Dell XPS M1330

This says 14.1".....Did they have a change of heart and decide to go for a 13" instead?

Actually, it makes more sense this way, because the 1520 15.4" getting the 8600M GT essentially eliminates the need for a 14" or 15" XPS machine that would have probably used the same GPU.

 

how would you explain that there are no letters on the keys on a laptop that should be released in about 3 weeks?

 

Should is not definite...

 

Engineering sample? Prototype? Maybe they didn't feel like putting letters on the keyboard since its one of the least important things when designing a new laptop? Theres any number of reasons for it.

 

LED backlights make this very much worth it

 

LED lighted keyboards?

It's more likely a computer generated design instead of an actual physical model?

 

That too

 

we shall see, but for now, there is nothing to be excited about. I prefer nice design then specs and that's why I originally bought SZ.

 

I was hoping it would be a direct replacement of the M1210, and would carry the same price line.

I wonder how much it'll cost with all these new things added in. I would expect this with a cathode backlight, and intel gfx to cost about the same as the M1210 does now... but adding those new exotic things(like LED and 8400gs, which few competitors offer) is prob. gonna make it ridiculously expensive.

Also, dell takes their time when releasing these things to canada... maybe i should order that m1210 while they are still stocking it.

 

Yeah, Notebooks have finally reached a point where sub-14" are powerful enough and cheap enough to be viable. I have no intention of replacing my custom-built desktop and, until now, my PDA has met my mobile computing needs. I can't see myself carrying around anything bigger than a Sony SZ after carrying a PDA in my pocket for the past 5 years.

 

dell has always been known to have better pricing then most competitors.

 

I don't believe so Goren, the one ASUS won was 14" at the time, but who knows

 

Wait wait wait WHAT?! What is getting a 8600M GT?? Dell will have a 15.4" XPS too?

 

The Inspiron 1520 (replacement for E1505) is getting an 8600GT. Its not an XPS per say, but if there were a 15" XPS it would be the 1520 + crazy lights like in the M1710.

What I was saying is that the most powerful GPU they could possibly put into a 14/15" XPS would be an 8600GT, but since the 1520 is already getting that as an option, it doesn't make much sense to have both a 14" XPS and the 15" 1520 with the same GPU. So it might be that Dell changed their order from a 14" notebook to a 13" notebook.

 

Maybe they could add GigE this time.

 

... Where'd you get that info? And will this replacement be as terribly designed as the one it replaced?

 

Having thier inspiron model being top of the line makes no sense, knowing dell. The inspiron line is thier cheap line, not thier quality line. I find it unlikely that the 8600 will be crammed into any inspiron.

Making a 14"/15" XPS with this, on the other hand, seems quite likely.

 

The power button is actually not on the hinge, these pictures are so bad you just can't tell

*cough*

 

Inspirons are being launched on the 26th with this xps only being announced. Retail sale of the m1330 isn't happening until the 10th or 12th of july. Not sure if this has been detailed but the red and black are a matte finish with the white one being a glossy finish.

 

Dell probably was forced to use the 8400M-GS because of the size of the chassis; the GS has a 64-bit memory bus and the GT has a 128-bit memory bus, and I assume there is a heat difference between them. Also, power consumption is better with the GS.

If it was possible for Dell to put in a more powerful card, they would have - think about it, they went all-out on everything else. . they did the best they could.

It looks like this is "the machine" for a lot of people, so to those who are planning on buying this, I hope it is all you expected it to be.

Great job Dell, this is the best notebook I've seen from you.

 

Ongoing discussion about the new Inspirons and Vostro laptops here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=127503

Ouch. So its probably up at the top, where it always is.

Same. The only question is, can they keep the pricing reasonable?

 

If this had the 8400M GT, I would have already made my decision on my 1st notebook!

 

Why do I get the feeling that you know more than you're letting on Andrew?

This looks damn nice. I honestly fear for my wallet - my fingers may purchase this without my brain's knowledge.

 

I believe this is the notebook asus is making for dell.

Theres a reason it looks like the w3j. Theres also a reason the w3j was discontinued for the asus brand, they are related.

I think people who read the asus forum might remember i speculated that they were related, that the notebook asus makes for dell is something like the w3j.

Now I cant dig up where I read it was a 14 inch notebook but I did read that, I think its in news and reviews here on nbr. But I think this is the model.

 

Probably because he does. Andrew knows everything

Hmm, I think it looks more like the V6 than the W3. The black trim on the top and bottom of the LCD bezel make it look more like a standard aspect ratio screen, and the hinge is pretty similar too.
I thought the reason the W3 was discontinued was the fact that it was pretty high maintenence, and a lot of them came back for repairs.

That made sense to me, but if you think about it, this isn't that closely related to the W3. This is a lot closer to the W7 and S37, in size as well as features. The W3 was more of a high end business notebook with a performance class GPU. This isn't a business notebook (with a red lid? oh the horror) and it has a low end GPU. Its a lot smaller than the W3 as well.

 

Also, its an order for 2 million notebooks.

There might be an xps 14 inch coming soon too and that is the asus model but I really doubt it now.

There might be a new inspiron 14 inch and that is the asus model I think thats more likely. but i doubt that now too.

 

It looks like things are about to change.

 

OK, I seriously doubt there will be any more XPS notebooks for the time being. With the Inspiron 1520 with 8600MGT coming, there is no use for another XPS model in between the M1330 and the 17".

