6 months with a Dell XPS M1530

January 4, 2009 in Computer, Hardware

dell_logo After 6 months of excessively using my XPS M1530 I’d just like to share a few thoughts.
I transported it in my bag without any shielding, I used it in trains, I used it in buses, I even forgot it outside when it started to rain (very light rain of course)… nothing. No scratches. No Damages.

Cons first:

The display could be easier to open
The display mounting doesn’t always close well
The fan is very noisy with latest BIOS versions (thanks to the faulty nVidia GPU chipsets)
The optical drive is pretty noisy, too
NO GBIT LAN!!! (I really miss this feature two or three times a month…)
The touchpad sometimes just hangs (until I press the right button)
The battery runtime is “only” about 120min with the 6-Cell pack

And the Pros:

All in all build quality is pretty good
It runs very stable (Not a single crash. Not even in summer)
I love my LED display with its 1920×1200 pixels
The integrated bluetooth is nice
Altough the integrated webcam has a very small sensor it’s quality is pretty decent
The integrated cardreader is very useful but I need CompactFlash!!!
HDMI out is very useful to me

I contacted Dell’s very(!) good (german) support because of the noisy fan and

they sent a technician after only 2 two days!!! He replaced the fan with another brand. The noise is now way more pleasant, but still annoying in silent situations when set to “high performance” and at least noticeably in “power save” mode.

The said technician also told me that XPS’ built after September 2008 ship with an updated nVidia GPU which doesn’t have a “higher than normal” failure rate.

If it doesn’t fail outside of warranty I think we will have a great time
(I actually wanted to show closer images, but my f***** camera doesn’t focus that close and image quality is to worse to crop)
Dell XPS M1530 (opened)