As promised, here is the final part of my 4-part review on the Dell XPS M1330.
I have had the laptop for a couple months now, using it daily, mostly for email and web surfing, but I have also tested it for gaming and other tasks.
I will just kind of laundry list my observations here in no particular order.
Keep in mind that when I mention a comparison, it is to my older Dell e1405.
Overall, I am a little disappointed with this notebook, but mostly for personal reasons.
- I am definitely a 14″ notebook person – I can use the 13.3″ just fine, but it seems I lose more usability with the screen and keyboard size then I gain in weight savings. This is compounded by the fact that the battery life on the M1330 is about an hour less then my e1405 (both with extended batteries). I kind of learned this when I had a MacBook for a short time a year ago, but I guess I had to learn it twice. The problem is compounded on a MacBook as you cannot fullscreen most apps on Mac OS X. It is also worse with Vista if you use the sidebar (which I do – its my favorite Vista feature).
- The keys are too loud and I absolutely cant use them in a quiet room with other people around without them hearing – this sucks
- I had to disable the fingerprint reader as the process was getting stuck at 100% CPU and sucking my battery, and I didn’t feel like debugging it.
- Vista. Oh Vista. I can live with its issues, except for the one where wireless decides to drop out and refuse to come back on every once in a while – its maddening
- Performance for all my uses is very good board – it even plays Call Of Duty 4 decently. However, I wish I had dialed down the cpu for battery reasons.
- Battery life is good but about 20% less then my e1405 – this is because of the dedicated video and faster CPU, I had hoped the smaller LED screen would offset that – it didnt.
- The form factor is kinda awkward. I was hoping maybe I could open it on a New Haven Line train but no dice – only in the face 2 face seats.
In general, whenever I have to fiddle with my e1405 (which my wife now uses), I kinda wish I had it back, with that big ol screen and forever battery life. I never play games on this thing anyway. Oh, and it cost a lot less. However, I know my opinion will change 180° when I have to use it more while traveling.
Oh well, at least I got a ridiculous deal on this one, and my wife seems to like her upgrade to the e1405.
5 responses so far ↓
1 Anon // Mar 8, 2008 at 6:07 am
You can tone down the cpu, so that it runs fast only when you need it to. This can save a lot of battery life. I know for a fact that this is possible in Linux. I will omit the obvious suggestion to any Vista user.
2 Chris (Admin) // Mar 8, 2008 at 3:05 pm
Well Vista will use speedstep by default, which I cranked down as much as I could (you can specify min/max, battery and AC), without much difference.
I actually want my old e1405 back, I steal it from my wife all the time. best laptop I ever owned.
I fixed the Vista wireless issue, I had two APs too close together and the interference was screwing up Vista – didnt bother XP though, maybe because I used the Intel Connection manager.
BTW I have been a Linux server developer for 13 years and although I excitedly try out each new Ubuntu release, I prefer Windows on my desktop and notebook and program over ssh shells.
3 chi // Apr 5, 2008 at 1:36 am
so just exactly how bad is the battery life, 2hrs? 1hr?
4 Kim // Sep 19, 2008 at 10:31 pm
Hey Chris-
I was in very similar shoes. Thought my latitude d630 was too heavy, and not-so-sexy and got a m1330. Yeah, at first I was in love with its sleek looks but prefer my d630 for its better keyboard and much longer-lasting battery (both 9-cell). Plus, I worry about the LED screen on my m1330…it seems delicate to me whereas I know I can pretty much throw the d630 anywhere without causing it harm.
5 Chris // Jan 11, 2009 at 11:48 am
I just ordered one of these last night. Been eyeing the m1330s and the Latitudes. Unfortunately to get an equivalent Latitude the price nearly doubles. The Latitudes are really swell machines though. I had the opportunity to play with one recently. Solid and well-built. And the new ones have backlit keyboards, a feature I wish the XPS had.
Luckily I got an EPP discount from Dell, which brought my configured m1330 to under $1000 and that’s with almost maxed out specs.
I’m excited to get it and I certainly hope it’s worth all the excitement. The reviews I’ve been reading have all been mostly positive. Matter of fact, I think this is the first one that had negatives, which, I guess I appreciate.
Nice review. Thanks.
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