Dang, that is fantastic lol.
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Link: http://anandtech.com/show/8983/dell-xps-13-review/5
Also, checkout their results for the battery life on the FHD model! Actually got 12 hours:
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AnandTech has an update on the adaptive brightness.
Quote " Update: Dell has enabled Content-Adaptive Backlight Control, which we have seen in other devices like the Nokia Lumia 930. Dell has let me know they are looking into a way to have the end user disable this feature. " end quote
I hope Dell found a way soon. -
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Hi all!
I got the qhd i5 256gb version last week, I have been using it for a week now, time for some comments:
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•QHD screen is gorgeous, slightly too cold but this is easily corrected. There's a hint of light bleed on the bottom corners of the screen, but only noticable when there's a dark image displayed. All the windows animations are very smooth, no stuttering so far.
•Touchpad is good IMO, but I never bit the apple so I can't compareTwo finger gestures are good, there's a slight delay sometimes. I wish there were some more gestures, though.
•NO FAN in "normal" use: web browsing, coding, compiling, youtubing, netflixing. The fan comes on sometimes when charging, but it can almost always be stopped by FN+Z (resetting dell's fan/thermal control).
•Battery life: I was able to get the 11 hours dell claims, but not in "normal use": as a grad student I read a lot of papers. By putting all the windows power settings to the minimum and using NegativeScreen (white font on black screen -->dynamic brightness things to the minimum), I achieved 11 something hours. I only had the windows pdf reader opened, nothing else in the background, not even anti-virus. Wifi was on, keyboard backlight off. In normal use, closer to 7-8 hours.
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•Keyboard is ok-ish. I was used to a bigger notebook with bigger keys and more travel, but I'm quickly getting used to this.
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•Lack of 3rd usb port, but I gues this is standard with that size.
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•Windows scaling. Has nothing to do with the laptop itself though. BTW< I'm running this thing at 3200x1800 and 150%. 1600x900 is blurry.
Disclaimer: beforehand, I was using a 2008 laptop, so take my comments with a pinch of salt. -
Regarding the touchpad, seems as though the palm rejection problems are because it's too extended on the right, is there a way to edit the registry to make it smaller?
See here: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/dn467306(v=vs.85).aspx -
I have no issues regarding the touchpad. So far I have not hit it by mistake while typing. -
I managed to get 13 hours and 23 minutes out of the battery. All I had to do was turn on power saver mode, turn the brightness all the way down, turn off bluetooth and Wi-fi and leave it completely idle at the lock screen. Made a great clock!
I was really hoping to find out where they got 15 hours from.EmJayPrice and dtblair24 like this. -
I got my XPS 13 on Thursday. Got the top model with i7, 8GB, 512GB SSD and QHD. Installed win10 test on it. Love the display. The keyboard and touchpad is OK, hope they can fix the touchpad issues with a driver/firmware update.
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Received my new XPS 13 on Wednesday.
UK. Top spec i7. 256gb.
I've found that the fan is kicking in when I put the laptop to sleep and often it won't wake up from sleep, requiring several long presses on the power button to, I assume, completely reboot the machine.
Anyone else encountering this? -
I didn't read thru this whole thread to see how many others ordered the i3. I commented on it a while back, I thought I was the only cheapskate to get the i3
so I kept it to myself and let Dell figure it out. Someone opened a new thread about this so I let it out. Dell still needs to come up with a more permanent fix.
Those who have the i3 and is slow as poop, see my post here for the "fix". As I said in that post, I found this fix minutes after receiving my i3 but I didn't share this "fix" with Dell. They need to work on another fix.
XPS 13 i3 performance -
I posted this in the WiFi problems thread, but figured it might be useful here as well (to users that have the 1560 card)
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When I uninstalled just the WiFi device (check box to uninstall driver software), the bluetooth device remains and Windows installs the drivers it has for the device. It now shows as a Broadcom Wireless 1560ac and it now shows 5ghz networks. -
Just got my new XPS 13. Love the laptop, but there's one critical flaw, so I'm going to have to return it.
The input devices. The keyboard and trackpad are both abysmal. How do people use these things??
Anytime I click the trackpad the cursor jumps. It's just impossible to use safely. I think I simply require dedicated buttons, because this is absurd.....
The keyboard action is way too short; when I'm typing fast (I type fast) I can't tell if I hit a key or not, I constantly have to backspace. The keys are smaller than my old 11.6" netbook. I'm super disappointed, because the XPS 12 keyboard is sooo good in comparison. I wish the 13 was thicker even just to accommodate a better keyboard.
Definitely going to return it, not sure what to get instead though. -
So... had my XPS 13 since about the 6th Feb, and use it for work and pleasure. Core i7, 8GB , 512 SSD and the QHD touch screen. Previously used a MacBook Pro 13 Retina.
First impressions - extremely attractive laptop visually, quality construction. Nice and small and very light. Decent keyboard.
Touchpad actually works really well. However in Chrome browser the two fingered scrolling is really jerky. Found myself switching to IE where the scrolling works as you would expect. Not had any problems with the touchpad that others have experienced.
