Dell XPS M1330 First Look Review (Video)

Yes it will save heat but from the xbit labs article it sounds like it's hardware based. This means that when they release this technology you'll need to get a gpu/system that has the technology. There won't be a software/driver solution for implementing this new tech on old hardware.

I also wonder how much this will really help small form factor laptops (sub 15.4"). I would expect that if this was in the m1330 we would be able to turn on/off the 'discrete' portions of the 8400m gs but I doubt there would be a bigger/more powerful gpu in the system.

 

I agree. With this option, i would buy this without a doubt. :-(

Back to the drawing board for me.

 

Do you have to play fore the remote control in the express slot ?

Or does it just come with the laptop like the macbook frontrow remote control ?

 

The express slot remote comes with every M1330.

 

Or you can get it for free in Canada

 

I live in China and nearly bought a Vaio SZ only at Chinese New year the stock all disappeared - then I heard about Santa Rosa and started lusting after the IBM T61... and now this Dell.

One thing I hate is seeing new models coming out in the US and not being available here (even when they are made here).

Another thing I hate is paying substantially more than in the US.

So I was very pleasantly surprised yesterday:
1. The XPS M1330 is now available in China
2. It looks to me to be cheaper than in the US (2.2 GHz, LED, webcam, NVIDIA graphics, 160GB/7200 HDD, fingerprint scanner, Vista Ultimate (English) etc.) Maybe $250 less. [Perhaps this is just a special introductory price]
3. Day1 and I understand a shipping date was estimated at 2-July I think that slipped to 10-Jul by the end of the day.
4. There is even a 2.4 GHz cpu option here (though I decided to forego it)

Revenge at last!

 

Congrats! I ordered an m1330 yesterday and our estimated ship date is JULY 27th!!!

 

Ok, a dumb question. Will the M1330 get the Nvidia 8400M GT gpu in the future?

 

Everything I've read says that that is extremely unlikely. If they do put in a bigger GPU I wouldn't expect for that to happen any time soon.

 

Well, then it is out of my buying list. The waiting continues.....

 

Brian:

Can you do me a favor and eyeball your machine for the following?

- Can the optical drive be removed to save weight?

- Can the HDD be easily removed to swap to a SDD later? say when SanDisk releases their 64GB version?

Thanks in advance.

Paul

 

had the dv2500t with the x3100 and it would not run aero (t7300, 4gb ddr2, 100gb 7.2K)

switched to the dv2500t with dedicated and it ran aero fine

 

Does anyone know when they will give us more options with the processor and screen on the Canadian site?

 

It's easy to replace/switch hard drives in modern laptops. To my knowledge SSD's are easily interchangable so long as they are the right size (a 1.8" SSD probably won't work in a 2.5" drive slot).

The optical drive has not been advertised as being removable. Since modular drive bays are a popular feature/selling point I think that means that it's not removable without minor/major surgery on the machine. If it was easily removable then I think they would have advertised it.

 

My GMA950 runs AERO perfect....

I think it's u that won't run AERO fine.

 

Is anyone thinking of getting one with the SSD drive? I have a desktop I use to serve media and I have no games. I figure I can bring my ipod with me when I travel. My main use for this computer will be websurfing and office applications. I think maybe the SSD drive is for me...Based on video reviews of other laptops it seems like it loads windows in twice the time that a regular 7200 drive does.

Also since I am traveling with this often and carrying it every day in a bag, I sort of like the idea of no movable parts.

I guess I'm between the 200 gig 7200 and the SSD drive. I can spec it with an SSD drive and remain at my budget so price isn't really a huge concern...although it does factor in. What do people think?

 

i think you are paying a real premium for a SSD right now because the technology is so new, in a year or so theyd probably be 50% less expensive and the size would be bigger. I think from a value standpoint its not a good buy.

but if you got the money to burn, i think in your situation it would probably serve you well.

I personally got the standard 120gb 5400hdd, dell kind of overcharges for their parts so if i upgrade later i rather not do it through dell

 

I was considering the SSD myself, but then it occurred to me that it might be smarter to get a cheap HD now, and then wait say 6 months or so for the SSD's to mature and drop in price. Most likely the drives will also get even faster with the wait.

But of course, if price really isnt a factor

 

Not sure if its been said already (havent read all the posts),
but what is the actual weight of the machine with the regular battery and 8400 and all that?
Dell quotes 4.0 pounds on their site along with the usual fineprint that its all standard equipment and all that. So how much does the 'optional' 8400 card and all that add up to?

 

supposed to be 4.7 pounds with the 8400 and 9 cell battery

 

i order mine through the phone, i got the 6 cell, the sales lady said its roughly around 4.2lb. not sure how accurate her statement is.

she also said the 4 cell with integrated graphics last around 6 hours under normal usage.

