Well, I did it - bought a refurbished M1330

Well, I did it. I finally made up my mind and bought a Dell M1330 laptop. I'm kinda poor so I bought a refurbished one for 780.00. Here's the specs:

1 XPS M1330 Laptop: Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T7500 (2.2GHz/800Mhz FSB, 4MB Cache)
1 Certified Refurbished
1 Operating System Label
1 Documentation
1 3 GB DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz (2 DIMMs)
1 Shipping Material
1 8X DVD +/- RW w/dbl layer write capability
1 65W AC Adapter
1 Microsoft Works 8.5 with MS Office Trial Version Software
1 13.3 inch WXGA Slim and Light LED Display
1 Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium
1 128MB NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS
1 Processor Label
1 Integrated 2.0 Mega Pixel Web Camera
1 Notebook Keyboard
1 1490 Wireless Card
1 6 Cell Primary Battery
1 MEDIADIRECT 3.3 Software
1 250 GB SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM)
1 Fingerprint Reader Touchpad
1 Roxio Creator LE
1 Image Restore Software
1 Tuxedo Black
1 Service Software

1 XPS M1330: (Included in Price) 1 Yr Limited Hardware Warranty, In-Home Service after Remote Diagnosis, 24x7 Phone Support

What do ya'll think? Brand new it would of been $1,154.00, so I saved like $370.00. I saw this guy at a coffee shop who bought a Studio XPS 16" scratch and dent and it looked brand new and perfect, so I figured I had a pretty safe deal buying Dells refurbished stuff.

I am only concerned about two things:

1) I can't tell how old this model is, but I haven't ever seen a 5400 rpm 250 gig hard drive on the dell site, only 250 gig 7200 rpm. And there isn't Pentium T7500 listd on their site ether. So it makes me wonder if this unit is really old? In which case, then the battery won't be as good ether. Is this possible?

2) I go to the coffee shop alot, so I wanted portability. But I wonder if I am going to miss the screen real estate. Especially for programming. What do you think?

 

It's pretty good. I bought my xps m1210 refurbished, and looked brand new. Still working great, just like how I got it.
I also just got the m1330 also. You wont know about the battery life til you try it out =] I just ordered a 9 cell and its lasting pretty long, about 5 hours.
These smaller screens require some getting used to. But i find it sufficient for my web designing and coding.

 

Now I am kinda worried about how old this unit could actually be, since the Intel 7500 is not available anymore and was offered back to 08.

Would it be possible for a customer who had a 3 year warranty return his laptop after a year and recieve another one and his old one to be placed as refurbished?

How old could this M1330 unit be?

 

Heh, looks like the EXACT same specs as the M1330 I just RMA'd (died after two days due to overheating).

If you've not read about it already, read up on the heat issues associated with the 8400M-GS (or don't if you don't want to read terrible things about the expected life-span of your 'new' laptop).

That said, I really liked the M1330 in the short time I had it. So much so, that I just cancelled my order for a new Lenovo Y450 (delayed again...) and picked up another refurb M1330 WITHOUT the 8400M-GS graphics.

T6400
4GM DDR2800
320GB HDD
LED Backlit screen
8X DVD
Bluetooth
Wireless-N
2MP Camera
Fingerprint Reader
6-Cell battery
etc, etc.

$599 after the most recent 15% off outlet coupon.

Yeah, I know it is 'older' tech compared to the PM45 Y450, but its about $300 cheaper (even with the 10% lenovo Coupon) and I really like the light-weight, ease of use, and media direct.

Its def a generation off, though I'm not sure how 'old' that actually is. Again, those are the exact specs of the one I just RMA's. It looked BRAND NEW and functioned great and fast...right up until it croaked.

 

will the copper mod, extend its life?

 

Once you have your hands on the Service Tag, punch it into the Service Dispatch history area of the US site. This should provide details on the previous service calls and possibly the original ship date. If you don't see any history, try the UK site.

Worked for me on a previous system they wanted to send me - claimed it was new, yet it was clearly a refurb from what I found online. Busted Dell.

note, you'll need to log in to the dell site using your dell account to access the support history area.

https://support.dell.com/support/supporthistory/search.aspx?~ck=ln&lnki=0

 

I looked up the support history and all it listed was the status of it being shipped. I also noticed this has a old wifi card and uses 65 watt power supply when the new ones use 90 watt. I'm finding message posts with people having M1330 with the T7500 all the way back to 07. man, i'm really getting second thoughts on this now.

Dude, the more I think about it the more upset I feel. I could be buying a laptop that was used for a whole year or more. I think I am going to refuse shipment. That will suck if they charge me %15 restocking fee. How can I get out of that? I feel kinda tricked with thier 21 day return policy thinking the laptop couldn't of been used for more than 21 days when the cpu dates back to 2007.

 

Yeah, if you refuse the shipment you are most likely going to get stuck with the 15% fee.

On the flip side, as I said, the last one I got looked like it was brand new. I'm not sure if that is part of the 'reconditioning' that they go through, but other than the little 'refurb' sticker on the bottom, I'd have sworn it was brand new. But you are correct, that laptop could certainly have been in someone's hands for quite some time, though in most likelihood, it probably has a brand new motherboard in it (since they have to replace the whole assembly when the 8400GS dies).

 

wow, i called dell outlet concerned and they said if i decided to keep it they would give me an additional $35.00....saving me around $370.00. I saw one with the same cpu on ebay and asked the guy when he bought his and he said jan 2009. I don't know what to think. My main concern is the screen not being as bright if it's been used longer than a year. What do you think?

I haven't gotten it yet but when i do, if I don't like it then I'll probably just buy a new one.

 

Hard to say, the one I had with the T7500 has a screen that was plenty bright. I had to turn it down quite a bit (probably at mid-level on the brightness slider).

 

You listed an LED screen in the specs. I don't believe they dim like the ccfl do. You did alright.

 

The specs looks great. Why not wait for the laptop and decide. You're worrying for nothing.