Dell XPS 13 2015 Broadwell Infinity Display Owners Thread

That's great news! Seems like good service too. I especially like the fact that you immediately get to see the result. Did you purchase your laptop directly from Dell or from the Microsoft Store? I would be hesitant to send this laptop in for replacement for fear that the replacement would have similar or additional problems. In my case I didn't notice the effect at all until I had loaded drivers and various applications etc. so would be hesitant to do an exchange - besides all the floor models at the MS store looked similar.

I looked at my warranty and it looks like I can do an exchange with the MS store or for a repair I would need to mail it off to Houston, TX for repair by Dell. I would much prefer having a Dell technician drop by! Any ideas what states that service is available in? And did you purchase an additional warranty?

 

I purchased it directly from Dell. I also did not get any additional warranty. I'm pretty sure home service is available in the entire continental US.

Now to add to it, when I was only able to contact tech support and not customer support the guy on the line told me I could cancel my current order (despite having received it) and do another order for a new unit. This will entail another week of wait time. I do not know what will happen should one wish to go this route since I did not go through with it and told the dell rep I'll see what customer care can do for me in the morning.

I'm not one to bash MS but I don't see the point in buying from them when buying direct from dell gives you a better deal. I got mine (fhd, i5, 8gb, 256ssd) for $1047 including CA sales tax+free 2-business day delivery. When I was ordering it the same configuration was not available at the MS Store.

edit: at 100% utilization my processor is at 2.48ghz. Is this normal or should it be able to go ~2.7ghz?

 

Of course, perception is partly subjective. Would you say that there is a BIG difference.

Would you be able to describe some of the difference.

I suspect my screen is somewhat bad; not sure though. I might be crazy?

 

Colored images appear more vibrant. Not exactly a BIG difference but it's there.

 

Regarding Dell versus Microsoft, up here (in Canada) with the current exchange rate the Microsoft pricing seemed a lot better due to the fact they seemed not to have fully factored in the exchange rate when pricing was set. My 256ssd, 8 GB, QHD, i5 cost me $1,446.07 Canadian shipped including all taxes which at today's exchange rate converts to $1,162.07 USD. It's a rare time in history when it's cheaper to buy in Canada, such has been the dramatic shift in exchange rates due to the drop in oil prices. In addition, having a Microsoft store in the my neighbourhood means that in theory at least I can walk in and do an exchange in person. Problem is, that's not what I want!

 

I got mine for the same price. I went into the store to check it out then went and had a beer to think it over. While I was having said beer I checked out Dell, Best Buy for both CA and US and also the US based MS Store. MS Canada had by far the best price. Especially when the current exchange rates are taken onto consideration. I am still under the impression it must be a mistake. I used the extra savings to buy the MS complete care which was very serendipitous as I managed to drop and bend the first one less than 24 hours after I bought it. Ironically I dropped it while trying to buy a case for it.

 

In preparation for mine arriving, and reading about the various issues with crapware installed, does anyone know the process of doing a clean install on a modern W8.1 Pro computer? I'm very experienced in clean installs, but I've only ever dealt with retail licensing methods, never with OEM licensing, however they do that. What media would I need?

 

I received my XPS late last week, and at first I was ecstatic. I'm very particular about screen bleed, dead pixels, etc, and I received a nearly perfect screen. Unfortunately, the right side of the bezel has started to "ripple", and when I slide my finger along the edge of the bezel instead of feeling flat it bows out in two places. I can press it flat, but within an hour it ripples again.

This has me very concerned about the long-term quality of these thin bezels as heat and humidity change in the home. So she is being returned to Dell.

I had high hopes for the system, but it still doesn't match the build quality of a Macbook Air. Depressing, because I REALLY love the matte screen, but for $1100 I expect excellent quality control.

I'd be curious to know if anyone else is experiencing the same problem, as its easy to miss at first. Run your fingers simultaneously down the left and right bezels. Are they both smooth and flat?

 

I received my FHD XPS and have to say that I am impressed with the design / built etc. but not impressed at all with the screen

Perhaps it is because I am used to a 1366 x 768 screen but untill now I have not been able to get the best in terms of size or color
I have tried the 125% with increased font but then I cannot even see the names of my contacts in Skype (even with the compatibility setting to disable scaling )

I have currently gone back to 150% again because for most office applications this is better

Can someone advice me what are the settings they are using? Also in terms of font size
If you have changed the colors to have a brighter more realistic color I would love if you could share them with me

 

^^ I also found the screen disappointing (see my other threads on main page).

