Dell Inspiron XPS M1710 > Reviews > A year on...

Author's product rating:   

Speed	Very fast
Look & Feel	Good
Comfort & Portability	Satisfactory
Robustness & Durability	Good
Value For Money	Satisfactory

Advantages:	It's a fast and powerful gaming laptop
Disadvantages:	It is HEAVY and very expensive !

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Okay, I've owned mine for nearly a year. So, has it lost it's shine?

Not in my book! My last laptop was an entry level and struggled with any sort of game. I looked around for something a little more substantial and noticed the XPS. It was just about to be released and I like new toys. The best bit about buying from Dell is the fact you can customise just about everything. I upgraded the processor speed (2 x 2.16Ghz in a laptop!) and got a gig of RAM. It came as standard with 100Gb hard drive and a nVidia GeForce Go 7900GS video card.

My only gripe was that it comes preloaded with loads of trial software, but that's easily removed. I actually used the McAfee 90 day trial suite. Hey, three months free? Nice.

Onto performance, this is a monster of a machine. The screen is huge and yes, the pretty side lights do add to the cool factor. The screen resolution is 1920 x 1200, so will play most games at their highest settings. Games that I've heard need high end desktop power play no problem.

The dual core means it multi-tasks well. Playing games while doing a virus scan and downloading all at the same time is not an issue.

Also, as it's an XPS, you get dedicated phone support with proper games advice, not that I've ever needed to use it. Nice to know it's there, though.

So, a year on, I'd still recommend this machine. Yes, it's heavy and does run warmer than most laptops and is expensive, but it does everything I need it to do apart from make tea.