Review: Dell XPS M1530 (Product RED)
Tom on August 11, 2008
Dell has finally found the key to winning over the Windows home notebook market as well as maintaining a majority in the business laptop sector; design-conscious buyers are enjoying of the manufacturer’s new-found talent while the core quality of Dell’s notebooks remains solid. Dell’s most prominent notebook in this hotly-contested segment has been the XPS M1330, a 13.3” model with a good blend of good design and performance. Will the new big brother to the M1330, the M1530, please the 15.4” crowd? We endeavoured to find out.
Aesthetic
Straight up, the Dell XPS M1530 is gorgeous. Dell has gone to a lot of trouble in making the out-of-the-box design experience a visually enjoyable one for the user; the box itself is adorned with a white and grey XPS pattern and the quality of the accessories and packaging is excellent.
Upon meeting the M1530 we were immediately impressed with its presentation when resting; when closed, the lightly tapered profile casts the eye over the machine, rather than over its thickness, which makes the notebook seem thinner. Although it’s certainly not heavyset, the M1530 is thicker than some competitors (notably the MacBook Pro), but the well-integrated two-tone colour design and tapering reduce this effect.
Our demonstrator was of the Crimson variety; this model is a product with Dell’s new relationship with (PRODUCT)RED, the recognised brand that raises money for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria. Dell was the first major PC maker to join the group; the wares from this new partnership have been both good-looking and inspiring for buyers.
This special model features a bright red lid design; the new XPS M1330 and M1530 models feature a central, coloured panel on the lid with brushed aluminium highlights to either side. While several of my design panel here at the blog labelled this design as loud and garish, I personally found the red to be attractive and certainly not everyday. In a world of black-box PCs, this design is highly encouraging.
Venturing inside, the minimal design theme continues; a stark brushed aluminium keyboard and surrounds style complements the glossy black display and media key array. While not for some, the silver thread cuts down on unnecessary, unwanted clutter and allows the fingers to delight in the cold simplicity that complements such a finish.
A simple (DELL)RED graphic sits on the left palm rest; on the right, two small logos promoting Windows Vista and Intel processors lie under a fingerprint reader. Amazingly, these are the only additions to these frequently-used surfaces. While it is not immediately clear that there is a high-performance NVIDIA graphics card under the hood (NVIDIA is usually credited with a sticker) this very-Apple-like touch greatly impresses and builds up the premium feel of the computer.
While unneeded features are cut out from the base, Dell has included a row of media keys that work with a variety of software. These appear as unmoving graphics at first but with a touch, they glow a blue colour and linger alight for a second or two.
Design-wise with the M1530, less is more. The absense of physical bloat is wonderful, at least for a PC. The quality of the aesthetics on this notebook is excellent.
Features & functionality
Larger laptops (15.4” and larger) can often pack in more than necessary, but what we never like is when they cut back on what really is needed. In true Dell style there are enough hardware-related features on the M1530, which although adds to the complexity of the port array, will please the power user – and that is predominantly the target market for this machine.
External connectivity is generally good – if you are largely into USB devices. The absense of a FireWire 400 or 800 port is not unusual on a PC; however, Dell should be leading the way and introducing these missed ports. An IEEE 1394 video port is included, though, which makes up for some of this.
As manufacturers move toward the increasing popularity towards wireless use of technology, Dell has included a few interesting WiFi features. On the right hand side, there is a WiFi switcher which can quickly turn on and off the wireless functions of the machine quickly, which is helpful on plane flights especially. However, next to this is a WiFi finder button which quickly locates the nearest WiFi and the signal strength.
I found this to be a fascinating addition – helpful in areas when you’re not sure about WiFi, but it grows increasingly unnecessary once your usual WiFi profiles are set up and are joined automatically upon reaching certain networks.
In terms of more mainstream ports, the supply is above average: on the left side we find our power port, two vertically-stacked USB ports, VGA- and HDMI-out ports, Gigabit Ethernet, and IEEE 1394 video.
Curving around to the front, we find the audio ports; in competition with HP, Dell offers two headphone jacks for sharing audio with a friend, as well as a single microphone-in slot. Next to these are the blue-glowing power indicators.
On the right side, a slot-loading DVD drive dominates, but also to be found are another USB port, an ExpressCard slot and that WiFi array.
In terms of hardware, all of these work exactly as expected. I found no problem with any of the ports – except perhaps with the two vertically-stacked USB ports on the left side, where chunkier USB devices could not be used concurrently.