Probably other people like their screen more? Don't know if somebody is really impressed with the FHD

 

The windows defender (and/or some antivirus software ) is by default scheduled to do a full system scan at a point when the system is not used. If you start using it, the scan will be suspended.

So if you got a fresh windows or re-installed one, at some point the CPU will go up due to that scan. Please keep that in mind when running new system and reporting high CPU usage & fan noise to check that process or disable the scan all together.

Also, on some windows updates, the actual update will be deployed when the system is idle. It is stated in the update info, just don't remember which one exactly.

 

That sounded like a really bad screen. Why didn't you opt for home service? Also while home service is a good thing I still feel a bit deprived of those few days where I couldn't use a machine I purchased to the full extent of its purpose.

edit: even if it were for a day. Good thing I was off during those days.

 

Curious about some of the similarities in the edge light seepage patterns on a number of XPS 13's I took a good look at the screen with a solid white background ( http://www.ledr.com/colours/white.htm). Looking carefully at the lower edge of the screen (where I had not noticed any bleed in normal use) I believe I can see a faint pattern from the LEDs that are providing the backlight. Given the pattern I see and the fact that the screen has minimal top and side bezels it makes sense that the display is edge lit from the lower edge.

The main panels of the 4 XPS 13's I have seen in person showed minimal backlight bleed except for the very edge of the left and right sides. The intensity of the edge light leakage also falls of gradually with distance from the bottom of the screen which is again consistent with the screen being edge lit from the lower bezel. Interestingly enough, with the exception of the very edges of the lower left and right sides of the screen, I find the screen has exceptional brightness uniformity. It seems that what Dell wasn't able to do was sufficiently seal the edges of screen. This is different than the backlight bleed I have seen on other panels in that in the XPS it seems to fall off dramatically within a mm or two of the edge of the screen and is more noticeable on white that black (looking at my screen dead on with a pure black display is is next to impossible to detect). It is almost as though light is creeping around the edge of the panel.

Note that for all my detective work, I still find the screen a delight to work with. Software (i.e. Windows 8.1) aside, this is as close to the perfect laptop as I have used to date. The only improvements I would like to see are a software fix for the two finger scroll trackpad delay (though I do seem to have adjusted from the MacBook Air I was using regularly), a gorilla glass or similar trackpad to prevent the build of of body oil (Apple's aluminum really works wonders in the staying young department!) and, yes, a little less light leakage from lower sides of the panel.

 

I don't believe I've seen a response to the comment above? I am also very interested in knowing the sleep drain data. IHO 10 hrs of battery life isn't worth a darn if you pick up the laptop after a few days and its dead. I once had a MacBook Air and seemed like it could hold a charge forever. I would expect nothing less from a laptop of this cost and as a direct competitor to the MacBook Air. I'm especially interested in the XPS 9343 (touch screen) model but any data with settings used would be helpful in deciding whether to purchase this product or not. Thanks in advance for any help.

 

You're correct, I haven't gotten a reply yet. I wish to add that it might be an issue with my laptop as it doesn't seem to sleep properly. It's not like the screen doesn't go off, or that the fan doesn't stop, but I just saw in the Windows Defender log that it had done a routine scan in the middle of the night when the laptop should have been sleeping (no pun intended). I can hear a slight electronic sound from beneath the computer after I have put it to sleep. No idea if that's to be expected, really.

I'm in the middle of some deadline work, so I don't have the opportunity to play around with settings and such. But would appreciate some tips anyway.

 

Mind if I ask the price you mention is in USD or CAD? The same configuration I can find on Dell.ca is CAD$1399 +tax, way too expensive... Where did you get the deal?

 

So you haven't let it sit say overnight and observed the battery drain? If you wish you could run an energy report which will give you some idea of performance. Checkout http://lifehacker.com/5526542/how-much-battery-life-does-sleep-mode-really-drain. Only take a minute. I would appreciate any info about percent drain over time and what power plan you are using. Any other takers out there?

 

I've tested this past night and 8 hours of sleep ("high performance" profile) used up only 2%.

