Oh, how the times change! In August of last year we were talking up a 128GB SSD drive for Dell's XPS laptops like it was some kind of hotness -- and only $450! Now that same drive is a mere $200 upgrade, while a new 256GB SSD has been introduced to Dell's XPS M1330 and M1730 laptops for "only" $400. Sure, six months from now we're gonna be chatting up a slightly cheaper 512GB SSD and laughing at our January selves, but we just can't help ourselves and this pesky linear of progression of time we're so beholden to. Dell's also now offering a 7200RPM 500GB HDD as well, and plans to introduce both of these upgrades to additional laptops in the next few weeks.

Read - Dell XPS M1330
Read - Dell XPS M1730

There are two kinds of Dell rumors: sure things, and ones that aren't sure things. This one falls in the latter camp, so proceed with caution. We've got a tipster who says a friend of his from Dell handed him this shot of what is purportedly a new XPS M1330 / M1530 design. As you can see, pretty much the same old fare... but what's this? A large glossy touchpad? Here's our hunch: Dell is tired of drawing inspiration from Apple after the fact, and decided to turn the tables by capitalizing on one of the most persistent (and outlandish) Apple rumors in existence. A good capacitive touchscreen for the trackpad on a laptop would undoubtedly be a blast if it was done right, with the right software support, and at least seems like a good gimmick. Or maybe it'd just be lame. We won't go further than that, this could just as easily be a Photoshop, but we will be keeping an eye out.

Update: False alarm, turns out this is just a still from an NVIDIA Tegra demo on YouTube. Thanks, shiv, for pointing this out in comments. Boo, tipster, boo.

It's not as momentous as the new enterprise-focused Precisions and Latitudes, but Dell's got a tiny little treat for consumers today as well: an available $450 Samsung SSD for the XPS M1330 and M1530. Sure, the benefits are debatable, but c'mon -- you know you want it.

[Thanks, Justin R.]

Ugh, it's springtime again. So in addition to the pools of human secretions warming into an olfactory howdy-do on city sidewalks, we get these, the pink laptops. The pink XPS M1530 and M1330 now official. Check the late-nite Dell Infomercial after the break; Ron Popeil Productions must be so proud.

[Thanks, Matus]

We not sure when Dell's XPS M1330 learned the new Wireless USB trick, nevertheless, it's sporting that option as of this morning. The $150 add-on integrates a Wireless USB module into Dell's slick 13.3-inch laptop while netting you a short-range Belkin 4-port USB hub for all your peripherals. See, it's not just phone news today.

[Thanks, Srinivas N.]

The last Dells we saw with a slot-loading Blu-ray drive were the XPS One and monster XPS M2010, but it looks like Round Rock's taking it mainstream soon -- the latest BIOS update for the popular XPS M1330 lists support for an unspecified "Blu-ray / DVD +/- RW Combo Drive." No word on when we'll see these actually for order, but if you were in the market for an M1330, you might consider holding off until these become available.

[Thanks, Rupert]

Everything's free in America, for a small fee in America! Or something like that. Don't mind us. Dell is shipping its XPS M1330 laptop with a DVD-playing version of Ubuntu 7.10 pre-installed in the States now, exactly as promised. Everybody else got this about a week ago, but we're not bitter: the $954 US starting price sure beats the 799 Euros those suckers over there have to drop.

[Thanks, Nigel]

We knew Dell and Microsoft would be giving some of their gear the Bono treatment this week, but the two companies and the AIDS-in-Africa relief project unveiled their partnership in style today at Davos. Just like we'd heard, the XPS m1530, m1330, and XPS One machines are all going crimson, as well as the 948 AIO printer. Microsoft's kicking in a special (PRODUCT) RED-themed edition of Vista Ultimate to keep things special on the OS tip, and obviously you'll feel better about things with donations of $50 - $80 of each machine's purchase price going to RED, and $5 on the printer (hey, those margins are low enough as it is). All the new stuff should be available by the end of the week in the States, and by January 31 in 30 additional countries -- or right now for your viewing pleasure in the gallery.

Whoa Dell, what's this? An exclusive, XPS M1330 in Germany sporting an Ubuntu 7.10 pre-load with full DVD and webcam support? Where's the Stateside love, yo?

Update: Dell tells us it's also available in the UK, France, and Spain. Headed to the US in "a week or so."

[Thanks, Roland K. and Andrew M.]

For those of you potential XPS M1330 customers out there whose orders have yet to be fulfilled or who are still within your 30 day Dell grace period, take heed. We've just gotten a booty load of information on the successor to the tainted throne, the XPS M1530. Featuring:

• 15.40-inch display (CCFL up to 1680 x 1050, LED up to 1440 x 900)
• Core 2 Duo options from 1.5GHz (T5250) up to 2.6GHz (T7800)
• Crestline GM/PM 965 chipset with up to 4GB of 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM
• GeForce 8400M or 8600M GS options (up to 256MB)
• Slot-loading Blu-ray / 8x DVD±RW
• Options for 802.11a/b/g/n, WWAN, Bluetooth
• HDMI, VGA, 1394, ExpressCard, (3) USB 2.0, Ethernet, fingerprint reader, media reader
• 2.0 megapixel (with CCFL) or 300k (with LED) cameras
• Weight supposedly 4 pounds to start (which is pretty light, we're assuming that's sans battery)
  

It's slated for November 7th release for release before the holidays, but we can never make guarantees for any company to hit it's ship date, ok?

