Advice needed for buying XPS15

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone could help me as I'm looking for a new laptop.I havn't had much luck with laptops, I originally had a dell Studio 1555 which got lost when being sent for repair. Dell kindly replaced this with a Studio 1745, which has now been stolen.

Anyway I'm now looking for a replacement, preferably a Dell. I' mainly using it for listening to music, watching film sand doing essays and powerpoint presentations. I've been looking at the Dell XPS because it has the same JBL speakers as the 1745 which were very impressive. My question is regarding the screen, I've read lots of reviews praising the 1080p screen over the 720p. As I will not be using this laptop for gaming is it worth me upgrading when it is just for films, especially as I'm not intending to get the Blue-ray player. I had the 720p resolution on my 1555 and I don't remember being disappointed, but the screen on the 1745 was lovely. I'm just thinking of the extra £170 the costs.

Any help would be greatly appreciated or just any advice about the XPS 15.

Thanks

 

It's not the resolution so much that is the issue (although I find 720p to be a bit too light on pixels in a 15"+).

The 720p screen on the XPS 15 is regarded as one of the worst quality 15" screens on the market. There are a few models that Dell uses, one is okay, but the rest are bad, and those are the ones most people get. Everyone always advises the FHD upgrade anyway, and for films it would be spectacular I should think.

Just get a decent i5 or something if you don't need the raw power of a quad, that'll save you some money there for the screen.

 

If you don't mind very washed out colors, limited viewing angles and constant scrolling up and down and back and forth, then get the 1366x768 display. If you don't want most of that, then either get a completely different laptop or the 1920x1080 XPS 15.

 

If you get the XPS 15 with the 720p screen, you wasted your money. The screen upgrade makes more of a difference than any other upgrade, and should not be skipped if you're even considering buying the XPS 15.

It makes a difference for multitasking because you can fit more stuff onscreen, and there is a night and day difference in image quality.

The 1080p screen is part of what the XPS 15 is. It's not just one of those "icing on the cake" things, you literally have to get the screen upgrade, or just not buy the computer at all.

 

Even resolution aside, the 1080p screen is BEAUTIFUL.

 

Thanks for the help, 1080 it is. I know before the XPS was considered the high performance laptop compared to the Studio line; now they've stopped doing the Studio computers, is the xps the equivalent or is it the Inspiron? I always had the inspiron down as a more budget line.

 

You are correct, Inspiron is the budget consumer line. XPS is the high end consumer line.

 

and the 720p screens in the Inspirons are typically better than the 720p screen in the XPS 15. None of the Inspirons I saw at Best Buy were using the AUO B156XW02 panel which is the most common 720p screen found in the XPS 15 (the one with awful image quality).

But most 15.6" 720p screens are junk anyway, Inspirons no exception, the B156XW02 panel is just particularly bad.

 

So for a user like me who had the mid range studio, would you recommend the inspiron or the xps? I'd be using it for listening to music/working/ films plus internet and watching tv online. On the dell site they've got an xps with an i3 and an i5 processor, for me who's not an expert would the i5 be better for doing these activities at the same time? I was originally thinking the i5 because I just tend never to go for the cheapest/most basic available. I'm not sure if I'm being a bit snobby there!