This is my review of the Dell XPS m1530. Please bear with me as this review is a work in progress. My specs are as follows:
Crimson Red
Intel Core 2 Duo 2.2Ghz (4MB Cache, 800Mhz FSB)
3GB RAM (667Mhz)
Nvidia 8600m (256MB)
250GB Hard Drive (5400rpm)
1280x800 glossy LCD
Built-in Bluetooth
Intel B,G,A,N wireless adapter
Vista Home Premium
1 year Lojack Theft Protection
3 Year In Home Service
Integrated fingerprint reader
AF Logo Backpack
Ordering Process
I placed the order for this laptop via the Dell website for military personnel on the 15th of December. The website is concise and allows quite a few options to personalize your computer, which is rather nice. Immediately upon completion of ordering, I was sent an email confirming my order and given a link to track the various stages of completion. They also gave me a timeline as to when I would be receiving my laptop, which turned out to be incorrect as they built and shipped it ahead of schedule.
The initial ship date was the 27th of Dec, but the actual ship date was the 20th. DHL attempted to deliver it on the 22nd but nobody was home at that time, 
so I had to wait until the 24th for delivery on the second attempt. As it was a half day of work for me, I was on my way home when I got the call from MbWife saying that it had arrived. 
The overall process went so smoothly that I couldn't ask for anything more. Overall rating: 10
First Impressions
Upon opening the box, I was greeted with a pair of pleasant looking inner boxes that housed the manuals and software, and in the other box the laptop itself.
The box on the left side of the previous photo contained the power cord, driver/software CD's, a remote control for medai, and a very nice looking leather binder that houses the manual, a pair of earphones, & an LCD cleaning cloth.
The other box contained the laptop that was covered in a nice looking protective sleeve.
So finally I get to the actual laptop.
It is very solid and has a beautiful red matte finish on the outer lid, accentuated with silver metallic stripes, and adorned with a shiny Dell logo & shiny XPS logo on the back of the lid.
Open it up and you will be greeted with a silver metallic finish keyboard, which reminds me of the Macbook Pro's I used to work with on my last job. There is an integrated 2.0 megapixel webcam at the top of the bezel surrounding the LCD panel, and touch sensitive media control buttons located above the keyboard (which I like). Due to the glare of my camera flash you cannot see the detail that went into the keyboard. The keys are solid and do not have the feeling that you will break them if you are a heavy typist. The touchpad is smooth and has the same metallic finish that the rest of the keyboard area has, also there are integrated vertical and horizontal scrolling capabilities.
On the left side of the laptop are located the power cord port, two USB ports, VGA port, gigabit ethernet port, an HDMI port, and a firewire port. You can also see the barrel hinge for the lid, which has a sturdy look to it.
The front of the laptop has two headphone jacks, a microphone jack, and an media card reader. I'm not too fond of the headphone jacks being placed in the front as they are because I have a Bose Companion speaker system and the jack to plug them in sits right in front of where I would place (rest) my hands when using the touchpad. This is actually a minor gripe, as I am fond of using a mouse with laptops.
The right side of the laptop houses the express card reader, the slot loading DVD player, a single USB port, S video port, and the cable lock. There is also a button located underneath the express card slot that activates the wireless card. One thing that I might mention is that the single USB port might interfere with the DVD player, should you have a device that is rather large plugged into it.
There is nothng located on the back side of the laptop, however it is nice looking when opened and facing it from the outside.
Included are some size comparison photos at MbWife's desk with my Alienware m5500. Both have 15.4" LCD's, however the Alienware utilizes a higher pair of rubber foot rests which give it a large and imposing profile next to the XPS m1530. The weight difference is a bit noticeable, with the m1530 feeling lighter. My m5500 weighs nearly 7lbs, and the m1530 weighs nearly 6lbs.
Another comparison phot with the lids closed shows the m1530 to be a bit more svelte than the m5500, but once again this is due to the larger rubber feet on the m5500.
Alright, now on to some more impressions. After I powered it up for the first time and got MbWife's profile created, I noticed that Dell doesn't have as much bloatware installed as they once used to. It seems to boot up rather quickly, which I find surprising since my Vista-installed Dimension 8400 seems to take a year in comparison. 
