I got my Dell XPS M1530 laptop a week back. I have been stress testing it for quite some time now and all seem to be clicking on all cylinders. I do load testing for every electronic equipment I buy, for a couple of practical reasons. One, is to check if everything is working fine while still within the return warranty period. The other thing, is for me to find out if the gadget is really the type, model, and has the mojo that I wanted. So far, this little black box has no intention to disappoint.
I’m not really after the portability, making me not a big fan of laptops. Due to the lack of support for dedicated video cards, notebooks will always fall prey to most mediocre desktops. The XPS line however, for its size, supports up to 256 Mb of dedicated VGA processing, and what’s more sweet about it is that the hardware architecture is made by NVIDIA. It saved me from settling with for those X1300 integrated graphics cards by Intel, that comes with most of the newer lines of laptops, which is basically just there to relay the display from MOBO to the Screen.
I have been using RADEON for my desktops until now, and although the graphics are really astounding, there has always been some heat issues. NVIDIA cards handle heat spikes better than RADEONs, and that fact will be fairly handy on portable machines, since there are only a handful of ways available to enhance the default cooling system. No water cooling, no copper mod, do not even think of opening the vents.
It is also lightweight, around 6 lbs tops, and has very slim form factor towards the edges. Such a good takeaway knowing that its performance is basically at par with the more bulkier 17 inch laptops in terms of gaming capabilities.
Since I ordered this monster online, I was able to customize all its hardware settings. I made sure that all specs exceeded what I have in my trusty desktop back home. Even the color, I had a dominant gray over black motif for my PC, now I got it the other way around. I almost chose the Red color series, but I think it would just be too much flare to bring along. The black design, like clothes, is versatile enough to be match any accessory, and blends enough on any environment. After getting all the needed specs finalized, i look at the finished build and it occurred to me that what I really wanted was not a laptop, but rather a DESKTOP replacement. The hesitation settled down and being the impulsive buyer that I am, I realized that I just could be having both in a small but powerful package. “Add to Cart” buttons away!
Size comparison between XPS M1330 on the left, XPS M1530 on the right. Bill Gates, Bono, and Michael Dell are just there for the shoot. 
The XPS M1530 has a sibling, a smaller M1330, about 2 and a half inches diagonally smaller than the 15.4 inch screen. It also looks great, but simply won’t make the cut since I plan to play some graphic intensive games, thus defeating my purpose of buying a gaming machine anyway.
I also find the biometrics feature quite convenient. A small thumbmark scanner below the keyboard allows me to log on to Windows by just swiping a finger, unlike the normal way of having to type in the passwords. I downloaded new drivers for it so I can use a designated fingermark to launch programs. Firefox also has this plugin to launch different websites via a finger press, quite a nifty trick that surely pleases the geek in me.
Anyways, I tested Command and Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars a bit earlier before this post, and it works flawlessly with all settings maxxed out. I can’t wait to try it on Crysis or COD. I’ll follow up with the results on future posts.
My first little black box (Sony DSC – H7) now has sparring partner in getting my attention span. Just sweet.
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