Dell XPS 13 Ultrabook Review & Owner's Thread

Touchpad doesn't register taps as clicks many times!

 

Windows 8 compatibility on the touchpad driver. (15z's driver worked much better than the latest xps13 release). I'm not holding my breath it will come anytime soon (wait....if I hold my breath, will it come sooner?)

 

When this happens, is it when you switch from typing for a bit (no contact with the touch pad) and back to using the touch pad (contact after a period of no contact)?

 

I haven't heard any news on a Win8 driver, but I can only assume it's down the priority list a bit. I would think when we start shipping Win8 you will start to see drivers for pre-Win8 systems start to trickle in.

 

What do I have to do to use the regular Windows Hibernate feature? I think I have to disable several items in the BIOS. I want to be able to disable regular hibernate so I always use sleep mode. I am concerned about the read/write usage of the hibernate partition. Thanks anyone!

 

yes, so it's the palm rejection. Guess the timelag between the last keystroke and touchpad being unresponsive should be shorter. Personally I use up/down arrow to scroll, so when I switch between up/down arrow and touchpad I have problems. Ended up disable palmrejection, but now i have the cursor jumping all around when actually typing.

Edit: would help (at least for me ) if you could exclude the arrow keys from which keys activates palm rejection.

 

Same problem here- touch pad sometimes doesn't register taps to click, and now that you mention it magneurs, I too use the arrow keys frequently, and that's probably the problem.

 

This mostly happens when I try to use control + click to open pages in a new tab, or as other mentioned, up/down arrow followed with touchpad. Palm rejection if disabled makes typing impossible with mouse pointer flying around.

 

I still get zero function from my ambient light sensor. What is it supposed to do?

Dim/bright keyboard? Screen?

What if keyboard backlight is off, should it turn it on; If screen is bright will it dim if conditions darken?

I have gone into a dark closet and see nothing change from when machine is on my desk. Maybe my ambient light sensor is broken, but i am not sure what the behavior should be.

 

Added to the list. I already had these on the list, but was working from memory. Bad idea.

 

Thanks bill, still not sure if my hardware or something else.... but don't want a tech pulling it apart if it is something else.

 

alphadog, I have the same issue here, just got my XPS 13 Core I7 and now in my room with a lot of lights, the keyboard backlight is on...

by the way, the machine is great!

 

@gustkiller - i have an i7 as welll..... could it be related? not sure. But yes, an awesome machine. Would not trade it for anything.

 

@bill_Dell

What about the battery life reporting? I'm seeing the same issue that others have mentioned in this forum that when the battery is charged to 100% and then disconnected from the power supply, within 30 seconds the battery life is reported to be 92%. Not a big deal, but it would be nice to have accurate reporting of my battery life.

 

have anybody noticed lower sound level after installing the new sound drivers?

 

That's actually on the final list I sent over this morning.

I hope this doesn't explain the increased battery life comment a couple pages back.

 

Where can I find the old sound drivers? Can you put them back out again as "optional" or something.?

 

Interesting thread - great to see the participation and the amazing input from the Dell guys.

I bought my XPS 13 Ultrabook Friday, meaning I have been getting used to it over the last couple of days. Over the weekend I got rid of all the extra Dell (sorry) crap. I blew away the Dell Utility, RECOVERY and hibernate partitions. Now my machine is configured to dual boot Ubuntu 11.10 and Windows 7. My feeling is I would much rather the hard disk space and the SSD in this thing is more than quick enough for me to wait the 6 or so seconds it takes to boot from cold (The windows logo does no even form for me).

My verdict, without a doubt, is that this is the best laptop I have had in a long while. I wanted to wait for the Ivy Bridge based machines and fell into that cycle of waiting for something better. In Australia these things are sold in a shop called JB-HiFi and honestly, after playing with the demonstration one - I could not help myself but walk out with it. It is every bit as good as my partners macbook air. My previous machine (Dell XPS M1650) was really not a device that I really ever liked - to the point that I was not going to buy another Dell. I am already healed. This machine is taking me back to the XPS M1330 days of glory when every morning was sunny and people tripped over saying hello as I walked past them in the city.

PS. I like the keyboard font.

 

I am having difficulty with sites and programs opening when I hover the cursor. It doesn't happen all of the time and I have tried several setting changes but it is very annoying. Anyone have this experience or advice?

 

Anybody else able to attribute the loss of vertical 2 finger scroll to WinUp? We sent a note to Cypress requesting they investigate. I'll post back details as they become available.

 

I'm having the same problem, which is not only annoying but also dangerous if a button gets "pressed" unexpectedly during a transaction.

I'm new to Win 7. In Googling around, I see that this issue has been around for a long time, but it isn't clear to me whether it is due to Windows, Apps, drivers, or some combination. I've tried unchecking the "hover" option in Control Panel | Ease of Access Center | Make the Mouse Easier to Use. That seemed to help somewhat , but didn't eliminate the issue. Others have suggested turning off tapping in the trackpad driver, but I hate to do that since I'd rather tap than push the trackpad "button". I've tried changing some of the trackpad driver settings, but to no avail.

