Dell XPS 15 (9530, Haswell, 2014) - Top configuration review

So today I received the Dell XPS 15 - 9530... and it's simply awesome.

Dell XPS 15 - 9530
Display: 15.6" QHD (3200x1800) Touchscreen
CPU: Intel i7-4702HQ 2.2-3.2Ghz
RAM: 16GB
Graphics: NVIDIA GT 750M + Intel HD 4600
Optical: None
SSD: Samsung SSD SM841 mSATA 512GB

Comes with Windows 8.1 x64 Core which takes about 1-2 minutes to setup. All drivers are installed and there wasn't much I had to do until I could fully use the laptop.

It got shipped in a sleek black box.
I ordered it on 02.12.2013, it got sent on 15.12.2013 (UPS) and it got finally delivered on 02.01.2014.


Original size

Inside the box:


Original size

The laptop outside the box:


Original size


Original size

Opened for the first time:


Original size


Original size

Compared to my Malibal P170HM (Clevo/Sager P170HM):


Original size


Original size


Original size

When I first powered on that beast I immediately heard the already reported "coil whine". I got kinda sad but after a few minutes it disappeared. I tried to demonstrate a little stressing (to get the coil whine back) by playing a blu-ray in the backround while installing a few apps -> No coil whine so far !

Dell:
I got mixed feelings with Dell:
When I first ordered the XPS15 I got some great x-mas discounts. 400€ Dell x-mas discount + 10% discount from my company's coupon. In the end I paid ~1400€ instead of 2000€. However, 2 days later Dell calls me and tells me something was wrong with my order and that I would have to re-order it. This time without the x-mas discount. I got a little mad, told the lady on the phone a few unfriendly things and said I will order my laptop from some other company. One day later I got a new mail telling me that my order was successful, including the Dell status update link.
So in the end I got a very good deal. After this point support was excellent. Building time was fast and if it wasn't x-mas + new years eve I am sure shipping would have been quite fast as well.
Update:
I created a support ticket due to coil whine. Support answered fast and detailed.. I guess Dell's customer service is on top if they aren't trying to rip off your 400€ discount

Points: 8.5/10 - because of the Dell discount rip off try ! Else this would be 10/10

Build quality & design:
The XPS 15 is very handy and comfortable to wear/hold with one hand. It fits nicely into your hand/palm and is very lightweight. Besides that I find using the laptop without a keyboard/mouse is very nice due to the touchscreen. In Windows 8.1 it clearly makes working/browsing more enjoyable. Especially with some touchscreen stylus pen this would we awesome (need to get one !). I had two MBP to play with, I had the Asus G50VT-A1 and I also had a Clevo P170HM. None of them beat the XPS15. It looks very sleek. It feels very solid and like a piece of high quality. It is very small and lightweight. Nothing is loose. Keyboard feels fine, touchpad is great.. really.. this is a 10/10.

Points: 10/10

Sound (speakers/microphone):
I am kind of an "audiophile" I guess and normally can't listen to any laptop without my DAC/AMP + Sennheiser HD600. But with this laptop everything is fine. Better than any laptop I heard so far. Crisp and clear sound. High and low frequencies are very good out of the box. Nothing wrong with mid-tones either. Perfectly fits my expectation of a laptop sound system. Microphone is acceptable for Skype conversations or general talking/recording.

Points: 10/10

Noise:
Does this laptop ever cool? Blu-Ray doesn't seem to activate any fan. So far it's very silent except the coil whine which comes back when you start charging the laptop. After some minutes it then disappears. I played a few rounds of "Quakelive". With constant 250fps in a low settings config I started to hear the fan after some minutes. It was VERY SILENT compared to my P170HM. More gaming tests later.
Update: So far the coil whine is only temporary. While working/watching movies or streams the laptop is completely silent. While gaming it is as loud as all my previous laptops during idle. Would be 10/10 if there wasn't any coil whine.
Update: 1 week later I don't really notice the coil whine anymore. It doesn't really bother me anymore.

