Dell XPS 13 Ultrabook Review & Owner's Thread

Free xbox is only for NEW products (I am pretty sure).

As for the 800 for the top of the line one, thats the deal that I want to get. I am going to call them tomorrow and return the one I got and hop on the 800 one. 128gb is not enough if I want to make this my only pc laptop.

 

I'm gonna call them tomorrow and find out if I can do the offer with the refurbished one. If I can then I'm gonna grab one as well

 

I think I tried that last year and they said it had to be new. It was something that was a promotion through microsoft and not dell (microsoft refunds them the price of the xbox).

 

Thanks for the info. Do you think there's any chance they will change the outer design a bit? I'm really getting tired of silver laptops. the 14z is at least different with the silver bordering the black middle. My previous older 14z was red with rubber type cover. I really love the way that laptop felt and looked.

 

Nope. Pretty sure the new xps13 will be the same looking. If you have never seen one in person, its looks really nice. Sure its brushed aluminum, but the palm rests are soft touch and the bottom is carbon fiber. Its very sexy.

 

Does anyone know of a credible reason why Dell wouldnt know about a delay to an XPS 13 order from the Outlet Store before the order is placed?

Within 24 hours of an order from the Outlet Store I got hit with a 5 day delay. This once again wreaks of bait and switch.

In the Amazon-Prime-world that we live in, this just isnt acceptable anymore.

Might there be a credible reason?

 

It is only bait and switch if they try to make you buy something else. They do have to test everything and re-image as well. It could be that they have a new driver dropping and that will be part of the new image. It could be that the one system you bought failed a diagnostic test. It could be one of many things.

And even Amazon prime offers 2 day shipping on things that they have in stock - I have had delays on Amazon prime stuff too.

The real problem is that everyone thinks they are guaranteed instant fulfillment. Things happen, stuff gets delayed. Semi trucks crash too.

 

It's bait and switch when they tell you the product you're buying ships the next day...which is clearly an inducement to buy the product. And then, an hour after they take your credit card and take your order say it's delayed by days.

And yes, Amazon has delays 1 out of 20 times on Prime. But now Im 2 for 2 on Dell XPS 13. Yes, things happen....but fool me once, etc.....so shame on me for actually believing in the gist of your post before I placed that second order.

 

So do you pay dell $80 a year to buy stuff from them? I pay in to my prime account, so I have a much higher regard to their shipping methods.

As for the delay, before you go pointing fingers, make sure its on them and not you. I had a delay once and it turned out that I gave the wrong credit card billing address (on accident of course).

If it is a delay on Dell's part, I think that the driver excuse is a pretty good one. Also the fact that they make sure everything is perfect before they send it out should be all the more reason to not be upset. Also, I'm not sure how outlet products work... maybe if someone initiates a return, the put it up for sale asap... they may have to wait for it to come in, clean up, etc... then they ship the new one out... it could be any number of things.

A bait and switch would be them saying... your order will be 5 more days, but if you want one now... we do have this system to offer you. That would be deceptive. A simple delay is a delay. Patience is a virtue, You'll love the XPS when it does arrive.

 

Bad news: I had to call Dell to dicuss this, not the other way around and it took about 30 minutes on the phone

Good news: They switched the shipping to next day comped and are refunding $100.

Looking fwd to getting the XPS13 late this week...

 

Glad to hear it worked out. I figured they would offer to speed up your shipping but the $100 refund is insane... Congrats!

 

If you are induced to buy things based on shipping time then i have all kinds of stuff i will sell you and deliver even faster. Bait and switch - as defined by consumer protection laws, is a little more detailed then telling one person that their order is delayed.

I am sorry, but I just get tired of people jumping to worse case conclusions first. But that is the power of the internet.

 

New BIOS A05 is out.

Supports Editing of Asset tag within the Bios menu.
Support boot from USB LAN.

Set as recommended.

I have it installed and working fine.

 

Nice full review here :

Dell XPS 13 Ultrabook Review

 

nice review, thanks for the link...

 

I just purchased the XPS 13, a great ultrabook, however i had a question about the SSD. I apologize before hand if this topic had been reviewed/answered already.

I knew going in that out of the 128gb, 28gb would be used for the OS, however i am looking through the Computer hard disk drive file and it states i have 59gb free of 92.9.

