[NEWS] Studio XPS 15 and XPS 17 !!

No, I meant lower.

That's a decent hack, but distorts how things are displayed-in particular it's bad if you're doing design work, at least from my experience.

 

I feel the same way. I've scaled the OS in OSX, and that works great, but Windows from 98-Windows 7 does a very poor job. All the UI elements don't change size evenly, the text just changes sizes and makes the rest of the UI distort.

 

Just a quick question about optimus and I7. Am I right in saying that this technology is only relevant if you are using battery power only. If plugged into mains is optimus crucial? If yes I may have to change my order to I5.

Thanks

 

What's the best way of raising it- by permanently changing text size or by zooming in when you want to read text etc (using ctrl +)?

 

I'm still waiting on more reviews/personal anecdotes before pulling the trigger. Really just waiting to make sure this isn't plagued by the cursed i-core CPU whine.

 

Aside from slightly lower power draw under some circumstances, there's no benefit. I don't want it as there's a potential performance hit/more driver complexity/weirdness.

Probably Depends on the person, the programs used, and the resolution involved. I just zoom in in my office suite and Firefox.

 

Hi gabswiss,

How did you get the laptop for less than $700? I qualify for the EPP and I want to take advantage of this discount too. I'd be very thankful if you kindly advise me on what to do get such a huge discount. What are the specs of your XPS 15?

Thank you so much!

Kajouma

 

Windows DPI... it's in Display Settings. You can choose Custom and pick a particular DPI setting. This feature works better in Vista/7 than Win XP, but it still works in XP.

 

Primarily, I want to use but an XPS 15 for website design and HD video editing (nothing serious just home movies) with the occasional old game like Counter Strike to play. Will my spec be more than adequate for this?

Intel® Core™ i7 Processor 740QM (1.73 Ghz, 6MB, 4C)
4096MB 1333MHz Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM [2x2048]
2GB NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 435M Graphics Card
640GB (7,200rpm) Serial ATA Hard Drive
8x DVD+/-RW Optical Drive
Intel® Centrino® Wireless-N 1000 (EUR)
9-cell 90Whr Lithium Ion battery
TvTuner Not Included
15.6 High Definition WLED TL (1366x768) 720p

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

 

Yep, that will serve you well. May want to consider the 1080p screen upgrade if you plan to do any HD editing at that resolution. You'll definitely have enough horsepower.

 

Im curious regarding the GPU in 14" vs 15". In Australia we dont have the option of i5 and all the laptops are i7.

The 14" has the 425 and the 15.6" has the 435.

Will there be a significant difference?

Im thinking of getting the 14" as it will be used for DJing and I suppose the portability will be more useful than the lost screen size.

 

Personally I think the 15.6" with the 1080p screen is the way to go, for video editing its a big bonus, and even for DJing it means you can fit way more on your screen, have your EQ, playlist and music library all opan at once!

Anyway if your going to lug around 14" what's the extra for all that screen realestate! I doubt you'll ever want anything but a 1080p screen after trying it!

 

Hope the degrees are in Fahrenheit not in Cecilius
Heat is a major factor, Dell must work on it.

 

Celsius would result in a hundred lawsuits... that's not even funny.

That would be around mid 30Cs, which is < body temp.

 

how are people not more bothered by how clunky this laptop is? as i said earlier, the xps 17 weighs MORE than my near 6 year old 17" laptop and it's like twice as thick as a MBP..

 

Because I would rather a cooler running, non throttling clunky laptop!
Components seem to be getting hotter and you need a decent cooling system to remove it. The 17" MBP only has a 330m and dual core, it would never cope with a 435m/445m and quad

 

According to this review the GT 445M in the XPS 17 scores a really nice 10940 in 3DMark06 on stock clocks. I guess that if we OC it a little we can get up to 12500-13000, and that´s really nice.

http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/review/notebooks/dell/xps_17_1710x/365577

If we add the quadcore on top of that we got ourselves a pretty neat gaming laptop for under 1000€.

 

Just odered an XPS 15 here in India.
After 4 SXPS 1645's !!
XPS 14 and 17 are not available yet
Ordered it with the I7 740QM, 8gb Ram and a Full HD screen with 435m 2 gb
Works out to 200 dollars more expensive than the same config in the United States

 

I am from India too and planning to place an order for XPS 15, but one with i5.

