Dell XPS M1330

Dell XPS laptops have been known to pull off performance feats usually associated with desktops. The Dell XPS M1210 (Vista), for instance, has embodied what performance should be like in an ultraportable. But what started off as a stylish design two years ago is now quickly losing ground to trendsetters such as Apple, HP, and Sony. Clearly, it was time for Dell to spice things up. The Dell XPS M1330 ($2,200 direct) is both refreshing and really quite amazing once you factor in both design and performance. Dell slips all the latest technology trends into a very sleek crimson unit while keeping its performance ahead of the competition. It's a breakthrough improvement, which is why I'm giving it the Editors' Choice in the ultraportable category.

The two-year-old XPS design was in dire need of a refresh. Considering how the competition has already embraced thinner form factors, the latest LCD technologies, and Intel's latest Centrino Duo offering, Dell took its time in upgrading. The great thing about the M1330 is that it manages to incorporate many of the desirable qualities found on Apple, HP, and Sony laptops. The overall design reminds me of the Sony VAIO VGN-SZ370P. It measures 1 inch thick, thanks in large part to an LED screen that's just a quarter of an inch thick. The 13.3-inch screen is significantly larger than the 12-inch screen of its predecessor, the XPS M1210, as well as those of traditional ultraportables. You can pick apart the differences if you place a regular lamp display, such as the one found on the Apple MacBook 13-inch (Core 2 Duo T7200), next to the M1330. The color contrast is noticeably better on the Dell screen's in scenarios such as viewing HD movie trailers and pixel-heavy images. Text is arguably slightly clearer on the M1330 as well. I'm glad Dell went with a transflective screen rather than a matte-finished one, which washes out some of the contrast benefits of an LED screen, as evidenced by the Toshiba Portégé R500. With the M1330, you can opt for a lamp-lit screen and save yourself $150, but an LED display is one of the many extras that I would suggest keeping.

In order for the M1330 to be considered a true ultraportable, it would have to weigh less than 4 pounds. Through some design ingenuity, Dell gets it down to 3.9 pounds, but that's with a four-cell battery. Moving up to the nine-cell (85-Wh) battery brings the weight up significantly, to 4.7 pounds, which rides the line between an ultraportable and a mainstream laptop. The bigger battery puts the M1330 in the same league as the Apple MacBook 13-inch. But the system does feel a lot sturdier than the Sony SZ370P The magnesium alloy-housing is more rigid than the Sony's carbon-fiber housing, and the screen doesn't flex as easily as the Sony's. I think the M1330's light weight makes it truly a traveler's delight, and its thin frame and large screen make it stand out amid the competition. You get a large choice of lid colors. My review unit came with a matte crimson lid. I think the range of colors will work for Dell and appeal to different groups of people. For instance, business professionals can configure the lid with a conservative black color, whereas trend-followers can opt for Pearl White.

The full-size keyboard is as close as you can get to a Lenovo ThinkPad keyboard. Every key, with the exception of the top row (Fn keys), is full-size. As a writer, the size of the arrow keys is vital to my productivity, and Dell makes them just right. Even the mouse buttons and touchpad are reminiscent of the Lenovo ThinkPad T61—minus the pointing stick. Heat is not that big a problem, even though the M1330 uses high-performance parts. The palm rests are warm, but not uncomfortably so. As measured with a Fluke IR thermometer, temperatures got up to 91° F. It helps that the palm rests are covered with brushed aluminum, which acts as a heat retardant. But toward the front bezel, the base got as high as 103°, which is tolerable depending on your sensitivity to heat; I consider anything above 100° uncomfortable. Temperatures decline as you move back toward the battery, which reaches 95°. Overall, I would say the M1330's heat is manageable. Lenovo is in the same boat with its ThinkPad X60 (Vista), whereas Sony's SZ series does a better job of containing heat.

In the M1330, you'll get a lot of the same features found on the Sony SZ Series, if not more. Dell emulated Apple laptops by going with a slot-loading DVD burner. This allows for greater flexibility with the design, but that also means you won't have the option of upgrading to larger, specialty drives such as a Blu-ray burner. This is odd because the M1330 comes with an HDMI-out port, which is typically bundled in tandem with a high-definition optical drive and is rare for an ultraportable. But the port is still a valuable asset for video and PowerPoint presenters. Of course, you'll need a display that supports HDMI-in. I suspect Dell will integrate HDMI-out ports across all of its XPS laptops, and it's been added to the M1330 merely for the sake of consistency. You'll find two USB ports, one on each side. The FireWire port and a 160GB hard drive are a boon for video editing. Dell also incorporates two features from HP's Pavilion line to help optimize your media experience. These are a Media Center remote that fits into the ExpressCard slot and two headphone ports for sharing. I think both of these are great additions.

The XPS M1330 provides multiple ways to stay connected. Like many high-end ultraportables these days, you have the option of adding a cellular modem. Dell sent my unit with a Sprint EV-DO Rev A card. Although it wasn't activated, the prospect of high-speed Internet access wherever you can get a cell-phone signal is a very attractive feature. With EV-DO Rev A, you're looking at theoretical download speeds of 3.1 Mbps. On top of that, you have draft 802.11n support with the new Centrino Duo specification, Bluetooth, and 100MB Ethernet. Last, you'll find an integrated 1.3-megapixel camera that'll handle all your video chats, whether with Skype, MSN Messenger, or SightSpeed.

The XPS line epitomizes great performance, and Dell doesn't take anything of that away from the M1330. It loads a 2-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300 processor that's similar to that in the Sony SZ series. These are full-voltage processors typically found on mainstream systems such as the HP Pavilion dv2500t and the Apple MacBook 13-inch. Add to it 2GB worth of RAM, and the M1330 performs like a thoroughbred, whether on Adobe Photoshop CS2, video encoding, or other multithreaded applications. Its SYSmark 2007 overall scores were better than those of the HP Pavilion dv2500t and the Fujitsu LifeBook A6030 by 9 percent and 20 percent, respectively, and it was especially strong on SYSmark's 3D module. And the M1330 also has something rarely found in ultraportables: very good 3D performance, thanks to its discrete graphics. It integrates nVidia's latest GeForce 8400M GS chipset, with support for DirectX 10 as well as for HDCP (high-definition DRM). It also produced pretty good frame rates on 3DMark 06, Prey, and Company of Heroes tests. Only the Sony SZ series can measure up to this kind of overall performance.

The Sony does lag behind the M1330 when it comes to battery performance. This is where that nine-cell battery plays an important role. In running down while playing a DVD movie, the M1330 lasted 3 hours 23 minutes. Normal day-to-day computing activities can probably get you well over 5 hours. You'll get an extra 22 minutes worth of battery life with the Lenovo ThinkPad X60 (Vista), making it slightly better for travel, but you lose the luxury of having a built-in optical drive. The M1330's nine-cell battery adds to the weight, but you can always swap it out for a four-cell or cell-cell battery, which doesn't get you as much juice. If it were up to me, I'd take the nine-cell despite the extra weight.

It's been a while since Dell delivered a laptop that possessed so many awe-inspiring features. The Dell XPS M1330 is a monumental step in that it takes the best things from other great ultraportables and combines them into a single entity. My only peeve is that the weight can get up there with the nine-cell battery. Otherwise, this ultraportable should easily sit at the top of any laptop shopping list.

Benchmark Test Results
Check out the Dell XPS M1330's test scores.