Dell XPS 13 Ultrabook Review & Owner's Thread

I don't recommend the nylon sleeve Dell sells. I got it and returned it; it's just not very well made. The magnets barely hold the flap on, and the flap doesn't sit flat against the sleeve. I went to the expense of buying a super thin laptop -- I want the case to be slim too.

Instead I picked up this Incase sleeve from Micro Center:
Neoprene Sleeve For MacBook Air 13" by Incase
It's for the Macbook Air, so it's not a perfectly snug fit (as the XPS 13 is slightly narrower front-to-back than the MBA), but it definitely holds the computer well and feels like very good quality to me.

 

October timeframe

 

Seriously that long? They're not even going to try for back to school. I'll have to get something else, this version has too many problems.

 

This model just came out two months ago. Bill kept quoting a mid life refresh and the October timeframe. Not everyone is having issues with the current model.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

Mine has no problems. With the Dynadock I use it as a full desktop replacement that is great for travel.

 

Problems fixed... Change to a new mobo and everything is ok right now... now i can enjoy for the real XPS 13 ultrabook performance. No more buzzing sound on the mother board, screen was very bright though, it runs cooller and very quiet than before. My previous mobo bios version was A04 and the replacement mobo was A03. Since erything is ok right now I would rather to stick to the A03 Bios for a while and see how it goes... No issue on the trackpad at all... I will update to this thread if there is any changes...

Conclusion for my problem was a Motherboard Failure.

Thanks to Dell... Thumbs up for this !

 

The current touchpad drivers don't play well with Win8 CTP. I've heard the next release of the touchpad drivers work very well with Win8 CTP. I hope they get posted soon. I've just been using an external Bluetooth notebook mouse (MS 5000) until then.

 

hi guys, first post on this forum. Found this thread after a bit of googling and its awesome! I have tried performing a search on the thread but I think it's too big for the search function to handle it just seems to continuously load.

Anyway, I seem to have a problem with the wireless connection on my XPS13. I have difficulties using skype (lag's & random pauses) and streaming movies and tv shows from my PC to my XPS13. I have plugged in a usb wireless adaptor and seem to get a lot better performance, does any one have any suggestions on what to do?

(is it easy to get it checked out by Dell?)

thanks

 

There's an updated driver available; I think the one on Dell's website is incorrectly marked as the original driver, so check your version. You can also try installing the updated driver from Intel's website.

 

Are you sure the sound is completely gone? You can't hear anything at the back when it's on? I've still to get on to support about my replacement machine still being noisey...

 

I'm also experiencing the high pitched frequency noise when the ultrabook is sleeping.... while it's not that noticeable in normal day life, when in a quiet environment, it could drive one crazy... I doubt this is by design. I tried contacting Dell technical support (Australia), however no response after 1 week not too sure what to do - its clearly not a good thing...

 

Yes, there is no more wierd sound coming from the mobo... everything runs perfectly... The chipset was normal warm, inductor also normal warm.. Try change to a new mobo... Maybe it'll works for your xps 13...

I've tried for 2 days 5 hours straight running on my xps 13 with no problems and also there is no heat building up above normal... Perfect....!
So far I am happy with the A03 bios, got no issues on it...

 

So I've been checking out the Dell XPS 13 due to some interesting deals on the Dell website this week, and there's some little things that had me considering it at the right price over the HP Folio.

1) Someone mentioned that the Folio's keys are backlit in a "cheaper" way than this Dell's (most reviews say Dell's implementation looks better).
2) The form factor is a lot more attractive than the HP Folio's (which looks less sleek, not necessarily "bad").
3) Displayport (I was intending primarily to pair this laptop purchase with a secondary 24" Dell IPS monitor). That IPS monitor doesn't have an HDMI connection (Folio only has HDMI).

Ideally I'm looking for a Core i5 with 128GB SSD (minimum). I'd consider the 256GB version at the right price, of course, since 128GB does seem pretty limiting for a heavy user who already has a sizable music collection.

I've considered the Sony Vaio Z for a high-end example, 1080p screen, i7, 8GB RAM. I almost pulled the trigger on the XPS 13 i7 model the other day, but what stopped me was the unavoidable 4GB of RAM. It would seem that if Dell made it so that the user cannot upgrade the RAM themselves, they'd at least include the option to have 8GB to pair with the i7 processor during ordering. Otherwise, in my opinion, it would seem that the whole purpose of getting that i7 processor upgrade (more performance for things like HD video editing), is in fact pointless. i7 + 8GB of RAM for HD video editing makes a LOT more sense than i7 + 4GB.

Having that higher end versatility in a pinch would make it a lot easier for me to convince myself that going with the 256GB SSD over the 128GB is the right call. Otherwise, I definitely feel I'll go with whatever the cheapest i5CPU+128GBSSD ultrabook I can find is, and simply wait until an i7/8(+)GBRAM ultrabook becomes available (at ~less than 2K - Sony's Vaio Z is above 3K, thus you can easily see the incentive for going with the sub2K option).

