After a lot of research, I recently got a Dell XPS m1210 for my girl friend. It’s a cool 12.1″ WXGA laptop with pretty much cutting edge features. It has an Intel T2300 Core Duo processor and came with 1 GiB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM and a 80 GB SATA HDD. It also has the usual embellishments like DVD RW, Intel Pro Wireless, 9 cell battery etc. All this weighs just around 2 Kg and costs around 1500 USD. So it’ll neither break your back nor will it burn a hole in your kitty 
It came with something called Dell Media Direct which is some kind of embedded DVD player and would run without an Operating System. I clean formatted the hard drive and tried to install Ubuntu 6.06 LTS “Dapper Drake” on it. But I was struck by a known bug in the Ubuntu installer which frustrated me a lot. I installed Ubuntu on it finally by avoiding the bug somehow and everything went just fine afterwards. I thought that I’d need to compile and install the Wireless drivers myself but I was pleased to see that Ubuntu included the binary firmware in its restricted modules package. So everything worked just “out of the box” It was pretty amazing to see great support for relatively new hardware in GNU/Linux. The only thing that I had to fix by hand was the display resolution. X.org could detect only 1024×768 resolution which not only looked bad, but due to the different aspect ratio things looked a bit stretched horizontally. I fixed the problem by using 915resolution to over-write the display BIOS. I added an entry for 1280×800 in an unused slot and that fixed the problem just fine.
As far as the performance of the laptop is concerned, it’s just amazing. It’s very fast considering its size and I am sure it will beat any laptop in its class. It takes only around 25 secs for Ubuntu to boot, and < 30 mins to rip a DVD. What else can I say, I can’t really complain. At last, a really portable as well as usable laptop. I am really feeling like keeping it for myself and handing over my 3 year old Toshiba to her.
Though almost everything works fine by default I guess it’d be good to have a comaptibility matrix. So here it is –
| 1. | Processor (Intel T2300 Core Duo) | Works | Needs SMP kernel |
| 2. | DVD RW Drive (Sony) | Works | - |
| 3 | SATA Hard Disk (Hitachi) | Works | - |
| 4. | Ethernet (Broadcom BCM4401-B0) | Works | Needs b44 module |
| 5. | Wireless (Intel 3945abg) | Works | Needs ipw3945 module, firmware, etc. |
| 6. | Display (Intel 950) | Works | Needs 915resolution to get high resolution |
| 7. | Sound (Intel 82801G) | Works | Needs snd-hda-intel module |
| 8. | Firewire (Ricoh) | Works | Needs ieee1394 module |
| 9. | Modem (Intel) | Haven’t tested, but should work | Most probably will work with the snd-intel8×0m module |
| 10. | Card Reader (Ricoh) | Somewhat works | Works with SD, doesn’t work with MMC |
| 11. | ACPI | Somewhat works | Suspend to RAM doesn’t work yet |
The things that don’t work at the moment will start working soon as and when newer kernels are released. The hardware is very new, so small issues can be expected. Over all, it’s a very nice laptop to buy. I haven’t faced any quirks with it and seems to be very stable. Final verdict — great buy, very good hardware and very good value for money.
Toufeeq has also written a nice review of his XPS m1210, though his configuration differs slightly with mine it’s very useful.
Hi G0SUB,
Nice review! Well, who is your GF? Introduce her!
Kartik, all in due time
Nice Machine dude , Do you know any Turon machines available in the market ???
How long did it take from start to finish?
thanks!
Michael, say about 40 minutes? I am not counting the time wasted when I didn’t know about a bug in the installer. When I came to know about it I did a clean install again and it was all done in about 40 minutes.
cool lappie ..how much $$?
Varun: INR 69K including taxes.
do those lights on the bottom for the play buttons and fast forward etc. come in only blue?
Tony: Yes, only blue
Could you be more specific about the installer bug? I currently run Ubuntu and Mepis on a thinkpad and am thinking of getting myself the M1210, how did you get Dapper Drake to install?
Baba Tunde: The bug strikes only when you try to format your /boot partition as XFS. I tried to create / and /home, both with XFS. Grub has issues with the boot partition being XFS, so instead of warning me about the problem the installer went ahead with the partitioning and installation only to crash with a traceback later.
It won’t be a problem if you don’t use XFS or you have formatted your /boot as something other than XFS.
