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    First review of the XPS 15 (L502) is up!!

    Discussion in 'Dell XPS and Studio XPS' started by seigi009, Mar 7, 2011.

  1. seigi009

    seigi009 Notebook Guru

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    seigi009, Mar 7, 2011
    #1
  2. k2007

    k2007 Notebook Consultant

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    95 degree touchpad ? Wow, that doesn't sound like something to celebrate.
     
    k2007, Mar 8, 2011
    #2
  3. 4thehorde4

    4thehorde4 Notebook Consultant

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    Don't forget the stiff keyboard and much higher starting price point according to USA Dell site as of today.
     
    4thehorde4, Mar 8, 2011
    #3
  4. AtulThakor

    AtulThakor Notebook Enthusiast

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    Says only upgradable to 8GB although the manual shows 4 slots.... anyone got a definitive answer to this?

    Cheers
     
    AtulThakor, Mar 8, 2011
    #4
  5. blingers

    blingers Notebook Consultant

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    in the service manual it say two slots. under the " notes" section Documentation
     
    blingers, Mar 8, 2011
    #5
  6. AtulThakor

    AtulThakor Notebook Enthusiast

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    So I'm safe to assume that the 702 will be 4 slots based on:
    Documentation

    ChHeers
     
    AtulThakor, Mar 8, 2011
    #6
  7. gull_s_777

    gull_s_777 Notebook Consultant

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    that RGB-LED looks stunning in that shot.....
    hope full HD WLED in xps 17 would be good also...
     
    gull_s_777, Mar 8, 2011
    #7
  8. tvdang7

    tvdang7 Notebook Evangelist

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    i think its a bad review. Look at the graph comparisons between the l501 and the l501. Some how l502 wins in 3dmark and loses in games.....

    -EDIT
    OK i did a lil research the l501 is running 720p screen and 425m while the l502 is running 1080p. I guess the extra clocks of the 540m Do not make up enough horsepower to cover the big resolution change.
     
    tvdang7, Mar 8, 2011
    #8
  9. DakkonA

    DakkonA Notebook Evangelist

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    Fahrenheit. If its lower than body temperature, it really won't be that uncomfortable.
     
    DakkonA, Mar 8, 2011
    #9
  10. kingp1ng

    kingp1ng Notebook Evangelist

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    Good call. Some of the comparisons for games were done at different resolutions which accounts for the discrepancies.

    so it's confirmed that it's a chiclet keyboard?
     
    kingp1ng, Mar 8, 2011
    #10
  11. siquadri

    siquadri Notebook Enthusiast

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    L501X is 95 touch pad.

    But L502X is only 91 touch pad.

    please see the review
     
    siquadri, Mar 8, 2011
    #11
  12. craigallen

    craigallen Notebook Enthusiast

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    Yes. No option to get the older one.
     
    craigallen, Mar 8, 2011
    #12
  13. TotalLamer

    TotalLamer Notebook Consultant

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    I'm sure you could either:

    A) Trade your L502x keyboard with a L501x owner's keyboard here on the forums.

    or...

    B) But a L501x keyboard from Dell, on eBay, etc.

    I'll be trying "A" first.
     
    TotalLamer, Mar 8, 2011
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  14. k2007

    k2007 Notebook Consultant

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    Oh, goodness me. That 4 degrees makes all the difference.
     
    k2007, Mar 8, 2011
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  15. bbCan

    bbCan Notebook Guru

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    I thought with the SB, it would give a better battery life? seems not that different to the L501...
     
    bbCan, Mar 9, 2011
    #15
  16. acruxksa

    acruxksa Notebook Consultant

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    XPS 15 sandybridge (i7 2630qm): 4hrs. 26Min

    XPS 15 (i5 460m): 3hrs. 6min

    Granted the L501x with the dual core used a 6 cell battery and the L502x test with the quad used the 9 cell. If you factor the difference in batteries, the L502X with quad core sandybridge has approx. the battery life of an i5 460 around double the processing power and about %30 better graphics.
     
    acruxksa, Mar 9, 2011
    #16
  17. thatdaveguy

    thatdaveguy Notebook Evangelist

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    I'm impressed; the 540m combined with Sandy Bridge gives a 260M with the older i7 a run for its money. The 540m is a hair slower but I bet it's also worlds cooler. The only thing unclear about the test, was the battery test using Optimus? I don't understand if that's automatic... but 4:30 on a 9 cell is pretty decent. 3 hours on a 6 cell, not bad at all. Blows the 45 minutes that my G51J gets right out of the water.

