Worst things about the XPS 1530?

I'm almost ready to buy, but I want to know if there are any major problems or dealbreakers with the XPS 1530.. I'm also considering the HP dv9700t. The Dell is about $150 more, but has a better warranty.

 

I have had my 1530 for a few months with no problems at all. This has been the best laptop I ever purchased. This is my 4th laptop

 

Dell > HP I think, at least in terms of build quality, warranty and parts...which is what matters. Right now your only downside is the wait time to get an XPS...

 

I love my Dell XPS M1530, but there area few things I dislike.

1. Touch sensitive media buttons, because I hate touch sensitive crap
2. The webcam is crap
3. The touchpad I dislike, again because I hate touch sensitive crap. I'd rather have a little rubber nub thing in the middle of my keyboard like the old IBM Thinkpads. But better yet, just I prefer to just use a USB mouse when I need precision.

But other than that it's the best thin and light 15.4" laptop on the market. The only thing that comes close to the Dell XPS M1530 is the MacBook Pro which is almost par for par with the XPS M1530 except it costs about $800 more for the same specs and that does not include a copy of Windows with it. There is also some nice Asus laptops that are comparable to the XPS M1530, but I did like the way they looked.

If you do not want to wait long...Don't order any parts that say "May Delay your Ship Date". I selected only parts that were not delayed and I got my XPS M1530 within 1 and 1/2 weeks of my order date. It shipped exactly a week after my order date and I got it 3 days after it shipped.

 

Ya go with M1530.May be you will get better deals from outlet too.

 

Pavilion = entertainment notebook

XPS = gaming notebook

dv9700 is an entertainment notebook (HDMI, movies, etc). If a gamer, the XPS will definately take you further.

 

Get a 9 cell. Just do it. I just received my second delay letter today and the 6-cell is not looking good.

 

Yeah.. that's the thing.. I wouldn't be gaming a whole lot.. I did like the dv9700t because of its entertainment aspect, but posters keep saying that the XPS line seems to be more reliable and that the build quality is better. Also, I have read about calling Dell to get the 64-bit Vista so that I could take advantage of the 4GB of RAM. I guess I wouldn't have to do that with the HP. I've seen some threads for the 64-bit drivers; would I be able to run everything properly with a 64-bit OS on the XPS?

 

Yes. AFAIK, all drivers needed by the XPS have been found for 64-bit.

 

The worst thing? The wait.

 

No reason to get an XPS if you're not going to game.

 

Ah.. so if I'm not going to game.. would the best bet be the HP dv9700t entertainment notebook then?

 

m1530 is on sell again tomm so I say wait until then & buy the xps m1530.

 

It's on sale right now for $1199. Even though won't game, would it be better than the dv9700t?

 

Wow there's another sale on Saturday too I wonder if that will be better than the one that ends tonight?

 

If i had to pick one bad thing, that would be the speakers on this thing.

My god do they suck.

 

I really only have two problems with this notebook. The speakers aren't the greatest... notice they are much better if you 5ft+ away from the computer & the webcam/mic sucks.

Still I would go with the 1530 > dv9700t

 

dont they give you noise-blocking headphones with the m1530 for you dont have to listen to those crap speakers?

 

Dealbreakers? That's certainly an individual thing.

But two things that pretty much stink about the M1530 are the webcam, and the touchpad. I couldn't care less about the webcam, but I have to admit that the Alps touchpad is garbage. It's almost shameful that they put such crap on an alleged higher-end model.

 

i heard alot about that touchpad being completely crap, anything like drivers you can use to make it better?

 

The M1530 is the best laptop I've ever owned, and I've had many. Even if you don't do a lot of gaming, I think that it gives you great performance with Vista. I agree that the speakers are anemic, but so are most laptop speakers. I bought these USB speakers to use with the M1530:

http://www.amazon.com/Logitech-980-000101-AudioHub-Notebook-Speakers/dp/B000UY1MB2

The worst part of the system is the webcam, but I don't use it much.

 

Worst thing about the 1530? That I don't have the money for one right now :'(

 

I dunno. I'd be curious if anyone has been able to improve it like that.

It tracks terribly. Sometimes I'll literally be dragging my finger over it (over and over) and the curser just sits there, mocking me. Sometimes I'll be smoothly moving the cursor across the screen and it'll just randomly jump to some other part of the screen. I had a Synaptics touchpad on my XPS M140, and it was great. The Alps...not so much. (BTW, I do IT support on a number of different notebooks makes, and Dell isn't the only one with lousy touchpads. I've used some that are even worse.)

The only suggestion I've ever gotten is, "use a mouse," which isn't a particularly good solution unless I'm always sitting at a desk. And if that was the case I'd be using my desktop. My notebook is for on the go.

