Dell XPS M1210 Review [Archive] - Thoughts Media Forums

Chris Baxter

09-10-2007, 03:00 PM

<img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/baxter-xps-figure0.jpg" /> Product Category: Ultra Portable Laptop Manufacturer:<a href="http://www.dell.com"> Dell</a> Where to Buy: Dell just discontinued this product. It is still available through eBay. Price: $2066 USD as configured System Requirements: NA Specifications: Intel Core 2 Duo T7200 Processor; 2GB DDR2 667MHz RAM; W:11.7in., D:8.7in., H:1.2in.; Wt: 4.4lbs. Pros: <li>Small and compact in size; <li>Powerful CPU and fast RAM make it comparable to desktop systems; <li>Rugged durable design. Cons: <li>Heavy for being such a small laptop; <li>Battery life could be better. Summary: Bigger is better right? Certain technologies don't seem to think so. Every year cell phones get smaller and smaller and so do computers. As far as laptops are concerned, the idea is to have a laptop as powerful as a desktop, yet portable enough to take with you wherever you go. Most of the desktop replacement laptops that I've encountered have all the power of a desktop, but are too large and cumbersome to take with you everywhere. Dell attempts to find the balance between power and portability with the Dell XPS M1210. Can this laptop match a desktop in power yet be small enough to take everywhere? Read on for the full review!<!> <PAGEBREAK> It’s In The Box Let's start off by saying that Dell offers a lot of options for this laptop. To be truthful, Dell offers a lot of options for all of its products, which is something I have always liked about them. If needed, a USB TV tuner can be added to make this laptop a multimedia center monster. Or if you do a lot of presentations on the road, there's a Bluetooth ExpressCard remote control that stores and charges in the ExpressCard slot of the laptop. Say you need to be connected to the Internet everywhere you go. Well you can with optional mobile broadband from providers like Sprint and Verizon. The sky is the limit with this laptop, so it would seem. This particular laptop was packaged with the following: <li>AC Adaptor; <li>Noise cancelling earbuds; <li>53 Whr 6-cell Lithium Ion primary battery; <li>85 Whr 9-cell Lithium Ion secondary battery; <li>Restore and application CDs. Under the Hood Configuration and customization is also a quality that Dell brings to the table. Besides all the goodies and extras you can buy along with your computer, Dell allows you enough options to pretty much build your own PC from scratch. System price varies with the options and features one chooses, of course. This particular laptop has the following configuration and features: <li>Intel Core 2 Duo T7200 Processor (2GHz/667MHz/4MB); <li>2GB DDR2 667MHz RAM; <li>256MB NVIDIA GeForce GO 7400 Turbocache video card; <li>80GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive; <li>12 inch Wide-screen WXGA Display with True Life (1280 x 800 resolution); <li>8X DVD+/-RW DL Drive; <li>Integrated SoundBlaster Audigy; <li>Wireless 802.11 A/G; <li>Bluetooth 2.0. So, taking a look a the above features we see that it has a Core 2 Duo 2GHz processor, 2GB worth of fairly fast RAM, and a 256MB video card. That looks like the stats of a decent desktop system to me. The only thing in that list that I find lacklustre is the 5400RPM hard drive, but to be fair Dell does offer a 7200RPM upgrade drive also. So it’s got the inner workings of a desktop PC, but what about the outside? Is it ultra portable or just something that you would rather leave at home? Here are its dimensions: <li>Width: 11.7 in.; <li>Depth: 8.7 in.; <li>Height: 1.2 in.; <li>Weight: 4.4 pounds with 6 cell battery. To put this in perspective, this laptop is slightly larger than an 8x11 sheet of paper. That’s pretty small when you compare it to the standard 15” laptop that is popular these days. At almost four and half pounds, though, it seems a little heavy to me, especially when you are talking about a device that you want to take with you everywhere. The weight is really noticeable when you pick it up. It seems very heavy for something so small. But the fact remains that the M1210 is still two pounds lighter than your average laptop and four pounds lighter than the average desktop replacement laptop. So how does it fair with its ultra-portable competition? The M1210 is about two to three pounds heavier than the other ultra-portable laptops on the market. Ouch! One or two pounds seem a lot more portable than four pounds does. But in the end, this is about a balance between power and portability, and when you look at it as being as powerful as an eight pound laptop yet the size of a two pound laptop, maybe that little extra weight is acceptable after all. <img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/baxter-xps-figure1.jpg" /> Figure 1: The Dell XPS M1210 - small yet surprisingly heavy. <PAGEBREAK> Other Details The Dell XPS M1210 ships with Windows Vista Home Premium installed. The 12.1” widescreen display delivers an amazingly sharp and crisp picture. With the brightness setting at 50%, I had no problem seeing the picture on the screen in most lighting conditions and with it set at 100% it does well in bright sunlight. The 1280 x 800 resolution is a good fit for the screen, everything is small enough to seem like you're working with a larger display, but not too small that it’s hard to see. One cool feature of this laptop is the built-in Logitech 1.3 megapixel webcam. It's located on top of the display and can swivel around so you can also use it as a digital camera. This is definitely one of the better webcams that I've used. The picture quality is good; it tracks motion smoothly, has a great low light filter, and can be set to track up to 2 faces at the same time. With the built in microphone, video conferencing is a snap. Plus it can also record video at a resolution of 640 x 480, and take pictures. <img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/baxter-xps-figure2.jpg" /> Figure 