XPS M1330: A Sign of Things to Come

Several of you have already seen the stories in Engadget, but now I can share all the details of our XPS M1330. As many of you know, I’ve been here at Dell for a long time. Having seen my share of products (and product launches), it’s been a long time since I’ve seen the kind of internal excitement we’re seeing so far with the XPS M1330. Typically, I’m a desktop guy, and I definitely want one of these.

What’s the reason for the excitement? The thin and light design. It’s less than an inch thick and packs a lot of performance inside. It’s based on Intel’s Santa Rosa chipset and is our first notebook that features an optional 13.3-inch WXGA (1280×800) LED backlight display, which is notable for two reasons:

  • it’s brighter than a typical LCD display
  • it allows for an even thinner profile compared to its LCD counterpart

The XPS M1330 comes in three finishes: Tuxedo Black, Crimson Red and Pearl White. And these aren’t your average paint jobs—the Pearl White color, for example, is made up of seven layers of paint. Other nice touches: touch-sensitive media buttons across the top, an integrated remote that fits in the ExpressCard slot, a full-size keyboard, aluminum palmrests, a standard webcam (2.0 megapixel with the LCD display, VGA resolution with the thinner LED display) dual digital microphones and noise isolation earbuds, an optional biometric reader, dual headphone jacks and an 8-in-1 card reader right in the front of the notebook.

In this vlog, I talked to Vio Luminosu, the lead industrial desginer for the product. Before the M1330, he was the lead designer on our XPS 2010. Many of the design elements he’s proud of first appeared in the XPS M2010 and have made it into the M1330. One thing that the new notebook brings with it is a lower price of entry—the XPS M1330 starts at $1,299.


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About the Author: Lionel Menchaca