We seem to have a contract with Dell at work, so I've been given several Dell laptops for my use. To be honest I liked the Fujitsu Siemens I had before much better than the last three Dells I was given, but I gave my last one back when I went on maternity leave. having gone back to work part-time now, I have been issued with a new one. And it's this: the Dell XPS M1330.

It has a 13.3in display and only measures a slender 318 x 238 x 33.8mm (WxDxH) with a weight of 2kg . Dell claim that this is the thinnest notebook in its class, but iti s wedge shaped so the thinness is not uniform on the laptop - i.e. iti is thicker in one place than it is in another - at its thinnest it is 22.1mm though - so that really is thin.
The outside of the laptop has a Microsatin finish which looks great and will help protect against scratches more effectively than a gloss finish would. It comes in black or red; I've got the red one and I really like it - it just looks different. The coloured trim is framed by strips of silver either side, and it has the XPS lettering and the Dell logo in set on it, also in silver. The inside looks more ordinary, but it looks different in a good way - it doesn't look gimmicky or plasticky in my opinion.

There are plenty of nice gadgety bits, like the optical drive which you just push the disk into - it doesn't have a tray (i.e. it's slot loading), the touch sensitive media keys and the ExpressCard bay which takes the media remote. .The display itself is a 1,280 x 800 resolution LED backlit panel. It is so great - much better screen than any other lap top I've used. Checking with the IT department I am told that this screen is not standard - Dell do a standard panel that's cheaper, but the LED backlit version is really bright and easy to use, and I whole-heartedly recommend it. The colours are great and it's really sharp. A glossy high contrast coating helps with the sharpness and it doesn't throw back too much light at you, so you don't get glare.

In terms of network connectivity, 10/100 Ethernet is standard and you can get Draft-N Wi-Fi is available as an extra on most models, but I haven't got it. The ethernet thingy does the job just fine though . I do have embedded HSDPA, and Bluetooth and it really helpfully came with some pretty nifty Bluetooth headphones. I'm not sure if they come with all models though.

The fan is not too noisy during normal use, while the keyboard layout is truly excellent making typing easy and pleasurable.The touch pad is well placed so you don't have to stretch over it to type.

Though this is a small notebook, it would have been nice to have at least three USB ports considering the number of devices one tends to have these days.