Apologies for the downtime this week, some extreme bandwidth hotlinking issues, should be fixed now :)
Onto the review...
I mainly needed the laptop for school work and music. No gaming, minimal video watching and no real need for 100GB of hard disk space. So I got the Dell XPS M1210 from Dell (Who would have guessed) and customised it for my needs. Here are the final specs:
- Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo Processor T7200 - 2GHz, 4MB Cache, 667 MHz FSB
- 12.1" Wide Screen XGA display with TrueLife(TM) ( 1280x800 res.) & 1.3MP Web Cam
- 2048MB (2 X 1024MB) 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM
- 80GB SATA 7200RPM Performance Hard Drive
- Internal 8X DVD+/-RW Combination Drive with dual layer write capabilities
- 9-cell 85Whr Lithium Ion Primary Battery
- Dell(TM) Wireless 355 Bluetooth Module
- Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 3945 Dual Band 802.11a/g 54 Mbps Wireless Mini Card
- Genuine Windows Vista(TM) Home Premium 32 bit (English)
- 3 Years CompleteCover Guard
It took 6 days to arrive from Malaysia (via Singapore Airlines) and arrived packed very nicely. After receiving it, I uninstalled McAfee and Media Direct (which is a Windows Media Center imitation made by Dell[really bad I think]). The battery, since it is 9 cell, hangs out the back, but I think it's worth it for the 3 hours extra battery length :)
It also came with a free laptop bag [quality] - note that Dell changes their 'free' thing every week. The week before, it was a webcam.
When you do order from Dell, ring them up after you know what you want to get, and see if you can get things upgraded and/or stuff removed to save $. From the 2nd best warranty plan, I upgraded to the best by sacrificing the free router they offered. Neat :)
The laptop is really made for music listeners. It not only comes with media playing buttons on the side which you can press while the monitor is closed, but it works with iTunes! Yay! It is also is made for surround sound speakers! It comes with two earphone jacks and according to the manual, you use those two, plus the microphone for the full music experience. Haven't tried it yet, but sounds exciting.
The integrated webcam is also neat, as it comes bundled with Logitech software which has many features. It has night vision as well as 'follow cam' which follows your head when you move it. With only a resolution of only 1.3 megapixels, you can't expect too much, but hey, better than a MacPro one :p
Okay, so there's gotta be some flaws right? What are the cons you ask? Not many actually, really hard to find some real flaws with this mega machine.
- It can get a bit hot when multi-tasking. The fan on the side blows a lot of hot air out.
- It's very loud when it imports CDs.
- Speakers aren't real good, but came bundled with these awesome Creative ;) in-ear earbuds that really bring the music out even in loud environments.
- Fingerprints on casing.
That's it for now. Don't buy a Mac! Buy a XPS M1210 :D
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