Dell XPS 13 Ultrabook Review & Owner's Thread

Noooo Win8 is soooo much faster than 7. Just download and install a third party app called StartIsBack

It disables Metro, boots to the desktop, restores the start menu and gets rid of the 'charms' - it's great!

 

Hi Guys, Are there any problems with the fan noise that haven't been solved with the latest updates of the bios?
I've read the first 25/30 pages of this thread where this issue were raised. Another question is related to the Cpu
is the i7 really worth ? I think It's a wonderful beast but I'm concerned with the fan noise. I would use for development
stuff.

Any review/real usage with Ubuntu ?

Thanks, Joe.

 

any XPS 13(1080p) owners suffering with coil whine? it gets quite load when its plugged in charging for me.

 

I've just ordered my XPS 13 1080p FHD from Dell - i7-3537U;8GB RAM; 256GB SSD version @ £1079 RRP.

Dell XPS 13 Ultrabook

BUT I got it for a total price £960.29 including free delivery using 11% off voucher (B26W5VL$G?V$0 from here Dell Coupons & Coupon Codes | Dell UK).

Being a cynical person, this price almost seems too good to be true..!

Can anyone recommend a snugly-fitting protective sleeve for this ultrabook?

Thanks

 

I will snip the following down just a little bit so that it's not quite as long as my original post (you can go back in the thread to read the original post):

So apparently Dell is no longer listening here. They apparently are not listening (at least to me) on their own forums either. But as big a surprise as it is that they let this piece of crud out into the wild is that I'm not seeing all other users railing against it: are you just not using the trackpad? Perhaps I am the only one who has experience with the properly-functioning trackpad on MacBooks (or maybe other users of MacBooks haven't turned off the "Tap to click" setting and therefore they've been getting phantom clicks on their MacBooks so they think that's how it has to be on MacBooks and therefore they aren't as bothered by it on the XPS as they ought to be)? Is this terrible trackpad simply no worse than the trackpads on other non-Mac laptops (I haven't used a non-Mac laptop in almost 6 years so I wouldn't know)?

 

I'm on the verge of purchasing a xps 13 refresh model however would like one point confirmed if anyone could kindly reply..

The laptop will primarily be used for business however do like to cool off with a game of league of legends from time to time.. If anyone has some experience playing at full 1080 on the xps 13 your information would be valuable. Thank you

 

I'm going to purchase it also, but I spoke with Dell about the stuck pixel policy, and the say that for this laptop is 10 dead pixels! Even no way of get rid of theese with aditional warranty or something...

Dead pixels kill me, sincerley, I don't know how could this be a problem in a 1400€ (Spain price) laptop! Asus is giving 30 days of 0 pixels...

 

Just install Touch Freeze and be done with it ... touchfreeze | PCWorld

 

Thanks a lot for the response. TouchFreeze was suggested previously and it is in fact helpful. But as I said in my response there:

And as it turns out, while TouchFreeze does help a lot, it does not in fact solve the issue: I still get phantom clicks at times when my hands are on the keyboard but not actively typing.

So what I'm looking for here is a trackpad that works properly and TouchFreeze--though helpful in light of the fact that the trackpad does not work properly--isn't the answer to that.

 

We as a company have also one end 2012 XPS 13 model with Windows 8 Pro running.

The big problem is a kind of Stealing Focus problem. I tried everything i read about this issue but nothing really helped. I strongly have the feeling that is related to the Light Sensor. I shut every service i could found related to the Adaptive Light but nothing worked.

At this moment i taped, with fully shaded tape, the 3 eyes, webcames and the two pinholes besides the webcam.
This is the only solution for the "stealing focus" problem.

BTW this stealing focus problem gave me the same feeling of some kind of phantom clicks.
Just when working on a document, typing a mail or just browsing a website the active window became unactive and the cursor was gone from the focussed window.

Now i'm looking for a way to shut down this sensor, the best way would be shutting it down by a BIOS setting but at this moment there's no option for it.

Any suggestions, i really tried every Software / Windows related Sensor service but nothing solved the problem. Now i have a nice looking laptop with some stupid tape on top of the screen!!!??!

 

I'm sorry to hear about these problems that you're having, MdG Chess iX--though I'm glad for the confirmation that someone else is experiencing these issues. You mention in your post that you had "the same feeling of some kind of phantom clicks"--I think "phantom clicks" are in fact your issue: I do not think anything is stealing the focus, I think the trackpad is detecting clicks that you are not intending it to detect. Please go back in this thread and read my post about phantom clicks and the ensuing posts about using TouchFreeze, which I have found will help the issue though it certainly will not solve it.

 

I ordered my XPS 13 on Friday and received it on Monday! Spent most of Monday getting used to Windows 8 and the laptop itself (coming from a Dell M1530 that served me faithfully for 4 years). So far I'm impressed, I haven't experience ANY issues so far. Was a little hesitant after reading about issues with the touchpad etc.. but I can safely say everything has worked flawlessly. I bought a Razor Orochi mouse for it's bluetooth functionality and it works perfectly with the XPS 13.

I have a Toshiba Dynadock on order which should be here today or tomorrow, looking forward to seeing how that works out in the office.

The only thing I haven't really been able to decide on is a sleeve for this, I normally carry my laptop in a standard backpack or in the summer a Ogio motorcycle backpack. Any suggestions as to a nice fitted sleeve? Pictures would be of a great benefit or at least links.

Thanks!

 

I'm in the exact same position as you decamo. Ordered this from Amazon which arrived today:

LArobe Sleeve for MacBook Air 13 inch - Black + Wasabi: Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories

But sadly it's too big by an inch or so, so I'm planning to return. The problem is the XPS 13's dimensions sit awkwardly inbetween the MBA11 and MBA13, so ideally I guess I'm looking for a sleeve that's an inch or so too large for a MBA11..

 

Regarding the phantom clicks...

I have a recently received (last week) XPS 13 L322X (i7-3687U, 8Gb RAM, 256Gb SSD) and immediately blew it away and installed Win7Enterprise using our KMS server.

I installed the needed Dell drivers, and also the drivers for my Toshiba dynadock U3.0

What I'm having, is phantom left clicks even with the lid closed and using a wired USB kb and mouse, plugged into the dynadock.
I've tried a Logitech RF-wireless mouse, and a bluetooth mouse, same deal.

When I remove the dynadock from the equation, and use a minidisplayport to DVI adaper, usb2.0 hub on left USB port for KB and mouse, I have no issues.

Is this a different phantom click, or are you guys having that issue only when using the trackpad?

 

Yes this is what I understand from reading these forums. Hopefully someone will come up with a short list of sleeves that give a nice snug fit for the XPS 13. The only other option I can see is getting one custom made but I guess I can hold out a bit longer and see what comes up

 

Why don't you guys want to get the Dell XPS Nylon Sleeve?
Dell XPS Nylon Sleeve - Fits Laptops with Screen Sizes Up to 13-inch : Laptop Accessories | Dell

 

Take 30% off any Dell Outlet XPS 13 Ultrabook
Enter coupon* code at checkout: 8DQRXPX$?1$RTZ
Offer expires on 3/19/2013 at 11:59pm CT

 

Sad days we're living regarding quality control... OK, it's maybe not too big of a problem but still... I have this new XPS13 1080p since two weeks or so (in wich I havent touched it because I've been busy somewhere else) ... so I finally have some time to play with it today and... hey :

Light bleeding on the lower part of the screen, corners mostly. I can live with it but it sucks.
One of the 5 leds from the battery status thingy is not lighting up anymore. Again, it won't render the notebook unusable but... I don't know why, but this stings me more than the light bleeding.

So... what do I do, call the technical service and risk a careless techinician doing more damage than repairs (and pray the leds won't fail again in a week or a month) or do I learn to live with a little bit defective notebook that costs 1400 euros.

What would you do ?

 

Don't you have 30days for return? Especially defects out of the box?
Depending on where you are, there's also stricter consumer laws in Europe, especially the UK, than in the US.

 

The reviews for the Dell sleeve are not the greatest which is making me hesitate spending the money one it. Maybe if someone else has it and can take a picture of the fit etc.. it would be great but I haven't seen on so far.

 

OK, I bought three(!) different sleeves on Amazon:
1. LArobe Sleeve for MacBook Air 13 inch - Black + Wasabi
2. Belkin Neoprene Sleeve for Upto 12.1 inch Netbooks - Black/Red
3. Pakuma ECO Cocoon Black & Red Protective Padded Sleeve for 13.3 inch Mac & PC Laptops

1. Too big by a cm or so in each in both directions - nice slimline sleeve, but the XPS13 moves horizontally and vertically inside, albeit only by a little.
2. HUGE, too big by many cm in each direction. I've never seen a 12" laptop big enough to fit this beast...
3. Same as 1, but due to the design of this case the XPS seems to move around inside much less than #1. It's slightly heavier and thicker than #1, but I prefer the design and colour.

I kept #3 and am returning the other two. If you want a 'perfect' fit you could try Dell's own OEM XPS13 sleeves, but I don't think I could justify the cost considering #3 seems to give good protection for cheaper.

 

Nope. 7 days only... and don't get me started about how consumers are treated in Europe...

My only option would be repair.

 

I've get the LArobe Sleeve for MacBook Air 13 inch - Black + Wasabi, and as the laptop has a little movement inside, the sleeve design, strenght and materials are superb!

I've tryed a lot of options in the stores, and I can't actually find a tight sleeve for this model...

 

Wow... guess it's just the UK... Here in the US, we get 30 days from receiving it I believe...

 

Here (Spain, not a 3rd world country but 5th or 6th if you ask me) that depends on the seller... and Dell graciously gives you only 7 days. Oh, and they do all they can to delay your questions so your claim falls out of those seven days and then you can't send it back...

I'm normally quite content with being spaniard, etc... but when it comes to consumer's "power" ... we're not worth a rat's .

 

Guys, I'm currently using a 702x. Its a great machine but it's very big, heavy and bulky. I'm looking to add a travel laptop, which I am mainly intending to use for photography. Lightroom, photoshop etc and I've earmarked a Dell XPS 13 Ultrabook, 1080P screen, i7 and 256gb SSD. It looks pretty much perfect for my travel needs and it's small and light enough to take on a plane with all my camera gear and not cause my any issues...unlike the paving slab 702x I have. It looks powerfull enough, although it would be nice to add some more Ram...but hey 8gb is good enough. The i7 should rock and so should the SSD. My questions, how long does the battery really last and how is the 1080p screen? The screen on my 702x is the LED 3D unit and it's really nice, vivid and contrasty...although like all panels it needed calibrating.
I'm wondering how this sweet little 13" compares. Any thoughts?

 

I can't speak for photographic work, but the screen is pretty nice. It IS a bit smallish, although we know what we are getting into, getting a 1920x1080 res on a 13.3" panel!

I am personally getting at minimum 5 hours from the battery, though I am not hammering it 100% of the time. Yesterday I lugged it around the office from meeting-to-meeting for about 5-6 hours without charging, and it said I had 19% battery left after all was said and done, so i have absolutely no complaints on battery life. It exceeds my EliteBook 8440p by at least 3-4 hours, and has 1080P to boot.

 

Hi, I received my xps 13 yesterday. It is fantastic but I have some problems with the wifi. The problem is intel n6235 card. You can read more at
Sporadic but recurring connection dropouts on an Intel 6235 wireless adapter
This issue is common with different brands but it seems intel haven't resolved it yet. My problem is that the wifi "freezes" and I can't activate/disactivete it and I have to reboot the pc but I can't because the shutdown process stops. So I have to shutdown using the physical button.
Has anyone experience the same issues? Has anyone resolved it?
I need help, please.
Ps. Excuse my bad English

 

Thanks and appreciated. I bought one, it took less than a week to arrive and I couldn't be happier. It's a little heavier than I expected, although it's beautifully finished and very well built. The screen is stunning, probably the best I've seen so far. Minimal calibration was needed. The battery is lasting about the same as yours, 5+hrs and yes it's tough reading txt on a small screen. I bought it for battery life, 1080P screen res, speed, power and portability. It prefectly ticks those boxes and then some! It'll make a great roving machine for me and one I can take with me on photo jobs...I just need to be keen with keeping the SSD clear. My only real complaints are Win8...the power/brightness seems to jump around a lot and I think there's some conflicts with the way Win8 handles various brightness modes.

 

Duhh...Adaptive Brightness settings....lol, forgot about THAT particular piece of hogwash from the beta....looks like that particular code mistake didnt get fixed!

 

I loaded WIndows 7 on it, and have not had any issues. Might work for you as well.

 

I just bought this laptop which comes with W8, 256 GGB SSD and 1080p display. I just made the USB recovery disk with a USB disk. How do I clean install this? I have no idea how to boot into the USB device for clean format. I notice that the laptop can identify wifi networks can log onto network, but no data transfer. It only happens with this laptop as other laptops can connect via wifi.

Any ideas how to make the wifi work or how to clean install?

 

Check this out Dell XPS 13 Ultrabook Clean Install Guide | bobsageek

 

That's a solid link.

And pay GOOD attention on setting up the Rapid Start, as this thing FLIES back into Windows from full-sleep mode.

On an aside...

Anyone run Ubuntu yet?
I'm having mega issues with the 6235 WiFi card. It works for anywhere form 1-3 hours, and then stops working, logging a bunch of errors in the syslog, and only a full restart fixes it, but then it starts all over again...

Installed Ubuntu 12.10

 

Good morning,

I'm strongly thinking about buy a Dell XPS 13 FHD.

The only thing that is "stopping" me is the fan noise problems, because I really fancy a silent computer.

I've read that it should be fixed with the new BIOS.

Could anyone confirm that the problem has been fixed (or at least, minimized) with that BIOS?

How noisy is it now?

Thank you very much.

 

I have had my XPS13 FHD for a month now and am very happy with the noise levels - I haven't heard the pre-FHD model but it does seem to be extremely quiet. The biggest issue for me is adjusting to the screen size in FHD and the trackpad is CRAP in Windows.

 

I UEFI dual-boot Win 8 Pro and Ubuntu 12.04 LTS - I had 12.10 running on a previous laptop but experienced issue after issue. If anything, I find the wireless to be much better in Ubuntu, and the Ubuntu trackpad driver seem to perform HUGELY better than its crap Windows counterpart. On the other hand, I find battery performance seems to be worse in Ubuntu, and I'm having some issues getting Intel Rapid Start to play nice with it. Haven't really had time to troubleshoot properly yet.

 

Thank you

 

I just bought the xps 13 1 1/2 weeks ago - can tell you its not noisy; hardly at all. Will say these things about it thou

negatives:
- air vents in bottom of notebook, so setting it on your lap could block heatflow (strange since this is a 'laptop')
- the trackpad ... basically Ive had to gut and adjust things just so I wouldn't pull my hair out with the thing. But its doable now; if it wasn't I would of taken it back last week. Ive installed 'startisback' and tried to make it more like win7, also there appears to be new trackpad software where you can really limit what it does (basically took out all win8 swiping and decreased the sensitivity a lot. I still get the occasional phantom click. Maybe 1 out of every 15-20 mins of usage~ before it was quite common.
- lack of Ethernet or hdmi port
- oh Ive also manually 'locked' the screen brightness to a higher setting because the shifting (when plugged in) was too dull and the shifting annoyed me.
- I havnt messed with it yet; but only used Skype once but the webcam image was quite dark etc and grainey? - my 5 year old laptop worked better (will need to 'mess' with this to see if I can improve this).

Pluses:

- The screen, best asset - 1080p; read one review its even better then samsungs ... no complaints
- build quality, nicely built, gorilla glass, carbon fiber bottom (feels sturdy), aluminum top
- keyboard feels decent, no complaints
- weight/stature - still quite light 2.99 pounds and the size is quite small (not a lot of excess)
- charging cord is compact and light (I can take this to work via traveling on a train and not feel like I'm lugging a 10 pound monster around (notebook and charger))
- quiet; slight low fan noise at times but nothing loud - Ive got 2 older laptops at home and they get much louder
and finally
- price - GL getting the above at this price (Ive checked out most of the competition (some in store others just online) - I admit I do like the Samsung better (new series 9 but $)

I'd prob give this laptop a 8.6/10

If you can live with the negatives IMO this laptop is worth it. You are not going to find much better at this price; the build quality and screen are the best part; IMO much better then an all aluminum build.

 

Does the XPS 13 suffer from the pixel grid screen issue like on the XPS 15?

 

Guys, I'm a web designer/developer and I'd like a good performance lightweight laptop able to connect TWO external monitors on it...
I just read there's not an Ethernet port? But there's a mini-port with an adaptor, right?

Do you know if it's possible to connect 2 monitors on the machine?

I also would like to get the Dev (ubuntu) edition and clean-install Win on it myself... Any did that already?

One thing I dont like is the font style of the keyboard... seriously, who picked this!? might as well use Comic-sans!

 

Never mind the font, you seriously ought to try typing on it before you buy. It's fine for gamers and web surfers but for coding I'd want a better keyboard.

 

IMHO the keyboard has a great feel considering the form factor, I tried out various Asus/Samsung/Apple Ultrabooks and in the end thought the XPS 13's felt much more satisfying than the competitors - though I miss my dedicated pageup/pagedown/home/end buttons!

Regarding the multi-monitors, not sure about this one. A quick Google found this product: Matrox DualHead2Go DisplayPort | Multi-Monitors for Laptops.

XPS has a mini-Display Port so this should theoretically work, but I've can't vouch for it.

I purchased the Windows 8 version of the XPS 13. I immediately used Dell's system restore program to make a full system backup to USB stick, before re-installing Windows 8 from scratch, dual booting beside Ubuntu 12.04 LTS in UEFI mode. There are good instructions online, for example: http://bobsageek.wordpress.com/2012/08/14/dell-xps-13-ultrabook-clean-install-guide/

[edit] it seems that blog has been marked private for some reason, if you are desperate you can still see a copy in Google cache though I'm not sure how long it'll be up for: http://webcache.googleusercontent.c...lean-install-guide/+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk

 

It may go slightly off-topic but, can I ask how different is a UEFI configuration with Windows 8 and Ubuntu side by side compared to a normal partition install of Ubuntu? What's a UEFI installation anyway? Does the GRUB menu come out? Curious.

Separately, has anyone tried fitting the XPS 13 into the Booq Viper Hard Case for 11" MBA?

 

Also is it just me; or is there a high frequency tone when the AC adapter is plugged in and charging the laptop?

 

Windows 8 introduces FlipFlopHScroll, a registry key which can be used to reverse the direction of horizontal scrolling; this is in addition to the FlipFlopWheel key available in Windows 7. Now, why it made sense to Microsoft in Windows 7 to implement FlipFlopWheel without FlipFlopHScroll is beyond me--but that's beside the point. The point is that I thought that the lack of this key in Windows 7 meant that the while the vertical scroll can be reversed, the horizontal scroll cannot be reversed--but I have discovered this is NOT true: I installed Microsoft Mouse and Keyboard Center for use with my Microsoft mouse and it offers the ability to reverse both the horizontal and vertical scroll (actually, it only lets you do both or neither, not one or the other, but that's neither here nor there). I have confirmed that it does NOT implement this via use of the FlipFlopHScroll registry key (it's not using FlipFlopWheel either*) but instead it's implemented some other way--but the exact mechanism of the implementation is also neither here nor there: what's key is that the reversal of horizontal scrolling IS implemented. So the point is this: though Windows 7 itself doesn't support the reversal of horizontal scrolling via the setting of a standard registry key, reversal of horizontal scrolling nevertheless IS possible--so come on, Cypress Trackpad folks: implement this for us! Obviously fixing the trackpad so that it doesn't detect phantom clicks is of greater interest but that need indicates that you clear have work to do so you might as well implement reversed horizontal scrolling capabilities while you're in there!

Completely outside the point here but just as a point of interest: now that I think about it, perhaps if you wanted to only reverse the vertical scrolling of a Microsoft mouse and not reverse its horizontal scrolling you could achieve it by setting the value of FlipFlopWheel to 1 while leaving set to off the setting to reverse scrolling in Microsoft Mouse and Keyboard Center. Similarly, perhaps if you wanted to reverse horizontal scrolling of a Microsoft mouse and not reverse its vertical scrolling you could achieve it by setting the value of FlipFlopWheel to 1 while also setting to on the setting to reverse scrolling in Microsoft Mouse and Keyboard Center. I don't know and I'm not going to try these things as for me, reversing one and not the other isn't of interest.

 

I don't need any "reverse" gestures
Normal cursor movement not being translated into "gestures" is good enough for me
One just can't work on normal pace with with trackpad, everything needs to be done SLOWWWWWWWwwwwwwww........ Otherwise it thinks you want to "swipe"

Also the losing focus or cursor going rogue overall is still very dissapointing
Don't get me started about the pad randomly refusing to tap, rather than the left button...... VERY dissapointing.......


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

I use the Dell dock (relabelled Targus) and at work the Toshiba U3.0 dock. Both work well, with dual monitors: one HDMI, one DVI.
This gives you multiple USB2, USB3 ports, the twin video ports, ethernet, etc..

 

I apologize if this has been covered before but I feel that Dell almost cheated me. Wanted to let others know.

I read all the great reviews on the new XPS 13 with the 1080p IPS display. Got a coupon today for 25% off. Went to Dell to order one and after a long chat with one of the reps I found out that Dell has "two" 1080p displays, one IPS and one not. You can not order the IPS display. So all of the units that were sent to the 'Reviewers' were not with the display that you can order. That seems they are adding confusion with the intent to deceive.

To validate my remarks here is part of the chat with the rep:

xxxx: "Yeah, I am still confused. All the reviews that I have read say that the 1080p display for the xps 13 is an IPS display. Are you saying that there are two 1080p displays one IPS and one without IPS? Or are you saying the 1080p display was never IPS?"
04/25/2013 09:52:11AM Agent (ARB_Chat_Emely_Burgos): "they are 2.. it has to say IPS"

 

Hello,

I was looking for a very portable small laptop with SSD. I liked the build quality of the XPS 13 so I decided to go with that. Just curious if I got a good deal, or ripped off here...

Bought it from Dell for $500

3rd-gen i5 - 3317u
720p Truelife WLED display
128 SSD
4GB DDR3 1600

Good or bad price? I do not mind the slower of the two CPU's or the 4GB RAM rather than 8. The only two things that sort of scare me are the trackpad and the screen resolution. I use the trackpad a lot, but dont care about swiping .. just moving the mouse and clicking is all. Also, I would of liked better resolution but I was on a budget and this was pushing that.

Good price or ripped off? Thanks guys.