Dell XPS M1330 Review

It sounds like a great system, so great that I've ordered one, but if I was you I would buy it direct from somewhere like Tesco's or PCWorld, ANYTHING other than deal with dell.

A call centre with staff who can't speak or write basic english.
Ordering over the phone involves walking the person on the other end of the line through their online ordering system, in exploring the options for the laptop, I knew more about the model and its options than they did.
Unexplained delays of many weeks with no notification (I only found out after going to check after hearing nothing for 3 weeks and the original delivery date approaching).
A complete disregard for all queries regarding the system and its status, they have all been either deflected or simply ignored.

Mine has now been in the packaging phase for 6 days, something their website states only take a day, and they have altered the website to make it appear that it has been only a day, essentially lying. When I called them on this and told them I was considering (note only considering) cancelling the order, they went straight ahead and cancelled it without even trying to work out the issues.

Dell customer service is about the worst I have ever experienced and I would not recommend it to anyone, not even my worst enemy

I never considered one of these because of Vista (running Vista Business and hate it). My next laptop was going to be a Macbook, but this machine has more features than the Mac, i.e. HDMI out, media card reader, led backlight, express card, and so on.

I just wish Sony would use Ubuntu as well. Sick of all these manufacturers sticking with Windows and forcing us to either put up with it, or buy a Mac, or put up with the hassle of installing Linux. Love PC hardware (Vaio TZ comes to mind) but software SUCKS!!!

At least Dell has woken up, now let's see the others (HP, Acer, Lenovo, looking at you) wake up too!

The XPS m1330 and m1530 are great notebooks. Sadly, however, I would caution against buying the xps m1330 or any other laptop (from Dell, HP, Acer, Asus or Apple) that comes with the faulty Nvidia m8400 or m8600 graphics. Nvidia has finally admitted that there a problem involving "a weak die/packaging material set" in their GPUs (see http://www.nvidia.com/object/io_1215037160521.html).

These laptops are dying at an alarming rate. Mine died 3 times in the last 10 months. In each case the GPU was the cause and the "fix" was a motherboard replacement. The problem is that there is no guarantee that the replacement will last!

DEll and other manufacturers have offered graphics drivers and bios updates that cause the system fans to run more frequently thereby delaying the failure. However, they are yet to address the real problem which is faulty hardware. HP has offered free warranty extension for affected systems but other manufacturers including Dell are yet to follow.

There are hundreds of articles like this one (http://www.engadget.com/2008/07/26/dell-explains-nvidia-gpu-issues-throws-out-bios-updates-to-help/) that describe the problem. There are even videos on YouTube showing XPS m1330 dying (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkw47rprZU8).

So keep an eye for updates on this saga. In the mean time stay clear of affected laptop models and configurations until the manufacturers own up to the problem and recall or offer upgrades for affected systems.