1. Did you get any discount?
2. What's the EDD you have got?
3. Did you avail any Dell Complete-cover plan? I am considering whether it's worth to go with a 3-year plan.

 

Hey Ninja2000 , I see you have Envy 14, which I was planning to buy. But now considering Dell XPS 15 .

What would be your take on:

1. Dell XPS 15 (i5-460 + Nvidia 420M) vis-a-vis Envy 14 (i5-420+ATI 5650) ? - ( parameters being performance, heat, etc.)
2. Quality of Dell XPS's 1080P B+RGLED vs. Envy 14 radiance screens?

 

If XPS 14 and 17 are not available in India you say, then they probably never will be. At least for other Asian countries this is the case.

My country's deals are so static, no such thing as discounts like you guys have.

 

Thats a tough call as I dint own the xps yet.

I can tell you the Envy 14 runs incredibly cool (so cool I game with it directly on my lap) and the radiance screen is the best I have ever had on a laptop.

I only ordered the xps 15 because it was half the price of the Envy 14 on a dell deal/mistake in the UK.
I am expecting the xps speakers to be much better which is important to me, I also expect the screen to be on a par. Also I reckon the xps will be much hotter (especially as I have ordered i7).
Obviously I will compare them when the xps arrives

 

What is your EDD? I hope soon. Looking forward to your screen review/comparison

 

Does anyone know if the 445M in the XPS 17 uses GDDR5 or DDR3 memory?

 

Noone really knows but the majority here in the forum thinks it uses the cheaper DDR3 memory.

 

This is a good score? What does the 1645 with 5730 GPU get?

 

My EDD is the 22nd and it is currently in production so hoping I get it before that

 

Hello, I had a Studio 17 ordered back in August and Dell canceled my order due to the B+RG screen shortage. I was considering a Sony Vaio F with the premium 1080p screen (i7-740m, GT425M). Unfortunately doesn't look like Dell will be offering the B+RG screen on the XPS 17 anytime soon, so I am down to the XPS 15 (i7-740m, GT435M) or the Sony Vaio F. I've been following this thread and saw a lot of user feedback on HP, but nothing on Sony. Does anybody have any feedback on the Vaio F compared to the XPS 15?

 

Sony's statistically one of the most reliable brands, but they're out of the running IMO if you need anything that does anything with the GPU, since Sony doesn't allow Nvidia to provide driver updates.

 

Oh, and if anyone was waiting, Dell's M15x has a Geforce GTX 460 option today! I calculated it out, and it's around 66% faster than the GT 445 in the XPS 17.

 

I know that, and it is very stupid from Sony. The construction is also plastic, but the Fs look pretty good. The chiclet keyboard and textured touchpad are also pretty nice.
I have a monster desktop for gaming, I am looking for a good all-around laptop for work (programming, web development, photo and video editing) and some minor gaming and media use (blu-ray) when traveling. I am replacing a 5 year old Inspiron XPS Gen 2 with a killer Ultrasharp 1920x1200 screen. I love this laptop, but the Pentium M with 2 Gb RAM and a 5400 IDE HD no longer can keep up with me.
If Dell only gave us a premium screen on the XPS 17...

 

Dang, yeah, I'd be worried even for things like Blu Ray, and photo/video editing now use the GPU in some programs, so...

Wish Sony wouldn't do that :-/

 

I didn't like Sony's keyboards when I stopped at their New York store. It didn't strike me as suitable even for casual gaming. The biggest turn-off was the arrow keys. I like playing some 2D games that require use of them, and on a Sony, they're miniscule.

That being said, the number pad was enticing... but I like playing video games more than I like working on spreadsheets

 

My Acer 5740G with i5-430m + ATI 5650 OC 670/1050 does 9000 on 3DMark06. On stock clocks (550/750) does 7000-7200.

The Asus N61JQ with i7-720qm + ATI 5730 OC 775/1200 does 10120 on 3DMark06. On stock clocks (650/800) does 8000-8100.

If the XPS 17 does 10940 on stock clocks it really is a good score. I´m dying to see some OC on the GT 445M...

 

Congratulations, you are one of two hundred people to get a Radiance screen.

It was a sales come on from HP. They are long gone and they are not coming back.

