Someone posted a thread here a bit ago asking about this laptop and well, the thread seems to be gone, but that doesn't mean I can't post one .
Okay, I purchased a Dell XPS M1530 laptop on Tuesday and received it on the following Monday (for anyone curious about my turn-around time). I only chose standard shipping, but it looks like it literally came to me in 2 days or so, which is nice.
The laptop I ordered was a mild configuration:
Intel Core 2 Duo T7500 2.2Ghz
3GB DDR2 667Mhz RAM
nVidia GeForce 8600M
WSXGA+ TruBright screen (1680x1050 resolution)
DVD+/-RW (sorry, no $400 blu-ray drive )
85W 9-cell battery (the bigger one)
250GB 5400RPM HDD
Bluetooth
Dell Wireless A/B/G adapter (rather than Intel's Wireless N... so it's technically not a Centrino)
Overall, I'm fairly satisfied with the laptop. I think I might've gone with Intel's Wireless N adapter if given another chance... mainly because I trust Intel's hardware more than wherever Dell got their adapter from. I might also go with a double battery combo instead of just one large battery. As you know, the bigger batteries tend to stick out from the bottom like a jacked up car and this one is no exception.
I do have some complaints about the laptop although they might be a bit minor and some aren't Dell's fault.
1) The ethernet port is 100 Base-T not Gig-E. Frankly, I have a gigabit network and I'd rather have Gig-E. Not to mention, Gig-E isn't expensive and I have no idea why it isn't supported. This made transferring WoW to my laptop take 20+ minutes instead of maybe 5. For the most part, this won't matter unless I want to transfer large files in a hurry.
2) The touchpad isn't well designed. Personally, I'm typing this up on my HP laptop and I actually like my HP's touchpad better. The HP touchpad has a ridged scroll area on it that's easy to find and know if you're on it. When it comes to the Dell, there's really no way to tell and I find myself hitting the scroll area a lot. Also, my HP has one vertical scroll area where the Dell has a vertical and horizontal, which cuts the actual cursor movement area down quite a bit. If you use a mouse, this is obviously not an issue.
3) I don't like Vista's hibernation at all. I can't stand the fact that it doesn't tell me that it's going into hibernation. This made my first use of it weird as my HP treats a power button press as hibernation where my Dell treated that as the sleep button. So I had to change the profile for the power button to get that to put it into hibernation. But then, I had no idea if it was hibernating or not, because it just goes to a black screen!
The performance is pretty decent on the laptop. I just tried WoW out and I was able to get 30+ FPS in Shattrath at 1680x1050 with 2x AA and all the settings on full. This is a fairly good achievement as a lot of people lag in Shattrath on normal desktops. Just note that the laptop comes in some weird power setting mode that will decrease your performance by about 10fps. I tend to set it back to power saving mode when I'm not in a game because I don't need the extra power.
The laptop can also handle 720p H264, which is one of the big reasons why I got a new laptop. The video looked weird when I was still in power saving mode (it played but I think it was at a slower than normal framerate which is why it looked a little weird). I'll have to try it again to give a better opinion and maybe use something like FRAPS to report the FPS.
Dell gave me a bunch of goodies with the laptop which was pretty nifty. The certainly gave me a lot more items than I got with this HP laptop. There's a nice leather case for your CDs and other things that has the XPS logo on it among other stuff.
As for the screen... it's a 15" with 1680x1050 resolution and I have no problem with it (I initially thought it might be like a PSP's tiny eye-strain-o-vision).
The laptop also includes HDMI if you want to hook it up to your TV. Although I don't know if it sends sound out since I haven't tried it yet. I'll have to try it sometime and report back.
Any questions?
Okay, I purchased a Dell XPS M1530 laptop on Tuesday and received it on the following Monday (for anyone curious about my turn-around time). I only chose standard shipping, but it looks like it literally came to me in 2 days or so, which is nice.
The laptop I ordered was a mild configuration:
Intel Core 2 Duo T7500 2.2Ghz
3GB DDR2 667Mhz RAM
nVidia GeForce 8600M
WSXGA+ TruBright screen (1680x1050 resolution)
DVD+/-RW (sorry, no $400 blu-ray drive )
85W 9-cell battery (the bigger one)
250GB 5400RPM HDD
Bluetooth
Dell Wireless A/B/G adapter (rather than Intel's Wireless N... so it's technically not a Centrino)
Overall, I'm fairly satisfied with the laptop. I think I might've gone with Intel's Wireless N adapter if given another chance... mainly because I trust Intel's hardware more than wherever Dell got their adapter from. I might also go with a double battery combo instead of just one large battery. As you know, the bigger batteries tend to stick out from the bottom like a jacked up car and this one is no exception.
I do have some complaints about the laptop although they might be a bit minor and some aren't Dell's fault.
1) The ethernet port is 100 Base-T not Gig-E. Frankly, I have a gigabit network and I'd rather have Gig-E. Not to mention, Gig-E isn't expensive and I have no idea why it isn't supported. This made transferring WoW to my laptop take 20+ minutes instead of maybe 5. For the most part, this won't matter unless I want to transfer large files in a hurry.
2) The touchpad isn't well designed. Personally, I'm typing this up on my HP laptop and I actually like my HP's touchpad better. The HP touchpad has a ridged scroll area on it that's easy to find and know if you're on it. When it comes to the Dell, there's really no way to tell and I find myself hitting the scroll area a lot. Also, my HP has one vertical scroll area where the Dell has a vertical and horizontal, which cuts the actual cursor movement area down quite a bit. If you use a mouse, this is obviously not an issue.
3) I don't like Vista's hibernation at all. I can't stand the fact that it doesn't tell me that it's going into hibernation. This made my first use of it weird as my HP treats a power button press as hibernation where my Dell treated that as the sleep button. So I had to change the profile for the power button to get that to put it into hibernation. But then, I had no idea if it was hibernating or not, because it just goes to a black screen!
The performance is pretty decent on the laptop. I just tried WoW out and I was able to get 30+ FPS in Shattrath at 1680x1050 with 2x AA and all the settings on full. This is a fairly good achievement as a lot of people lag in Shattrath on normal desktops. Just note that the laptop comes in some weird power setting mode that will decrease your performance by about 10fps. I tend to set it back to power saving mode when I'm not in a game because I don't need the extra power.
The laptop can also handle 720p H264, which is one of the big reasons why I got a new laptop. The video looked weird when I was still in power saving mode (it played but I think it was at a slower than normal framerate which is why it looked a little weird). I'll have to try it again to give a better opinion and maybe use something like FRAPS to report the FPS.
Dell gave me a bunch of goodies with the laptop which was pretty nifty. The certainly gave me a lot more items than I got with this HP laptop. There's a nice leather case for your CDs and other things that has the XPS logo on it among other stuff.
As for the screen... it's a 15" with 1680x1050 resolution and I have no problem with it (I initially thought it might be like a PSP's tiny eye-strain-o-vision).
The laptop also includes HDMI if you want to hook it up to your TV. Although I don't know if it sends sound out since I haven't tried it yet. I'll have to try it sometime and report back.
Any questions?