One rumor ends, and another one begins: now that the M1730 (pictured) is all out in the wild, rumors abound of a mid-range 15-inch M1530 to fit between the M1330 and its bigger brother. The evidence? An error message on a Creative webcam, and a potentially mistyped AC adapter listing on a cheap battery retailer's site. Not very compelling, but we've seen reality borne out of less. Also on the radar is an A2010, probably to replace the M2010, that 20-inch behemoth of a gaming laptop. Keep your eyes peeled.

Believe it or not, Dell's sexy XPS m1330 ultraportable was unveiled to us way back in June of this year, which may not be all that notable if the Round Rock powerhouse would've had these things out to eager customers in a timely fashion. As it stands, one of Dell's most highly anticipated laptops (dare we say, ever?) spent the majority of its time in a cycle of perpetual delays. Once thought to be ready as early as July 10th, the wee machine was spotted exclusively from the sidelines by eager customers for months on end, and while most fanboys (and girls) easily swallowed the first setback, the subsequent holdups garnered more and more objections. Even after Dell finally got its act (and paint guns) together, the XPS m1330 had its image tainted further by arriving to one user's home only partially built.

Currently, it seems that the ruckus surrounding the shiny PC has finally calmed, and most customers who've placed their orders in the not-too-distant past are receiving them sans an unbearable wait. But for the folks who were sold from the word go, you've earned the right to be extra critical of the oft-delayed lappie. As respectable as the specifications (and for that matter, the design) on the XPS m1330 are, we just have to believe that it has managed to lose some luster after being so late to its own party. After all these months, now's your chance to explain how you would change things. Would you have simply axed the reportedly troublesome Pearl White hue from the start? How about adding a high-definition optical drive? Or is your only desire to beat down Michael Dell's door and demand a Jobsian refund for the trouble? The floor is yours.

We're not sure who or what is putting these XPS M1330 laptops together for Dell, but not only are they having a horrible time of it even getting the laptops out the door, but this particular man's shipment was just a little lacking in the quality department when it arrived two weeks ahead of the estimated ship date. The $2k+ laptop looked fine at first glance, but when Pradeep popped it open and hit the power button, it immediately booted to a blank, white, flickering screen. After 10 minutes, nothing had changed, no Dell logo, Vista boot screen or anything -- not only had Dell forgotten an OS, they didn't even manage to squeeze in a system BIOS before they shipped this one. That wasn't all that Dell screwed up on this M1330, the power button is defective, the Microsoft seal underneath the machine is partially ripped and burned, there's a problem with a grill cover protruding, and the WiFi radio switch is so loose it almost falls off when pushed back and forth. Sure, this is just one guy's experience with one M1330, and his mom got a similar computer -- after a much longer shipment wait -- that worked just fine, but we're still thinking Dell might try and shore up quality control just a little bit before somebody manages to get something shoddier than this out the door. Dell's giving Pradeep a new laptop, labeled "priority" in the build queue, and offered him a $50 gift certificate for his trouble.

Update: After spotting this article, Dell contacted us for help getting a hold of Pradeep, and is currently helping expedite his new system. Pradeep did say his replacement was already "priority" before this article went up, but we're sure the PR people are going to speed things up considerably for him. Of course, this is just one person's experience, and we hope Dell will show the same courtesy to everyone involved in the M1330 fiasco -- or better yet, start shipping these things intact and on time!

Update 2: Dell hit us up, apparently after doing some diags on Pradeep's machine, they claim to have discovered that while the M1330 in question did have Windows installed on its drive, just so happens that whomever assembled the system didn't connect the LCD's LVDS to the motherboard. Not that that's much better or anything. Anyway, it seems like all's well that ends well for Pradeep, but we aren't sure we can say the same for the rest of Dell's M1330 customers.

For those of you who've recently placed a Dell laptop order only to find yourself high and dry on shipment, rest assured you're not alone -- not by a long shot. Of course, there have been problems with shipment on the XPS M1330 for some time -- problems so severe that a thread on NotebookReview's forum concerning delays for the laptop has had over 9,000 replies to date (a record for the site), but apparently that's not the only system affected. It would seem that customers who've placed orders for the Inspiron 1420, 1520, and 1720 are also feeling the burn of Dell's little stop-up. Some of the disgruntled purchasers have even gone to the trouble of breaking down Inspiron delays based on lid color, which, for the 1520 (for instance) runs the gamut from no delays for a black lid, to a whopping 11-day delay if you want to go red, green, or pink. This phenomena has even led to buyers forgoing their desired color choices just to get a laptop in a timely fashion. With the continued slowdown in production and increasing heat from the competition, Dell and its customers may find that this minor bump in the road is turning into a major headache.

[Thanks, Paul]

There's good news this morning for those of you stuck in the Dell XPS M1330 build queue. After weeks of delay, Dell has finally kicked it into large-scale production and expect M1330 systems to ship in all regions "beginning this week." Unfortunately, this update comes a tad late for those of you who felt jerked around by Dell's uninformed customer service reps. For the rest, your 13.3-inch LED-backlit fix should be on the way.