HP axed the special headphones on the Beats edition of the Envy as well.

 

You are right, those arrow keys are sized for little kids. You can always use the arrow keys on the number pad, like we had to do on the good old days.
The other area where Dell shines is the sound. Sony's speakers are really, really bad.

 

I had a Sony F series that I sold to buy a Studio 1558, I couldn't live with the terrible screen or the fact that I could not update to the latest video drivers.
I was stuck with a video driver that was 6 months out of date and the vertical viewing angles on the screen were terrible.
If you adjusted the screen so that the top of the screen was properly focused, the bottom would be washed out and vice, versa.
Also the screen suffered from massive backlight bleed covering the bottom third of the screen.
Another thing that dissapointed me with the F series was the very weak speakers.
The worst thing about my experience with Sony was the customer service, who were rude and threatening to me.

I would be very wary about buying a Sony VAIO ever again.

My advice would be to go with the XPS 15 with the 1080p screen and you will not be dissapointed.
You will have great sound and access to the latest video drivers, two things that the sony will not provide.
And I'm sure the 1080p screen will not dissapoint, I have the 1080p WLED screen on my Studio 1558 and it is really nice.

 

You can't just use the hacked .INF on laptopvideo2go.com?

 

Thanks for the feedback kgh00007. Did you have the 900p or the 1080p screen or your Vaio F? I know the 900p screen is really bad, but I thought that the 1080p is supposedly really good. It looks like the XPS 15 is the way to go, pending Anandtech's review (where is it, by the way?).

 

A question guys, I've just returned my newly acquired studio xps for the XPS 15. Trying to stay positive and hope I've made the right decision. I know there arn't any benchmarks but would you say the 435 is better for gaming than the ATI 565v, as I'm from UK that is what I got with the SXPS, which annoyed me greatly when I realised you got a much better card in the US. Tbh if I had that card I wouldn't have swapped.

 

No problem, I had the 900p screen and it was really, really bad. I had read reviews of my exact model and they all said the screen was good, so when mine was so bad I contacted Sony support. That was the worst customer service experience I have ever had, they were rude and agressive towards me, as a result I don't think I would ever buy Sony again.

Good luck with whatever you decide to buy!

 

Wow, that Asus N61jq looks really nice. I'm actually considering it over the XPS 15.
Any reason to get the XPS 15 over the Asus?
For $1000 I can get the N61jq with 1 year accidental/2 year global warranty and better GPU.

 

Only things I can think of is the option for a 1080p screen on the dell and also the option for a backlit keyboard. Other than those things well and one is 16" while one is 15.6" seems the Asus is better on paper.

 

I have had a very similar experience with a Sony VPCF 116. The F series has the worst LCDs and speakers I have seen in a laptop. I had sold mine and I am buying an XPS 15

 

I never got as far as buying a Vaio. I looked at the F series in two different Best Buys and found the same washed out 1080P screen. In one store I tried adjusting the nVidia controls and it made it worse!

The S series that Best Buy sells also has the same washed out colors.

The Z is a completely different beast, but then so is the price.
--

 

Actually that OC in the Asus is really extreme, it will overheat a lot. I recommend turning it down a bit 750/1150 is fine and still will be able to get 10000 points in 3DMark06.

 

Yep. For one thing it's an old design, not very appealing imo (glossy top eq fingerprints) then comes the crappy display, the tad bit heavier weight, inferior sound, lack of backlit keyboard, optimus, USB 3. That'd be enough for me to decide in favor of the Dell already.

 

I wonder what resolution 3DMark06 was ran at. With the 900p screen, it's won't run at the standard 1280x1024 that most benchmarks use to compare. I had to attach mine to an external display to run at standard res, which I doubt they did, or they would have mentioned it. With a 900p display, 3DMark06 defaults to 1280x768. At that res I hit over 10k with my overclocked 5730, which means that the 445, while still a bit faster than a stock 5730, really isn't as fast as everybody seems to think it is.

 

Asus N61JQ has USB 3.0, only one port though...

 

alstrike : it's my bad then, the specs I found for this laptop didn't mention it.

It really depends on what type of memory it uses, as I guess its potential would be seriously hindered by slow GDDR3, while I would expect a GDDR5 version to be quite impressive.