Dell XPS 13 2015 Broadwell Infinity Display Owners Thread

It's under PC settings, devices, mouse/track pad

on another note has anyone had issues using the "swipe in from the left" gesture. On all other windows 8 devices It would just switch the app but on this it simply brings up the open app list. I saw there was a setting for it but changing it doesnt seem to do anything..

 

I have never gotten a delay from ms. They always have shipped either same or next day. In this case, their listing said 7-10 days but they got it out in 2.

 

Be careful opening the back lid. Ifixit has a guide but what they don't say is the clips are really hard to pop. I ended up breaking one of them in the back while opening mine. No big deal but you can do some damage there if you're not careful.

 

Yes, I have the same issue. The options you are referring to control the touchscreen, not the trackpad. My swipe from the left on the trackpad brings up a recents list and there's no way to change it.

Crap, I didn't realize that's where the settings were. That reinforces even more that this trackpad is neither Synaptics or Elan. I really hope I'm wrong but I just can't figure out why else none of those drivers will work. So we're pretty much now at Microsoft's mercy to change their drivers and add three and four finger swipe gestures. This could seriously be the perfect Ultrabook for me but I'm really hung up on that and the 200 nit screen...

 

This is not very reassuring: http://community.acer.com/t5/Notebo...5-511-Touchpad-Driver-not-working/td-p/287522
I know it's a different laptop but it appears to be the same issue. And for this one, it's not Synaptics or Elan. To top it off, these are 6 month old posts, so a driver update may not happen for a while or may never happen. Might be a deal breaker for me sadly...

 

How is this laptop for Capture One or Adobe Lightroom?

 

I have the i5/8G/256G/1080p version and use both Lightroom and capture one. I edit raw file from Canon 5D3 and Fuji X-E2.
Overall I'm happy with them performance, no problem in loading and basic editing. Brushes can be a bit slow but manageable.

The only problem is that the screen changes brightness depends on the content of the screen (adaptive brightness that can't be turned off). So adjusting exposure/ shadow/ highlight is challenging. I will say that it's almost impossible to do this for any serious work. I am using external monitor anyway so it doesn't bother me much.

It's a nice laptop with one glaring weakness. I hope Dell can fix this soon.

 

What refresh rate do you get when hooked up to an external monitor? I'm planning to use it along with the 27" Dell monitor.

Is the fan really loud as people say?

How is the performance? My desktop is the 2500K clocked to 4.7Ghz/8GB RAM/SSD. The RAW performance a bit struggles sometimes. Should I expect about the same performance of the Dell XPS?

Thanks

 

1. It will depend on your external monitor. 60-75hz usually.
2. Fan gets loud for an ultrabook. So using as something external, psychologically speaking, shouldn't be that bad
3. You are comparing a 2007 Prius engine with a 2010 7-Series. The processing power on this will be literally NOTHING compared to a overclocked desktop quad core, even if it is from couple years back.

 

I am using Dell U2412M 1920x1200 @ 60 Hz. It should be no problem driving 2560x1440 @60Hz
The fan is loud, but rarely turned on unless you're playing games. The fan will also turn on more often in the first few days as Windows indexing, downloading etc. It'll get better over time.

I only have a late 2013 13" retina Macbook pro as comparison. It has comparable component and it performs almost the same. I don't have a desktop for a long time, so I wouldn't know. Both of my computers give me acceptable performance for the raw files from my cameras. I would imagine it'll struggle with the upcoming 5DS 50MP

 

Good comparison since I drive the Prius, lol.
Well, the 2500k is four years old, so my question wasn't really out of the water..
Does the XPS get hot?

 

Running prime 95 max, I think 85c is about the highest it gets. Temporary throttle under 2.5GHz from time to time to reduce the temps, but that's it.

Under normal use, just bottom getting warm, no complaints. I don't think anyone ever complained about the temps itself.

 

He's right, it's subtle but there. What's happening is the Intel drivers have a power saving technology that is always on for some reason. The option to turn it off in the advanced tab of the power option in Intel graphics settings has been removed. It's a feature that I find annoying and usually shut it off right away. It's also the reason I have only been getting 200 nits of brightness even with the laptop plugged in.

The only way I could tell it was the culprit was to use a colorimeter and run the brightness utility on a separate laptop. In the UEFI settings I was able to measure 300 nits of brightness. I then went back into Windows and got 200 again. Then, while playing with some of the windows, I mysteriously got 300 out of nowhere. Turns out, I had a white window maximized, so it forced the backlight to be on full power. That's where this missing Intel option comes into play. When it's enabled(like it permanently is now) it subtly adjusts the backlight to save power when it thinks you won't notice. The problem is, if you want to edit pictures, you can and will notice. It's also quite obvious in well lit offices that the screen is incredible dim when windows aren't maximized.

