Dell XPS L521X Video Review

I am making this now, as I want to get an idea of what you people want to see in it. Please only ask for ONE thing per post, make it the main thing you want to know about the laptop. This way, I should within reason be able to answer everyones questions. If you post more than one thing, I will assume the first one is the most important The specs of the machine I have chosen are in my signature.

As things get requested, I will post on a "things to review" list below.

1. How good is the audio?
2. Viewing angles
3. Side by side comparision with L502X.
4. Compare keyboards and build quality.
5. Check games and temperatures.

I have decided to split it in to two part review. The first one will be a general overview, with app launching speed, file copying, audio and boot. Along with viewing angles and build quality. The second part of the review will be encoding, temperatures and gaming.

Part One is now released!

Dell XPS 15 L521X Review - Part 1 - YouTube

 

I'm glad you have both l502x and l521x to compare.
My question is: how good is the audio now? (I suppose it got worse, but wonder how much)

 

Added for you! I can tell you one thing, the lack of subwoofer is going to make a difference for sure.

 

Well my computer is done. So we will see if I can hold out until windows 8. You should do a little bit of screen comparison.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

I would like to see a good image of the screen with vertical/horizontal angles. Thanks!

 

Compared side-by-side with your L502x please!

 

Check this thread:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=8686798

Sent from HTC HD2 with Tapatalk

 

not a sub woofer , bad compare with old model.
for examples Asus want keep the best audio. N56 has external sub woofer.

also this new model not spec the speaker brand.

 

LOL, providing an external sub woofer is not a solution because you have to take it with you and place it on the desk. It's the same if you buy one on your own (many people don't really need a sub woofer in a laptop, so why charging them for something that isn't IN the laptop itself?). You just can't fit a sub woofer in that little height (<1 inch), it's the only reason. Actually, many people who has this XPS 15 said that it has a really high quality audio

BTW, let's keep this in topic please, there are other 5 XPS 15 threads to complain about specs

 

No problem, I will do a comparison as requested. I might be able to do a sneak peak video a little later tonight.

 

First of all, thanks a lot for doing this, especially as there is not a lot of information on it on the web yet.

What would be interesting for me would be how hot the laptop gets under normal web browsing/office work and under heavy pressure when playing games etc. Fan noise would also be interesting. I found both aspects not much of a problem on the old L502X and would want to know how the L521x does in comparison.

Thanks a lot.

 

Can you please compare keyboards and overall build quality? I purchased an XPS in the past and returned it because of poor build quality. One of my main concerns is how good the keyboard is and how the home, end, pg up and pg down buttons work. It seems like their incorporated into the arrow keys now? Also, a review on the fan noise and heat would be great. I really appreciate this. I'm depending on this video review for my next purchase .

 

Yep can do that, not sure how to quantify in a video review but I can tell you it runs warm but better than my L502X.

I don't have a lot of games, I will say that the touchpad is useless for mild game as you cannot use the

For sure!

 

I would love you long long time if you could do some battery life tests :3

Maybe a "Normal Usage" test and a "Heavy Usage" test?

Thanks!

 

The trouble with battery tests, is they are entirely dependent on the user. What I get for battery life, would not necessary correlate to another user. It is not something I could actually video.

 

True. I'm just curious as to how the battery life in the XPS15 is. Based on your usage, how is it?

 

I get about 6 hours on mine

 

I'm seeing a hair over 6 hours with mine before it shuts down. But I tend to keep the display brightness at 20% when on battery power.

 

Any ETA on this Risco, I've been looking for a video of this for the past 3 weeks? Can't believe there still isn't one on YouTube of it. I'd just like a general look at the build of the machine, an overview of ports etc., keyboard functionality, brightness of the back-lit keyboard, that kind of thing.

Looking forward to seeing it

 

Just joking: This thread title should be changed to "Discussions about Eventual Dell XPS L521X Video Review, Maybe."

 

Today I did a review, but had some hiccups with getting the flow of the review right. I have thus decided to split it in to two parts. As to battery life, you can get six hours, but I prefer a bright screen so I get about 4:30 mins while surfing and bit if music listening.

Video is uploading now.

 

I'll be sure to watch your vid risco when its uploaded as i am thinking about either a xps 13 or 14 but it would be nice to see what you think of the 15 as there arent many vids on the net yet. A general comment i will make is that the new xps series and many other ultra books for that matter looks a lot more like the apple MBA and MBP. Everyone must of caught on that a simplistic design is what ppl want. I must say the new xps lineup looks the best it ever has and hope they keep to the design in future.

 

Thanks for uploading the first part. However for some reason YouTube tells me that the video is not available my country.(Germany). Did you opt for any special restriction when uploading the video?

 

I played some music by Adele when testing the audio playback and it said Germany was blocked. Cannot figure out a way round it without doing the whole review again?

 

Wonderful review mate. waiting for 2nd part

 

Fantastic review mate! Sounds very nice aswell music wise. Yeah i think your fingers covered the mic up a couple of times but no biggie.

