Dell XPS M1330

Apart from being stylish and sleek, the XPS M1330 is also a powerful performer. It comes with a variety of Intel C2D processors ranging from T5500 to T7500, 1 GB RAM , 160 GB HDD and more. The laptop can also be configured with a variety of graphical chipsets.

Our test machine came with top-of-the-line features: T7500 processors clocked at 2.2. GHz, 2 GB of RAM, Nvidia GeForce Go 8400M GS chipset with 128 MB of RAM and a 250 GB HDD. One can see that apart from the graphics chipset, the rest of the specifications are pretty healthy. The 8400M chipset, despite being DX-10 compatible, is one of the lowest-end chipsets from Nvidia and is only capable of running 3D games at low to medium levels of graphical settings.

We put the XPS M1330 through the regular series of tests i.e. 3DMark06, PCMark05, and a standard battery test. The PCMark score was a very healthy 5012. This could easily have hit the 6K mark if the chipset had been the 8600 series. The 3DMark06 score was 1703, which is quite good for this chipset.

We ran some games such as WoW, Bioshock and the PC version of Gears of War, and found them to be quite playable at medium settings. The only game that completely tanked the laptop was Crysis… whose basic requirements require many times the power of this laptop.

In the battery life test the laptop was a revelation. Using the 9-cell battery we were able to attain consistent figures of over 5½ hours and, in one instance, with just plain document usage it touched 6 hours. However, this can vary. When we put it through the grinder, the battery life dropped to barely 4 hours and 45 minutes, but this is still better than what most laptops are capable of.

The XPS M1330 is a complete package. It has sleek and stylish looks, an amazing LCD panel, great performance, and unbelievable battery life. At its price (starting at Rs 53,000) there are not many laptops that can match this machine. Strongly recommended.