Dell XPS 13 2015 Skylake Infinity Display Owners Thread

Two power questions ...

1. Has anyone found a decent (and economical) solution for powering/charging the XPS 13 in an car/truck/boat (e.g from cigarette lighter)?
2. Has anyone been able to power a USB (especially USB 3.1 type 2) device. like an SSD in an external USB enclosure from the Thunderbolt/USB-C port? Mine works fine from either of the USB3 ports, but not from the TB/USB-C port. I would prefer the latter, as I should be able to double the speed.

 

I've had mine since November, and the battery (spec on paper: 56Wh) is still charging to 57,532 mWh, according to Windows' battery report.

 

I've had mine since November, and the battery (spec on paper: 56Wh) is still charging to 57,532 mWh, according to Windows' battery report.

 

Can I get some real world examples of battery life on the XPS 13 1080p version? Have no interest in the QHD...that resolution on a 13" laptop does nothing for me. I'd rather have the longer battery life than sharper screen.

 

7-12 hours, depending on usage. I use BatteryBar to track current power consumption when battery life is currently important. If you can keep the CPU activity very low by tracking whatever is ramping it up, it's easy to achieve >10 hours.

 

New Intel graphics driver released for XPS 13 9350:

Version
Version 20.19.15.4454, A05

Fixes & Enhancements
Fixes:
- Fixed PowerManagement on adapter status.

http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/Drivers/DriversDetails?driverId=4XM7X

 

the xps 13 of my girlfriend have some problem, after an hour of work the display show some pink area and the only way to solve the problem is reboot the machine...

bad driver or maybe...other problems ??

 

The new Windows Insider build 14376 from the Fast Ring has improved the touchpad significantly! Now it is definitely usable.

 

USA 30% off Dell Outlet through July 4. That's where I got mine and it's perfect. YMMV. 9350s show up and are gone in minutes. You have to refresh the screen and catch them when they're there. Good chance to get one at a good price! http://www.dell.com/learn/us/en/28/...4003224100086690&dgc=SM&cid=161&lid=502186014

 

Thunderbolt drivers and firmware updated.

http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/Drivers/DriversDetails?driverId=D91CC
http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/Drivers/DriversDetails?driverId=32P2C

Someone notice any improvement?

 

I saw these today but couldn't update the firmware because apparently my bios isn't new enough. Bios is the 1.3.3. Maybe those on the removed 1.4.4 will have success.

 

I'm running 1.4.4 and it told me the update had already been installed. Don't know...

 

Me too, but the drivers installed fine. I do believe I see better stability on the TB dock I have.

 

All help is appreciated!
https://www.reddit.com/r/Dell/comments/4qti7v/xps_9350_high_gpucpu_power_usage_after_reboot/

 

I read through this thread before buying so for future buyers here's my initial impressions of my XPS 13 9350 i5-6200 8gb, 256gb, FHD. My last three laptops were a Dell XPS M1330, an Alienware MX11 and a Lenovo X301.

On the first day I was very disappointed with the keyboard but by the second day I had adjusted and found it acceptable, better than most shallow travel chiclet keyboards. It has enough feedback for quick accurate typing. I'm dyslexic since a brian injury twelve years ago and inexplicably it hasn't been troubling me nearly as much on this keyboard so far. The track pad is the best I've experienced. It's the first time I haven't had separate buttons but the clicking is excellent save for having to get used to the size of the pad. This morning I ran it on battery for four and a half hours including a Netflix movie at maximum brightness and the battery was still 58% at that point. I expect my light surfing and writing will give me about 9 hours of usage. I love the screen. Now it's my first IPS so I'm not comparing to the latest and greatest, just responding to its usefulness. I sized my browser to 125% which is working nicely. Colors and detail are very pleasant. At 70% brightness I could read the screen comfortably in direct sunlight. I'm across the Juan de Fuca Strait from British Columbia so the northern latitude no doubt helps a little. I've used it on my lap quite a bit but with my taste in old games wasn't able to heat up the bottom above mildly warm. Oh, and the sound is surprisingly good for something this small.