Points: 9/10

Display:
Once you load a calibrated color profile and disable vivid mode it simply becomes awesome. The touchscreen works excellent. As I am not using the built-in screen as my main screen I will not miss the 120Hz which the P170HM had. Playing at 144Hz with a Displayport to Mini-Displayport cable works flawless. I haven't had a chance to test the display outside. It is quite glossy but also can be set to be very bright so I imagine usage outside to be acceptable. But that's what you get with glossy displays and there for I can't complain about it.

Points: 10/10

Performance:
Extracting a 9GB blu-ray took ~45 seconds. My Clevo P170HM (i7-2760QM 2.4-3.5Ghz - 16GB RAM - NVIDIA GTX 560M 1.5GB - Intel 510 SSD 120GB) needed around 69 seconds. Played a few games. Nearly everything runs at highest settings with FHD. Working with the laptop is also lag free. Connecting the ethernet/lan cable via a USB 3.0 gigabit adapter works just as fast my other devices with build in gigabit network cards.

3DMark06 score is pretty much the same as my previous Clevo P170HM (i7-2760QM 2.4-3.5Ghz, NVIDIA GTX 560 1.5GB, 16GB RAM, Intel 510 SSD 120GB). However the 3DMark11 results on the XPS15 are twice as good as on my P170HM (it only had a score of 999).

Skyrim plays fine on 1920x1080 with high res pack an med to high settings (8x AA and 16x AF). Also 144Hz gaming works fine with a Displayport to Mini-Displayport cable. So for my needs the performance results are 10/10.

The only downside so far are gamelags in OpenGL games at fullscreen. This can't be due to hardware so I believe it is a driver problem.


Points: 10/10

Battery:
On top of that the battery is a beast. I watched a 2 hour blu-ray and then did some quick working (mail, browsing, youtube,..) and still had a little over 70% left. According to Windows 8.1 that meant another 6 hours battery life. So yes I guess I am getting 6-9 hours battery life with my XPS 15. I am using the "balanced" mode with a few "enchantments" of the enery plan's settings. Oh and did I mention.... not a single sound was given.... the XPS15 was completely silent when watching the blu-ray or working. I love that beast !
On "High Performance" settings I was able to watch 1080p flash content + play a few minutes of Quakelive + installing apps + normal working for ~3 hours.
This means battery wise I am happy. How do you give points for that? It could always be better
Looking at other laptops review I guess the XPS15 deserves a solid 9/10

Points: 9/10

Conclusion:
High quality, good performance, lightweight and silent. Yes there are laptops with better hardware but for my needs the XPS15 fits not only my expectations but also my desire. I had a lot of laptops to play with (Apple,Clevo,Asus,...) and the Dell XPS15 beats them all.

Points: 9.5/10

All pictures & files hosted at bestmail.ws - Get a real mail !

If you enjoy this review, read more reviews & facts about Why Mac sucks at www.whymacsucks.com

 

A comparison between the XPS15 vs Clevo P170HM vs latest Apple MBP 17" will be added.

 

Nice review, will link to this on the wiki page.

 

thanks for the review! maybe its just me, but the pictures dont seem to load. cannot see any pictures.

 

I think it's just you. The pictures load fine for me.

 

yea it looks like its this pc, probably cuz it might be blocked by work firewall. shows up fine on the iphone.

 

Root server is hosted by OVH.. one of the biggest hosting companys

 

Nice review, I have mine on the way, very looking forward of this laptop. How is the scaling of desktop app? Does the icon looks way too small? If you have time, plz print screen some desktop app, so we can see how windows 8 handle the super high resolution problem.

Nice review ！

 

Scaling actually works really well and is usable.. except if you use another external screen with FHD resolution. You can only scale SYSTEM-Wide. Which means your QHD screen will be scaled and look nice, but your FHD screen will also be scaled and look super weird.

-----------------------

03.01.14 - Updated the review (Display, Sound, Noise).