I really hope this option gets re-enabled and it's just the result of a premature Intel 5500 graphics driver. I'm just about to try Windows 10 and see if the option is there. I doubt it but it's worth a shot. I'm mainly trying Windows 10 because I read an article that it will support and standardize three and four finger swiping for the precision touchpads. We shall see..

 

Is anyone having issues with IE crashing a lot. I.switched from Chrome due to all the posts on here advising that it is a resource hog and battery drainer. It's strange as I haven't changed any settings in IE ad's am puzzled how an out the box laptop can develop such a issue.

 

No, not the touch version anyway - it's a bit unpredictable when swiping to go back as it frequently shows the right page, then back to the wrong page and just stops at the wrong page which I found a bit irritating but no instability.

John

 

just ordered the i5, 8gb ram, 128 ssd with one year accident protection.

i was able to get a 10% discount, $105.90, by becoming a free dell advantage member. and then i did a student discount and saved 2%, $19.06, in addition. so only paid

 

Here's my update on the brightness issue and the trackpad. I've installed Windows 10. It runs well so far but I had to find a special Intel driver to get the graphics set up properly. While it was using the generic display driver, I took the time to check the screen brightness and see if it was caused by the intel driver or not. It's not. I was still getting variable brightness issues ranging from 200-300 nits, depending on how white the screen was and depending on if windows were full screen or not. So it's pretty much a firmware issue at this point, and it may never go away as it's part of the display design.

As for the trackpad, Windows 10 is supposed to have more options for "Precision touchpads" This release only has one, which allows 3 finger swiping to do two things. Side to side swiping will switch between apps/windows. It's pretty much the same as right edge swiping in Windows 8 except now you can go in both directions. Swiping down with 3 fingers will minimize all windows and swiping back up will restore them. Swipe up again with three fingers and you get to choose between all open apps(VERY similar to OS/X and Asus touchpad drivers which allow quick switching). You also get to add a second or third desktop, which is also similar to OS/X and Linux. It's pretty cool and I can see how it will be useful. There's no option to make 3 finger swipes go forward and backward in web pages, however there is a drop down in the setting, indicating there will be future choices hopefully.

I think I'll keep Win 10 installed for a few days and see just how far I can take it. I'm a little happier with the trackpad, although scrolling in Chrome still sucks. If anyone has any questions about Win 10 while I have it up, let me know.

 

For a smoother trackpad experience in Chrome:

I installed Chromium Wheel Smooth Scroller. It made the trackpad operate a lot better in Chrome, although there is still some lag nad my settings need a little more tweaking. Here are my settings:
In mouse settings: Make sure wheel vertical scroll is 3 lines
In Chromium Wheel Smooth Scroller settings:
-Step size 40
-Smoothness(Forepart) 3.77(or close to it)
-Smoothness 87.16
-Acceleration Sensitivity 28

I also set the touchpad delay to no delay in the touchpad settings. This is a double edged sword because it makes accidental taps easier, which can be frustrating when typing. Also note that I'm using the QHD screen, which will act differently than FHD I imagine.

 

What are the 10% and 5% discounts?

 

I'd also consider some performance tweaks, like these
http://digiwonk.wonderhowto.com/how...le-chrome-blazing-fast-your-computer-0155989/

It helps in some areas, for sure!

 

http://slickdeals.net/f/7652386-201...b-memory-256gb-ssd-for-1110-64-tax?p=74190632

10% was from the link, 5% was the one sent out via text.

 

Hi all!

I just wanted to share my experience so far, as I'm very happy with my unit. I ordered the UK version (QHD, i7-5600U, 8GB RAM and 256 GB SSD) as soon as it was available and have been using the laptop for almost a week now.

I DO NOT have the dynamic contrast issue. Using the following test I am not able to see the fade-in described: http://tylerwatt12.com/dc/
If it's happening and I can't see it then most people really won't have an issue with it (I understand that if you edit photo/video it would be a massive pain, don't get me wrong). If it really isn't happening then I'm very curious why my unit, this particular configuration or perhaps even all UK models do not have this issue.

The screen is beautiful, touch is great fun, battery life is OK (under mixed use I'm seeing about 7 hours, though I haven't really taken it through it's paces yet). I'm having no trouble with the trackpad under windows 8 (there is a slight delay, though you can fiddle with it in the settings)

The best part is that running a Fedora 21 (Linux) live disk EVERYTHING other than sound works out of the box. I have heard suspicions that this configuration is likely to be sold as the developer edition, and it does, for no apparent reason, have an Intel wireless card instead of the standard Broadcom. The trackpad in particular was nicer to use under Linux than under Windows, which I'm very pleased with.

