The latest addition to Dell’s XPS range of performance systems, the M1210, is also the smallest bringing some much needed mobility to the range as anyone struggling to carry an XPS M1710 around will testify to. The M1210 line has recently gone through a refresh to allow Core 2 Duo processor options.

Although it may be smallish in stature it still manages to weigh 2.3kg but this is including the extended nine cell battery, if you keep with the standard cell battery the weight is reduced to around 2kg and as the smaller battery fits inside the chassis, the depth reduces to 221mm.

As with all Dell systems, you can configure almost everything before you buy. Our review sample came with an Intel Core 2 Duo T7200 clocked at 2.0GHz backed by 1GB of PC2-533 DDR2 memory which gives the M1210 excellent performance, proved by a SYSmark score of 239, a score only bettered by a few desktop replacement notebooks.

The 12.1in WXGA screen has a native resolution of 1,280 x 800 and our review sample had the optional 1.3-megapixel camera built into the top of the screen (if you don’t want this you can save yourself £71).

As standard the M1210 has an Nvidia Geforce Go 7400 Turbocache card or if you want to lose all games playing capability you can opt for the integrated Intel solution and save £235.

With the 7400 the M1210 produces a frame rate score in Far Cry of 43.07fps when tested at 1,024 x 768, much better performance than most if not all ultraportables. This is with all detail settings set at maximum; dropping these down will give a faster gaming experience.

For storage there is a 120GB hard drive and a built in DVD-RW drive so you can back up data or off load files easily enough to keep the hard drive spick and span.

The M1210 may be the smallest system in the XPS range but it keeps up the family tradition of performance and features.

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