The Dell Vostro is Dell’s entry into the small business affordable laptop market. With the Vostro Dell is targeting small business owners, or people who work in small businesses who need a portable laptop, with not too much power, trading in that power for a more affordable price. There are quite a few competitors in the affordable office laptop niche, but Dell has made some efforts to step forward, by implementing additional security features in this little machine.
In this review, we’ll go in-depth about everything that makes this laptop a possible choice for your next office buy. We have also tested the laptop against competitors in this price range, and we’ll see how it stacks up against them.
Technical Specifications
CPU | Intel Core i5-7200U 2 x 2.5 – 3.1 GHz, Kaby Lake |
GPU | Intel HD Graphics 620, Core: 1000 MHz |
RAM | 8 GB DDR4, 2.400 MHz, single channel, 1 of 2 storage slots occupied |
Motherboard | Intel Kaby Lake-U Premium PCH |
Storage | Micron 1100 MTFDDAV256TBN, 256 GB |
Physical Form Factor
The Dell Vostro 3568 is pretty much what you’d expect an office laptop to look like. It’s all black with a rubber finish on the top and bottom lid, which isn’t exactly a fingerprint magnet, but once a fingerprint sticks on it, it can be very hard to take out. In an office setting, it can make your laptop look messy, so try not to keep your fingers clean when working on the laptop.
On the side, it does offer a decent amount of ports for connectivity but sadly lacks USB 3.0, and only comes with USB 2.0. In that regard, the laptop is stuck in the past. But it comes with a VGA, HDMI, Ethernet port, SD Card Reader, audio in, out, Kensington lock and a DVD Burner. It also lacks Thunderbolt and a USB-C port, but it’s good enough for what it offers.
Display
This laptop comes with a 15.6-inch Full HD display. The sharpness of the image on the Dell Vostro is satisfactory with a 141 PPI. It’s comparable to the screens of other laptops on the market in the same price range, however, the maximum brightness of the laptop is not good at all.
As long as you are using the laptop indoors out of the way of direct sunlight you should be perfectly fine. When using the laptop in a brightly lit room you will find that when looking at different viewing angles, only some parts of the laptop’s screen are visible, while others are completely dark.
Battery Life
When it comes to the battery life, the Dell Vostro 3568 uses a 40 Wh battery, which is around the standard for laptops in this price range. However, the Dell overall has very low power consumption and good battery optimization so some light web browsing with the internet turned on will make the laptop last around 6 hours on average. Considering the price of the laptop, and its purpose, a battery life of 6 hours even for a low load, is not bad at all.
Some competitors on the market do have larger batteries like the Lenovo ThinkPad E570 which lasts about 13% longer when compared to the Dell Vostro 3568. Overall, if you need a laptop with good battery life, the Vostro doesn’t disappoint.
Keyboard and Touchpad
The keyboard on the laptop is only 0.5cm smaller than a traditional desktop keyboard which makes it perfect for long hours of typing and heavy office work. This is great news for the target audience of Vostro which is in the small business category. All of these keys are visible marked and have a size that should fit even people with larger hands and fingers, with the only downside being the lack of illumination of the keys. The only complaint is the “Enter” key which is a little small, but it isn’t a deal-breaker.
As for the touchpad, all we can say is that it doesn’t disappoint. Its size is great and it picks up the movement very easily even sharp and sudden movements. All around the edges touch is not picked up as at the middle of the touchpad, which is not all bad, because it will stop unwanted movement when you accidentally touch the edge of the touchpad,
Speakers
This is a laptop made for office use, so the speakers are not at the forefront of the most needed features, However, even though the maximum volume isn’t the highest we’ve heard for a laptop in this price range, it’s powerful enough for a small room. It does sound flat and lacks some bass, but overall if you’re not a heavy multimedia user you probably won’t notice the not-so-excellent sound quality of the speakers.
Performance
Overall, you won’t find the performance of the laptop lacking in the ordinary office surroundings. It can run the Microsoft Office application without any noticeable trouble, and it will handle the Adobe Creative Cloud applications easily. The only area where you may notice some struggle is in modern games, but this isn’t a gaming laptop so we cannot exactly say that it’s a big disadvantage.
There’s also an available expansion slot for the RAM, so if you find the performance lacking in any area, the ram can be easily accessed and upgraded. For small office use, it’s perfectly capable.
Verdict
The Dell Vostro 3568 is a small business laptop through and through. Its internals is powerful enough to power through a day of office work, with the battery life being there to support you if you happen to be on the move. It comes with good connectivity options but lacks some of the more modern ports such as USB 3.0 which is a bit of a letdown.
When it comes to the display it’s good enough, but we’ve certainly seen better for the same laptops in this price range. If you need something compact for office use, this is one of the good picks.