    Thinking about going from a G51J which I'm not overly happy with to this. I'll take a small step down in gaming performance but a big upgrade in everything else. I'd imagine if I overclock the 540m (Can't overclock my 260M--too hot) I can match or beat my 260m.
     
    thatdaveguy, Mar 9, 2011
    #17
  18. joehempel

    joehempel Notebook Consultant

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    Now I'm getting impatient for mine LOL.

    I sold my laptop on eBay Monday and shipping it out tomorrow....going to be without a laptop until the 29th.... :( it's my only PC too!!

    Damn you Dragon Age, and Shogun 2 coming out before then!!! LOL.
     
    joehempel, Mar 9, 2011
    #18
  19. maheshpatel

    maheshpatel Notebook Consultant

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    Review says heat is only around 35 C ? How ? Cant believe but L501x has heat issues ? And it usually measures around 50-60 C !!
     
    maheshpatel, Mar 9, 2011
    #19
  20. kingp1ng

    kingp1ng Notebook Evangelist

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    The review said that the battery test was done on power-saver mode.
     
    kingp1ng, Mar 9, 2011
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  21. loaded12

    loaded12 Notebook Enthusiast

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    I don't believe laptop Mag's reported battery life of the 502x with a 9 cell. Even the L501x would have gotten better than that! The 2720QM is incredibly power efficient and with optimus the Nvidia card should be completely power gated. Some users on the forums here are reporting that they're getting ~6Hrs with the 9 cell. I really do question the knowledge of Laptop Mag's authors sometimes, they even believe that when performing gaming benchmarks, "Native Resolution" is a proper quality to compare against (They won't specify High/ Low, 2xAA, etc.)
     
    loaded12, Mar 12, 2011
    #21
  22. siquadri

    siquadri Notebook Enthusiast

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    please check you are seeing the correct review on laptop mag
    there are 2 for xps.
    one for l501 and l502
     
    siquadri, Mar 12, 2011
    #22
  23. Hippoxide

    Hippoxide Newbie

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    That's right. Sandy Bridge and optimus combination should be very power efficient. I wonder whether they force discreet GPU on in the test or it's the other port like 3.0 usb that sucks the power up.
     
    Hippoxide, Mar 13, 2011
    #23
  24. acruxksa

    acruxksa Notebook Consultant

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    I agree that this review is less than perfect. For one, they are comparing multiple laptops with a wide range of processors, screen sizes, battery capacities etc. Essentially they are comparing apples to oranges to bananas.

    They may have been using the 9cell battery on the L502X, but what we don't know is exactly how the "LAPTOP Batter Test" works. From what I could find, it starts the browser, loads a web page, kills the browser and starts over. If the web page they were loading had flash on it, it could suck the battery down a bit faster. Add to that the fact that if they used Safari on the new macbook pro, it wouldn't support flash and would therefore be more likely to have positive battery numbers.

    The review did have some useful information though, so it wasn't all bad.
     
    acruxksa, Mar 13, 2011
    #24
  25. loaded12

    loaded12 Notebook Enthusiast

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    I completely agree. It was a nice read with lots of information about the new revision (and keyboard pics!). It's just the battery test that irked me. Me and my roommate were talking about it and think it could be that if they're doing browsing in the test, flash could be causing optimus to turn on the video card. Not sure.

    Anyways, we'll have to wait for more reviews to come, I hope anand does another one!
     
    loaded12, Mar 14, 2011
    #25
  26. bobtms

    bobtms Newbie

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    Pardon the noob question.

    Can anyone point to more info on the TV Tuner option for this laptop? (L502) $49 isn't going to kill me, but does it convert satellite (e.g. DirecTV, Dish) or cable (e.g. Comcast) or even OTA HD?

    I can't figure out what ports, software, or features this delivers, except $49 to Dell's coffers.

