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"Our worst IT purchase in 17 years - Stave yourself, stay away" on by md5205
Pros: Nice looking
Cons: Defective, Onsite Dell Technician botched the repair. Unit is now unusable.
Summary: We purchased six of these units. One was defective out of the box. Dell sent an onsite tech to replace the motherboard, processor, fan and heat sink. He botched the re-assembly, press the power button and nothing... the unit wouldn't turn on. To make thing worse, in the process of re-assembly he stripped out screw(s), now the machine can't be opened to be fixed. The battery no longer fits properly. As I looked on, he seemed to be jamming components back in the unit (it look as though he couldn't get them to fit right).
Dell refuses to replace the unit, insisting they will only repair it since we had it 28 days (they replace only in first 21 days). Sadly I wasted 20 of the days trying to get it to work, no luck.
Summary: Nice looking unit. If yours is defective, be prepared for incompetent techs and to spend numerous hours with tech support trying to get something done.
What are the odds you'll get a defective unit? While one in six isn't a staticstically valid sample, I've seen indications pointing to widespread problems with the Dell and this machine:
1. Many reported problems on the net. Check around before you do a header in the XPS pool.
2. Dell's been in financial straights lately. Although they reported improved financial results Q3 2007, it seems they'll be short lived.
3. Dell's willing to sacrifice our company's busines (5 to 10 units per year) over the cost to replace this unit. Maybe they have buckets of bad M1330s. So many they can't replace them all.
HP should be smiling. Guess that's where I'll head next. No wonder HP is soaring and Dell is tanking. -
"Ultimate combination of computing power and mobility" on by flyblackjb
Pros: Fast CPU, GPU, Media-friendly design, Ultra-portable, eye-catching frame
Cons: Battery life could be better (minor complaint considering design and GPU), Slight noise, Heat
Summary: As a college student, portability is key for me. I considered the Sony Vaio SZ, Macbook, and the XPS m1330. After examining all three, this is by far the best of the group. It is very fast while multitasking, the graphics during gaming are superb for a product this size, and all components are seamlessly integrated with the OS. This computer makes quick work of some of the most resource-demanding programs available. I still can't believe that this 4 pound product has more overall computing power than my previous desktop. And to add on to all of this, this computer is simply gorgeous. The video just doesn't do justice to how nice the frame is. I waited for about 5 weeks for mine and trust me, it was WELL worth waiting for.
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"I LOVE MY CRIMSON RED M1330" on by chikachic817
Pros: battery life, lid color, small and lightweight, screen
Cons: wobbles a bit, slot drive tiny bit loud in my opinion
Summary: I received my XPS m1330 2 days ago after a long wait. To be honest, I was very nervous about ordering this in red. I was afraid that it would be too bright and bring too much attention to itself. Upon opening the box, I was amazed at the color. I LOVED IT! It wasn't too bright of a red, more of a brick color red which would appeal to both males and females, though the hue changes under different lighting conditions and still looks great in each one.
It's very lightweight compared to my 15.4 inch Toshiba. I have already taken it out with me to the library and had no problems what so ever with having to carry it around. Even feels lighter than my anatomy textbook.
The screen is thin, very bright and shows rich colors. This screen at 6/7 brightness is the same as my Toshiba at 7/7, so the brightness was very noticable to me. I was also apprehensive about the touchpad being too small, but have found it to be quite responsive and can use it just fine. I also like having the scroll areas along the sides of the touchpad. The keyboard is nice and large which for me is the one thing I have to get adjusted to because my Toshiba's keyboard is little smaller, though I thought it was full size being that it was on a 15.4 in laptop. At first glance, comparing it side by side with my laptop, I thought the keys were huge and found myself having to stretch my fingers farther to reach certain keys, but I am now getting used to it and having no problems typing with it.
