Design
Metallic red isn't a colour you'd normally associate with a business notebook, but Dell has decided that a little splash of colour is needed in a business notebook market full of grey and black notebooks.
The 12.1-inch glossy WLED screen runs at a maximum resolution of 1280x800. Even more annoying than the fingerprint-attracting glossy screen was the screen bleeding that made itself known along the bottom of the screen. This becomes even more evident when viewing anything with a dark background.
The keyboard is light and tactile when typing, while the touch pad is responsive to touch. The touch pad settings can also be easily customised to suit your taste. A row of media shortcut keys (all with blue backlights), along with the power button and status indicators, are located above the keyboard.
Another disappointment is with the screen's hinge, which refuses to stay up once it's past the 130-degree angle. This mainly poses a problem for those that like working during their commute to work on public transport.
Features
Internally, our review unit had an Intel Core 2 Duo T6570 running at 2.1GHz with an 800MHz FSB with 2GB of RAM, which manages to run the pre-installed Windows Vista Business without many issues. However, anything more strenuous than the word processing or PowerPoint may be asking too much for this notebook.
It must also be noted that the retail versions of the Vostro 1220 will have a slightly faster processor, available as either a Core 2 Duo T6670 at 2.2GHz with an 800MHz FSB or a P8600 at 2.4GHz with 1066MHz FSB.
Although the internal 8x DVD burner is a welcome addition in a notebook this size, it comes at a cost. The shell casing above the DVD burner isn't particularly strong and could easily break if you're not careful while lugging the Vostro around with you.
In an odd move, despite the widespread availability of wireless LANs, the Vostro does not feature 802.11n wireless LAN connectivity as standard and is instead an optional extra, falling back on a b/g adapter as the default. Other connectivity options include three USB ports, a gigabit Ethernet port, VGA connector, Bluetooth 2.1 support (although this is optional on the base models), 34mm ExpressCard slot and three-in-one card reader.
In what should be a more widespread practice, Dell has decided against the usual trialware on the notebook, giving you free reign to decide the kind of software you'd like to install on the 250GB hard drive. Sure, you could just uninstall the software yourself, but it's nice to know that Dell has saved you precious minutes.
Performance
As to be expected from the on-board Intel X4500MHD graphics the Vostro managed a lowly score of 825 in 3DMark, but managed to protect its portable business notebook image better in PCMark05 by snagging a score of 3847.
The four-cell battery of the Vostro lasted for a respectable three hours, 25 minutes and 33 seconds on high performance settings with brightness and volume at maximum. While this puts it a few hours behind the best netbook offerings, it does have the advantage of a larger screen and significantly more processor power.
Vostro 1220 had a lot of potential, but has been letdown by its below average build quality — something that should be a high priority, especially for an ultraportable notebook.
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