A few questions about Dell and the laptop market...

humbert

Well they're not particularly related so I'll just spit them out.

The first is about the warranty. There's "Premium Warranty Support" and there's "Accidental Damage Support", is it necessary to get both? Does the standard warranty cover you if for example the hard drive crashes? If some fault occurred with the computer that was clearly not due to accidental damage would you be uncovered by the "Accidental Damage Support"?

The second is a bit technical. I'm thinking of buying a M1330, I like the size but a top resolution of 1280x800 aint great. What happens if you try and play a very HD movie on that screen, is it scaled down and if so where? The graphics card or the processor? If you use a HDMI output could you display video on a higher resolution monitor? what is the limiting factor in this case(the graphics card I presume)?

The third is about the laptop market. Are there sites where you can read about what features the next generation of laptops will have and what sort of time frame is involved. I know there's no point in looking at what's next when buying a laptop because there'll always be something but it would seem remiss to me not to do some research.

Thanks for any input.

IamBeowulf

I can answer the second question. I can tell you that 1280 x 800 is an excellent resolution for that screen size. Remeber, alot of 42inch and 50inch lcds still hold a 1366 x 768 res and still look good-ish. 13 inch? GRAND.

As for downscaling, that's handled by the graphics card. But what would you be playing? 720p and 1080p would be indistinguishable on that screen size even if they offered higher res. Most online vids are 720p and less demanding on resources too, which ensures smoother frame-rate.

Also bear in mind that some 1080 files actually have a lower bitrate than 720 files (I'm talking downloads here), meaning that they can often suffer pixellation, artifacting etc (as these 1080s are usually compresed to conserve space, whereas 720s don't take up as much room anyway)

Dartz

If you think the screen size of the 1330 is too small, buy a 1530 instead. Seriously, they'll cost about the same, and you'll get a bigger screen. There's not much in the weight difference, and I can tell you from experience that carrying a 1530 around all day is no problem.

It doesn't matter where the image is scaled down. Usually it is handled by the graphics card though..

Finally... extended warranty schemes are a pain...and an expensive one. If your laptop doesn't fail within the first few weeks, it'll likely last for a very long time, provided you don't drop it anyway.

Any failures within the first year will be automatically covered by Dells XPS support team, for the base purchase price.

If you really want support though, just pay for the XPS support extension... it's okay.

humbert

I guess that's true, I have a 17" widescreen at 1900x1280 and I guess I've gotten used to the massive screen. I was more concerned with how it would deal with very high res movies. I'm planning on going with a 4 year accidental damage warranty so I expect in that time with blueray and such like full HD will become common enough.

On that point, should I be concerned with a blueray drive. The M1530 has the option but I really like having a very portable laptop and I'm in no great hurry to buy as some saving time will be required.

Just on the point about it not failing if it doesn't within the frist few weeks. My current laptop is getting the boot because the screen has developed lines, the same happened to a friends. I think if I want 4 years out of it I'm going to need a warranty!

Dartz

Most devices will either fail within the first few weeks.... or not at all. At least not until the hardware finally goes too far beyond it's design life and gives up the ghost. It's an actually quality control principal. Failure rate of devices drops right off for a long period of time, then shoots up again

BD drive won't make your laptop any bigger... though it is expensive. Go for it if you want. I didn't. I have a PS3 for that sort of thing.

Darwin

Check your home insurance policy - you might be covered for accidental damage under that instead, or perhaps you can get it for some small additional outlay.