Dell XPS 13 Ultrabook Review & Owner's Thread

BIOS. Advanced tab. Intel Smart Connect is the verbiage, I believe. White paper here. It doesn't talk about any specific model BIOS settings, but it does go into detail about all 3 Intel Responsiveness technologies.

 

Oh yeah, the notebook's supposed to have this feature. How do I use it?

Edit: Oopsie, Bill did post how to do that.

 

I did a fresh install of stock windows not from dell's recovery and the 6.33 drivers seem to be behaving themselves, but has two finger right tap been removed. There is an option to enable it in the registry but it doesn't do anything?

 

Thank you!

 

two finger tap isn't working yet.

 

I will try the driver tonight when I get back home from SFO.

Will post results

Thanks Bill

 

I believe that the screen/lid is ever so slightly arced beyond the lower portion of the XPS 13. it is ever so slight, you can feel it. When the lid is closed brush your finger up from the lower portion of the machine across the upper lid, you can feel a slight edge where the upper lid/screen protrudes a fraction of a millimeter, just enough to lift the lid open ...

This same overhang is not evident anywhere else on the lid, just at the center of the front edge ...

 

For some reason the search function for this thread is not working. Strange.
Question: How can I turn off auto-dimming of the screen? I put the brightness to full, couple of minutes later it's dimming to about 50 %. Both with and without the power supply connected.

 

It could be the light sensor - control panel -> Location and other sensors

You may have to change the view to show icons, not categories.

 

I bought mine from Best Buy and found out later that the 1 yeaer accidental coverage and in-home service is not part of the deal you just get the basic hardware depot warranty when purchased at Best Buy although the prices are the same. Otherwise this is a great machine and I am not having any technical issues I did get all my patches and upgrades though as soon as I opened it up.

 

i just received my xps 13 and i must say, this is probably the nicest packaging/presentation that i've seen for a computer. kudos to dell for that!

 

You can upgrade and extend the warranty through Dell at any time before it expires, I believe.

 

My work gave me this machine to use.

Is there a way to get on screen display of volume, brightness, and display? (i.e laptop or external)

Also what is supposed to happen when I hit Fn-F3 (i.e. the battery icon)? Nothing happens when I press it.

I am guessing there is software that needs to be installed as where did a fresh install of Windows 64 and things. Am I correct?

 

Install Quickset from the dell support site for the XPS13, under drivers and downloads

 

Has anyone had any issues with sound not working when an external monitor is connected?

 

How is your monitor connected? DVI or HDMI?

 

Mime works over HDMI



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It's HDMI. I plug it in the sound stops working, unplug in and about 5 seconds later the sound starts working.

EDIT: OK I figured out the problem, I should have realised straight but I have a Dell 3008WFP monitor that has audio outputs so plugging it in with HDMI puts the sound through the monitor which didn't have any speakers attached so no sound.

Does anyone know how to force the sound through the jack on the laptop?

 

For $240? That seems a little steep considering it came for free if you bought it from Dell. If I knew that, I would have bought it direct.

 

Does anybody have any insight or information if the XPS 13 Ultrabook will be upgraded with a 512GB SSD and 8GB of RAM? I really like what I am reading about the XPS 13 Ultrabook but want a larger SSD and more RAM.

 

Go into "sound", an change the default speakers to the one on the xps.

 

It has been discussed.... RAM is soldered onto MB. SSD is mSata - if you can find a 512gb, in that form factor, you can install it.

 

What is the BB return policy? They are losing money and may be ready to deal.

It may be cheaper to return and pay the restocking fee then order the Dell;

Or just tell them you are planning that and see if they will knock off $200 or whatever to cover the cost of Dell support.

 

Is the c drive - driver folder useful can i delete it? It take up 400mb of my space or is there any files or program that i can delete or uninstall to clear space

 

Thanks for response..............

Well, like all other computer things I guess the 512GB mSATA will come out as time passes and the demand grows (hope by end of summer). I also hope Dell will upgrade availability of the machine with 8GB RAM.

I would buy a Dell XPS Ultrabook right now with the suggested upgraded spec’s. I currently use a Dell Studio XPS 16 w/i7-820qm, 8GB RAM and I installed a Crucial 512GB M4 SSD (would like the same power and storage in a smaller package).

Well, I'm on hold for now.

 

Thanks. I had Quickset installed on the machine before I posted. I needed to uninstall and reinstall using the defaults as opposed to custom settings.

 

Yes, the driver folder can be deleted, but if you do you may not know which ones are new..... no big deal as you can usually tell by date.