The touch sensitive multimedia buttons work great in my opinion and have a nice square blue glow around each of them that slowly fades away once they are touched. I bought mine with the fingerprint reader and had no problems setting it up, took me around 3-4 to register my fingerprints and has since worked everytime that I use it. The slot loading drive is nice as well, though it is a tiny bit on the loud side. I'm not sure that I would want to load a CD while in a quiet room because it is a little noisy, but it is certainly not a deal breaker for me. Also the battery life is very good. I used it off and on typing a paper for 3 hours with wifi off, power saver mode with full brightness, with it sleeping for a total of probably 30 minutes (not all at once), and came back and it said I had 68% left with a little over 2 1/4 hours left. Very nice considering I couldn't get may last laptop to get over 1 1/2 hours.
The build quality is nice, though mine does wobble a bit when I lay my hand on the left palmrest, but it is nothing major, just find something to put under that side to even it out since it's only 3-4 mm off the table. I would like to say that it does hold up pretty well. I was actually in a car wreck yesterday (the day after I received the laptop) on my way home from the library in which my car was totalled. The laptop was in the included case in my totebag on the passenger seat when the accident happened. When I got home, I noticed no external cosmetic damage which was amazing considering. I pressed the power button and to my astonishment it started up just fine and there wasn't any damage to the screen. It was when I started to type my password that I noticed that the wobble was VERY noticable, like 5x worse. Upon further inspection, I noticed that the base was sort of twisted, meaning the left side was slightly higher than the right. Apparently when my car was hit, the bag must have hit the glove compartment or something and bent the base of the system, so now the left side sits a little higher than the right, and you can kind of see in the right lighting where it is bent in the aluminum palm rest on the left side. It really isn't that noticable unless you are looking for it. No one else knew it was until I showed them. But other than that, the system works perfectly, and looks brand new with no cosmetic damage, the same way it did when I opened the box. To me, that's a good sign of how it will hold up in the long run to very minor drops, etc. And since it happened during the first 21 days of owning it, I am getting a replacement for free, even though it would have been covered under the 3yrs. of accidental coverage I purchased. The process of getting a replacement was relatively easy because of the XPS technical support being very helpful in setting up a replacement and they are allowing me to keep this one until the replacement comes, then I have about a week to send one back in which they pay for the shipping and supplies to send it back.
Overall, I am very satisfied with my purchase of this beautiful system that has garnered many compliments in my few days of owning it. The only downside was the ordering process and having to wait an unusually long time, especially since Dell usually ships systems alot sooner. Would I recommend it? Definitely, since it seems that Dell is catching up on their backlog of systems because people that ordered during the middle to end of August are already starting to receive theirs. -
"good looking but poor quality, big disappointment" on by wlodecek
Pros: very nice design and good looking machine, at first I fell in love with it.
Cons: seems to be slow, very noisy hard drive and poor quality switches for wireless and express cards.
Summary: I called Dell very next day after receiving it to return it. At first it was looking very nice, red color, modern design good screen and keyboard.
When I started laptop it starts with very loud metalic noise coming from hard drive, also during browsing often works loudly. On the side of laptop two buttons for switching wireless on and I think for express card are very loose and wabbly. For the price I was dissatisfied and instead trying to have it repaired I chose to call Dell and returned it to them. I do not thing that such product strught out from the box should have any quality problems. when I called dell I received also poor service and rep wanted to convince me to keep laptop and give me discount or exchange it for another one. I did some research on internet and apparently many people complained about noisy hard drive so I chose to return it and buy something else instead. Probably I will go for Apple or Lenovo this time. -
"Quality Controll Sucks!!!!" on by JRFeeney
Pros: Small and loaded
Cons: Doesn't work!
Summary: I waited a month to get this unit. When i got it, it developed a problem with the display the first week. It made the unit totally unusable. It took another two weeks to get a replacement. The new unit has the access screw, to the WWAN card compartment, stripped. I can't transfer my card to the new unit. This is totally retarded. I pay this much and after two months I still don't have a usable unit.
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