Dell XPS 13 Ultrabook Review & Owner's Thread

Anyone else having problems with the Release Preview of Windows 8? The CTP was rock solid on my XPS13, but the RP, with all the latest drivers, locks up several times a day and does lots of weird things (trackpad freezes, wifi drops for no reason when 1' away from router, Fn keys no longer work).

 

I think the strategy of waiting this long or longer to reveal new Ivy Bridge based XPS and XPS Ultrabooks wasn't too keen.

 

Well i don't know if it s real "strategy" or just too much to do.
Anyway i think i might purchase something else, i will wait until the middle of the month.
IMHO i really complain actual XPS13 is much too expensive.
Though it s a dream machine, i think a lot of things are missing from this baby.
Every company here are leaving Dell for Lenovo, it s much cheaper.

 

I got the base config at $720 + taxes. Speak to a sales rep. It helps your employer has en EPP with Dell.

 

is there any way to make the keys autodim after inactivity? it does this automatically on my mom's studio xps 1340 but on mine, it stays lit unless i push FN + F6 or something, but it gets reset upon restart.

 

just received xps 13 i7 a few days ago. Didn't have much time to use it until today when I started using it for the 1st time at work. After putting it to sleep, I put it in my briefcase and went home. Later, took it out of the briefcase - it seemed to be very warm. I let it cool down for a while, then tried to start it up - all I got was the keyboard lighting up (screen remained dark) and a loud beeping noise. I have tried several times to boot it up - each time, the exact same behaviour - this is not looking good......

 

Seems new models are coming this week.... )))

 

Yeah I had the freezing issue. I think it's fairly widespread in the RP and I don't think it's specific to this machine or dell. I had to go back to 7, I was starting to like 8 as well.

Also had an issue where the cursor disappeared completely which tested my shortcut skills, can't remember what drivers (probably beta ones).

Looking forward to these being ironed out so I can reinstall it but I'm not holding my breath until the RTM.

 

according to who? I just got my XPS-13, but I'm well within my 21 day return period.

 

New XPS15z coming with Ivy ? maybe by friday. (source Dell)
Vostro Range Ivry Bridge : Available June 21st. (source engadget)

Basically all the models will have Ivy !

 

yeah, but none of those are the XPS 13 update.

 

Patience little padawan ;-)

 

This is a new problem. I am using an Apple Time Capsule/Airport as router, but it happens with all wifi connections. I have not changed any settings, and the network is saved, and set to auto-connect. It does not. I have to manually select and click connect, then it eventually does.

Help?

 

Do you think the 13 will be updated with Ivy and, if so, what are the odds that a better panel is added as an option? Now that would be something.

 

The fact that there is currently a 20% off coupon on the outlet means that they are trying to blow through their inventory. I would assume that an Ivy Bridge refresh is right around the corner. As far as upgrading the screen... I personally think it would be difficult seeing as the thin bezel is a major selling point. Upgrading the panel may mean that the screen dimensions would need to change which means the design would have to change.

 

I was thinking the same thing. Tempted to get the current XPS 13 with the 20% off coupon but I think I'll wait.

I really hope dell continues to use Samsung SSDs in their XPS 13 update.

 

I actually jumped on the 20% off in hopes that I can sell of the other computers that I currently use. I do alot of schoolwork and have really been wanting an ultrabook but have been extremely torn between an 11 and 13 incher. The xps is by far the most attractive (in my eyes) and the sharuken display is a major selling point bc it is sized in-between the two. The 1080p display of the 15z is great... but not for typing. I have to scale stuff down and for that reason I think the resolution is just fine. 20% off brought it to the mid 600's before taxes and free shipping. Dell offers 21 day "test run" so if I can't sell off some of the computers around the house (or kidney) then it will have to go back. The 20% ends tonight, so if you are on the fence, gotta make up your mind fast. I don't think there will be another 20% anytime soon (You never know though, there could be a 25% coupon next week).

 

I guess I expected the XPS 13 refresh to come in September or October rather than the summer. That'd be cool if the 13 got updated along with the 14 and 15!

 

I did a clean install of Windows 8 Release Preview (formatted the partition and thus didn't migrate data).

