Dell's XPS M1210 leaked?

Looks like all you Alienware buyout fear mongers officially need not worry -- for now. According to Notebook Review, the cat's out of the bag and Dell's launching (or is about to launch) their second gaming-centric laptop, but this one's a little easier on the shoulder and presumably also the pocketbook. The XPS M1210 rocks a 12.1-inch widescreen display, Core Duo processor, NVIDIA 7300 or ATI X1300 graphics, dual later DVD burner, Bluetooth 2.0, 802.11a/b/g, 5-in-1 media reader, ExpressCard54 slot, up to 4GB RAM, and an optional webcam. Should be out some time in May, but we'll know for sure when we get the official word from the gang at Dell.

[Thanks, Ben]

[diulei @ Apr 30th 2006 5:46PM]

That 1st picture makes it look like a 90s era laptop. Hopefully it looks better in real life.

[Eli @ Apr 30th 2006 5:51PM]

"Legal experts noted that unlike Apple, Dell tends to sell products based on pricing, quality, and strength of customer service, rather than depending exclusively on pre-release hype, therefore it is unlikely they will be initiating lawsuits against blogs reporting the upcoming launch of their latest gaming laptop."

;D

[Revrant @ Apr 30th 2006 5:52PM]

Yeah, thing is, PC Gaming Laptops aren't pussified iBooks, they have some meat on their "bones" so to speak.

Actually, it doesn't look terrible, which is a first for something Dell, though, it's nVidia and Intel, so I'll stick to wishing on that Alienware all the same. ;)

[Travis @ Apr 30th 2006 6:02PM]

I agree with #1. Very old school.

And interestingly, these pics show no latch to hold the lid shut.

[Ben @ Apr 30th 2006 6:06PM]

#4, chances are these are just early prototype cases or something like that..

l can't wait for this thing to release, assuming its reasonably priced :)

[jitty @ Apr 30th 2006 6:26PM]

Why does it say "dual later" DVD burner?

[Adam @ Apr 30th 2006 6:36PM]

Do laptops still use latches? My past two have both used magnets to keep the lid closed. I think latches look tacky, Dell is smart to phase them out.

[bob @ Apr 30th 2006 6:40PM]

i love the way pc users (most of which have never even touched a mac) compare a top of the range pc to the lowest end mac in performance and a high end mac to a low end pc for price comparison, i hate the whol 'fan boy' thing but come on...shuuuruup already.

[Kris the Grumpy @ Apr 30th 2006 6:54PM]

Mac fan here.... and I like that this pocket rocket will probably be out soon, because it will get Apple off their ass with releasing the MacBook. Also... it's got a real video card. See that, Apple?
Yes, nice compact rig.

[j-dawg @ Apr 30th 2006 6:55PM]

Low-end Dell laptops, which I have used, are far superior to low-end Apple laptops, which I have also used extensively.

At the upper end, and I've also used laptops from both sides here, it's basically a matter of which you like better.

[John @ Apr 30th 2006 7:10PM]

I'm a gamer but what the hell use is a 12" laptop for playing games, uhhffff!

[Bhatman @ Apr 30th 2006 7:11PM]

looks like one of the laptops that asus manufactures....
http://usa.asus.com/products4.aspx?l1=5&l2=64&l3=0&model=1085&modelmenu=1

[tape @ Apr 30th 2006 7:12PM]

well it seems the biggest deal these days is comparing whatever apple releases to whatever dell releases.

the macbook pro looked interesting, but its not as perfect as people say.

all the apple fans are like "yea but with apple it looks good and you wont have any problems etc etc etc."

that is not true. Macbook pro has so many problems! The first problem how loud it is. It seems like there is a constant buzz / whine (and i have a recent build week, like week 18) and then the lack of media support sucks, playing subs / srts is a big pain as well. Also i havent even had it for a week and my icons in os x are starting to get jacked up. pretty lame if you ask me.

[Bobby @ Apr 30th 2006 7:22PM]

Finally...
I love my XPS M170 to death. I really do. Its amazing for lan parties, where I am not carrying it around a lot. But I can't use this thing at school. Its huge, doesn't have enough battery life, and weighs a lot. It barely fits in my backpack. The other low-profile "gaming laptops" have the Media Accelerator 950... which gives "performance to match". If there were a little laptop with a real graphics card, nice screen, and good amount of ram... I would buy it...


On another note...


Does anyone know if this will be widescreen? I honestly don't think I could go back easily.

[Ben @ Apr 30th 2006 7:30PM]

#12, l think Asus recently won a contract from dell for manufacturing a new laptop (didn't say which one).

