Recent XPS 1530 - Mini-Review

Greetings - I just received my new XPS 1530 three days ago and I wanted to offer some comments. First of all, overall, I am very happy with it and I do not regret buying it. My specs are T5850 / 3-Gb / Nvidia 8600 with 1440x900 LED LCD / 9-cell. The packaging indicated the system was made in Malaysia. I paid $1163 for it shipped (to Iraq) and the box arrived with no damage at all.

Build Quality: Build quality is near perfect - none of the bad seams or missing screws or any of the other complaints I have seen here on NBR. The LCD lid is blue and I am disappointed that it has three sets of fingerprints, from manufacturing or assembly, which I have been unable to remove. But, you really have to be looking for them in just the right lighting conditions to the see the fingerprints. I really like the keyboard and I understand it is easy to replace and readily available. One minor quibble, the 9-cell battery is putting a rub mark on the bottom of the case.

Dell's Cheats: As noted by other posters, Dell has started cheating with their recent XPS systems - mine did not have the XPS slipcase, the booklet for the CD's nor the ear phones. I suppose this is not surprising given the current economic situation.

Display: I am very happy with the CMO (which I think is Chi Mei Optronics) LED LCD - it is very bright and the colors are excellent. I cannot see any of the graininess reported by others. There are a couple of issues though. During the boot process, in a darkened room, there are more shadows and "ugliness" visible on this LCD than with any previous laptop LCD. That said, once the LCD is fully lit with a light background, it is beautiful. And, a diagonal streak on the inside of the LCD is also visible during the boot process - again only in a darkened room. Last thing on the LCD, the Quickset brightness control is better on XP than in Vista. In Vista, the levels go from dim to fairly bright, with the last step up being a major increase in brightness. The XP Quickset install works better in this regard.

XP Install: The XP install was painful but I did not encounter any BSOD's or serious problems. I used XP SP2 with SATA drivers slipstreamed onto it with no problems. There are several excellent threads here on NBR with directions for this including drivers. Audio, as expected, was the hardest to find and I finally located Dell R180044 which proved to be perfect for the audio chipset on my 1530.

Vista/Dual-Boot: No problems installing Vista SP1 from the included DVD after XP was installed. The WEI with the Dell factory drivers is 5.5 for gaming which is fine for me. So far I have only played SWAT4 and R6Vegas2 and both play very smoothly.

Overall: Aside from the quibbles about the LCD mentioned above, and the fingerprints on the lid, I am very happy with my 1530 and I'm glad I got one before they are (rumored to be) discontinued. It is only slightly bigger than my 14" Asus F8Sa and I cannot find anything major to complain about!!

 

hey congrats on your purchase! yes i must say the m1530 is a fine machine, it will serve you well

(might wanna update your sig heheh, 5 laptops in the same desk.... geez )

as for the led screen, i think you are referring to the light bleeding that some screens have, if it doesnt bother you then its no issue at all.

 

Actually - I have several other laptops that are no longer in my sig!! I have my (work-issued) Dell M90 in the hooch with me - along with the XPS, Asus F8 and Eee PC. The Gateway and both H-P's are reposing back in Germany. The dv4z was an impulse buy and regretted - XP won't run worth a hoot on it - so it will be hawked when I get back to Heidelberg.

 

That was a very nice *mini review* you did on your 1530

I enjoyed reading it!

I have the 1530, also and enjoy it ever so much!

Cin