The 3GB of RAM is more than enough to handle whatever you may want to use including Photoshop CS3. The glossy screen is bright and vivid with colors seeming to jump out at you. I find that the 1280x800 resolution to be just fine for this laptop. I have 1680x1050 on my Alienware m5500, and I sometimes find this to be a bit much especially the older I get. The internal wireless radio works just fine however I had some difficulty getting it to connect properly to my Linksys WRT54GX4 (SRX400) wireless router. After digging into the routers many settings, I found out what the problem was and corrected the issue. It finds my network quickly and connects every time. I have tested the webcam, and it works flawlessly. There are several different visual and audio features that I like including making your voice sound like Darth Vader, adding animations to your face, ect. The sound quality is rather good as well. Speaking of sound, I only opted for the standard sound card and yet when connected to my Bose Companion speakers it sounds so much better than my m5500 does hooked up to them. The bass comes through nicely and I can only imagine what it must sound like with the upgraded sound cards. The touch sensitive media controls are very nice and work well. I like having the DVD eject button up above the keyboard, as now I don't have to search for it on the side of the laptop. The slot loading DVD player is nice but it does make some very pronounced noises when powering up. I have got used to this already so it's not a problem, however some people might be put off by that initial noise.
One more thing I need to include is the AF logo backpack that I got with this system. Through AAFES, you can order backpacks with the logos of the four major branches of service on them. Of course I got the AF logo as MbWife retired after 24 years of service, and I will be recently returning to the AF.
It is laid out nicely for a backpack. I like the embroidered AF logo on the outside, as it has a more solid appearance than the silkscreened logos that I've seen. The pockets are deep and there are a lot of inner pockets for organizing school supplies, etc. The weight is respectible and it fist nicely against the back.
*EDIT*
I have run 3D Mark 06 and came up with the following result:
4304
I have yet to do a proper drain test of the 6 cell battery, so please excuse this asl a work in progress. One other thought is that the fingerprint reader doesn't seem to work for MbWife, however it works just fine for me. Maybe she's a spy? We'll have to tune in later for that one... I will say that my intial impression is very favorable. I like this laptop very much and would recommend it to anyone.
Crimson Red
Intel Core 2 Duo 2.2Ghz (4MB Cache, 800Mhz FSB)
3GB RAM (667Mhz)
Nvidia 8600m (256MB)
250GB Hard Drive (5400rpm)
1280x800 glossy LCD
Built-in Bluetooth
Intel B,G,A,N wireless adapter
Vista Home Premium
1 year Lojack Theft Protection
3 Year In Home Service
Integrated fingerprint reader
AF Logo Backpack
Ordering Process
I placed the order for this laptop via the Dell website for military personnel on the 15th of December. The website is concise and allows quite a few options to personalize your computer, which is rather nice. Immediately upon completion of ordering, I was sent an email confirming my order and given a link to track the various stages of completion. They also gave me a timeline as to when I would be receiving my laptop, which turned out to be incorrect as they built and shipped it ahead of schedule.
The initial ship date was the 27th of Dec, but the actual ship date was the 20th. DHL attempted to deliver it on the 22nd but nobody was home at that time, so I had to wait until the 24th for delivery on the second attempt. As it was a half day of work for me, I was on my way home when I got the call from MbWife saying that it had arrived. The overall process went so smoothly that I couldn't ask for anything more. Overall rating: 10First Impressions
Upon opening the box, I was greeted with a pair of pleasant looking inner boxes that housed the manuals and software, and in the other box the laptop itself.
The box on the left side of the previous photo contained the power cord, driver/software CD's, a remote control for medai, and a very nice looking leather binder that houses the manual, a pair of earphones, & an LCD cleaning cloth.
The other box contained the laptop that was covered in a nice looking protective sleeve.
So finally I get to the actual laptop.
It is very solid and has a beautiful red matte finish on the outer lid, accentuated with silver metallic stripes, and adorned with a shiny Dell logo & shiny XPS logo on the back of the lid.