So if you are still considering buying, despite a lot of negative feedback here on the forum, then it might help to hear that I'm experiencing none of the issues mentioned above, other than missing audio support under Linux. If you're one of the people who has been having issues, then you're probably just as curious as me as to why there appear to be such disparities in quality.

Cheers!

 

For the issue with the screen if you don't notice it don't hop looking for it and you will most likely never witness it. But it is there I have a UK model and noticed it the other night. I don't edit photos or video and it really seems to happen in certain lighting conditions.

 

It's so subtle, I can see why so many think they don't have the issue. Best way to see it is to have word or notepad open full screen in the with some text to read. After a minute, open a browser and try to find a webpage with a black or really dark background. Stay there for a minute or two and then minimize it. Your white word document will be dim at first and will start to brighten up slowly. It's really subtle and it's more apparent to see in my bright office than at home. I'm guessing it's firmware related and has something to do with the IGZO screen. I already ruled out Intel, so that leaves Dell to update the bios(UEFI)

 

The test I have linked replicates these conditions, neither I nor my girlfriend can see any dimming/undimming. I wouldn't claim I don't have the issue if I weren't reasonably confident I didn't, which is why I'm so curious if there might be any differences between units.

 

Well, I was quoted that it was in stock (no preorder timeline) and ordered on Wednesday. Fast forward to today and it still hasn't shipped. When I try to log in to my order history, I can't get in either. MS has a terrible web store. It's one of the least functional I've used when purchasing such big ticket items.

 

Anyone have any problems with battery wear? My unit is less than a month old and the battery's max capacity is already down to only 50.2 Wh. Was 52.6 out of the box...

 

Damn, I want this laptop so bad, but its $800 USD device with the 4GB of RAM. Sorry Dell, it's 2015 and not 2007 when I got a Penryn with that much of memory... We'll see what the new Macbook Air brings.

 

Consider yourself lucky you get it that cheap, these are my options from the New Zealand Dell store :

 

You can't judge battery wear based on a month of normal use. It may appear to drop off quickly but then not change after a long while.

 

So you were able to do it without leaving a single trace?

 

By single trace.. if you are going all CSI on this, no..

It's going to be ok. Take the sticker off, rub your oily nose with your finger, and rub your finger where the sticker was, and wipe that off.

Wala! No sticker mark. Magic.

 

Those who have issues with touchpad sensitivity. From the Control Panel > Mouse Properties > Pointer Options > Select Mouse Speed option: slow -------------fast I selected abit faster option than the default and it helps as well.

Enabling Touch Events fixed the touchpad delay in chrome!

Go to chrome://flags/ and Enable Touch Events.

I hope they add forward/backward gestures for the touchpad.

So far im loving this laptop. What do you guys think of the matte screen compared with the Samsung Series 9?

 

If your battery wore down for that much already I'd keep an eye on it, but have you actually checked it on day one? Batteries have a designed capacity that differs from what every single actual battery has when it leaves production. No two batteries are the same, so yours could just have left production with those 50.2 Wh and actually have zero wear up to now.

BatteryBar Pro tells me mine has .6% wear (that's 52.262 Wh) and has been the case since I've received it.

 

I received a replacement system today and I am noticing a few differences.

The screen...
On the old system, I notice whites are a lot cooler with that blueish tint. On my new system if favors a warmer color. I usually notice this a lot with cellphones and I guess it has to do with companies acquiring parts from a few different sources?

Also my old system had this annoying and laughably loud creaky noise when handled from day 1. No creak on this new one.

 

Wouldn't it be cheaper to order it from the US and ship it to yourself?

That's what I did, since I'm in Saudi Arabia. I'm American so I wanted to make sure I had a US keyboard and I needed US power (110V). I was also able to use US coupon codes. If ordering from MicrosftStore.com, I can use student discount of 10%.

I use a service called US Global Mail to do all my overseas shipments. I order from Amazon all the time for stuff I can't get here in the Kingdom. A mail forwarding service, while an cost, is the perfect solution.

 

That's a viable solution if you don't care about warranty

 

I noticed the same exact thing when I got my replacement (QHD+). The screen on my initial machine has a cooler tint... the replacement had a much much warmer tint (far too warm for my liking). I ended up keeping my initial machine since I felt the whites were a lot whiter and the screen was more crisp. I also noticed some wavy lines on the replacement machine if you look from an angle that aren't there on the initial machine. I know all screens differ a bit, but the difference was extremely significant in this case. I'm assuming they have more than one source for the screens.

 

Can you look up the panel model on both?

 

^ how can one find (in windows) which panel model one has?

