The system held its own against other Core 2 Duo T7600 laptops, such as the Velocity Micro NoteMagix L80 Ultra, in CNET Labs' multimedia tests. Ironically, it fell behind the Area-51 m5550, from Dell-owned Alienware. When it comes to gaming, however, the XPS M1710 is unbeatable, turning in a score of 99.5 frames per second in Quake 4 at 1,280x1,024 and a respectable 53fps at the same resolution in the more challenging F.E.A.R. test. For almost $3,500, you could doubtlessly get better performance from a desktop PC, but for a gaming laptop, it's top of the charts. We only saw a nominal performance bump from the GeForce 7900 version of the M1710, but slightly older games such as Quake 4 and F.E.A.R. may not be the best test of a new GPU.
In our battery drain test, the XPS M1710 lasted for 2 hours, 51 minutes, about 10 minutes longer than the last XPS M1710 we looked at, and certainly provides decent battery life for a desktop replacement.
Though Dell has cut warrantees to 90 days on many of its less-expensive models, the company covers the XPS M170 with a two-year warranty, which provides parts-and-labor coverage and onsite service. You can upgrade that to four years for $160 or get four years of Premium service, which adds night and weekend onsite service, for $268. XPS machines get a special 24-hour, toll-free tech-support number to cut down on hold time, and the Dell Web site is reasonably well equipped with driver downloads, FAQs, and user forums.
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)
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Quake 4 1,024x768, 4xAA 8xAF |
(Longer bars indicate better performance)
Find out more about how we test Windows laptops.
System configurations:
Alienware Area-51 m5550
Windows XP Media Center 2005 SP2; 2.33GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7600; 2,048MB DDR2 SDRAM 666MHz; 256MB Nvidia GeForce Go 7600; 100GB Seagate 7,200rpm SATA/150
Dell XPS M1710
Windows XP Media Center 2005 SP2; 2.33GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7600; 2,048MB DDR2 SDRAM 666MHz; 512MB Nvidia GeForce Go 7950 GTX; 100GB Hitachi 7,200rpm SATA/150
Gateway NX860XL
Windows XP Media Center 2005 SP2; 2.16GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7400; 2,048MB DDR2 SDRAM 664MHz; 256MB Nvidia GeForce Go 7900 GS; 100GB Hitachi 7,200rpm SATA/150
Toshiba Satellite P105-S9722
Windows XP Professional SP2; 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7200; 2,048MB DDR2 SDRAM 666MHz; 256MB Nvidia GeForce Go 7900 GS; 200GB Fujitsu 4,200rpm SATA/150
Velocity Micro NoteMagix L80 Ultra
Windows XP Professional SP2; 2.33GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7600; 2,048MB DDR2 SDRAM 666MHz; 256MB Nvidia GeForce Go 7600; 100GB Seagate 7,200rpm SATA/150
What You'll Pay
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