Open it up and you will be greeted with a silver metallic finish keyboard, which reminds me of the Macbook Pro's I used to work with on my last job. There is an integrated 2.0 megapixel webcam at the top of the bezel surrounding the LCD panel, and touch sensitive media control buttons located above the keyboard (which I like). Due to the glare of my camera flash you cannot see the detail that went into the keyboard. The keys are solid and do not have the feeling that you will break them if you are a heavy typist. The touchpad is smooth and has the same metallic finish that the rest of the keyboard area has, also there are integrated vertical and horizontal scrolling capabilities.
On the left side of the laptop are located the power cord port, two USB ports, VGA port, gigabit ethernet port, an HDMI port, and a firewire port. You can also see the barrel hinge for the lid, which has a sturdy look to it.
The front of the laptop has two headphone jacks, a microphone jack, and an media card reader. I'm not too fond of the headphone jacks being placed in the front as they are because I have a Bose Companion speaker system and the jack to plug them in sits right in front of where I would place (rest) my hands when using the touchpad. This is actually a minor gripe, as I am fond of using a mouse with laptops.
The right side of the laptop houses the express card reader, the slot loading DVD player, a single USB port, S video port, and the cable lock. There is also a button located underneath the express card slot that activates the wireless card. One thing that I might mention is that the single USB port might interfere with the DVD player, should you have a device that is rather large plugged into it.
There is nothng located on the back side of the laptop, however it is nice looking when opened and facing it from the outside.
Included are some size comparison photos at MbWife's desk with my Alienware m5500. Both have 15.4" LCD's, however the Alienware utilizes a higher pair of rubber foot rests which give it a large and imposing profile next to the XPS m1530. The weight difference is a bit noticeable, with the m1530 feeling lighter. My m5500 weighs nearly 7lbs, and the m1530 weighs nearly 6lbs.
Another comparison phot with the lids closed shows the m1530 to be a bit more svelte than the m5500, but once again this is due to the larger rubber feet on the m5500.
Alright, now on to some more impressions.
After I powered it up for the first time and got MbWife's profile created, I noticed that Dell doesn't have as much bloatware installed as they once used to. It seems to boot up rather quickly, which I find surprising since my Vista-installed Dimension 8400 seems to take a year in comparison. The 3GB of RAM is more than enough to handle whatever you may want to use including Photoshop CS3. The glossy screen is bright and vivid with colors seeming to jump out at you. I find that the 1280x800 resolution to be just fine for this laptop. I have 1680x1050 on my Alienware m5500, and I sometimes find this to be a bit much especially the older I get. The internal wireless radio works just fine however I had some difficulty getting it to connect properly to my Linksys WRT54GX4 (SRX400) wireless router. After digging into the routers many settings, I found out what the problem was and corrected the issue. It finds my network quickly and connects every time. I have tested the webcam, and it works flawlessly. There are several different visual and audio features that I like including making your voice sound like Darth Vader, adding animations to your face, ect. The sound quality is rather good as well. Speaking of sound, I only opted for the standard sound card and yet when connected to my Bose Companion speakers it sounds so much better than my m5500 does hooked up to them. The bass comes through nicely and I can only imagine what it must sound like with the upgraded sound cards. The touch sensitive media controls are very nice and work well. I like having the DVD eject button up above the keyboard, as now I don't have to search for it on the side of the laptop. The slot loading DVD player is nice but it does make some very pronounced noises when powering up. I have got used to this already so it's not a problem, however some people might be put off by that initial noise.One more thing I need to include is the AF logo backpack that I got with this system. Through AAFES, you can order backpacks with the logos of the four major branches of service on them. Of course I got the AF logo as MbWife retired after 24 years of service, and I will be recently returning to the AF.
It is laid out nicely for a backpack. I like the embroidered AF logo on the outside, as it has a more solid appearance than the silkscreened logos that I've seen. The pockets are deep and there are a lot of inner pockets for organizing school supplies, etc. The weight is respectible and it fist nicely against the back.
*EDIT*
I have run 3D Mark 06 and came up with the following result:
4304
I have yet to do a proper drain test of the 6 cell battery, so please excuse this asl a work in progress. One other thought is that the fingerprint reader doesn't seem to work for MbWife, however it works just fine for me. Maybe she's a spy? We'll have to tune in later for that one...
I will say that my intial impression is very favorable. I like this laptop very much and would recommend it to anyone.