I remembered all screen should be manufactured by IGZO or something

 

Use HWINFO. Under the monitor tab, you can see all the informantion.

Sorry, my text is super small from improper scaling. Win 10 doesn't fix any of the scaling issues, btw, in case anyone was wondering.

 

I still say that battery wear measurements on such a new battery are meaningless. Even at its best, BatteryBar just offers an estimate. For instance, on my current laptop it fluctuates from day to day, and even varies depending on which user profile I'm logged in as. Tell me how the battery could have degraded 14% for one user profile and 17% for another?
But speaking of battery life, can anyone comment on the hours of use they are getting out of the QHD model? Reviewers are giving quite a wide range, some saying they only get 5 to 6 hours of moderate use, others saying 8 or 9.
Also, how does Dell (or the Microsoft store?) handle battery replacements down the line? Usually I'm ready for a brand new laptop well before the battery of my current one is useless, but I usually buy budget laptops that I don't mind replacing in 2 years. If I invest in something this high-end, I'll want to squeeze more years out of it.

 

Ok I checked the monitor info and they are the same part. Anyone have any other ideas to explain this? Do screens maybe require a break-in period or is there something I am missing on the software side that would cause this difference?

It snit the most crucial thing in the world but side by side with my other system there is a very noticeably difference. Just not sure if I want to play around with the replacement game and end up getting a computer with an entirely different issue.

 

If it's the same panel, it's either not calibrated or it was calibrated differently. Try swapping the color profile from one unit to another. You can Google where to find the files and how to load them onto a new machine. It could also be Intel Graphcis settings are different. Might want to compare those as well.

 

I think you're going to see a bigger range of battery usages out there and Marketing is always going to be high. If you compare the same Haswell gen with it's Broadwell successor, the TDP is the same. The only difference is the the cTDP down is 7.5 watts instead of 11.5 watts(i5-4200U vs i5-5200U). Intel also doesn't post their cTDP up for the Broadwell CPU, but it's safe to assume it's a little lower than Haswell(or they're actually able to get 15Watts at turbo boost, which would be great). So in English, if you're constantly working and your laptop gets too hot where turboboost is stuck off, and you don't idle - you'll probably get nearly the exact battery life that you did with the Haswell predecessor. Where the power savings are is with idle speeds, you're getting a 4 watt break. There's also the unknown power savings from operating in turbo boost.

To sum up, people who use their Ultrabook for constant work are likely going to see the least battery improvement over Haswell and will probably have numbers in the 5 to 6 hour range(which was considered good for Haswell)
People who occasionally browse the net, have periods where their laptop is idle and watch movies that aren't processor intensive will benefit most from the Broadwell architecture and will get an extra 1-2 hours.
There's also the standard variances in battery life to consider: bluetooth, screen brightness(huge player) turning off touchpad, Wifi(some actually turn it off for savings). People who operate at minimalist levels are likely the ones getting 8-10 hours.

 

For more precise battery use measurement I recommend Battery Info View . It provides real time measurements in increments as small as 15 seconds and, while they may not be perfectly accurate as to consumption in the absolute, they are definitely accurate relative to each other - eg, if you measure usage with screen at full brightness, then drop it down to 50%, the relative change will be accurate. Overall it's a great tool and far better than Battery Bar. It's only shortcoming is it doesn't have a widget in the taskbar to show remaining life at a glance, you have to click on its icon to get that. I run BB as well just for that feature.

 

I have considered that and done it in the past, but it doesn't seem very useful in this case. I'd go for the 8GB, 256GB, 1080p model, which is about US$1100. That's NZ$1500 in my currency. Add $50 or so for shipping. Then there's import taxes of 15%, which brings it up to over $NZ1700, vs local price of $1999, and I get no warranty, which sounds like a bad idea given how many people are returning theirs. Just isn't worth it.

It might have been worth it a few weeks ago when the NZD was a lot stronger against the USD.

But yes I do import a lot of smaller things from the USA all the time, as if the import taxes are less than $60, it get's written off and you don't have to pay anything. So works well for cheaper things, not so much for expensive things.

 

Hi there,

Does anyone know how to boot into the BIOS on the 'Signature' edition of the XPS 13 (2015) -- I have the i5 version, 4 gigs, matte screen.

I've tried holding down F2 alone or F2+Fn, and I've also tried F1, F11, and F12 alone and in combo with the Fn key -- and every time, it boots right into Windows...

(I just want to swap the control and function keys - so if there's an easier way to do this without going into the BIOS that would be good too.)

Thanks!

 

check if you see something in windows mobility center [WINDOWS LOGO ON KEYB. + X]

 

If you're on Windows 8, you can enter it through advanced startup settings