful enough that we didn’t notice Norton Internet Security running in the background as we watched a Hulu clip at full screen. Meanwhile, its boot time of 1:03 is right on the money in terms of what you can expect of a notebook this size. However, its 5,400-rpm hard drive transferred a 4.97GB mixed media file in 4:51—a rate of 17.5 MBps, which is slower than the mainstream average of 22.5 MBps as well as the Samsung R580’s speed of 26.2 MBps.

A 48WH (6-cell) battery is a very common capacity for laptops in this class. Based on some of these battery scores on MobileMark 2007—the Dell 1564 finished it in 3 hours 29 minutes, the HP dv6-2150us in 3:46, and the Samsung R580 in 3:42—you wouldn’t expect anything more from the NV59C09u. It scored 3 hours 42 minutes. One notable exception is the Asus UL50VF-A1, which ships with a much bigger battery (84WH) and more energy efficient parts, and consequently, scored 8 hours in the same test.

The Gateway NV59C09u seems like a great value if you’re buying it for the Blu-ray drive alone. With any laptop, though, you’ll have to look at the entire picture. Beyond the Blu-ray drive, everything else—a low-end Core i3 processor, integrated graphics, and a plain design—is just average. Even though our Editors’ Choice, the Samsung R580 ($830) is slightly more expensive, there’s just more value.

Design

Ever since Gateway rebranded itself as a more fashionable notebook manufacturer, the company has been on a roll in churning out good-looking budget laptops, and the NV7915u is no exception. The glossy NightSky Black lid, with its subtle Honeycomb pattern, isn’t as luxe as something like the HP Envy 15, but neither does it look cheap. However, the lid doesn’t hide fingerprints as well as the Midnight Blue color found on the NV5807u. Other design flourishes include a matte silver hinge with the power button built into the side (like Sony VAIOs), a glossy upper deck, and LED lights and touch-sensitive controls that glow red. At 6.8 pounds, this notebook is not one you’re going to tote around much, but it’s lighter than many desktop replacements.

The touch-sensitive controls responded to even the lightest tap. While there are volume controls and a mute button, there are no external controls for multimedia playback. However, there are buttons for Launch Manager, MyBackup (more on that later), disabling the trackpad, and enabling or disabling Wi-Fi. When you tap the Launch Manager button (a bold P above the keyboard), you can configure the notebook to automatically launch an application of your choosing the next time you press the button.

Display
The Gateway NV7915u has a massive chassis and weighs 6.8 pounds. The classy design offers some nice touches, however. In contrast to the smudge-prone glossy finish on the outside, the keyboard and wrist rest have a subtle matte finish. Above the keyboard is a row of status lights (Bluetooth, hard-drive access, etc) as well as touch-sensitive LED’s that let you activate data backup, Wi-Fi toggle, touch pad disable, mute and volume control. THe NV7915u also comes with a good but not spectacular set of interface and media features: a DVD drive, four USB ports, HDMI- and VGA-out, an SD card reader and network and modem ports.

The huge 17.3 inch screen is almost intimidating. It’s large enough for you to multitask effectively and view program windows side by side, which is a big plus for the Gateway laptop. The even brightness and good contrast make text very readable, but it’s not as sharp as on some of the best laptops. The widescreen format is also good for watching movies, but the nonstandard 1600 by 900 resolution may not look so good when you connect it to a monitor or HDTV. The home-theatre video performance will depend heavily on the scaling properties of your AV receiver and HDTV. The NV7915u has a solid screen, but it’s not worth making it the home-theatre.

Keyboard and Trackpad
The keys on the NV7915u are flat, but close together. Even with a full number pad on the right-hand side, the keys were still large enough for us to type comfortably without making typos. The keys’ subtle textured finish made it easy to get a grip, too. At 1.8 inches, the touchpad could be taller, but at least its 3.3-inch width feels roomy. As far as touchpads go, the NV7915u’s feels smooth and doesn’t offer too much friction. On the other hand, although its mirrored design is appealing, we found the mouse bar uncomfortable; it’s a single button, and the strip is too narrow. It took us a while to get used to pressing the far edges of the bar to get better tactile feedback.

