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Are you into rubber? It’s not that we want to know what type of parties you go to on a Saturday night, but you have to be a fan of the soft stuff if you’re thinking of picking up one of Dell’s latest deviant XPS series.
This preference could be all that stands between you and what, on paper, is the best all-round notebook in the world. The M1530 is thin, not too heavy, has a decent battery life and is really, really well built.
The price is right
This all makes its price (between £700 and £1000, depending on your taste for expensive spec lists), all the more amazing. You’ll struggle to find another laptop this good looking and capable for the price.
Pull up the lid and you’ll find a metal surround for one of the best notebook keyboards we've played with. The sharp edged, narrow chassis feels incredibly solid too.
Going a little bit deeper into the shell and there’s a GeForce 8600 graphics card, which good is enough to get the latest games running on the 15in screen. Hook it up to the TV via the built-in DVI out and it'll serve couch potatoes well too.
The screen itself is pretty much the only slightly disappointing thing about the M1530. At just 1280x800, text is just a little too soft for our taste. There's a higher res 1440x900 upgrade, but there are quite a few 15-inchers with 1680x1050 panels these days, and that's what we'd have liked to have seen here.
Aside from pixel count, though, there's little to complain about. It's bright and colourful, with decent contrast ratios that make video playback a pleasure, although you'll want to use external speakers because the built in ones are as bad as any laptop.
Touch me
Although they're far from a novelty, the touch sensitive media controls are good to see here for quick access to common playback and volume settings. More unexpected from a major brand like Dell is the relative lack of bloatware that comes preinstalled, which saves lots of time having to tear it out.
Which brings us back to the original question. Are you the kind of person who enjoys a tactile relationship with their technology, or does the touch of latex bring on feelings of mild revulsion? If it's the former, then the M1530 is an outstanding choice of laptop. If it’s the latter, go and play with an aluminium-skinned Sony Vaio.
Tech Specs
- Bluetooth
- Yes
- Digital TV card
- No
- Dimensions
- 357x263x23.7mm
- DVI
- No
- Graphics card
- NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT
- HDMI
- Yes
- Operating system
- Operating system Vista Home Premium
- Optical drive
- DVD-RW
- Processor
- Intel Core 2 Duo T8300 (2.4GHz)
- RAM
- 3GB
- Screen resolution
- 1280x800px
- Screen size
- 15.4 inches
- Storage
- 320 GB
- USB
- 3
- Weight
- 2620g
- Wi-Fi
- Yes
Comments
Melancholia
1 year ago
I think that you just had bad luck. I think Dell products are very good and cheap enough for my pocket.
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billysalup
1 year ago
They have some better specification with another brands. That makes them have a good reputation too.
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jb4522jb
1 year ago
Dell definitely makes the best labtops. You cannot go wrong with it at all. There is so many people that are buying these dells. They are the best. mesothelioma settlement lawyer maryland
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1 year ago
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1 year ago
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petermarco
1 year ago
I was really hard taking this chance to review this software. I should take something ahead of all.
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JeffryJordan
1 year ago
I usually use the cheaper one. Because I don't need too many features on it.
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1 year ago
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salesadrn
2 years ago
Had one but got broken, so replaced with a cheaper model.
DeViO
3 years ago
Well its been almost 2 yrs when i purchased my PS M1530 and what you really feel that it still doing a a great job, and myself a non-friendly user, means that my laptop is experiencing the maximum, i use it for office job, Media creations (Video Editing software), Photoshop and others, using it as a Media player as to play different formats of Video via HDMI and sound via (EXTERNAL SOUND CARD)!!! and that is the point that i want to highlight but first let me mention the pros: 1-Solid made (Highly Durable) 2-Fast Processor 3-Sleek and fashionable Design 4-Dell Media Center booting mode 5-Not bad Graphic Card and here comes the CONS: 1-Though the good quality but the keyboard is kinda weak 2-The Screen resolution is not fantastic, though when you connected to a Full HD through HDMI you can select the (1920x1080) thx to nVidia 3-Really Poor Quality when comes to Sound Card capability, and Dell is not even upgrading its drivers neither online nor via its local service, the sound card lakes of (Record from What u Hear) or any ASIO Drivers so if you are a Musician or a Dj or a Music fan and want to use Music Creation software to record a multi-track you will always experience a Lag or a Delay, or if you have a guitar and want to connect it to your laptop through a guitar software like (Guitar RIG 3) also you will feel the delay when you start playing, and not like other brands. 4-Battery Life is Really short when you are on high performance mode Bottom line is: If you are a Graphic Designer, a Business person or a Cool User, and you are looking for high performance, fashionable and Durable Laptop, then XPS is your choice. but if you into music then you must have a second thoughts.
tmax
4 years ago
Useless speakers (compared to Toshiba). Crackly sound every few seconds from under the top left of the keyboard. It seems Dell doesnt do luxury. Apparently most M1530s have this. Fabulous screen, fast processor, graphics card ok, everything else good
JACS
4 years ago
Not a review, so don't know if should be posted here, but I would like to take issue with your comment regarding the screen resolution. I have been looking at this laptop for a while (almost a year), I don't need one, but I want one. As as long as I have been looking at the XPS1530 an 1920x1200 option has been available, so I don't where you get the idea from, that the highest screen res available is 1440x900.