Dell's XPS M1330 now with built-in Wireless USB

We not sure when Dell's XPS M1330 learned the new Wireless USB trick, nevertheless, it's sporting that option as of this morning. The $150 add-on integrates a Wireless USB module into Dell's slick 13.3-inch laptop while netting you a short-range Belkin 4-port USB hub for all your peripherals. See, it's not just phone news today.

[Thanks, Srinivas N.]

[albi @ Feb 11th 2008 5:59AM]

yeah, there was a helmet news in between somewhere

[Mr.Tech @ Feb 11th 2008 10:38AM]

Is it me or Engadget is getting lazy on the grammars? "We not sure when Dell's XPS M1330 learned the new Wireless USB trick"

[Raheem @ Feb 11th 2008 6:45AM]

How does this work?

[outoffocuz @ Feb 11th 2008 7:08AM]

Yeah, UWB has been available on the m1330 for some time already...my month-old machine has it. I can't get it to work though...seems buggy.

[Saosin @ Feb 11th 2008 7:31AM]

This is great news for a cable free future optimist like me :)

Anyone heard any news on the Latitude E-series? I wonder when they will be released, I saw someone mention a June release date. If that's true then I think I'll buy the M1330 instead.

[Brian Goode @ Feb 11th 2008 7:40AM]

It's available on the m1530, too.

[Duarte @ Feb 11th 2008 8:04AM]

Doesn't seem to be an option in Canada.

[ScOObyDoo @ Feb 11th 2008 8:42AM]

And at just $150 I'm sure this will be a massive success.

[Kamokazi @ Feb 11th 2008 8:46AM]

It comes with the hub too, and if you check out Belkin's MSRP, it's a bargain:

http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Product_Id=377793

But I ordered one of these for one of our company execs a little over a month ago and this was an option then.

[Marko @ Feb 11th 2008 8:49AM]

yeah this has been an option for a pretty long time. atleast since december.

[burnblue @ Feb 11th 2008 6:50PM]

I bought my m1330 in December, I don't remember seeing that option

[Mike Fletcher @ Feb 11th 2008 9:35AM]

Does the option add a miniPCI card to the laptop for the functionality? Because I have a E1505 thats about 1.5 years old now, and I would love to be able to add Wireless USB to it. Anyone know if its possible? Or do they make express cards for this, cause I have an express card slot, but I would want it to be flush with the laptop.

Thanks

[Phil Ringsmuth @ Feb 11th 2008 9:36AM]

But if an Apple laptop suddenly had the option for wireless USB, Engadget would know about it within the hour and it would already be the top story on digg...

*sigh*

[CB17 @ Feb 11th 2008 11:32AM]

That's because Apple NEVER releases anything except for a few times a year, thereby making it easier to follow and much more noticeable. Unlike Dell which apparently just randomly decided to add this to the computer's customization list without any announcement.

[Scott @ Feb 11th 2008 9:45AM]

WUSB has been available for the m1330 since November at least, though it seemed to be taken down as an option around the time the Product (RED) versions came out (and I guess is back again now). Didn't think something this old would ever show up at Engadget, but I guess not everyone notices right away.

Anyway, WUSB works by linking up with a hub that you plug in to power and place a few feet away. You can then add USB products to the hub and voila, they show up as being added to your computer. The range really sucks and I wasn't able to get the hub to work with my My Book (even though it was able to power the hard drive, it never showed up on my computer), but it worked fine with card readers, USB keys, mice, and other small peripherals.

[Scott @ Feb 11th 2008 9:45AM]

A little bit unfair, but also sadly kind of true...

[H4MM3R @ Feb 11th 2008 9:55AM]

Nice! However I am waiting for a blu-ray drive and the 8800m GTX.

[Srini @ Feb 11th 2008 12:57PM]

yeah me too but i am not very sure about 8800m gtx

[Ralph @ Feb 11th 2008 10:04AM]

Some of us didn't know it wasn't around. I've been pricing the M1330 about once a month since October and never saw it as an option. It's Engadget to the rescue!

[Eran Scheflan @ Feb 11th 2008 10:24AM]

It's been on their system for a while. I just returned my 1330 it wasn't as powerful as I thought it would be. The WUSB has such a short range it's silly.
not worth it. By the way when are they going to listen to the people and give us some real portable power houses. And after playing with Vista Ultimate for a while as always here's an operating system that needs 2 years for all the PC's to catch up. I might go MAC this time around...