Im pretty sure the 8400M adds very little weight, but probably adds a pretty significant drain in terms of battery power and heat.

shes in sales, so her statements should be used as a general guideline and not taken word for word

 

Anyone has any idea what the battery life is with the X3100 instead of the nvidia 8400? If i remember correctly a previous post mentioned 4h45m idle with the 8400 which i dont consider terribly impressive.

 

from cnets review of the latitude d630 it lasts 4hours 45 minutes in their dvd tests which is frankly amazing.

I've got 6 of these sitting in my office to be set up..so i'll try it for myself tomorrow

the xps should at least be comparable if not be better.

 

I'm more just concerned I'll run out of space with the 32 gig drive. I have a 60 gig iPod (hosted off my desktop but still). It seems strange that my iPod would hold more than my laptop. I think I am gonna go with the 200 gig drive...That SSD would sure be nice, but I just think I need at least 64 gigs.

 

I'd be pretty surprised if that 4 cell lasts 6 hours...

 

Why is the T7700 processor only available on the small business side of the site and not the home, home office side??

 

The 3DMark05 result is quite close to the result from the 8600GS. Does this means that it can play FarCry at (the minimum) medium settings?

 

Great question. I can't get it through the EPP site either.

Also you cant get the 6 cell battery through the business site either.

 

The 8600GS appears to get about 2000 more 3dmark05 points than this machine.

 

That is exactly my thinking. One should pony up the money for a LED screen now as that can't be retrofitted but it makes sense to hold off on the SSD.
(I am also wondering how reliable they are - I thought they had a limited number of writes and I am not sure how they handle the page file... as it is written so often and doesn't need to be preserved across reboots I would have thought maybe the SSD should include some conventional RAM for the pagefile)

The SSD presumably is a lot easier on the battery - and faster? - I guess that is what Topspin14m means by "Based on video reviews of other laptops it seems like it loads windows in twice the time that a regular 7200 drive does. "??

I also wonder whether any special BIOS support is needed for the SSD - anyway I guess the M1330 has it.

 

I am very interested in that subject too. Anyway, could 8400 underclock save battery life and heat considerably?

 

Yeah I mean that I saw a video review of two computers with the same/similar specs although one had the SSD drive and the other didn't. The guy booted both at the same time. The computer with the SSD drive started up and he restarted it fully in the amount of time it took the non-SSD drive machine to start up once. It was pretty amazing, however I am fairly certain the non-SSD drive was a 5400 rpm or slower.

Both machines had low voltage core solo processors.

For speed info, windows booted to XP after two swooshes of the startup green status bar thing.

I found it extremely impressive. However, having 17 gigs available after Vista and office are loaded on is less than stellar.

EDIT:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mej7sf4uonI

It's the SONY UX review. Granted it is a mini ultra ultra portable and it is a 16 gig SSD drive, but it's at least interesting to see the speed difference of the SSD.
Look at the video starting at 9:10.

 

Thats what I did, 32GB is not enough and like others have said the HD can always be upgraded.

XPS M1330, Intel Core 2 Duo T7500 (2.2GHz/800MhzFSB, 4M L2 Cache)
2GB, DDR2, 667MHz 2 Dimm
13.3 Inch Wide Screen WXGA LED Backlit LCD with Camera
128MB NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS
200GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive
Integrated Sound Blaster Audigy
Intel 4965AGN Wireless-N Mini Card
9-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery
3 Year Premium Care Warranty CompleteCare Accidental Damage Protection Fingerprint Reader
Dell Slim Auto/Air/AC Adapter
Total: $2,391.50

 

How are you getting that price? I'm getting a quote of 2500 for the same specs as far as I can tell...

 

+ Bluetooth, with the Premium Care its $2934 - 10% Dell discount = $2641

Then I used a $250 Amex Rewards coupon

 

Ahh. I should go see if I can get an AMEX coupon...I have a good number of points

 

if you have a fatwallet account, you can get a percent or two as cash back.

 

very nice review
does the m1330 have the cpu whine like the old m1210?
thankyou

 

Can anyone who has a M1330 with the GEForce 8400GS please post some benchmarks playing World of Warcraft at different settings (1280x800 on the M1330 screen)? That is the only game that I play with regularity. WoW plays fine on my Dell XPS M1710 with GEForce Go 7900GTX but this laptop is quite heavy to lug around. Thanks in advance.

 

I think that 8400gs while be more than enough to play wow. Clearly.

 

The computer doesn't even ship till the end of July.

 

Yeah, I figure it will be able to "run" WoW no problem with the M1330 (even my Inspiron 700m with Intel Extreme Graphics 2 can barely run WoW on minimum settings) =) My question is if it can run WoW at 30+fps with max video settings with all features on in a 25-man raid? Just wondering if the 8400 GS is sufficient for that or will I need to go to a larger laptop with a 8600GT.

 

I watched the video two, and that video shows next to nothing. First I am pretty sure a device with that form factor is not using a full 2.5in laptop drive. It is probably using an even smaller form factor.

