Dell Announces XPS M1530

Can't say I'm impressed...only thing it's got on the Inspiron is 1.3 fewer pounds and arguably better looks. A few higher-end options, as well, yes, but they're in processor and SSD, not graphics (at least not confirmed - I'll believe GDDR3 when someone shows it). With the Inspirion coupon it's a steal, but without that, it isn't. It isn't making me want to trade my Inspiron for it...especially since I got a better deal five months ago!

 

did dell canada quote the wrong price for the blu-ray drive? how come it only costs $300CAD in Canada and $500USD in the US? I know canadian currency is up, but certainly not by that much!

 

The $300 off coupon certainly changes the way you look at it (wasn't there something about XPS models not having coupons?)

HDMI == DVI. Get the $5 adapter, its not that difficult. Besides, DVI is more useful for outputing to external monitors, just as HDMI is for TVs. The MBP has a backlit keyboard, and IMO its better than the Dell keyboard. The amount of VRAM won't change much about the gaming performance, other than the few hundred 3DMark06 points. The price difference is not $600 or how much ever you quoted. Not nearly that. Two grand for an MBP - buy it online and save the tax. $100 for a copy of XP Home, so total is $2100. Identically spec the M1530, and you get close to $1600, to which you need to add tax, for a total of $1700 or so, depending on where you live. Yes, its quite a lot, but you give up quite a bit in some rather important areas, namely weight, dual booting, and the screen. Consider that the LED backlit screen is a $300 option on the M1330, and when applied to the M1530, that nets a price of just over 2000. $80, when you are already spending two grand, makes nearly no difference.

 

I assume it's the read-only blu-ray drive because the read-only blu-ray drive for Inspiron laptops is also $300CAD.

 

Well, I guess it's a matter of opinion, but I prefer the Dell keyboard (at least the one on the M1330)... I just find the MBP keyboard a bit soft and mushy.

PS M1530 Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor T7500 (2.2GHz/800Mhz FSB, 4MB Cache) H75DHN [223-3526]
Operating System Genuine Windows® Vista Home Premium Edition
System Color Tuxedo Black BKMSAT [313-5814]
Memory 2GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz (2 Dimms) 2GB2D [311-7821]
LCD, Color and camera Glossy, widescreen 15.4 inch LCD (1280x800) & 2.0 MP Camera DHXCAM [320-6077][420-7715]
Video Card 256MB NVIDIA® GeForce® 8600M GT 25686GT [320-6082]
Hard Drives Size: 120GB 5400rpm SATA Hard Drive 120G54 [341-5630]
Software - Adobe Adobe® Acrobat® Reader 7.0 ADOBER [412-0917]
Combo or DVD+RW Drive Slot Load DVD+/-RW (DVD/CD read/write) 8XDVDRW [313-5820][420-6464]
Sound Card High Definition Audio 2.0 IS [313-4783]
Wireless Networking Cards Intel Next -Gen Wireless -N Mini -card IP4965 [430-2449]
Productivity No Microsoft Office MSONO [412-1397]
Software - Antivirus Trend Micro Internet Security 15-months TM15M [410-1174]
Primary Battery 85 WHr 9-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery 9BAT [312-0639]
Warranty & Service 1Yr In-Home Service, Parts Labor,24x7 Phone Support S1OS
Accident and Theft Protection 1Yr LoJack for Laptops Theft Protection (CD Shipped Separately) LJ1 [986-3557][A0973377]
Dial-Up Internet Access No ISP requested NISP [412-0148]
Bluetooth Options Dell Wireless 355 Bluetooth Internal (2.0+Enhanced Data Rate) H355I [430-2566]
Processor Branding MOD,LBL,INTEL,NB,MEROM IC2DNB [310-8319]
Dell Printer Driver VISTA PREMIUM STICKER, INSP VPN [310-8628]
DataSafe Online Backup DataSafe Online Backup 10GB for 1 year

Sub Total $1,519.00

Am I missing something?

Oh, and when I add it to my cart, I see this:

"Get a $200 Gift Card on systems $1499+ (cards to arrive in 6-8 weeks)
Limited Time Offer!"

Nice touch.

So not counting the gift card, it's about what I said: a $580 difference between the M1530 and the MBP + Windows. I said before that that difference does not account for the screen difference. I wouldn't really call the screen difference a $300 diff; Dell overcharges for that on the M1330 IMO. But yes, the MBP has a nicer screen. The M1530 price includes a year of LoJack and in-home service too, fingerprint reader, media card reader, and extra video RAM as I mentioned. Still, I agree I'd rather have the MBP's better screen than all that. But then there's also Dell's $200 gift card...

If you still want to save additional money, you can buy the 2 gb RAM at newegg instead of from Dell. (You might not be able to get the gift card in that case, though.)

Dual booting? LOL... You can dual-boot the Dell just fine... just download Ubuntu.