Performance
Gateway NV7915u The parts aren’t top of the line, but at least Gateway isn’t giving you a Celeron or Pentium equivalent. An Intel Core i3-330M processor is very respectable in terms of speed, right behind the Core i5s and the Core i7s. In video encoding tests, it fell 7-8 seconds shy of the Dell 1764 (5955IBU) (0:50) and HP dv7-3183cl (0:49), both of which run on a Core i5-430M processor. The NV7915u did really well in PCMark Vantage tests (5,182), breaking the 5,000 mark. All of the systems that run on Intel’s latest Core processor will ship with DDR3 memory only, and most of them run on 4GB—the NV7915u is no exception.

Unfortunately, the price of the NV7915u will only net you an integrated graphics chipset. But if you’re not a serious gamer or a CAD specialist, this isn’t a big concern. Pricier systems like the Acer AS8940-6865 and HP dv7-3183cl ship with Nvidia discrete graphics cards, which are known for their 3D prowess. Regardless of price, battery life will be underwhelming, because the sheer size of the screen eats up a lot of it. The NV7915u scored 3 hours 32 minutes, which fell in line with the HP dv7-3183cl (3:36) and Dell 1764 (5955IBU) (3:01). The size of the battery is important, too. But if you want to maximize battery life, you only have one option with the NV7915u: a 48WH (6-cell) battery. Meanwhile, the Dell 1764 (5955IBU) has an option for bigger batteries.

Gateway may not be the big household name it used to be, but it undercuts the competition without making too many sacrifices. The Gateway NV7915u runs on the latest line of Intel processors, comes with a 500GB hard drive, and has plenty of screen real estate—all this for only $600. It’s hard to complain, but if your budget is a little bigger, check out the Acer Aspire AS8940 series.

Specs

Price $599
Processor 2.13GHz Intel Core i3 M330
Memory 4GB DDR3 SDRAM 1066MHz
Hard drive 500GB, 5,400rpm
Chipset Intel HM55
Graphics Intel GMA HD
Operating System Windows 7 Home Premium
Dimensions (WDH) 16.2 x 11.0 x 1.4 inches
Screen size (diagonal)     17.3 inches
System weight / Weight with AC adapter     6.9 / 7.8 pounds
Category Desktop replacement

Samsung’s R580 has an heir. The gaming suitable 15.6 incher of mid 2009 combined good graphic performance with an ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4650 and a feasible processor performance with an Intel Core 2 Duo T6400 (2.0 GHz) together in an affordable notebook. The R522 was priced around 650 euro in the summer of 2009.

Intel’s new mobile processor generation, Core i3, i5 and i7, found their way onto the wish lists of notebook buyers at the turn of the year 2009/2010. Numerous tests quickly revealed that a mobile Core i5 has the best value for money ratio. The Core i7s are more expensive for OEM manufacturers in procurement and ultimately don’t provide private customers with significantly more performance. Additionally, the quad-core i7′s battery life is considerably shorter than the one of the dual-core i5.

The mobile Core i5, in combination with a middle class graphic card, should exactly meet the wishes of many notebook buyers: An efficient system for multimedia requirements on which many current games run smoothly. All of this should cost a lot less than 1000 euro. Samsung has chosen the Core i5-520M beside Nvidia’s GeForce GT 330M and places them in a red case for a bit more than 800 euro. Does the manufacturer manage to hit the bullseye with the R580 Hawk?

Design

Shiny laminates featuring geometric patterns or floral designs on laptops are nothing new. While others, like HP, Gateway, and Toshiba, went with a single color, the R580 uses two: A deep cherry red stain in the center that fades into a thick black border. Embedded in the cherry/black glaze is a ripple pattern, which, altogether, Samsung is calling its Crystal Wave design. Though the material used is as plasticky as the HP Pavilion dv6-2150us and Gateway NV7915u, the R580 stands out from the crowd. Even so, metal frames, like those found in the Asus UL50VF-A1 and the Apple MacBook Pro 15-inch, are more appealing from a design standpoint. At 5.5 pounds, it’s lighter than the Dell Studio 1555-4285MBU (5.9 lbs) and the Acer Aspire AS5740-6378 (5.7 lbs).