 

Good review Risco.I was stuck between the Samsung Series 7 15.6 model or the XPS L521X and now I decided to go with the XPS.Its about $300 more expensive but seems worth it with the better display,built quality etc...

 

I've owned the Series 7 and returned it. No where near as nice or as sturdy as the XPS.

btw, MF Doom is the man...

 

Glad it helped you, the build quality really is great and feels even better in your hands.

 

Thanks, for the video, Risco!

 

For anyone from Germany, who wants to watch the review, simply install the firefox addon proxtube and you can watch it.

Thanks again for this great video review. It really cleared some of the doubts I still had and was immensely helpful. Looking forward to part 2!

 

Great review ! Thanks !

The screen looks great . The sound is also pretty decent . Looking forward for part 2 .

 

Thanks very much guys and gals! I will make sure I don't put my hand over the microphone this time!

 

Many people say they see fine grid lines on xps 15 screens. Do you notice them and what's your opinion about this?

 

I do not see it at all, so would wager either they have faulty screens or they are just over picky.

 

Hi Risco,

thank you very much for the videos. Very helpful.

I am not so much into gaming. But since I spend most of my day in front of my notebook for (mostly) work (office, research, internet - lot of contemporary tabs) I really appreciate battery, less fan noise and !!! screen quality.

"Managing" about 5 Dells for work and family I know the 1920x1080 XPS L502x screen as well as the Vostro 1920x1080.
A lot of people in the NBR forum complained about the seemingly worse screen, but watching your WIFI video I have difficulties spotting differences as far as visible on the video. As you state you are not “victim” to pixel/grid issues.

Could you be so kind to describe in a post and in the 2nd video how the the L502x (I take it for given that you have a 1920x1080 screen) and L521x really differ with respect to screen quality. I think I found a batch of 502s at a small local dealer so if you could respond quickly …. it is number one decision factor.

Let me add for all complaining about pricing … I still have some print outs somewhere of 502x at highest configuration 4 weeks prior to the new L521 launch … was around 1200 € if I remember correctly.
Thanks.

 

Cheers, alas I had the 720P screen with my XPS. I had no choice on screen as was in a rush to get rid of my Asus N61JQ and trade it in against the L502X. All I can say is that in terms of screen between the 720P and the 1080P I currently have is that it is night and day!

 

Thanks Risco. You did a great job. I've been waiting for weeks for a video review. I went ahead and ordered my XPS 15 on Thursday, so I expect to receive it sometime this week. After watching your video, I feel good about my choice. Look forward to part 2!

 

Cheers for the review.

The file transfer you did in the video, was your external hard drive USB 3.0 or USB 2.0?

 

Risco, GREAT review. May I say I LOVE your accent?

You seem to have gotten a great screen.

 

It was a Western Digital 3.0 drive.

Thanks very much! As the accent, thanks as well!

 

could you comment on battery life? and also do you have any idea how many battery cycles the battery is rated for? I don't see any people talking about those two things. Those are some of my biggest concerns.

 

This is a great video review! Thanks, it definitely helped with the decision making process for me.

Owner and would-be owners:

I have compiled what I believe are the MOST SOUND WiFi Performance results (that I have found on here). Please see this thread and discuss: http://forum.notebookreview.com/dell-xps-studio-xps/680190-xps-15-l512x-wifi-test-results.html

I have included detailed data, graphs, and results. The test-setup is well-explained. Please take a look and do comment!

 

Not sure about the cycles. I have to charge it every day, but I use it a lot. Secondly battery life varies from user to user. For me I watch videos, surf the net and listen to music. I also have the brightness around the 75% mark, with this I get around 4.5hrs or so of use.

Guys, I need some help with regards the second part of the review. I am going to leave out the gaming, specifically for the reason that Dell need to sort the bios as it constantly throttles and gets too hot. However, what did I miss in the first part? So far here are my ideas, if I get enough replies in the next couple of hours I may have time to do another review and upload today.

1. Trackpad and gestures
2. Boot time
3. Shut down time
4. Resume from sleep
5. Resume from hibernate
6. Application launch time ( multiple )
7. Fan noise while watching video

 

Thanks for the great review. Wondering when part two is coming? Quick question, does the desktop mode basically stop the battery from charging? The sound was kinda muffled during that part.

 

I got mine, I don't see gid lines. I like the machine except that it is quite heavy (2.6 kg which is the same as my previous E6500 without battery but this one cannot remove battery) and the keybord is unnecessary small. There are plenty of spaces around why put such a dense keyboard? There are no pgup/pgdn/home/end keys.

 

"Fan noise while watching a video"

- maybe separate items for video-from-file-on-disk, video-from-net-streaming, and BD-playback-from-optical-drive ?

 

Hi, sorry but I sent it back and got a Macbook.

 

Are you happy with your new Mac Book Pro? Any negatives on the Mac Book Pro other than Price?

 

Not sure if Risco is still active, but I PM'd him the same question a while back and this was his response:

Pretty sure there's nothing there he wouldn't share publically.