Dell’s XPS range has been synonymous with high-performance gaming computers. However, once it acquired gaming manufacturer Alienware, a subtle shift in branding saw some less focused multimedia-based machines being pushed out under the XPS banner.

The XPS M1330 follows in the footsteps of the dell XPS M1210 battery, a 12.1in machine that was one of the first of the PC giant's ultra-portables to cram in a dedicated graphics chip. Although it could double the performance of its nearest rivals, it was also double the thickness, in order to keep hat GPU cool.

After researching for a few weeks, I had decided on the Dell inspiron 1420 battery or the XPS M1330. Obviously, the Dell M1330 was the most appealing of the two. It's currently billed as the lightest and thinnest laptop on the market. But the 1420 seemed a little less expensive, until I started trying to upgrade and match it to the XPS. By that point, it was just a few hundred dollars less, at most.

After scouring ebay for a week, I found what I felt would be my best deal on the XPS M1330. Dual Core Intel processor running at 1.8 Ghz, 160 gig hard drive, 2 gig 667 memory, and most importantly, that 4mb of L2 cache that Dell is having a hard time keeping in stock. Additionally, it came with a web cam (I have no use for it, but OK!) and an additional case. All told, $1930 and the BIN price was $1380. Barely a week old too!

The Dell XPS M1330 battery is an ultraportable performance laptop that's part of the XPS line of notebooks which focus on power and features. The 13.3" screen is LED backlit based which allows for a slimmer profile. Similar to other laptops in this price range, the M1330 is built on Intel's Santa Rosa platform which includes the Core 2 Duo processor, integrated B/G/N wireless, and Bluetooth. A separate video card, the nVidia GeForce 8400M GS, is available as a configuration option as an upgrade over the standard integrated graphics.

With the addition of the 2.5-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T9300 45-nanometer processor (codenamed Penryn), Dell has made an already excellent performer even better. The M1330 scored 3,061 on PCMark Vantage, booted Windows Vista Home Premium in a quick 37 seconds, and completed our iTunes encoding hands-on trial in 4 minutes flat—all excellent.

Equipped with a 128MB Nvidia GeForce 8400 graphics processor, the M1330 has the chops to deliver playable 3D frame rates. Granted, you won’t be gaming at the highest resolution or detail levels, but we saw 63 fps on F.E.A.R. at 800 x 600 and an excellent (for this class) 6,166 on 3DMark03.

The M1330 also has 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.0, and available EV-DO Rev. A or HSDPA wireless broadband. And its Wi-Fi throughput was top-notch, streaming an average 18.1 Mbps at 15 feet and 16.6 Mbps at 50 feet.

You also get a generous 160GB hard drive, a fingerprint reader, and a 2.0-MP webcam that includes image-enhancement controls, pan and zoom, face tracking, and special effects (a VGA webcam upgrade costs $150 more). Other perks include 10GB of free online storage for one year; the free DellConnect service, which enables technicians to resolve many common problems remotely; 15 months of antivirus protection from McAfee, Norton, or Trend Micro; and even Adobe Photoshop and Premiere Elements software. Dell backs the XPS M1330 battery with a one-year, next-business-day, in-home service warranty on parts and labor.

Our prerelease review unit had a decent set of specs, but we'll have to wait until Dell's online configuration utility is live to see exactly what your options are. We do know the high-end 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7700 processor is available--our review unit featured a 2.0GHz T7300--as well as your choice of Intel's integrated 3100 graphics or Nvidia's GeForce Go 8400. A non-LED backlit display is also an option, but as it adds weight and thickness; we'd avoid it. Solid-state hard drives and Blu-ray optical drives are promised in the near future, but exact dates for those features making their way to the M1330's configurator aren't known.

Compared with other recent 13-inch laptops, the Dell XPS M1330 performed as expected, closely matching the performance of the similarly configured Apple MacBook, and easily beating the Fujitsu's 13-inch AMD-based LifeBook S2210, thanks to the strength of Intel's Core 2 Duo processors and Centrino Duo platform hp compaq business notebook 6715b battery. Hardware has evolved to the point where laptop performance comes only into play if a system is somehow working slower than it should be and as we'd expect for any recent Core 2 Duo laptop, the XPS M1330 is a speedy performer, even when running multiple apps such as iTunes, Word, and IE at the same time.

The Nvidia GeForce Go 8400 isn't the fastest laptop GPU out there, but it's at the upper end of what you can find outside of 17-inch desktop replacement systems. We got a very playable 33.3 frames per second in Quake 4 at 1,024x768, even with high-end options such as antialiasing turned on, meaning the XPS M1330 has decent gaming chops, as long as your expectations are reasonable.