[Jason @ Apr 30th 2006 7:33PM]

This looks great. I assume the finished product will look vastly different. I also assume the internals will match up to what they say on this blog. That's how it normally works. Sometime in May? Could that be next week? :) Something less than the m1710 but more versatile than the M140. I like the direction. Each system usually has one giant cherry on top and I wonder what this one will bring?

[Jason @ Apr 30th 2006 7:39PM]

It should be wide screen! Most Def. Your probably going to have to upgrade the screen though to some sort of true life or compatible. a built in microphone and webcam would be nice. Maybe even some sort of sub woofer inside it on the speaker end. I would like for it to be about 2/3rd the weight of the 1710. Also, I'm interested in this thing running a 2.0 ghz dual core which would make it run games as smooth as ICE ! ! ! !

[Ben @ Apr 30th 2006 7:51PM]

Uh... #10, are you serious? Low end Dell laptops are by far the most clunky and crappy pieces of hardware out there. Every sub-$1,000 Dell I have touched feels cheap and poorly built. I have a 12" iBook that goes with me everywhere, it's much better put together than Dells. The only PC laptop that I would ever consider would be a Thinkpad.

[Justin @ Apr 30th 2006 8:04PM]

"real video card"? The MacBooks have the Radeon X1600... I'd imagine that's quite a bit faster than the X1300 mentioned above. Sure, you can't config a MacBook Pro with a GeForce 7300, but it doesn't look nearly as old school and clunky as this one either.

[juv3nal @ Apr 30th 2006 8:10PM]

featureset is very nice, but the next most important things are still unknown: price & weight.

[anon @ Apr 30th 2006 8:20PM]

"Legal experts noted that unlike Apple, Dell tends to sell products based on pricing, quality, and strength of customer service, rather than depending exclusively on pre-release hype, therefore it is unlikely they will be initiating lawsuits against blogs reporting the upcoming launch of their latest gaming laptop."

That sentence is completely backwards. Apple goes out of it's way to defer pre-release hype, unlike Dell and Microsoft, to name a couple, who constantly let slip upcoming items that never live up to the hype. Apple releases a product and it's available to purchase that same say. How long until Origami? How long until Vista? This Dell "leak" was nothing more than a calculated attempt to get customers to wait for their new line. Nothing but ultra poor marketing!

BTW, from the looks of it, I had that same case design back in 1995.

[sw @ Apr 30th 2006 8:25PM]

#11,

If people play games on PSPs and Nintendo DSs, a 12" laptop hardly seems incomprehensible.

At least it doesn't come with Intel Graphics like the lightweight Alienwares.

[j-dawg @ Apr 30th 2006 8:26PM]

I've used only two low-end Dell laptops, one of which was an older 12" Inspiron and the other of which was a 14" somethingy. The Inspiron was pretty nice, and the other one was decent as well.

Don't get me started on 12" iBooks. They're trash. I use them all the time in school, and they're awful. They're slow--slow, slow, slow--and their keyboards are awful, forcing you to press on the keys excesively hard to get any response out of them.

These are the newer iBooks with the solid white keyboard. We also used to have iBooks with the clear keyboards, and they were worse--the keyboards would peel up, the keys would fall off, the latches would break, and all sorts of crap.

This isn't due to abuse, either. I used one of the newer iBooks within a few days of its first use, and it was bad even back then. The clear-keyboard iBooks were in awful shape withink a few weeks as well.

I will say this, though: the 12.1" Powerbooks we have at school are excellent. They feel solid, they're much faster than the iBooks, and they're great to type on. The bigger Powerbooks are pretty nice too, but the 12" feels perfect. That's how all laptops should be built.

I have yet to use a Macbook.

[j-dawg @ Apr 30th 2006 8:27PM]

That was in response to #17 btw.

[Big Ed @ Apr 30th 2006 8:31PM]

Ah yes, another overpriced rehashed Dell Laptop... good times.

[Intrepid @ Apr 30th 2006 8:47PM]

@ Kris the Grumpy (#9)

You do realise that "Mac fan here...." instantly makes half the audience avert their eyes from your comments, and the other half look for obvious pc-bashing inconsistenies that they can rebut...
However, thanks for playing it nice and not bashing the pc, windows or dell. Your point is valid, why is Apple taking so long? Sony and Toshiba don't take this long to realease updated models. We got our first Core Duo Toshiba around the same time Apple released their first Core Duos. Since then their has been multiple complete model change-overs with quite significant updates.

[Kris the Grumpy @ Apr 30th 2006 8:47PM]

For #18 - The rumours are that the MacBooks (NOT the current MacBook Pros, which aren't really comparable to this unit) will use Intel GMA integrated graphics, like the Mac Mini. Hopefully though the MacBooks will more resemble this sort of machine with respect to the featured hardware (X1300 would seem likely)

[Vman @ Apr 30th 2006 9:12PM]

Nice, but Not sure of the concept of laptop gaming.

