Dell XPS 13 Ultrabook Review & Owner's Thread

+1
Agree completely. I had a few minor issues, but Dell was right on top of them, and machine is now working flawlessly.

 

Despite the snarkiness I am going to accept the service call and give it a whirl.

 

All of the Best Buy's in my area don't have them ether..... I called the Best Buy that is 2 blocks from the US corporate headquarters and they had never heard of a XPS 13

I will wait until I can test drive one at a Best Buy store before making a purchase.

Edit: Last night I found the XPS 13 at a Best Buy in Minneapolis. So I purchased it.

 

Thanks everyone! Exactly what I'm looking for, I don't expect perfection, but compared to a few other machines I've looked at recently, this seems to be the best option.

 

I have sung the praises of mine before... and I have liked most Dell machines I have owned, but i bought 2 Zino HD units (the Mac Mini type square little box) for my parents. Both Blue screened all the time and finally died after 14 months - of course i forgot i bought them with my Amex card or maybe i could have taken advantage of the extended warranty.

Anyway - it took a leap of faith for me to be an early adopter of a Dell product after the Zino, but this box has been rock solid. I have not met anyone disappointed by it. Some don't like the screen resolution or glossiness, but that is personal choice.

 

The price some/many of us early adopters are the bugs/issues that come along with that. However if you have a company that listens and works to correct those initial issues then it is well worth it.

I had the early fan noise, track pad, etc. issues. However just how hard Dell had worked to correct those issues and are continuing to do so impresses me. I bought and returned the HP, Asus XEN, Acer, and Toshiba ultrabooks. None of them would I take over this and none, other than HP, would come close to the level of dedication Dell has shown on this.

 

Hey, Bill. I've noted the changes in my post. I assumed they were one and the same and I assumed wrong. Thanks for sharing more about the process, very helpful.


While the keyboard issue has been resolved, I've discovered another issue that I did not notice before the tech swapped the keyboard. I have a really bright pixel (hot pixel?) on the top right corner of the screen. Is there a way to remove this without asking for a screen replacement?

 

what kind of battery life do you guys get with this xps 13?

 

Depending on what I am doing I am seeing 4.5-5.5 hours.

 

My SATA controller in in AHCI mode, not stuck in legacy ATA mode. I looked in the Intel control center and Rapid Storage seems happy, so it doesn't seem like Windows is putting it back in ATA mode. Also with a cold boot time of ~12 seconds it certainly seems to be using the full AHCI capabilities

I trolled the event log to see if I could find any record of it getting kicked back into ATA mode (There were some instances with ICH8 and ICH9 chipsets getting kicked back into ATA mode due to bad driver installs) and I haven't been able to find any evidence that it is in anything other than AHCI.

 

in reply to installing windows 7 from a usb -
hey teamidfc - i had this issue - it was addressed somewhere earlier in this thread - when you get the error, just press cancel, and switch the usb port you are using - then press install again - should work just fine after that!

 

Stuck pixel yikes, changes color based on background? Or is it just white? I haven't touched the screen yet but I have massaged stuck pixels before with my index finger very lightly which fixed it. With the gorilla glass I am not sure if this would work?

There are also small programs for unsticking stuck pixels, they flash a bunch of bright different colored backgrounds rapidly.

I couldn't live with that though, the screen being small that bright pixel would annoy me to no end. How does it look on dark backgrounds, movies etc?

 

Update: I contacted @DellCares and I'm having my panel replaced.

 

Received my lite on adapter today, does not emit any sounds, looks to be slightly thinner then flextronics.

 

Excellent, glad to hear it. I assume that means another tech visit?

Yeah, the liteon is dead silent.

 

Man I just checked mine and found a BLACK stuck pixel, a little above and to the left of the XPS symbol on the screen.

I am also hearing interference/noise from the speakers, is this normal???

*sigh*

Edit: Wow the fan sounds like a JET engine in a quiet room LOL, I guess this doesn't have the latest bios. I will get on that once I can
get through these tech visits etc.

 

FedEx dropped off my unit today. I'm impressed so far. No remorse for not going with the MB Air. Powered up, installed Win7 updates then my software etc and have been unplugged for 4 hrs with 41% battery left. So far so good... If I had one wish for this it would be for more resolution but it's far from terrible and no dead or hot pixels.

This is not my first PC with a SSD but I've never had one boot/restart this fast. The facial recog also seems to also be the best I've ever had on a consumer unit.

Heck I'm even getting the hang of 2-finger scrolling on the trackpad!

 

I will get you that info first thing tomorrow morning

 

What's the name of this extra power supply? Is this an option for getting power to the laptop when the battery dies. I'm anxious to find something that will work. The battery life is OK for an Ultrabook, but I need a little more for my long airplane flights across the globe. How can I find one?

