Best Budget Laptop: Dell Latitude 3330 Review

The average PC laptop sells for just over $500, but for that price, you usually have to settle for a mediocre build quality, weak battery life and a poor typing / navigation experience. Even when you're willing to pay more for your laptop, many of today's high-end notebooks trade ergonomic comfort for good looks with their shallow keyboards and jumpy, buttonless touchpads. A throwback to an earlier era when usability mattered most, the 13-inch Dell Latitude 3330 pairs an accurate touchpad and wide viewing angle screen with one of the best keyboards we've ever tested and the multitasking-friendly Windows 7 operating system. With a price of just $539, $419 to start, both students and professionals will get a lot of productivity from this affordable, lightweight laptop.

Design
Dell Latitude 3330At 13 x 9.4 x 0.8 and 4 pounds, the Latitude 3330 fit easily in our bag without weighing us down, even though it isn't quite as light as Ultrabooks like the Inspiron 13z (13.07 x 9.05 x 0.82 inches, 3.2 pounds). The base configuration is 0.5 pounds lighter because of its lower-capacity 4-cell battery, but we wouldn't recommend skimping on battery life to save that amount of weight.

The laptop sports a functional but not unattractive design that we've seen before on other low-cost Dell business laptops, like the Vostro V131. The Latitude 3330's lid doesn't cover the entire top surface of the chassis, leaving a small end section that elegantly hides the hinges. The aluminum matte silver surface on the lid isn't fashion forward, but completely resists fingerprints. The all-black interior and matte silver sides look neat and professional even if they're not particularly exhilarating.

Dell Latitude 3330The Dell Latitude 3330's 13.3-inch, 1366 x 768 matte display provided accurate colors and wide viewing angles in our tests. When we played a 1080p trailer for "The Avengers," colors like the red in Iron Man's armor and the blue in Captain America's shield stood out. However, dark patches like a night sky or the halo around the Avengers logo had a little visual noise. The 720p trailer for "Skyfall" had no noticeable visual noise and shades like the blue in Daniel Craig's eyes or the red in a British flag looked true to life, if not overly rich.

On both clips most images did not wash out even at 90-degree viewing angles, though extremely dark scenes showed a little inversion at the widest angles. The Latitude 3330's screen measured 213 lux on our light meter, which is about on a par with the 209 lux thin-and-light category average and significantly brighter than the Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E430 (176 lux).

While not rich enough to replace your stereo, the Latitude 3330's front-mounted speakers were loud enough to fill a small room and reasonably accurate. When we played the bass-heavy "Forget Me Nots," the music was pleasant, if not overly textured. However, the hard-rock "Rainbow in the Dark" sounded just a bit distorted. Considering that the 3330 is a budget laptop, we were pleased with its audio output.
Keyboard and Touchpad

Dell Latitude 3330The Dell Latitude 3330's island-style keyboard is one of the best we've used on any laptop, providing large comfortable keys with plenty of vertical travel and strong tactile feedback. On the Ten Thumbs Typing Tutor test, we managed 86 words per minute with a 2 percent error rate, which is near our average (86 wpm / 1 percent error rate), but typing felt much more pleasant than most laptops we've tested. Unfortunately, there's no backlight option.

It's rare to find a new notebook touchpad that doesn't have its buttons built in. Unfortunately, many of these so-called "clickpads" jerk your mouse pointer around because you're using the same surface for moving and clicking. Sticking with what works, Dell has given the Latitude 3330 a 3 x 1.75 inch touchpad that provides nearly flawless navigation around the desktop and two discrete buttons that offer just the right amount of feedback. Though we had to enable them in Dell's Touchpad software before testing, multitouch gestures such as pinch-to-zoom, rotate, three-finger flick and three-finger press worked every time. The pad does not support four-finger flick.
Heat

The Dell Latitude 3330's keyboard and touchpad stayed cool throughout our testing, registering just 91 and 89 degrees Fahrenheit after streaming a video at full screen for 15 minutes. However, the left palmrest occasionally felt just a bit warm, reaching 94.5 degrees on our thermometer. The bottom topped out at 97 degrees. We consider temperatures above 95 degrees uncomfortable and those under 90 degrees optimal.

Dell Latitude 3330Dell has packed the notebook with plenty of ports, including a couple that you won't find everywhere else. On its right side, the Latitude 3330 has a single audio jack, two USB 3.0 ports, a VGA out and an Ethernet port for connecting to wireless Internet, something many recent notebooks have jettisoned. The left side houses an HDMI out port, a powered USB 2.0 USB port and an SD card reader.