Installed the touchpad driver (only this file, under input):
Dell-Driver Input_Cypress_W7_A02_Setup-8W575_ZPE.exe (76MB)
Release Date: 5/18/2012

Now, all the gestures work by default. Even the ones included in this list:
Windows 8 Release Preview: New Trackpad Gesture Support

I was definitely having problems before with getting 2,3, and 4 finger gestures to work in the Consumer Preview (even though I tried uninstalling and installing the drivers. I'm guessing that for whatever reason, it was never a clean uninstall).

 

My Trackpad still locks up half the time when I have my USB mouse plugged in. I have the latest driver installed. Anyone else still having the problem?

 

So I wanted to come back to this thread and post my thoughts now that I have owned this thing for several months (purchased 2/28).

Overall I really love this Ultrabook. I had tried the other Ultrabooks (Samsung, Lenovo, Toshiba, HP) and none made me happy and I returned them or gave them to employees for work.

The XPS 13 just hit a perfect balance for me. Performance wise it was the snappiest of the ones I tested and help up to even my graphic design work. It is mobile and light, yet it does not feel cheap. The Toshiba felt like a fisher price toy compared to this.

This sucker is tough!! It has had keys raked across the screen by my 4 year old and not a single scratch. There is no flex in the build.

I thought the lack of ports would bother me, but really when do you need all the ports? Generally the only time I need more ports was at my desk and so I got a USB 3 Toshiba Dynadock which included a GB nic and external video and that was taken care of. I purchased a couple of mini-display convertors, one for VGI and the other for HDMI costing my $6 a piece for presentations. Overall the lack of ports is a trade off. It looks so much sexier without all the ugly ports all over the place and I just don't find my self missing them at all.

I have not had much problems with the track pad, then again I do not use three finger gestures. Found scrolling to work well for me.

My only major problem was early on with the fan sounding like a leaf blower. However that was taken care of in the bios revisions.

The screen, albeit not a super high resolution, has been a pleasant surprise. Despite being glossy I have zero problem with this thing out in the sun light. It is bright and has really good contrast. If they got this thing to 1600x900 it would be awesome.

The keyboard rocks for me and has been my favorite from all that I have tested. It just has a great feel and easy to type on. The back light has been nice as I do work at night in my office with the lights set to low.

I just have been extremely happy with this system. I use it for both work and home and it is used heavily. It is currently my main system in use as I am between desktop replacement laptops right now. This Ultrabook is on way more than it is off.

/2 cents

 

I can say without any exaggeration that buying the XPS 13 Ultrabook was the worst customer experience I have ever had. I bought the new Ultrabook a few weeks ago. I had it delivered at work and soon as it came out of the box it had trouble connecting to the office wireless network so I eventually gave up and took it home. At home the Ultrabook would work fine if I sat right next to the wireless router but as soon as I took a few steps away the wireless connection would drop. At about five feet away from the wireless router it would lose wireless connectivity completely. Then started a long and frustrating series of support phone calls. A lot of hours were spent troubleshooting, updating drivers, replacing drivers etc. Finally I was informed a technician would be sent to my house to repair the Ultrabook. Few days later I had to take half a day off from work to come home for the technician visit. The technician spent a few hours troubleshooting, replaced the wifi card, updated the drivers etc. and then finally gave up. I was informed I had to ship the system to Houston for repairs. Few days later I received the shipping box, packed up the Ultrabook, dropped it off at the fedex location and off it went to Houston TX for repairs. After over a week I received the Ultrabook back I was informed the wifi card and antenna had been replaced.

Just like before the Ultrabook could not connect to my work wireless network. At home it behaved exactly the way it did before losing wireless connectivity a few feet from the wireless router. I have other dell laptops which have never had any issues with my home wireless network and work throughout and around the house. This started another round of support calls, more driver updates, router configuration, restoring factory settings etc. basically a lot of time on phone for nothing. At this point I had had enough. It took me another round of multiple calls to get connected to the refund department and I was finally able to request a full refund. So now hopefully after another round of packing and shipping I would get my money back in about 30 calendar days!.

I like Dell products I have bought them in past and continue to use them at work but after this experience I am not sure if I would be buying or recommending a Dell product any time soon.

 

Something sounds off. Did you update your router firmware at any point?

 

3rd month now and have no regrets. I love this thing!

I do wish it had an SD slot or at least one more USB port. I spent a week on the road with this thing on a bike trip and at the end of every day uploading my photos, charging my gps and charging my ipod was a lot more complicated with only the one usb port...trivial I know and at home with the docking station its no big deal.

 

No, the dell technician checked the router configuration remotely. My other dell laptop work fine with the router so I have never had a need to update anything on the router.