 

Would agree with this as far as battery time,this includes general browsing,the occasional video you tube etc. I also run with the bluetooth switched off.

 

He means an extra power adapter. But if you are on a plane without a power receptacle, there are external laptop power supplies.

Never shopped either of these, but some links to give you some ideas:

MacBook, Laptop and Tablet PC Battery Pack at Batterygeek.net.

Tekkeon - myPower ALL, MP3300/MP3400/MP3450

A friend of mine had one for a netbook, and it worked very well.

 

Cypress Driver: 2.3.6.33
Display Driver 8.15.10.2455
Bios: A03
Display Type: Samsung SyncMaster 2243BW
Mini DisplayPort Dongle: Bytecc Mini DisplayPort to HDMI Model MIDP-HM005
Windows: Stock Dell Image

 

Hey, I have two executive level employees at my company that have these XPS 13's. While they generally love these laptops because of the size and weight... one big problem is sometimes while typing in a document (lets say MS Word) all of a sudden it will stop typing. They will have to click back on the document. It's like something else is taking focus away from the active window.

My first thought was that they were bumping the touch-pad with the wrist... but I have one exec who was using the laptop with an external keyboard, mouse and monitor at the time.

 

I just wasted a second morning waiting for a TECH to show up to fix my keyboard issue. I specifically stated that I can only be around till Noon, I said I can only do 8-11am as I have to be out by 12pm. The tech is purposely being obtuse and will not give me a window, he just says he will get out here when he gets out here, and he can only go by whatever work order he gets that morning and only goes in order of that list. So if I end up being 3rd, 4th etc on that list I am consistently getting pushed back beyond that 11am time frame.

After some prodding I find that the tech doesn't work directly for DELL, some company called world wide something whatever. The guy has never even worked on a XPS13 or seen one. He couldn't approximate how long a keyboard replacement would take. Any tech who's done enough replacements should be able to guesstimate how long it's going to take for a KB replacement.

How much longer am I supposed to keep wasting my morning away for this guy who clearly doesn't care about my time or my early morning request.

Dell really dropped the ball on this one.

 

Wondering if it would be easy to buy one XPS13 and change myself the SSD with a bigger capacity model from any other brand ?

Reason i see new cheap and fast SSD models coming into the market.

 

The SSD in the XPS13 is mSATA, which are not coming down in price yet...

 

Without sifting through 123 pages of commentary, how are y'all finding the clicks on the trackpad? I hated the clickable trackpad on the first edition dm1 that I used to have, as it would tend to move the cursor while I was pushing down for a click.

Will more than likely switch away from my 2nd gen dm1 when they start putting in ivy bridge chips, assuming they get away from the clickpad.

 

This is a known problem in this thread. Just go to "Location and Other Sensors" in the control panel and turn off the light sensor. Ctrl+F "focus" or "attention" in this thread for the full discussion

 

Has anyone found a DC (cigarette lighter) adapter yet? I have one for my old XPS1130 and I used it frequently on the road...

 

Ah thanks!

Def. a software bug with the keyboard brightness app. Hopefully Dell is monitoring this thread and releases an update. In the meantime we will turn off this nuisance sensor.

 

Thanks. You're right. That's what I was looking for. Expensive though. I wonder if there are any cheaper solutions.

 

Good man. Sorry again for being a bit of a DB. I saw your subsequent post about the service call. Will reply below in-line.

This may be a massage-able stuck pixel. At first I thought it was possibly a spec of dust in the panel assembly, but after looking at your TwitPic, I'm not so sure. I asked an engineer who did the failure analysis on a few units and discovered the dust issue. Pretty low impact as far as overall numbers of units with the issue, but if it's not a stuck pixel, it's not subject to the standard "5 stuck pixels=replace. less than 5=no replace" policy. I'd say, based on what he says, we will have an answer for your shortly from the @DellCares guys.

If you want to PM me your email address, I'll send you the latest version of the white paper on IRST, etc that I'm going to publish along with a blog post on Direct2Dell soon.

Exactly what I was wondering.

Cypress was also unable to replicate, but they have a good understanding of what can cause the issue in both Windows and their driver. They are tweaking the next release to change the way Windows overrides the driver window change status. Not sure on the ETA of the next revision, but my guess would be we see it as a May block release.

The light sensor and focus issues are currently under investigation. For now, disabling the sensor is the best workaround.

One thing to note that I learned while escalating this to engineering: if you manually adjust screen brightness or toggle the keyboard backlight on or off, the automatic "feature" of the sensor turns off until you re-enable it in Quickset...supposedly.

*Angry face*
Just spoke to Scott. He's in meetings for a while, but he's going to go ahead and get the new system exchange set up. If your keyboard issue is something you can live with while you wait- long lead times on new orders right now- I'd tell the service provider to pound sand and live with it until the new system arrives.
Sorry about that.