 

I'm seriously considering an XPS 13, I5/8GB/128GB FHD. I thought I've save a bit and grab the 128GB ssd and then upgrade it myself to 512GB. The XP941 would be nice, but is still very expensive. Any other suggestion for a high performance m.2 500GB drive?

 

There is a hibernate option I have set mine so when I close the lid it sleeps and when I press the power button it hibernates. I don't usually leave it powered on over night but I did try it the first few days I had it and I was surprised by how much got used. I borrowed a MacBook Air from work and gave it a full charge before Christmas and only used it for the occasional web surfing session or Chromecasting and took it back to the office today and it still had 7% left. It had been powered on all that time that is damn impressive and this is from a guy that calls OSX a Fisher Price OS.

 

I'm guessing that "CA sales tax" refers to California, not Canada...

 

In the Bios there's the option to stop charging at 90% to prevent overcharging which can have an effect on battery life. But is this even relevant anymore for the new XPS 13? Is the tech good enough that keeping it in all day long wont have an effect?

 

He is almost certainly referring to US prices. In Canada, it actually is much cheaper to purchase your XPS 13 from the Microsoft Store than direct from Dell Canada. When I was comparing the first 2 configurations available from Microsoft, the price of the equivalent specced model was usually about $200 more at Dell. I think a big reason for this was that the prices between the US and Canadian Microsoft Stores were equal for many of their products, and they've been slow to update their prices to reflect the weak Canadian dollar.

The XPS 13 very recently had its price increased at the MS Store, although it wasn't hit as hard as some of the other models. The QHD/8GB RAM/256GB HD model, for example, increased from $1299 to $1399 CAD, but will still cost $1599-1699 from Dell Canada. I'm not sure if they will be increased even further, but it seems possible. Another Lenovo notebook had its price increased from $999 -matching its US price- to $1299.

Also keep in mind that you can also get a 10% discount if you have some way to take advantage of their education discount.

edit: I should also add that all 3 configurations have been sold out on the microsoftstore.ca website for about a week now, so you will need a brick and mortar store near you should you decide to take advantage of the deal.

 

ok ive had the i5, 8gb, 128 ssd, standard screen for about 2 weeks and the battery life truly does not even compete with what the say. wtf. I prob get 6 hours IF im lucky. all im doing is browsing the web and using excel and access.

6 hours of battery and they claim 15 hours. ********

also I have a question. when the pc gets down to 10%, I get a warning. when it goes down to 7% I get another warning. but then when it reaches 6% or so it just goes dead on me. ill check how much time I have left and itll say 22 minutes, but then it will just die. is there some feature that's on that has it go off even when I have 20+ minutes left?

 

Yes, I was one of the folk that snapped up the QHD/8GB RAM/256GB HD for $1299 CAD. At the time I ordered I actually wondered whether it was a mistake on the part of the MS store, I also wondered whether they would actually bill me in USD! But no, that was the real price I was billed in Canadian dollars. The unit shipped from the USA, arrived in 3 days with the standard Canadian taxes applied.

 

What broswer are you using? Anything but IE currently reduces battery life by a number of hours (Chrome is the worst, takes like 3-4 hours off the battery life). Check out the results of testing UltrabookReview got running the exact same tests in IE and in Chrome:

(~9 h 20 minutes of use) – 1080p fullscreen video on Youtube in Internet Explorer, Balanced Mode, keyboard illumination OFF, screen at 70%, Wi-Fi ON;

(~5 h of use) – 1080p fullscreen video on Youtube in Chrome, Balanced Mode, keyboard illumination OFF, screen at 70%, Wi-Fi ON;

 

You sure you don't mean sleep option instead of hibernate? I only have sleep as an option, even though I tried to activate hibernate through the normal procedure described at multiple webpages.

 

Intel has some connected sleep where wifi goes on and off so that outlook or whatever can connect even in sleep. There is also a usb charge while sleep. Both are battery eaters and should be turned off!

 

Connected sleep can be disabled using the Dell app.
USB charge while asleep is a BIOS configurable feature and is off by default.

 

What "Dell app"? And where?

Did a powercfg.exe sleepstudy which revealed that probably intel smart sound technologoy and intel core usb xhci controller are the perpetrators. I can't a way to turn this off without going to BIOS, so I tried another solution which is to turn off something called quick powerup under power options. I'll try and see if that works. If not I'll try disconnecting my MX Anywhere mouse, and last I'll try turning off the Intel functions.

