It's difficult to apperceive what to accomplish of the Dell XPS M1210. On the one hand, its 12.1-inch wide-screen affectation is appropriate of an ultraportable laptop, such as the Gateway NX100X. On the added hand, its 4.4-pound starting weight places it in band with thin-and-lights that accept beyond displays, such as the 13.3-inch Lenovo 3000 V100, the XPS M1210 offers a affection set that's a cut aloft that of best ultraportables, which usually cede some appearance for portability. Though our analysis assemblage includes upgrades that added than bifold the price, at its $1,300 starting price, the M1210 will address to accustomed users who demand a almost ablaze and bunched but still full-featured Media Centermost computer.
It's a bit beyond than its antecedent (the Dell Inspiron 710m), but the Dell XPS M1210, barometer 11.7 inches wide, 8.7 inches abysmal (9.4 inches abysmal with the continued battery), and 1.4 inches thick, is hardly abate and thicker than the Lenovo 3000 V100. Weighing an alike 5 pounds with the nine-cell battery, the XPS M1210 acreage absolutely in the boilerplate of the thin-and-light category; the laptop's abject agreement with a six-cell array weighs a hardly added carriageable 4.4 pounds. With its beefy two-prong AC adapter, our XPS M1210 analysis unit's absolute biking weight comes in at 5.8 pounds, authoritative it ablaze abundant to backpack for semifrequent travel.
The XPS M1210 appearance a ablaze 12.1-inch affectation that's aloof big abundant for surfing the Web and watching the casual cine on the road; the brittle 1,280x800 built-in resolution and bright accomplishment in accurate add to the movie-watching experience. Aloft the affectation sits an alternative 1.3-megapixel Webcam with directional microphone; the camera swivels so that you can breeze shots in advanced of or abaft the laptop and almanac presentations with audio and video. Beneath the affectation sit two speakers with the tinny complete that's archetypal of a laptop; we had hoped for added from a laptop that's billed as a adaptable ball center.
The keyboard on the XPS M1210 shows some cogent assets over its predecessor's; all of the keys are abounding size, with acceptable biking that makes accounting adequate for alike continued periods. The blow pad and abrasion buttons are a bit baby (typical for a laptop of this size) but functional. We like the aglow dejected media controls that sit forth the XPS M1210's advanced edge, authoritative it accessible to change music advance and ascendancy volume. We additionally like the accessible Wi-Fi catcher, which lets you analysis for adjacent Wi-Fi networks by artlessly sliding a about-face on the laptop's larboard edge.
The Dell XPS M1210 takes advantage of its hardly blubbery case by packing it with an absorbing cardinal of ports, jacks, and slots. For starters, you get four USB 2.0 ports, a cardinal usually apparent on abundant beyond systems. Add to those four-pin FireWire, VGA, and S-Video-out ports additional two headphone jacks (handy if you demand to watch a cine with a friend) and a microphone jack; there's additionally an ExpressCard aperture and a five-in-one media agenda clairvoyant that recognizes Secure Digital, MultiMediaCard, Anamnesis Stick, Anamnesis Stick Pro, and xD formats. Networking options accommodate modem, Ethernet, and 802.11a/g Wi-Fi; our analysis assemblage additionally included Bluetooth and WWAN. An chip DVD burner circuit out the affection set.
Our XPS M1210 analysis assemblage ran Corel WordPerfect chat processor, a 15-month cable to McAfee SecurityCenter, and the accepted disc-burning apps. Also, like best of the added models in the XPS and Inspiron lines, the XPS M1210 appearance Dell's MediaDirect software, which plays CDs and DVDs and lets you admission photos and added media files stored on your adamantine drive after booting up Windows first.
Our XPS M1210 analysis assemblage amount $2,687 for a mix of high-end components: a 2.16GHz Intel Core Duo processor; 1GB of fast 667MHz RAM; a blazing, 7,200rpm adamantine drive with 80GB capacity; and an Nvidia GeForce Go 7400 cartoon agenda with 256MB of committed memory. The M1210 becoming a actual aerial account on CNET Labs' achievement benchmarks, authoritative it awfully able-bodied ill-fitted for acute multitasking and alike graphics-intensive tasks while on the move. The M1210's 4-hour, 24-minute array activity was aloft boilerplate for a laptop in its weight class.
Though Dell has confused to a 90-day accepted assurance on its beneath big-ticket models, the aggregation covers the XPS M1210 with an industry-average one-year warranty, which provides chargeless genitalia and activity with onsite service. You can get advice through Dell's 24/7, toll-free blast band for as continued as you own the laptop. Dell offers a appropriate tech-support cardinal alone for XPS owners, staffed by reps who can accommodate advice with the latest amateur and technologies. The aggregation additionally has a abutment Web armpit with downloads, FAQs, and hardware-specific user forums.