 

I have read a review, they state that the GT 750M graphic card works better then any laptop on the market right now, 3dmark11 reached 2900 (normal 2600). Is that true?

 

It's true just because it uses GDDR5, but many users have reported a throttling issue on GPU.

 

Didn't know that... made out of curiosity some benchmark tests:

3DMark06 and 3DMark11 benchmark results added in first post.

 

So yesterday I gave the notebook it's first challenge in terms of mobility.. and it perfectly passed the test.

The XPS 15 is very handy and comfortable to wear/hold with one hand. It fits nicely into your hand/palm and is very lightweight. Besides that I find using the laptop without a keyboard/mouse is very nice due to the touchscreen. In Windows 8.1 it clearly makes working/browsing more enjoyable. Especially with some touchscreen stylus pen this would we awesome (need to get one !).

On top of that the battery is a beast. I watched a 2 hour blu-ray and then did some quick working (mail, browsing, youtube,..) and still had a little over 70% left. According to Windows 8.1 that meant another 6 hours battery life. So yes I guess I am getting 6-9 hours battery life with my XPS 15. I am using the "balanced" mode with a few "enchantments" of the enery plan's settings.

Oh and did I mention.... not a single sound was given.... the XPS15 was completely silent when watching the blu-ray or working. I love that beast !

I added those results to my review on page 1.

@edit: I just realized that if you let windows 8.1 do its scaling job "automatically" then it will scale each monitor individually. Which means I can use QHD on my laptop + extend with another monitor that is using FHD. Both look perfectly fine. I am starting to like windows 8.1 more and more

 

In one of your last posts in the owners lounge, you were on the brink of returning the laptop mainly due to your quakelive fps problem...
Is it safe to say you will no longer be doing this? (is the bug solved?)

I assume you did not have any coil whine problems since you worked off the battery in probably noisy environments?

 

No the fps problem is still here.. but I am sure it is some driver/windows problem. I will try to sort that out when my displayport cable is here.

Coil whine is there but I can live with it.

 

Have you already updated the touchscreen firmware?
Some owner has reported a change about coil whine after the update, the sound is still there but it's less annoying.

Inviato dal mio GT-I9100 con Tapatalk 2

 

Yep, since the update I can accept the little coil whine that is there With no fans running (or hearing) at all I guess it's just normal to hear some electrical buzzing ;P

My low fps problem is worse tho:
https://forums.geforce.com/default/...-1-game-in-fullscreen-lag-window-mode-perfect

 

Yesterday I decided to do a complete re-installation of a fresh Windows 8.1 without bloatware. The system feels a lot faster and there are like 20 process less running in the backround. You also don't need half the driver and for the rest you can mostly use the updated drivers from intel/nvidia/... This is how I did and / how you can do it:

I didn't download about 50% from the drivers which Dell listed, and about 90% from what I installed are updated drivers from Intel/Nvidia instead of the old one from Dell.
Everything works. For example you don't need an extra "quickset" software or other stuff.

 

If you need of Dell support for some reason they force you to use their diagnostic software, without that they don't go ahead to support you.
So before to start for fresh installation is a good idea to have a way to restore the system at the original state.

Have you found any dead pixel on your XPS?
I'm a little worried because many owners are reporting dead pixels and dust under the glass...

Inviato dal mio GT-I9100 con Tapatalk 2

 

I already started a support ticket, they sent me a link on how to download and install their diagnostic software.. so no worries there

Nope I didn't really find any dead pixels or dust.

 

Just got my Displayport to Mini-Displayport cable. Gaming with 144Hz works perferctly fine God it feels awesome to finally have a smooth gameplay again.

I also finished the points score in the whole review.

