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Overview and Introduction:-
The Dell XPS M1330 is designed for those that want power on the go. If you’re also fashion conscious and like to standout in a crowd, the looks of the XPS M1330 will help you in that area too. Sleek design coupled with a portable form factor and powerful components come together to make for a compelling notebook.

Build and Design:-

Our pre-production XPS M1330 as equipped:

The design of the XPS M1330 really sets it apart. The design is, in a word, striking. The sloping look and stunning lid, available in three different colors, are immediately attention grabbing. The slope is akin to a fast car tear drop look. And while the XPS M1330 isn’t designed to go fast in the physical sense, it looks like it could if you just put wheels on it.

Once opened the M1330 provides more eye candy in terms of design. The buttons along the top edge are touch sensitive and light up with a soft glow when pressed. They look very stylish. The LED buttons are a bright blue and also eye-catching in their appearance. The silver colored keyboard and brushed aluminum casing on the inside give a slightly industrial look that would tell you there’s some muscle to this machine.

The hinge on the M1330 is quite unique, it’s very rounded in its look and rotates to bring the screen about even with the keyboard for a slightly lower overall profile. The LED backlit screen is super thin, which keeps weight down and again contributes to the looks. An integrated web camera sits at the top of the screen, it’s well hidden but noticeable.

Overall we have to say that the M1330 is one of the best looking notebooks on the market today.

Screen:-

When configuring the XPS M1330 you have two options for the screen — a backlit 13.3″ LED display that’s thin and light or regular cathode backlit display that’s slightly thicker and not as bright and evenly lit as the LED backlit display. We were lucky enough to have the LED backlit display, and while it costs $150 more than the standard display, it’s a worthwhile upgrade. The picture and brightness you get is just amazing! It offers 330 nits of brightness and is simply gorgeous to look at. It’s glossy in nature so you’ll get some reflection, but the rich and bold colors that come with having this type of screen finish is worth it.

The only downside to the LED backlit display is the fact that you can only get a VGA webcam. If you get the regular WXGA display you can configure a 2MP web camera. We think VGA resolution is enough for things such as video chat applications, but if you really feel the need for a higher resolution web camera and want to save a bit of money too, then go with the regular WXGA screen option.

The speakers for the M1330 are located at the top of the keyboard area. There’s not much to write home about the speakers, they get loud enough that’s for sure, but the sound is slightly tinny as is the case with nearly all laptop speakers. The volume audio controls are touch sensitive buttons along the top right side of the keyboard. It’s a little hard to use these buttons if you have big fingers, and there’s no on screen feedback to tell you you’ve actually pressed the button. Overall the volume control buttons are tough to use, though they look nice, an old fashioned volume dial control is easier to use.

If you prefer to use headphones to the built-in, you’re set. There are two headphone ports to capture audio from, both are located on the front of the notebook. If you’re trying to attach external speakers this isn’t as handy, but since this is an on the go notebook it’s probably not an issue.

Keyboard and Touchpad:-

The keyboard on the XPS M1330 is fairly similar to the older XPS M1210, though it does feel more spread out with larger keys so overall the keyboard is better. One thing that’s definitely better with M1330 is that the keyboard is more firm. On the M1210 there was some sink on the right side of the keyboard, but with the M1330 it’s firm and solid all over. The XPS M1330 is really quite a pleasure to type on. The only complaint I have for the keyboard is that if your fingernails are slightly long they might get caught under the keys, this shouldn’t be a problem for most males though.

One thing to mention is that with the 9-cell battery in you get an overall greater slope to the keyboard, we actually like this for ergonomics, it feels more comfortable for typing.

The touchpad works well enough, though it’s on the small side. The Apple MacBook is a 13.3″ screen notebook and the touchpad is probably twice the size of what you get on the M1330. The mouse buttons are fine, though Andrew would prefer they had a little more travel to them. The good news with the touchpad is that it’s responsive, has dedicated scroll areas and the textured feel is good.

The good: Sharp new design; tons of business-friendly features; highly configurable; excellent battery.

The bad: Merely average performance; somewhat heavy.

The bottom line: A total revamp of Dell’s ubiquitous business laptop line, the Latitude E6400 offers Intel’s latest Centrino 2 mobile platform and introduces a brushed-metal design that works at home or office, but the real highlight here is the long battery life.

Specifications: Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo (2.26 GHz) ; Clock speed: 2.26 GHz ; RAM installed: 2.0 GB DDR2 SDRAM..

Price range:  $1,040.00..

Processor
Intel®  Centrino®  Processor Technology – Intel®  CoreTM 2 Duo Processor T8300
Operating System
Genuine Windows Vista®  Home Premium
Chipset
Intel®  965PM Chipset
Memory
4GB Dual-channel DDR2 SDRAM (2 x 2GB)
Hard Drive
320GB2 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive
Display/Monitor
17.0″ UltraSharpTM  Widescreen WUXGA (1920×1200) TFT Display with TrueLifeTM
Network Card
Internal 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet
Graphic Card
Dual 512MB NVIDIA®  GeForce®  8800M GTX with NVIDIA®  SLITM  Technology
Sound Card
Integrated Sound Blaster Audigy HD Software
CD-ROM/DVD-ROM/Disk drive
8X max DVD+/-RW Drive with DVD+R double layer write capability
I/O Ports
Dual-link DVI-I , 4-USB 2-0, IEEE1394, S-Video, Audio-Out (Headphone), External Microphone, VGA via DVI dongle, S/PDIF via dongle, RJ45, RJ11
Modem
External 56K Fax Modem
Battery
9-cell Primary Battery
Carrying Case
XPS M1730 Backpack
Service/Warranty
1-year XPS Premier Service with 1-year CompleteCover
Dell Recommends Dell Care Plus
Software
Microsoft®  Works 9.0
Dell Recommends Microsoft®  Office Home & Student 2007 – OEM Version
Speakers
Integrated speakers
Keyboard
DellTM  Backlit Keyboard with Touchpad and 10-numeric key
Anti-virus
McAfee®  Security CenterTM  30 days Introductory Offer
Dell Recommends McAfee®  Security CenterTM  15-months OEM
Bluetooth
Dell Wireless 355 Bluetooth Module
Controller Card
Intel®  4965 Wireless-N Mini-card
Additional Accessories
N/A
Media Direct
N/A
Webcam
Integrated 2.0 mega pixel web cam
Card reader
8-in-1 Memory card reader
Color Kit
All Colors available
Remote & Ear Buds
DellTM  Travel Remote Control & Noise Isolation Ear Buds
Strike Zone
N/A
Security Feature
N/A
Tuner
N/A

