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Dell updates high-end XPS M1530

Dell updates high-end XPS M1530

Dan Ackerman Editorial Director / Computers and Gaming
Dan Ackerman leads CNET's coverage of computers and gaming hardware. A New York native and former radio DJ, he's also a regular TV talking head and the author of "The Tetris Effect" (Hachette/PublicAffairs), a non-fiction gaming and business history book that has earned rave reviews from the New York Times, Fortune, LA Review of Books, and many other publications. "Upends the standard Silicon Valley, Steve Jobs/Mark Zuckerberg technology-creation myth... the story shines." -- The New York Times
Expertise I've been testing and reviewing computer and gaming hardware for over 20 years, covering every console launch since the Dreamcast and every MacBook...ever. Credentials
  • Author of the award-winning, NY Times-reviewed nonfiction book The Tetris Effect; Longtime consumer technology expert for CBS Mornings
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Dan Ackerman

Even though Dell released this 15-inch entry in the high-end XPS line a little more than a month ago (to capitalize on holiday sales, no doubt), the XPS M1530 is still one of Dell's big pushes at CES. It's a move that makes perfect sense, as Dell basically took one of our favorite laptops of last year, the slim, snazzy 13-inch XPS M1330, and built a new 15-inch laptop around it.

The XPS M1530 isn't nearly as revolutionary as the earlier model (which had an LED-backlit screen and was less than an inch thick), but it's still the best-looking 15-inch laptop we've seen in a long time, and reasonably configurable, starting at just $999 with high-end touches such as a slot-loading DVD drive, touch-sensitive media buttons, and an HDMI-output jack.

Upgrades to the original late-2007 version (see our review here) are already under way, with a higher resolution 1,680x1,050 screen now available. No signs of it yet, but we'd love to see the slim XPS profile rolled out to Dell's 17-inch laptop--the current version, the XPS M1730, is as thick as a small-town phone book.