2: The mighty rotating camera. One of the cool features of the Dell XPS M1210. It is located on top and in the center of the LCD. The keyboard is good, and doesn't feel cramped at all despite being part of such a small laptop. The tactile response is nice and it executes keystrokes quietly. The touchpad, while being responsive, is just a tad too small for my tastes. While there is no room to make it taller, there is plenty of room to make it a little bit wider and doing so would not affect the symmetry of the laptop at all. The laptop also includes the following list of ports and connectors: <li>4 USB 2.0 ports; <li>1 Firewire port; <li>1 Ethernet port; <li>1 Modem port; <li>1 VGA port; <li>1 S-Video port; <li>1 Multi-card reader port that supports SD/MMC/MS/PRO/xD cards; <li>2 Headphone jacks; <li>1 Microphone jack; <li>1 ExpressCard slot. There is nothing really new to report here, just your standard ports and connectors that are found on most laptops these days. The 4 USB ports are divided between the right and left side of the laptop, which is nice. The multi-card reader is hidden away under the DVD burner so nicely that one could almost overlook it. The Ethernet connector is the only connector that is located on the rear of the laptop. The M1210 also has a hardware switch for turning on and off the WiFi and Bluetooth radios. If you slide the switch forward it automatically launches an application that searches for WiFi access points. Another feature this laptop has comes in the form of a piece of software called MediaDirect. It's possible to boot the M1210 directly into MediaDirect to watch movies, listen to music, or even view PowerPoint presentations. MediaDirect is great for those situations where you don’t need a full blown OS to accomplish what you are trying to do. There are hardware buttons on the front of the laptop for direct control of a DVD or CD while using the MediaDirect software. <PAGEBREAK> Battery Life, the Number One Question! The Dell XPS comes with a 53WHr 6-Cell battery and Dell recommends you purchase the larger 85Whr 9-cell battery. Is it needed? Well as luck would have it I was able to test both. I tested the batteries under normal working conditions with the WiFi and Bluetooth radios on and with them turned off. These tests were also done while using the Dell recommended power profile. The 53WHr battery performs terribly with the radios turned on. At most I was able to get about 90 minutes worth of work time out of the laptop doing standard things like checking email, surfing the web, and balancing my check book. When I turned the radios off, I was able to use it for 3 hours and 20 minutes performing similar tasks. So by turning off the wireless and Bluetooth radios I got more than twice as much time out of the 53WHr battery. So how does the bigger battery fare? Let’s see. The first comment I have to make is that the larger battery sticks out noticeably from the rear of the laptop, which makes the laptop look a little clunky. The second thing I noticed is that it does add weight to the laptop. Not as much as one would think, but enough to be noticeable. I'm pretty sure that we are still less than five pounds though. I did the same tests as before and this time the results were better. The real question though, is how much better were they? With the radios on I got 2 hours and 30 minutes out of the 85Whr battery and with radios off it achieved 5 hours and 20 minutes. I think that’s a big improvement over the 53WHr battery. This leads me to say that even though the extended battery does add weight and size, it's worth getting it for the extra life it gives the laptop. <img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/baxter-xps-figure3.jpg" /> Figure 3: As can be seen, the Dell extended battery sticks out quite a bit from the back of the laptop. Benchmarks Using a trial version of Performance Test 6.1, I ran a benchmark test comparing the laptop to the desktop I use at work. How does this little laptop compare to the desktop that I use everyday at work? Let’s find out. First, though, I should give a little info about my desktop PC. It's a Dell OptiPlex GX520 that I have been using for about a year and a half now. It has a Hyperthreading 3.0GHz processor, 1GB of RAM, and an Intel chipset video card. Not exactly a monster performer, I know, but it still gets the job done. The Performance Test 6.1 software runs a battery of CPU, graphics card, and disk access tests assigning a final number that is an average of all the test scores. Of course, the higher the score the faster the PC is. Let’s see how these machines did. <li>Dell OptiPlex GX520 – 279.8; <li>Dell XPS M1210 – 457.2. As can be seen the M1210 beats the OptiPlex by 177.4 points which is quite a large margin all things considered. Based on those numbers, I think I can safely say that this laptop has the power of a desktop behind it! Conclusions The Dell XPS M1210 is a laptop that tries to fill two shoes. It wants to be powerful enough to replace a desktop PC while remaining portable enough to take with you anywhere. Does it accomplish this feat? Yes and no. The M1210 definitely brings the power; it soundly thrashed my work desktop, which while I will admit is slightly outdated, has never had problems performing the tasks needed of it. Is it ultra-portable? Not as much as I would have liked. I can’t see myself taking it everywhere like I do with my PDA. The size is about right, but it's just a little too heavy. Overall I think it's an excellent little laptop and a solid performer, if it were lighter and had better battery performance, nothing would to compare to it. Chris Baxter is an IT Professional and part time Web Designer who resides in North Aurora, Illinois. Playing video games, watching movies, or reading a good book are what occupies his time when he is not fixing computers or trying to get his hands on the latest gadgets.