The Dell XPS M1530 picks up from the popular portable XPS M1330 notebook and carries on the tradition of a nicely designed and excellent performing notebook. The one main difference being that the M1530 is a 15.4″ screen notebook while the M1330 is a smaller 13.3″ screen notebook. The XPS M1530 also offers more powerful configuration options and can serve as quite a capable gaming machine.

The M1530 of course has the Intel Core 2 Duo platform, dubbed Santa Rosa. Both dedicated Nivida 8600 graphics (for those interested in gaming) and a weaker Nvidia 8400m graphic options are offered in the XPS M1530 (for those that don’t need powerful graphics performance). The XPS M1530 I have has a 2.2GHz Intel T7500 processor on board, it has 4MB of cache on the chip and a front side bus speed of 800MHz to help move things along. Though I’m not much of a gamer, I went with the Nvidia 8600m graphics solution just in case I ever need a bit of extra 3D performance in tasks I perform.

System as Reviewed:

• 15.4-inch WXGA (1280 x 800) CCFL glossy screen
• Crimson red paint
• 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo T7700 processor
• 2GB DDR2-667 SDRAM
• 160GB 5400 RPM SATA HDD
• Slot-loading dual-layer DVD�RW drive
• NVIDIA GeForce Go 8600M GT with 256MB GDDR3
• WWAN option for Verizon
• Ethernet, 802.11a/g/n (Intel 4965), Bluetooth option
• Integrated 2.0 megapixel webcam
• HDMI, VGA, S-Video, Firewire/1394, three USB 2.0 ports, integrated media reader (MS, SD, xD), fingerprint reader
• Media Center remote located in ExpressCard slot
• Windows Vista Home Premium
• Dimensions (with 6-cell battery): 14.06″ x 10.34″ x 0.93″ - 1.38″
• Weight starts at 5.9 pounds with 6-cell battery (6.29 pounds with 9-cell)

I paid around $1,600 for this configuration after all was said and done.

Places to buy

You can buy the Dell XPS M1530 via Dell.com, over the phone or from a Dell kiosk. The best place to configure an XPS M1530 is Dell.com. I had to wait about 3 weeks for my XPS M1530 to ship after placing the order. This is because I ordered soon after the notebook was announced, usually Dell will ship you a notebook within 2-weeks or so of ordering.

What you get

• Dell XPS M1530 notebook
• Media Remote Control
• Mobile Stereo Earbud Headphones (1 pair)
• AC Adapter
• 6-cell Lithium-Ion battery (varies based on battery you order)
• User guides and other documents
• Restore and driver dics
• XPS M1330 carry sleeve

Looks

The M1530 is available in three different colors: red, white and black. It was a pretty tough decision to make to be honest, I think I’d be happy with any of the colors offered. However, I decided to go with the color that is the most unique and stands out the most from every other notebook out there. The look of the outside is very eye catching and almost sports car like.

Upon opening the M1530 there’s more in the way of excellent design. The touch sensitive buttons along the top of the keyboard are very cool, they light up with a soft glow when pressed. These buttons look stylish and the LED backlit indicator lights alongside them also add a nice design flare. The keyboard is silver in color while the casing in this area has a brushed aluminum look. This gives an overall industrial look to the M1530 indicating that this machine is a mix of both brawn and beauty.

The hinge of the notebook is one of its more unique features. The very rounded and barrel like design gives it a cool look from the side. When you first look at images of this notebook it looks like the power button would be integrated into the hinge where you see the Dell, but that’s not the case, the power button is on the top area of the keyboard.

Below is a look at the barrel hinge design, notice the 9-cell battery is in so the notebook is elevated at the back.

Size-Up

One interesting metric I like to look at is the dimensions of the notebook compared to similar notebooks.

The XPS M1530 is certainly slimmer than most 15.4″ screen notebooks and thereby more portable and easy to carry around in a bag.

Construction

The XPS M1530 uses a magnesium-alloy casing which makes it feel very sturdy and also makes it look great. The build is very solid, there’s essentially no flex anywhere on the body, it’s firm all over. The double barrel hinge makes for a nice smooth opening movement with the screen, and once opened the screen sits fairly low and therefore gives the notebook a lower overall profile.

The lid of the notebook provides more than adequate protection for the screen. I have the 15.4-inch WXGA (1280 x 800) CCFL glossy screen, it was the only option available at the time, although now there are higher-res displays available. There is no LED backlit screen option with the M1530 like there is with the M1330. The XPS M1530 screen I have is not only a gorgeous screen but also more forgiving when it gets twisted or bent in a manner a normal screen might not hold up so well.

I’d be very confident in this notebook holding up over years of usage, it simply feels like it was built to last.

Ports

The port selection of the Dell XPS M1530 is pretty darn good. Again I�ll compare it to what similar notebooks have so you get an idea of where it stands relative to competition

I don’t mind that there’s no modem port, I haven’t used one in years to be honest. The 3 USB ports is not on part with the usual 4 you get in a 15.4″ screen notebook, but I prefer having a slimmer notebook with more high-end ports, such as the HDMI and FireWire, than another USB port.

Below is a picture tour of the ports and where they’re offered on the XPS M1530:

Front side

Left Side

Right side

Back side

Also worth mentioning is that you get a nice built-in remote that fits into the ExpressCard slot, it works well for controlling media across a room.

Keyboard

The keys on the XPS M1530 are nicely spread out, making it easy type on. The keyboard is firm in its feel too, there’s no sponginess or mushy keyboard feeling. There’s little to complain about with the XPS M1530 keyboard.