Basically this does everything I need with plenty of power and battery life to spare. The MX11 gave me a love of the smaller size and the X301 made me appreciate thinness and quality of construction. This seems to be the best of both. I even got the full size SD slot I wanted so can't really fault anything unless it be the light leakage around the keys. If I get four years out of it I'll be happy, my last XPS is still working after a decade, it's the machine I went back to temporarily after the MX11 and X301 died

I bought this as a refurb on ebay for $818. Save for a fingerprint on the palm rest it is in new, perfect condition..

 

anyone has this problem ??

 

1.4.4
http://www.dell.com/support/home/us...-13-9350-laptop&languageCode=en&categoryId=BI

 

Never heard of such a thing. I would contact support maybe. Does it appear if you leave the bios screen on for the same time? if so I guess its not driver/windows related.

 

Nice. Thanks. "USB-C stability" is always welcome.

 

only after 1-2hour and only in windows...during the boot the display show all as perfect.

 

Try leaving it on the bios screen for 2 hours and see if it shows up. If so, it's a hardware/warranty issue.

If not, it might be fixed with a driver update/rollback.

 

here's a screenshot... tomorrow i try to see if in two hour in bios is the same or not...

 

Run the bios test to be sure, but that looks like a hardware issue to me.

Good luck.

 

@seb87: Get in contact with Dell Mail Support, explain your issue with the display and ask for a solution. This really seems to be hardware related.

BIOS 1.4.4 and new Thunderbolt driver finally solved intermittent display flickering after standby with Dell WD15 dock.
Now the WD15 dock is working fine.
Wonder why Thunderbolt3 Firmware Update NVM16_A04_2.16.01.003 is not flashable when NVM16_A03_02.12.07 is already installed.
Seems to be a bug with the firmware updater, because both are NVM16. Therefore the app thinks the firmware is already installed, even if A04 is newer.


Still the XPS 13 fan is almost always on with USB-C peripherals attached. Hope this will get fixed soon, it's driving me nuts.

*sssssssshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh*

 

The USB-C / TB3 port now works more stable with the new bios. But I cannot update to the latest TB3 firmware either...

One weird thing now is that it seems that when I put the PC to sleep, and then later resumes with a click on the power button, the screen stays black, the keyboard backlight lights up and nothing more happen. Weird and annoying.

 

Does anyone know if the Intel® Tri-Band Wireless-AC 18260 M.2 version work in our XPS 9350? And if so, what would be the differences with the 8260?

Thanks.

 

18260 has WiGig has well - super fast wireless connectivity but with extreme short range. I havent heard of any compatible devices I can think of.
Maybe its too early... I would not pay extra for it, rather get the 8260...

http://www.intel.com/content/dam/ww...and-wireless-ac-wigig-18260-product-brief.pdf

 

Would not be necessary to use specific antenna with 18260?

 

Many people seem to have persistent problems with that Dell USB-C dock.
I use a Monoprice USB-C to Displayport and USB-C to HDMI adapters and I have never had any problems with them on any BIOS version.

 

Thanks. I'll stick to the 8260 then.

My Monoprice USB-C to DisplaPort never worked (others did), although my HDMI did.

 

I plan to buy the DELL DA200 adapter. Has anyone tried to use it with 9350?

 

I have it. I had a dell $202 coupon to use so I bought this. Should have bought the USB-C dock..oh well. Form factor is wonderful...quite small and inobtrusive. Does what it is supposed to do.

*NOTE* : You may or may not have problems with the DA200 blinking in and out of hardware manager. If you do, lower the wireless card output to 75%. This option is found in the advance options of the wireless card. That should fix the problem.

 

I have one os these working with my 9350.

Works like a charm.

 

So are there any slim chargers available for the XPS 13? There's nothing wrong with the charger that comes with the Laptop, but I can't help but feel it's bulky when putting it into the laptop sleeve.

 

I recently acquired the 9350 signature edition. Is there any way to enable an edge swipe or gesture for internet back? The standard used to be a 3 finger swipe left, but Win10 makes that a switch app gesture.

 

For anyone interested in a dual monitor setup (or 3, if you include the laptop display), just got the StarTech Thunderbolt 3 to dual DisplayPort from eBay (model TB32DP2). Works great! No issues thus far - running dual 1440p monitors.

I chose this vs a dock since the adapter was $80 vs $200+.

 

Hi guys, i was wondering if an xps 13 fhd i7 8gb ram is able to handle a 4k external monitor 27" easily. Any ideas?

