Dell XPS M1730 Video and Other Gaming Notebooks at DigitalLife Event

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Today is the kickoff for the DigitaLife event in New York. One focus of this event is gaming, so a lot of manufacturers have gaming rigs setup and many companies are showing off some of their latest game titles running on high-end machines. The Dell XPS M1730 and new Toshiba Satellite X205 with dual graphics cards are both getting a lot of exposure here.

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Dell at DigitalLife

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In the video above you can see two XPS M1730 notebooks. Both were displaying game demos that have been tweaked to take advantage of the Ageia PhysX accelerator. A mod level of Unreal Tournament 3 and Warmonger, Operation: Downtown Destruction were the two games setup for the demo. Both ran incredibly smoothly at a high level of detail as you can at least somewhat see from the video.

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Dell was also touting the LightFX capability of the XPS M1730. The M1710 had some of these features, but they've been enhanced somewhat for the M1730. To read more about LightFX you can visit Dell's site about it here. To sum it up though, it's basically a feature that allows game developers to control lights based on what's happening in the game. For instance, if you die the lights on the notebook go red. If you're getting shot from the left side then the light behind the left speaker might flash orange.

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Toshiba at DigitalLife

Toshiba has a Gears of War tournament going on at DigitalLife (view large image)

Toshiba also had a very strong presence at the DigitalLife event. The company just announced an update to its Satellite X205 gaming notebook that puts two Nvidia 8600M graphics cards inside instead of the single it had when initially released (see X205 review here). Toshiba had a big tournament setup for playing Gears of War on the Satellite X205 notebook. The X205 is a 17&quot; gaming rig that won't be as powerful as the XPS M1730, but it'll cost a bit less and the looks and build are certainly very good. Toshiba stuff an HD-DVD drive inside its Satellite X205 with HDMI output while Dell goes the route of BluRay and using DVI out.

Age of Empires III on the Satellite X205 (view large image)

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The most interesting news is...when did Gears of War get a PC port?

And the XPS M1730 looks amazing. It doesn't have many features my desktop doesn't - namely just the PhysX card - but the fact that a notebook is on the market that rivals 8800-based gaming desktops even on desktop features (the little LCD above the keyboard is a deceptively useful feature, as is a backlit keyboard) is indeed impressive. Too bad it still costs 3 times what an equivalent desktop would.

 

Pretty sure Epic's Mark Rein announced that a couple of months ago.... he did an interview where he mentioned Gears of War coming to the PC and Mac (with gametrailers.com, I think).

Given Epic's history of PC/Mac games, I don't think it was that big of a surprise that GoW would not remain solely on the Xbox 360.

-Zadillo

 

It certainly looks a lot better in those pictures..i think it looks great and the specs are awesome.

 

so is the price

 

Love the new XPS's design(yes its true) & the Toshiba looks good also.

 

Wow. The 1730 is downright sexy in that video. Much better than in pictures. A lot sleeker overall than the initial impression made from the pictures.

 

wow is that glossy or what... i cant imagine keeping that thing looking nice... anyone agree?? i think it looks awesome but man its glossy

 

Exactly what I wanted to say. Don't know why, the XPS M1730 design is really starting to grow on me.

 

I still think the XPS M1730 is really ugly. It's too much of a gamer machine and has that overdone shine and car polish I really hate. I'd like a normal looking black and grey look without all that extra annoying polish. I want a powerful laptop, not one that makes me look like a "gamer". The ONLY thing that saves the M1730 is that WONDERFUL keyboard! That is such a great design and I love the back-lighting. People have been asking for that for years and it looks great! Otherwise, the rest of the machine, especially the price, discourages me from ever considering it. I have having blu-ray be a required component too.

Personally, even though the new Toshiba is underpowered, having a price right around $2200 for SLI is a good deal to me. I could do without the HD-DVD drive, but the system looks much better than rival systems.

See http://www.beyondunreal.com .

 

How did the X205 appear to run? And how were the graphics on AOE III?

 

The Toshiba has quite the sticker.

 

The dell looks like a serious gaming machine. I kinda ... like it a lot lol.. but would never buy it. I think the GS1 is borderline cheesy, but the XPS is a bit over the top. And if you were only going to game, for that price a desktop is much more appealing.

Whatever, even with that said, its nice.

 

I got to fool around with the M1730, in person it is GORGEoUS. The pictures don't do it justice at all, but the issue with it for me is ITS HUGE AND THICK. I think its the thickest laptop to date has to be 3 inches with the lid closed. It is really beautiful though and UT3 ran SWELL on it no lag what so ever. TF2 had some issues but I doubt that was because of the XPS. The only thing that should hold people back from a purchase is price and power(compared to what you can get else where or on desktops).

 

does that xps have any keyboard flex anywhere? i know the toshiba has terrible keyboard flex, especially at the num-pad area.

 

Not that I could tell its a big sturdy machine it really is thick as hell man LOL.

 

Really almost 3" thick?

 

Yeah, i feel lucky that i bought my m1710 like a month before the m1730 was released. I have the special edition formula red and the general reaction i get from people is that anything more over the top would just be stupid. I have always considered the m1710 to be quite thick(in a healthy way lol), but now it looks sweet and thin compared to the 1730. Use the 2 USB ports on the side. On the m1710, there is 2 usb ports on the side and there is no room for anymore above or beneath it. However on the 1730, there is room for two more, which frankly, is too thick for a laptop.
Quite beast on the inside but, a real mean machine.