 

If anyone is wondering about USB 3.0 to ethernet lan speeds:

I am using the "Anker 3.0 USB to Ethernet Adapter" and I get about 90-110MB/s (which is the max speed of the HDD in my HTPC).. I think thats about 800mbit/s to 900mbit/s. Fast enough for me The only downside is that the ethernet then crashes after 5 minutes and I have to remove the adapter and put it back into the laptop. But I think thats a problem with the adapter :/

 

I have the same adapter, and it works with the same speed, but no crashes, I use the driver from the small disc included, have not done any further driver updates.

 

Did you try transfering ~50GB to 100GB at 100MB/s ? For the that crashes after a few seconds.

 

I've done that a few times, on both work an home networks, with the Anker adapter. No problem at all. Am on Win 8.1, with the Windows Update provided driver not the manufacturer's one off the CD.

 

I also did the driver installation via windows update. According to the device manager my driver is newer (!) than the one from anker's website.

For me, when I transfer at 100MB/s - 110MB/s the USB port won't work anymore. Sometimes I can re-plug the adapter. Sometimes the whole USB controller seems to be frozen. I then also can't re-start or go into sleep more. If I connect smth to that USB port (e.g. keyboard) it will get some voltage and the keyboard's led will light up, but the device will not work.

 

for some reason it now works fine. I also have an startech adapter that works just fine. I will keep the startech since it never gave me any problems. So I only connect 3 cables to my notebook now: USB hub, displayport, power charging cable.

Anker 9 port USB 3.0 hub -> Gigabit ethernet + DAC + Mouse + Keyboard + externel HDD

Works without any lags and without any problems

 

I've seen some reports of wi-fi issues with this machine - any feedback on your experience with wi-fi?

 

At some point I felt like my WiFi was crashing every now and then but I believe it was the routers fault. Sitting at my girlfriends house and her WiFi and I don't have any WiFi issues. That includes transfering 100GB in a row.

 

What was the maximum transfer rate of 100GB, was AC or N router?

Inviato dal mio GT-I9100 con Tapatalk 2

 

Quite low tbh.. like 4-6MB/s ? I didn't really try max wifi speed yet.

 

It seems a very low speed to transfer 100GB...
In my experience there are 2 way to transfer by WiFi:
1) Using a router to connect XPS and other PC, in my case I have used a Samsung Galaxy 2 as router (limited to wireless N) so max transfer rate was around 1-2MB/s.
2) Creating an Ad Hoc connection (In Windows 8/8.1 you have to use command line to create it) so XPS and the other PC (limited to wireless N) are connected directly without any intermediaries, in this case max transfer rate was 20MB/s.

 

Hmm sorry I really never use WiFi except when I am just skyping/randomly browsing while being in the bed.. and then I just don't care that much about speed

Btw, this is my final desk setup (I guess):





Dell XPS 15 - connected devices:
- Gigabit Ethernet Lan
- Filco Majestouch Tenkeyless MX-Brown Mini Otaku
- Lo(w)gitech G400 with Puretrak Talent mousepad
- Audio-gd NFB 12.1 DAC + AMP
- Sennheiser HD600
- 1TB WD MyPassport Ultra external HDD
- Benq XL2420T (144Hz)
- AC Adapter
- USB to MicroUSB cable
- USB to MiniUSB cable

Finally a simple (cable chaos free) setup with only three cables needed to connect !

 

Great review.. Lucky you got it so quickly! Dell says my estimated ship date is 1.5 months from ordering! I can't wait !

 

Thanks. I still love this laptop. Especially the touch screen is a must-have for me. Never thought I would need it but now I can't live without it !

 

Indeed a very nice system.
Didn't care about the touch screen until I used it. It's awesome.

Can't get Intel Rapid Startup to work. It's disabled and grayed-out in the BIOS (I have the version with 512GB SSD, No HD). Any idea how to get it working?

 

Can someone tell me if there is a way to disable the webcam/microphone from the BIOS? What about the discrete GPU?

Thanks!