A good supply of bundled accessories polished off the entire package – Dell’s Media Remote fits into the ExpressCard slot and is great for travelling; we also received a DTV antenna to test the Media Centre in Windows Vista, but this may be media only; however, a quality Dell notebook sleeve allowed casual travelling with the laptop on battery power easy, comfortable and enjoyable.
For longer trips when the AC power adapter is necessary (which will be most times) a larger bag will be needed. The adapter itself has taken a leaf from several manufacturer’s books in that it has a wrap-around system to keeps cords tidy and manageable.
Working is essentially very comfortable on the XPS M1530, but it is most comfortable at a desk. When travelling about, using the M1530 on your lap or on a tray table, the larger than usual footprint can become a problem but the light weight can make things significantly easier than on older models.
The 15.4” display we tested with was at WSXGA+ resolution (1680×1050) – not quite 1080p but very nice for a laptop. This was a significant boost from the standard 1440×900 resolution, affording much more real estate on screen when multitasking.
The keyboard allows easy working for hours on end. There is minimal flex, except for in the centre of the pad, where keys bounce a little, but this does not impede on typing ability.
The touchpad really is too small for the M1530 and something wider and taller, with larger dedicated scrolling pads would have been preferable; using an external mouse was more intuitive than using the internal ‘pad. The left and right click, however, sink deeply when pressed, which gives more satisfaction than ‘clicky’ buttons.
Another small letdown was the speaker quality, which I found to be generally lacking in bass and became a little tinny at louder volume. Of course, when using headphones or external speakers this all got much better.
Windows Vista utilises the very generous specification of the Crimson M1530 in a sensible fashion; the fast Core 2 Duo processor and 3GB of RAM, in conjunction with Dell’s own performance tweaks make using each application a smooth experience. Vista holds back the M1530 a little, but with SP1 bugs have been minimised and generally, our experience was improved over generic Vista setups.
Performance
My demonstration unit of the Dell XPS M1530 featured the following specifications:
| Processor | Intel Core 2 Duo T8300 |
| Clock Speed | 2.4 GHz |
| Hard Drive | 320GB @ 5400 RPM |
| Memory | 3GB RAM (DDR2) |
| Graphics | NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT |
| Graphics Memory | 256 MB |
Performance with these specifications was excellent. While using Microsoft Office productivity applications, the experience could be described as ‘blistering’. Graphics-intensive games were handled with ease in most cases and designer applications like Adobe Photoshop Extended CS3 and Google SketchUp 6 (CAD) performed well.
This performance unfortunately comes at the price of efficient battery use, with a fairly mediocre battery life. In our tests, which involved the display at half to three-quarters brightness (varied according to environment), volume at half, set to the battery saver profile, with wireless web use and with productivity and design applications, we averaged two hours of life. As previously mentioned, when you’re out and about, it will usually be necessary to carry the power cables.
To the casual Internet and Office user, the M1530 would offer more than enough, performance-wise; to the multimedia enthusiast and gamer, these specifications should be just right.
The bottom line
Dell has not only succeeded in making a 15.4” variant that is just as good as its 13.3” sibling, the M1330 – this model is even better. While it is not without its flaws, especially in relation to FireWire and battery life, the M1530 is hard to beat in the power user 15” category. And when a portion of the purchase price will help those less fortunate, who could argue with the PRODUCT(RED) variety? The M1530 offers a decent blend of form and function as well as excellent performance, so if you’re in the medium-sized portable market and want more than a cheaper business notebook, the M1530 could be for you.
Excellent review, and an excellent machine. Mine is blue tho. I’ve had it 13 months and I’ve never had a problem with it – excellent performance (processor speed – 2.1 GHz, RAM 4 Gb – quite fast at the time), reliable, stylish and just plain amazing lol.
It looks pretty much new cos I take care of it – and that’s the kind of machine it is – if you mind it well ul have no problems with it. Its my first laptop, had a desktop before and what really is a great idea in my opinion is the second small hard drive for restoring factory settings. It means that almost any problem you do have you can sort out yourself. By the way, do other laptop manufacturers include this? If not its a definate must.
But yeah, anyone considering buying one – go 4 it and spec it well (so long as ur certain u can keep it safe). And no, I dont have any connection with dell, this is a case of credit where credit is due.
Comment by John on September 25, 2009 at 6:20 am
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