The 15.6-inch widescreen provides plenty of viewing space. Its price, though, limits the R580 to a 1,366-by-768 resolution, which is good enough for a 720p HD experience. Media centers like the Acer Aspire AS8940-6865 bump the resolution up to 1,920-by-1,080 for full (1080p) HD, while pricier systems like the HP Envy 15 ($1,800 direct, ) give you the option to upgrade to a full HD resolution. The island-style keyboard is nearly identical to the Asus UL50VF-A1, right down to the adjacent numeric keypad. It doesn’t have a backlit keyboard like the Apple MacBook Pros, but there are LED lights on the corner of the touchpad. The mouse buttons are easy to click, though they aren’t as soft as the ones found on the Dell 1555-4285MBU.

The Blu-ray drive (BD-Rom) is the showpiece of the R580′s feature set. I’ve scoured the Web for the 15-inch systems that have Blu-ray drives, and almost all of them cost more than $1,000. Fact is, Blu-ray titles are coming down in price and you can rent them for as low as $6 a month on Netflix. And if a 15.6-inch screen isn’t big enough, you can use the included HDMI port and take the experience to a bigger display. The 500GB hard drive is also impressive, given that the Asus UL50VF-A1, Acer AS5740, and HP dv6-2150us come with 320GB drives. And basic amenities like 4 USB port (one of which doubles as an E-SATA connection), ExpressCard, an SD slot, and VGA are all present.

Keyboard & Touchpad

As in the R522 predecessor, Samsung applies a chiclet keyboard. The keys are connected by crosspieces. The key gaps have been increased, as Samsung has selected an alternative without a key base. The keys bid the typist a pleasant, distinct pressure point, a long stroke length, and a firm stroke. The keyboard is embedded firmly on almost the entire surface; merely the numerical block yields slightly. The large gaps and the well-executed layout simplify the frequent typist’s work. The numerical block makes it easy to input columns of figures.

We don’t like the squeezed in, too small arrow keys, though. In computer games, as well as Excel, it often results in fingers hitting the “one” or the shift key. If you’re controlling a car race game, you’ll quickly get annoyed.

The mouse substitute is worked into the wrist-rest. A nonslip, transparent coating marks the sensitive surface. Four small blue LEDs light up as soon as we touch the pad so that it can’t be missed in dim surroundings. If you like, you can imagine these to be the lights of a runway. The surface has a vertical and horizontal scroll bar, even if it’s not been made optically visible. It is a multi-touch pad that recognizes two finger gestures. For example, the user can zoom by spreading two fingers on it. The keys click quietly but somewhat clattery and therefore make a low-end impression.

Performance

Samsung R580 The Blu-ray drive is just part of the R580′s appeal. Offering it at this price with the latest Intel Core i5 processor is a feat few can pull off. The 2.27 GHz Core i5-430M processors and 4GB of memory are a solid combination, matching that of the Acer AS5740. According to video encoding (49 seconds) and Cinebench R10 (7,824) tests, the R580 blew away the Core i3 processors found in the HP dv6-2150us and Dell Inspiron i1464-4382OBK ($749.98 list, ). Its PCMark Vantage score (5,779) took top honors, while Photoshop CS4 scores indicate that this is a perfect machine for advanced photo editing.

While an Intel integrated graphics chipset is the popular standard among affordable laptops, Samsung goes against the grain by including an Nvidia GeForce 310M graphics chip. Not only will this chip optimize Blu-ray and HD playback, but it can also muscle through the latest 3D games. Crysis and World in Conflict scores were indicative of a smooth gaming experience, and 3DMark06 scores overtook those of the UL50VF-A1.