But hey, get the MBP if you like, it's a great machine... between these two, I probably would pick the MBP too, if I couldn't wait until Dell offers a higher resolution on the M1530.

 

Oh man and i just totally blew it on that Inspiron 1520!! Haven't gotten it yet though, its going to arrive on Dec 10.

I shop from Dell China's Website & it has the 8600GTs on the Inspiron's stated as DDR2, but its got DDR3 listed on the M1530.

I customized the M1520 with the exact same specs as the Inspiron 1520 I ordered (the only difference was the screen, i picked 1440x900) and it only came up to a difference of US$225!! only that the XPS had a fingerprint scanner and built-in webcam and looked way better..


1520 Spec list:

• Core2Duo T7500 2.2GHz, 4MB L2 Cache, 800 MHz FSB
• 2GB (2x1024) 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM Memory
• NVIDIA(R) GeForce(TM) Go 8600M GT 256MB DDR2
• 15.4' WXGA+ (1440x900) TFT TrueLife
• 120GB 5,400RPM SATA HD
• Next-Gen Wireless-N MiniCard
• Wireless 355 Bluetooth Module For Vista

 

Have to admit its not as pricy as I thought it will be , yet not such a hot deal .

In reality there is nothing new about this XPS that we havn't seen several months ago , Inspiron 1520 inclded .

A LED display minus 2 pounds would have done it good .

 

and a coupon code would help....sry i just like coupons lol

 

I'm not an expert concerning laptop chips and such, but I think that this laptop is a nice deal.

But why don't you guys like the screen of that Dell?
Is the Glossy, widescreen 15.4 inch LCD (1280x800) not a good one?
Is it because the view angles are too small? or because it's just too glossy thus makes it hard to see during the day?

 

its low resolution compared to wut u can get on similar notebooks (up to 1600x1050 i think)

 

plus, it seems the XPS 1530 is missing the traditional phone line jack...
not that it's used often but never know when it might come in handy.

 

Oh okay! But on the site of Dell, it doesn't say if there is backlighting in the screen.

Is back lighting that important?

 

all the screens come with back lighting, it's just some are made different, eg. the LCD and LED screens.

 

I agree with you about the phone line jack. You never know if you'll have wi-fi everywhere!
But no phone line jack would mean no dial-up modem, is that the case?

 

yes. unless you want to carry round an external modem, which would be alot more hassling.
btw, the 1530s come with LED back light not LCD.

 

It is very low res for the size of the screen. It would be fine for games, with AA turned on, but the desktop would look pretty bad. It is the screen resolution of the much smaller M1330, so really doesn't make sense to be on the M1530. Hopefully the better screens will be an option not too far in the future. I'm waiting until then. My other option is the ASUS F8SV-B1 but it is limited to a 6 cell battery and doesn't look as sharp as the M1530.

 

Well, Apple managed to put it on its MBPs...

And good thing they got the 8600M GT in there. 8400 graphics would be bad. They didn't manage to keep the "4 lbs." weight though .

 

To clarify, conventionally displays used CCFL-backlighting. The XPS M1330, MacBook Pro and a few others, are using the new LED-backlighting.

No, the new XPS M1530 uses the "old" (although almost all notebooks are still using this form) CCFL-backlighting, not the new LED-backlighting.

 

Would the 256mb 8600M GT DDRIII Graphics card in this M1530 outperform the 512mb 8600M GT DDRII Graphics card found in the Zepto gaming laptops?

 

I think that they are going to have the same capabilities, but the 512mb one will do better in conditions where a loads of details are on the screen.
Like a 512mb would be better in Crysis than the 256mb one.
This is just as matter of example, I don't even know if those would run crysis lol

 

I am disappointed in the xps m1530. It is just not competitive when apple offers a superior product, with superior performance.

Price always comes into the factor but you just don't get a very good price performance ratio out of it either. I mean the resolution on the screen is abysmal. They should have stuck with the same design philosophy as the m1330 but just slapped a 8800m gts into the thing.

 

8800M isn't available yet. Also, did you see how thick the m15x was? My god that laptop was fat! No way your going to be able to cool the 8800 in the 1530 chassis.

I think Dell wants to get this notebook out to people before xmas and in order to do that had to go with available parts.

I commend them for that, actually. There will be other screen resolutions in a few weeks so if you don't need it by xmas then don't order it yet - pretty simple....

 

It's a, "deliver in time for Christmas" resolution, it won't always be the only option. Also, the form factor of the M1330 won't allow for anything better than an 8400. You won't see a better video card on any ultra portable.

 

I'm disappointed that all the Dell's still do not use Gigabit ethernet (besides the Latitudes and Precisions). Resolution is fine for now as 1280x800 isn't bad; my 19" LCD uses only 1280x1024. As for the comparison to Apple's MBP, I'd have to respectfully disagree. Dell offers more options to customize the notebook, is far cheaper, and you can actually swap batteries. Eventually, the M1530 will get its LED screen. This isn't to bash Apple's MBP, since it is the lightest 15.4" laptop, has great performance, and I really like the MagSafe concept.

