Back in February, Dell told us "off-the-record" that there was a "sexy" new XPS product coming out in June which was worth waiting for. Come the end of July, and the Dell XPS M1330 is now here. Pictures leaked onto the net about two months ago -- generating a bit more hype than your average Dell product.
Our sister site, CNET.com may have posted their review on the day of launch, but it was a pre-production unit. We waited until the production units finally began rolling out in order to better evaluate what would actually be delivered to people's homes. So, how sexy is it?
Design
The new XPS is a 13.3-inch notebook which Dell claims is the "slimmest in the world". It's certainly quite slender at the front, and a lot more so than the Dell XPS M1210 -- though it does taper out at the rear. Build quality is quite good, with a floating hinge, brushed aluminium palmtop and a sensible array of ports within easy grasp. The colour scheme is also quite attractive with a mix of matte and piano black, and silver used. The screen cover of the M1330 comes in three colours -- red, black, and white -- and though it misses out on the veritable rainbow available in the Inspiron line, we don't think people looking for a performance notebook will mind the lack of a "Flamingo Pink" option.
However, one thing that surprised us about the laptop was the flexibility of the LCD screen. Using an LED backlight allows the screen to be thinner and lighter, but it also means that it flexes more, too. At the bottom of the screen, the surround has around 1-2cm of give, but in order to compensate the mag alloy hinges and frame are fairly robust.
Features
Being as this is a Dell, a lot of the specifications are based on you and how much you want to spend. Configurations currently start at AU$1,799, but the one we received topped out at AU$2,899. For this you get: the Intel Core 2 Duo T7700 processor, NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS, the optional draft-N wireless card, 2GB of RAM, the faster 7200rpm 160GB hard drive, and a copy of Windows Vista Ultimate.
Standard features on the M1330 include an HDMI output for outputting both audio (using a SigmaTel chipset) and video, two USB ports, a slot-loading DVD drive and capacitive media buttons as standard. One of the only "hard" buttons launches Dell's MediaDirect application, which is a Windows Media Center clone. However, it's not as powerful as Media Center (which is also onboard). It's not as feature-rich as Windows' offering and has some limitations -- like region-encryption and an inability to decode 5.1 streams. It's OK, because you can just use Media Center anyway.
The options on our model included LED backlighting, fingerprint sensor, and unavailable at the moment but apparently in the pipeline -- a Blu-ray drive. The unit also features onboard speakers, but they're not much chop
In what seems like a strange move, choosing the LED backlighting upgrade actually results in a Webcam downgrade -- from 2-megapixel to a measly 0.3-megapixel, which is equivalent to the VGA camera found on most phones.
The slot-loading DVD machine is similar to the one used on the Macbook and Macbook Pro -- this shouldn't be surprising as they're both built by a third party, ASUS. At the launch we did some filming of the notebook and demonstrated a DVD loading. However, being a pre-production unit the disk got stuck. There's no reset switch or hardware button on these drives -- just a capacitive media "eject" button above the keyboard -- and if this fails we wouldn't want to have to return the notebook to the service centre if a disk became trapped.
In a thoughtful move, the Dell also includes a funky carry pouch with a magnetised fastener, which will save you having to spend extra money on one -- it doesn't have handles though.
Performance
It looks good, but how is it to use? Quite good, actually. The aluminium palmtop may be a little cool on winter evenings but the PC soon warms it up. But that's not to say the PC gets hot -- it doesn't, and unlike some other high-powered notebook, it's also fairly quiet.
By switching from a 12-inch in the m1210 to a 13.3-inch has meant that Dell is able to incorporate a full-sized keyboard. As a result, typing is comfortable, and there is a decent amount of tactile feedback in the keys as well. But the extra real-estate hasn't translated to a larger touchpad -- it's a little small, and it can grate on your fingertips if they're calloused enough. The pad also has small scroll bars , which despite their size are easy to trigger accidentally.
The fingerprint reader is a nice addition but the software included isn't the best, on a bad scan you'll get a cryptic "too short" message, until you keep trying and can get a decent read.
The M1330 may boast some powerful components, but the weak link in the performance chain is the NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS. Though this graphics adaptor it will decode HD video and accelerate your "Windows Vista Aero experienceTM", it's fairly average for gaming.
This translated in the benchmarks, with a score of 1448 marks in 3DMark06 (at the default 1280x800 resolution). In PCMark05, though, it was a different story, with the powerful 2.4GHz dual-core processor able to push the laptop to an excellent score for an ultraportable -- 5653 marks.
Battery life using the six-cell battery was good, with the laptop lasting 3:02 hours using our BatteryEater Pro reader test. You'll also be able to watch most movies on one charge, with the battery lasting 1 hour and 51 minutes at full brightness on a run-through of King Kong -- using a set of headphones. A good result.
If you're looking for a rugged laptop, then the M1210 would a better and cheaper option. The relative fragility of the LED-backlit screen could be an issue over time, and it may even be worth saving AU$400 and going for the original version with a better Webcam. The downsides are that it would be thicker and heavier, and battery life would also suffer. In conclusion, if you're in the market for a portable under two kilograms, the 1.78kg Dell XPS is both stylish and a pleasure to use.
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Adapters and external battery for this Dell XPS M1330 laptop is here.
http://www.global-batteries.com.au/advanced_search_result.php?keywords=Dell XPS M1330