Product Reviews

In last month's What's New, we reviewed Dell's XPS M1730 gaming laptop. This month, it's the turn of the M1530. Luckily, it's not as ugly as its larger brother. With the lid closed, it's as sleek as 15.4in laptops get. There's a choice of blue and black lid colours. Our test model had a midnight-blue lid, which changed from purple to blue depending on the viewing angle.

We've no complaints with the rest of the laptop's design. The slot-loading DVD writer is classy, and the rounded screen hinges are reassuringly sturdy. It's a latch-less design, snapping shut like some Sony Vaios.

Open the lid and you're greeted by a large stainless steel palm rest, a good-sized touch pad and a generously proportioned keyboard, which is up to Dell's usual excellent standard. Button clutter is kept to a minimum thanks to a row of touch-sensitive playback and volume controls at the top.

Next to the power button is the MediaDirect button. This boots the M1530 into a cut-down Windows environment and lets you listen to music,

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watch DVDs and videos, and access your contacts' details from Outlook. Another neat addition is the WiFi catcher button next to the wireless power switch. When the laptop is off, it lights up if it detects wireless networks and, if the laptop is on, it will display a list of networks.

Other useful extras are the battery status LED indicators, a mini-remote control that's stored in the ExpressCard slot, a secondary headphone output and a pair of decent Creative noise-isolating earphones. A 2-megapixel webcam is paired with a pair of microphones to eliminate echoes, and a fingerprint reader makes it quick to enter passwords. There's even a good-quality slip case along with a helpful manual in a mock-leather organiser.

VGA and HDMI outputs are welcome, too, should you want to connect to an external monitor. The 1,280x800 widescreen LCD is great quality, but highly reflective. We'd have liked it to be a little brighter to overcome reflections, but this is a minor complaint.

Performance from the Core 2 Duo T7250 was good and the 160GB hard disk is large enough for most people. We were expecting faster frame rates from the GeForce Go 8600M GT graphics, though. Call of Duty 2 ran at 16fps and this only increased to 25fps when we turned off anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering. If you drop the resolution or quality settings, most games should be playable.

Some M1530 owners in the US claim the stainless steel top gives static shocks. All UK models ship with an earthed power supply, and during testing we experienced no shocks. Overall, the M1530 is a great laptop, and it's also good value.