Notwithstanding this issue, I REALLY like the XPS13 and have made it my primary machine.

 

The search tool for the forum trhead isnt working. So anyone know a way to do a fixed configuration on the keyboard backligth? I set via quickstart or mobile controls to turn it off, but even if the computer goes into sleep mode, when it returns, the keyboard backlight turn on again.

 

I' d like to pose a question regarding the minidisplay port. Is the connection with hdmi sources loseless? I mean, i am planning to use it for viewing hd material in my hd tv. Does the minidisplay -> hdmi offer the same-loseless quality compared to hdmi -> hdmi connections? Image and sound wise?

 

don't know if it's due to WinUp, just know it's not working now, and was working nicely when the new driver was first installed.

4-finger desktop swipe not working now either

 

This is by far what is causing the most annoyance. I love this ultrabook so far and would highly recommend to others. Just hope Dell keeps fixing the issues/annoyances brought up in this and other forums.

 

I've done all available updates on my XPS 13 i7 and haven't lost any trackpad functionality. Two finger scrolling works great for me.

 

I have noticed a somewhat lower maximum volume level post audio update than I had before I updated. This may be an issue.

 

Yup,same here. and since the last drivers didn`t give me any trouble, I seriously want them back. With the new drivers I also get this short, high pitched beep-sound in my headset about 45 secs after I'm finished playing music. I think this is because some audio enhancing application shuts down to save battery, and what I hear is this application actually shutting down. Annoying..

Please Dell-Bill_B, can you arrange for the old drivers to be accessible again?

 

Note to self: do NOT update the audio drivers...

 

Aren't they on the DVD that came with the XPS?

 

I just got the XPS 13 Ultrabook I ordered but Dell didn't send my Tmobile hotspot unit, do they send that seperatly?

 

They do send it separately. Are you sure the unit came with it? I thought it was limited to the first 10,000, but I could be wrong.

 

When I made my order over the phone they said I would receive one.

 

OK, yes it does ship separately.

 

Still miffed that I didn't get the T-Mo hotspot because I picked my XPS 13 up at one of Dell's kiosks. Oh well...

 

It's still available on Dell's support website, if you click on the current one and then look under "Other Versions".

 

I ordered over the phone and didn't get it either, and I ordered on Mar 9. Is there a way to confirm if I was qualified to receive the hotspot? Would love to have one.

 

You know it's not really that great a deal. You only get 1GB worth of "free" data / month. I already had a verizon 4g hot spot that I actually get 4g service where with this t-mobile hotspot it is definitely "spotty".

 

found it . awesome, thanks!

 

Possibly but if you are sold something shouldn't you receive it?

 

There is definitely an issue with the new audio driver. I did a non-scientific sound check wih the new audio driver and then downgraded to the prior version. The earlier version definitely boosts a higher volume.

 

I was just going to sell my T-MO, but a moot point now, as I just setup a return of the XPS13. I really love the thing, and have no problems with fans or 2 finger scrollling; it's just that the Dell technisions could not get my wifi to work right. It would work just fine after a restart and then slowly detetiorate until it took 20 minutes to log on to any new web page. I literally spent 2-3 hours a night talking and trying new things, and they finally sent a tech guy to replace my wifi adaptor. STILL didn't reslove the problem. Can only conclude it's a lemon. I'm getting a Dell 14z from costco for their 90 return policy (i know, not very nice of me, but they've made a fortune off of me over the years). Hopefully Ivy Bridge will be just about ready by then.

Ivy Brdge will help me considerably because I do heavy HD graphics editing and still shot RAW photography. Battery life is a big issue as well since I cross the planet in coach once a month and without being able to replace batteries, I'll be SOL before 2 movies have come and gone.

Anyway this laptop is a winner any way you go. It'll just take a bit to get the quirks worked out.

 

As somebody else said, its a matter of principle. If there was an offer going on and if I qualified, the sales rep should have included this in my order.

Apart from that, they were supposed to include a subscription to Skype premium, have been following up with Dell over social media (as suggested by Bill), still to receive that. Been 2 weeks since I received the laptop, more than 3 since ordered.

 

Trade you mine for some review gear ;-)

 

Upgrading From W7 Home Premium to W7 Ultimate, with only 4gb soldered in memory should I just install W7U x32 or should I install x64?

 

I've noticed the same about the volume. I wonder if there's some other change that came with the driver? Like changes to the dell audio program's settings? Or change in quality at all? I can't really tell a difference though. I'm about to change back too.

 

Ah, but those are only loaners. We have to send review units back.

 

I know. I kid I kid.

 

Use x64 as technically 32 bit does not use all of 4Gb.

 

x64 definitely. It's More than just support for extra RAM, it's also a more stable OS. Besides, x86 (32Bit) only supports about 3.5GB max. With x64 you can use the whole lot - all the way to 196GB (if such a machine existed!). Drivers are also better written and if you do intensive processing tasks, it will be quicker than x86.