Dell Adds Big Brother to XPS Laptop Line

While the M1530 is certainly larger than the M1330, it's not exactly a heavyweight at a mere 5.78 pounds.

While the new M1530 doesn't come with an LED backlight screen option like the M1330, standard features include a high-definition 15.4-inch display, WiFi wireless networking, a slot-load optical drive, DirectX 10 capable graphics, touch-sensitive media buttons and HDMI support .

Users can also choose from Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) Core 2 Duo processors ranging from 1.5 to 2.6 GHz, a 128 or 256 MB Nvidia GeForce graphics processor, and hard drives ranging from 64 GB for a solid state drive (SSD) to a 320 GB 5400 RPM hard drive.

Other choices include three colors -- the standard Tuxedo Black, Crimson Red and Alpine White -- as well an optional Blu-ray disc drive and included noise cancellation earbuds and a travel remote that stores away in the ExpressCard slot. Dell's MediaDirect and Instant Office technology offers a handy one-button way to access music, movies, photos, calendar items and contacts -- without having to boot the system by loading Windows Vista.

Consumer and Business Both

"Dell is designing with a sense of being able to appeal to both consumer and enterprise , but the fact they come in colors and have a snazzy industrial design means they are taking the consumer market more seriously than ever before," J.P. Gownder, principal analyst for Forrester, told TechNewsWorld.

Dell's MediaDirect features will likely appeal to consumers as well as traveling business people, but Dell has taken media a step further with its optional Blu-ray drive. The option is pricey, though -- it's a US$500 upgrade. Other notebook manufacturers have included HD-DVD drives in their wares.

"There's a very thin slice of the population that has made a choice in the format war," Gownder said. "The value proposition of next-generation DVD, whether HD-DVD or Blu-ray, is pretty limited. The real value, in my opinion, is only realized on a larger screen. [Blu-ray on a notebook is] only going to appeal to a very narrow, very technical group of people."

Solid State of Mind

Dell's not shouting about the available solid state drive upgrade -- a 64 GB drive option that costs $1,000 -- but the company is offering it, and that says something about growing interest in the nascent SSD market.

"You're certainly seeing a lot more interest in solid state drives," Jeff Janukowicz, IDC's research manager of SSDs and hard drive components, told TechNewsWorld. Dell's SSD upgrade offerings, he noted, are in line with those of other manufacturers, which are also offering SSD options with increasing frequency.

"Price is still pretty steep, but pricing has been coming down at 50 percent per year, so in 2008, 2009, looking out into the future, you can see how those drives will be more accessible to people," he added.

More Reliable?

On Dell's configuration Web page, the company tags its SSD hard drive option as "more reliable." With traditional hard drives already achieving superb reliability rates, as well as sudden movement sensors that prepare drives for impact if they're dropped, are SSD drives really more reliable?

"When you think about a hard drive, it's a mechanical device -- you have a lot of moving parts, things can wear out. Solid state drives have no moving parts, so inherently they are a little more reliable from that perspective," Janukowicz explained.

All of Dell's XPS desktop and notebook computers also feature Dell's first-class XPS service, which guarantees quick telephone access to the company's best home-computer technicians and a 15-month subscription to virus and spyware protection, the company said. XPS notebooks purchased from Dell also include one year of LoJack for Laptops theft recovery service and one year of 10 GB online storage and backup space with Dell DataSafe Online Backup.