Dell Unveils Revamped Vostro Notebooks

The updated Vostro 1310 and 1510 notebooks have slimmed down, dropped their trialware, and received updated security measures.

Dell’s Vostro notebooks may be considered its budget line, but that hasn’t kept the company from freshening them up with new features now and then. On Tuesday, the company announced revamped versions of its 15.4- and 13.3-inch Vostros, which benefit from slimmer designs, better security features, and pruned back trialware.

“Customers told us in a recent global laptop study that data protection and pre-installed security software are, by far, the most important security features. They also said they wanted thinner and lighter machines, all at a good price,” said Frank Muehlman, vice president of Dell’s small business division, in a statement. “We paid attention.”

The latest 13-.3-inch Vostro 1310 and 15.4-inch Vostro 1510 are both thinner and lighter than their previous equivalents, without sacrificing optical drives, as manufacturers are sometimes prone to doing to save weight. Dell claims the actual viewing area on the Vostro 1310 screen delivers 94 percent of the viewing area of a 14.1-inch screen, but with 20 percent weight savings. It weighs in at 4.6 pounds, while the 1510 hits 5.7 pounds.

Dell also equipped the new models with fingerprint readers, Trusted Platform Module (TPM) 1.2 to prevent data theft, a cable lock slot, and factory-installed McAfee Total Protection software. The machine can be ordered with zero trialware, but Dell still offers free services such as 10GB of online storage through its DataSafe Online Backup, as well as Network Assistant and PC TuneUp.

The Vostro 1310 will carry a price of $749, while the larger 1510 will sell for $599. Both are available today in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and will come to the North and South America on May 1. A redesigned Vostro 1710 is also in the works for mid-May.