The touchpad is a little on the small side, it is an Alps touchpad, personally I prefer synaptics touchpads as they tend to be a little less jumpy. There’s built-in vertical and horizontal scroll areas which are nice to have. The buttons are decent, but they’re not the best I’ve used, they could have a bit more travel to them. Overall, I’d recommend using a mouse for better control.

Screen

You can get a selection of three different resolution screens on the XPS M1530: WXGA (1280 x 800), WSXGA (1440 x 900) and WUXGA (1680 x 1050). All screens have a glossy finish and come equipped with a 2.0MP camera built-in. There is no LED backlit screen like you get with the XPS M1330. I have the WXGA display, it was the only option at the time of purchase. The display is very crisp and bright with excellent color reproduction. There’s no need to have to adjust contrast or brightness, the screen is pretty much spot on right out of the box.

As usual with notebook screens, the vertical and horizontal viewing angles are only so good, but the great news is that there is no light bleed from the screen.

Sound

The speakers for the M1530 are located above the keyboard. The speakers are fairly standard for a laptop, they get loud enough, but the sound is slightly tinny as is the case with nearly all laptop speakers. The volume audio controls are touch sensitive buttons along the top right side of the keyboard. It’s somewhat hard to use these buttons if you have larger sized fingers. I found the touch sensitive volume control buttons are tough to use, though they look nice, buttons or a volume dial control is easier to use.

If you prefer to use headphones to the built-in, you’re in luck. There are two headphone ports to capture audio from, both are located on the front of the notebook.

Performance

The XPS M1530 is configurable with up to a 2.60 GHz Intel Santa Rosa processor at the current time. You can also configure it with an Nvidia 8600M GT dedicataed graphics card or go with the lower end Nvidia 8400M dedicated graphics. The upgrade to 8600m is pretty steep at $100, so decide whether you truly need it or not. The 8600M GT dedicated graphics will offer very nice 3D performance, but only if you’re doing some gaming or using applications that demand such things as 3D polygon rendering or shading. If you use a notebook to do work and don’t care about games, just go with the Nvidia 8400 option, which is definitely good enough for the average user.

Make sure to get at least 2GB of RAM, you can configure up to 4GB of RAM. For most people 2GB will be sufficient, but with Windows Vista as the OS more RAM can only help — Vista is a memory hog.

I got a 160GB hard drive that spins at 5400RPM, which is a modest speed and probably somewhat of a bottleneck for this system. If you’re all about system speed you could go with the very expensive Solid State Disk (SSD) option but you can only get up to 64GB of storage space with that, so think hard before going with the SSD — even though it may be tempting (although the $850 cost upgrade might make that a lot less tempting). Prices for SSD will come down as the months go by.

I ran PCMark05 on the XPS M1530 to get an overall system performance score, you can see that the M1530 performs extremely well with a 5,612 score.

With the T7700 2.40 GHz processor on board the XPS M1530 is a champ at Super Pi, calculating accuracy to 2 million digits in just 50 seconds.

Thanks to the Nvidia 8600M GT card with 256MB of GDDR3 memory, the graphics are really pretty stunning on the XPS M1530. It scored a high 4,366 on 3DMark06.

Optical Drive

One very cool thing worth mentioning with the XPS M1530 is that the optical drive is slot loading, meaning you don’t have to pop out a tray to put a CD or DVD in. You just insert a disc a little way and the drive will pull it in. Just push the eject button to make the system pop a disk out. It’s a great touch and in general more functional than a tray. At the moment a DVD burner is the only option for the type of slot loading optical drive you can get.

Battery

There are two options for types of battery with the XPS M1530: 6-cell or 9-cell. If you’re traveling, such as doing cross country flights, the 9-cell is what you’ll want. If you’re just bopping around town or campus then the 6-cell should suffice. If you’re at a desk all day then the 6-cell is best since you won’t need battery life anyway.

I got a 6-cell battery and the optional extended life 9-cell battery. Using the 6-cell battery under normal usage (office work and screen brightness at half) I got around 2.5 hours of battery life, which isn’t bad. With the 9-cell it was an hour longer at 3.5 hours.

Noise

Really the noisiest part of the M1530 is the slot loading optical drive. When you put in or takeout a DVD it’s pretty loud. Other than that the hard drive is quiet and so is the fan. The keyboard and mouse buttons are not too clicky either, so if you use this in a library you should be okay as long as you’re not popping DVDs in and out of the drive.

Heat

The left palm rest on the M1530 get pretty warm, I think this will bother some people, but personally it doesn’t worry me so much. The heat on the palm rests never gets overly hot or uncomfortable, but it is certainly noticeable. The underside of the M1530 gets warm too, but it’s still ok to be using on your lap. Overall it’s not the coolest notebook out there in terms of surface temperatures, but internal temperatures remained quite low even when running benchmarks. The processor temps never came close to 70C, remaining in the 50C to low 60C range.

Conclusion

I really love the XPS M1530 in terms of its looks and just overall cool factor. The performance for this sized notebook is absolutely amazing as well. This notebook is great for those that want to be portable and have power on the go, plus be fashionable at the same time. If you’re just sitting at a desk all day doing work. Overall there’s a lot to love about the M1530 and it’s easy to recommend.

Pros

• Stunning design, color options for the lid is great
• Fantastic performance and the option to really configure a powerful notebook
• Slot loading DVD burner is great
• Good multimedia options and HDMI port for high quality video output
• Keyboard is nice to use

Cons

• Can be pricey if you configure it with all the high-end options
• Media buttons are a bit hard to use, but look nice
• Touchpad should be bigger