Dell XPS M1330 13.3" Tuxedo Black Laptop Computer

I purchased XPS M1330 on March 2008. Based on a year of usage, I do not recommend this product.

Let me layout the good things about this computer first. The screen quality is very good and shiny (I bought the Slim light-LED display for additional money). The colors are very good. The system does not come with a load of unnecessary software and does not slow the performance. The keyboard feel and comfort is excellent.

However, the hardware integration of this computer is weak. In less than 8 months, the graphics card was completely dead. The mother board was replaced by Dell. Worst of all the problems is the audio skipping and stuttering during just about anything, playing DVDs, listening to music (either from the harddrive or from an external harddrive), or just working. If you search the web for XPS M1330 audio skipping, you'll notice that many other individuals have the same problem. There is a resource conflict between the sound card and the other components of the computer. Dell is aware of this, yet, they still ship out the computers with this problem. Apparently, the Sigmatel, the sound card for Dell, and its drivers are responsible for this. Even if you remove the Sigmatel drivers, you'll hear the audio skipping. My motherboard was replaced second time after consistent errors by the sound card. Still, I hear the audio skipping. I tried all the temporary workarounds that were suggested by many people in forums. But to no avail.

In sum, I do not recommend this product. This is one of the premium lines of Dell products. It is supposed to be highest quality, because it is the highest in price. Yet, the hardware integration is sloppy and poor in quality. I personally regret going with Dell. Next time, I will seriously consider other options, such as HP, ASUS, Apple, etc.

I am now on my 3rd mother board. Each time it takes 5 to 6, 3-hour phone calls and at least a 7-10 days to get fixed (but usually not for long).

Deal with Dell at your own risk!

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This is a solid laptop with great performance. I too was disappointed with the very dim display when running on battery until I figured out that Dell has set it that way in the system BIOS to persumably extend the battery charge. If you hit the F2 key while the laptop boots up you can enter the Setup and correct this. I moved it from a default setting of 3 to 6 and the display dims only slightly now on battery.

Be careful not to change other settings while in setup unless you know what you're doing. You could cause major problems.

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These dell laptops seems to have really bad hardware integration. Purchase at your own peril. This is my 4th or 5th laptops in the last few years, and by far the worst. I purchased the dell thinking it would be relatively decent, but I guess I missed all the posts of touchpad issues that should have served as a serious warning.

In short, the touchpad integration in these dell laptops are awful. Less than 90 days after purchasing this laptop, I started having issues with the touchpad being frozen resuming from standby. I'm relatively computer savvy, but nothing seems to fix it -I've replaced drivers, done a system restore to an earlier point, and done a full reinstall of vista, at a cost of close to a day. You can also find stories of people having dell replace motherboards, trackpad hardware, etc., and still can't get to the root of the issue. It's pretty scary. Just search on dell touchpad problems for more details on the variety of issues. I've also had problems with the DVD "disappearing", requiring a reboot to see the drive again. Dell has a community forum for issues, but it is worthless -there are many more unsolved issues than solved ones.

Overall, this is a very nice laptop, but with all the random hardware/device bugs, it is not my idea of a functional piece of hardware. I wish that I had read more negative reviews myself before purchasing, so maybe this advice will help others. Unless dell releases new drivers/BIOS, etc soon, it will be the last dell I ever buy.

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This is the sixth Dell computer I own for work or home. I also own a couple macs and Thinkpads at work. This computer was purchased in Jan. 2008 and the mother board has been replaced three times, and the power adapter twice. None of the other computers I own have even needed service, just one Dell desktop that needed the hard drive replaced. Luckily on both I purchased the 3 year warranty (a must with Dell products). But the replacement and repair is slow and given the millions of problems experienced by other XPS 1330 owners just like or worse than mine--Dell is negligent in still marketing this product. Please don't waste your time or money.