I think its more likely that Asus is doing the 14" Vostro notebook. Its supposed to be a higher end version of the Inspiron line. I really don't know though, its all speculation at this point.

 

I would not be surprised if ASUS and Dell are working together. It is called an Oligopoly. It is illegal, but it is hard to prosecute.

 

What's wrong with Dell contracting out a notebook design if they want to? Asus does more than manufacture their own notebooks...

 

There is nothing wrong with contracting out a notebook design. An Oligopoly controls the market. If Dell, HP, ASUS and Lenovo formed a contract to keep prices inflated, the customer does not have many other options left. The last case of this happened with the cereal companies. I cannot name all the major companies off of the top of my head, but there is only a hand full of them. They formed a contract to keep all prices high and customers did not have much of a choice. Luckily antitrust laws broke it up.

 

Eh? How is it illegal to work with another company to make a notebook?
And how is oligopoly? Oligopoly means that there are very few providers of a good (usually 4 or less). There are way more than 4 notebook manufacturers and companies. If two of them team up to make ONE relatively low volume and expensive notebook, you cannot call it oligopoly. Its 2 million notebooks, out of an expected 100+ million sold. Thats under 2%. Not significant enough to change much either way.

Besides, its not hard to guess why the M1330 will be expensive. Something about dedicated graphics and an LED backlight in a 4lb frame seems to come to mind.

 

since when is "oligopoly" illegal? so that makes kpmg, EY, pwc, delloitte illegal? colluding and price fixing is illegal but oligopoly is just a form of a market. if hp and dell collaborated together then maybe, but asus? it'll hardly have an affect on market share.

 

What you are talking about isn't an Oligopoly, you're talking about collusion.

 

I am exaggerating the scenario. But, I would not be surprised of Dell tried to form a contract with HP and other large companies. I thought ASUS was a large supplier of laptop parts?

 

In making their own laptops, Asus is more like a boutique builder, but they are getting noticed more now. As for contract building, I know they are in the top 5, but not really that close to Compal and Quanta, the top 2.

 

LED, Santa Rosa, 8400GS, HDMI, AND SSD. If these specs are true, dell is really moving into the big league. Still, seeing is believing. The foto indeed looks a bit rigged, but let's just wait for the 26th.

I would also have preferred a 12 inch upgrade. Real sad thing is the vga camera though. The 1210 had one of the view descent notebook cameras out there.

I am buying in september. Decision will be made between the sony vaio SZ and hopefully this new dell. Whichever has the best reviews and especially.....battery life! If the dell really comes with SSD, I think dell will be the one. Just a shame that it's still only 32 MB though. Vista will take half of it already.....

 

Uhhhh.... no?

Dell, HP, <strike>Sony</strike>, etc do not make laptops. Quanta, Compal, Wistron, Inventec and Asus are the 5 largest in the world, accounting for something like 90% of the world's production.

That's more like an oligopoly but there's not really any indication of collusion, like the dramurai back in the day.

EDIT: Apparently Sony manufacturers some of their own laptops. Corrected.

 

Vista takes up 10GB. Win XP only takes 5GB and that's the way to go with SSDs, until we can bolt that new 64GB Sandisk in that is...

 

Yes but just compal and quanta make over 75%.
So the amount asus inventec and wistron make is not a lot more than the next ones on the list like clevo foxconn twinhead lg samsung arima mitac etc they are all very minor in comparision. And the trend is more of the same, these two companies will own the others in a short time
You have one level of mass production, then everything else is minor production. When Acer sold of its manufacturing business compal bought part of it and wistron the other. Before that though there were 3 large ones in taiwan now there are just two.

Like for instance compal makes all 20 million inspirons, quanta makes all 10 million lattitudes but wistron makes just the xps 1210. Thats a good distribution example of their relative size even though maybe wistron is the 3rd largest.

 

I've been waiting for this!

 

Actually Compal+Quanta makes something like 50%. Winstron - 13%, Inventec - 10%, ASUS - 8%.

Still, power is still relatively concentrated as you said.

 

wow 92 replays in one day !! I hope i can get one before end of july

 

*Drools.*

*Cleans up keyboard.*

I want.

 

I highly doubt it...

 

quanta is something like 40%, compal 30%

But Im quoting something from this site and there will be different and changing breakdowns using different criteria

The numbers in quanta and compal are rising every year, the number of other manufacturers are shrinking, in the group as a whole

 

That is hands down the best looking laptop that I have ever seen Dell release. It is also the first time I have seen so many people drooling over a Dell laptop. I might be forced to pick one of these up in lieu of the Macbook...

 

I think there is a prototype model that doesn't have letters. Since Dell ships around the world, they have different keys for different locations. (e.g, Chinese, Japenese, Arabic keys)

 

Yea, I just sent the first post to a friend of mine (my aesthetic adviser, and she also ends up using my laptop half the time).
She was like, ick, Dell, ugly computers. And then after seeing it she was like, "holy crap, I can hardly believe I'm saying this, but this Dell looks better than both the Asus models (W7S and S37s) and the Sony (SZ) that you showed me."

I think that hiring that designer helped the industrial design team get a clue.

 

You can tell from the pictures that they are clearly just 3D computer renderings of what the notebook might look like. There could be subtle changes made to the actual production models.