[adrian @ Feb 11th 2008 11:55AM]

I don't get it. Please someone explain.... I have the Belkin Hub (Since last August). Why if you have that would you want a Wireless USB? The Belkin HUB is Wireless, and you wirelessly connect to it and therefore your USB connected devices.

Why am I being thick ?

[PsychoPingu @ Feb 11th 2008 8:38AM]

Presumably this builds the PC-end of the connection into the PC itself rather than having a dongle or similar sticking out of the back of your system all the time.

[Ghen @ Feb 11th 2008 8:57AM]

its a competitor for bluetooth and high frequency RF devices. The hubs are just for legacy USB and/or a power source.

[Ryan @ Feb 11th 2008 4:27PM]

I'm buying an XPS m1330 this week (not with wireless USB)... anybody who own one of these machines have any comments / suggestions / important info on it?? Thanks.

[WUSBtheFuture! @ Feb 11th 2008 6:14PM]

It is better to get WUSB integrated with your laptop (in general) than external Dongle and Hub set.

The integrated one will have have a WUSB radio connected to the motherboard on a PCI Express card. This way the connection will be lot faster than the dongle which has the USB connection and protocol as bottleneck. Apparently the USB dongle device cannot act as host and issue transactions, resulting in low throughput. Especially significant if you are planning to use high bandwidth devices connected to the wireless hub.

Not to mention cost difference (in this case 150 vs 200) and the inconvenience of a big dongle sticking from your laptop and mobility.

However, the actual radio performance might vary for each design depending on how the antenna is incorporated into the laptop.

Keep an eye open for WUSB docking stations which will let you connect to other peripherals like monitors and not just USB devices. Toshiba already has one available, it works well. This is another reason to get the integrated WUSB module in your laptop.

[Boris @ Feb 11th 2008 7:42PM]

"We not sure..." and you're slamming Nokia's CEO for having bad grammar and speaking English as a second language?

Try: We're not sure...

[Jorvay @ Feb 11th 2008 11:23AM]

Don't even get me started on the complete lack of consideration in most Engadget posts for differentiaion between is/was/'s and are/were/'re. Drives me nuts to see something so unprofessional from an otherwise very nicely done tech blog.

[thethirdmoose @ Feb 11th 2008 6:14PM]

We love you long time!

[thethirdmoose @ Feb 11th 2008 6:14PM]

We love you long time!

[thethirdmoose @ Feb 11th 2008 6:14PM]

We love you long time!

[RogueSpear @ Feb 11th 2008 8:10PM]

I have an M1530 with the WUSB option and have a few things to add here. First of all it's almost completely useless. The range is in the ballpark of three to four feet providing there isn't anything in between the laptop and the hub. The speed I've been seeing is roughly half that of USB v1.1. So the only really application I could ever find would be very low bandwidth devices which Bluetooth does far better. I have a Bluetooth keyboard, mouse, headset, GPS, and cell phone. All of them function perfectly with the built-in Dell 355 Bluetooth 2.0 mini card. So what does that leave? Well perhaps a printer I suppose, though if you have an all in one deal, the scanning function would have to be very slow. You may as well forget about doing any sort of file transfers over WUSB not just because it's slow, but if something somehow interrupts the connection you stand a very good chance of totally corrupting your thumb drive (which I did).

Here's another beef I have, but it's more with Dell. The drivers claim to be Vista only. The driver install routine will halt and tell you so much. I noticed that the driver routine decompresses a standard .MSI file to your temp directory. So I snagged that file, entered msiexec with a /a option from the command line to extract all of the files, and inspected the driver's .INF file. Well what do you know.. the driver actually appears to be made specifically for Windows XP, not Vista. Go to Device Manage, right click on the borked device with the yellow exclamation, select Update Driver, point to the .INF file and you have a perfectly functioning device (even if it's half baked technology). Just make sure to copy the .EXE files which you'll need to manage the device itself.

Why exactly someone went out of their way to artificially limit the driver install routine to Vista only is beyond me.

[Warll @ Feb 11th 2008 11:12PM]

So does this mean I'll be able to get a built-in external HDD any time soon?