The disadvantage, however, of building a laptop around power is that battery life takes a beating. The R580 comes with a 48WH (6-cell) battery, which is consistent with its rivals. A 3 hour, 42 minute MobileMark 2007 score may not seem like much, but remember, this is a desktop replacement laptop that will probably sit near a power outlet most of the time.

The Samsung R580 is the cheapest desktop replacement I’ve seen that bundles a Core i5 processor and a Blu-ray drive. It’s tailor-made for high definition enthusiasts who aren’t ready to pay over a $1,000 for a fancy media center. Aside from some minor tradeoffs (a low resolution and small battery), they won’t matter as much once you realize how much more you’re paying for these amenities elsewhere.

Dell announced the availability of the Vostro V13, a new addition to its small-business Vostro line of laptops. The big news here is that it’s the company’s first ULV thin-and-light for the business sector, an area that seems to be a big focus factor in a down economy when lots of small business entrepreneurs are looking for affordable portables. We had the chance for a quick up-close hands-on look at one, and it’s definitely an attractive little laptop.

The V13 is a collision of high end—the design, angled and thin, heavily echoing the original Adamo’s silhouette, and build quality, as sturdy as any non-unibody laptop we’ve tried to bend—and low rent—the keyboard is straight off Dell’s budget Inspiron line and well, I already told you what’s inside (there’s other spec sparseness as well, like 2GB RAM, VGA out and 2 USB ports, one of which is a combo eSATA number). The 13.3-inch, LED-backlit, anti-glare display is nice enough though, at a resolution of 1366×768. The 6-cell sealed battery is rated for 4 hours and 42 minutes, according to Dell, but expect less actually using it, obviously.For Windows 7 and a Core 2 Duo ULV, the price rises in the range of mid-to-high $600, which is still really good compared with its closest competitors, the HP Pavilion dm3 and Asus UL30A-A1.The Vostro V13 will support up to 4GB of RAM, and can be optionally upgraded with 3G mobile broadband.

An Intel Core 2 Duo SU7300 CPU powers the Dell Vostro V13, and its 1.3GHz clock speed and two CPU cores help move things along swiftly. You can multitask, watch high resolution videos or create media-rich presentations without getting bogged down. Helping the CPU are 4GB of DDR3 SDRAM, a 500GB (5400rpm) hard drive and integrated Intel GMA 4500MHD graphics.

In our WorldBench 6 benchmark suite the notebook scored 67. This means that, in terms of overall system performance, the Dell Vostro V13 is over twice as fast as a typical netbook with a 1.66GHz Intel Atom CPU and 1GB of RAM.

In our iTunes MP3 encoding and Blender 3D rendering tests, which primarily test CPU speed, the Dell Vostro V13 was approximately three times as fast as netbook. The hard drive’s performance was also impressive, recording a speed of 35 megabytes per second in our transfer tests. However, it is a big drive and it will inevitably slow down somewhat once you start to really fill it with files.

The Dell Vostro V13 is one of a number of ultraslim laptops to hit the market in recent times, but its design is a little different to the norm. It actually looks a lot like the Adamo by Dell. The screen is mounted almost 1cm in from the spine of the notebook, so its metal hinges are not located directly on the spine itself.

The spine acts as a handle of sorts. The location of the screen gives the notebook more strength and changes its centre of gravity. It feels beautifully balanced; when the notebook is lying flat on a desk, the screen can be lifted using only one hand (it doesn’t have a latch). The hinges have just the right amount of resistance to allow precise adjustments.

Tailored for discriminating small-business travelers, the Vostro V13 combines robust design and ultra-light mobility at a price that aims to keep you on budget.It may lighten your carrying case, but the Vostro V13 has the productivity-empowering features to keep you working at full capacity. Stay in Touch: With the integrated webcam and microphone, you can use your favorite communication software to make Internet calls, conduct video conferences and remotely exchange files. Always Be Connected: Go wireless with a full range of connectivity options: 802.11g/n wireless LAN, Bluetooth, and WWAN mobile broadband (coming soon).When your business demands time, your technology shouldn’t. The Vostro V13 offers a suite ofcustomizable service and support solutions designed specifically for small business.