ok guys, a quick review about my DELL XPS M1210

It arrived today.

I took a lot of pictures so if you have any specific request on what pictures you want, then let me know.

The quality is incredible on the XPS M1210. It's a above and beyond my Dell E1505. Size-wise it is much smaller than the E1505 and a lot smaller than I expected.

I remembered a lot of threads that were dissing the LCD, which I've found to be nothing short of amazing. Viewing angles are not the best, but one would not expect such from such a small screen. The color is vibrant and very outstanding. I ran powerstrip 3.7 and my monitor was listed as "Generic PnP monitor" which I have no clue what that means. I want to find the specific manufacture but so far i have no luck in doing such.

I have 20/20 vision so using this monitor was very easy for me. I came from a Dell E1505. With my arms length, i can still see the screen very clearly. I have the brightness set at 4 clicks out of 7 and I have no trouble at all seeing in dark/bring light. Reflection is pretty bad, but one would expect that with a glossy screen from any company.

When I first booted up... it ran SLOW. Very very disappointing. But we all know that is due to the loads of bloatware dell preloads onto their systems. I immediately reinstalled windows Vista to which it runs flawlessly (for now). My original system came with 1 Ghz but after i installed vista, I flipped her around and took of the maintenance lid and replaced the 512 stick with the 1G stick. (of course I took out the battery before I did this... and i ran into a problem which I'll specify in a bit). Then I removed the maintenance lid above the keypad and I replaced the Dimm A with 1G as well. So now I have two gigs and vista runs even better than it did before. Taking apart the maintanence lid, I had to take off the keyboard as well (not completely). When I did this, I noticed some writing on the frame of my computer which I have no clue as to why it's there.

Sorry for this short review being so disorganized. (I'm typing as I go). While I was taking out the battery, I noticed some three circle chips that showed white ceramic like material. I'll include pictures so you can see what I'm talking about. It concerns me but I don't know why. Another thing that concerned me was the writing that I found on the laptop. Pictures provided as well.

back to the review.

The keyboard was very easy to type on, as I'm typing all of this on the M1210 right now. The only thing that irks me to an extent is the mouse.

If you even have someone of a clammy hands, you'll find your fingers skidding across the mouse pad more than the gliding that it should. I don't like this but an easy wipe of my fingers onto my shirt takes care of this

The size. It's a very small laptop. With the 6 cell, it is almost the exact same dimension as a sheet of paper. The only thing being different would be that width-wise (from side to side not front to back), it extends past the sheet of paper by 3/5 of an inch. But from front to back, it's the same size as the sheet of paper with a 6 cell battery.

anyone have any questions I'll provide an answer to the best of my abilities. Sorry it's a very unorganized and unorthodox review, it's late at night and I'm just writing whatever comes off the top of my head.

but in the end... I LOVE THIS MACHINE. It's a A freaking plus and you'll only appreciate it's true beauty when you get to personally open one from the box.

btw, it's pretty darn light. Definitely transportable in one hand. And the whole thing is very aesthetically pleasing. It's gorgeous. I've heard a lot of people saying that the back on the monitor shows a lot of fingerprints. I've not had this problem yet. I've purposely rubbed my fingers all over the back cover and it hasn't showed any finger prints yet.

P.S. I thought I'd leave off all that technical jargon because it's been said so many times. 5/1 card reader, 4 usb ports blah blah blah.

 

Nice to hear that you finally got your machine and enjoying it.

 

sure am, I just installed the 9 cell battery and I've just realized... the notebook is actually pretty heavy for it's size. But then again, this is with the 9 cell battery.

The 6 cell gave me approximately 3:30 minutes with 4 out of 7 clicks on brightness.

I wished there was a way to dim these beautiful ocean blue led lights to save battery but I guess it'll just last.

 

Was it with or without Wireless ON? I really like to get the 6 Cell for its size and weight, but at the same time worried about battery life. Is there any other way to conserve battery ? Like maybe underclock the GPU etc. ?

 

You can turn off the front media control button lights through the BIOS.

 

glad you like your purchase.
What was the price?
What was your screen res (ie WXGA, WSXGA, WUXGA, ect)?
Did you opt for the high end gfx card or just stick with the base card?

 

You can find out what screen you have by right clicking on My Computer->Properties->Hardware->Device Manager->Monitors->Plug and Play Monitor->Details->Hardware Id

It will say like DISPLAY/AUO or something like that.