The Latitude 3330's 720p webcam provided strong low-light performance and even better image quality under better conditions. Under the fluorescent lights of our office, our face was colorful and detailed, though there was just a little noise if we looked at the images up close. The camera even managed to capture a relatively bright image in our dark living room with a light source behind us, conditions under which many webcams completely wash out. Dell's included Webcam Central software makes adjusting settings and capturing video or stills a breeze.

Performance
Dell Latitude 3330With its older, second-generation 1.5-GHz Core i3-2375M CPU, 4GB of RAM and a slow-moving 5,400 rpm 320GB hard drive, our configuration of the Dell Latitude 3330 was good enough for basic productivity tasks and HD video playback but lagged behind competitors with better specs. On PCMark 7, a synthetic benchmark that measures overall performance, the Latitude 3330 scored just 1,465, less than half the 3,032 thin-and-light laptop category average and well behind the Core i5-powered Dell Inspiron 13z (2,474) and ThinkPad Edge E430 (2,337).

The Latitude 3330's 5,400 rpm 320GB Samsung Spinpoint hard drive is its biggest weakness, providing significantly weaker load and copy times than we normally see on notebooks with similar drives. The sluggish drive took a full minute to boot the system into Windows 7, 19 seconds more than the thin-and-light category average. Much worse, it took a full 6 minutes and 8 seconds to complete the LAPTOP File transfer test. That's a rate of just 13.8 MBps, less than a third of the 45.4 MBps category average and way behind the ThinkPad Edge E430 with 7,200 rpm hard drive (29.4 MBps) and the Dell Inspiron 13z with 5,400 rpm drive (29.2 MBps).

The older 1.5-GHz Core i3-2375M CPU caused the Dell Latitude 3330 to take 10 minutes and 29 seconds to complete the OpenOffice Spreadsheet test, which matches 20,000 names with their addresses. That time is nearly double the thin-and-light laptop average (5:44) and way slower than the Core i5-powered Dell Inspiron 13z (6:16) and Thinkpad Edge E430 (5:04).

Though the Latitude 3330 was fast enough to play 1080p videos, its graphics performance left something to be desired. When we opened a 4K clip, the laggy playback was more like a slideshow than a movie. The 3DMark11 benchmark we typically use to measure graphics performance would not run on this system, but we were able to play "World of Warcraft" at a reasonable 44 fps when using its recommended settings. With the special effects turned up, this rate dropped to just 10 fps. These rates are below the 50.6 / 24.6 fps category average.

Battery Life
Dell Latitude 3330With its 6-cell battery installed, the Dell Latitude 3330 lasted 6 hours and 14 minutes on a charge, which is on a par with the 6-hour and 19-minute thin-and-light notebook category average. However, 14-inch screened competitors like the 4.6 pound Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E430 (6:53) and the 5.4-pound Dell Latitude E6430 with 9-cell battery (10:37) lasted longer on a charge. The 3330 is also available with a smaller, 4-cell battery, which we were unable to test.

Configurations
Dell claims that the Latitude 3330 will be configurable with processors up to a third-generation Core i5, storage drives that include 7,200 rpm hard drives or SSD options and your choice of Windows 7 or 8. However, as of this writing, the company offers only three configurations. Our $539 review configuration has a second-generation 1.5-GHz Core i3-2375M CPU, 6-cell battery, 4GB of RAM and Windows 7 Professional.

The base $419 configuration has a slower 1.5-GHz Intel Celeron 1007U processor, just 2GB of RAM, a smaller battery and Windows 7 Home Premium. A $449 configuration has the Celeron processor and Windows 7 Home Premium, but includes 4GB of RAM and the same 6-cell battery as our unit. All three configurations have the same, sluggish 5,400 rpm hard drive. We hope that Dell will make faster storage options and better CPUs available on its site soon.
Software and Warranty

Dell Latitude 3330The Latitude 3330 comes with a handful of helpful utilities. Dell Data Protection allows you to create a pre-Windows password for added security. Dell Backup and Recovery Manager allows you to back up individual files or the entire system. Dell Webcam central captures photos and videos while adjusting the camera's settings. The system also comes with just one piece of unnecessary crapware, a 30-day trial of McAfee anti-virus.

Dell backs the Latitude 3330 with a standard one-year warranty on parts and labor. However, as with all Dell laptops, you can purchase extended warranties and accidental damage protection for up to five years.