Does this mean i only have roughly 60gb to use for documents and or other items? And is this the same for the 128gb SSD users? Any help would be great.

Also i have not downloaded any applications/softwares other than the wifi and trackpad drivers.

 

First of all, I strongly suggest you do a full c leanup WITH administrator privileges (right click on the cleanup tool "run as administrator), it should bring back to you at least one gig of space.
Also, if you want to go further, i suggest you do regular backup and deactivate surveillance of the HD (but that's up to you to decide ;-), not only your system will run faster, but also will last longer with more HD space.
Personally i have deleted ALL the update files for reverse backup made by Microsoft in windows directory, if anything goes wrong anyway it's always better to download and do FRESH reinstall from Microsoft... so again you could save a lot of precious HD space ;-)

Finally there's the recovery partition from DELL (8 gigs), you could back it up, and use it @ your convenience!

 

Delivery time is most definitely part of the product and while delays are bound to happen from time to time it is more than suspicious when it gets hit with the delay an hour after ordering. Anything Dell knew an hour after ordering they surely knew before the consumer placed the order. It's not a good system and, after going 2 for 2 on this problem with 2 orders, I can somewhat credibly opine that this practice serves to tarnish the Dell brand and product. Of course it doesnt destroy their product, but it does detract from it.

 

As you noticed above, you have a roughly 60gb free of a 93GB partition. That is your 33GB OS and files taking up that missing space.

93GB is not 128 - so where is the missing 25GB? you have an 8gb partition for intel rapid start (think hibernation) and my guess is that hte other 17ish GB is a factory restore partition.

You may be able to free up 5GB or so by uninstalling the little bit of bloatware that shipped on the unit, but the restore partition and hibernate partition use most of your missing space.

Go into disk administrator and look at your disk partitions and see if I am accurate - I wiped mine when i got it, so i can't really compare.

 

I have been dealing with this for a while. It's particularly an issue when I use same BT headset for both PC and iPhone. It connects fine to both, but if a phone call comes in on the iPhone, the sound is horrible. It would be nice to have ability to turn off XPS blue tooth. While turning WPAN off works, it would be nice to have the old functionality back where you could right click bluetooth icon, select device and then toggle on/off. Any chance Dell development will address this in the near future?

 

I picked two of these up and promptly returned them because of this. I really dont want to mess around with partitions or performing a reinstall and then reconfiguring.

I instead ordered two outlet units with i7/256G.

 

Are the batteries typically weaker on refurb units? I'm so close to pulling the trigger on one but I just can't get over the fact that they're refurbished, and I'm afraid the unit might have been used for months

 

Dell is not going to give you the history of the unit so there is no way to know. It could be a refurb due to a mark on the bottom, a one time trade show, or it could have been used for months. A refurb will most likely have more charge/discharge cycles on the battery.

If you are concerned then don't buy a refurb. This is no different then buying a used car. If you don't like the savings buy new. But maybe look at it this way - is the savings enough to buy a new battery? Are you going to keep it for 2 years or more? If so then you would need a battery anyway. At most the battery may only be 15% used from a longevity standpoint.

Also, do you practice good battery hygiene, or do you leave your laptop plugged in all the time? If you do leave it plugged in all the time, then long term it probably doesn't matter if you buy refurb or not.

 

I appreciate the explanation. Your analogy makes it a bit easier to understand.

I would much rather shell out the extra $40 and buy the bottom end XPS 13 new from the outlet, because I can get an extra squaretrade warranty to cover it for 2 more years for $70. However, if I buy refurbished, the same warranty will only cover it for 1 more year, so it's actually a better value for me to buy the new version if I want to keep the thing in warranty through school. The problem is that new units show up so rarely in the configuration I want in the outlet, so it looks like I don't have much of a choice but to buy refurb.

I guess I could just forgo the warranty in the case of the refurbished and buy a new computer after 2 years with the money I saved instead of replacing the battery.

Also, I am the kind of person to leave his computer plugged in all the time, but with an Ultrabook I could see my habits changing....

 

I think I have settled for this little ultrabook. Have been able to get it for at very good price.
Wanted to ask a couple of questions though:
1. I know it has Mini displayport, but it does support audio-out, right?
2. Have anyone tried if it supports uncompressed HD audio in bitstream over the mini displayport?
3. I'm not buying it directly from Dell, but can I still contact Dell and expand my insurgence from dell?

