Update August 29, 2007

I don't even know where to begin. Ever since I placed my order for the m1330 everythign has gone wrong from long delays, unanswered emails, no answers given over the phone, promises of call backs that never come, etc. I called Dell about my build quality problems and they issued me a replacement right away on the phone August 16th after I asked to speak to a superviser right away. Maya was assigned my case and although I was frustraited all went well. I asked for only 1 thing, if she could please upgrade my Dell Complete Care from 1 year to 3 since I am starting to have my doubts on the durability and build quality of the m1330 and she said no that it could not be done. She called me back on August 17th and left a voicemail saying that the repalcement order she placed for me had been cancelled due to a recall and that she placed a new order for me. I call her extention 3 times in the following 5 days leaving her a message to call me back wondering what the recall was for and if my replacement order was any different than the unit in my hands. To this day I have yet to receive a call back. I ended up emailing her which she replied to 6 days later and never actually answered my question. Phone status of my replacement order says it has been in the BUILD stage... until yesterday.

I woke up today and checked my status and it says CANCELLED!!!!!!!!!!!! I call up Anne, a Dell Customer Relations Rep and left her a message. An hour later I get a call from a supposed superviser who claims that my case is now being handled by him and not Maya and tells me my order was cancelled yesterday like Maya told me and my new ESD is September 3rd.. I went off in a loud and stern voice without yelling that Maya cancelled my order 15 days ago! NOT YESTERDAY! How I have had to deal with so much crap! How I got my first bill in the mail and asked why I should pay for a laptop I do not yet have. I asked why WHY my order was cancelled and all he had to say was "I tried finding that out before I called you but I couldn't figure it out" what kind of lame bullsh1t is that!? A superviser that works for Dell and he can't find out that basic info? I told him how I was contacted by Anne, that I called her and would be calling her again and he said "if that is what you would like to do then fine, I will still be calling you on September 3rd with an update."

I have never gone through so much crap before! I have never had so many back and forth calls with a company before not even my cable bill or Sprint cell bill! I pay $1900, full price, for a laptop and not only do I get junk but then I am delayed, ignored, my questions unanswered, d1cked around, and treated like I don't matter! I AM SO FRUSTRAITED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ALL THIS FOR A DELL LAPTOP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Let me start by saying that I love my Dell XPS m1330. It has every feature I would like except for gigabit ethernet. This is the exact laptop I have been looking for since mid 2006. My specific unit functions perfectly, no cpu "whine," no wobble when placed on a table, no dead pixels on the 2306 (Toshiba?) LED LCD, functioning wifi, BT, all lights work, dvd player sounds as it should, etc.

My issues with my m1330 are all build quality issues. Let's face it some of these issues are wide spread and not everyone may have all of them but most have at least several even if they don't pay close enough attention to it. I gotta hand it to dell they really send me a Do-It-Yourself notebook. I had to snap in 4 different parts of my m1330 to finish it assembly. This included 3 different places on the screen! There are gaps, teeth showing, paint job errors, and parts that are poorly designed.

This won't be a full system review. I am not touching upon the positives of this notebook (there are MANY!). I will just be showing the things I dislike about the physical part. I paid $1900 and waited 5 weeks for this notebook and it's a shame it came in the condition that it did. Apple, Sony, IBM/Lenovo, LG, Fujitsu, Toshiba, Asus, and now even HP have notebooks that cost half this but have much more time put into the build quality. Yes I am a picky person which is why I waited over a year to buy a notebook and build quality/design are VERY important to me.

If anyone wants any of these pics in their full resoltion 3072x1000 contact me on http://www.notebookreview.com/ under forums, user name billybatson. Provide me with the link to the picture you want.

OH and my battery wobbles. It doesn't move with day to day use but if I try to move it around with my hands while in the locked position it does move.

Here is my video on YouTube showing the WiFi/BT and WiFi Catcher sliding switches on the side. Both are very loose and have a lot of play. Not a deal breaker but come on?

Allow the ActiveX control to run to be able to play the video on this page or GO HERE DIRECTLY TO THE YOUTUBE PAGE

How the unit arrived

Package in full. As you can see the power brick is quite small. Included earbuds SUCK but still better designed than the ones that come with an iPod. I won;t be giving up my Shure e2c's for them any time soon though.

Let's start with some design flaws but none of them deal breakers or an error in the build process.

Here is a pic of the media card slot with the provided dummy SD card

As you can see the Dell provided dummy card is shorter than that of a standard SD card.

Standard SD card inserted.

Top view with card inserted. I hate how the standard SD card sticks out. Makes it harder to always leave a card in there at all time or at least for an extended period of time. We see why the Dell dummy card tthat was supplied with the unit it shorter than the standard card. However if for some reason the slot HAD to be designed this way I am very happy that Dell provided a shorter card to leave in the notebook to help protect the slot.

This is the provided media remote control inserted into the notebook but not locked in

Here is the remote pushed and locked in. Yes it sticks out. Why? =\

This is my HDD cover. It sticks out a tiny bit and is no where near flush with the side of the notebook. If you also look at it closely (more so in person) it has a slightly different look, color, and feel to it. It leads me to believe that it was manufactured by a different company than the rest of the notebook shell.

Top view. I removed the HDD and put it back in the system hoping it would fix the fact that it sticks out but it didn't help.

This is a corner of the keyboard. Many have complained that the keyboard is the same quality as those found on the inspirion lines. It's pretty good but not great. What is weird to be is how you can see the aluminum dam that goes all the way around the notebook. What bugs me most is not that you can see the dam but since you can see it you can see the gap between it and the rest of the notebook. Does that mean dust can get into the laptop/under the keyboard and not just the keys themselves? What about a liquid? Of course if a liquidleaks into the notebook through the keyboard despite the dam then it doesn't matter anyway and ends up just being an ugly design.

Oh from here on out it is actual build problems with my unit.

my m1330 came with a slight dent on the bottom right hand corner of the aluminum palm rest. I have read about 2 other complaints of this in the same exact place. It's not bad and you really have to look at it but the fact that it shipped like this to me is annoying.

The silver paint on the edges are slightly coming up onto the top matt black top, and not evenly at that.

Top left corner

Same corner after I tried to lift the notebook using just my left hand with my thumb placed over the left hinge cover. It came right off :(

Was easily popped back into place but it can be pulled off any time I want. It clips under the black XPS logo here which squaks when you press down on it since it isn't exactly sitting right.

Left hinge gap

Right hinge gap. Not as bad as the left. You can also see the gap for one side of the battery.

The same battery gap, right side looking down, but with the screen closed

Battery gap on left side looking down

The back of the laptop with the screen closer, left hinge. You can see the larger gap on the left side versus the right but you can also see how the 2 pieces of plastic don't align right.

Finalyl a pic of the top of the screen. It's not horrible but you can see the "teeth" between the 2 peices all the way across. it isn't easy to tell in this pic but the left side is worse than the right side.

-Sevag Dekermenjian, billybatson obscurehideout.com 2007 contact