 

I have had mine since the first day they shipped.... Still love it. Occasional trackpad lockup, but other then that rock solid.

 

Good for you. I really like the design and even considered getting a replacement but this whole experience has turned me off. Seems like it was too much to expect it to work right out of the box.

 

Sounds like you simply got a lemon. All products have a few that come out of manufacturing with problems. Hence, the word "lemon".

I had a few issues with mine, but after a bit of tech support, it worked fine. I still sent it back though, because my old 14z still works ok, and I thought I'd wait for the next Intel chip because of my HD photography and video work, I need better graphics. I'm also hoping the battery life is better.

 

Although my wi-fi connectivity is not as bad as you describe, the XPS 13 is relatively poor in its wi-fi performance in my experience. It's the major weak point in the computer. I suspect a faulty design in the placement of the aerial under an aluminium shell.

 

I thought I was an i7 XPS 13 owner but Dell moved my ship date back two days an hour after I placed the order and so I cancelled.

That's very bad business.

There a 25% chance I go back to Dell for this if I cant find a ultra that Im into, but for now the search continues with their competitors...

 

New IVY XPS 14 XPS 15 specs leaked. (PHOTOS)

The leaked spec sheet for the XPS 14 claims that it is powered by a 3rd-generation Core i7 “Ivy Bridge” processor backed by 8GB RAM. There’s also an NVIDIA GT 630M 1GB GPU pumping the pixels to the 1600 x 900 LCD display.

Storage is provided by a hybrid 500GB hard drive and 32GB SSD unit. Battery life is listed at 11+ hours.

The XPS 15 has a beefier alleged spec sheet. It too is powered by a 3rd-generation Intel Core i7 “Ivy Bridge” processor and 8GB RAM. However, this time the larger 1920 x 1080 full-HD screen is fed by the more powerful NVIDIA GT 640M 2GB.

Storage is also provided by a hybrid 1TB hard drive and 256GB SSD unit. The XPS 15 is also kitted out with a slot-loading optical drive and the battery life is rated at 8+ hours.

Both the XPS 14 and XPS 15 have backlit keyboards and a full compliment of ports, including HDMI, DisplayPort and USB 3.0. The design of these systems is similar to that of the XPS 13 in that they make use of Corning Gorilla Glass, machined aluminum and carbon fiber to create a shell that is lightweight, yet strong and hard-wearing.

If the specification of the final devices lives up to the leaked specification, then these ultrabooks will be ideally suited to enterprise users looking for thin-and-light systems that are powerful enough to get the job done. At the same time, they will also sport a battery that is capable of lasting through a full day of work.

The XPS 13 starts at $999, so I would expect the XPS 14 and XPS 15 to come in at around $1,299 and $1,499 respectively.
here too (in english):

Dell XPS 14, XPS 15 specs leaked (photos) | ZDNet
__________________

 

Seems the XPS13 appearing on this trade show is the same XPS13 we know already...

NewDell XPS 15
The new Dell XPS 15 comes equipped with new Intel Ivy Bridge and has 15.6 inch Gorilla Glass screen, scratch resistant with resolution 1920 x 1080 pixels. XPS 15 has a Nvidia GT GeFroce 630m 640m GT 1GB or 2GB, supports up to 16GB of RAM, has a maximum 1TB HDD or SSD up to 512GB and processors Ivy Bridge - i5-3210M 2.5-GHz or the quad core 2.10 GHz i7-3612QM. On the connectivity are available: a USB 3.0 port miniDisplay, HDMI, card reader, Ethernet, WiFi and Bluetooth 3.0. Dell XPS 15 can be bought at the end of the second quarter, and details about its price is not yet known.

New leaks from Romania's fair LOOK at PHOTOS :

Google Translate

 

Anyone know if the replacement lite-on model adapter works overseas? It does say 100-240v but I am plugged into a 220v outlet right now on travel and it says battery charging disabled.

 

Major bummer. These types of experiences is why I tell folks if you want zero hassles when you have an issue get a Macintosh, especially if you live near an Apple store. In less than a half hour they would have fixed the problem or given you a new one. No long drawn out BS. The Apple folks know how to take care of their customers. Is it that hard. And now the premium for Apple is less than ever. In some cases a Macintosh is cheaper than comparable Windows machines.

