Dell XPS M140 user reviews

Pros Easy to use, compact, widescreen, excellent Dell support.

Cons Shared memory on board memory. Gets pretty warm in your lap. Heavier than I thought it would be but not to bad.

Summary I have had my new Dell XPS M140 for about a week and I love it! I use this for everything from web browsing to recording TV and creating web sites. I am not a big gamer so the graphics card has not been an issue. If you are a serious gamer or graphics editor I could see the on board shared memory video being a concern. One thing I have disliked is the lack of software that came from Dell. Everything is a "trial version". The ergonomics are set up nicely and the keyboard feels better than any Dell notebook I have ever owned. If you own any Bluetooth devices I would highly recommend the Bluetooth upgrade. I love being able to sit on the couch at night and being able to sync my cell or surf the web with my wireless Bluetooth mouse. The display is crystal clear and bright. I don't agree with cnet's opinion of the speakers. I think they sound great but then again I am not an audio specialist. The XPS M140 is very stylish and wont disappoint. I highly recommend this notebook for anyone looking for a compact, stylish, easy to use, all around, performance notebook. Dell you have done it again!

Pros Battery Life, Size and Weight, Special XPS only support, PRICE!!!

Cons Integrated intel graphics with shared memory.

Summary The first thing you have to remember about this laptop, is that it is in the 'Thin and light' category (barely, weighing in at 5.9 lbs). This means that battery life and portability are a major factor in the design of this laptop. Having a GeForce or Radeon chipset graphics in a laptop puts alot of demand on a battery and can reduce its up-time by several hours. The M140, with its integrated graphics boasts a battery life of up to 6 hours!

Now, the integrated Intel Media Accelerator 900 graphics that comes with the M140 is actually a new chipset designed by Intel. for the first time this integrated chipset supports Transform and lighting, and Pixel Shader 2.0... two very important specs when it comes to modern gaming.

I've played Halflife 2, Battlefield 2, and Eve Online without ANY problems. Eve online, runs perfectly at the highest settings (but native resolution of 1280x800). HL2 and BF2 need a few very minor adjustments to run perfectly smooth, but nothing detrimental or even that noticeable. A framerate hiccup here and there... thats all!

I attribute this performance to the new Integrated Intel 915GM graphics chip (Media accelerator 900). It borrows up to 128 mb from your system memory, but this is DDR2 memory, found on most high-end video cards, and if you order the pc with 1 gb ram, you wont even miss it.

Remember, this is not a "gaming" pc. If that is what you're looking for, look at the XPS M170... quite possibly the best gaming laptop available. Now, the battery life on the M170 is worse, the thing is gigantic and heavy as a bag of bricks. It also costs an arm and a leg. The M140 is a lightweight, inexpensive media center laptop that can handle just about anything, and do a decent job at it. Mediocre gaming capability. If you keep that in mind, the M140 will not dissappoint.

Pros Great picture(true life 14.1), decent processor, light weight, MCE (recommend the remote)

Cons unable to upgrade graphics card, (intel integrated graphics)

Summary It took Dell 1 month to get it to me, but I feel it was worth it. Mine came with 1 dead pixel 3 rows up from the very bottom, so you can't really see it unless you're looking for it. It's really quiet. I think the best part is the remote. You have to order it extra for $20 or so, but once you plug it in to media center, it becomes a new component to your home theater. If you have a lot of music and movies on it, you just plug it into your tv and sit down with the remote. You don't have to touch the keyboard or mouse again. I had hoped that I could close the laptop and still get video on my tv, but it cuts it off... I'm still trying to figure that one out.
Originally, I thought I would play games on it, but with a 3dmark '01 score of 5,000 I changed my mind . I have a gaming PC anyway though so it didn't make that big of a difference to me.

Pros sturdy-enough case, very quiet, option of 7,200 rpm hard disk

Cons integrated video, optical drive seems flimsy, no windows/system restore cd included

Summary My laptop had to fit a lot of criteria, and finding the right fit was not easy. I don't think this is the perfect laptop, but for me it was the best package I could find. I needed a laptop that was less than $1,300 and truly portable that didn't compromise much on performance. It's tasks would be mostly school-related, but it also needed to be fast enough for at least some casual gaming. Well this is what I got for my $1,150: 1.86GHz Pentium M, 60GB 7,200 rpm hard disk, 1GB, wireless card, dvd-r/cd-rw. Well to start the performance of the system is great; I think the 7,200 rpm is really pulling it's weight. I certainly never get those little hiccups when surfing or navigating windows. I was anxious about the system's gaming performance after reading the reviews about the integrated graphics card, but after playing a few days of Civilization IV (a 3D, albeit not too demanding of a game) I can say this - the 1GB of memory seems to be enough to share with the integrated card and have plenty enough left to spare for other operations; the game never ran at spectacular frame rate, but it performed well enough for my casual gaming interests. Some other features - The Windows Media Center edition probably adds to the system's value, though I never plan on using them myself. All I can say is that the Media interface ran smoothly. As I said earlier, the optical drive struck me as a tad flimsy, but maybe my last laptop was just better in this area (Inspiron 8200). I am yet to burn anything with it, but the few DVDs I've played ran fine. This may seem kind of minor, but I really appreciate the on-screen volume and brightness meter, and the fast and sturdy volume buttons under the touch pad. They keyboard is similar to the 8200's, and probably most of Dell's. It feels well-made, and is relatively quiet. I opted to stick with the 6 cell battery, because for the extra weight I'd just assume carry the adapter. The battery life is not as long as I had hoped. I know most people rated the battery with the 9 cell, but even knowing that I am somewhat disappointed with the 2.5 hours or so that I get. My choice of the 7,200 rpm hard disk probably contributes to this. Still, I would choose the 6 volt and the 7,200, because the increase in speed and the weight issue are more important to me than unplugged time. So for $1,280 (taxes, s/h) I'd say I got my money's worth – a considerably fast laptop around 5.5 lbs with generally well-built devices.