 

Sorry - the app is an Intel one, not Dell: "Intel Smart Connect Technology"

 

I do mean hibernate, I will post a picture later. I did double check to make sure that I had hibernate as a option last night.

As a test I put the laptop to sleep last night and when I powered it up this morning it had only lost 1% but I did get the bios screen so I wonder after x number of hours the device is now hibernating instead of sleeping.

 

Hibernate is an option. If you're missing it, jump to command prompt (WIN+X -> Command Prompt as Admin) and type powercfg /H on.

 

Right. Just to check, do you mean that you have an app installed which controls the Intel Smart Connect Techonology? Cause I can't find that on mine... I just assumed I had to do something about it in BIOS.

Didn't make any difference, butI haven't rebooted yet if that's required. Thanks for the tip though.

 

Yep.
If you don't have it for some reason, you can download it from the Support, Drivers and Downloads section of the Dell site: http://downloads.dell.com/FOLDER02618229M/1/9343_Chipset_Application_V7NMF_WN_5.0.10.2907_A00.EXE

 

I had very SLOW keyboard input lag... going with left/right arrow through text was really slow... as well typing

I found the following solution

Intel Rapid Store Technology => Disable Link Power Management => reboot

the "Link Power Management" apparently tries to save energy when there is no I/O

Some people have been talking about "touchpad input lag" also... plz let me know if my tip solved your issues

 

Weird. I get an error "Platform Check Failed: Intel Smart Connect Technology is not compatible with the currently installed configuration of the OS". I have the i7 5600u version by the way, and the driver you suggested doesn't show when searching for drivers for my device number.

 

Weird indeed.
Mine is the i7-5500U but it looks like the 5600U also supports this Intel chipset feature.

 

I have LPM enabled and have never experienced any lag.

 

So the new Macbook Air will have the PCIe-based onboard flash SSD.. I wonder why Dell couldn't do it because its a freaking DELL!!!

 

Hope it's replaceable.

Sent from my SM-N910P using Tapatalk

 

Here is how to make the hibernate appear on the start menu.

http://www.intowindows.com/how-to-enable-hibernate-in-windows-8/

 

Maybe I got it wrong but what seems to be the problem? It has been tested that you can put in pcie m.2 drives (like the Samsung XP941) and it is quite fast. This way you can replace the drive for a larger one later and still get good speeds. Just saying...

 

The option doesn't appear on mine.

 

http://slickdeals.net/f/7624798-del...6-gb-1080p-non-touch-979?page=3&rpid=73926312
The 10% off may have expired. Just sign up for a new Dell account and find the new coupon there.

 

Not sure what else to recommend. The option is there by default when you do a clean Windows install. Otherwise, powercfg and other suggested methods do the job.

 

You can install a PCIe SSD in the XPS 13 if you want to. It isn't really that big of a deal anyway, PCIe only really shows it's speed with large contiguous r/w, with small files the bottleneck is the flash and controller and PCIe and SATA even out. Small files is where you see most of the benefit in the real world with SSDs.

 

I know I have had that lag. Thanks for this I cannot comment as to whether or not it has actually resolved it, but at the moment I have not been able to duplicate it since I made the change. How did you come by this?

If only the chrome scrolling issues would go away this would be just about a perfect laptop.

 

Sorry for the late reply. I really like the sleeve. I'm fairly certain it's not real leather, but the fit is spot on. It's very snug at first, but does loosen a little after carrying the laptop in it. The quality of the stitching, lining, and of the sleeve as a whole is very good, especially for the price point. As for protection, it's probably not going to do a whole lot other than keep the laptop from getting scratched up in a backpack, which is what I wanted it for. Check out some of the reviews on amazon, it's very well reviewed on there.
http://www.amazon.com/Snugg-Surface-Pro-Case-Guarantee/dp/B00M31BPOY/
http://imgur.com/a/yNDml

 

I just purchased a the "touch" XPS 13 and can confirm loss of less than 2% overnight. That's the good news. The bad news is I only got 6.5 hrs of "light to normal" use today. No videos just Office, web etc. Only WiFi no bluetooth. I was expecting least 9 hrs. I believe I got around 5 hrs from my Yoga 2 11? May have to give this a 2nd thought at this $$$.