Originally Posted by
neilyork
Only just got mine today, the 1330 being my fifth Dell.
Initial impressions are good - it runs FSX better than my desktop and is smaller than the 640m that it replaced - it's also a very cool looking machine.
Will report back when I've had more time to play with it.
Having now had mine for a few weeks and having travelled around with it a bit, I can now give a better insight into the 1330.
Firstly, it is superb. I will be keeping it for the long term.
I will start by saying that for those who groan whenever they hear the word "DELL", can I just say that this is my sixth Dell machine (and fifth Dell laptop) in ten years. I have not ever had a single problem with any one of them. Indeed my first company-provided Dell is still with my company and in use by it's third keeper - no problems.
So, to the 1330 specifically.
What do I like about it:
1) It is small whilst having all the functionality I need - spec is good, it has a DVD player (not some external plug in thing) and bluetooth and wifi along with webcam.
2) It's fairly light
3) It's a good looking machine and feels well built
What could be better:
1) It came with the 4 cell battery and I struggle to get more than 2.5 hours out of it - I may procure the 9 cell battery although I know this adds weight and dimensions
2) It did suffer with the well documented Intel whine - something about vibrations etc - google it if you want to know more. What I can say though is that installing 'RMClock' has sorted out this problem. It's also present on my work provided HP laptop but I cannot just install software on that.
So, if anyone has an annoying whine or metallic sound coming from their machine, I can recommend RMClock (google it) and email me if you get stuck with settings. I'm no pc expert but this was easy to set up and it really does work.
As always, drop me a line if you want to know more about the XPS 1330 or RMClock