Dell XPS15 R2 (L502) Thread

How about this? Is this better? All this For $1409.99 US Dollars

Operating System -Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit, English
Processor 2nd generation Intel® Core™ i7-2720QM processor 2.20 GHz with Turbo Boost 2.0 up to 3.30 GHz
Memory 6GB Shared Dual Channel DDR3 Memory
Keyboard Backlit Keyboard - English
LCD 15.6 FHD B+RGLED TL (1920x1080) and Skype-Certified 2.0MP HD Webcam
Video Card NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 540M 2GB graphics with Optimus
Hard Drive 640GB 7200 RPM SATA Hard Drive
Color Elemental Silver Aluminum
Integrated Network Adapter Integrated 10/100/1000 Network Card
Adobe Reader Adobe® Acrobat® Reader 9.0
CD ROM/DVD ROM Tray Load Blu-ray Disc BD-Combo (Reads BD and Writes to DVD/CD)
Sound JBL 2.1 Speakers with Waves Maxx Audio 3
Wireless Intel® Centrino® Wireless-N 1000
Office Productivity Software (Pre-Installed) Microsoft® Office Starter: reduced-functionality Word & Excel w/ ads. No PowerPoint or Outlook
Anti-Virus/Security Suite (Pre-installed) McAfee Security Center with VirusScan, Firewall, Spyware Removal, 30-Day Trial
Battery 92 WHr 9-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery
Service 1 Year Basic Service Plan
Datasafe Online DataSafe 2.0 Online Backup 2GB for 1 year
Mobile Broadband No Mobile Broad Band Selected

 

Looks a lot better.

 

As for why WiMAX and Bluetooth aren't offered together, this could be why:

Solving the coexistence of WiMAX, Bluetooth and WiFi in converged handsets

 

Anyone knows when this will be available in Ireland?

 

It will be available in the whole EU next week latest. (Info is based on del reps in Germany. Dell considers the EU as a single market!)

 

Something I discovered in configuring mine: the Advanced Care service *includes* premium Lojack service (confirmed by a sales rep), but the configurator doesn't currently give an error if you separately try to buy 1 year of Lojack. I let them know so it should get fixed, but I wanted to get the info out there.

 

Just ordered:

CPU Intel Core i7-2620M processor (dual core) 2.70 GHz with Turbo Boost 2.0 up to 3.40 GHz
RAM 8GB Shared Dual Channel DDR3 Memory
Hard Drive 750GB 7200 RPM SATA Hard Drive
Optical Drive Blu-ray Disc BD-Combo (Reads BD and Writes to DVD/CD)
Screen 15.6 FHD B+RGLED TL (1920x1080)
Graphics NVIDIA GeForce GT 540M 2GB graphics with Optimus
Sound JBL 2.1 Speakers with Waves Maxx Audio 3 + Creative SoundBlaster X-FI MB 1.2
Wireless Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6230 & Bluetooth 3.0
Battery 92 WHr 9-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery
Color Untitled 17 Red by Ben Grieme Cover
Keyboard Backlit Keyboard
Warranty 3 Year Advanced Service Plan
Everything else is standard.

I chose the top-of-the-line Dual Core because I don't really need Quad Core right now and I plan on upgrading the processor to (assuming the sockets are compatible) Ivy Bridge in a couple years or more, and I'm curious to see just how much battery life it has.

And I would have liked an SSD, but from what I've been hearing it'd be worth waiting for the next generation or more.

 

I don't know what you've been hearing, but I know what you've been missing. I love my ssd so much I'm about to purchase a 256GB one to go in the new xps I have ordered. I've had absolutely no problems with it, including all the suspend, hibernate issues people have reported with some brands and types. My current $4k desktop has 2 WD 320GB 7200RPM drives in Raid 0 for my OS and apps, and this ssd blows them away in read/write speeds. Everything you click is instantly opened. When I got the new ssd the read/write speeds were right on par with specs. Now that I've loaded over 70GB worth of OS/programs/games/files, it benchmarks even faster.

 

Just ordered mine as well...

