Dell's Vostro small business PCs turned loose

Those Vostro PCs we first heard about last month just got pushed out the door by Dell. The laptops consist of the 14.1-inch Vostro 1400, 15.4-inch Vostro 1500, and 17-inch Vostro 1700 while the desktops include the Vostro 200 Slim Tower and Vostro 200 Mini Tower. There's even a low-end, AMD-based 15.4-inch Vostro 1000 laptop starting at just $449. The laptops mirror their Inspiron brethren configurations only with a small-business mindset: all-black (only) slabs, zero pre-installed bloatware, a 30-day guarantee without restocking fee, choice of XP or Vista Business, and services designed for small businesses. Same goes for the Vostro desktops which start at just $319. All available now.

[Joe Smith @ Jul 10th 2007 5:58AM]

yay for dell! no bloatware is awesome! dell has turned over to the good side!

[Unregistered @ Jul 10th 2007 6:24AM]

mmm, no bloatware sounds good. no how abt giving us the option to buy it WITHOUT any microsoft OS?

[Brian @ Jul 10th 2007 8:27AM]

Yes please that would make the world a better place.

[Andrew @ Jul 10th 2007 3:37PM]

They do offer non-Microsoft computers; they're called the n series:

Desktop:
http://www.dell.com/content/products/features.aspx/nseries

Notebook:
http://www.dell.com/content/products/features.aspx/nseries_nb

[Kamokazi @ Jul 10th 2007 9:28AM]

Desktops are pretty nice, but the laptops STILL look horrible. My Asus won't win any fashion shows, but it's a hell of a lot better than the Dells.

[Gustad Mody @ Jul 10th 2007 9:31AM]

i dont see any option for for putting windows XP on the laptops??

[Jacob Kennedy @ Jul 10th 2007 1:09PM]

Agreed. Just tried to build one and XP is not an option. Boo.

[Jacob Kennedy @ Jul 10th 2007 1:11PM]

Oops. It's offered on some of the laptop models but not all. Boo anyway.

[izkold @ Jul 10th 2007 1:00PM]

http://www.smartbusinessit.co.uk - vostro microsite

I like the design - looks pretty cool

[BBG @ Jul 10th 2007 8:32PM]

NO BLOATWARE???????

My company just ordered 8 of these today and there are all the normal bloat items. Yes, you can opt out of a few of the items but not all of them.

Why can't they just offer the small business a PC with no OS as long as they have a license through Microsft. Knock $100 of the price and we may have order a few more!!

[Chuckles McGee @ Jul 10th 2007 10:15PM]

Looks great. Now where's that promised Dell tablet?

[Unregistered @ Jul 10th 2007 11:45PM]

Can anyone else access the urls provided above by Andrew? Here's what I got.

The page you requested may no longer exist on Dell.com
- There may be a misspelling in the URL you have entered
- The page or file you are looking for has been moved, retired or is no longer available

[Emjay @ Jul 11th 2007 1:55PM]

The 520 and 521 are really nice looking but these are duds. I'm sure some who are reading these posts can design a tower better looking than these.
As for as the bloatware I don't mind cause it reduces the cost of the pc though advertising. Dell gets $ from pre-installed bloatware programs (I freshly install the OS anytime I get a computer anyway which takes a short time to do). Watch the prices of these pcs because I guarentee these to be more expensive to those that have Dell bloatware. Also instead of installing costly MS office go with www.openoffice.org by Sun MS FREELY. Pandora.com is also highly recomended; I'd rather use Pandora than freely get high price CDs. Horay for advertisements it's makes many things free!

[Peter @ Jul 14th 2007 11:08AM]

Dell lists the 17-inch Vostro laptop as having a 7200rpm hard drive option in all its marketing, yet 5400rpm hard drives are all that are featured when going thru the order process.

[Dave @ Aug 18th 2007 9:39AM]

I love dell's but why can't we just have XP on all notebooks? It drives me nuts how on some systems (1000 or 1500 Vostro) you can select XP, however on the 1400...the one I want...I can't....

May need to leave Dell for someone else....never thought the day would come....

[David Kline @ Nov 23rd 2007 11:25PM]

Vostro 1400. Unstable unit out of the box from day one. Tried to install iTunes and it froze the entire OS. Unable to restart normally so uninstalled. Problems recognizing the power supply. Problems with the router table when connecting to the internet. Ran extended diagnostics and no problems reported, but problems keep happening every other time I boot it up practically. Problem after problem I've had with this machine.

I like the size, the price, the speed and the mobility.

[Ben @ Dec 19th 2007 1:00PM]

Vostro 1400 arrived about 3 weeks ago.
Windows XP Pro SP2 selected as an option at purchase, 2.0 Ghz Core Duo, 3GB Ram, 7200RPM HD, unchecked any add-on software (aka no bloatware).
After running WindowsUpdate so everything was current, then installing Office 2003, Photoshop, Macromedia suite, Acrobat and a scad of other software, system is still fast and responsive.
Much better than the similarly spec'd E-1500 that I had a year ago. I'll be buying Small Business PCs from now on. Have to buy a Codec/App to play DVDs but worth the minor hassle.