 

I don't think you'll be gaming at 4K, but it should be find for office, internet etc.

 

No ok let's say a 1080p video in background + other chrome tabs and an ide. I'd like to know cpu usage, ram consumption and general system experience.

 

So, been thinking about buying the XPS 13" for a while now. What do you guys think about the following configs?


A. $944 after coupon
Dell outlet NEW (?cust return, open box)
XPS 13 9350, i7-6560U, 13.3QHD+,Touch, Intel Iris Graphics 540, Windows 10 Home, 256SSD, 8GB RAM



B. $769 after coupon
Dell outlet NEW (?cust return, open box)
XPS 13 9350, i5-6300U, 13.3FHD, nontouch, Intel HD Graphics 520, Windows 10 Pro, 256SSD, 8GB RAM


C. $1,399
Costco
XPS 13 9350, i7-6560U, 13.3QHD+,Touch, Intel Iris Graphics 540, Windows 10 Home, 512SSD, 16GB RAM

 

Personally I'd say definitely B - hits the sweet spot on all specs and price. Only go for QHD ones if that extra resolution and touch input are important for you (ask yourself why, and if this is worth less battery life, glossy screen, extra weight, app scaling issues etc), likewise read reviews of the Iris graphics models carefully, as for many the heat & battery tradeoff isn't worth it for the minimal graphics performance gains.

 

So am I correct in that there's no model with:
* 16GB ram
* 512GB SSD
* 1080p FHD screen / non-iris chip
?

I'd be using the laptop for software development, and don't need/want touch/glossy screen if it will impact battery performance and thermal (i.e. cpu) performance, but I really need 16GB of ram.

 

I agree. System B seems very good for the price. I don't need "touch" but the screen resolution would be nice. Battery life is very important to me.

Other issue is i5 vs i7. I know the i7 is not quad core, but it would be nice for occasional video editing.

 

I'm buying it for the same purpose. I'm not sure about 16gb ram. Do you think 8gb are not enough for sw development? Which sw will you use?

 

Yeah it's mostly enough, but sometimes I set up almost a complete environment on a virtual machine to do some local integration testing, like database servers, web servers etc and start some heavy automated integration tests. That eats up ram pretty quickly when running alongside 30+ chrome tabs, visual studio with resharper, sql management studio with plugins and so forth.

If you use something like NCover for continous testing while you code, that takes it even further.

 

I edit quite a bit of video on the i5 and have no problems with 1080p/60 but wouldn't want to work with 4K for too long. Adobe Premiere CC runs like a dog on the 9350 with HD 520, glitching out regularly, but PowerDIrector is super smooth & quick. Much comes down to how the software is optimized for the hardware. Even the Macbook with just Core m3 can handle smooth 1080p editing in Final Cut Pro X .... but Adobe just seems to hate Intel or isn't willing to spend any of that sack of subscription fees on actually optimizing for Skylake & Quick Sync.

If battery life is important to you, you're not going to be happy with anything except the 9350 FHD, trust me if you go for something else it will eat away at you.

 

delete

 

For you folks wanting a 1080p config for extended battery life, make sure that you get one with an 84Whr battery, not the default 54Whr. Otherwise, you'll have to buy a replacement battery, which can be a pain.

The difference between the i5 and the i7 is just a small core frequency bump and the addition of Simultaneous Multi Threading (or Hyper Threading). For SW dev, you'll see a bump in compilation performance by adding SMT, but you'll see less benefit in other areas. Unless you're compiling something large like a Linux kernel, it's probably not crucial to have SMT and can save yourself a few bucks. This is something that you can't replace (it's soldered to the mobo), so you want to get the right one out of the gate.

As for RAM, these are VERY easily upgradable and even if you buy a 8GB model, you can buy a 16GB kit of Amazon for cheaper than they will charge you to upgrade (and you get to keep the 8GB kit).

Same goes for upgrading the HD from 256->512, so as long as you're willing to reinstall Windows.

 

Actually for these -u low voltage skews, both the i5 and i7 are dual cores with hyperthreading.

And this specific laptop has ram directly soldered onto the motherboard, so upgrading RAM is not really an option for 99% of people out there.

The only thing which is replaceable is the M.2 drive, which requires you to open up the back of the laptop since there are no easy access panels.

 

XPS 13's RAM is soldered and not upgradable.