Verdict
Dell Latitude 3330Though it's not the fastest budget laptop on the market, the Dell Latitude 3330 offers a compelling user experience for the money because of its light weight, best-in-class keyboard, accurate touchpad and colorful screen. If you want better performance and are willing to carry a larger laptop, consider the 14-inch ThinkPad Edge E431, a slightly updated version of the ThinkPad Edge E430 we tested last year. However, if you want a lightweight, low-cost laptop that's great for basic productivity tasks and just feels really good in your lap, the Latitude 3330 is an excellent choice.

Apple MacBook Air 13-inch Review

The 13-inch MacBook Air has become the very model of the modern notebook. Thin, light, and with instant-on responsiveness, Apple's hit is so admired by the PC industry that it has spawned an entire category of Windows-powered Ultrabooks. To keep the competition at bay, the latest version of the Air adds a faster Ivy Bridge processor, USB 3.0 and drops the starting price by $100 while keeping the iconic design intact. Are those changes enough to keep Apple in the lead?

Design
Apple MacBook Air (13-inch, 2012)The MacBook Air is just as beautiful and portable as before. The notebook is still the same size (12.8 x 8.9 x 0.11-0.68 inches) and weight (3 pounds). It's no surprise that Apple patented its wedge design. The all-aluminum chassis, elegant and functional, is now a classic.

However, other 13-inch notebooks are thinner and lighter. For instance, the Samsung Series 9 is 12.3 x 8.6 x 0.4 inches and 2.6 pounds, the Dell XPS 13 is a Lilliputian 12.4 x 8.1 x 0.24-0.71 inches, and the Toshiba Portege Z835 is just 2.4 pounds.

We wouldn't be surprised to see Apple shrink the bezel and narrow the deck on the Air next time around to create a more compact form factor. But for now, it still works.

Display
Apple MacBook Air (13-inch, 2012) DisplayNo changes here. The MacBook Air's 13.3-inch screen has a resolution of 1440 x 900, which, while not the Retina display some were hoping for, still provides the same wide viewing angles and bright colors as last year. A 1080p YouTube Trailer for "The Avengers" showed excellent contrast, deep, true blacks and fiery red explosions.

Again, though, others have caught up. The ASUS Zenbook Prime UX31A has a resolution of 1920 x 1080, and an average brightness of 423 lux. By comparison, the MacBook Air's display has an average brightness of 268 lux, which is better than average (239 lux). Even the $898 Vizio Ultrabook offers a higher-resolution 1600 x 900-pixel screen.
 
Audio
They may be hidden underneath the keyboard, but the speakers in the Air delivered impressively loud and clear sound. The notebook filled a room with plenty of bass and treble, lacking any distortion even when cranked to the max. When we played Van Morrison's "Brown Eyed Girl" on both the Air and the UX31A at their top volume, the difference couldn't be more stark. The Air was more than twice as loud as the UX31A, and everything sounded much richer and fuller.
Keyboard and Trackpad

Apple MacBook Air (13-inch, 2012) Backlit KeyboardThe backlit keyboard on the MacBook Air hasn't changed since last year, and that's a good thing. It's hard to improve on perfection. The island-style keyboard has just the right amount of spacing, travel and feedback. We've found on other Ultrabooks that keyboard ergonomics occasionally take a backseat to thinness. And, no one has yet to offer a wide a range of backlighting levels as the Air.

Apple MacBook Air (13-inch, 2012) TouchpadIn the same vein as the keyboard, the 4.1 x 3-inch glass trackpad is as spacious and accurate as ever. Multitouch gestures, such as the four-finger swipe to reveal Mission Control and pinch-to-zoom, were effortless. Clicking always feels solid, and we never had to deal with poor palm rejection when typing, which plagues some Ultrabooks.

Heat
Despite a more powerful processor, heat remains a nonissue on the Air. After streaming a Hulu video for 15 minutes at full screen, the touchpad measured a cool 79 degrees, the space between the G and H keys was 88 degrees, and the middle of the underside was 87 degrees. The hottest spot, toward the hinge on the bottom, was 95, which is on the edge of what we consider uncomfortable.

Ports
Apple MacBook Air (13-inch, 2012) PortsIt's nice to see that the MacBook Air now houses two USB 3.0 ports (one on each side) to accommodate high-speed peripherals. The Thunderbolt port on the right is faster, but the universe of compatible devices is still quite small. The left side also houses the MagSafe connector for power as well as the headphone jack. The SD Card Slot on the right still doesn't let you insert cards fully, which is a bit annoying.

The most obvious change is the thinner MagSafe2 connector, and the T-shaped plug. While it's as secure as ever, the previous plug was more flush with the side of the notebook and had a more streamlined look.

