New M1530

Hi,

I received my new XPS M1530 laptop yesterday. Since I'd done some research through this forum prior to the order, I wanted to post in here and share my initial experience. Please excuse the length of this post (if too much text, just skip to my conclusion at the end).

Order Process:
I'm from NZ and ordered the laptop last Friday (20 June) and received it yesterday (26 June) which I thought was surprisingly speedy (ETA was specified at 2 July). I recall my previous order from Dell (a 2007wfp display) a couple of years ago took many weeks for delivery so I must have just been lucky this time around. Was a little disappointed that the packages were just left on my door (fortunately I was home so not out there long) with no signature taken although appreciate this concern is more specific to the local courier and not Dell.

Packaging:
Good, although the contents differed slightly from those I'd seen from online posts of other owners (no leather book for CD's etc) all was fine here.

Laptop:
As I'd built up some knowledge of the common faults/flaws with this model through scanning the forums, I had a few things to check initially. The first was the build quality. It's ok, not perfect - slightly different gaps on either side of screen hinge, slight bulge in center of keyboard (now improved). Pretty much what I expected from a Dell build and certainly for the price I paid and spec machine I got, I can't complain.

The screen was obviously a major interest point as I ordered the WSXGA+ model which is of course known for the 'grainy' problem. To be honest, although the screen appears to be a Samsung (hardward id is SEC3350) there is absolutely no sign of graininess at all, nor any dead or stuck pixels. I'm quite confident based on the various images of the problem I'd seen on the internet that I would be able to pick it up, however it looks just fine. The only problem I can pick up is some slight backlight leakage along the bottom edge, although as I will be using this for games/movies very rarely, this of little concern (and not especially bad compared to all other lcd screens I've seen). Of course there is the potential for the LG screen to look better than this, however I'm certainly not disappointed or can honestly fault it. Not worth the chance of getting pixel issues or a poor quality screen (coupled with the extra wait) for any replacement. I'm content with this panel.

It was actually the slight bulge in the keyboard (center top - around 6,7,8 keys) that was the only annoyance during the first few hours of use. So much so that I tracked down the instructions for removing the keyboard to check what was under there causing this bump with the hope I could fix it. After some tentative steps removing the control center panel (black part with power, media control buttons) I got the keyboard off. There were several wires and metal tabs (holding down those wires) underneath the area. No protruding screws or anything major so I just made sure everything was as flat as possible and put the keyboard back on. Now it seems much flatter, probably not perfect, but improved enough so I don't notice it anymore which is all I wanted.

Performance is great, although I can't comment too much on that because a newly set up computer always seems quite fast. I'm not going to use the computer for games much if at all so haven't really done benchmarking etc.

Noise levels from the cooling fan are as expected, when running at full speed it's quite noticeable but no more than any other laptops I heard. The hard drive has a light (tricky to explain) clicking noise. Already used to it and only apparent because of Vista's insistence on working the drive constantly (indexing and other such activities I presume). I've heard the slot loading optical drive is quite noisey but this doesn't bother me as it will get minimal use (haven't got around to using it yet).

Conclusion
I know I've excluded many things (software, sound, included accessories) however my main purpose for offering some feedback was in relation to the screen issues. It's all subjective of course, however at this early stage of ownership I'm very pleased with the screen and performance of this laptop. The keyboard bump was my only gripe but I was willing enough to investigate it further and managed to improve which is great. I will likely notice many good and bad points with the other parts as I build up more time working with the laptop. However, first impressions are of a good machine and for the price I paid I'm really happy with it.

Cheers

 

Well if you're happy, everyone else is happy too. Especially DELL

 

That's so true.