Dell XPS M1530 Review
Build and Display
The Dell XPS M1530 laptop sports a very impressive 15.4″ Wide Screen display, coupled with the availability of four distinctive colors the M1530 has undergone some seriously stylish changes over its predecessor the M1330 to bring us an excellent gaming package.
Performance
The system we reviewed has the upgraded 2.5Ghz Intel dual core and 3 Gigs of RAM. Coupled with the 256mb 8600 GT this machine was well able to handle whatever we threw at it. Performing well in games like Company of Heroes, Supreme Commander, or F.E.A.R, running at high detail at 1024 or similar resolution. Crysis and COD4 however would benefit from a 8800M card as it will only run well at lower detail levels. The overall gaming performance of the Dell XPS M1530 is good and most games can be run at 1280×800 the native resolution of the Dell, except for DirectX10 games.
If its a 15inch laptop your after then you will be hard pressed to find one that can compare to this one for your gaming pleasure.
Keyboard and TouchPad
The XPS M1550 keyboard impressed everyone and it makes it a pleasure to have to do so some typing compared with some other laptops, the keys are firm and are well cushioned, the touchpad too is excellent and the usual media controls add to a very well designed layout.
Ports and Features
One small niggle I have would be the fact that there are only 3 USB drives which is a bit of a problem in today’s world when I seem to be plugging more and more things into my computer, not to worry though that can easily be remedied by getting a USB hub.
Fingerprint reader can be a little tricky to master at first but once you have the hang of it its an excellent feature.
Integrated 2.0 MP camera
Battery
The battery lasts well and its possible to get up to 4 hours with the 9 cell Li-Ion Battery with some tweaks to Vistas power management settings.
Conclusion
While it has some downsides such as noise from the DVD and hard drive and a lack of USB ports, overall its a well built laptop. The performance is excellent in all but the most resource hungry of todays games, Crysis being one that slightly disappointes due to the need to turn down the settings but it is afterall a seriously intense game.
Pros
- Beautiful Design and customizable colours
- nVidia 8600M GT card is good for gaming
- Good battery life
- Excellent keyboard
Cons
- 3 USB ports
- Speakers could be of a better quality
- Hard drive and DVD drive are somewhat noisy
Tech Specs
- Intel Core 2 Duo T9300 (2.5GHz/800Mhz FSB, 6MB Cache)
- Windows Vista Home Premium Edition SP1
- Widescreen 15.4 inch LCD (1280×800) & 2.0 MegaPixel Camera
- Slot Loading DVD+/-RW (DVD/CD read/write)
- 3GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz
- 320GB 5400rpm SATA Hard Drive
- 256MB nVidia GeForce 8600M GT