Touchscreen - works really well, and definitely makes getting around the OS (Windows 8.1 Pro) easier. Only problem I'm experiencing is in IE when I use the screen to scroll, I frequently find that the page ends up zooming in/out which is annoying. Not sure how to prevent this.
QHD screen - screen looks awesome. If there's any funny dimming business going on, I've not noticed it!
Extended displays - at the office I'm running two flat panels from the Dell D3100 docking station. However I find that on the extended displays text and the like looks less clear / faint and slightly blurred in comparison to my previous work laptop which was 6 years old but only running Windows 7 and was not high resolution. Another major issue is that the scaling means that on the extended displays, certain applications such as IE have a title bar that takes up about a quarter of the screen!! I don't know why this is happening. Can post a screenshot for anyone interested.
Battery life - generally pretty good although nowhere close to what official figures are. I estimate I'm getting about 6 hours of continual web browsing usage. Having some issues with it seemingly depleting fast in sleep mode (probably related to wifi problem below).
Bad points - watching a 1080p movie in iTunes I can see noticeable judder on panning scenes etc. Also with iTunes and particularly noticeable when wearing headphones I can hear a "popping" / glitch noise regularly.
Also had an issue with Wifi where laptop could not see any networks when coming out of sleep mode. I have a fix for this from Dell but which I think causes the battery to deplete faster in sleep mode.
The 512GB SSD I though would be PCIe but appears to be normal SATA.
Finally, the laptop often feels slow (even typing this there is noticeable lag). I am using the standard "Dell" power plan on battery, and this plan appears to limit the amount of CPU. 4GB of RAM is nearly always used, both Chrome and IE easily take about 400MB each.
Overall a great laptop - probably my biggest issues being the iTunes problem and general slowness. -
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I am not sure if this is just an issue with my machine or just the way it looks because of the corning glass that is put on these things. But it looks like there is some texture to my screen, so it does not look as clear as I think that it should I had another IGZO display on my Razer Blade and it did not look like this, but it also did not have that protective glass as well. It is a beautiful screen, but I don't have another machine to compare it to, so thought I would check.
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Dellienware Workstations & Ultrabooks
One thing disappointed about the keyboard:
After just weeks of small usage (this is used few hrs a day at most..), the paint on the space bar starts wearing away.
I remember the Latitude keyboards from 2009-2010 having exceptionally strong paint that took at least months for this kind of usage sign..
No, it is NOT greese. I cleaned it. It truly is paint wearing away, making that shiny spot on the keyboard.
Darn shame to see a back move. But then again, the previous gen XPS didn't have as robust paint anyways. -
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infzy likes this.
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Dellienware Workstations & Ultrabooks
One thing that new prospective buyers should notice is that the SILENT MAJORITY is still very satisfied with the laptop. This is a "troubleshooting" forum. You will only see issues posted here, whether it's limited to individuals or to the entire line of laptop.
Just saying. The whole laptop itself is still very worthy of its price and ownership, given how every competitior has models that look like toilet seat in your public library.Luterin likes this. -
As for value, the cheapest model only has 4GB of ram and no touchscreen. I had to pay $1200 for the 8GB i5 model and I feel it's a little overpriced. The i7 model is absurdly priced. Seriously, $300+ more for a part that Intel says is only $100 more than the i5? The UX303LA is under $900 and is the same thickness and processor, doesn't have touchpad or brightness issues. Sure it's 1080p, but from what I've been experiencing, my Ivy bridge i5 is rendering webpages at FHD smoother than this Broadwell i5 at QHD+. QHD+ was also sluggish on the Haswell i5, so I'm still not convinced that 4k screens are ready for Ultrabooks yet.
This laptop has plenty of pros, don't get me wrong. But after actively comparing it to the other laptops I have right now, I think it falls short of being a keeper. In fact, I plan on returning it tomorrow. My reasons are mainly the touchpad, lack of honesty on the laptop thickness and lack of honesty on the battery life. Also, hearing about paint peeling off keys on such short notice is disturbing enough to warrant caution. I may buy this again at a later date if the issues are worked out, but I think I'll probably settle on some of the cheaper alternatives that are available. UX303LA, updated UX301LA and S7-393 are on my short list. May even just wait until Skylake. -
g
On the troubleshooting front, does anyone have random slowdowns with input that cannot be explained by resource utilization? I get random spikes, even while I am typing this that the words just don't appear as I am typing and then come up jumbled? I sure how else to describe it. -
I'll see how my i3 performs once I receive it, but for the price I paid, I can't complain. It's simply a bargain. Considering the Skylake is on the corner, and the Broadwell is just to fill a little gap here, I would not invest over $1k in this, but that is my opinion. -
The bottom line is that EVERY laptop has issues, there is not a single model that has come out ever that has had no issues. This is a every solid laptop that does a lot of things right. It's not perfect, but does a lot of things right and as many reviews have stated, it is hopefully pointing other laptops in the right direction. -
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According to Intel they released the Broadwell because the manufacturers were pushing them and needed to fulfill their "tock" strategy. They already have the Skylake and it's ready for release later this year. Depending on your needs, whether it's worth it or not, I would leave that to the buyer, but as Anandtech stated, the top spec model is kinda overpriced. -
Last edited: Feb 21, 2015
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Yes, XPS 13 does become expensive when configured to the maximum, but how often do you change thigh-end laptops? It will last you for at least 4 years and still be a solid system in 2019.Last edited: Feb 21, 2015 -
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Strange I posted the screenshot of my typing test in an earlier post. The attachment is gone.. -
Got my XPS 13 in but is has one issue: the backlight is dark in one section of the screen (like 3mm x 10mm to the left if center, maybe 5%-10%less bright). You can only see it when scrolling on webpages and such, not when there is a static image.
