Dell XPS M1330 User Review

So with the LED display. When i get my XPS, how would i know that it is LED just incase they placed a wrong unit in?

 

First off it should be around 6mm thick, as opposed to 9mm of the CCFL.

Then go to Device Manager -> Monitors -> Generic PnP Monitor -> Properties -> Details -> Hardware Ids (in the drop-down).

It should say something like CMO or TMD if you got an LED backlit panel, otherwise it'll be AUO.

 

oh ok coolz
Wen i get mine, itl be the first iv seen Vista, never used it b4 . so i gotta work my way around it. lol

 

Thanks Chuck. I checked if Acoustic Management was on, but it was disabled. So I guess the speed difference is due to internals which I have no way or interest in changing. Interesting how 2 identical drives can show quite different results due to i.e. hardware setup. I mean in theory with both of our systems having the Santa Rosa chipset and mine having slightly more processing power, you would think that my drive should have the edge on yours. Oh well

It was the first time I tried the Acoustic Management function and I must say I am impressed. I turned it down some notches so that I could barely hear the hard drive anymore. What a difference in noise! Or lack thereof. I ran HD tune afterwards. I sacrificed about 0.8 ms in access time and lost 10 MB/s burst rate, but the average transfer rate stayed more or less the same. Definitely worth it. Now one cannot hear the HDD anymore unless you put your ear against the notebook.

 

chuck, does the wifi switch on the side turn bluetooth (i got bluetooth, couldnt find if you did too) on? if so, how could i disable the hardware through windows? would the way disable bluetooth also be the way to disable things like the optical drive? thanks.

 

No problem! Part of the performance has to do with BIOS tweaks as well - Dell may have optimized the BIOS a bit more for hard drive performance. Unfortunately we can't really know for certain.

In Dell's QuickSet application, you can specify which radio(s) you want it to control. I didn't get the Bluetooth module (they wanted $80 for it when I ordered....) so I can only turn on the Wifi. But it has options to toggle all of the radios or any combination of Wifi, Bluetooth and the mobile broadband.

 

cool. thanks for the answer chuck.

 

Great review! I really want one of these, but I'm not sure if I can justify the cost and the risk of getting a unit with fit and finish problems.

 

This is the review I'm waiting for. My EDD is 10 Sept. Still a long way.

By the way is there anyone using 7200rpm HDD and T7300 with 6-cell or 9-cell? I want to know how long it can last and also how 7200rpm affects the battery life. Thanks.

 

Hey Chuck just wanted to say that your review shines above all the other reviews on the web thus far. Keep it up, hope to see more reviews from you in the future!

 

That's definitely true - dropping this much money, I definitely wouldn't want or expect to run into these issues. Luckily Dell's been relatively prompt with replacement systems if you can make the case for it.

I've also been working with them to make them aware of some of the more common problems so they'll be taking a closer look at the manufacturing process to make sure to reduce (and hopefully eliminate) these problems.

You'd be surprised, 10th of September's only 2 weeks and a bit away! The T7300 and 7200RPM drives should only affect battery performance minimally. Idle power consumption of a 7200RPM drive is typically no higher than a 5400RPM drive (under load, it's more) and the T7300's voltage is only slightly higher for the most part than the T7100. Again, under low load, they'll both clock down to a much lower clock speed and voltage.

Thanks! Reviews in the future means I'll have to get more laptops. Uh oh.

 

Great review, like many others have said, and also a great job answering additional questions.

Thanks.

 

Interesting. Keep us updated on that. I don't plan on ordering for a while.

 

Wow, what a review, really helpful. I'm in my 2nd year at university and would really like to use that machine! Still I would like to know if the screen is readable when you use it outside? I kinda like to sit down in the garden to type my reports. If it's not what kind of laptop should I consider?

 

And I've forgot to tell you THANX a lot

 

There are a few things that I plan on adding to this thread later this weekend, including Medieval 2: TW tests (some were clamouring for performance of that game with the 8400M GS) and outdoor tests. Look for that later.

 

Excellent and helpful review

I was about to press the buy button for the M1330 without reading any reviews until I saw the 6 weeks waiting list advertised on the purchase page (for UK consumers)... my M1710 only took 5 days to arrive from date of order with quite a few added features. The design and features won me over but after reading your review, I'm starting to back away (although the design is pulling me back with evil intentions).

The build quality issue is a concern, especially if there is such a huge backlog at Dell to meet demands so I guess their rushed job is contributing to present issues. I'm not sure how it'll fair in the UK since most if not all productions are from Ireland.