Great,I normally use ReiserFS so I shouldnt have any problems. Would it be a problem putting up some pictures of the 1210 running at night? I understand that there are some glowing lights on it.
This one time I was using an m1210, when I got super hungry. At the time, it seemed like such a good idea to try and eat the battery. Unfortunately, I bought the 9 cell battery. Everyone said it was a good idea, but once I start something I finish it. So that mean I had to consume 9 cells of battery acid. Thanks a lot Dell
Hi,
I had my company buy one for me.
I’m running Ubuntu 6.06 too. I noticed
that when I use the standard kernel wireless works, but not with the SMP kernel.
Debian install guide: http://wiki.gacq.com/index.php/Installing_Debian_on_Dell_M1210
Slackware install guide
Cheers!
Guys: Is it true that wireless doesn’t work with SMP? Seems like a waste to throw out the dual core performance….
wireless works fine for me with the smp kernel.
i’m having issues with suspend and hibernate, but other than that all of the hardware was functional and supported.
i got the optional nvidia graphics card, which requires the beta nvidia binary drivers (for Xgl)
the NetworkManager (wifi hotspot manager) doesn’t work out of the box, ahd to roll my own with –with-wpa-supplicant=/sbin/wpa_supplicant
got the usb camera, which works with linux uvc drivers, necessary modprobe is : usbserial vendor=0×413c product=0×8114
overall, very happy.
hey i have a xps m1210 laptop and i want to upgrade from windows xp home to xp pro can some one tell me how i can do this, i have tried to do this but i keep get the blue screen message, which stops when it is going to install the operating system
I GOT THIS ONE BUT HAD PROBLEMS IT HANGED ON ME THEY REPLACED BUT THE SAME THING AS SOON AS I OPENED THE BOX.
I DONT HAVE OPTION TO WAIT FOR 30 DAYS TO CREDIT ME BACK AND AGAIN BUY ANOTHER.
SO I AM KEEPING THIS BUT THEY MADE ME HELP LESS BY NOT TO EXCHANGE THIS MODEL WITH ANYTHING THAT DOESNT HANG WHEN YOU OPEN THE BOX.
BUT TELLING YOU IT DID PISS ME OFF BUT THE LOOKS ARE AWESOME AND KEY BOARD JUST WAIT FOR YR FINGERS AND WHEN WE TYPE ITS LIKE SWEET CARESS.
I M IN LOVE WITH THIS BUT DELL POLICY IS BAD I HATED THAT.
PC IS COOL THOUGH.
I have the M1210 with the built in web cam. Has anyone had or know of any issues with the built in web cam and linux?
Hi,
Try the drivers mentioned at
http://imaging.ugent.be/mr/Suse/suse-m1210.html
You will be able to play around with the cam
Regards,
Shiv
Dude i have the same lappy and i made my friend uy one too the problem i am facing is after startup the screen just coes blank.. do u face the same problem?
Hey! I have the same laptop. I just purchased it a few days ago. I have had absolutely no problems with it and I’m in love. Working at a big electronics store I take alot of heat because of the rep dell has there, but I couldn’t be happier. Nice review! wouldn’t blame you for keeping it! My boyfriend tries to steal mine off me! haha ;D
- Rachel
I recently purchased the DELL XPS1210, with the top of the line configuration. There is a definate problem with the inbuilt camera and Mike. The logitech Drivers clash with the intel sound (Sigmatel) Drivers, and the computer just goes blank after the windows logo during bootup. Maybe newer machines with Windows Vista may behave okay, but with version 9.5 of the Logitech drivers there is a problem, unless Dell or Logitech copme up with a solution. Thers even a problem with the newer 10.3-10.5 drivers, the machines remains unstable specially with Alcohol 120 and Daemon Tools. I got a replacement of my M1210 after 7 days of frustration with the Inspiron 6400 as in India they dont have the XPS 1210 without the Camera and Mike. The machine is very good but you have to disable the camera.
Did anyone get gnome-compiz to work properly on this laptop? I tried but it freezes and the tittle bar disappears. LOL!
I also am trying to upgrade from media center to xp pro and i am getting a blue screen. Anyone know what is going on and how to get past it. I have just decided to stick with Media center for now but I don’t like it. Media center seems to have some negative effect on some of my movie ripping and burning as well