There are two kinds of Dell rumors: sure things, and ones that aren't sure things. This one falls in the latter camp, so proceed with caution. We've got a tipster who says a friend of his from Dell handed him this shot of what is purportedly a new XPS M1330 / M1530 design. As you can see, pretty much the same old fare... but what's this? A large glossy touchpad? Here's our hunch: Dell is tired of drawing inspiration from Apple after the fact, and decided to turn the tables by capitalizing on one of the most persistent (and outlandish) Apple rumors in existence. A good capacitive touchscreen for the trackpad on a laptop would undoubtedly be a blast if it was done right, with the right software support, and at least seems like a good gimmick. Or maybe it'd just be lame. We won't go further than that, this could just as easily be a Photoshop, but we will be keeping an eye out.

Update: False alarm, turns out this is just a still from an NVIDIA Tegra demo on YouTube. Thanks, shiv, for pointing this out in comments. Boo, tipster, boo.

It's not as momentous as the new enterprise-focused Precisions and Latitudes, but Dell's got a tiny little treat for consumers today as well: an available $450 Samsung SSD for the XPS M1330 and M1530. Sure, the benefits are debatable, but c'mon -- you know you want it.

[Thanks, Justin R.]

Ugh, it's springtime again. So in addition to the pools of human secretions warming into an olfactory howdy-do on city sidewalks, we get these, the pink laptops. The pink XPS M1530 and M1330 now official. Check the late-nite Dell Infomercial after the break; Ron Popeil Productions must be so proud.

[Thanks, Matus]

Dell is busting out a "Flamingo Pink" version of its much-loved XPS M1530 laptop, but unfortunately for any prospective buyers there aren't any pictures of the thing yet. We're sure it's magical. Just like Midnight Blue, pink will cost you $25 extra.

[Thanks, Brett]

Update: Somebody apparently from Dell said this picture of the laptop was making its way around the office. We can't imagine why.

Got a hundred bucks to burn? Lucky you, 'cause that Benjamin will now take the stock 15.4-inch 1,440 x 900 display of Dell's XPS M1530 and squeeze in a full 1,920 x 1,200 pixel resolution. Toss in the optional $500 Blu-ray Disc drive and you've got yourself a sweet portable HD rig pumping Intel's Penryn at the core. Another $50 and you've added a presumably brighter, LED backlit display but you're now back to the original 1,440 x 900 resolution. Oh decisions, decisions.

[Thanks, Jonaid]

Sweet heavens, Dell hasn't forgotten that there's a 15-incher in between the Penryn-stocked M1330 and M1730! As we suspected it would, Dell really, truly went ahead and added options for a Core 2 Duo T8300, T9300 and T9500 to its XPS M1530 in short order after a mysterious message popped up hinting at as much on Friday. The 2.4GHz, 2.5GHz and 2.6GHz chips come at an upgrade cost of $75, $200 and $475 (respectively) and can actually be ordered right now. No, celebrating wildly in your cubicle wouldn't be overreacting.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

It looks like Dell didn't exactly learn from its past misadventures with electricity, as it now seems that a number of users (including some of the staff at Crave UK) have reported similar shocking behavior from some of the company's most recent laptops. Those problems, not surprisingly, are confined to models with a brushed-aluminum finish, including the XPS M1530 and XPS M1330, which also just so happen to have been shipped with a non-grounded two-prong connection between mains lead and the power adapter instead of a less shock-prone three-prong one. For its part, Dell finally seems to be on top of the problem and, according to users that have spoken with the company's support, they're now sending out replacement power supplies and cables.

We weren't exactly thrilled when Dell launched the 15.4-inch XPS m1530 with a lackluster 1280 x 800 display, but it looks like the cries of anguish from Dell fans across the tubes have been heard in Round Rock -- the company just announced on its Direct2Dell blog that m1530 buyers will now have two additional high-res display options. Bumping up to 1440 x 900 will cost $50, while a 1680 x 1050 WSXGA+ screen will tack on $150 to the m1530's base price. That's definitely better, but we're still wondering why 1440 x 900 isn't standard to begin with.

Thar she blows! Dell's mysterious XPS M1530 is up live and dancing on Dell's Singapore site. With any luck, she'll be struttin' that 15.4-inch, 1440 x 900 CCFL (not LED-backlit) display, HDMI-out and optional slot-loading Blu-ray Disc and 64GB SSD Stateside by morning. This XPS powerhouse packs up to a 2.6GHz Core 2 Duo T7800 processor, 256MB of NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT graphics, 4GB DDR2 memory, and either a 7200RPM 200GB or 5400RPM 320GB SATA disk. Rounding things out are 802.11n WiFi (with built-in WiFi catcher), Bluetooth 2.0, 2 megapixel webcam, and optional HSDPA or EVDO cards. It's even sporting a panel of touch-sensitive, capacitive controls for your media. Thing is, that rumored 4-pound weight is 5.78-pounds in reality -- more if you opt for the 9-cell battery. Still, that weight was always a bit too good to be true for a fully-spec'd, 15-inch laptop.

Update: Ooops, the Singapore site is down (gone?). No worries, the site is up in Germany, France, and the UK.

Update 2: Dell's US site is now hot. Prices start at $999 for the "good" configuration on up to $1,499 for "best." Oh my, and the display has been rolled back to just 1,280 x 800. Why so stingy with the pixels Dell?

[Thanks, Stuart]

It's been awhile since we've heard a peep from Dell's unannounced (though very real) XPS M1530. The followup to the hotly received XPS M1330 makes its first appearance on Dell's website (as a footnote to a Mini PCI Express WiFi card) and in the form of marketing collateral purportedly sent to the kids at DarkVision Hardware. Fortunately, everything jibes with what we've already told you: 15.4-inch LCD with 2 megapixel camera, NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS graphics, and 4(ish)-pound weight depending on battery and configuration. What's new is a base configuration price of €849 (about $1,257) as listed in Belgium (exclusive shipping or VAT) -- likely listed for less in the US. No availability date but it can't be long now.

Update: Scanned brochure image after the break.

[Thanks, Frederik]

Read -- XPS M1530 reference
Read -- DarkVision Hardware