A New and *Happy* m1530 Owner

After seeing so many negative posts about the m1530, I felt the need to post a positive review of my newly acquired m1530 (2 days old). First things first: I'm not a Dell fanboy; in fact, quite the opposite. I always thought "Dell" and "high-end" was pretty much a misnomer and I swore to myself I'd never get one. But the XPS line always intrigued me: solid specs, supposed strong build, modern design touches. Let's just say the recent deals convinced me to give it a try.

I should tell you that I'm coming directly from a Macbook Pro, so I wasn't interested in "downgrading" by any means. I was seeking at the very least an equal, and perhaps even something better (hey, a guy can dream, can't he?). For those curious, the MBP is a beautiful machine and worthy of all its accolades, but ultimately my decision to move away had more to do with OS X than anything else. If you want more details on that, just ask.

So first, the specs:

XPS M1530, Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T7700 (2.4GHz/800MHzFSB, 4M L2 Cache)
3GB, DDR2, 667MHz 2 Dimm
15.4 inch Wide Screen WXGA+ TrueLife LCD
256MB NVIDIA GeForce 8600M G
200G 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive Free Fall Sensor
8X DVD+/-RW Slot Load Drive
Integrated Sound Blaster Audigy
Intel 4965AGN Wireless-N Mini-card
56 WHr 6-cell Lithium Ion P Primary Battery
85 WHr 9-cell Lithium Ion Additional Battery
3 Year Limited Warranty

Final cost: $1,657.43

After reading so many posts, I wanted to focus on what people seem to ask the most about. So here goes.

Monitor
I got the LG monitor and supposedly I'm one of the lucky ones. There is a little bit of backlight bleeding at the bottom edges but nothing excessive. I can also detect minor grainyness but I'm a Photoshop hound so I'm picky about my pixels. I think the average consumer would be extremely pleased at the display quality. Me, I'm more than satisfied.

Hard Drive Noise/CPU Whine
I'm very sensitive to sounds. I have an external WD MyBook that I manually shut down when I'm not using it because I can't stand when it idles down on its own and makes this wheezing sound. So I would be upset if I heard any excessive hard drive or CPU noises. None on this laptop. Very quiet, very fast.

What about the slot-loading drive?
My MBP was loud when accepting and ejecting discs. Much louder than the m1530. On the Dell it's not whisper quiet but I expect this because of the very nature of the slot-loading mechanics.

Is the keyboard sloped in the middle?
Not at all. It seems perfectly flat to me when viewed at eye level. Can't detect any bump at all in the middle like some have reported.

Does it run hot?
I expect my laptops to run a little hot now and then. Every notebook I've ever owned has displayed this tendency. I'm not bothered at all by the heat on the m1530, and I wouldn't place it anywhere near the top in terms of severity.

How's the overall build?
Coming from the MBP, I think the m1530 does fall short in some areas. Some parts feel cheap, such as the WiFi switch and the upper panels to the right and left of the top control buttons. The bezel around the webcam has noticeable flex and actually makes a clicking sound when pressed. But as an entire package, it's well built and I would not be afraid at all to travel with it. The brushed aluminum palmrest is nice. The keyboard has good tactile response and the touch-sensitive controls work really well. Very cool. The touchpad was a little jumpy at first, but I played with the settings and it's perfect now. In addition, I like the touchpad buttons: somewhere in between mushy and firm feedback, but doesn't make a loud clicking sound like some laptops. Just right, in my opinion.

So what's my verdict?
I don't want to turn this into a MBP vs m1530 debate, but seeing as how I gave up one for the other, I guess I should share my own verdict. So am I happy I made the switch? Yes, absolutely. Although the build on the MBP is far superior, spec for spec, and feature for feature, the m1530 wins when considering overall cost. I love having the fingerprint scanner and the memory card reader. I love that you can store the remote. I love the dual headphone jacks, and the dual digital mics. I love the WiFi catcher feature. And even if it's not packaged in the sleekest design out there, it's pretty enough for me. In short, I love my new laptop, and only hope there are others out there who feel the same.

Feel free to ask any questions.

 

nice post, this should help the future 1530 buyers. Seems like very good lappy . Enjoy

 

That's a good review. I love this laptop too even though I might send it back. I am worried that I won't get a better deal or quality for the price I paid for this notebook

 

Thanks for that post, cant wait to get my m1530 !
This gives me a lot more hope in my order

Can you tell us a bit about why OS X was the reason for changing over?
Cheers.

 

First, congrats on your purchase! That boxing stage should last a couple of days...I know how long that can feel.

I've always been a PC guy for work and for play, but I thought getting the MBP would be the best of all worlds: the quality of the laptop, the elegance of OS X, and the ability to fall back on Windows if needed. But I found myself frustrated with OS X: in some part because I had to re-learn many things (so that's my shortcoming), but also because I didn't find it to be the magical OS I expected. Perhaps I was expecting too much? I was also frustrated by the lack of software choices. For every one Mac application I could choose from several Windows ones that did the job better. So I found myself using Parallels more and more to access my Windows apps, and honestly the MBP shouldn't be used that way. After 15 minutes in Parallels the fan on the MBP would kick into overdrive.

So ultimately I decided that while OS X has plenty of strong points, I simply decided it wasn't for me, and therefore keeping the MBP would have been a complete waste.

Luckily, even after 8 months of use, I was able to sell it for more than what I paid for the m1530.

 

Man, I hope I get an LG screen. That's the only issue I've heard of that I'm concerned about.

I'd like to here why you don't like OSX. Most people who use Macs are fanboys and wouldn't admit disliking anything about it, even if their machine was crashing every day.

 

Congrats, nice review and good to see another new xps owner is happy!

 

Very nice review.

This machine is very nice, and seems to be just what Dell needed.

 

I also did a reverse switch from an old G4 iBook (6 years worth of use and still reliable but slow) to my M1330, I am also very happy with my purchase apart from a bit of whine that sounds worse when placed on a solid surface not too bad when on your lap! I also get an occasional Hard Disk 'click' that I'm trying to resolve. The build quality is quite good but I agree that one or 2 things have a cheapish feel but overall it looks and feels great. Another concern is having to reboot most days to get around sleep issues such as wi-fi refusing to reconnect or the touchpad scrolling areas becoming inactive but I guess these are either Vista or driver issues that may be resolved with SP1 (touch wood). With my Apple I could leave it on for weeks without ever needing to reboot and would wake from sleep in about 2 secs and that was on an old 800MHz G4 running Tiger! Having said that I am more than happy with my M1330 considering the extra hardware you get for your money and I actually quite like Vista (I can hear the laughing!), if I have to reboot once a day that takes a minute of my time then so be it I can live with that for the other benefits

 

Got identical spec dude but ran into a bit of drama with webcam which has gone down. The Webcam Manager suite talls me 'no camera attached'. 'Plug in to start.'

Any ideas would be welcome. Tech in India says factory reset due to software corruption. I say hardware problem your view? That sif you can get it to work and actually have a view.
Regards,
Charlie