Jack's Dell XPS m1530 Review!
Core 2 Duo T7500 2.2GHz
Ordered on 2/1/08 and fedex delivered on 2/8/08
3GB DDR2 sdram at 667MHz
160GB 7200RPM sata hd
256MB geforce 8600M GT (DDR3)
15.4inch lcd lg 1440x900
Slot Load dvd+/-rw
85 whr 9-cell & 6-cell Battery
The XPS came in attractive packaging!
The box on the top contained the Notebook in the very nice soft protective sleeve!
Bottom box contains the power cord, 9 cell battery, a remote control for media,
a pair of earphones, an lcd cleaning cloth, and a very nice looking leather binder
that houses the manual, driver/software CD's.
Power cord, 9 cell battery, a pair of earphones, a lcd cleaning cloth, a remote control
for media, a leather binder that houses the manual, mediadirect, OS, Applications,
Drivers,
roxio, Norton CD's.
Here is the soft case and XPS.
It reminded me of the same feeling when I got my first bike as a kid!
The actual XPS. It is very solid and has a beautiful tuxedo black matte finish
on the outer lid, accentuated with silver metallic stripes, with a chrome Dell logo
& chrome XPS logo on the back of the lid.
Open it up and you will see a nicely done brushed aluminum finish keyboard.
There is an integrated 2.0 megapixel webcam at the top of the bezel surrounding
the LCD panel, and touch sensitive media control buttons located above the keyboard.
The keys are solid and have a nice feel to them. The touchpad is smooth and has the
same metallic finish that the rest of the keyboard area has. Also, there are integrated
vertical and horizontal scrolling capabilities.
On the left side of the laptop are located the power cord port, two usb ports, vga port,
rj-45 port, an hdmi port, and a firewire port. You can also see the barrel hinge for the lid,
with the Dell logo, which has a sturdy look to it.
The right side of the laptop houses the express card reader, the slot loading DVD player,
a single USB port, S video port, and the cable lock. There is also a button located
underneath the express card slot that activates the wireless card.
The front of the laptop has two headphone jacks, a microphone jack,
and an media card reader.
There is nothng located on the back side of the laptop, other than the fan exhaust vents
Brilliant, crystal clear 1440x900 screen!
You can hook this up to your big screen TV and show fantastic pictures!
Play games on TV while relaxing on couch!
Check your emails, spreadsheets or whatever.
My XPS M1530 PCMark05 score, not bad at all!
My 3DMark score, 3,200 higher than my HP dv6000!
I have had my XPS M1530 for four weeks now and it has been incredible!
It has had no trouble with any tasks I have thrown at it. The processors give
ample room for both multimedia multitasking and gaming. So far it can easily
handle all but the most advanced games (ie. crysis...). One interesting and
useful feature of Vista that I have used on this machine is readyboost.
It allows you to allocate space on a flash drive or sd type card and use
it as a RAM cache. I have added almost another whole gb of RAM using a SD card
with this feature, and the difference can be noticeable. I would recommend
using this with and SD card, as it fits into the slot without protruding from the side,
as a flash drive would.
With all this power, any multimedia looks and sounds fantastic on this machine.
The HD screen displays movies and videos extremely well. As far as music goes,
it works very well. Using either Windows Media Center or Dell's Media Direct gives a
great experience. There it no lag time between songs, pictures or anything else.
The included remote (you get 2 by the way) works very well and fits nicely in the express slot.
In addition, you can use Dell's Media Direct system without booting up the OS, simply by pressing
the media button above the keyboard. It works pretty well, giving you access to all
your media, contacts, documents, presentations and more.
Aside from the raw power, this system simply looks amazing. It is eye-catching in just about every way.
This laptop will certainly draw the envy of everyone at the starbucks, lecture hall, hotel,
or wherever you use it. The screen it beautiful and the colors pop out.
The battery life is pretty good. I got the extended nine cell battery,
and I have gotten over 4 hours of battery life
(not playing any hardcore games and not having the screen at it's absolute brightness).
3 hours and 20 minutes watching a DVD movie with screen brightness on full!
Build quality is excellent. Being XPS, Dell didn't skimp on anything here.
The brushed metal surface on the inside looks great, while being scratch resistant
and the elegantly simplistic design on the lid is durable and aesthetically pleasing
at the same time. The touchpad is average in size (about 4.5 x 7cm), and responsive.
At the top of the keyboard is a touch strip with media and volume controls, all of
which work very well and respond quickly. One of the most interesting features is the
slot-load DVD drive. It takes some getting used to if you're used to the tray system,
but trust me when I say it is so much better. I always felt like te trays
seemed so fragile, but with the M1530, that is not a problem. To unload the disc,
there is a touch button above the keyboard that does that for you.
Cons with this notebook... The only problem with the slot load drive is that is a
bit noisier than a normal tray one. When you insert and unload a disc, it is
significantly noisier,than a tray loader, but once it is in, the noise is not a problem.
It also makes a louder noise when you start up the computer, but it is not a problem...
other than that I can see no other negatives so far!
This is an incredible machine, both in looks and power.
With the ability to play all the latest games and use all the best software,
while staying relatively lightweight and looking slick while doing it, the Dell XPS M1530
is easily one one the best laptops on the market, if not the best.
I've owned over 25 notebooks since my first one in 1985,
so I think I'm a good judge on notebooks.
For a more professional and extensive review with lots of tests & photo's,
check out this excellent review:
Dell XPS 1530 Review & Test
NEW!!! See my Custom Dell XPS 1530 Lid!
My Custom Dell XPS 1530 Lid!
My very first notebook back in 1985
1985 & 2008... old & new! !