 

Sorry, but this is more exageration. My wife has a new iMac - out of the box the DVD drive loaded a disk and died. Couldn't read the disk or get it out. Made an appointment and drove 45 minutes to Apple store. Took my machine and said to wait a few days, they would get to it. So another 60 mile round trip a week later, and I got it back, but where is my disk? "Sorry, the tech is out, and we tell you we are not responsible for data." I explain it is not data, but my disk. It is possible to remove it from the DVD drive, even if the drive is dead.... anyway - a few days later they find, and i have to drive back again to get it.

There is no guarantee of a 30 minute repair. If it is hardware related, it will sit in queue in the back until a tech gets to it. Genius bar guys just do software.

Sorry, but I get tired of the apple fan boys always saying Apple does everything write. Plenty of examples of Apple dropping the ball too.

 

Does any company do everything right, no? Does Apple statistically do a much better job of taking care of customers, I think so.

If you think spending hours on the phone with someone you can barely understand, then being told to wait a few days for a box to return your computer via mail, waiting for it to be repaired, getting it back, still not having it work and then starting the cycle all over is a better experience go for it.

FYI you could have asked them to mail you the disk...

 

Dell offers next day on-site support, so you don't have to send your laptop anywhere & the technician will come to your house or workplace, whichever is the most convenient.

Does Apple do that?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Less Dell vs. Apple and "this thing sucks" talk. Let's discuss the XPS 13. Move along...
-joe-

 

Yes

Apple - Support - AppleCare - Mac and Apple Display

"Onsite repair: Request that a technician come to your work site"

 

The part you omitted from your quote was 'desktop computers'. Portable computers, ie Laptops still have to be mailed back or taken in to the store.

This argument is an irrelevance anyway. I'll continue to buy Dell (because I'm a Windows developer) and you'll continue to buy Apple.

Let's move on.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Just to be clear, I continue to buy Dell's too.

 

Is there any resolution to this? It is happening 75% of the time on my machine and the driver version doesn't seem to matter...help!

 

NM They removed the post I was replying to.

 

As i have said, I am very happy with the XPS13 and glad that I own it. However, I cannot get the track pad to work properly on any driver version. I can get basic left and right click and reasonable scrolling but I cannot get three or four finger scroll to work. I am frustrated that Dell has not come out with working drivers for this! Please Dell. The track pad is a very important function on an Ultrabook!

 

I've got the trackpad to perfect functionality. It's the .33 version with touchfreeze installed. I have set it to light touch, disabled drag lock, disabled vertical and horizontal scolling, disabled continued motion, disabled palm rejection, disabled zoom in/out and disabled rotate.

I've ended up with a setup which rejects accidental palm touches while typing (touchfreeze) and has multi-finger gestures (all the 2 and 3 fingers one, apart from rotate and zooming).

 

My Dynadock cursor lag has been fixed. It turns out that for some reason the Desktop Window Manager was not enabled. I enabled it and the cursor lag on Firefox disappeared.

 

Touchfreeze is pretty cool... I was having a palm rejection issue and that cleared it right up. I can't seem to get rid of the tap to point though. I prefer to only use the buttons and even though I have the checkbox unselected, I still can select things by double tapping the trackpad. Thoughts?

 

I will purchase this thing with max specification when it is available. It can't be soon enough for me. Yeah, Intel Ivy Bridge, i7, 512GB SSD, 16GB RAM, Nvidia GT GeForce 640m 2GB, 15.6 inch Gorilla Screen, 1920 x 1080. I hope it will be nearly as thin as the XPS 13 Ultrabook and same quality of build. Actually I would go with a machine with a smaller foot print if available with the same performance specifications (for most work I hook up a larger external flat screen but for portability the smaller size would be highly desirable). With an XPS 15 Ultrabook if it doesn't come with a 512GB SSD I hope I can change it out to one (yeah, that begs the question if an Ultrabook can handle a 2 1/2" SSD or only suited for mSATA which is currently limited to 256GB). Too many questions????

Will this thing be designated as XPS 15z, XPS 15 Ultrabook or XPS 15z Ultrabook (or something else)? I already see a Dell 14z Ultrabook (nice but not XPS): http://www.dell.com/us/p/inspiron-14z-5423/pd?~ck=mn&~ck=mn

 

Well, it's much too heavy to be an ultrabook. I would guess plain old XPS 15.

 

Coming soon: 5-pound 17" desktop-replacement "Ultrabooks".

Yeesh...