If you don’t like the specifications of the particular Dell Inspiron 1525 we tested, you can easily configure your own online. That’s an important difference between this unit and most other inexpensive laptops:

Buy now’ button.Our review unit will please those for whom good performance is a priority. Equipped with 2GB of memory and the best notebook CPU Dell offered for this model at the time of our review (a 2-GHz Core 2 Duo T7250), our $999 (as of 2/7/08) Windows Vista Home Premium machine earned a WorldBench 6 Beta 2 score of 78.

That’s 17 percent faster than the average score of 65 earned by the five under-$1000 laptops in this roundup, and even 13 percent better than the average of 69 earned by 16 recently tested all-purpose notebooks in any price range. With the battery upgraded from the standard four-cell to a six-cell ($15 extra), our notebook lasted a fairly generous 4 hours, 4 minutes on one charge, about 10 minutes longer than our five budget laptop test group’s average.

About the only thing the Inspiron 1525 can’t handle is 3D graphics; with an Intel Integrated Graphics Media Accelerator X3100 and no dedicated video card option, it’s limited to simple games and other 2D applications.

The 1525 is wedge-shaped but svelte at 6 pounds, including a 15.4-inch 1280 by 800 resolution screen, a DVD writer, and a good keyboard. The port variety and layout is fine (the 1525 is one of the few notebooks in this price range with an HDMI connection). And like the excellent HP Pavilion dv2600se, the 1525 gives multimedia lovers lots of entertainment features: an instant-on button, a Webcam, and even dual headphone jacks.

In fact, I like the Dell’s MediaDirect button more than the HP’s QuickPlay because it has Instant Office, an application viewer that lets you access your calendar, contacts and PowerPoint presentations. Also, Dell’s volume gauge is easier to use. Alas, the raspy-sounding speakers take some of the shine off the 1525′s entertainment appeal.

The real beauty of the 1525 is its customizability. For instance, our glossy screen (a no-extra-cost option at the time of our review) was pretty reflective, so you might be happier with Dell’s standard antiglare screen. From a base configuration of $500, you can build your perfect sub-$1000 laptop that includes a lid in any one of 11 different colors ($25 usually, but included in our test model’s price), Bluetooth ($20), an integrated mobile broadband card ($150), and even built-in wireless USB ($150).

If choice of features is paramount in your budget laptop, the Inspiron 1525 is your best bet among the models in our test group.

24 March 2008 – Dell’s Vostro line is aimed at business users but takes the same standard look as the consumer Inspiron line. However, there are differences, with the build quality being ramped up and, if you’re willing to pay for it, extra services.

The Dell Vostro 1700 is a 17-inch machine and being a business machine, the first thing you’ll notice about this notebook is the build quality. Dell hasn’t cut any corners, offering a body made from magnesium alloy instead of plastic, which is used on the Inspiron 1700 with which it shares the same body design.

The large chassis weighs in at 4.1kg, which means you won’t want to carry this machine around for any length of time. We only managed to get 2 hours from the battery, which is fine for using around the house or office, but not for the road. It’s not all bad news, as extra size allows for a big and spacious keyboard that we found great to use.

The 17-inch screen comes with a standard TFT display, which is still the preferred panel for business use. The screen has a 1440 x 900-pixel resolution and while the images were bright, they tended to look a little soft and not as crisp as they would on a Super-TFT panel.

Graphics comes in the form of the Nvidia GeForce 8600M GT, which is a great choice for this level of machine. While it’s not a gaming GPU, it’ll handle mainstream tasks with ease.

The rest of the specification is impressive too for the price. You’ll find an T7250, which clocks in at 2GHz and with 2048MB of memory, this should deliver great power for the price. The system is rounded out with a 160GB hard drive.

However, The problem we had with our test machine was one of power. While the specification certainly offers great value for the price, when it came to running multiple tasks, we found this machine started to run slow, the fan constantly ran and the whole system start to feel sluggish. We’d suggest, if possible, opting for a faster chip as this should help overcome this problem.

When it comes to connections, you’ll find the standard offerings with network options consisting of 802.11a/g Wi-Fi and 10/100 Ethernet and VGA-out and S-video for connecting to external monitors and projectors.

Dell used to build all its computers to order but it has recently started to offer set machines from retail stores. This means you can check out the physical quality of the notebook before you buy. It does mean that you won’t be able to specify a configuration but we found this Vostro offered a great spec for the price.

• Processor – Intel Core 2 Duo T7250 2.0 GHz Dual-Core
• RAM – 2 GB (installed) 4 GB (max) – DDR II SDRAM
  
• Hard Drive – 160 GB
• Operating System – Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate
• Screen – 17 in TFT active matrix 1440 x 900
• Optical Drive – DVD±RW (±R DL) / DVD-RAM
• Bluetooth – No
• Warranty – 1 years warranty