Dell XPS M1210

Pros: Components available that no other laptop of its size offer, great battery life

Cons: no gaming machine should use intel, could use a better video card

Summary: First of all, I'm very impressed with this machine. I'd been eyeing one of the Sony TX series vaio laptops for a while to replace my old Dell latitude one. Personally, I won't ever treat my laptop as my only machine when it's much more cost effective to put money into a desktop and have a solid, functional laptop instead.
I was dubious when i came across the M1210 initially, since I'd found the XPS line, on the whole, to be pricy and generally not worth the money, but with the right set of components, you can walk away with an M1210 for not much at all.
Now, I've heard some comparison between different models of Dell computers and the M1210. THe E1705 in particular has been brought up, and, while yes you can get a better video card in the larger machine, the E1705 comes with only a single-core intel 1.6GHz processor, which is a joke for a machine that size. The video card won't overcome the hobbling the poor processor places on it.
Realistically, if there should be any comparison between machines, it should be between the M1210 and the M1710, its big brother. Personally, if it was going to be my only machine, I'd probably go with the M1710, but i use a desktop that is much more powerful for most of my work and play, and the laptop only for on the go stuff. As such, I hate lugging around a big laptop. 17-inch screens are massive machines. THey don't fit well in backpacks, they're screaming hot on your lap, and, frankly, I like the smaller, more portable machines. Size is a concern for me. That's the bottom line.
Two final notes. If you're really serious about a gaming laptop, alienware is probably your best bet. Until Dell gets on the AMD wagon and starts using Athlon cards in its laptops, it'll always be behind the curve. That's the only reason I wasn't willing to give the M1210 a 10/10 score. I think it's great, but an AMD processor would have made it astounding. My unit has the Dual-Core 2.0GHb processor, 2gb of RAM, and the 256 video card. Cost me less than 2 grand and is fully three times the machine of any other laptop in its price range.