Core i7 2620M
6GB DDR3
640GB 7200RPM Hard-Disk (upgrading to an OCZ Vertex III or Intel 3rd-gen SSD when they come out)
Nvidia Geforce 540M 2GB w/ Optimus
1920x1080 B+RGLED Display
6-Cell Battery
Intel Advanced-N 6230
Blu-Ray Reader / DVD & CD Writer
Backlit Keyboard

 

Oh, I'd love the speed, don't get me wrong. But if I'm paying a $500 premium for a faction of the drive space, I don't want a drive that will slow down noticeably over time. Hard disks are a mature technology, but SSDs aren't quite there yet.

 

Hurray!! XPS 15 SB is finally out! Have been waiting for eons!!

 

The 9-cell battery does stick down under the machine?

Will it be bothersome having it sticking out? I will use the machine on my lap frequently. And how much of an increase in battery time are we looking at?

 

What's everyone's opinion on which Dell warranty to purchase? The default 1 year is pretty standard for all vendors, but upgrades are pricey. I have a newborn at home and big, though gentle, dogs. I haven't bought a laptop in a long time, but last time I bought the full 3 year package with accidental damage. I never had to use that warranty, but I supposed I would have appreciate it more if I had it.

 

I think most people typically get a 128GB (or 256 GB) SSD to install the OS and any applications/games that require fast read/write speeds and then everything else is put on a 7200 rpm drive. I only use a 128 GB drive for this and I have ~30 GB remaining after I put applications that really need to be on there. A good SATA III, 128 GB, only runs ~$250.

The only time I noticed a HUGE speed improvement besides going from 1GB ram to 4 GB many many years ago was when I got my first SSD. Trust me, once you get on you will wonder why the hell you didn't get one earlier.

 

It really depends on your luck. I had a Dell laptop that had to get the motherboard replaced about 10 days after a 2-year warranty expired. Luckily, I had a 3-year. I've also owned one where the video card went bad at about 3 years 2 months. Every Dell I've owned has made it to the 2 year mark with no major (costly) problems.

There are alot of people on these forums that have had problems before 2 years though so it's all luck. I always get the 3-year CompleteCare warranty since I dont want to accidently spill water and kill my laptop. There is much less stress involved when you know you are safe for 3 years and you dont have to worry about breaking something on accident.

 

I understand about the slowing, I've yet to see it, and and I'm sure I will eventually on my new xps after the new ssd is installed. However, almost all of the slowing horrors that surround ssd's were before trim and garbage collection were fully implemented in the drives and fully supported in windows 7. After buying mine, I read up on the ssd forums and the members there found a way to backup the ssd, secure erase it, and then restore it in less than 30 minutes. This puts it back to the factory fresh state. This relieved my concerns about the slowing. I look at it this way: I just spent almost $2K in this laptop, and there is a massive bottleneck to it's performance called the oem hdd. For just a little more, it seems like it doubles the speed of your whole computer.

 

I'm not happy with the 9 cell battery on my 501x .. but didn't have an option when ordering .. I work in IT and have always liked my keyboards flat , and with the 3/4- 1 inch rise from the battery it drives me crazy and with prolonged typing gives me a pain in my wrists if I don't use an external keyboard.

As soon as I can find a 6cell aftermarket .. I will be jumping on it..

I know it's great for cooling and more run time.. but typically my XPS is plugged in and on my laptop cooler .
When I was first spec'ing my L501 it was an option to get the 9 cell , then the day I went to order the 6 cell was no longer available..

M

 

I like the 9-cell battery on the XPS m1530. I figure I'll go with the 9-cell by default, and I could get a 6-cell if it was a problem. If you plan to have a laptop around for a while, you're bound to need an extra battery sooner or later.

I would do that, too. Though only one drive bay. Seems like there should be a market for single-module laptop drives that have a small SSD and larger HDD for just such a purpose. And you're probably right, NoSlow50h, for most people that wouldn't be a problem. I could probably do the factory-restore thing easily enough, but I just don't want to have to worry about it. Good tip for those who do though.

 

I also have the 256GB SSD (Samsung, factory installed).
NoSlow5oh is right.

Apps and files on the SSD open at 200MB/s!
Files transfer between ext Seagate HDD via USB3 at 80MB/s!
For ex, DVDs (4.2GB) transfer to the SSD in 50 seconds!

Apps are lightning fast.
For example, TMPGEnc DVD Author 1.5 video files can be edited (while on SSD) at speeds 4-8X that of my XPS630i which has the Q6600 cpu and the 10k Baracuda HDD! Compiling the 4.2GB takes 15 minutes on the xps630 vs 4 minutes on the xps15 i7-740 with SSD!

