Yessssss, It Finally Arrived: my Dell XPS M1330

[Jason Dunn]

<img src="http://www.jasondunn.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/jd-dell-xps-m1330-day1.JPG" /><br /><br /><img src="http://www.jasondunn.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/jd-dell-xps-m1330-day3.JPG" /><br /><br />I've been playing with my new Dell XPS M1330 quite a bit over the past couple of days - after waiting forever for it, it's great to finally have it in my hands. My first impressions, stream of consciousness style? Here we go...<br /><br />It's impressive. Incredibly fast. Great fit and finish. Love the red satin cover, love the aluminum on the inside. Slot load DVD drive is cool - but the eject button doesn't always work. 802.11n is fast (I've connected up to 117 mbps), but seems inconsistent and I'm not seeing transfers speeds as fast as I'd expect. Only two USB ports - pity. No CompactFlash slot (darn). Came pre-loaded with Norton AntiVirus, Google Desktop Search, Google Toolbar, Google Desktop Sidebar - none of which I want, so I'll have to reformat the whole thing and re-build it from scratch (grumble). Did I mention it's fast? So damn fast - I installed City of Heroes and the video card (128 MB NVIDIA 8400M GS) handled it without a problem, smooth like butta'. The screen is gorgeous, very bright at max brightness, but so very dull at anything less than about 70% brightness. The 1280 x 800 resolution isn't bad, but higher would have been better - why not 1440 x 900? If the Dell 14.1" screen notebooks have an option for 1440 x 900, why not this high-priced beast?<br /><br />Gonna' see about getting 4 GB of RAM put in there, I'll only get access to 3.5 GB, but hey that's better than 2 GB. Lightroom runs great on this, the CPU is very fast (I got the 2.2 Ghz model). Overall the unit is very quiet, and you can only just barely hear the fan under heavy load. Seems to be some quirks with suspend/resume - it just takes way too long, screen flashes off and on, seems sloppy. My old XP-based Fujitsu upgraded to Vista is faster at suspend/resume, so this is just unacceptable. The fingerprint reader is a neat gimmick, but the software is sloppy and dysfunctional, I don't know if I'll use it. So far, I'd give this an 8 out of 10 rating as a laptop. Dell did quite good here, but my expectations were a touch higher for an XPS laptop that's eight months into Vista's cycle.

[Jason Dunn]

I forgot to add my thoughts about the battery: the 9 cell battery sticks out with a big hump, but it does act as a small laptop stand, boosting the laptop up a bit - that's kind of neat. Battery life is pretty good - I haven't done any serious testing yet, but I think it will last 5 hours under normal conditions without a problem. What sucks is that I'm coming from a laptop that lasted 10 hours, so that's an adjustment for me. I'm trying to get my hands on a 6-cell battery, the one that doesn't hump out...but I may just get used to this hump battery.

[Jeremy Charette]

Which laptop went 10 hours? The Fujitsu?

[Jason Dunn]

Which laptop went 10 hours? The Fujitsu?

Yup - 10 hours with both batteries installed (primary + drive bay).

[randalllewis]

That is one nice looking laptop Jason. My employer is getting me a new laptop too, but a much less cool Gateway NX model. Your Dell is more proof that there are people outside of Apple in the tech world who have an eye for functionality with style.

[mememe]

Given the issues you outline below towards usability and stability you might be pleasantly surprised at the level of system integrity and design you would end up with. I switched over a 1.5 years ago and haven't looked back, infact I have even upgraded the family computer to an iMac and we've now become an all mac household.

I've got a high-end notebook (vista based) from my employer that is as quirky as what you note below and most of the time it just sits in the laptop case while I run Vista on Parallels on the MacBook Pro for the few windows apps I occasionally use. But, what you find out after using OSX for a while is that there aren't many apps on Vista that OSX can't replace, specifically in my case work applications. With the Mac versions being equal to or better than the Windows versions or like programs.


Came pre-loaded with Norton AntiVirus, Google Desktop Search, Google Toolbar, Google Desktop Sidebar - none of which I want, so I'll have to reformat the whole thing and re-build it from scratch (grumble)... The screen is gorgeous, very bright at max brightness, but so very dull at anything less than about 70% brightness... Seems to be some quirks with suspend/resume - it just takes way too long, screen flashes off and on, seems sloppy... The fingerprint reader is a neat gimmick, but the software is sloppy and dysfunctional, I don't know if I'll use it. So far, I'd give this an 8 out of 10 rating as a laptop. Dell did quite good here, but my expectations were a touch higher for an XPS laptop that's eight months into Vista's cycle. 8) 8) 8)

[Jason Dunn]

Given the issues you outline below towards usability and stability you might be pleasantly surprised at the level of system integrity and design you would end up with.

No offense, but telling a guy that just dropped $2700 on a new laptop to "try a Mac instead" is pretty ridiculous. I've made my decision. Try me again in about two years. ;-)

[mememe]

Given the issues you outline below towards usability and stability you might be pleasantly surprised at the level of system integrity and design you would end up with.

No offense, but telling a guy that just dropped $2700 on a new laptop to "try a Mac instead" is pretty ridiculous. I've made my decision. Try me again in about two years. ;-)

What's ridiculous about it?

You do have a return period don't you :?: or does this hardware vendor not support its customers with this type of ability :oops: Obviously you might have wanted to evaluate the full spectrum of options prior to making a purchase of this magnitude.

To call my suggestion out as being ridiculous does nothing to reinforce your decision making process. It's like saying "well, I have made my bed, I am going to sleep in it even if I 'can' change the sheets" :?

[DFurey]

I personaly prefer my XPS 1330 over all the MAC notebooks.

There is nothing wrong with a MAC, they are good machines and I understand why some people like them (I also understand why some people don't). To each his own, however, in a corporate environment the user doesn't have that luxury (typically).

My main issue centres on the lack of decent corporate support. I was just with a collegue who was looking at MAC's as possible notebook replacements for their environment. The first thing I told him to ask about was support. As soon as the rep answered him the MAC's were no longer an option.

He wanted next day repair and possibly same day for senior management, these options aren't available (so we were told). Typical turn-around is 2-3 days, possibly a week or longer if parts aren't available. This just isn't good enough for a corporate environment, well at least the one I manage and the ones I know about (a lot).

[mememe]

many implementations already out there in larger companies.. http://www.apple.com/itpro/ follow the herd, it's fine with me :lol: but that's not what I was addressing with this thread. Jason isn't running a conglomerate. He's effectively running a small business. Anyways, cheers :D

[Jonathon Watkins]

My Dad just ordered one of these (largely on my recommendation). He's really looking forward to it. :D

[spoirier]

Hi Jason,

Now that you have had your XPS 1330 for a few months, do you have any new comments about it? I have ordered one last week just after they started to offer the new 45 nm Penryn processors which should run faster and cooler. It is supposed to ship on Feburary 29th.