 

That battery time was with wireless on and I rebooted approximately 5 times during that time period. I don't know why the battery lasted so well. I was under the impression that i would get only 3 hours.

tonight when I go study, I'll do another test on the 6 cell. doing a test on the 9 cell is pointless, we all know it's going to last a long time lol.

 

My total price for everything:

Intel Core 2 Duo T7200
Nvidia Go 7400
1G Ram
80G 5400rpm HDD
6cell + 9cell battery
8x cd-dvd/rw
4 year warrantly parts/labor
4 year on site warranty
4 year complete care warranty

came to $1750 shipped next business day. Pricey? Yeah a little bit, but I was really worried about getting the best deal.

also, the screen is the standard wsxga 1280x800 resolution. It's the only screen you can get and it comes glossy.

thanks Phil

 

I have the AUO monitor which is considered the best. No wonder I like this so much! hahaha.

 

two other things that bothered me and I want to know if you guys are having the same problem as well.

1) The 6 cell battery is loose on my system. I'm wondering if any of you guys have the same problem.

2) When I'm scrolling with the touchpad, if i pause but keep the mouse clicked so while I'm strolling, and I touch the touch pad again, it jumps to the top of the screen. Why is this? Am I supposed to scroll with the touch pad and not click on the scroll bar and hold the left mouse button?



any of you guys have any clue why my battery slot has those three circles with the paint chipped off showing ceramic? It looked as if something broke off from there.

and what about that writing that i found when I removed my keypad?

thanks a lot

 

My 6 cell fits snug.

If the cursor is on a scroll bar in a window, left clicking will move it either all the way up or down, depending on which half the cursor is on, thats the same for desktop mice, there might be a way to disable it in the control panel, I dont know, its never been a problem for me.

The writing is probably part of the assembly process, its pretty common, its completely out of sight when put together, the circles are tool marks, mine has them too,I bet everyone does, dont worry about it, if you keep nitpicking your going to convince yourself not to be satisfied with it.

 

nah, I paid about that much for my e1505 and it only came with a 2.0GHz Core Duo and an x1400 GFX card. Though I did opt for the 80GB 7200rpm HD and two 9cell batteries.

I was thinking about getting an m1210 myself when Santa Rose is available. Though I hope the price drops by then. right now, for slightly less than what I want, I'd be paying around $2300.

 

thanks iceman and phil.

iceman -

do you believe the battery that is loose is due to the battery, or is due to the compartment in which it's housed in?

because my 9 cell fits snug.


thank you.

 

Hey Sirius, I got mine the other day. I wish my dad would have ordered the laptop at that price... I think he paid 2080... and the only differences between mine and yours is that you have an amazing warranty plan... I think I only have a 2 year regular warranty, and no accidental damage or something like that... I also have a 80GB 7200rpm HDD.

I'll post a bit of a review on mine when my 2gb ram arrives so that I can replace the current 2x512mb.

My 6 cell fits fine, I would compare your 6 and 9 cells at the fitting side to see if anything is different. It may be your battery or your housing... Not sure there.

Glad you got it though ^_^

 

awesome. Let me know how you like it after you've had time to play around with it a little. Did you find the screen too small? I find it perfect! Even coming from a 20" desktop and a 15.4" notebook.

Good luck with replacing the memory. If you're not sure about some things and if you don't find the online manuals helpful, feel free to PM me! And you don't really need the accidental damage if you're careful. I just bring mine everywhere that's why I decided to go ahead and purchase it.

I think I'll check the battery, maybe Dell can send me a replacement.

good luck and keep me updated on how you feel with your M1210!

p.s.

how is the screen? Find any dead pixels or other quirks with it?

thanks

 

How loose is it? I'd only replace it if it seems like it could fall out or possibly damage the locking mechanism, a simple fix would be to just put a few small layers of electrical tape on a neutral side of the battery untill it fits snugly, it would be a cheap, invisible fix, is it loose on the sides, or front to back?

 

if you hold the notebook in one hand and reach into the back on the battery and gently move it up and down, there is quite a bit of play. when I'm moving it around on my lap, you can feel it moving up and down. I don't think it's severe to the point of worrying if it will fall out or not. I was just thinking the same thing about the electrical tape, good tip, i think I'm going to try that. hopefully it doesn't affect how my 9 cell fits

thanks

 

If you put the tape on the battery itself, its shouldnt have any effect on the 9 cell. Do not put it in the battery bay itself. I would apply one layer at a time untill about 90% of the wiggle room is gone, you dont want to make it so tight that you have to use extra force to get in or out.

 

ah i didn't even think about putting it on the battery. good good advise. Thanks Ice.

 

how did you get the keyboard off to install the memory module?