[Russell @ Apr 30th 2006 9:25PM]

As the owner of a Dell Channel Sales Partner (Reseller) Company, I'm looking forward to these new laptops from Dell. Dell's had some real shitbox laptops in the lineup lately (and for quite a while too)

The new Latitude D820 is very nice, this looks like it could be nice as well, and possibly one of the first Dell laptops that I'd own. Personally I buy IBM/Toshiba and occasionally Sony.

This competes with Sony's SX series and will be much cheaper, with comparable or better graphics. I really want to get rid of my travel 12" sony superslim from 4-5 years ago and get something that can play more than solitaire.

Any subnotebooks/compact laptops with decent video cards should be welcomed. It's generally true that when you spend the premium for a subnotebook, you get a much slower machine with crap graphics.

As long as this is built better than the current line of crappy Inspirons, I'll be happy, and maybe I'll start moving more Dell laptops without that guilty feeling of selling junk. :o

[Vman @ Apr 30th 2006 9:33PM]

I agree that with this new line forthcomming, that the new 15.4" Powerbook Pro that I presume is in the works, will have similar stats. For those that are not biased on the side of pc's and Macs, like myself, I would stick it out for the release of the newer 15.4" and ultimately 12" PowerBook Pros that can easily handle your gaming needs and still have a stable OS X a Control-Tab away. You will pay about the same since the XPS line is "premium priced" like the apple but without the OS support.

[Jake @ Apr 30th 2006 10:14PM]

Put it out under $1500, and it's a slam dunk. Over that, and it's just another overpriced subnotebook.

Dell can do it if anyone can. I'll try to wait for Apple to release an iBook replacement (whatever it may be named), but the rumored Intel integrated graphics would be a deal-killer.

[Aaron @ Apr 30th 2006 10:28PM]

I don't know about everyone else, but I am a student who needs a small(er) laptop to be able to carry around, but would also like to use vram intensive programs... so I am hoping for the new macbook... would really only use the boot camp on it... but this looks nice, assuming it will be configured as rumored. Let's just hope that this has core duo, video card, and is priced under 1500 (not that less wouldn't be better when it comes to price :P)

Second:
iBooks suck, I am sorry... but let's be honest, they are designed for k-8 education and first-time computer users.

[cookiemonster @ Apr 30th 2006 10:56PM]

http://www.notebookforums.com/showthread.php?t=149052

most awesome-o power

[q2 @ Apr 30th 2006 10:58PM]

reply to post #6:
the DVD burner is Dual Layer... there was a typo and it said "Dual Later." Hope this is helpfull

[c_taylor @ Apr 30th 2006 11:51PM]

This has to be pound for pound the most powerful core duo notebook. No other laptop, 13.3" or smaller has these features. Maybe my SZ...

[Russ @ May 1st 2006 12:05AM]

I just got a Sony SZ series laptop.
http://www.sonystyle.com/is-bin/INTERSHOP.enfinity/eCS/Store/en/-/USD/SY_BrowseCatalog-Start?CategoryName=cpu_VAIONotebookComputers_SZSeries&Dept=computers
It weighs 4 pounds, 13.3" WXGA screen, 1GB RAM, DVD-DL RW drive, has a built-in webcam, and has two video cards (one GeForce Go 7300 and Intel). Just flip the switch between "Stamina" and "Speed" modes and you're set (requires a reboot though). I hate carrying around large/heavy laptops, but want lots of power. This machine fits the bill. It will be interesting to see how the Dell compares.

[Woolly Mittens @ May 1st 2006 12:21AM]

A Nvidia 7300 is definitly *not* gamer centric. Unless you like setting every recent game, like battlefield 2, to low low low low low.

[rob @ May 1st 2006 12:33AM]

I currently have a vaio s360 and it rocks at 13.3, 4.3lbs, and ati9700/P-M1.9. I was looking into buying the new vaio sx but the quality and sexyness went down the shitter with the new release (mostly plastic vs. the old magnesium shell). If the dell has the specs listed and it's ODM by Asus, which means it's going to be hella sexy. My next laptop going to be a Dell.

About the apple notebooks... They all sucked untill apple teamed up with intel and its duo cpu. Even Jobs said it "new powermacs are 5x faster then the old crap we where selling"

note. only intel i own is my vaio, My desktop has AMD all over it

[Rhyss @ May 1st 2006 2:38AM]

As a technician for both apple and dell products, i know the complexities of them. Dells are awesome to take apart because they are designed to be easily accesible, where as an apple can take awhile. Sonys arent hard either, though they have some weird parts. Having seen their other designs, I doubt that is a final design, as its missing some of dells key designs. And for an XPS, its really not looking very smooth.

