The Dell XPS M1330 arrived today. I'll be using this machine in my new office in the Big Blue Room. :)
The screen is backlit by WLED's. This means it's a lot brighter than most Laptop LCD's, but it is still not as bright as my iMac LCD.
Ubuntu Gutsy installed perfectly (had to install using safe mode video, after that, the nvidia drivers worked fine). On the first boot, the battery monitor happily reported 6.5 hours of battery life left. Excellent! Everything works, including the multimedia card reader and the sound card.
The build quality feels rather sturdy, even though the machine is very light. The keyboard looks and feels cheap. The battery isn't a perfect fit, and has a very slight wobble.
Pystone reports 68000 pystones, glxgears reports 4800 fps. Not very accurate benchmarks, but at least you get an idea of what to expect.
Overall, I'm happy with it. The build quality is better than the usual Dell standard, and the performance is great, considering the price!
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6 comments:
Interesting. I have been considering the M1330. Some questions if you wouldn't mind?
* M1330 rather than MacBook?
* Can you use the WebCam under Ubuntu?
* Which battery option did you get (sounds like the 9 cell)?
Thanks!
The specs of a M1330 are almost comparable to a MacBook Pro, except for the video card, which is slightly inferior on the M1330. The M1330, on the other hand, is half the price.
I haven't been able to get the webcam to work yet.
I'm using the 9 cell battery.
I just got a Vostro 1400 for work. The webcam works fine. The battery is wobbly. The whole thing is bloody heavy.
And it doesn't have DVI :(
The trackpad is far too sensitive to accidental brushes being detected as "mouse button" clicks.
Dell have a lot to learn from Apple regarding laptop design.
3400 FPS in glxgears, 53191 pystones (though I'm having trouble getting consistent numbers with the CPU scaling on, and I can't seem to turn that off)
What about suspend to ram and resume?
I've just done a suspend, and resume. It worked.
I also tried a hibernate and resume. That worked too.
See here for guidance on the webcam:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/InstallingUbuntuOnADellXPSM1330
Any more observations? I am seriously considering buying one and run Ubuntu on it.
Martin
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