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Dell XPS M1710 Notebook

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CIOL Bureau
Updated On
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Vinod Unny, Enterprise InfoTech

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Notebooks have always been considered inferior in power to desktops. The reason being that notebooks, due to their limitations with respect to size, space, weight and availability of components, could never really compete with the plethora of options that desktops could have especially in the high-end market of gaming and blazing performance machines. However, Dell now brings to you one of the most powerful notebooks on the planet that not only give most desktop a run for their money but beat many of them hollow as well. The Dell XPS M1710 is such a notebook with specs most desktops may not have.

The M1710 is primarily meant to be a gaming notebook. Therefore, all the components within this are aimed at providing an ultimate gaming and multimedia experience. However, make no bones about it-it's a fabulous notebook for doing work on anything ranging from software development, graphics and multi media, virtualization and more.

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As with all other Dell machines you can configure the components according to your choice. The notebook I purchased had top-end components like an Intel Core 2 Duo T7600 (running at 2.33 GHz, and a 4MB L2 cache), a 17” wide screen display capable of a resolution of 1920x1200 pixels and 2GB of dual channel RAM. The notebook also boasts of the highest end graphics processor for notebooks available-the nVidia 7950 GTX with a whopping 512 MB of dedicated video RAM! Other nice features include 7200 RPM hard disks, a gigabit Ethernet card, a 2.1 HD speakers, a dual layer DVD writer and wireless. To top everything off, there are six USB ports, BlueTooth 2.0, S-Video out, FireWire, 5-in-1 card reader and an

Express Card slot for attaching additional accessories. The only other additional accessory that I did not choose to install is an option of a Blue-Ray DVD reader and writer. This is also available as an option if you wish to include it.

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As can be expected with a heavy configuration like this, the notebook is fairly heavy in other aspects as well-in weight (around 2.5 kg) and in price

(approx. $3,500). The power adapter also adds a bit more to the weight since it looks and feels like a brick. So if you're a business executive who uses a notebook for presentations and spreadsheets, this is really not something that you'd want to lug around daily. But if you're someone who needs to demo stuff on multiple virtual machines develop software, view/edit multimedia content or just chill out in the evenings by blasting off aliens to bloody bits while traveling, this is a great buy.

The M1710 is also a great looker apart from the guts of the machine. The notebook comes in two-standard black and Ferrari like premium red. The red one makes it stand apart from the crowd.

Not only that, the notebook also has a bunch of LEDs spread over. There are pairs of LEDs in the processor and GPU fans on the sides, a pair of LEDs in the user facing speakers, and LEDs that display the word “XPS” in the touchpad as well as next to the red LCD cover of the notebook. These LEDs can be controlled using the provided software that allows you to turn them individually on or off or even choose from a variety of colors for each of them. You can even link the LEDs to Windows Media Player, WinAmp or iTunes so that they blink according to the music being played. Gamers can also get the benefit of more vivid explosions by linking the LEDs with supported games. Although on a day to day usage, I prefer to keep all the LEDs, other than the ones on the cover, turned off since it looks a bit too garish. But the choice of aesthetics is totally up to you.

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With the included 9-cell battery, the notebook lasts about 3 hours under normal load and about 2 hours when using it for heavy performance like

multimedia or gaming. The keyboard is large with ample space for resting your hands and so is the touchpad. The screen, as mentioned before, is great for doing work as well as watching movies or playing games in a 16:10 wide screen format at extremely high resolutions. However, you might want to lower the resolution or increase the font size (or DPI) of the screen in case you have eyesight problems as the fonts do become very small at this size.

Overall, this is a killer notebook. If you're into gaming, multimedia or work that requires heavy performance and need something that you can take with you, this is a great notebook to have.

Although there is no other notebook that comes close to what this offers in features or performance, the price and weight might be a put off for

most people.

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Dell XPS M1710 Notebook

$3,500 approx
Performance publive-image publive-image publive-image publive-image publive-image
Coolness publive-image publive-image publive-image publive-image publive-image
Pros

Trendy, performance, feature customization, multimedia and gaming powerhouse

Cons

Very heavy, extremely expensive, not yet available in India (and may never be)

Verdict  publive-image

Sold by

Dell Computer

Specs

Intel Core 2 Duo T7600 (2.33 GHz/4MB L2), 17” WUXGA with Red cover, 2GB DDR2 667 MHz, 512 MB, nVidia GeForce Go 7950 GTX, 80GB 7200 RPM disk, Stereo speakers with sub, BlueTooth 2.0, 6 USB, 5-in-1 card reader, Express Card slot, Firewire, S-Video,DVI, VGA out, 8X DVD+/-RW, Wifi, 9-Cell Li-Ion battery

Source: Living Digital