Dell XPS 15 L501X vs. L521X Photo Comparison

Just transitioning to the 521 from my 501. The 521 looks a lot cooler, but other aspects leave me disappointed.

First I thought I would throw a couple of my other laptops up there for comparison. In order, XPS L401X (wife's), L521X, L501X, Studio 1555:


This shows how much thinner the 521 is. The 501 has the extended battery here:


This shows it without the extended battery:


Here we see the bottom. The 521 has none of those small removable covers. The battery is not designed to be removed by consumers. The entire bottom is that rubbery plastic. It has 4 of these little bumps in it that act as feet.


Side-by-side 1:


Side-by-side 2:


Things I like over the old model:
-Quiet (with A04 BIOS).
-Double the battery life (at least for me).
-Thin.
-Better looking.
-Rubber gasket around screen. Makes a satisfying thud sound (not like plastic hitting plastic) when closing and better at keeping dirt out.
Bottom grips to different surfaces better.
-Three USB 3.0 ports.

Things I don't like over old model:
-Touchpad: Barely any definition between the touchpad and palm rest. Rubbery material. Buttons not defined. Top of buttons also register touchpad movements. Sometimes doesn't register wanted movement. Buttons have a louder, cheaper clicking sound. Black matte and basically visually disappears in lower light.
-Chiclet keys.
-Tip of charger cable doesn't have blue LED.
-Sound is much worse.
-Harder or maybe not possible to replace battery without using Dell.
-WiFi is slower. Connectivity problems, drops.
-Possible Bluetooth issues (I couldn't get headphones to work today).

I know the 521 isn't exactly brand new. I had the two laptops sitting there and thought I would post the photos.

 

This is old and new power plug. Not LED on tip of new cable.

 

The bottom is actually made of magnesium (as is the palm rest) covered with soft-touch coating and silicone. If you take the bottom off and look at the underside you can see (and feel) the metal. The battery is also quite replaceable, it's not hard, but you need at least 2 different screwdrivers.

 

Ah, good to know.

 

Also, the screen, right? Way worse?

 

I would consider it mid-range. Better than the low-end ones down at best buy but not "premium" by any means. The pixel grid is more visible than most LCDs I've used (although some systems it's worse than others, I should know because it was different on the two I had at different times). The viewing angles are ok, not fantastic. Colours are ok but slanted towards blue. I've never seen the XPS L502x screen so I can't compare. I would never have considered one because of it's terrible weight to graphics card ratio. 540m in a huge laptop = snore.

The screen is not the major issue with the system though, the horrible hardware issues are why you shouldn't buy one if you're considering it (look in the owners thread, nearly all have been returned).