Dell called to make sure I got my order and when I told the lady about the darker area she immediately ordered a replacement and return sticker. And I can use this one till the new one arrives.
Good service in my book -
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I am planning to buy the new XPS. My old notebook is an old Vaio Z with RAID SSD and i noticed that my Vaio is still snappier than some new Ultrabooks (with SATA SSDs) i tried. I believe this situation may be the result of the higher bandwith of the RAID interface of Vaio. Therefore it is important for me to know, whether if the new XPS is PCIe SSD compatible or not? After replacing my nearly 5 years old Vaio i want my new notebook's general responsiveness to be better than my old one. -
Got my i5/8GB/128SSD/1080p FHD unit in a few days ago...
The track-pad is wonderful throughout the OS and Internet Explorer. In Chrome/Firefox it's horrible... Using the Chromium Wheel Smooth Scroller extension helps a bit, but it's still no where near as smooth as in IE. The lack of touch-pad options is a bummer and I'd hope that Dell and/or Microsoft fixes this at some point, though it's not a deal breaker for myself (I always have a Bluetooth mouse connected when doing any serious work).
The 1080P matte display is amazing. I personally don't find touchscreens too great on a non-convertible notebook, and the higher resolution is unnecessary on such a small display in my opinion. I have it set to 125% scaling and most things look fine, though there are a few apps/etc here and there that are a bit blurry, but nothing I use regularly.
I upgraded the SSD to a 512GB Transcend SATA III M.2 module ( http://amzn.com/B00KLTPVV8). Note that the M.2 slot seems to be only for the SATA interface and not PCIe (based on what I've read... someone attempted to use a PCIe based M.2 drive with no luck). I used Acronis True Image 2014 to clone the stock 128GB drive to my new 512GB along with a ZTC Thunder M.2 Enclosure ( http://amzn.com/B00KQ4LNJC). Note that for some reason Acronis was unable to read the drive/adapter connected directly to either of the USB ports on the XPS once it booted into the cloning interface. I had a USB 3.0 hub, so I plugged the adapter into that and Acronis was able to access the drive correctly.
Here's a quick comparison of the read/writes I got for the stock 128GB Samsung SSD:
(Note that there must've been something else going on to cause the low write speeds)
and the 512GB Transcend SSD:
jedolley likes this. -
Does anyone know how the "Config TDP Level" setting works in the advanced power options menu? Between the 15W @ .6GHz and 15W @ 2.2GHz, which would give better performance?
As an FYI, I'm running the i5 4GB 128GB version
Thanks in advance! -
Clabern, that is the same M.2 drive I plan on getting also, glad to see it fits and works. That's the same setup I plan on getting also, if you don't mind me asking what did you get it for?
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Before any cash-back/advantage rewards/etc it was $924 after discounts.
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Hey there. So I'm trying to decide between the i7 QHD+ touchscreen version, or i5 1080p matte version.
I like to play games like Starcraft 2, Sim City and other "moderate" 3D games.
Originally I was going to go for the i7 QHD+ for the touchscreen (it's a want, not really a need, but why not). BUT then I realized that QHD+ has a screen resolution of 3000x1800 - and I wasn't sure how it did for games. Thought it might be safer to stick with the i5 1080p for running games.
Will the QHD+ that be a problem for running games? Anyone who has the QHD+ can testify?
If you own a QHD, do you scale down the resolution? Does that make the game look crapy / sluggish? How does the scaling down work?
The last thing I want is to buy the QHD but not being able to play my favourite games like Starcraft too.
Let me know
Protoss out. -
The games you want to play will be much easier to run and will look better on the i5 matte version, mainly because you don't have to lower the res. Games ALWAYS look better at the native resolution of their screens. Just my 2 cents. Go for the i5 matte! =)
Cheers! -
Hi
How do you compare the broadwell XPS to the haswell one? Except for the "infinity display" (the haswell model has very small bezels itself), is there any major improvement? As far as i know, the keyboard of the haswell model seems quiet superior and that's important for me. I am asking because when the new XPS comes to Greece where i live it will surely be insanely expensive (the model i would like to buy will probably be at 1800 euros, compared to $ 1300=1150 euros!) but i have found the previous model in a fairly good price (900 euros, for Greece this is a great price because all the electronics are very costly) and i am wondering if it would be a good deal.
Thank you
Dell XPS 13 2015 Broadwell Infinity Display Owners Thread
Discussion in 'Dell XPS and Studio XPS' started by tassadar898, Jan 16, 2015.