Dell XPS M1210 user reviews
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User reviews1
David Long 5 October 2007
Good: Compact size, Twin Headphone sockets, 4 USB ports, Mega Battery Life
Bad: Not quite enough graphics power for the latest games
Comment: I picked up my Dell m1210 2nd hand for £550 and wasn't expecting much from such a small system. I was planning on giving it to the wife when I found a more powerful system for myself. It been 7 months now and I still use it daily.
It packs quite a punch for such a compact. I use it mainly for web development and it runs Apps like Photoshop, Office and the like with ease. It's even reasonable at gaming - I've played Halo 2, Half-life 2 Episode 1, Counterstrike source, Team Fortress 2 and more. Although I need to keep my settings med-low to get a good framerate it's definitely playable.
The long battery life is another great benefit. I have the 9cell extended battery which sticks out a bit. I get about 4-5hrs doing web dev (Running iTunes, Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Firefox) and about 2hrs gaming.
The model I have is feature packed to with wifi a/b/g, bluetooth, Firewire, 4x USB, S-video out, Twin headphone sockets (really handy when watching a movie together in bed and not wanting to wake the baby). The twin headphone sockets and mic double as 5.1 surround sound output too.
The built-in webcam is excellent for video conferencing and the mic is very clear, I don't need to lean in close to be heard. Great for recording lectures too.
DVD-RW drive is nothing special but does the job. Discovered it only supports -R which is a pain as I have a stack of +R discs which I use with my desktop.
The bottom of the laptop has rubber feet which raise the laptop off the desk slightly - this aids cooling but also makes it a little chunkier than other compact laptops.
The built quality is great - it really feels like an expensive piece of kit. The mat finish on the cover is nice to touch and the glossy screen makes colours really pop. The same DVD on my friends Macbook Pro looks washed out compared to the sharp vivid colours on the Dell m1210.
My spec is 2.13GHZ Centrino Core 2 Duo, 2GB DDR2 667mhz ram, 64mb Nvidia 7400m, 160GB HDD
If you are looking for a compact portable laptop which still has decent power I highly recommend the m1210. If you worried about the small 12.1" screen I wouldn't let it put you off too much. As the resolution is still reasonable (1280x800) you can really things done on it and you get used to the size. When I'm at home I sometimes hook it up to my 19" flat screen and use my bluetooth keyboard and mouse and it's just like having a desktop.