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Tomorrow I'll have had my new Vista laptop for two weeks. Time for an update. Overall I love it. It's beautiful with a gorgeous screen and it does all the things I wanted it to. It has connected to the internet easily in several places, I've recorded a TV show on it and watched some movies and played some games. I highly recommend the Dell XPS 1530. It's very sleek and lightweight and stylish.
Now for a few details. It has a super high resolution screen, 1920x1200. This is both good and bad. I think part of the issues I've had with Vista are directly related to vision issues in dealing with it. I'm not seeing what I expect to see and things aren't where I expect them to be. I'm getting better with that though. I've discovered that I have to change glasses depending on where I'm using the computer and that's helped a lot. Also since I'm not used to the touchpad I'd leave windows the default size, which is quite small at 1920x1400. In the last week or so I've been taking the time to resize windows and choose views that are easier for me to see. I've also figured out (I think) Vista's odd file structure and started getting things the way I want them. Vista seems to protect itself from the user to a far greater degree than XP, which is annoying if you're a power user. On the other hand twice I have deleted an entire folder when I thought I was just deleting a file, and I couldn't find an undo command. Had to drag the folder back where it belongs. So that's it for Vista, it's not that bad, I'm getting used to it.
The computer itself is fantastic. The keyboard is large and has a great feel. It has multimedia controls right above the keyboard. Blu-ray movies look amazing on it and for a laptop the built in speakers aren't bad. It does have an excellent sound card so when it's got speakers hooked up or headphones in it sounds great. While it is more than capable of doing intensive graphics work I prefer my desktop for that. Also my graphics tablet is not designed for widescreen so while it works with the laptop it doesn't work well.
In conclusion, if you're in the market for a windows laptop take a long look at the Dell XPS 1540. If you're afraid of Vista, I don't blame you but you will get used to it and it has some nice features.
Now for a few details. It has a super high resolution screen, 1920x1200. This is both good and bad. I think part of the issues I've had with Vista are directly related to vision issues in dealing with it. I'm not seeing what I expect to see and things aren't where I expect them to be. I'm getting better with that though. I've discovered that I have to change glasses depending on where I'm using the computer and that's helped a lot. Also since I'm not used to the touchpad I'd leave windows the default size, which is quite small at 1920x1400. In the last week or so I've been taking the time to resize windows and choose views that are easier for me to see. I've also figured out (I think) Vista's odd file structure and started getting things the way I want them. Vista seems to protect itself from the user to a far greater degree than XP, which is annoying if you're a power user. On the other hand twice I have deleted an entire folder when I thought I was just deleting a file, and I couldn't find an undo command. Had to drag the folder back where it belongs. So that's it for Vista, it's not that bad, I'm getting used to it.
The computer itself is fantastic. The keyboard is large and has a great feel. It has multimedia controls right above the keyboard. Blu-ray movies look amazing on it and for a laptop the built in speakers aren't bad. It does have an excellent sound card so when it's got speakers hooked up or headphones in it sounds great. While it is more than capable of doing intensive graphics work I prefer my desktop for that. Also my graphics tablet is not designed for widescreen so while it works with the laptop it doesn't work well.
In conclusion, if you're in the market for a windows laptop take a long look at the Dell XPS 1540. If you're afraid of Vista, I don't blame you but you will get used to it and it has some nice features.
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