Dell XPS 13 Ultrabook Review & Owner's Thread

ok, so a little late to the party, but just got my XPS 13 today. Really appreciate this thread and all who have contributed. Will spend tonight playing with it and cleaning up some of the trial ware that's on it.

Very nicely packaged that's for sure.

 

Huge improvement with the new track pad drivers! Thanks!

 

Yes. the ".36" driver has made the trackpad buttery smooth. Only issue I have now is that it takes forever for webpages to load. I suppose it could be my router, but my previous laptop never had this problem. Is there a driver I should be installing from the Dell Support site? I see many there that say recommended. Should I be installing all of those?

 

Not sure if this is an issue or the way it is supposed to work, but my XPS doesn't always wake from sleep when opening the lid. I am forced to press the power button once or twice to get it to wake up. Seems to happen more the longer I have had the lid closed?

As for the 2 button click, it never worked from the settings even on the old drivers. The only way to get it to work was to edit the registry. Seems like something they would have had built in.

 

Sounds like Intel Rapid Start kicked in. Does it happen two hours or more after you close the lid?

 

Do you happen to know what edit to registry is required? I tried searching this thread but the search results in nothing for the term "registry"...which is odd.

 

Some have reported success using the 6230 drivers from Intel.com, but we have the same or newer revision in test now. I have no ETA, but I can find out and post back.

Make sure you're waiting a few seconds after the first press of the power button. There is a delay between button press and front LED on. It could be, as noted above, that the system is moving from S2 to S3 state while the lid is closed based on the BIOS Advanced tab iRST settings.

 

Hey Bill I am trying to download the new trackpad drivers but it says file not found?

EDIT: Sorted, needed to use Dell Download Manager.

 

Wow just downloaded the new trackpad drivers. I was not having as bad of an experience as others had mentioned or so I thought. Once I downloaded the new driver and saw how it was supposed to run I now know it was sucking for me as well.

 

Same here, the new drivers are as smooth as butter! I went ahead and did the A03 BIOS as well, no issues at all so far, I don't think I have even heard the fan turn on once since I updated.

 

Yep. I noticed the blinking light goes out after 2 hours and then the xps is in some weird state where opening the lid doesn't do anything? Can Rapid start be turned off or extended? I looked but didn't see any configuration options for Rapid Start.

 

You have to set it in the BIOS. Hit F2 when doing a cold boot and you'll see the option in there.

 

Thanks!

Now for a probably a silly question. Having come from years of Apple laptops and not having to worry about such things what are the pro/cons of keeping rapid start enabled? I tired the googles but couldn't find anything useful.

 

Rapid start is new to the Windows world as well. Unlike traditional Hibernate which requires you to grow through the BIOS post and them start the restore process, Rapid Start saves the hibernation data to a special partition, completely powers the system off to save battery. When you turn it back on, it skips the BIOS post and windows startup screen and restores the state in around 4 seconds. You get all the power saving benefits of hibernation, but the quick startup of just sleep.


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I am here: http://tapatalk.com/map.php?uurryx

 

Rapid start is like what hibernate was in windows before - in some ways better, but a little less configurable.

When you close the lid, your box enters sleep - power is supplied to RAM and opening the lid within 2 hours (before hibernate/rapid start) and your machine springs to life instantly. The downside to sleep is that if power is lost, RAM is lost and your running machine is off - all things open are gone. Like pulling the power cord on a desktop. Also, sleep uses battery - so you can not stay in sleep mode forever.

Rapid start actually saves the entire state of the machine - everything in RAM - writes it to disk and then shuts the machine off. When you wake the machine it copies this data from disk to ram and you are running right where you left off. It does a few seconds more then resume from sleep, but it uses no power.

Some are concerned with the writes to the SSD, but it is plenty durable. You will replace the machine first generally.

Rapid start also has limited configuration options, but if you close the lid and forget about your machine your data is safe. If you rely only on sleep, your machine could shut down and you could lose your work.

I was dissapointed that mac never really had a good hibernate option that was configurable. It only kicks in when the battery is ultra low.

 

OK, just realized it is related to the 92% observation - os reports 92% but plugging in charger it says 100%, so if i do that with system off, light doesn't blink - even though I thought it was only at 92%.

Hopefully we can get some more accurate battery stats.

 

I have had a few instances where the trackpad is completely unresponsive. It lasts 5-8 secs. Pressing a key on the keyboard will instantly make the trackpad work again.

Also the display icon in the task bar checkbox always comes back checked after a reboot. I uncheck it, each time, but it is always back.

 

I've also noticed this 92% thing.

