Returned the Dell XPS M1530
3Apr2008 Filed under: General Author: Derek HatchardThe refund cheque for my Dell XPS M1530 arrived yesterday. Yes, that’s right, I returned the Dell. The deciding factor was that the chassis seemed to have warped. It would wobble on a flat surface. I tried multiple surfaces and tested a few other laptops to make sure. The front left corner wobbled as I typed. I could slide at least three sheets of paper underneath the rubber "foot" / bumper with no resistance.
I miss the fingerprint scanner and the dedicated volume controls. Otherwise I am thrilled with what I replaced it with… a 15" MacBook Pro (2.4GHz, 200GB hard drive). The XPS M1530 still has a lot of pros but a few things pushed me over the edge:
- 15" MBP is smaller and thinner (the M1530 is just a bit too thick)
- The small trackpad on the XPS was really bugging me
- Battery life on the M1530 was awful
- I missed the Apple magnetic power adapter
- The headphone jack in front turned out to be a pain
- The backlit keyboard on the MBP is sooooo sweet
- And, of course, the XPS warped!
8 Responses to “Returned the Dell XPS M1530”
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Derek Hatchard is a web consultant turned entrepreneur. He runs
InternetDictator.com,
ChurchRadius.com,
ardentdev.com, and
devcasting.com
(and has several other projects under development).
more...
- Nir: Look Philip, all i am saying is that unless you're a designer, a musician or an artist,
- Christine: I'm going to start a collection in my dorm buildings at school and I hope other students
- Philip Palmer: Hey guys. I just ordered a 2.5 Ghz Dell 1530. My friend has one and I love
- Donald Belcham: I can't believe it's so much lower than your metrosexual quotient.
- Derek Hatchard: Personally I have little use for OS X. I definitely prefer Windows and I really like
- Nir: thats a waste of money. you're actually buying a macbook pro and running vista on in? macbooks
- bob: Running Leopard Macbook Pro 4gb ram Using MS IntelliPoint 6.22 & MS Presenter Mouse 8000 I found that the
- Derek Hatchard: 1920x1200 is a bit much for a 15.4" screen in my opinion. 1680x1050 is the highest
- Sanj: Hi Derek I am really agonizing about my next laptop purchase. I like
- Jason Row: Well let's see how many people will follow an account that has zero updates. You're up to
Georgine
April 5th, 2008 at 2:39 pm
I *love* my MBP and was so disappointed when you bought a Dell. Ian has been using them exclusively for years though and had good luck for the most part. He’s *almost* convinced to switch, but always has a crash at the most inconvenient moment and has to replace a laptop quickly with no research. He’s on his um, probably 4th or 5th Dell now (in about 10 years). I’m never going back.
Nir
April 6th, 2008 at 5:26 am
Haha i just ordered the dell xps m1530, i would get a macbook pro instead but its pretty expensive. I had to chose between the 1530 and Macbook, but the screen is too small and the graphics suck. However i don’t think the dell is such a bad computer like people make it to be. Its interesting, i have read a lot of reviews and different people say completely different things about the dell. Anyways i’m pretty happy with my choice and hopefully i would be one of the people who are happy with it.
Sanj
April 14th, 2008 at 10:47 pm
Hi Derek
I am really agonizing about my next laptop purchase. I like you am considering either the MBP or the XPS. One thing I wanted to ask you, how did u find the 1680 x 1050 resolution on XPS? It wasn’t too small?? Dell now offers a 1920 x 1200 resolution, however that is way too much for a 15.4 inch screen. Any thoughts you have would be greatly appreciated.
Derek Hatchard
April 14th, 2008 at 10:55 pm
1920×1200 is a bit much for a 15.4″ screen in my opinion. 1680×1050 is the highest I would go on that size screen. Personally I’m finding the 1440×900 on the MBP to be much easier to use day-to-day. I have a very slight eye prescription — enough that I have glasses but not enough that I need to, you know, wear them…
Get the MacBook Pro and install Vista on it.
Nir
April 23rd, 2008 at 1:02 pm
thats a waste of money. you’re actually buying a macbook pro and running vista on in? macbooks are not designed to run vista and by the way, no they don’t run vista better than pc’s the people who tested it used some crappy pc for 200 bucks and a extremely upgraded mac pro just for the irony the vista runs faster on a mac but everyone knows that its impossible that a machine that is built ONLY for windows, runs it less efficient than a machine designed for Macintosh. If you got the money to get a macbook pro then spend it on an alienware computer and keep the change to buy an ipod or something.
Derek Hatchard
April 24th, 2008 at 5:33 pm
Personally I have little use for OS X. I definitely prefer Windows and I really like Vista (despite a few hiccups). I actually had an Alienware laptop for a couple months last year. I hated it.
(And before anyone asks, it’s not because I know Windows better. I have been using Macs on and off for about ten years. I spent 6-8 weeks this year using OS X full-time. And once upon a time I was a pretty big UNIX geek.)
Vista runs great on Intel-based Macs. It’s all standard hardware and Apple provides Vista drivers for everything. The only major difference is EFI instead of BIOS, which is why you need Bootcamp (for BIOS emulation). And now that Vista SP1 supports UEFI 2, you apparently don’t even need Bootcamp for the latest Macs.
Philip Palmer
May 5th, 2008 at 11:19 pm
Hey guys. I just ordered a 2.5 Ghz Dell 1530. My friend has one and I love it. Its all preference btw the two. And to Nir, 3 reputable computer magazines ( CPU, Consumer Electronics, and PC Gamer) all had articles running benchmarks on many computers, and the MPB won them all. Sry buddy. They even beat XPS’s and Sony Vaio T’s and Thinkpads. But the XPS has gaming baby!
Nir
May 8th, 2008 at 12:30 pm
Look Philip, all i am saying is that unless you’re a designer, a musician or an artist, a macbook pro would be a waste of money. Let me put it that way; for an average consumer, having a macbook pro is like having a Ferrari on a road with a speed limit of 20 miles/ph. Its a great machine and good for show off but its irrelevant to about 85% of the market, you just don’t need that much power.