Also, the reviewer stated several times that the machine with the flash drive was "adapted" and had many changes to the Windows OS. So if they do not have identical systems, with identical OS's, that really does not mean very much.

From what I have read. Flash drives have faster seek and random access times. While traditional drives have better sustained throughput.

Also, the Flash drives do have a limited number of times you can write to them. So we can not really say for sure how they will holdup under heavy use in a laptop yet.

 

I think it can. WoW is more CPU and memory intensive rather than GPU bound. Just keep aa and AF off and you should be ok.

 

Andrew, could you provide a photo of the dell m1330 next to a lenovo x61(non-tablet) for size comparison?

 

I went with a 200 gig 7200 rpm drive. However, I think the difference shown in that video can't be attributed simply to a slightly adapted version of Windows XP. Both are running adapted versions of XP anyway (you can see that clearly). We just don't know if they are modified identically. I think there is no question the SSD drive is at least 50% faster given the benchmarks I've seen. As for read-write times, you may be right, but I am sure the hardware manufacturers have tested these drives under heavy use. I wouldn't be that concerned.

 

Here are my specs:

Quantity Item Number Description Unit Price

1 222-9686 XPS M1330, Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T7700 (2.4GHz/800MHzFSB, 4M L2 Cache) $2726.94
1 310-9240 Matte Black Casing XPS M1330 $0.00
1 311-7310 2GB, DDR2, 667MHz 2 Dimm, for XPS M1330 $0.00
1 320-5583 13.3 Inch Wide Screen WXGA TL WLED Backlit LCD with Camera, XPS M1330 $0.00
1 320-5603 128MB NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS, for XPS M1330 $0.00
1 341-5106 200GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive $0.00
1 310-8939 Dell Slim Auto/Air/AC Adapter for Inspiron $0.00
1 420-6813 Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium Edition, English $0.00
1 420-7098 Media Direct 3.3 $0.00
1 420-6995 Dell Support $0.00
1 420-5769 Internet Search and Portal $0.00
1 420-5924 Icon Consolidation Application $0.00
1 420-6436 Vista, PC-Restore, Dim/Insp $0.00
1 463-2282 Dell Owners Manual installed on your system,click on icon after system set-up to access $0.00
1 420-7387 DELL RESOURCE DVD,BACK-UP XPS-M1330 $0.00
1 412-0946 Dell Travel ExpressCard Remote Control, IR $0.00
1 310-9246 Creative Earbud EP630 $0.00
1 430-0493 Integrated 10/100 Network Cardand Modem, for Inspiron $0.00
1 412-0917 Adobe Acrobat Reader 7.0, for Inspiron $0.00
1 313-5361 8X DVD+/-RW Slot Load Drive for XPSM1330 $0.00
1 313-5014 Integrated Sound Blaster Audigy $0.00
1 430-2577 Intel 4965AGN Wireless-N Mini Card $0.00
1 412-0959 Norton Internet Security 2007 15 Month $0.00
1 312-0560 37 WHr 4-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery, for XPS M1330 $0.00
1 312-0564 85 WHr 9-cell Lithium Ion Additional Battery, for XPS M1330 $0.00
1 412-0148 No Internet Service Provider Requested $0.00
1 412-0915 MS WORKS 8.5 $0.00
1 987-6377 Dell Hardware Warranty PlusOnsite Service, Initial Year $0.00
1 983-3740 Type 3 Contract - Next Business Day Parts and Labor On-Site Response, Initial Year $0.00
1 986-4238 Thank you for choosing a Limited Warranty and Service Contract $0.00
1 970-5597 No Warranty, Year 2 and 3 $0.00
1 412-0359 Soft Contracts - Qualxserve $0.00
1 960-8710 Warranty Support,Initial Year $0.00
1 430-2566 Dell Wirless 355 Bluetooth Module (2.0+EDR) $20
1 310-9348 Intel Centrino Core Duo Processor $0.00
1 310-8628 You have chosen a Windows Vista Premium System $0.00
1 320-5771 Slim and Light LCD with TuxedoBlack Casing and Camera XPS M1330 $0.00
1 463-6864 PAYMIX DISCOUNT APPLIED

 

Oh I agree it most likely helped, but I doubt it can more the double boot times. I mean even the bios on that thing cleared more quickly. Right now I just thing $600 bucks is way too much for what you get.

I also just ordered mine (Aug 1st Ship!!). Dispite the long wait I am still happy, I have been shopping for a nice notebook for a long time, and this one just hit all my shopping bullet points. Can't wait.

 

I thought that this laptop looks like the macbook from apple. See the white keyboard, the slot dvd rom. Very nice laptop

 

You probably will not have to go larger laptop. I can run WOW at pretty much max settings with 1920 x 1200 res on my AMD 3500 (2 gb of RAM, Nvidia 6600GT with 128 mb of RAM). I ran 3DMark06 on my system and got a 1610 score on the 3DMark default settings. PCMag ran 3DMark06 on the M1330 and got a score of 1640 on the 3DMark default settings.