On another note, I installed the new cypress drivers and as everyone else is saying, it's super smooth. However, has anyone tried zooming in and out of something (say a word document or web page) by holding control and doing the trackpad scrolling? When I do it, it's very unresponsive and just has spasms. Even had an instance where it just froze up and after a good 20 seconds exploded in a whirlwind of cursor movement and zooming. Anyone else have this?

 

I am just the opposite. I felt Apple did it right. I don't need options. Sleep unless you run out of power then hibernate.

 

Is anyone using BitLocker on this laptop? If I enable TPM in the BIOS, do I need any additional drivers for Windows 7?

 

for the 92% battery people.

Have you left it plugged in for a while, so that you know for sure it's at 100%? I noticed on my MacBook Air, even though the charger light turned green (indicating that it's done), it wasn't at a full 100% when I turned it on. Wondering if something similar.

 

Yes. Been plugged in since the last 5 hours, unplugged at 100%, clicked reply to your comment and within these 15 seconds, its dropped to 95%.

 

After having used the new trackpad driver for half a day, I am still not happy. Every once in a while, the trackpad will not register taps as clicks, however hard you try. You have to press the left click for it to start working again. Not sure if this is a problem with just my unit or a driver issue.

Edit, add: This mostly occurs on the when tapping the areas marked as palm-sensitive. Even though the keyboard hasn't been used for a while.

 

@Dell-Bill_B

I installed the new trackpad drivers a couple of hours ago and it works supersmooth. Thanks for the good effort!
So if my keyboard would stop giving me double letters every now and then, this laptop would be a keeper. I sendt you a PM about a swap some days ago, so I hope Jesse will contact me soon, before the 30 (21?) days return window closes.

 

I think I forwarded him the PM before he had enough posts to have PM access. I'll send again and give him a heads up. Sorry about that.

 

Does the trackpad driver just install over the top of the old one or do I need an unistall reboot reinstall?

 

Hello and welcome to NBR!

Better play it safe, so uninstall current one, reboot and install the new one

 

And I don't like this approach because if i know i am traveling or for some reason not using my laptop for hours - maybe just going to bed - but i want to save state for the next day or later, i can't do it on a mac. It is either off or sleep. I like the windows option to hibernate after x minutes of sleep.

But Apple removes choices and that is why I appreciate their products, but i don't like them for my own use.

 

One more thing i noticed - KB backlight always starts at 100% although i always use it 50% or have it off during the day. I think it is a reboot behavior.

I hope we get more feedback (and better drivers) for ambient light sensor and what it controls. I also want to set the kb backlight to just off or low - remove the high option all together.

Still loving the product.

 

I just recived the XPS 13 UB. Installed Windows 8 CP and the new trackpad drivers. Now, the 2-finger scrolling does not work. Anyone else has the same issue?

 

I'm having the same problem...none of the two+ finger gestures work with the new trackpad drivers (though some three finger gestures make me feel better about the two finger gestures not working)

Joking aside, the finger tracking and palm detection are spot on in the new drivers. I haven't had a single problem with window refocusing or double letters since the update yesterday...everything else seems broken: scrolling areas, gestures, two finger clicking, etc. If I try to scroll using the scroll areas, the pointer will lock up for 5 or so seconds, then replay everything I did to the trackpad while it was frozen (which makes the mouse pointer seem oddly possessed). Touching the trackpad rapidly while its in this paused state will send streams of keyboard characters to the active widow (literaly character garbage).

I thought my problem might be related to Windows 8 CTP, so I wiped the system and restored it to the factory Win7....same behavior.

I have a tiny Bluetooth mouse that I use now with the laptop; the trackpad issue is the only insurmountable negative to this otherwise wonderful ultrabook.

 

The 2 finger scrolling was actually working in Windows 7. Tried it before I installed Windows 8.
2 finger horizontal scrolling is working. But not vertical. Strange.

 

Anyone else having problems with tap-to-click after installing the new touchpad drivers? The main problem is that it sometimes fail to register my tap, and I end up having t tap 3-5 times before anything happens. This is a serious problem to me, since this in my most frequently used input method.

 

Yes, I mentioned this a page or two ago. This especially happens if you are tapping in the palm sensitive areas defined in Cypress settings, so I try to avoid tapping there. But still, this is a big downer for me!

 

Did not see that, thanks! I usually tap in the middle of the trackpad, so the palm rejection should not cause this problem. I have no problems with the whole trackpad being unresponsive for 5-8 secs, just the tapping not responding. Yes, big downer. I would rather have a 2 finger scroll working poorly than this problem, so I guess it's back to the 15z drivers.

