How would you change Dell's XPS m1330?

Believe it or not, Dell's sexy XPS m1330 ultraportable was unveiled to us way back in June of this year, which may not be all that notable if the Round Rock powerhouse would've had these things out to eager customers in a timely fashion. As it stands, one of Dell's most highly anticipated laptops (dare we say, ever?) spent the majority of its time in a cycle of perpetual delays. Once thought to be ready as early as July 10th, the wee machine was spotted exclusively from the sidelines by eager customers for months on end, and while most fanboys (and girls) easily swallowed the first setback, the subsequent holdups garnered more and more objections. Even after Dell finally got its act (and paint guns) together, the XPS m1330 had its image tainted further by arriving to one user's home only partially built.

Currently, it seems that the ruckus surrounding the shiny PC has finally calmed, and most customers who've placed their orders in the not-too-distant past are receiving them sans an unbearable wait. But for the folks who were sold from the word go, you've earned the right to be extra critical of the oft-delayed lappie. As respectable as the specifications (and for that matter, the design) on the XPS m1330 are, we just have to believe that it has managed to lose some luster after being so late to its own party. After all these months, now's your chance to explain how you would change things. Would you have simply axed the reportedly troublesome Pearl White hue from the start? How about adding a high-definition optical drive? Or is your only desire to beat down Michael Dell's door and demand a Jobsian refund for the trouble? The floor is yours.

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 30th 2007 10:03PM]

Bluetooth - you can order it when you order it but if you forget to order it and want to add later on, you have to dig through ton of sites to figure out what card and drivers you need for bluetooth.

IRDA Infrared - should be included.

Screen resolution - 1200x800 not enough, high quality graphics so why not more pixels

Keyboard - is the only crappy part of this laptop

DVD-Drive - could be blueray option. But I disagree with everybody who says the drive is too loud. Either you go too often to library, then better copy your CDs to drive, will save battery and cool down laptop anyway - or - you got rabbit ears.

USB ports - at least 3. There is space left on the left.

Express card - Why they put it in front on the right side??? Every Express card that needs a cable will stick out of there and bother when you use external mouse. The port should be on the left side and in the back.

Graphics card - Could be with 256 or 512 MB not just 128. At least give an option to upgrade.

Touchpad - buttons could be bigger.

Volume keys - somehow I would prefer do it the old way - FN +arrow up and down.

Audio in/out - cool but only for headphones. If you use external speakers with audio jack you will have to stand the fact the audio cable with stick out from the front all the time. (unless you use USB audio docking station)

Hard-drive LED - why it is on the front bottom. I'd prefer it is in the eye sight, front panel, so it is visible to see the hard drive activity.

Overall, however, this laptop rocks!!!