Hope you can help me out here

 

I have installed the new BIOS A05 and the pulsing light signifying standby is not operating now. I've checked the BIOS settings and all look correct. Any ideas? How do I roll the BIOS version back to A04?

 

Oh, and can I boot it up from a USB HDD?

 

There is a setting to extend battery life if you do leave it plugged in all the time. I am pretty sure the battery is user serviceable and should be less then $100 - so if you are saving more then that, refurb may be a good deal. I bought mine new, but i have bought refurb machines before with good luck.

Knowing how much technology changes and how fast, the cheaper price of a refurb may be the way to go.

 

Definitely
Alright well I will be making my purchase by the end of the weekend. Sounding like a refurb is the way to go!

Can't wait to get my new computer.

 

I helped my friend order a refurbished xps 13, in my opinion, it's not worth to pay 1000 for brand new one since it's 1 year old tech.

 

WOOO GOT A NEW OUTLET UNIT for....

wait for it....

$600 after tax, plus 6% cashback from Fatwallet
I don't feel so bad about missing out on the $500 Z835 deal a few weeks back. Now to get myself a 3 year warranty and I'll be good to go

 

$600 You my friend are my hero!

 

Yes, audio out can be had via the mini displayport. I have an adapter that goes to HDMI and it was able to stream youtube, hulu, and netflix all just fine to my 42" tv.

 

American Express is giving you a $100 credit for any dell laptop purchased over $600. The price after tax is $700, and with the credit it brought it down to $600. It will actually be more like $570 assuming fatwallet comes through.

Check out American Express's twitter for more details

 

Nice. Great find!

 

Thanks for all the support guys. Look forward to talking more XPS in a few weeks when I get it. (Have to wait for someone to bring it to Canada for me...)

 

I think you just download the A04 bios and install it. If my memory is correct you'll get a warning of some sort saying that the bios you have is newer than the one you are going to install but you can ignore it and proceed.

 

Are you guys talking about the 128 gb SSD drive and i5 chip or the 256 gb SSD with i7? Still a great deal, but I assume the former because the best I best I could do was $1075 purchased NEW from the outlet store. That means the computer was never even turned on. It's amazing what happens when you call back frequently; you get a different CSR who is nicer and often get and extra $50 off now and then. Looking forward to July 5th when my new ultrabook arrives. I thought of waiting for Ivy Bridge but my Daughter desperately needs a new computer, so she gets my old reliable red 14z and she is thrilled. It had kind of a leathery cover which always felt great. I wish they made more covers like that.

 

Enjoying my XPS13 that arrived last week.

I've tried to look around, but cant seem to find a good post about people's suggestions of what to do with your XPS13 out of the box (i.e. delete Mcafee, get MS protection instead...etc.).

Does anyone know of a good thread for such suggestions?

Thanks...

 

Best thing you can do - format C: and clean install NOT from recovery CD.

 

As an aside, does anyone have the XPS13 and an infinitv tuner (or other cablecard setup)? If so, are you able to view pay channels on the display?

 

Somewhere in the first twenty pages or so of this thread is a list of exactly what items to remove.

It is pretty easy to uninstall all of the bloatware and unnecessary junk Dell preinstalls.

 

To the point, I assume the panel interface is embedded displayport not LVDS. Is that correct?

 

Does anyone know when XPS 13 available with 3rd gen.?

 

Probably not until Sept./Oct. this year.

 

I guess the tech is maybe 1 year old, but the system released February 28.

 

Just did this a couple of days ago. I use my XPS 13 mainly during travel & haven't had much travel (i.e. need to use it in) June.

So far, so good - which really makes me happy.

This is a great Ultrabook -but this one problem had gotten to the point it was driving me nuts a little bit. If I can get this one solved I'll really be a happy camper.

JJ

 

OK, so my order has been delayed....

I ordered a new XPS 13 from the outlet. I'm afraid to call because apparently if I do, I will lose my fatwallet cashback....

Anyone have any suggestions? I've been reading so many horror stories about people having their computers delayed dozens of times... I don't want to be another statistic...

 

Sure about that?

 

I don't think anyone knows for sure, around the time of Windows 8 is probably the safest bet which would be around then.