Macbook Air and Dell XPS M1530 for Free

You can get both the Macbook Air and Dell XPS M1530 here.

You can buy both the Macbook Air and XPS M1530 if you have a lot of money to spare.

Macbook Air most useful review:

46 of 50 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Fastest Computer I've Ever Used, November 29, 2008
By     Douglas R. McDonald "Doug" (Yokosuka, Japan) - (REAL NAME)
***MacBook Air works with World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King***

OK first of all, I put the above there because most people are concerned about MBA's power; also, lots of people (myself NOT included) play WoW, so I thought it'd be a good benchmark for the Air. Gamers, take note that the Air now has the NVIDIA 9400M graphics card, which plays WoW beautifully.

I was floored to find that my mom's new MacBook Air was, in fact, faster than my own ostensibly speedier iMac! It rarely lags behind my workflow - despite MBA's comparably slow processor and small amount of RAM, it actually handled my demands with distinction.

The SSD made a huge difference, IMO. I know this w/o using an HDD MBA because, like I said earlier, MBA is quicker at opening applications and navigating the OS than my "big daddy" iMac is. I have found myself longing to work instead on Mom's MacBook Air whenever I get a "spinning beach ball" wait sign on my iMac.

The weight of MBA is definitely a plus. The computer can be easily supported by one hand while the other navigates/types - try doing that with any other 13"+ laptop and you'll see the difference.

Battery life is exemplary. I can easily make the Air last six hours, albeit with intermittent breaks during which it Sleeps and I do something else, like check email on my white iPhone 3G or I talk to somebody. Waking the Air from sleep takes less than three seconds, if you didn't set it to require a password on wake. As Apple has advertised, yes, the screen is at full brightness after waking the computer.

Wi-Fi reception is awesome. Apple placed the antenna behind the screen so it's always in the best location to get a signal. The Air has 802.11n built in, plus Bluetooth.

The ports aren't really much of an issue. All I ever really do with the Air is the occasional thumb drive usage; software is installed via Remote Disk on my iMac. You can even wirelessly copy files to/from the Air and your PC or Mac.

Optical drive. Yes. The almighty Air boon. I'm glad Apple got rid of the drive! Just click the link below this paragraph to see just how much space inside the notebook that the optical drive wastes. If you disagree, I have the following to say to you: in today's day and age, where we have like 4GB thumb drives for less than $50, do you really need a 700MB CD or a 5GB DVD anymore? Buying/renting iTunes movies is either cheaper or comparably priced to DVD movies. Almost all new albums are released on iTunes. Most email clients allow attachments of up to 20MB (if yours doesn't do this for free, you seriously need to switch providers - GMail and MobileMe both support 20MB attachments, but I don't know about the other clients). The list that will condemn disks to the same fate as floppy drives goes on and on and on…
http://static1.ifixit.com/igi/qFsHP2uMXoMCagVy.large
The huge silver thing on the left is the optical drive. As you can see, it is a huge space waster. One could fit an entire other hard drive into that space.

The screen is the best I've ever seen. Simply stunning. It's bright, crisp, and the colors are vivid and accurate.

The keyboard is exemplary, but it collects fingerprints easily. A daily wipe-down fixes this.

The touchpad is excellent in comparison with the Windows laptops' ones I've used, however, MBA does NOT have the new glass trackpad, which I am in love with. (Seriously, you have to try the new trackpad. It's utter bliss…)

Voice recognition is fun! You can make the computer tell you jokes, tell you the time, tell you what day it is, control itself with only verbal commands, etc.

Overall, just get the MBA if you're getting a Mac laptop. The only exceptions are if you're too budget constrained (get a MacBook) or if you process video (MacBook Pro). In all other instances, MacBook Air!!!

Most useful Dellj XPS M1530 review:
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Dell XPS M1530, May 7, 2009
By     J. R. Malone (NJ) - (REAL NAME)
I have owned my XPS for 1 year now. Overall I am very satisfied. This is my 4th Dell laptop and the build is the best of all, particularly the hinge on the screen. After a year it is as stiff as it was out of the box. I use this laptop for my business and I am usually on it 7-10 hours per day. The screen is bright and the media player controls are convenient.

The only problems I have had are on the touch pad and video card. I do not use a mouse, only the touch pad. Fortunately I purchased the 3 year In-Home warranty because I have already had the touchpad replaced twice and the mother board replaced once. I seem to wear out the left enter key below the touchpad but the entire board has to be replaced. I also lost my WSVGA capability due to a known NVidia 8600GT card problem. Since it is integrated into the motherboard, again the entire board had to be replaced. However, Dell did not hesitate to replace any of the components and sent a technician to my home within 24 hours. This may sound serious but it was repaired quickly and easily and my overall satisfaction with the laptop outweighs any inconvenience.