 

Thanks for the response. I've had a replacement mobo and it was worse! I've got a second machine and it makes the noise too, so I'm loosing hope a little but it sounds like it is a genuine problem...

Cheers

 

Thinkpad X1 Carbon - Lenovo announces ThinkPad X1 Carbon, calls it the world's lightest 14-inch ultrabook (hands-on) | The Verge

Similar to HP Spectre XT, the Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Carbon looks like another solid alternative to the XPS 13 UB.

-Carbon Fiber chasis with fingerprint-resistant matte soft-touch rubber
-1600 x 900 resolution panel with 300 nits of brightness
-14 inch laptop that weighs just three pounds and is 18 millimeters thick at its thickest point.
-backlit keyboard, and both a smooth trackpad and an eraserhead pointer with real mouse buttons for each.
-pair of full-size USB 3.0 and 2.0 ports, a Mini DisplayPort socket, a 3.5mm headphone jack, an SD card slot and a fingerprint reader.
-Lid opens up about 180 degrees

 

IMO They got it all RIGHT, except the Design, i prefer Dell's design.
Waiting for the second shot of Dell in june....

 

One thing Dell forgot on this awesome little Ultra Book....have the Dell logo on the cover illuminate. Yeah I know it is a total rip off of the Air. It would still rock.

 

I actually kinda found it tacky when they'd light up. I'm glad Dell has moved away from that (like they used to do on the older XPS line)

 

I agree the light would be tacky in my opinion as well,the design is just about right.

 

Would cost power too and add thickness to the lid.

That IBM looks like a typical thinkpad, dull/linux geek, and is larger than the xps. For me the xps is almost a little bit big. The nubstick and buttons are a waste of space too imho.

 

There are a lot of unanswered questions about the X1 Carbon. There are all sorts of skeletons that could come out of the woodwork so wait until real people do real reviews.

 

"... and add thickness to the lid." Na. The Apple logo (as well as the Alienware logo on the M11x) is lighted by the panel backlight going through a translucent piece of plastic. No more power and no thickness at all. Now the Alienware M15x AP, yeah maybe. It uses a separate set of LEDs. That is very cool. You can make it any of a zillion colors.
-joe-

 

Isuue Fixed!

 

I'm having an issue with the touchpad drivers all of a sudden on my XPS 13. Whenever I lock and unlock my computer, I get these cypress windows that pop up on my desktop, and the only way to get rid of them is reboot of log off/log on. Anyone else seeing this?

 

If that's the case then I guess you can't ever turn it off? Presumably the peice of plastic has a thickness? Either way I'm glad they didnt...

 

Just got my ultrabook.

It's awesome.

I love the design.

My only problem, hope you guys can help me.
I installed windows 8 and installed the cypress touchpad drivers from the Dell site. And none of the gestures work. 2 finger and 4 fingers gestures, none of them work.
Instead when I try to use them I get some giberish and the trackpad inputs some numbers and have erratic behaviour.

What can I do with this problem, I really want my scrolling to work.

 

Yes - Dell-Bill says there is an update to the trackpad drivers coming that fixes this.

I can add that it only happens if you have a couple of conditions:

1. HDMI or DVI connection AND
2. Extended desktop above the laptop

I have not seen this when using a VGA connection OR when moving the extended desktop to the side or below the laptop screen.

 

Just fixed a bit my problems with the touchpad.
Installed the XPS 15 drivers and now 2 finger scrolling and zoom are working.

3 and 4 fingers gestures are not working whatsoever but at least 2 finger scrolling does.

Hopefully Dell releases an updated driver to fix this issue.

 

Is it just me, or does anyone else hear a high pitched electric "squealing" or whine coming from their keyboard? And I'm not talking about fan noise, it's distinctly electric. I exchanged my first unit for another new unit, but same problem. Granted it has to be very quiet for me to hear it, but sitting at my desk at night it is extremely irritating.

I even tried disabling Intel Speedstep in my bios because I remember my old desktop's power supply unit used to make the exact same noise when SpeedStep was enabled. Not it. Still squealing away as I type this.

Am I alone on this or has anyone heard of similar problems? Is there a fix or something we have to live with? It is slowly driving me insane.

 

I remember doing that but then the palm rejection was terrible. How's it (palm rejection) working out for you?

 

is the noise constant when using the laptop,or does it come and go with no particular pattern?

 

Reading about all the hardware issues here, just one thing comes to my mind - stay well clear of this and wait for updated model with Ivy and hopefully no noises etc.
Samsung Series 9 way to go.

 

+1

I was hoping this ultrabook was going to work out .

 

I have Dell Adamo Desire and it is rock solid, no issues at all. It was released 2 years ago. Year 2012 and Dell f***s it up SO badly. I thought build quality etc only improves with time? How on earth they can go so wrong? They have been making laptops for long enough and are one of the worlds largest manufacturers. Unacceptable. No wonder you can pick up i7 version on eBay for nearly half the price. Wouldn`t be possible if they be great machines.