Webcam
Air webcam vs webcamThe Air's 720p FaceTime camera delivered crisp, clear images with accurate colors. It's a definite step up from the VGA camera in the last Air. However, as with most webcams, it had trouble when there was a bright light source behind us; our face became silhouetted. When we captured our face with the old and new Air side by side, there was a much greater level of detail coming from the FaceTime HD camera.

Performance
Inside the 2012 Air is a 1.8-GHz Intel Core i5-3427U processor, 4GB of RAM, and 128GB of flash storage. This combination of components offered fast performance on our tests. On Geekbench, the Air returned a score of 6,539, which bested the category average of 4,772 and outpaced last year's Air (5,860). The UX31A scored a higher 6,903, but it has a more powerful 1.9-GHz Intel Core i7-3517U processor, 4GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD.

The Air booted into OS X 7 in just 12 seconds, beating last year's version by 5 seconds, and most other Ultrabooks by half. The UX31A came closest, at 23 seconds, but it was no contest. The Air also sprang back to life instantly when we opened the lid.

The flash storage performed exceptionally in other tests, duplicating a 5GB folder of multimedia files in 32 seconds. That's a rate of 159 MBps or 30 MBps higher than the 2011 Air (127MBps). This showing is also leagues better than the UX31A (51.4 MBps), not to mention the category average of 46 MBps. The XPS 13 came close, notching a rate of 138 MBps.

When it came to some tasks, the Air was no better than the previous version. It took 6 minutes and 47 seconds to match 20,000 names with the corresponding addresses in OpenOffice, which is about 30 seconds slower than the 2011 version, but almost two minutes faster than the ultraportable average.

Graphics
The Intel HD Graphics 4000 GPU in the Air offers improved performance over the last model. In the graphics portion of the Cinebench 11.5 test, the Air scored 17.18 fps, compared with 10.39 fps for the 2011 version, a 65 percent increase. The UX31A scored 15.52 on the same test.

We then ran the graphics test portion of the Novabench suite. The 2012 Air returned a score of 37, compared with 23 for the 2011 Air. That's also an increase of 61 percent.

The new Air can certainly handle mainstream games. On our "World of Warcraft" benchmark, the Air averaged 60 fps with the screen resolution at its native 1440 x 900, and 30 fps with the effects on Ultra. That's double the average (37/18 fps) but only slightly better than the 2011 Air (59/28 fps). On autodetect settings, the ASUS UX31A, which has the same GPU, managed 52 fps at 1366 x 768 and 36 fps at 1080p; with effects maxed, those numbers dropped to 22 and 17 fps, respectively.

Battery Life
We were pleasantly surprised to find that, during the LAPTOP Battery Test (Web surfing via Wi-Fi), the Air lasted 8 hours and 10 minutes. That's almost 90 minutes longer than the ultraportable category average, and well above the last 13-inch Air (6:25). The new Air also beats the Ultrabook competition by a wide margin. The ASUS UX31A, for example, lasted 6:28, and the Toshiba Portege Z835 lasted 6:48.

Software
Currently, the Air ships with OSX Lion, but in July, it will be updated with Mountain Lion, which offers new features such as Notification Center, deeper iCloud integration with apps such as Messages and documents in the cloud, and the ability to share content via Facebook and Twitter from multiple apps.

The excellent iLife suite (iMovie, iPhoto and GarageBand) is included, as well as FaceTime, Mail and the Mac App Store. The App Store stocks a ton of useful apps and games, which download directly to the iOS-like Launchpad for quick access.

The MacBook Air comes with a limited 1-year warranty and an optional 3-year Apple Care warranty. Users can choose to have their computer serviced on the phone or in person at the Apple store Genius Bar. Apple's warranty was ranked No. 1 in our Best and Worst Brands Report.

Configurations
Our MacBook Air was the base model, which costs $1,199, and has a 1.8-GHz Intel Core i5 processor, 4GB of RAM and 128GB of flash memory. If you start out with this configuration, the only thing you can upgrade is the RAM to 8GB, a $100 option.

The $1,499 model has the same processor and RAM, but twice the amount of storage. With this model, you can select a 2-GHz Intel Core i7 processor ($100), 8GB of RAM, ($100) or 512MB of flash memory, a $500 option.

Verdict
Apple MacBook Air (13-inch, 2012) OutroThe 13-inch MacBook Air remains our favorite ultraportable notebook. In addition to best-in-class ergonomics, loud speakers and a svelte profile, you now get faster performance and much longer battery life than the Ultrabook competition for $100 less than before. The only reason we dropped the rating from a perfect 5 stars to 4.5 stars is because some Ultrabooks offer higher-resolution screens and more compact designs. Nevertheless, the MacBook Air is still the one to beat.