On a side note, Dell's extortionate prices continue for their RAM and hard drive upgrades. E.g. a 200GB 5400RPM HDD upgrade is equivalent to buying 2 x 250GB 2.5" 5400RPM HDDs or a 4GB RAM upgrade costs twice as much as buying a set of 4GB from Crucial. A bit disappointing really.

Looks like I'll need to lug my 8 month old paving slab, I mean M1710, around for a little longer... unless I need to see an osteopath first

 

Just Out of interest

How many people have received their m1330's with no hardware orientated problems?

 

Do you mean specific to the squeal??

 

how much would the t7300 affect battery life as opposed to the t7100 processor?

 

Very little if any I would believe.

 

Has anybody tried booting another OS?

 

Alright, here's the promised update for the weekend. Some of the following didn't make it into the original review and some are additional tests I've run since.

First off one more battery test. I decided to try out battery life when the system is completely under load. I played a battle in Medieval 2: Total War asht test.

Full Performance, Wifi on, 6/8 display brightness - 30.9W - 1:48 with 6 cell

Again, multiply that number by 1.5 to get the time on a 9 cell, which would allow you to get close to 3 hours of gaming in on the go. Not bad at all.

That test was run since I was asked to try out M2:TW on the machine. I ran the tests using the 163.44 drivers since the 162.22 I was using previously had some problems with rendering characters properly on the Campaign map. Here are the playable settings.

1280x800 (native)

• If the army size is set to 'Huge', settings need to be at low, more specifically, the unit details must be set to low.
• If the army size is set to 'Normal' settings can be set to medium, including unit details.

One of the biggest advantages of having the unit detail at a higher setting is that the unit models are rendered with much more detail at a farther distance and zoom level. At low details, zoomed in, the units look good, but zoomed out, they take on an almost generic shape.

At those above settings, I was able to maintain 20-25FPS throughout (more if you're zoomed out further) and zooming into high-action scenes of battles between large groups of soldiers would usually drop that down to ~15FPS. 20-25FPS is very playable for the battles.

On the campaign map, 1280x800 is playable, with frame rates hovering in the 45FPS region.

Display - Some more thoughts/photos of the display. First off, I neglected to include a photo of the backlight bleeding, which is minimal. Notice the interesting bleed pattern along the bottom - I presume this is the result of multiple discrete LED backlights as opposed to a strip CCFL one found in most other laptops.



I was requested to do some tests of the screen outdoors. Tests were performed at maximum display brightness. The first photo was taken in direct sunlight (obviously). It's not too difficult to see the display in this situation, but colors are more difficult to discern and reflection of the sun (and sky) become a concern. It's usable, but not terribly comfortable, since you'll be seeing a strong reflection of your own beautiful face.

The second photo was taken in a shadier area, but still outside. It is much easier to see the screen and working on the laptop is much more pleasant. There's still some reflection, but much, much less than in the first situation.

Moral of the test? Work with the display facing away from the sun (but in that case, the sun'll be in your eyes) or even better, work in the shade.




I was also able to get some comparison shots of the M1330 and the MacBook if anyone is interested.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=159062&highlight=macbook

Finally, here's a sample image taken by the 0.3mp webcam found on the LED backlit versions.

 

Wow, that is a very nice neighbourhood you live in. Must be a very affluent suburb judging by the houses and new cars, or utes!

 

The screen on that is absolutely gorgeous.

 

I have the following questions about the M1330 :

1. HDMI, what is the output resolution of this? I have a Full HD TV that supports 1920x1080 HD videos.

2. I gather that the CPU is good enough to play Full HDTV videos, how do they look on the 1280x800 screen? My current notebook is 1680x1050 and outputs to 1920x1080.

3. Does the video card support DirectX 10 games?

4. Does the 6 cell battery stick out the back or is that the 9 cell battery in all those pictures?

5. I use Skype, is the microphone really bad?

Thanks!

 

I just read this great review. So just to get this straight, if you see AUO in the monitor device it's not an LED right?

 

Go look in the Dell forum, there is a thread on getting XP to work on th M1330.

 

Yes, the 8400GS supports DirectX 10, and no the 6 cell does not stick out, the 9 cell is the only battery that sticks out.

 

1. The HDMI output can support up to 1920x1200.

2. Yep, definitely can play HD movies, although if you don't get the nvidia card, 1080p may stutter, depending on the processor you get. 720p content looks great on the display - obviously, the 1280x800 resolution won't support 1080p content. As I said, above, the output can so you'll be able to watch it on your HDTV.

3. It supports DX10 games, although how well they'll actually run on the low-end card is another story altogether. I wouldn't expect miracles out of the card. Just to reiterate, this is not a gaming laptop. Light gaming will be fine, but there are better choices if gaming is a priority.