 

New trackpad drivers installed. Two-finger scrolling smooth as butter, and tap-clicking seems to work flawlessly. Palm rejection also working well!
Thank you DELL!!

 

This tip is for anyone using a USB connected Mobile-Broadband device...
I just discovered why my Internet connection kept locking up, and it has to do with the Advanced Power Options, USB Settings, Selective Suspend Setting. Had to change both "On Battery" and "Plugged in" from "Enabled" to "Disabled" to prevent the laptop from putting the device into a low-power standby state!
My Internet connection has been rock solid ever since!

 

reporting in on the latest trackpad drivers. I had two finger scrolling and two finger tap (which acts as a right click) working decently with the old xps 15z drivers. This new version makes the two finger scrolling very smooth in comparison, however I am unable to get two finger tap click to work. I've gone into the registry to ensure that TwoFingerRightTapClickEnabled is set to 1, as well as TwoFingerRightTapClickGui also set to 1.

Two finger tap does nothing. anyone else experiencing this same thing? Love the two finger scrolling though, it's much better in this version.

 

I'm hoping to join this camp of users once the Ivy Bridge and higher res screen debut, hopefully it's like the 1080p matte IPS display of the new ux31's!

 

day 2 - installed the new touchpad drivers and all works as its suposed to.
I'm really happy with this thing so far....now just have to finish moving all my files over from the old laptop....

 

Bought the case logic PAS 213 sleeve for this notebook, it's designed for Macbook 13 and is a bit loose but I didn't want to try the 12.1 inch sleeve fearing it would be too tight. Anyone successfully find a perfect fitting sleeve, please let me know.

On a related note, does anybody find that the cord management solution work for the adapter? I found that mine has that strap on the cord, but no way to close the strap as the "pin" to clip the cord on seems to be missing/broken.

 

anyone else have the hiberfil.sys file taking up 3GB+ of space? powercfg -h off fails as hibernate is not supported on this platform. I think it is from before the 8gb intel partition was created.

I can't delete it even from an elevated command prompt, but i have not tried safe mode yet.

Never mind - even as administrator, no one had permission to it. Once i added everyone full control (quick and dirty) it deleted fine.

 

Aargh...the new trackpad driver is slowly getting to me. Misses to register a lot of taps as clicks. Received a call from Dell today asking if everything was fine with the system, told them about the trackpad problems, the guy said to call customer support for it. :-(

 

I picked up a timbuktu case that is also a little large...I saw Dell has a leather sleeve for 49.00 - looks pretty nice

 

I agree with that. The new touchpad drivers are an improvement but they arent perfect. Using the trackpad sometimes the cursor jumps to somewhere else and you end up clicking something u didn't want to. Sometimes its really nice and smooth and then it gets sluggish again. I hope that Bill and Dell keep on working on improving the trackpad.

 

Love the .26 and A03 drivers.... palm rejection appears to be working well and as said by others, two finger scroll is butter smooth.

Bought the rickshaw tweed MBA 13 sleeve... its a bit larger than I would like, think I might send it back and demand that they make their custom made product custom to fit my laptop

 

The .26 touchpad driver helped immensely, but when tech support tried to help me install A03, we got a 105 error. Supposedly that means the wireless board is bad, so they are sending a guy to my house. Can't help but be impressed with the support, but unfortunate that it's so needed. I'm contemplating sending it back and waiting for the Ivy bridge config. I really love this laptop, but battery life is a big issue for me. I fly across the planet freqently, and I'm not sure I can get 2 movies out of this thing, especially because you can't change the battery. I'm assuming that Ivy bridge will help a lot in that area.

Does anyone know if I'm assuming correctly?

 

Two finger tap (for simulating right-mouse button clicking on objects)?
Why would you need such a feature when there is a dedicated area on the lower-right corner of the trackpad specifically for this? Also, even though you have located registry entries, I'm not convinced this is even a feature offered by the Cypress Trackpad. I looked all over the Cypress Configuration screen (including the "2-finger Gestures" tab page), and there is no mention of a two-finger tap action supported.

 

If you really want to get two movies out of this, then why not look at tweaking the battery settings and proc state to achieve this... I had thought that some of the reviews coming out were saying with light use the battery was great..

Or, consider an ipad for movies

 

Damn, that looks elegant. Now I feel bad for buying a sleeve meant for Macbook 13. Any idea how you can buy just this sleeve?

EDIT: NVM, got it. http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/...e_bnrank=0&baynote_irrank=0&~ck=baynoteSearch & http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/...e_bnrank=0&baynote_irrank=0&~ck=baynoteSearch
I wish Dell provides this to all customers providing such valuable "feedback" on this forum. Are you listening Bill? :-D