 

(reposted to another forum)

 

Not sure why it is disabled but with your model (same as mine) you are best off without Rapid Start. You will see very little start time improvement and there are reports of IRS causing problems. To get rid of IRS:

1. Disable Intel Rapid Start in the BIOS
2. Uninstall Intel Rapid Start from Programs and Features
3. Remove its partition if/when you want the extra storage space

 

Nice review. Thanks. You mentioned playing a Blu-Ray... what are you using for CD/DVD/Blu-Ray?

 

So far I haven't bought any CD/DVD/Blu-Ray USB Driver but I am also curious what would be suitable. I honestly didn't really need a CD/DVD drive yet.

 

@zakazak, I saw in your post about re-installing a fresh copy of Windows 8.1 and you mentioned where you got your drivers.

But I was wondering which Intel Management Engine Interface driver do I download from Intel? For some reason the results from searching on their page shows drivers for desktop boards. Do you mind sharing a link?

Did you install any of the Rapid Storage, Rapid Start, Smart Connect, or Smart Response?

 

I asked because of these two quotes... did I misunderstand? Thanks.

"When I first powered on that beast I immediately heard the already reported "coil whine". I got kinda sad but after a few minutes it disappeared. I tried to demonstrate a little stressing (to get the coil whine back) by playing a blu-ray in the backround while installing a few apps -> No coil whine so far !"

"On top of that the battery is a beast. I watched a 2 hour blu-ray and then did some quick working (mail, browsing, youtube,..) and still had a little over 70% left."

 

I was refering to video files in blu-ray quality.

 

Cool. Thanks.

 

Great review!! i was thinking of buying it but i read somewhere that there is a noise around the power button when fully charged and still plugged in. is this true?

 

I think you're referring to 'coil wine' it is not that loud not even annoying and in any case it would be annoying for you, it only is noticeable when fully charged or Full GPU usage that means you are not going to hear it in everyday usage.

However you can always send it back to dell and I can assure you that the replacement unit is going to be quiet, only %1 of the models are annoying enough to send them back

 

"Skyrim plays fine on 1920x1080 with high res pack an med to high settings (8x AA and 16x AF). Also 144Hz gaming works fine with a Displayport to Mini-Displayport cable. So for my needs the performance results are 10/10.

The only downside so far are gamelags in OpenGL games at fullscreen. This can't be due to hardware so I believe it is a driver problem."



Hi! I bought this laptop a few months back (same specs, only that mine has a 1TB HDD) and I'm pretty happy with the laptop, except in gaming. I expected the GT 750M to be pretty good, but I was let down, maybe it's just that I was expecting too much- but anyways I'll just list down experiences of mine with different games and could you please, if possible, confirm the same with your laptop as well?

NFS Most Wanted:- 3200x1800, All settings were at Least- Pretty decent FPS.
Hitman: Absolution:- 1600x900, All settings at Least- Pretty decent FPS.
Max Payne 3:- 1600x900, All settings at Least- Pretty decent FPS again.
Far Cry 3:- 1600x900, All settings at Least- Decent FPS in the initial minutes (10-15) of gameplay, then the FPS drop to around 20-25.
NFS Rivals:- 1600x900, All settings at Least- Decent FPS initially, but then craps out- about 5-10 FPS
NBA 2K 14:- 2500x1150 (Something like that, I don't remember), Pretty good performance, especially when the laptop is charging.
Watch Dogs:- 1280x720, TERRIBLE. UNPLAYABLE. This made my heart sink and my mind think- WHY U NO PERFORM??


Could you please somehow just make sure whether this happens in your laptop as well, or is it just me?!

 

If you are getting FPS dropoff after a few minutes you are probably hitting throttling. I had GPU throttling on 1 of 2 XPS 15s and got Dell service to replace the thermal pipes/paste under warranty and the system is much better now. Plays BF3 and BF4 at stable, usable framerates at 1600x900.

 

Okay could you please elaborate on 'throttling'?

And this warranty of yours was the one which you got with the laptop?

Also, how'd you contact them, and what did you tell 'em?(I'm asking this because I've never before replaced anything!)