I bought Vostro V130 for my wife last year - Dell engineer has been out twice already. Such a piece of junk Dell is. I used to be Dell fan, but after Series 9 Ivy comes out, bye bye Dell Adamo and Dell.

 

I agree.

Apparently Dell censors their product reviews on their website. I tried posting an honest review, but it has yet to show. On their site, it has near unanimous rating: 4.6/5 stars out of 330 total reviews.

231 people rated it 5 stars
77 rated it a 4
10, 3
8, 2
and get this:
ONLY FOUR (4) people rated it 1 star....

something is amiss here...false advertising anyone?

Dell is losing my business and my respect for sure.

I really, REALLY hate to say it, but apple does deserve praise for their build quality and quality control.

 

It is pretty constant, no particular pattern, but is more pronounced under load. Keep in mind that it has to be library quiet for me to hear it, but as I am in the library quite a bit, this is a pretty big problem for me.

 

On one hand you've gotta give Dell credit for jumping on all the little problems and trying to fix them. On the other hand, why are there SO MANY little problems?? Why weren't all of them looked into (and fixed) before it was released?

 

The sound you're hearing may be the SSD drive; SSDs produce an electrical whine and you'll hear it out of just about any laptop; the only reason I don't hear it out of my alienware is the damn thing makes so much noise from every other component! lol!

 

I think you are right! The sound is amplified during boot and other HD intensive loads so I think you are absolutely right. I googled "ssd electric noise" and it turns out that a lot of other ssd users are hearing the same whine. But there are those that claim theirs are completely silent.

Thanks og, now I can rest easy knowing that I'm not imagining things and going crazy.

 

To be fair there were probably a lot of time constraints/deadlines as competition to get these ultrabooks out ASAP between different manufacturers was/is pretty fierce I'd imagine.

But still no excuse to have missed glaring problems with the trackpad and fan which are pretty hard to miss.

 

Guys just found this trackpad beta driver in the Dell official forum.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/75757520/Dell_Spyder_120417_NON-WHQL_2_3_7_33_53.zip

All my gestures are working and scrolling has never been that smooth.

Make sure to configure tap to click and enable all the options.

4 fingers swipe down and up is awesome.

Just tested 4 fingers swiping from left opens the windows 8 switcher and swiping from right goes to metro.

The official release of this driver will be awesome.

Thanks to Dell for working actively on this.

 

Look back through my posts about this issue. It is not the SSD. I too have had a replacement but it has not resolved the issue.

 

And after a disappointing overall experiance I am getting a refund since they have tried to resolve the issue already with a replacement machine and cant fix it. This suggests to me that it's a known issue and one they don't propose a resolution for. Very disappointing! Perhaps I'll purchase it again when the upgrade comes out.... I've got a feeling I'll struggle to part with £1300 next time though.

 

Thanks for the reply.

Disappointing too, since I really liked everything else about this laptop. I'll probably end up returning this to BB and getting the new macbook air when in comes out in June.

Sigh. Gotta pay to play, I guess.

 

Yeah, I guess they figured that not enough people would notice the noise to bother fixing it, or they have a massive QC problem and don't think they can supply a 'quiet' one with any certainty. I'll miss it, it's a nice bit of kit but it's like a ticking time bomb to me. I guess I'll save myself £1000 and get a netbook like a m101z, will do 90% of what I use my xps for anyway...

 

You kneewbs are clueless, this machine rocks. I have been buying laptops for 20 years, l-i-t-e-r-a-l-l-y 20 years.

You can always hold out for tomorrow but you will never own anything you are satisfied with. You have to buy something sometime, and guess what, there is always something new around the corner. Why not enjoy a sweet-assed machine now?

Ignore the trolls folks ...

 

More drivel. Issues with trackpad and fan are easily corrected with simple software update to BIOS and driver code.

Give it a rest trolls ...

 

Just got this machine less than a week ago. I want this one to be my mobile machine just for typing papers with Microsoft Office and LaTex, doing some web browsing and so on.

Before I got this ultrabook, I'd heard a lot of complaints about the fan noise, but I just wanted a lightweight machine that is similar to a MacBook Air. So, I just went with it when I got a good deal. (Paid about $700 for it.)

When I first got this thing, it's even louder than my main laptop--E6420 with i7. So, I tried to search on the internet and everywhere including this thread to see which bios would work better for it. I couldn't find an answer. Many people seem to have a success with A04, while some others do with A03. So, I gave the A03 a try.

It's a night and day difference!

My machine now runs quietly. And everything is perfect now. The screen resolution doesn't bother me a bit. The only thing that I don't like that much is the reflection on the screen, but I can live with it.

So, if anyone is looking for an answer that which bios works better to reduce the fan noise. Give the A03 a try.

 

i am l-i-t-e-r-a-l-l-y trolling :}

 

Ok, maybe that was a bit much, but it is a great little machine and whether you guys like it or not, it is selling like crazy and there are far more people having no issues at all than those having issues ...

People come here for constructive support not to hear how awful a few people want to everyone to believe it is.