We recently purchased the Dell XPS M1530 laptop computer as it was a "Today's Special Value" on QVC. The computer had a ton of up-to-date specifications as well as a lot of great software included for free, making it a hard deal to pass up. Since it was available on Easy pay, the payments could be stretched out over 4 months much like a car. The laptop wasn't one of the cheaper models, but it is one of the more feature-rich models making it a nice piece of technology for your computing needs. What follows is my review of this laptop, having used other laptops before and being familiar with them from a previous job.  This isn't one the cheaper models, but it is one of the more fully-featured and capable models on the market with some "cutting edge" technology as of mid 2009.

Ok, let's get to the good stuff.  What exactly makes this Dell XPS M1530 laptop purr?  The processor which speeds along all the stuff you do with this nifty laptop is a  Intel®  Core™2 Duo, which is one of the best chips in the business.  Intel has been at the top of the processor game for quite some time, and you'll come to enjoy the speed with which this machine operates.

It's also got 2 gigabytes of Dual Channel 667MHz DDR2 memory inside, making it more than capable to handle a lot of tasks at once.  You can use the internet while listening to music and working on a letter on Microsoft word.  You can have the webcam on and do a video conference while taking notes.  It's really an efficient laptop, and it should be as it is one of the latest pieces of technology out there.

9 out of 10 for the memory and CPU.  It's not the fastest laptop in the world, but it is definitely efficient. 

The laptop included 200 gigabytes of Hard drive storage as well.  Many people debate how much you need, but 200-250 is fine for the average computer user.  If you're going to be doing a lot of media work, such as video and photo editing or music, then you'll probably want something more spacious.  This particular laptop allows up to 320gb.  Keep in mind you can always purchase a stand-alone external hard drive for a hundred dollars or so to boost your storage. 

I'll give the Dell XPS M5130 laptop a 7 out of 10 on storage, as most basic laptops come with 50 gb, and this was a little bit low.

This laptop by Dell includes either a Slot Load DVD+/-RW orSlot Load Blu-ray Disc drive.  This is top of the line so no need to elaborate on it too much.  You can watch DVD's in style as it has a nice high-res 15.4 inch LED LCD (1440x900) screen.  The video card is a 256MB NVIDIA® GeForce® 8600M GT which is really one of the best brands when it comes to these, and offers splendid video and images on your screen.  My only complaint is the screen will be hard to see if you use the computer outside on a sunny day without the power cord plugged in.  The battery which is a 9-cell 85WHr Li-Ion Battery 6-cell 56WHr Li-Ion Battery seems to go down in power fast.  I know that this is a hefty machine so you shouldn't expect it to last for 4 hours, but it definitely seemed to lose power faster than other models I've used.

Overall score here, 8 of 10, with the only complaints being battery power and screen in the sun, which might not be most people's usage habit anyways.

The Dell XPS M1530 laptop has a nice variety of ports on the sides and front of the machine, including the headphone and speaker out, as well as two mics.  There's the 8-in-1 card reader for all your digital camera memory card needs.  A Firewire input is there as well, which is useful for many external hardware devices such as hard drives.  Firewire can make data transfer a lot quicker.  There's 3 USB ports for plugging in things like iPods, external harddrives or video cameras.  It's got the RJ45 ethernet port as well as a nice wireless feature on the side.  You simply slide the wifi feature on to automatically pick up any WiFi signal in the area.  There's also HDMI and VGA for watching hi-def movies or video on your TV, or transferring them elsewhere.  And let's not forget the webcam which is small, and unobtrusive above the laptop screen.

As for ports and extras this laptop easily scores a 10 out of 10 for what it offers you.

Two things that were highlighted on the presentation of this laptop were the Dell XPS M1530's
fingerprint reader and its lo-jack security system.  The Biometric Fingerprint reader allows you to opt out of using a password to log in.  The fingerprint reader will allow the main user to scan their fingerprint so that they can set the laptop to only be accessible by them.  I wouldn't necessarily recommend this, as technology has been known to fail, but it's a cool feature. As for our particular laptop, the fingerprint technology was very difficult to operate to the point swiping the fingerprint kept reporting an error and to try the tutorial again until it worked.  After many frustrating sessions, we gave up on this.  It's possible this feature was not working properly for this specific laptop, but overall we weren't impressed by it, despite the claims made. 

The included Lo-Jack security is to help recover your laptop in the event of a theft.  The service is something you get free for a year, and then would be required to pay for afterwards.  Lojack for the XPS operates sort of like GPS.  If you report your laptop as stolen, the LoJack recovery team will attempt to find the laptop.  The way that works is the laptop will use a "call-home" function to call home every 15 minutes when connected to the internet, which could help the team locate your laptop.  The company behind this technology claims a rate of recovering 3 out of 4 of every stolen laptop with their technology.

Well, the XPS laptop included plenty of great software and user manuals. The operating system is one of the best you can get, the 64-bit version of Windows Vista premium. It also included an Adobe art program, a fully working Microsoft office install package, MS Works, games, recipe software, a Tiger Woods golf video game, and much more. As you know Microsoft Office is not cheap, so having it included was quite nice. One piece of software that was particularly nice was the free inclusion of a complete data transfer package. It basically allows you to transfer all of your user data from your PC or other laptop to this new one, simply by installing the software on each machine and hooking them up via an included cable. Also, it includes the Acronis Backup software which makes storage and backup of your laptop's data a breeze to schedule or do manually. There's even a neat little aquarium style screensaver you can watch on the color-rich screen. Add to this the inclusion of McAfee security software for at least a year's time, and the software is all-inclusive.

Software also scores a 10 out of 10 since you've got just about all the entertainment, productivity and system software you'll need included.

The XPS M1530 from Dell was priced at over $1,000 on an easy pay plan on QVC.  This basically stretches the payments over 4 months to make it more affordable.  However, today you can get laptops for as low as $400-$500 on special, with comparable specs and features.  The technology included such as the fingerprint security didn't seem to work properly, making the price a bit steep.  However, when you consider all the software that was included, you can see why it was priced how it was. 

For price I give this a 7 out of 10, since it is newer technology but shouldn't break the bank.

In my humble personal opinion, this is a great laptop computer, however it's over $1,000.  Most people won't want to spend that much, and honestly you can find a much better deal with similar capabilities.  Some of the things I didn't and don't like with the computer are how quickly the battery seems to run down, and how the screen is less bright than normal when being used sans the power cable.  Also, the special fingerprint technology was less than stellar, although it may be defective on this particular model.  Still, it was something Dell made a big deal about on the advertising done for this XPS M1530 laptop.

Additionally, I'd prefer owning a thinner Mac Airbook at this price, since Macs tend to break less and can run many of the same programs as PC laptops do.  If you don't mind spending a thousand bucks or so, and can only stand having a Dell laptop, this is the one to get, as its features will have you more than happy with your purchase.

Overall rating for the Dell XPS M1530, 8 out of 10 or 80%.