 

Not much performance difference between the 2 graphics cards. 70mhz.

 

Hi,
Anyone knows how many mPCIe slots, RAM slots, how is the TV tuner connected? Is GPU is upgradable later on or soldered on?
I'm looking for Service and User Manual? I'm leaning toward this or the Sager NP5160.
Anyone think it's worth $75 to upgrade 525M to 540M, since I guess you can over clock 525M to the same? Core 600 Mhz to 750Mhz

I'm chatting w/ Dell agent with these questions. Thanks.

 

I'm looking at building out an L502 right now. Does anyone have any ideas/guesses as to how substantially the battery life would be affected by going with the i7-2720QM versus the i7-2620M, and with the 2GB instead of the 1GB video card?

 

According to Anandtech, the i7-2820qm averages about 5.8 minutes of battery life per Watt Hr. when running on integrated graphics with a 17" screen and light use. I'm guessing the i7-2720qm and a 15" screen should be similar if not slightly better. It still sucks the battery pretty fast when in normal use, but it should be measurably better than the last generation of quads.

Under normal use, the i7-2620M should be significantly better than the i7-2720qm, but Anandtech implies that under light load or idle conditions battery life would be similar to the i7-2720qm because of the efficient cpu power management.


Intel?s Sandy Bridge i7-2820QM: Upheaval in the Mobile Landscape - AnandTech :: Your Source for Hardware Analysis and News

Considering I just pulled the trigger on a L502X w/ i7-2720QM and 92Whr battery, I'm hoping for the best. I do travel some so longer battery life on integrated graphics would be a nice bonus while in the air and the gaming potential when I'm in the hotel room should be ok. Not looking forward to the added weight, but I am looking forward to the 1080p screen. Getting tired of the macbooks resolution. I guess we'll know as soon as they start shipping.

 

Preproduction model + battery life = unreliable result.

 

Did Dell make a Mistake here, Look at the Prices for the XPS 15 and compare the specs....here are two blurry pictures, I could not fix correctly. One is for 1409.99 with Blu-ray and the other 1459.99 without a blu-ray, Whats going on?
The $1409.99 one


and the $1459.99 one

 

Wow! That's got to be the best value in a DTR in a long, long time. Did you have some kind of a huge coupon to get it at that price? And from what I've read, you stand to get up to 5 hrs. on the battery, if it is running largely in integrated gpu mode. If Dell can manage decent quality control, this is the machine to beat! Can't imagine I even considered getting an Envy with this in the offing. When is it due to arrive, and please do report in. Nice work!

 

True dat! He did say any "guesses" though.

 

I ordered petty much the identical option except with Bluetooth. The price reflects a $220 discount by dell. I didn't do anything special, but am kicking myself for not using fat wallet or something like that to get a few more $$$ off.

Here's the link I used, not sure how long it will be there for though. If things play out like normal for me, they'll have a %30 off sale in about two weeks. It's typical for me to buy a laptop at %15 off only to find a better deal a short time later.

http://www.dell.com/us/p/xps-l502x/fs

 

No, no coupons, i selected the $1299.99 one. Why is it a good deal for that price? I have not ordered it yet, but soon, today or tomorrow.

 

Always try all the starting point possible, especially Dell. You could end up with better items for less.

 

Because they give you the 1920x1080 screen versus the 1366x768 one, the upgraded graphics card, more ram 6gb instead of 4 and a blu ray drive all for a slightly increased price over the standard 1050. If you're looking for a DTR look no further. This guy is fully equipped . Im upgrading mine with Bluetooth, 9 cell, and the 2720 processor for a total of 1400 dollars and a huge performer at only 6.3 lbs.

 

I'm of the opinion that manufacturers or retail warranties are almost never worth it. But, if you do really want one, I would suggest checking out a third party warranty provider like squaretrade (which is very popular) or, if you have an american express card, I believe they will automagically extend the manufacturers warranty if you use their card.

 

Hi! we don't have $1299.99 deal on Xps15 at Dell Canada. However we have option to choose from i7 2630Qm. $100 more for 2620m, $200 more for 2720Qm. The video card is $100 more for NV 540. Is it worth to pay $200 more to upgrade to 2620m and NV 540? Thanks

 

Not true at all, the max data transfer rate is 6Gbps on the new SATA ports barring any other (and likely) bottlenecks..

