Dell XPS M170
Notebook Review

Looking for a notebook to tote around? The Dell XPS M170 is certainly of the best notebooks and you should consider if it's your cup of tea. This Dell XPS M170 notebook review will look at this device, which has just the right balance of computing power and features to suit the novice and advanced user. If you have any movies and games that you wish to view, the Dell XPS M170 will do the job - and do it with aplomb.

The Dell XPS M170 notebook

 

Design and Construction

Let's start of this Dell XPS M170 notebook review with a look at the unit's design and construction. The Dell XPS M170 comes in an elegant, simple design that can be carried easily. Dell has invested the effort in ensuring that the notebook's lid has six grills that are illuminated with LEDs. Interestingly, these lights can customized with up to 16 colors. The XPS M170 weights about 8.6 pounds and has a 17-inch LCD display.
 

CPU and Memory

The CPU used in the Dell XPS M170 is an Intel Pentium M 2.13 GHz. The built-in memory is 1 GB of DDR2 SDRAM. With these powerful specs, running the provided Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition becomes a simple task.
 

Graphics

One of the nicest things about the Dell XPS M170 is it's monitor. With a screen size of 17-inch, you get a maximum resolution of up to 1600 to 1200 (rare in notebooks). Couple that with a NVIDIA Ge Force Go 6800 card (256 MB video memory, PCI Express) and we have whopping graphics horsepower. If you play movies or play games, you'll find a marked increase in video quality over other conventional notebooks.
 

Data Storage

As part of this Dell XPS M170 notebook review, we look at the unit's data storage capabilities. Guess how much hard drive space comes with the XPS M170? Well, lo and behold ... you get 100 GB of storage - again, a rarity in conventional notebooks.


Other Components

There many peripherals attached to the Dell XPS M170. This review looks some of those devices, which include a keyboard, touchpad and wireless network card. The touchpad is very sensitive and responsive, while the network card affords you wireless Ethernet access at speeds of about 10 Mbps.
 

Shortcomings

What about the disadvantages of the Dell XPS M170? This review looks at the most important one - the price. If you do some research, you will realize that many consumers out there complain about the price of the XPS M170 - and rightfully so. Perhaps if the price comes down a little, this would indeed be the perfect machine.
 

Conclusion

I hope you've enjoyed this Dell XPS M170 review. This notebook is indeed the ultimate gaming laptop and it easily meets all of your road warrior requirements. If price is not an issue, then the Dell XPS M170 is one of the best notebooks money can buy.