Problems? See this thread at archive.org.
Due to severe WoW and Chinese internet TV addictions in my family I had to order another PC. No time to research so took the devil I knew rather than the one I didn't and decided to get another M1330 (despite the things I don't like - capacitative touch-sensitive controls are inferior IMHO to real buttons, the un-illuminated keyboard, and hard to see disk activity light and USB ports). Other factors in choosing another M1330 is I know the power supply will be compatible (so only need to take one on vacations), keyboards will be identical for easier switching between machines, 4GB RAM on new machine can be used to take both machines to 3GB with no surplus RAM. If one machine fails out of warranty (the first it already out) then it can be cannibalised to support the other.
Didn't see the M1330 anymore on US Dell site so tried the outlet.
Figured out the way the machines appear roughly every 15 mins and vanish very rapidly as people put them in their baskets (for some reason n:48 seemed about the best time past each hour to see some machines become available).
Now no way was I going to get another with the NVIDIA graphics (two motherboards changed so far, one year since the last failure so it may happen again soon) - so I was looking for a machine with integrated graphics. Saw some with SSD and so decided to aim for a light and low power machine as a contrast to the initial 'gaming' spec I got. Those with integrated graphics were a minority. Those with SSD even more so - so it took some patience.
Problem - when a machine appeared it claimed LED screen and 2 mega-pixel camera. I know those are incompatible options. Called to clarify (Filipino call staff). Apology received - apparently the machine did not have the LED screen so I let it go.
Another machine with integrated graphics and SSD appeared. Nice spec. T9300 2.5GHz cpu should be more efficient than the previous T7500. 64GB Samsung SSD, 4GB of RAM. Intel 'N' wireless, Bluetooth, fingerprint reader. Only 4-cell battery.
But again - LED "Slim and light" screen with 2MP camera. Phoned again. The answer seemed a bit muddled but final clarification was that it did not have the LED screen - so again I let it expire out of my shopping basket.
But I thought a while - in every respect this was a light and high powered spec - why would it be configured without the LED screen. I took a gamble and when it reappeared on the outlet I grabbed it and purchased it.
$1276 - I hope that is not too obscene for this spec.
My gamble was correct - the machine arrived with the LED screen and the lower resolution camera - though surprisingly the device manager seems to show it as the Toshiba LCD2306 rather than the CMO (Chi Mei screen listed in the parts list - but the Toshiba screen is probably the better, though less bright of the two LED parts).
This machine was refurbished. It appeared as new except for some glue from sticky tape on left side of the screen frame which was easily cleaned off.
Build quality better than the original machine - which was ordered before the assembly wrinkles were ironed out.
No Express card remote came with it (checked back and sure enough it was never listed as having that) and of course it had no case (but then the original came with two cases - a very basic one and a nice one so I can start sing the basic handle-less one). So far am very happy with it except RH Ctrl key stopped working after a while - I guess that will be no problem to fix with the in-home service but I'll wait a few days before reporting in case anything else is going to be found problematic.
In short - don't believe the specs at the outlet too much nor the support staff - if LED screen and 2MP camera are listed together it is probably the LED screen that is correct.... at least if the machine has a high spec.
M1330 from Dell Outlet - incompatible specs
Discussion in 'Dell XPS and Studio XPS' started by Nalada, Nov 23, 2009.
