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I can't believe nobody's written up a review of this laptop on here yet. I think I'm the last person to order on the release day (May 31st) to get his/hers.

Well, here are the specs:
1.86ghz Yonah Core duo
1GB of PC-5300 DDR2 667 (upgraded immediately to 2GB of same speed)
nVidia 7400 TC
60GB 7200rpm 8mb (Seagate Momentus)
Bluetooth
DVD+/-RW
9 cell + 6 cell batteries

Initial Thoughts:
No Keyboard Flex!! (check pictures) and No Dead Pixels!!!
Looks badass!!! I'm glad that I didn't get the AV package. I think the built in camera takes away from the smooth lines and I would have never used it. I have a webcam at home and have never used it...plus, I've been to certain "sensitive" areas where they forbid the use ot anything with a built in camera.
Very similat in size to the 700m and similar screen.

Screen:
Glossy WXGA looks glossy, but not overly glossy. I would say somewhere between the Sony and the Fujitsu in terms of glossiness (with Sony being less glossy and Fujitsu being more).

Speed:
Seems very quick. The first boot up did take a while, but once I popped in my 2Gb of RAM, and uninstalled all the dell software in favor of all my preferred ones (Dell Media > PowerDVD, Sonic > Nero, etc..) and uninstalled some of the stuff I don't use, as well as a little cleaning up on msconfig...it boots VERY fast now. I'll be doing some benchmarking later.

Wireless:
No problems. Picked up my router, plugged in the WEP and it's crusing along.

Sound:
Speakers seem better than most other laptop speakers. I turn the volume up and could hear the music playing loud and clear from a few rooms away.

Battery:
The 9-cell came completely charged. I plugged it in and noticed that it had 100% charge. I unplugged it about 4.5 hours ago and have been doing quite power intensive things (installing, uninstalling, music, running DVDs, etc...) with everything on and brightness set to 2 clicks below full (which is still plenty bright) I just got the "low battery warning stating that I have about 20 minutes left. That's AWESOME! I was worried that I wouldn't get more than 3 hours or so even with the 9-cell.

Oh, and I love the XPS wallpaper.

And now for the pics (Oh, and this is the only notebook I've owned so far that had a card reader built in that read XD cards and I'm using it to read the pictures off my card now to post these pictures!)







No "Bulge" causing the Keyboard Flex!!!





So in summary:

The good:
Awesome looking
Very quick
Good screen (I got the AUO panel)
Good battery life
Good speakers
Quiet Drive (I have the Sony DVD Burner)
Good multimedia card reader
Good trackpad/responsive click buttons
Very quiet! (Fan noise is bearable, unlike most other "ultraportables")
Stays cool! (Was on my lap the whole time and barely got warm)

The Bad:
Don't like the "chrome" buttons and the trimming around the trackpad.
On the heavy side for such
Thick a small laptop
On the thick side for such a small laptop
The black backing is attracts fingerprints
The memory upgrade is a little harder than it should be (where one stick is under the keyboard


....gaming benchmarks to come later in the week.

*edit* couple of Benchies added:

Nice review! I'm confused by one thing. The keyboard-flex picture. I have a little keyboard flex, only noticeable on the right side of the keyboard when I push HARD. However, I notice you have a strange material on the right-hand side of the system, underneath the keyboard. What is that "pink" stuff?

I took my keyboard off, and I don't have anything like this guy:

http://www.jrin.net/?p=80

I think all the M1210 keyboard have a little flex, honestly. If you push hard down on the right SHIFT key, you can see the other keys move a little bit. I'd never have noticed if there hadn't been this big scare.

Thanks!

It's actually not pink...it's grey. The lighting makes it look pinkish. I definitely don't have the problem that guy has. Nothing is sticking up and I have no keyboard flex at all, no matter how hard I push on it. The keyboard is actually quite nice. Very quiet to type on too and not clicky. Everything under the keyboard is completely flush...nothing sticking up any more than anything else.

Groovy. I figured it may have been the camera. Yep, the keyboard is pretty quiet! Nowhere near Thinkpad quality though, as usual. *sigh*

Wish Dell would make decent keyboards.

Great review, and no flex on mine either. But the one thing that bothers me is the damn stickers. i noticed that your windows sticker is on the left of the Intel sticker. My windows sticker is on the right of the intel sticker and on top of my windows sticker i have a Graphics by Nvidia sticker... Why cant dell get the stickers right or uniformed .. and one of mine is crooked err 1500+ dollars and the damn stickers are not straight LOL
Love this machine though

Oh? I didn't get a "graphics by nVidia" sticker?!?! I kinda want one. I think I'll give Dell a call and have them send me one.

I removed both stickers immediately. They leave no residue.

I noticed you got the 60GB Seagate 7200rpm drive. I did too. I find it a particularly ugly sounding drive. It clicks and grinds unpleasantly. Much worse sounding that my 100GB Hitachi 7200rpm in my M170.

hmm...that's weird. Mine has been dead silent. I will try to listen for some noises during the day today.

Great review! Very nice. Dang little laptop beat my all-bark/no-bite Qosmio beast in 3DM.

Hey Cheez, would you be able to ascertain pretty accurately how much thicker/wider/deeper (that could be misconstrued as innuendo, though I assure you it is NOT, hehe) it is than the 710m? Reason I'm asking is because I'm planning on upgrading my wife's so she can play Sims2 @ school, but her current bag barely, and I mean barely fits the 710m. (It's actually for the 12" MB.) Thanks man.

-Brian

they are VERY similar in size. The length is the same 11.7", but the M1210 is a little wider at 8.7" vs. 8.5". I think the m1210 is supposed to be slightly shorter at 1.2" vs. 1.5". The keyboard doesn't seem nearly as cramped on the m1210 as the 700m that I used to own.

Loaded and fired up BF2. Everything at default settings (medium), and it ran smoothly!

This puppy can run BF2????!!!!
Damn...gotta take a closer look at this machine!!

Govtcheez thanks for the review and pictures. I can't believe none of the people that ordered this did a review with pictures. Im very interested in this model for the power and battery life.

Govtcheez is it possible for you to take a screen shot of the bottom of it? Also how hot does the palm rest get as well as the bottom of the unit for surfing and what not..can you use it on your bare legs or would it be really uncomfortable. Also is there fans that can be blocked underneath if you were to set it on your lap?

Here ya go:

the palm rest stays pretty cool for me. I haven't done anything that's very power intensive for a prolonged period, but it's been great. When it's plugged in, I guess it gets a little bit warm. As you can see from the picture, there is a fan that draws the air in from the bottom and blows it out to the left side. I probably wouldn't cover this fan for too long. I usually type on it on my lap while I'm laying down on my couch using a laptop cooler (that's not plugged in)...but I don't think it would be a problem if you set it on your bare legs. The magnesium bottom doesn't get too hot.

Thanks thats a big help..mine has like 5 fans so you can forget using it in your lap heh..its a really cool looking little laptop

That 4 hours battery life you got was excellant also..especially with that card in it...I get 54 minutes on mine

Any idea if 2 gigs is the max? Just curious if it can be up grade to 4 a few years down the line from now..