Dell Studio XPS 1340 Review

The Dell Studio XPS 1340 is quite the mash up of power, portability, aesthetics, and features. This 1340” laptop is packed with a current generation Intel P8600 processor, NVIDIA hybrid SLI graphics, “edge-to-edge” slim LED screen, and finally a Dell keyboard finally worthy of being typed on. Summary in a sentence? All around power in a medium to small package that’s almost (literally) too hot to handle.

The Dell Studio XPS X1340 battery boasts a unique look, with its rounded hinges supporting the display and angled shape. The tapered chassis measures (with the lid closed) a rather thick 1.6 inches along the back edge and narrows to 1.2 inches in front. A silver stripe cuts across the lid, separating the piano-black cover from a strip of faux leather. The leather-like strip provides a comfortable grip when toting the laptop around, and, depending on your taste, it either enhances or detracts from the overall design.

Like the Toshiba Satellite E105, the X1340 features a backlit keyboard, which is incredibly useful in low-light situations. It's one of those features, like the two-finger scroll on MacBooks, that once you have it, you find it hard to live without. The keys themselves are quiet, flat, and roomy. The touch pad is smaller than average, running only 2.5 inches wide by 1.5 inches tall. The mouse buttons are quiet and feature an illuminated stripe when the keyboard backlighting is enabled. A row of touch-sensitive media controls sits above the keyboard, along with buttons for turning the Wi-Fi antenna off and on, and ejecting a disc from the slot-loading DVD burne.



Specs:

The specifications of the model reviewed are as follows:
Intel Core 2 Duo P8600 (3MB cache/2.4GHz/1066Mhz FSB)
nVidia GeForce MCP79MX chipset (9400M G graphics)
4 GB DDR3 SDRAM 1066MHz (2 DIMMs)
Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit
6 Cell Primary Battery
Dell Wireless 1515 802.11a/g/n WLAN half Mini Card
13.3 inch HD WXGA Edge-to-Edge Laptop screen with 2.0 Megapixel Camera
320 GB Free Fall Sensor Hard Drive (7200 RPM)
Obsidian Black with Leather Accent
8X DVD +/- RW w/dbl layer write capability

XPS houses an Intel Core 2 duo P8600 processor which you don’t find in most of the competition. P8600 brings about a major performance boost to the machine by providing a faster FSB and a larger CPU cache. It provides 1066Mhz Front Side Bus instead of 800Mhz found on most of the other laptops.(Note: A slow FSB will cause the CPU to spend significant amounts of time waiting for data to arrive from system memory) .The processor has a 3MB Cache which is larger than the 2MB cache found on most systems.(Note:Cache memory access is faster than the system memory.)

The XPS has Nvidia 9500M graphics card with hybrid SLI technology. The Nvidia GeForce 9500M is not a single graphics card, but two: an integrated GeForce 9400M G plus a GeForce 9200M GS with 256 MB of dedicated memory. Basically you can turn the dedicated graphics off if you want to save power and turn it on later for better performance. The hardware allows you to play most of the newer games with moderate to low settings.

Under the hood of the Studio XPS 1340 battery are the latest Intel Core 2 Duo processors, ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3670 graphics (with 512MB of video memory), and your choice of three hard drives (500GB at 5,400 rpm, 320GB at 7,200 rpm, or a 128GB SSD). Other highlights include HDMI and DisplayPort connectors, eSATA connectivity, and premium speakers with a built-in subwoofer, complete with 5.1 Dolby Digital output.

The Studio XPS 1340 looks like a good Windows alternative to the MacBook, at least on paper. In fact, this 4.9-pounder features the same Nvidia GeForce 9400M integrated graphics as Apple’s premium 13-incher, although discrete Nvidia GeForce 9500M graphics is available as an option. If you go this route Dell says you’ll be able to toggle the graphics cards on the fly—good for when you need to save battery power or get a little power boost.

In all-too-familiar fashion, Dell's new Studio XPS laptops have snuck onto the company's store with nary a press release to keep them company. The 1340 is obviously the Studio XPS 13 we saw last month, while the 1640 is naturally the 16-inch version of the leather accented system. Both machines are (oddly) hitting at the same $1,199 pricepoint, with Core 2 Duo processors and the typical smorgasbord of options. The base model of the 1340 includes a P8400 processor, Vista Home Premium, a 13.3-inch WXGA LCD, 2 megapixel webcam, 4GB of DDR3 SDRAM, 320GB 7200rpm SATA drive, slot-loading DVD burner and NVIDIA GeForce 9400M G graphics, while the 1640 is similar, but with ATI Mobility RADEON M86XT graphics.

The newly designed Studio XPS 1340 and 1640 include the latest Intel Core 2 Duo processors, up to 500GB of hard drive storage or a 128GB solid state drive, and a slot-load optical drive with Blu-ray option in the larger model. The 1340 comes with 4GB of DDR3 memory, the NVIDIA GeForce 9400M G or 9500M 256MB graphics and a screen resolution of 1280×800 pixels, while the 1640 includes up to 8GB of DDR3 RAM, the new ATI Mobility Radeon M86XT (HD 3670) 512MB GPU, and a 1366×768 display.

An email to Michael Dell yielded a better response. After some bullshit haggling they finally agreed to build me a brand new battery for Dell Studio XPS 1340 replacement laptop. Not a refurb, but a NEW one. Awesome. The laptop is here a few weeks later, and I’m typing this post on it.

Not all is well in replacement-land, however. The media buttons still “freeze up” and become useless. The laptop runs a bit cooler, but you still can’t use it on your lap if you hope to reproduce someday. Even worse is that to a certain extent, I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop. I know it’s only a matter of time before the other problems set right back in again… the overheating, the freezing, and the gallons of frustration. The anticipation of failure is perhaps the most unique thing about this laptop. I just can’t trust it to be there for me. Betrayal of trust is the #1 sin that laptop manufacturers need to avoid if they hope to retain their customers. Though it hasn’t happened 100% yet, I know it’s coming. Until then, I know one thing is for sure… The Dell Studio XPS 1340 sucks balls.

Overall the Dell Studio XPS 1340 is an okay laptop, and I still use it today, but with an external monitor, having the laptop closed for better airflow. It has has very good performance when playing video games and doing image processing, and web browsing just keep an eye on the computers temperature.