[Ian Smith @ May 1st 2006 7:05AM]

Dell... sucks. Balls. It's that simple :D

I have a MacBook Pro, and well... no problems. I had it for 2 weeks, I've needed to reinstall XP 4 times because of viruses, now OSX, 0 times. Also, you haven't used a Mac extensively unless you've been keeping up with the latest products or oh say 10-15 years like me. Macs are far superior in every way. The MacBook Pro is silent... completely silent. Not to mention my 933MHz iBook runs FASTER than my friend's 17" ALIENWARE laptop. 'kay? Also, Apple recently let me return my 15" MBPro and as of today are sending me a 17". $300 free, shows true good service from Apple.

[ryan @ May 1st 2006 8:57AM]

#40, if you've had to reinstall XP 4 times in two weeks because of viruses, you simply do not know how to use a computer. I've had my two xp machines for nearly two years now and have not gotten anything worse than tracking cookies (and I don't use an always-on antivirus app).

And as for your friend's 'ALIENWARE' laptop, it's amazing how you can tell that your ibook runs faster when it is not even running the same software. Also it's pretty awesome when you post specs for your iBook but not the alienware.

Not that macs are not nice, OSX is fantastic and mac hardware is very well-designed, but you've been brainwashed if you try to claim that everything apple is superior to everything else in every way. Macs, as well as pcs, have their flaws, not that this will stop me from picking up a macbook (or ibook, or whatever they decide on).

[Jimmy Daniels @ May 1st 2006 9:57AM]

Everywhere you go there's pc bashing, Apple this, Dell that, Windows blows, etc, etc. Can't we all just get along? The Apple's I've seen look great, but haven't got to use them much. Every Dell I've ever had, and it's a lot, have been great, I buy them at home for myself and the family, I use them at work. I have never, ever had to reinstall one unless a hard drive failed, and these includes the thousands we've had at work. So, if you've had to reinstall 4 times for viruses, then it's obvious you need to stick to Apple, maybe the Dell's are just too complicated for you. ;)

[Herman @ May 1st 2006 10:37AM]

I have to give Apple some credit for finally putting together a notebook that can actually play a game that you would want to play for more then 20 minuets, and at a decent quality. Although I give Apple and its VERY NICE looking MacBookPro props, if you are a gamer, like me, you would prefer a PC that runs good graphics. This notebook may not look the best, but im sure that for a traveling gaming freak it would be perfect. I would pick the Dell over the Apple, for gaming reasons anyway, any day.

[pete @ May 1st 2006 11:37AM]

Do yourselves a favour and check out the new Acer TravelMate 8200 series (http://global.acer.com/products/notebook/tm8200.htm). I have the 8104 model and that still rocks!

[L.M. Adams @ May 1st 2006 11:41AM]

It really doesn't matter what Dell puts out there, it will still act and perform like the usual POS that they are and once he has moved ALL his "stuff" to foreign lands, anyone who buys one will have to 'pay' the consequences..Dell couldn't care less about Customer Service, in this country or another.....

[nimro @ May 1st 2006 3:11PM]

Look at the size of that webcam! C'mon Dell, you can steal just a little of Apple's design in order to make you laptop seem less 90's-ish (referring to first pic, the second one is better).

[Ian Smith @ May 1st 2006 5:39PM]

#40...

Alienware Aurora m7700. This was around November. What program did I use? Photoshop. CS1.

Also, I know how to use a computer. I tested both OSs though in a range of activity, such as: Photoshop. Battlefield 1942. Limewire. BitTorrent. Internet browsing.

Also, interesting fact, the Windows XP user interface was designed on a mac... they can't do anything by themselves :P

Another test I did was battery life on my MBPro. It lasted 4hrs in OSX doing nothing and 2.5hrs in XP. All on max performance settings. OSX lasted longer in Photoshop as well.

[Jjessica @ May 1st 2006 8:22PM]

Did anybody else notice that there were two headphone pluggies?!?!?!

One could go as far as saying, "Wiiii!!"

[Fishd @ May 2nd 2006 8:20AM]

#42: The Acer 8204 is an awesome specc'd machine though not without it's problems. It's a lot bigger than the 1210 discussed here and mines been back to Acer twice now within a month!

Other notebook forums are crammed with users complaining of light-bleeding, screen lines, whining noises when in 3D mode and other issues.

I'm certainly going to think two or three times before buying another Acer.

[james @ May 25th 2006 6:37PM]

just got off w/dell, it's set to release may 31st