 

I'm a bit surprised at the low resolution on this. 1280x800 on a 15.4-inch screen...when most people already complain about the MacBook Pro's 1440x900.

 

There are better resolutions on the way.

 

I didn't mean that they should put a 8800m in a m1330.

What I was trying to articulate was that they should have stuck to the same design principles.

Which was the "squeeze as many high powered features into the form factor".

What we have with the m1530 is a notebook fatter then the a MBP, with arguably less features/performance.

If you are going to make a fatter notebook then the MBP dell should of made it perform better, hence my 8800m comment. Putting it in would of put the xps 1530 in a different league, or as marketing people would like to say, product differentiation.

Things I am specifically thinking is wrong with the m1530,

no LED 1440x900 screen. Its not neccessary but it would of gone a long way to make the laptop lighter and thinner.

bad choice in GPU. the 8600m's are based on last generations technology. With the advent of 65nm GPU's from nvidia and 55nm gpu's from ATI, dell would of made a much worthier investment by using those newer parts. THey are more heat and energy efficient.
And before anyone says you can't use those parts due to heat I say you are wrong. Just underclock the things and they will produce less heat. Having smaller memory caches will also produce less heat (less chips to cool). Sure you get less performance but it has already been proven that per watt the G92 core is more efficient then G80.

I think when intel releases 45nm mobile chips we will see something worthwhile of the price tag these laptops are commanding, at the moment I feel like the current offerings on the market isn't of value.

 

I really would like to see them provide upgrades of 1680x1050 screens with LED back lighting. I hope it will come soon.


I also saw on Dell's site that there were 250gb 5400rpm and 160gb 7200rpm to choose from (for no additional expenses).
Which would be more energy (heat/electric consumption) efficient?

 

A 8800M chip is still more expensive compared to the 8600M. Dell is all about the cheapness and less about the performance. And if u wanna stuff a 8800M in, the current chassis won't make it. Dell is lousy at designing look good stuff, they dun wan to be criticized by the ppl again coz they designed a ugly notebook. Looks do sell... and if u argued how nice the Dell designed M1330, I ll give u just a LMAO.

 

You can swap batteries on an MBP; not sure why you think you can't. The battery is on the bottom of the laptop but is removable and swappable.

Also, is the XPSM1530 really "far cheaper"? I just configured an XPSM1530 as close as I could to the $1999 MBP (2.2GHz CPU, 2GB RAM, 160GB HD, 256MB 8600M GT, Wireless N, bluetooth) and it came out to around $1650. This isn't exact (more VRAM than the MBP, larger HD), but it's roughly close - and the MBP has its own intangibles, such as being only 5.4 pounds and 1" thick uniformly. Considering this is with a 1280x800 CCFL LCD panel instead of a 1440x900 LED-backlit panel, I still wouldn't say this is "far cheaper".

It is true that Apple doesn't offer configuration options like a 1.5GHz CPU, etc. to bring the cost down to a more minimum level, so I do agree with the "more configuration options", to be sure.

-Zadillo

 

MacBook Pro competition, anyone?

 

I think once they add the additional screen res options and LED-backlighting, yeah. I think the area especially where it could really help is for people who want some of the perks of the MBP but don't want to spend $2000, and maybe want to configure it with a cheaper CPU, etc. that isn't offered with the MBP.

And it's definitely closer for those people who are only interested in the MBP for the hardware and don't want to run OS X.

-Zadillo

 

We somehow think the same zadillo!
Dell NEEDS absolutely to put LED backlighting to it's xps or else it's completely useless to have put it in the prenium class if it doesn't have the latest technology. This is how I see it.

 

anybody confirmed gddr3 yet?

 

The new GPU's aren't available yet.

 

You guys think they will offer an 8800gtx ? That would boost sales pretty well imo...

Because m15x is stealing ALL the spotlight... the only single 15 inch laptop to have 8800gtx...

 

The m15x appears to be considerably larger and heavier than the XPSM1530. It isn't going to be able to have the same internal components and capabilities that the m15x does.

The point of the XPSM1530 is more about being a relatively light and slim 15" notebook.

-Zadillo

 

According to Nvidia, 9 series will be due for Feb 2008.
Maybe they'll do something about it by then, although I think that the new cards will be bigger, and will not fit in the chassis.

 

What are you talking about?

Those are desktop cards... they will be beasts...

8800gtx just got released... theres no way we will have a new high end mobile gpu by next February.... maybe in a year or so...

Ahhh! I cant wait to see how good (or bad) DX10.1 will be... and then how the 9800m series will blow away the current 8800m

 

Oh sorry I have to rectify myself.
I wanted to say ,
"According to Digitimes ... "

But yeah, I had not thought about the time factor, as I thought that they would be releaseing both mobile and desktop graphics at the same time.