 

The tech called me early Monday morning and by the time he could get out it was around 4:30pm and I was at work by then, I specifically asked him I would like a morning visit he said he would try for Tuesday (today). Today he calls me around 8:45-9 says he will be at my house between 10:30-11:30, I say great, that works perfect. 11:30 passes, I call him and he says he will get here soon but by that time I would need to head into work, so I get a little firm and come to discover I basically have to set aside my whole day over to them as they can't really guarantee a time.

On the system exchange I can wait a month if need be honestly, I just want a system without hardware defects, I can live with software problems and wait patiently for bug fixes/updated drivers. Hardware issues are a no go.

I appreciate the patience you guys have shown, much thanks to you and Scott.

 

Have we any more news on the driver update issues in relation to the dates and version numbers. I know Dell-Bill said they were aware just wondered if it is going to be resolved anytime soon.

 

Just an FYI to all....

My local Best Buy had an XPS 13 on display in their store. For those you wanting to "feel it up" before making a purchase..... now is your chance.

 

I called Best Buy and they had no idea what I was talking about. I don't wanna take the drive there for nothing. Any idea when Amazon will carry it?

 

THANK YOU!

This is why my ambient light sensor did NOT work. It was enabled in the mobility settings, but not here.

Ambient light sensor now works! Yea!

 

that's not very impressive...

 

the fan issue has been solved? i went to a store. they have one on display. the fan is quite loud...

 

Mine was fixed with BIOS A03. My guess is display units were not updated.

 

Why is 5.5 hours of battery life not impressive? Battery life on ANY device is directly related to what you do... Mac Book air does better, but Flash is not installed when they do browser tests. What background apps are you running - everyone is different.... so unless you compare stock windows installs - but even that won't work as hardware is different and on persons WLAN or vid card may run hotter then a different brand.

And of course there are longer running laptops that weigh more.

Screen size and brightness have a direct impact as does battery weight. Until different battery chemistry are available, everyone is playing in the same sandbox with regards to these elements.

 

Got my replacement xps today, after struggling with double letters and a electric whining noise for a month. Both problem seems to be fixed. The keyboard has more travel on my new model. Very happy so far! Took some time getting the replacement, but when dell first started working with it, it only took a week or so.

 

Am I missing something here? NewEgg selling refurbished XPS 13 units for 1099, this is the base model too with i5 and 128GB SSD.

They also make this wild claim, clearly without checking their facts:

Memory
4GB

Memory Speed
DDR3 1333

Memory Type
204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM

Memory Slot (Total)
2

 

thanks.

i just wish it can last longer, like 8 hr...

 

Has anyone actually successfully deleted their Recovery partition? I tried deleting it in Computer Management but it said it could not be deleted. I tried using DISKPART from the command line but it also wouldn't let me. I called tech support and they said I'll have to reinstall the operating system, setting up the partitions differently. Yet I've read reviews of the XPS 13 in which people claim to have deleted the partition, and I think some early posts in this thread also did.

 

I reinstalled windows, but Diskpart does have a force option:

<code>
Syntax: DELETE PARTITION [NOERR] [OVERRIDE]

NOERR For scripting only. When an error is encountered, DiskPart
continues to process commands as if the error did not occur.
Without the NOERR parameter, an error causes DiskPart to exit
with an error code.

OVERRIDE Enables DiskPart to delete any partition regardless of type.
Typically, DiskPart only permits you to delete known data
partitions.

You cannot delete the system partition, boot partition, or any partition
that contains the active paging file or crash dump (memory dump) filed.

A partition must be selected for this operation to succeed.

Partitions cannot be deleted from dynamic disks or created on dynamic
disks.
</code>

I am not sure what else is looking at the recovery partition, so you may have issues - I just don't know for sure.

This blog post seems to indicate you can do it without issues... uses the override command:

Techology for All: How to delete OEM Recovery Partition

 

This is good news!! I must call up about mine and try to get a full replacement rather than repair. The noise is starting to really annoy me! Are you a UK user?

 

Yes dude this is possible, you can buy latest SSD mSATA 2,5" - 6 Gbits/s - 480 GO at 700€ like the new one coming from Kingston with 3 Yr warrantee.

Kingston HyperX 3K 240GB SATA III SSD Review - Better Value With Incredible Performance - The SSD Review

Again same question, is it easy to open the XPS13 to change the components?

 

The Kingston drive you linked isn't an mSATA drive. mSATA has a much smaller form factor than the more common 2.5" notebook drive (about half the size).

As for getting into the XPS 13 to replace the drive? Its not too hard, but remember that the hard drive is the _only_ replaceable internal component.

 

Well the battery comes out (manual says so), so if Dell provides a replacement you *COULD* replace it yourself should it go bad.