 

Worst thing about the M1530 for me?
I had 6 of them,and only 1 had a nice LCD (LG) even the L.E.D model I recieved sucked total ass,will I ever buy a Dell Product again,probably NOT

 

what is so bad about the webcam? this is one of the two computers i am trying to choose from and video quality is important to me

 

I'd really like to stick with Dell or HP.. and even though I won't be gaming, do you think the XPS 1530 would be the better choice over the dv9700t if I'm looking for an entertainment but also school work notebook that would stay on my desk 75% of the time?

 

The frame rates are often way too low, even in decent light. This may be a driver issue, but so far there are no updated drivers from Dell.

On the touchpad comments, mine works just fine. One thing that can cause a problem is setting the scroll area to something other than the narrowest setting. If it's too wide, you may accidentally touch the scroll area and the pointer won't react. I haven't seen any jumping of the pointer.

 

did you got Integrated Sound Blaster?

if not....you missed one the best feature of XPS1530

 

Would this model still be good for me if I'd mainly use it as an entertainment/schoolwork notebook? Or would the HP dv9700t be better?

 

I would still get the m1530. I didn't plan on gaming much, or even at all really, but I plan on using it for college and just an all-around notebook. I did get into a couple games though (Orange Box/HL2) and it works great for those too...

I say go with the XPS because it's good all-around, and only pricier because of a great warrany. You never know when you'll feel like gaming... plus XPS looks sleek, acts sleek, and is great.

No problems with the touchpad or anything, only small "defects" (there's some IN EVERY brand of EVERY computer) are mine came with an Optiarc drive that's noisy during load/eject.

 

Why, if I may ask?

 

I ordered my m1530 on 6/10/08 and got it 6/16/08 even though the estimated ship date was 6/18/08. Main reason, picked the 9 cell battery, no delay and got it at a 30% discount. And as it was said before, try to pick the hardware that won't cause a delay.

I have yet to have trouble with the touch pad in regards to sticking or jumping. The quality of the speakers really don't bother me because if I game or watch a dvd, I like to hear everything and not what the person across from me is saying on their cell phone so I put on the headphones.

As a History Major, I used a Dell Inspiron in college, and to date myself, it was an Inspiron 7000. Dell's customer service, during that time, was great especially while going to school and needing answers right away in case I had a problem with a presentation. Don't forget the customer service.

If you are not going to game then fine, but lets say you want to upgrade your computer and decide to resale to cover some costs. An XPS might seem more appeallling to an incoming freshman who wants to game.

Just wait for the best online deal.

 

You ordered later than I did and got it sooner. I ordered on 6/3 and it is supposed to ship on 6/30 but will probably be delayed...

I was told the nicer video card was the hold up.

 

I have owned my 1530 since 1/08..and all has been great!

The only bad thing that recently happened, is that the the battery wouldn't/keep a charge And, Dell had to send a technician to my house to replace the Motherboard last week!

I personally think that there was a problem with the *soldering* on the internal socket/adapter. As it was loose for the connection on the side

But, no worries now!!! It's fixed and that is all that matters to me going forward!

The only other *teeny* thing that annoys me sometimes, is that my *touchpad* go's haywire on me at times...but I can live with that!!!!

 

I don't like the added weight/bulk with the 9-cell battery. Although it is nice for added cooling and battery life. I would HIGHLY recommend a blue-tooth mouse.
I use to Microsoft 5000, and it is awesome, i use it 95% of the time. Its so small and battery life is amazing, i haven't even changed them yet. Once you get Vista tweaked, every thing is great.


EDIT: OMG I hate the ginormous power brick that weighs as much as the laptop itself.
My dad's T61 has a 90w power adapter that's tiny.
C'mon Dell, wake up your engineers.

 

Some people have complained about a slight bulge in the keyboard from the internal components pushing it upwards. If you don't care about it, there's no problem. Mine suffers from it a bit, but I don't really care enough to do anything about it.

It's an almost perfect laptop! Fastest laptop for the weight (2.62kg) that I've seen.

 

Honestly, though I have only had it since Friday, I would highly recommend the 1530. So far it works great, I have not had any of the issues that others have mentioned (bulge in keyboard, touchpad issues, grainy screen, etc) and couldn't be happier with it. I would also recommend getting the nine cell battery, I don't notice a huge difference in terms of size and weight between it and a 6 cell, and it seems as though those who have ordered the computer with a 6 cell are having to wait weeks for their laptops to arrive. I ordered mine on the 12th of June and it arrived on the 20th.

 

I had the 1530 since jan, and I can tell you that its been a fairly good laptop. I game alot of that computer and it performs quite well for not shelling out 2.5k+ for a gaming rig. The only problem is heat as it gets quite warm everywhere, which is discomforting if you game for a while.

People have complained about bad screen quality but that only applies for 1440x900 and the 1280x800 screen I got was gorgeous, and its not even an LG.

The only thing I would say is that the 1530 have been out for nearly a year, newly designed laptops are out on the market already, and with the new intel cpu line coming out you might want to other brands some serious consideration. 1530 performs solidly, looks and feels quite great, but like all technology it will get replaced, from the looks it currently, that might come pretty soon.