 

Hi, I was asking and thinking the same. I guessing you can overclock 525M to the same as 540m Core 600 Mhz to 750Mhz. Isn't the 2630qm is much faster being quad versus the 2620m dual cores. Only if you don't need quad and like 10% 20ish? power saving, during non-idle load?

Thanks.

 

Huh... now that's an interesting question. A cheaper, slower quad-core and a faster, more expensive dual-core. If you don't do a lot of multi-tasking or intense photoshop/movie editing/etc, the 2620M might be worth the upgrade. And the video card might be worth it if you like the latest games and want to future-proof your laptop a bit. Also keep in mind that you can more easily upgrade a processor in the future (and usually sell your old one for a fairly good sum), while the video card is usually part of the motherboard.

My philosophy toward computers is to look at how long it'll let me keep it before beginning to be obsolete, so for things that I know I can upgrade in the future, I'll aim more for what I need in the next year or so. But for things that would require purchasing a whole new computer, I'll try to get the best option available. I've had my XPS m1530 for 4 years and it's actually still holding its own pretty well. One of the biggest reasons for me to upgrade to the L502x is because of the battery life increase of Sandy Bridge--I've had to buy 3 replacement batteries for this thing since I bought it, and it's almost time to buy a new one.

 

I'm sure he meant MB/s, not GB/s.

 

My thoughts exactly. That's why I never upgrade the hdd or ram when configuring the system for purchase. I buy those separately, and get more of it, better quality, half the price, and a longer warranty on those parts.

 

Never thought i see the day but the new macbooks are released and their video card is better than our xps. 6750(480sp) vs 540 . I guess the 555m would be a good battle but that is not an option in the xps 15.

 

So are the New Mac Books better then the XPS 15? What are the differences between both? I have my dell XPS 15 on hold. waiting to see if anything new pops out with good specs at a low price.

 

To get a 15" macbook pro with the 6750 and a quad core cpu your going to have to shell out over $2000, but ya they're probably better than the new $1400 Dell XPS 15. Although they don't have a 1080p screen option either

 

When i try to add the item to the cart, the next page fails to load.
Any pointer?


EDIT: After failing for 10 minutes, now it's working.

 

The link still seems to work for me. Are you in the US?

Also, almost forgot, I got an email from fatwallet this morning telling me I received credit for my purchase, so that's another $36 off. Guess when I was surfing fatwallet looking for coupons, I must have clicked through to dell at one point.

 

Well the 5730 I have is 400 sp 80 increase from the 4670. Whiich was like a 10 to 15. % increase in performance. The mac has another 80 added on to what I have now. From what I know the old xps 15 has basically the same card as the new xps and the 425/435 are both slightly slower than the 5730.

 

Boy, that's the truth. I remember when I bought my E1505 years ago that going through all the permutations I ended up saving a bunch.

 

First post...
I bought my XPS 15 the first day SB was available. Here is what I found.
If you start off with the lowest of the 3 starting points and add in 1080 screen, big battery, Blu-Ray writer, and backlit keyboard, you will come to the same price as if you started with the most expensive starting point and built to the same level. BUT...starting with the most expensive starting point gives you 2GB of additional RAM and the next step up in HDD capacity, and I think I remember getting the next step up in video card too. All for the same price as if I had started at the lower start point. So there...free upgrades by starting in a different place. Now i can upgrade my memory to 8GB by buying 1 4GB sodimm instead of replacing both and save a lot of money over letting Dell upgrade it.
-Dale

 

Very true always play around on Dell's site even try accessing it by different ways/links and sometimes you can pick up a bargain.

 

What a disappointment on the graphic card! I was expecting the AMD Radeon HD 6770M on the L502X.

 

So true, thats what I did, I selected the Higher price model XPS 15 for 1299.99 and with upgraded specs for a total of $1409.99 a $110 dollar increase.

Processor- i7 2720QM
Memory- 6GB
Keyboard- Backlit
LCD- 1080p
Video Card- Nvidia GeForce GT 540M 2GB
HDD- 640GB
Blu-ray player
9-cell battery

 

The L501x uses usb3, not SATA3.

When copying files, click on “more details”.
You will see MBps transfer rates, as 74.5MB/sec
copying a DVD from a Seagate ext HDD to SSD (via usb3).