DELL XPS M1330

I’ve been wanting to write a review for this toy for some time. Apparently I am either too lazy or don’t have enough time for it.

Let’s keep it short and structured:

Configuration

• Intel Core 2 Duo T9300
• HDD 250 GB
• 3 GB RAM
• nVIDIA 8400 GS
• 13″ LED display
• fingerprint reader
• 0.3 Mp web cam
• Windows Vista Business OEM
• wireless G (nope, my model does not have N)
• DVD-RW slot-load
• Bluetooth

The GOOD

• great design
• light
• small
• LED display means a brighter screen and a lower power consumption (at least they brag about it)
• about 3 hrs battery time (normal usage)
• remote control which fits in the express card slot. Very useful for presentations or movie playback.
• HDMI output

The BAD

• capacitive media buttons. I guess they were introduced just to be cool. Other than that they have no practical use. If you are using the laptop in a dark place you cannot feel them and end up pressing a couple before reaching the one you want. For some reason, when pressing the eject button the entire OS freezes for 2-3 seconds while the disk is ejected. And yes, the volume controls are capacitive too and do not have direct control on the speaker output. This is quite dumb because there are cases in which you cannot make the laptop shut up: try running Winamp, then lock the system; you won’t be able to turn down the volume or mute the speakers unless you log into Windows again.

The really BAD

• it’s broken. The graphics board decided that about 10 months of use it served enough. Now I get to watch beautiful colorful vertical lines instead of… anything else. Leaving the sarcasm aside, for a laptop that has a 3 year warranty, was used primarily for web surfing and rarely left my desk this doesn’t sound too good. I really had the impression that DELL laptops are reliable. Not any more.

Hopefully I’ll get my graphics board replaced in about a week. If not I may blog about the quality of DELL’s service.