l Very good

l 7.9 out of 10

The good: Thin, strong performance; backlit-LED display; included media remote control.

The bad: Small touchpad; some options (SSD hard drives, Blu-ray) not available yet; not as many color options as Dell's new Inspiron line.

The bottom line: Dell has finally put design first with the head-turning XPS M1330 laptop, emphasizing both the "thin" and "light" aspects of the thin-and-light category without sacrificing features or performance.

Specs: Intel Core 2 Duo (2 GHz), 2 GB DDR II SDRAM, 4 lbs, 13.3 in TFT active matrix, Microsoft Windows Vista, Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium