Dell XPS 13 Ultrabook Review & Owner's Thread

I've replaced me broken screen with display assembly replacement from eBay.
everything sees to work, but I;ve got problem with webcam it doesnt work.


I think i need to install driver.
does anyone know from where i can download the driver for XPS webcam ? thanks !

 

I've had mine since March 2012 and it's been a great laptop. I agree with everyone that the track pad sucks, but I use a small wireless mouse 99% of the time. The battery always shows at 83%, even when its full... Seems browsing this thread that you need to run the battery down and then recharge for it to recalibrate

I did finally have a show stopper though. I've noticed weird graphical glitches followed by the computer hard crashing. I got the machine back online and tried to backup to Skydrive, but it went down for good before I could back up. When you push the power button, nothing comes on (no fans, no screen) and it beeps 4 times. I tried to see if it was graphics related; you can hold down D on the keyboard and power on and it'll cycle through an LCD test. That worked for me

I called the out of warranty support and the rep confirmed it was bad RAM. And with my model, gen1 of the xps13, the RAM is soldered to the mainboard So tomorrow, will be shipping it to get looked at. Wanted to post here in case it happens to anyone else. Stuck using my Lumia 920 as a "computer" until this gets fixed

 

Ok cool; talked with Dell yesterday morning... Repairing the ram soldered to the board should be covered in the standard out of warranty repair cost of 140 bucks + tax. They overnighted me a box and I've already sent it back. Should be back in business soon

 

Welcome to NBR, bclifton and sorry to hear about your issue.
That's sadly the downside of these small 'jewels', having prone to fail hardware part of the motherboard.
I hope everything goes well and you get to see your laptop fixed soon.

Keep us posted.

 

Dell got the laptop quickly, called me up. I should have known they were BSing me about the RAM being covered. Since its soldered to the board, it costs an extra 149 to replace the motherboard. Oh well, very cool laptop regardless and altogether ~300 for out of warranty repairs isn't too bad. Should have it back by next Friday

 

Hi All,

My screen also cracked and I'm looking for replacement in UK. I wonder whether the 1080p screen would fit my older
model - L321X. I mean in theory the screen should be completely independent from the laptop as long as the connector is the same,
but I'd rather to be sure before I buy it.

Sorry if this is duplicate but I couldn't get the search to work.

Thanks

 

Hi folks,
Hope someone can help - I have a brand new XPS13 with a touchscreen. It did have Win8 on it but i just deleted all the partitions to install win7 instead (I work in IT in a small company where no-one has the time or inclination to try to get used to the atrocious interface of win8)

I did this with a few other XPS 13's recently with no issues, but on this one for some reason, when i come to install the drivers, nothing works. None of them will install. I've downloaded what I believe to be the latest drivers for the machine from here

ftp://ftp.dell.com/Pages/Drivers/xps-13-l321x-mlk.html

but they all say the machine is either unsupported or i am not allowed to install them.

Are these the right drivers?

The drivers I installed on the other XPS machines gave the same error - the difference with the other xps's is they weren't touch screen, I believe.

Can anyone help?

Thanks,

 

If it's a touch screen model is it not the new haswell version that ships with 8.1?

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

Just use Windows 8. With 8.1, you can boot right into desktop mode. Right clicking start or doing alt+x gets you most of what you'd use a start menu for anyways.

It performs better and has excellent driver support. Not Dells fault that you want to put an unsupported OS on it

 

Windows 8 is not superior to Win7.
Dell supports Win7 on this and all its other notebooks; one just has to ask or look for the compatible chipset and component files if they are not tied to the specific model number.

@jeezontorst
PM me your info and I will look for the correct image file and/or drivers as time permits.

In the short term, if you have confirmed the device ID's in your Device Manager match the drivers you are attempting to install, one way to bypass the Dell "supervised" installs is to either open up the driver folder itself and launch the embedded OEM driver installer and/or just point the "update driver" tab within the device properties to the folder with the specific .ini file(s).

Scott-

 

@andyman2 - Possibly, either way, it doesn't have 8 or 8.1 on it anymore.

@bclifton - thanks for the antagonism, I guess you missed the points where I said "(I work in IT in a small company where no-one has the time or inclination to try to get used to the atrocious interface of win8)" & "It did have Win8 on it but i just deleted all the partitions"

@Scott_RC-TEK Thanks, will pm you.

 

Hi again, I found that the Dell website does some kind of automatic detection & advises the correct drivers from there - so it's all ok now, seems there were drivers updated more recently than those from my link before.

Cheers for the replies anyway.

 

Just got my laptop back yesterday after it was fixed. So roughly 16 days to fix. Motherboard had to be ordered, or else it would have been a lot quicker. It's working great and I'm super happy definitely a cool laptop

 

Hi, I am a newbie here and tinking of buying an overstock xps 13.
It has the following specs:
WIN7 HOME
13.3 inch
i5-3337U
1800 MHz
Intel HD 4000
4GB
128GB SSD
battery: 6 Cell(s)
HD+ (1600 x 900)
I can not find any info on that specific screen.
All the XPS 13 machines I can find online (in reviews and here) are either 1366x768 or the full HD version (1080p).
Was there at anytime a XPS 13 with a 1600x900 screen available?
THANKS!

 

The specifications document for the L321X shows only 1366x768 and 1920x1080. I wanted to Private Message you something, but you need 5 posts to recieve a PM. Maybe post around a bit more?

 

Thanks for your response! I contacted the seller and there was a mistake in their advertisement, it is the 1366x768 version, bummer.....
To be honest, I was only interested in this XPS 13 with a better screen than the 1366x768. The new ones (1080p) are out of my budget....

I am looking for a 13.3" screen that shows realistic colors for my photo's....

I'll post some more here on the forum anyways!

 

What is your budget for a 1080p version of the XPS 13? I might be able to help...

 

Just so you know above is no go, I've bought 1080p screen and tried to put on l321x laptop but image won't come and there is 8 beeps. I guess I'll focus now on fixing old screen.

I think I should be able to use hair dryer to unglue shuttered gorilla glass...

 

I'm considering buying this laptop, but Dell's web site is driving me crazy... Does anybody know how to find the exact specs? I'm looking at this page but I don't see anything about which CPU each model has, or how much RAM: XPS 13 Ultrabook with Optional Touch Screen Details | Dell Canada

 

You can add them to the cart and have detailed information; but yes, the website is not helpful.

I have the middle one (Canada) and here are my specs :
Intel Core i5-4200U
128GB msata SSD
8gb of DDR3 ram (dual channel at 1600Mhz)
Intel Wireless-AC 7260
1080p touchscreen
English backlit keyboard (US layout)
And an awesome 8-10h battery life with web browsing (the battery is just awesome)

I don't know about the lower-priced one, but the pricier model has a:
Intel Core i7-4500U
8gb of ram (same as mine)
256gb SSD
Probably the same spec for the rest of the components.

 

Thanks Vaub! I still don't see where to find those specs, even after adding the machine to cart. But that's basically what I wanted to know. I was hoping that it might have the i5-4520U or i7-4650U (both with HD Graphics 5000) but it seems that those are really hard to come by! (I've only seen them in the Macbook Air so far)

 

Take it with a grain of salt, but here's what a Dell rep said when I asked :
No date, no price.

 

Ordered my i7 model on Dec 23rd and received it on Jan 2nd. Hopefully Dell and Lenovo will announce new Intel graphic chips before my 30-day return policy is up. So far I'm very happy with my purchase but have not spent that much time with it. Hopefully this weekend I'll be able to spend some significant time with the laptop.

 

Hi All,

Sadly, my Macbook Air Late 2010 was stolen. So after going over plenty of review, I have just got my hand on Dell XPS 13 FHD (i5-3337U, Intel 4000, 8gb, 256gb, 1080p). Overall impression is okay, but it is not as good even compared to the ancient Mac technology. Note I am comparing my user experience with a Macbook Air from year 2010 (Intel Core 2 Duo 2.13 Hz, Nvidia 320M, 4gb, 256gb), in Bootcamp Windows 7. I won't even get into to the Windows OS vs Mac OS since each has its advantage. But suffice to say, things(Software-hardware) are more optimized on the Mac OS.

Firstly, out of the box, the trackpad is outright unusable. Forgoing the insensitive tap-to-click, scrolling and clicking, it seems to spike every 3 second, constantly! Totally unacceptable. What I did, I remove the Junkware McAfee,along with other softwares, the spike seems to be gone. Now the trackpad is more usable. But it still doesn't meet my expectation - occasional delay,phantom click, no three-finger-tap for middle click, inconsistent right edge swipe gesture. I am very disappointed to tell the truth, Windows(Bootcamp) on the Macbook Air seems to have a better trackpad than the Dell's - at least it is much more predictable albeit over sensitive, but a third party software completely solved that sensitivity and made it a perfect windows trackpad. Dell, how long have you been doing Windows and still can't get it right?

Secondly, the overall usage. On the Windows 7 bootcamp on Year 2010 Macbook, programs and browser seems to be much snappier, crispier and responsive. On the XPS 13, no doubt it's fast, but comparing to Air, things are slightly slower. I don't doubt the hardware- it is definitely up-to-par, but I felt it is the software integration and drivers etc that doesn't allow the full potential of the hardware. Microsoft SmartScreen for one I suspect is making the program loading slower. Instead of instant open on the Mac, here it took averagely 1-2 seconds.

Those two are the biggest complain I have about XPS 13.

Now to the goods -

Backlit Keyboard, looks cool. And the typing feel is very good too, I prefer it over the Mac's.

Temperature - It's cooler than Mac due to the carbon fiber I guess. On the Mac the heat is dispersed wider (Being aluminium) so you can feel the keyboard very slightly warmer on high load. On the XPS, only the rear near display is hot.

Rubber-coated palm rest - some says it attracts dust and difficult to keep clean. This is my day 2, I still have no opinions but positive ones toward it. Very comfy.

Neutral:

Screen - No doubt the FHD screen is very clear and sharp. But the fonts are too small sometimes. And the color is towards the warm side, I prefer blueish white than yellowish white. Any ways to change this?

[Cancel]Wifi - I can't be sure if this is the PC or the router yet. But occasionally the XPS seems suddenly stop getting any data from the router and the webpage will take a long time to load. I have use it longer to be sure.[/Cancel] edit: It was just the internet connection and not the XPS.

Also, I am having Bios A08, the latest is A10. Should I update it? I heard some says it will run hotter with A10, and the saying is If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

 

Couldn't agree more on the touchpad, it's the XPS's biggest flaw by a wide margin, very disappointing.

You can increase the font size by navigating to Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Display. Either choose 125% or experiment with the custom text size DPI (your mileage may vary here).


I run A10 and haven't noticed any issues yet. I would say keep a close eye on your WiFi connectivity - the Intel Centrino Advanced-N wireless card has known issues and is the XPS's second biggest flaw IMO; I had major issues streaming and working from home (intermittent Remote Desktop & SSH dropouts). I called Tech Support and ran through their troubleshooting script until they eventually agreed to send out an engineer to replace the Intel with a Killer N 1202 - this resolved my problem immediately.

 

Well, I don't know about the older versions; but this Synaptics touchpad on the XPS 13 9333 (Haswell) is awesome for a Windows touchpad. I have configured it to have the same behaviour as my older Macbook Air and, I must say, the two are pretty close in term of accuracy (the feel is different though; not bad, just different) and the two-finger inverted scroll is flawless (only gesture I use).

The flaw I have is the keyboard input lag. Removing Dell QuickSet64 driver helped a lot, but there's still a small delay (Win8.1)

 

I've had mine for a year and half and the screen has started spazzing out. It will display a bunch of shaking vertical lines for a few seconds and then resolve itself. It is getting worse. I called tech support, and of course there's nothing they can do since it's out of warrantly. A new screen is $316 from then. I've found it less elsewhere but out of stock . Any ideas of the cause and possible fixes? Will replacing the screen fix it; or maybe a bad graphics card?

 

I have updated my touchpad to the latest driver, but sometimes when the click pad is physically pressed, it would not register it about half to one third of the time. I've got frustrated with it and am now using tap to click instead.

My warranty is coming to an end in the next month or so. I am hoping to find out from everyone if this clickpad fault is a hardware issue that is unique to my unit or a software driver issue that everyone is facing as well.

All other multi-touch gesture works fine, just the occasional lag which everyone else has reported. Should I contact Dell Customer Care about my clickpad? Thanks!

 

Zomg I have the same exact problem. I think it has something to do with the display cable though since it usually occurs after the computer is touched after sitting for a short period of time. I have warranty on my computer but am not the original owner so Dell won't do anything for me. Super annoying that the warranty follows the owner and not the computer itself. Will be the last Dell that I ever purchase.

 

Ask the original owner, you can transfer warranty : Ownership Transfer | Dell Canada (Canada, but I assume it is the same for the rest)

 

Do you have any idea what the repair would entail? A whole new screen, or maybe only the display cable? There are many vendors that show the whole screen assembly for only $120 but they're all out of stock. Even the Dell one is out of stock, except I refuse to pay $316 for now. Surprisingly, the problem does not appear to be getting worse, but I can't imagine that will last.

 

I believe it is the display cable.

I got extremely lucky and was able to somehow transfer the warranty. Dell is sending a tech out to replace the motherboard this following week (my USB port is also bad). I will definitely keep you updated.

 

Hello,


I a thinking about buying an XPS 13 (with an i5 core), but I will use it in an extremely quiet space.

Is the fan not too noisy ? Do you know if it is possible to return it and get my money back if I think that the fans are too noisy ?


Thanks

 

This thing (haswell) is dead silent fan-wise (I only hear it when I'm doing stuff in a VM or gaming). Dell nailed the fan profile with those Haswell chip.
That being said, I have an electric whine issue when the keyboard is backlit which can be annoying. I don't think all units are as severe as mine though.

 

Thank you for your answer.

Can the keyboard backlit be switched off ?

 

Hi, I've just did a fresh install of windows 8.1 with all the relevent drivers and such. I want to create a system image so if I need to reformat I don't need to spend hours downloading drivers and etc.

I know dell has its own built in software for this but it requires me to go as a premium member. Any easier why around this?

Thanks

 

Hi,

I have had this Dell XPS 13 (9333 version) with i5 4200u for 3 days and I can't say I'm happy with it, but part of the problems are Software related..
By the way, I'm in New Zealand.

GOOD THINGS:
-Nicely built, good materials, compact, beautiful design
-Good resolution 1920x1080
-Light, small adapter (not like the Lenovo Carbon X1 which is heavy)

BAD THINGS:
-Annoying sound coming from the keyboard. the sounds intensity changes when I disable the backlit keyboard (it USUALLY, not always, decreases) or when I perform some operation like dragging a scrollbar (then it increases)
-It comes with Windows 8.1, which I don't like but it can be tweaked with a Shell application to modify the appearance and look like Win7
-It comes with many dell applications pre-installed and EXTREMELY difficult to disable or uninstall. For example the McAffee that manages even the Windows firewall, and it is giving me some issues when adding exceptions to the firewall, etc.
-Dell drivers on the website for this model are not all working ones (later I will explain this further)
-I don't like the touch pad, sometimes it seems it does not respond well but it could be due to the way Windows 8.1 works, anyway I use a USB mouse now.
-Although Windows 8.1 is high DPI aware (it displays the icons and text big enough although the resolution is huge), many applications are still DPI unaware (like google Chrome) and are displayed badly, foggy, not nitid, unless manually configured not to try to adjust the DPI, which in that case cause them to display very tiny being necessary to zoom in. However the scroll bar cannot be zoomed in and will be displayed really tiny and narrow... (too modern hardware, not too advanced software)


-Impossible to install a Linux distribution to coexist. Not because of the Secure Booting in UEFI (which can be managed and disabled to allow Linux coexistance) but because there is a Kernel issue not supporting this built-in for current or old versions. For example, Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, or 13.10 won't be able to display properly. See thread for further details about this incompatibility:
[ubuntu] Ubuntu 13.10 64bits UEFI problems displaying even console [view image]
-Dell does not provide customers with a copy (USB pendrive or ISO) for the installed Windows 8.1 OEM version, and an ISO cannot be retrieved from Microsoft site as it is not Retail copy but OEM.

NOW THE VERY BAD THING (and @Schizophonic might be interested)
-Dell Backup and Recovery tool broke my UEFI partition making Windows 8.1 unable to boot. I created a backup into a USB pendrive (thinking of restoring it if something went wrong with my Linux installation attempt) and when I decided to restore the Windows 8.1 backup, in the middle of it an error occured and after that Windows did not boot anymore and I ended up with the black screen telling me to contact administrator if I don't have a copy of Windows to repair (which I didn't)

-I then managed to get an ISO of a Windows 8.1 64bits OEM which I place into a USB properly formated as fat32 to boot as UEFI and I re-install Windows 8.1 after cleaning the whole and only 128GB SSD drive.
-It all installed good, and I did not even have to write the Windows license (which I had written down just in case) as it seems it is record in the Bios (the low level UEFI in my case).
-Then I started to install all the drivers (some of the recommended ones cannot even be installed!!) and they all work good but I have a problem with the brightness of the display

THE DELL XPS 13 display brightness issue:
-Dell promises a high brightness thanks to the backlight display technology, and it is true. When I first received my laptop 3 days ago I was amazed by the high bright screen (I had to reduce it a bit because it was too much)
-But now after reinstalling Windows 8.1 and official drivers from Dell support page the brightness is not very bright, even at maximum.
Something is not working well and I know it is not a Hardware issue because I am able to see the screen very bright when I am in the UEFI configuration screens, when Windows is loading and SOMETIMES after trying reinstalling the video drivers.
-But then I touch the brightness (Fn key + F4 or F5) and it darkens again and cannot go that bright even at maximum. Also after reinstalling the driver and restarting the computer it does not work anymore. So I just enjoy the amazing brightness for a short time and I cannot have it working again.

Anybody has experienced the same?? I don't know if it's a driver issue (I believe so, because there was also a conflict with the Realtek Audio showing at Device Manager although sounds was working good, but now it does not show anymore this yellow icon and everything seems good with drivers, at least Windows says so because I know not everything is good...)

PD: Linux alpha version Ubuntu 14.04 supports the built-in display, so I guess it is a matter of time until a stable Linux distro works good with this laptop. So as long as I can solve the issue with brightness I could say I am satisfied.. Until then I am quite dissapointed about many small issues.

 

Hey man, im in New Zealand too and just got mine like 3 days ago. I havent spent much time with it but atm I have the coil whine when the keyboard backlight is on. It seems to go away when playing a video for some reason so obviously a software problem?

Also the brightness problem your having, have you tried flashing a torch or bright light at the screen? Its probably the dell auto brightness thingy that adjust with the sensor. I noticed that in a dark room even with it being on full brightness it still wont be that bright unless your in a very lit room then the minimum brightness level is adjusted.

 

You were right! This brightness is managed by some kind of sensor and the function to rely on it is enabled by default.
I got it solved clicking on the battery icon, then power options and configuring the power options for the current plan (balanced in my case)
Then in advanced options there is a list with an entry called Display. Expanding it I could disable this brightness sensor option. All good now! The maximum brightness now is really bright.

The weird sound I agree it could be sw related.

And the linux problem.. finally I have installed it on a virtual machine.


I'm a little bit happier now with it

 

Oh true, thanks for that I wasn't bothered to try find a solution for it

Glad your happy with it now Also the touchpad is bit weird with all the gestures so I just disabled all the windows 8 gestures since im on desktop mode 95% of the time

 

Btw, does anyone know if you can permanently turn off the led light at the front? It gets annoying when watching movies ...

 

hello everybody,

I bought a dell xps 13 developer edition last month and I'm having some issues with the display. There are some screen backlight bleeding problems especially in the right corner of the display, as you can se in the picture attached (these can be seen with a black background and high level of backlight (fn+F5)).

After technical support my display was changed 2 times and both displays show white spots almost in the same position. So I think this is a common problem and I would like to ask you guys if you can see the same spots in your display.

Dell said to me they will replace my ultrabook with a new one but I expect that the new one will still have this problem. I don't know what to ask or expect from Dell because they continue to say that they haven't found this problem on other PCs...

 

Hi guys.
I'm new here but I wanted some advice from you.
I am really interested in this ultrabook. Mainly because of it's design. But I live in Argentina and the model that has arrived here is the L332X (with the 720p display, i5 3317U). Should I still buy it? I've read that it is slighty noisy and that the trackpad is not good.
Those who have tried that model or have one, what do you say? Oh, and I don't have much better options here to buy unfortunately, but I don't want to make a bad decision.
Thanks!

 

Here is the latest review of the XPS-13 with Intel’s fourth generation Haswell processors and full touch capability :thumbsup:

Dell XPS 13 (2014) Review: Same Style New System

 

Has anyone ever had an issue with this machine turning off unexpectedly? Unit is about 4 months old (L322X with i7-3687), extremely clean Win8x64 install with minimal usage. All of a sudden started turning off mid-use the past few days - almost as if the power is getting cut. Happens both on and off battery within a few hours of starting to use (not consistent). Nothing obvious showing in the event log and nothing new installed/upgraded. Not looking forward to the part replacement brigade =)

Thanks a million!

 

@adamwk2

No, I don't have any of the shut down you mentioned.
Probably needs to replace maniboard.

 

Hi,

I own an L322x with i7-3517U processor , 8 gb ram, 256 ssd, but the display is the one with 13,3 1366/768 - unfortunatelly. I was wondering if I can replace it with the full HD one ?

 

Does anybody has recovery disk for Dell XPSL322X ?

 

I'll tell you guys the screwed up history of my XPS13-9001SLV (L321X). I've had it for 2 years now, when Dell hasn't been working on it or screwing it up more.

First thing was the wireless would not connect at N speeds, it would take 15 minutes to transfer a 1GB file, should have been about 60 seconds, got that fixed finally.

Then the SSD hard drive died. They replaced the hard drive.

Then the screen started going bad. It would get all distorted and go partially black and white. Tap it with your finger it would come back, sometimes, sometimes a reboot would fix it. They sent a tech out to replace the screen. They sent the wrong screen, (antenna wires had a different end). Had to sent it back to Dell. Mindbogglingly they replaced the wrong freaking part (perfectly working wireless card instead of the bad screen) They all so wiped the hard drive, when they were not suppose to. Not a huge deal, just extremely annoying and a lot more work for me.

Had to send it back again, this time they replaced the correct part (screen), but the wireless was back to not working correctly AGAIN. Also two screws were missing from the bottom carbon fiber cover and the holes were freaking stripped out, almost all of them, who works on these things? Also there was a gouge in the aluminum bezel around the palm rest. The laptop was pristine before I sent it in. I call, they said that the warranty has now ran out, after arguing with several idiots on the phone telling them it ran out while in THEIR possession and THEY damaged it.

It finally came back with everything fixed but the wireless is still dialup slow, like it was when it was new. I talked to them again, they say they have no record of a tech coming to my house (just 2 months) ago and that they did not replace the wireless card, no record of it being sent back that time, but they have records of everything else. Even though I have emails communicating with them about it, the paper in the box said they replaced the wireless card and the MAC address is now different. They say it's a software problem and I need to reinstall the OS, could not make them under stand I imaged the drive, when it was working correctly, put the image back on it. I have the same router setup so it should work exactly the same. After arguing some more they are sending a tech back out.

I've bought Dell desktops and laptops since 1995, to many to count, never had any trouble, till now. I'm so tired of talking to people I can barely understand and so tried of the complete incompetence. I'm done with Dell.

 

A number of posts have mentioned disabling various options in advanced power management, intel graphics drivers and so on.

The only definitive solution to this problem (rather than disabling various options) is to go windows service and disable the sensor service.

Do the following:

1. Press "Windows Key + R" to open the command menu.
2. Type "services.msc" and press enter
3. Scroll through the list of services and look for "sensor monitoring service"
4. Permanently "Disable" the service.

The "sensor monitoring service" may be used for multiple sensors, but most Dell Laptops have a ambient light sensor that dynamically changes the screen contrast and brightness. This is the only sure way to disable it.

If the text on the web browser doesn't look sharp, using "clear type text" option may help, but the only solution that seems to work definitely is the following.

Look for "FontSmoothingGamma" in the registry and change the value to 400 decimal (or hex 190).

1. Press "Windows Key + R" to open the command menu.
2. Type "regedit" and press enter
3. Type CTRL+F and search for "FontSmoothingGamma"
4. Double click on the registry entry and change value to decimal 400 or hex 190.
5. Close regedit
6. logoff and login