The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    Is the L502x the best replacement for an M1530?

    Discussion in 'Dell XPS and Studio XPS' started by pinsb, Mar 1, 2011.

  1. pinsb

    pinsb Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    18
    Messages:
    136
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    I've owned a M1530 for a few years now and am pretty happy with it even now.....

    It's 2.5Ghz, 4gb, 500gb, Blu Ray and WUXGA.......

    I like it's lightness and the tactual feel of the casing.

    However I recognise now may be the time the make the leap to the new L502x with SB. Mainly because I find myself occasionally running VM's these days and doing it on the laptop with decent processing 'grunt' would be quite useful.

    However I love my 1920 x 1200 screen which will not be supported on the L502x.....

    Thoughts and comments?
     
  2. DakkonA

    DakkonA Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    30
    Messages:
    448
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    I'm making the jump from m1530 to L502x. The screen resolution bothered me for a bit, but if you do the math, a 1920x1200 pixel 16:10 screen on the m1530 isn't all that much worse than a 1920x1080 pixel 16:9 screen on the L502X. You do lose 10% of the vertical "space" on the screen pixel-for-pixel, and the pixels will be 8% less dense on the screen, but it is the best you'll get on the common 16:9 notebooks these days.

    However, this 1080p screen is still much better than the 1680x1050 version on the m1530, which I upgraded the LCD from last year, which has 15% less pixel density than the 1920x1200 m1530 screen.

    L502x 15.6" 1080p screen (1920x1080): 13.5968" x 7.6482" = 19,940 pixels/square inch

    L502x 15.6" 720p screen (1280x720): 8,862 pixels/square inch

    m1530 15.4" WUXGA screen (1920x1200): 13.0592" x 8.162" = 21,616 pixels/square inch

    m1530 15.4" WSXGA+ screen (1680x1050): 16,550 pixels/square inch
     
  3. Tsunade_Hime

    Tsunade_Hime such bacon. wow

    Reputations:
    5,413
    Messages:
    10,711
    Likes Received:
    1,204
    Trophy Points:
    581
    The XPS B+RGLED 1080p FullHD screen is one of the best consumer screens out there for the money. Though the new XPS 15 is significantly bulkier than your M1530.
     
  4. pinsb

    pinsb Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    18
    Messages:
    136
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    The biggest advantage of running 1920 x 1200 is that I can run a 1080p VM 'full screen' and still have the taskbars from the host machine visible for monitoring of the host.

    I realise the difference isn't huge in terms of pixels, but in usability terms it makes a big difference.....

    Currently

    1920 x 1200 so VM 1920 x 1080.

    New machine

    1920 x 1080 so VM 1920 x 1000(ish)

    I run lots of apps even in the VM's so real estate is important to me.