Dell XPS M1710 - Review

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Inspired by McLaren-Mercedes?

The basis for the XPS notebook is similar to the Inspirion, but you instantly notice that the XPS is a special machine, comparable to ASUS' Lamborghini VX1 and Acer's Ferrari notebooks. The casing is a stylish silver, the backpanel of the screen a dark black and with the red accents it resembles a McLaren Mercedes Formula 1. If you do not like this combination, the looks of the XPS M1710 can be easily changed by pressing a few buttons. The red LED's that are responsible for the looks can change color, in the bios these can be changed to a total of 16 different colors. It is even possible to have the tiny lights on different parts of the notebook all show a different color. The back panel of the screen, near the processor fan, the speakers and even the glide pad are illuminated. Having all the LED's light up a different color is quite a spectacular effect.

In spite of the M1710 being a 17 inch notebook, Dell decided to place a standard sized notebook keyboard. A num pad is missing, something you do find on other 17 inch notebooks and is usefull when playing games. A bit of a shame, as the XPS M1710 is obviously designed for this purpose with the fast graphics card. The nVidia GeForce Go 7900GTX is one of the fastest mobile graphics cards on the market, reaching a very respectable 4740 points in 3DMark 2006. To use an external monitor the notebook has a DVI connection as well as a standard VGA connection.

All the appetising specifications mentioned above make us love to work with this notebook, but the most impressive has to be the ultrasharp 17 inch screen with a glare coating. The resolution of this panel is a monstruous 1900x1200, and if you are considering a 17 inch Dell notebook, this screen is the one to get. The standard 17 inch screen on the Inspirion 9400 is similar, but the viewing angle is slighltly lower, which makes the extra money spent on a ultrasharp screen more than worthwile.