Dell XPS M1330

While a worthwhile vendor of mass-market mainstream laptops and desktops, Dell has never been known as an innovator in consumer product design. In fact, the company's stodgy, boxy products have been blamed for a loss of market share to the bolder design strokes of competitors such as HP and Gateway. That's what makes the new 13-inch XPS M1330 such a pleasant surprise. From our first behind-closed-doors peek at it last month, we've been impressed with the emphasis on the user experience in this superthin, high-end laptop, from the slot-loading DVD drive to the touch-sensitive media buttons and HDMI-output jack. At $2,000 and up, it's definitely a premium product, but worth it if head-turning design is as important to you as specs and performance.

Unlike the bulky, unattractive 12-inch Dell XPS m1210, the M1330 has clearly been built with an emphasis on good looks and clean lines, ditching the earlier model's cumbersome, rotating Web cam and thick chassis. The system is slightly wedge shaped, going from 0.87 inch in the front to 1.3 inches in the rear. At less than four pounds, it's one of the lightest 13-inch laptops we've seen--nearly a full pound lighter than the popular yet hefty 13-inch Apple MacBook, and a touch lighter than the 12-inch XPS M1210.

The keyboard tray is brushed silver with black accents, while the lid is available in black, white, or red. Our review unit had the matte-red finish (Dell calls it Crimson Red), which looks great, but more color options (as with the newly revamped Inspiron line of laptops) would have been welcome.

Dell manages to squeeze a good number of extras onto the keyboard tray, including touch-sensitive controls for volume and media playback, an eject button for the slot-loading DVD drive, and a quick-launch button for Dell's proprietary Media Direct software. The biggest drawback we found with the M1330's design was the tiny, 2.75-inch touchpad, which we found to be particularly frustrating given the fact that there's plenty of room on the wrist rest for a bigger pad.

Rounding out the laptop's external features are a Webcam on top of the display and a small, credit-card-size remote control that pops into PC card slot on the side.

The LED-backlit display, also seen in the new 15-inch MacBook Pro, helps to make the system's lid thinner (less than a quarter-inch thick) while also extending battery life, although users should not expect the display to look any different than a traditional LCD laptop screen. With a native resolution of 1,280x800--the same as on the 13-inch MacBook--you get the best mix of screen real estate and readability.

With only two USB ports, some accessory-heavy users may feel shortchanged, but we suspect they'll be few and far between. The HDMI output is a welcome bonus, but we're not sure how useful will be until Dell adds a Blu-ray drive to the configuration options. Wireless 802.11n networking is rapidly becoming the new default for laptops, and we would have been disappointed not to see it here. We were also pleased to see Dell offer an optional mobile broadband antenna, with service from Verizon, AT&T, or Sprint.

Our prerelease review unit had a decent set of specs, but we'll have to wait until Dell's online configuration utility is live to see exactly what your options are. We do know the high-end 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7700 processor is available--our review unit featured a 2.0GHz T7300--as well as your choice of Intel's integrated 3100 graphics or Nvidia's GeForce Go 8400. A non-LED backlit display is also an option, but as it adds weight and thickness; we'd avoid it. Solid-state hard drives and Blu-ray optical drives are promised in the near future, but exact dates for those features making their way to the M1330's configurator aren't known.

Compared with other recent 13-inch laptops, the Dell XPS M1330 performed as expected, closely matching the performance of the similarly configured Apple MacBook, and easily beating the Fujitsu's 13-inch AMD-based LifeBook S2210, thanks to the strength of Intel's Core 2 Duo processors and Centrino Duo platform. Hardware has evolved to the point where laptop performance comes only into play if a system is somehow working slower than it should be and as we'd expect for any recent Core 2 Duo laptop, the XPS M1330 is a speedy performer, even when running multiple apps such as iTunes, Word, and IE at the same time.

The Nvidia GeForce Go 8400 isn't the fastest laptop GPU out there, but it's at the upper end of what you can find outside of 17-inch desktop replacement systems. We got a very playable 33.3 frames per second in Quake 4 at 1,024x768, even with high-end options such as antialiasing turned on, meaning the XPS M1330 has decent gaming chops, as long as your expectations are reasonable.

The M1330 ran for 2 hours, 23 minutes on our DVD battery drain test, using the included six-cell battery. That's not bad, but nearly an hour less than the latest 13-inch MacBook, a testament to Apple's emphasis on battery life. Our DVD battery drain test is especially grueling, so you can expect longer life from casual Web surfing and office use. Dell offers a nine-cell battery option, but it's an exceptionally large battery for such a tiny system.

Though Dell has moved to a 90-day standard warranty on its less expensive models, the company covers the XPS line with a one-year warranty, which provides free parts and labor with on-site service. You can get help through Dell's 24-7, toll-free tech-support number, with special reps exclusively for XPS owners. Dell also offers a fairly robust set of support tools on the actual laptop, including 10GB of online backup space and the new Automated PC TuneUp utility, which can either show you how to perform basic performance optimization or take care of it automatically (for a small fee after the 30-day trial).

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System configurations:
Dell XPS M1330
Windows Vista Home Edition; 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300; 2,048MB DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz; 128MB Nvidia 8400M GS; 160GB Hitachi 5,400rpm

Apple MacBook
OS X 10.4.8; 2.16GHz Intel Core 2 Duo; 2,048GB DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz; 64MB Intel GMA 950; 160GB Fujitsu 5,400rpm

Lenovo ThinkPad X61s
Windows Vista Business Edition; 1.6GHz Intel Core Duo L7500; 2,048MB DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz; 358MB Intel Mobile Express 965GM; 100GB Seagate 7,200rpm

Fujitsu LifeBook S2210
Windows Vista Business Edition; 1.6GHz AMD Turion 64 x2 TL-52; 2,048MB DDR2 SDRAM 638MHz; 128MB ATI Radeon Xpress 1150; 100GB Hitachi 5,400rpm