Similar to other Dell laptops, the Dell Vostro 1320 is flexible and easily customizable. The potential buyer has several configuration options and a whole range of specifications to choose from.

The Dell Vostro 1320 may be considered bland on the style department. It will absolutely fail to stand out in a sea of black box-type laptops. It is glossy, which is the most that we can say about the design. Regardless, it shouldn’t turn off any buyer from considering its other features.

At 13.3″, the Dell Vostro 1320 has a screen that’s larger than others in its segment. Besides, Dell gave the interested buyer the choice between a regular LCD or the TrueLife version, which boasts a glossy finish.

With a weight of less than 5 pounds, this laptop is convenient to carry around. If the user’s lifestyle or work requires that the laptop be portable then this fits the bill.

SPECS AVAILABLE OPTIONS

CPU – Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T9550 (2.66 GHz, 6 MB L2 cache, 1066 MHz FSB)

RAM – Up to 8GB6 Dual Channel 800MHz DDR2 SDRAM7

Screen Size – 13.3″ Widescreen WXGA (1280 x 800) Anti-Glare Display, 13.3″ WXGA (1280 x 800) Display with TrueLifeTM

Operating System – Genuine Windows Vista Ultimate, Business, Home Premium, Ultimate with Downgrade Rights Service to Windows XP Professional, and Business with Downgrade Rights Service to Windows XP Professional, FreeDOS operating systems

Battery Life – At least 4 hours

Graphics – Mobile Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X4500MHD, 256 MB NVIDIA GeForce 9300M GS Graphic Card

Pros

The Dell Vostro 1320 offers much comfort to the user. The keyboard’s size is just enough for typing to be done easily. The keys bounce back quickly and are very responsive. The touchpad is also a delight to use because it’s sensitive and has high precision.

What we like most about this laptop is that it doesn’t build up much heat at all. Therefore, you can use it as long as you want without being bothered by the heat and without having to bring along a cooler pad in the bag as well.

Cons

Don’t expect that gaming using the Dell Vostro 1320 would be a terrific experience. At most, this laptop can be used for the older games that aren’t as intense with the graphics as the latest ones. This laptop should be left out of the consideration if the user is a hardcore gamer.

We also found a flaw in the speaker setup. We think its designer may have failed to think about the position of the speakers. The speakers are at the bottom rather than on top of the monitor where it should be. This just isn’t ideal when in a videoconference or when viewing movies.

Conclusion

The features of the Dell Vostro 1320 are designed for business and we think that Dell did a good job at fulfilling the requirements. While we think that it should have been given better styling, business people might not like the distraction of having an overly styled laptop. It’s a satisfactory laptop for the price that Dell is selling it for.

Are you into this type of a well-written review about the Dell Vostro 1320? You’ll find more laptops and notebook reviews from Laptops Reviewed – your top resource for all things related to netbooks and laptops.

Dell Vostro FAQ:

Question: Would this laptop be good with World of Warcraft?
I’m considering purchasing a Dell Vostro 1320 with a 4GB RAM and Nvidia GeForce 9300m (256 mb) graphics card. How would this laptop do with WoW?

Answer: Should be more than fine considering the minimum requirements to run WoW are 512mb RAM and not a lot of processing power is needed graphics aren’t too difficult to handle. I would go for it!

Question: Where is the BIOS on a Dell Vostro 1320?
Trying to remove the coin battery.

Answer: I’m not sure exactly, but if you visit http://support.dell.com and click live chat, a tech should point out the details you need.

Question: How can I connect to the wireless network?
I have a 1320 Vostro Dell laptop, but I can’t connect to the wireless network. My windows is vista and when I want to connect to the network it just leaves a message about that the wireless network is not in the range of windows and till now I couldn’t connect.

Answer: See that your wi-fi switch is turned on. You can enable it in control panel, there may be dedicated keys for it on keyboard, then see that the you enter correct key if it is a secured one, else in network center click on manage wireless networks, and then select “connect to wireless networks when in range”. If it still doesn’t work contact dell service, it may be even a problem from wireless router. Try connecting to a different network and see.

Question: Vista Complete PC Restore won’t recognize backup files.?
I have a brand new Dell Vostro 1320 which came with windows vista basic. When I hit F8 I have the option to load a system restore point, a complete pc backup, or restore to factory settings. I am trying to make a backup of the way I like my computer and save it to either the dell recovery partition or an external hard drive. However, when I make the backup, the pc restore program doesn’t find them when I try to backup from them.

Answer: System Restore doesn’t restore backups, it restores restore points. The backup will be used to restore the entire computer, not the registry (which is what System Restore does.)

Question: Does 2.4ghz processor really worth the price over 2.1ghz?
I plan to buy dell laptop vostro 1320. these are two options please help me to choose:
option 1: get core 2 duo P8600 w/ 2.4ghz (add $125), with 3GB ram and 6 cell battery.
option 2: get core 2 duo T6500 w/ 2.1ghz (add $0), with 4GB ram(add $50) and 9 cell battery (add $50)

Those two CPUs don’t just differ in speed. They also have microarchitectural differences. The P8600 is about 15% faster than the T6500. I’d say, for a laptop, I’d take option 2. You’ll get longer battery life and the speed likely won’t make much difference.

Question: Are the Dell Vostro memory upgrades sold in ebay legitimate?
I am planning to upgrade the memory for my Dell Vostro 1400. I found some good deals in ebay. Are they genuine?? Should I buy from ebay or I should always buy from dell?

Answer: I would check the feedback of those who are selling the product. Usually people tend to sell the same things over and over so in the feedback you can see if someone else bought the same item and were happy with it. I never buy anything from ebay without going through their feedback.

Question: Do you need sound card to play logitech z2300 on Dell Vostro 1500 laptop?
I have a Dell vostro 1500 laptop. Is it ok to play my movies and music on my laptop on logitech z2300. Some body told me that it will harm my laptop. If yes then in what way?

Answer: If those speakers accept 3.5″ stereo line signals (which they very likely do) then you can use them without any trouble.

Question: Why am I getting errors when I upgraded my Dell Vostro 1500 from Windows XP to Vista?
When I upgraded my Dell Vostro 1500 to Windows Vista Ultimate from Windows XP all of my network drivers stopped working. I can’t use my wireless or ethernet connections. The drivers are there but they aren’t working. Can I download other drivers? If so, what are they and where can I find them?

Answer: This is a problem in going from XP to Vista. You need to reinstall drivers that are compatible with Vista, you can get them from Microsoft.com. I’ve been having problems with Vista and IE8, and I’m ready to go back to XP and IE7.