4. The 9 cell is only in one of the pictures (side on, it's protruding out the bottom). The rest are all with the 6 cell.

5. I don't use Skype, but people are saying it's pretty bad.

 

You can try the link provided in the posts above.

However, I can state that XP runs without problems on the M1330.

 

Excellent Review - Repped !!

 

Thank you for your awesome review. This is the best I have read so far.

 

First of all great reviews.
Does the HDMI capable transmit both video and audio at the same time?
Does the nvidia card really necessary if you play HD content such as movies on my HDTV set?
Is 1 GB of ram enought to run this machine if all I do is websurfing and playing movies?

Thanks in advance.

 

Just got my M1330, it is pretty cool. BTW, there is an update for the Dell Media which will enable the system to display the information when you press the volume or display backlit buttoms. Very useful!

 

Thanks for an excellent review. A couple of questions if I may:

1) Have you heard anything about whether Dell will offer a blu-ray option any time soon?

2) Is 4GB a waste of money - i have heard conflicting reports about whether Vista can access it all - the Dell website appears to imply there is an advantage to having 4 GB - is it significant?

Many Txs.

 

Vista 64 bit can recognize all 4 gb. Is it worth it? Maybe. It depends on what you are using your computer for. However, it is NOT worth purchasing the 4 gigs from Dell. If you want 4 gigs, you should buy the minimum amount from Dell and then upgrade yourself.

 

Thanks for that - I do a lot of large spreadsheet work so more memory maybe useful. But at work we still use XP based XL etc so I presume I can't use 64 bit Vista based Office yet.

 

Your 32 bit applications will still work under the 64 bit version of Vista. However, it's the drivers you want to make sure are available before jumping over the 64 bit.

 

Hello everyone

I am just about to order a XPS M1330 from dell uk.
I' ve got 2 questions:
1. How long is now the delay until delevery in UK?
2. I ve seen in some other reviews that dell in USA and Canada gives
on the accessories a small sleeve case for this laptop and a
pair of Creative earbuds. Does this happen also in UK?

thanks

 

Good News!!!! The case and earbuds are included.

Bad news!!! For some reason the UK orders have been taking very long. There are still one or two waiting from early July.

Last Note... Its worth the wait.

 

Mine came with a free fingerprint reader, also a nice "touch" for the nearly 2 month wait

 

Nice review! Very detailed and highly informative. This review furthers my salivation about this lappy. Can't wait to get my hands on it.

 

Hi,

At the moment I have a old Dell Inspiron 8200 with an amazing 15" 1600X1200 screen. I like the specs of the XPS M1330, but I'm afraid I would be disapointed by the screen (size, resolution). Anybody who made a comparable shift?

 

Superlux what i would recommend to you if you have not done is go to a computer shop and test out a 13.3 inch notebook and see how you get on? I was thinking about 12.1/11.1 before i bought my notebook and by going to check out the screen size in store i saw that anything below 13.3 was just to small for me.
Before i got my XPS i had not used a 13.3inch notebook for about 5 years. I have got used to it again already.

 

It it possible to disable the dvd-drive from bios or something, to avoid the noice at startup? I'd really like to have a quiet startup in the middle of a class.

 

Do you believe the recent reports that Dell will soon release a 15" version, the XPS M1530? Allegedly, it will be as light as the M1330, despite the smaller screen.

 

Hey just a couple of questions:

* Is the sound at startup loud? e.g. If i turned it on while someone was asleep, would it wake them? Or is it just a small bleep?

* Is the screen usable, I've never used a laptop of this size (only 15"+), did you prefer the larger screen or haven't you really noticed much of a difference?

*Would you reccommed this to anyone? Im serious about buying one, but with the 2.2Ghz processor, or do you think I should just stick with the 1.8Ghx?

*Last question... the biometric reader, (i read this somewhere, and just want to confirm that you can do it) can you dedicate a program to each of your fingers, so that you can just swipe your finger to open an application?

 

the sound isnt really that loud but it is noticeable if it is really quit. its not really a beep either it sounds like a motor spinning. I don't think that it will wake anybody up.
i really like the screen, i switched from a 17" screen and at first it seamed really small but after a couple of days i got used to it and its not hard to use at all
i would defiantly recomened it, i have the 1.8 ghz processor and for what i do(music, videos, Microsoft office 2007) it works really well and hasn't lagged at all for me yet.
yes you can set you finger prints to open different programs.you just swipe your finger to bring up the menu, than go to control center, then user settings, then applications and click add and select what finger you want to open which applications.

 

Hey, everyone.
I was wondering if anyone has got the laptop without the LED screen.
I would like to have it but it does cost a fair bit more and i want to know if people think its really worth it.