I assume you mean C:\dell\drivers

 

anyone experienced very slow wifi surfing/download rates and slow charging? my xps 13 needs 4hrs to charge from 9% to 100%!!

how about yours?

 

Slow charging would be attributed to the small 45 watt power adapter. No wifi issues here

 

Don't know about the wifi but I would think the charging time is normal.

 

hi

nice thread!!

Bill, do u know when the xps 13 will be available in south america??
am from chile.

ty

 

So I've been through most of this thread and then searched today and can't find many comments. I picked up my xps 13 yesterday from Best Buy and am very disappointed in the screen. I didn't notice it much in the store, but when I was trying to use on the couch or bed, it was very difficult to see the entire screen correctly...the rest was faded out. Anybody else having issues with the vertical view angles?

I love the laptop otherwise!

 

I bought mine from Best Buy and they price matched with their GeekSquad warranty for a year...specifically they dropped the laptop price and then added their warranty...costing me a little under $999...I would check with them on that...you could probably argue for LoJack too but that wasn't that important to me.

 

I tried one of these (again) yesterday at a BestBuy. The thing I was immediately reminded of was that the screen can't be pushed back far enough for my liking (it comes close, but not quite enough). I agree that the viewing angles are less than stellar, but this issue bothers me even more -- and might be affecting the angle of view.

 

I think it's because of the relatively high weight of the screen (probably because of the gorilla glass), if they let it go back any more there would be an epidemic of laptops tipping back off peoples laps.

And yeah, the screen is a bit underwhelming in general, I'm not overly fussy about that sort of stuff so it doesn't bother me much (higher res would have been be nice though), but I can see what people complain about.

 

It's because it uses a dropped-hinge design on the lid. If it goes back too far it would break off so it's limited. One of the advantages of the older barrel hinges I guess.


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It may be just as cheap or cheaper to register the system with Dell and call up sales to get a quote for warranty extension. I don't know for sure. I haven't done any research, but I'd suggest looking at that option when considering the next move.

Not off-hand, but I have an inquiry in. Will post back what I hear.

 

Update:
New touch pad driver coming. I do not know the ETA, but a few beta testers have reported back that it clears up the mysterious lost 2 finger scroll issue and the the issue where you see 2 Windows you can't close on the external monitor in Windows extended desktop mode.

 

Still working good!

 

On the note of touchpad drivers, does anyone ever have the problem where they click the bottom left of the left button and it does a right click? It's been happening to me recently quite a lot.

On my CAPSlock key light, I had the keyboard replaced today due to a sticky shift key and the light now works, so the old keyboards light must have failed shortly after I got the device, I did see it on at least once.

I also had the motherboard replaced to try and resolve the electrical buzzing noise but it didn't fix it. They are going to try and replace the screen tomorrow as the noise seems to mostly go away when you disonnect the monitor, but I'm not certain this is an accurate test... we'll see... Noise seems to come from the area of the chipset.

Also got a liteon AC adaptor, nice and quiet

 

Should arrive in Chile soon. Because has been 15days since it arrived here in Brazil.

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All LatAm countries should have it by end of May. I have to check with someone in LatAm to get the exact date for Chile.

 

Does that trackpad driver fix the unresponsiveness of the mouse at random times? Like where it just stops moving and then suddenly freaks out and then you have control again?

 

To those that have purchased the Toshiba USB 3.0 docking station, do you still like it? What is the software like? Intrusive?

 

Not 100% certain, but you might need to tweak your palm rejection setting one way or the other. If you want to try the diver, PM me your email address.

 

perfect!!

ty

 

I changed a setting a few weeks ago that allows me to use the function keys to adjust screen brightness without having to press the Fn key. I want to go back to the original setting and can't find the place to do that. I looked in keyboard and ease of access settings and don't see it. Can someone please tell me?

 

There is probably another way but I think there is also an option in the BIOS.

 

No, kudos to Apple for that. Dell (many years late) has taken at least two cue's from Apple, the first emulating Apple's packaging, and ... Oh yea, knocking off the freaking MacBook Air.

All these years to copy it an they still can't get it right. Interesting to see Dell has taken a follow the leader approach instead of innovating. Maybe now that their products at least look like Apple products it might boost sales out the gutter, Dell will be able to thank Apple for that.

Innovations yes, knock offs, keep them the hell away from me, they're never as good as the original. In this case not even close.

Now I'll print my return label and go hug my MacBook Air. Guess what that walled wall garden of hell and limitations ain't so bad. At least the products are quality and work seamlessly together.

I swore off Dell years ago, that decision stands.

 

Windows Key + X brings up windows mobility settings - you can change here...