Dell Vostro 3750 review

The Dell Vostro range caters to the needs of small businesses, and the 3750 is the latest model for those looking to invest in a desktop replacement.

With dimensions of 418x34x287mm and a back-breaking starting weight of 3kg, the Vostro is a behemoth of a laptop. Design-wise, it isn't going to win any modelling contests. It comes with a square chassis and bulbous hinges, but Dell does provide a lovely paint job, our model sporting a delicious dark cherry red.

Big screen and decent performance
With such a large chassis, it is unsurprising that the Vostro packs a decent sized 17.3in HD LED display. This comes with a maximum resolution of 1,600x900, and the anti-glare technology allows it to be viewed comfortably in office environments with overhead lighting.  

In terms of specifications, our review unit came with a dual-core Intel Core i5 processor with a clock speed of 2.3GHz and 4GB of RAM. With much smaller devices such as as the Apple MacBook Air now available with the same power, it's fair to say that the Vostro is not going to win over users with performance, but it could with price. The Vostro is available from £370 and our review unit is priced at £579 + VAT.

The laptop we tested had a 500GB hard drive, which is more than enough to keep the majority of small businesses ticking over. Of course, the customisation options mean that power users can boost the specs to an Intel Core i7 processor and 8GB of RAM to increase the responsiveness.

The Vostro performed better than its overall Windows Experience Index rating of 4.5 suggests, and it was comfortably able to handle word processing, internet and video editing tasks.  

Familiar keyboard
Those investing in the Vostro are going to be using the keyboard on a full-time basis, so this is one of the most important features of the laptop. The Vostro keyboard resembles the look and feel of the MacBook Air's, the backlit island style letters nicely raised and easy to hit.

There is a number pad located on the right hand side, which we didn't really use. Perhaps Dell could have sacrificed this to make the keys a little larger as we did find our little finger hitting the NumLk key instead of Backspace quite regularly.

Dell has kept shortcut keys to a minimum, with three buttons in the top right hand corner to access the Windows Mobility Center, Dell Support Center and the Dell Instant Launch Manager. The Support Center is particularly useful as it provides access to virus scanning, hard drive maintanence and internet connectivity.