XPS M140 refurb/true life?

How do you tell if a refurb is using the standard or Ture Life screen? I've gone throught all the XPS M140's and they all say

NoteBook Screen
14.1 inch WXGA Notebook Screen

Are the standard screens good?

Its between a refurb M140 and Compaq V2000Z now with the Brightview option.

Edit... I'm still curious about the screen.. still not sure whice Im getting but I couldnt wait for a reply lol.

I ended up ordering the M140 1.73GHz, 1GB (2 dimms), 60GB 5400rpm, cd/dvd combo, 2200 wireless, XP MCE and the base 6 cell for $689... $761 after shipping and tax.

I was looking at and almost bought the Compaq V2000Z with the 1.8/512 (ML-32), 256MB, DVD, wireless, brightview, 128MB upgraded graphic and the 60GB 5400rpm drive for $669.... add in the +/- $100 for the memory from newegg (pc3200) and it would have been more than the Dell XPS shipped/taxed... so I had to jump at this....lol.

Now the wait is on to see which screen I got :-X

 

I'm not really sure how you can tell. I checked out other systems that should have truelife, and they didn't have it listed either. My suggestion would be to call dell's outlet center and see if they can give you more information.

Sounds like a good system for a great price. Good luck with your new purchase.

SG

 

I did see a few outlet M140s with TrueLife in the description. They probably sell faster than the matte screen versions.

 

I'm sure either way it will look fine. I've been shopping for a notebook for about two weeks now and havent seen too many bad screens on "budget" laptops. Not a knock at Apple's iBook... the 12" iBook was my first choice... but out of all the laptops (dozens and dozens) I've looked at it had the worst screen quality (to be fair it was extremely bright in the apple store). Even so, if the XPS had the Apple's screen I could still live with it since the majority of what I'll do will be text based or iTunes. I have an A64 system now (socket AM2 coming in summer..yay) that I do my gaming/DVD watching on.

Anyway, I'm sure even if its not the True Life it will be fine. I mean honestly, $689 is still Celeron-M money in most cases and I got 1GB DDR2, 5400rpm HDD, a 533MHz FSB 1.73 Pentium-M and 4 USB 2 ports so I won't be griping

 

hey. i bought one out of their outlet at about 2:30 am. there was a sudden existence of several laptops that specifically listed the true life feature with other good specs, which i don't think was the case earlier in the day. i think it also coincided with a big coupon. i picked up one, and it's listed true life in the specs.

mixed bag, really. i have friends who are truly annoyed by the glare, but i honestly don't remember coming across one in person to know for myself.

 

"lappy dawg" what big coupon are you talking about? Can it be added to the already $250 off?

Thanks

 

sorry i guess coupon was the wrong term. they're offering a two-day (instant?) discount. whatever, it's $250 off.

 

see i am looking for the m140 also but bluetooth is a necessity for me and this really bites because they dont have them a lot. Does anyone know if you get the same inventory by going threw the following channels:
Business: Notebooks
Home: Notebooks
Home: XPS systems: M140
Home: New arrivals: XPS m140

 

OK, I didn't know about the whole F11 partition thing until today... last Dell I owned shipped with an actual XP CD. Are the XPS systems shipping with the hidden partition or the restore disk? If it's a partition what is the easiest way of getting the XP MCE and software CD's?



hah2110, would a USB 2 Bluetooth device work?

 

no, i REALLY want it integrated- i wouldnt settle for anything bigger or (less integrated) than a pcmcia bluetooth card which arent made

 

I bought my XPS M140 from dell outlet. When I was looking out of the 100+ machines I only saw a couple with true life. The only way to tell is to look on the specs of that particular unit and it will tell you. I didn't get the truelife but I erally like my screen. Its nice and bright. Might not get the extra 10% better contrast ratio that the "trulife" claims, but its still quite a nice screen for it's size...

 

Thanks jasonck08. The majority of work I plan for the M140 will be text based so either screen will work for me, but thats still great to hear.

I went through the first 10 pages before I ordered. I didn't see one TrueLife screen in those 10 pages so I just decided to order and after the "paperwork" was complete I went back and went through the rest but none had the TrueLife option listed. I looked yesterday and did see one with TrueLife listed, it was a previously ordered new. I will saw one thing though, they sold pretty darn quick. When I ordered there were over 20 pages of outlet M140's and last night there were only 5 units total

As for the XP CD, I've done some reading and it seems that Chat is the way to go if they don't send one.

 

yeah, i feel really lucky in that i hit the sale within the first hour that i think it started (midnight a few days ago). since i had been on the site just six hours earlier and didn't see the sale or any trulife systems, i think they also dumped new systems in the outlet for the sale. there were actually a handful of trulife systems, and it seemed like me and x number of others with tossing systems in our cart asap, weeding out the ones we didn't want, waiting for others to toss theirs back, and then finally sticking with one.

but really, i haven't experienced trulife myself but have a couple friends who are annoyed by it. so i think no trulife is no big loss.

 

Just an update. Got the M140 today and its sporting the TrueLife screen. I didn't think it would include the Windows CD's for MCE and I was right... it's not. Ill just get on chat as request them when I'm done. Making an image of the drive now to an external with True Image "just incase" then it's into Windows to start un-installing stuff

 

I ordered an xps m140 also. When you mean your going to contact them with "chat" do you mean that on dell's website you can speak to someone online?
Also, I doubt this is possible but as I mentioned I ordered an xps m140 but mine is going to come with windows xp home, any chance I contact dell and request them to send me the windows media center edition 2005 CD and they actually do it?

 

http://www1.us.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/xpsnb_m140?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs

On that page you'll see an XPC chat link, just click on it but you have to wait until your XPC gets there.. you'll need numbers off of it.

As for a Home --> MCE exchange... no they won't. If you want MCE you'll have to buy it from newegg or another online retailer.

 

Thanks for the quick reply. I have another question maybe you can help me with. If you order a new m140 the MCE is included, xp pro is an option and xp home is not an option at all. But on the dell outlet the majority of the systems came with xp home and only a few came with MCE and only a tiny bit came with MCE and a 1.86 processor. So, why did so many outlet m140's come with xp home when xp home is not even an option if I purchased a m140 new?

 

Maranello,
All of the M140's, I have seen, that have come through the outlet are glossy coated screens. As for TrueLife, I am not sure.

mjnoles1,
"So, why did so many outlet m140's come with xp home when xp home is not even an option if I purchased a m140 new?"
This is because you can order many different configurations through the telephone and sometimes the Outlet's technicians will change the OS for a variety of reasons.

 

Anyone know why the outlet is out of m140s?

 

The outlet sells out of M140's as soon as they come in, you just have to refresh alot and watch it without closing your eyes. They will come up in groups and will be bought in under 1 minute. So just be patient, watch the screen. I spent about 2 hours watching until I found the deal I wanted.

Basically, when a system comes into the outlet it gets processed. At the end of the process it gets moved into sales inventory, which is where it is posted online. So if we process X amount of M140's, sales can only post X number them. Thankfully, we have people in the building almost 24/7. Keep your eyes open. Good deals can be found with patience.

 

If I contact dell through the chat and request they send me the xp home cd, will they send me the full version which I might beable to sell on ebay and use the money to purchase the full version of MCE from newegg?

 

Nope. They send you an OEM version that is tied to the BIOS of Dell laptops, so it will only work on other Dell notebooks.