    Thx!
     
    bobtms, Mar 20, 2011
    #26
  27. joehempel

    joehempel Notebook Consultant

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    I got one by mistake when they shipped mine. I can't attest to the cable/satalire, but over the air is outstanding. I work at a TV station and I've got a clearer picture than the crappy equipment we use. Lol. It does take a while to setup the channels though. The detection is a lonng process apparently.
     
    joehempel, Mar 20, 2011
    #27
  28. URPradhan

    URPradhan Notebook Deity

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    OMG !!!
    Soooooooooooo ugly ............ so called premium laptop from Dell ???
    The earlier SXPS16 was far far better than this XPS15 :(
     
    URPradhan, Mar 20, 2011
    #28
  29. NoSlow5oh

    NoSlow5oh Notebook Evangelist

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    You could probably scoop one of those SXPS16's cheap then, as a lot of the owners are selling them and buying the new XPS 15's.
     
    NoSlow5oh, Mar 20, 2011
    #29
  30. DakkonA

    DakkonA Notebook Evangelist

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    Here's something I was curious about: Is there an internal antenna, or do you have to use an external antenna? Or does the external antenna just boost the signal?
     
    DakkonA, Mar 20, 2011
    #30
  31. joehempel

    joehempel Notebook Consultant

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    You need the antenna, no doubt about it.
     
    joehempel, Mar 20, 2011
    #31
  32. zygotic

    zygotic Notebook Consultant

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    Seems that it's an Avermedia card supporting analogue TV and DVB-T (terrestrial digital through an aerial). People here have received a loop antenna - so it's not going to be satellite. Not sure you use DVB-T in the States so maybe it's ATSC over there. DVB-T2 for HD OTA isn't available yet so if you have HD, it suggests it's not that.

    Maybe this, for the US?

    Documentation
     
    zygotic, Mar 20, 2011
    #32
  33. joehempel

    joehempel Notebook Consultant

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    Suit yourself, I find it much better looking, and it's much better built for me!
     
    joehempel, Mar 20, 2011
    #33
  34. joehempel

    joehempel Notebook Consultant

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    YES it is HD. I got an HD signal over the air when watching CBS
     
    joehempel, Mar 20, 2011
    #34
  35. chemman14

    chemman14 Notebook Consultant

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    I am bummed I didnt get the tuner now. My sales rep told me it wasnt for OTA HD
     
    chemman14, Mar 20, 2011
    #35
  36. joehempel

    joehempel Notebook Consultant

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    I don't know how it would look full screen, I didn't really check that....but it looked better than my TV at home in the window LOL.
     
    joehempel, Mar 20, 2011
    #36
  37. DakkonA

    DakkonA Notebook Evangelist

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    Signals are signals. You'd either get the HD signal or nothing at all. Sometimes channels have a backup SD signal (i.e. HD on 2.1, SD on 2.2), but the antenna isn't going to be what makes the difference. There's more information in the HD stream, so it probably matters more that you're in a good signal location and not dropping any packets. And it takes more computer power to decode, record, and display it. There is virtually 0 chance that they included a TV tuner that somehow wasn't able to process HD channels.
     
    DakkonA, Mar 21, 2011
    #37
  38. URPradhan

    URPradhan Notebook Deity

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    Good. Enjoy your new design :)

    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
     
    URPradhan, Mar 21, 2011
    #38
  39. MattM1121

    MattM1121 Notebook Enthusiast

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    I have the Studio 17 that looks like the old XPS. I have to say I really hate the Studio 17 keyboard. I got my L502x this past weekend and I LOVE the new keyboard. I just find the off center pad a little annoying. But I guess I'll get used to it.
     
    MattM1121, Mar 21, 2011
    #39
  40. URPradhan

    URPradhan Notebook Deity

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    Which one looks better from the above 2 pics ?
     
    URPradhan, Mar 23, 2011
    #40
  41. NoSlow5oh

    NoSlow5oh Notebook Evangelist

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    Definitely the new XPS 15 L502x.
     
    NoSlow5oh, Mar 23, 2011
    #41
  42. blingers

    blingers Notebook Consultant

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    the bottom one reminds me of the clevo/sager
     
    blingers, Mar 23, 2011
    #42
  43. joehempel

    joehempel Notebook Consultant

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    The XPS 15, the keyboard for the SXPS 1645 was a lint trap and the speaker covers were also...plus the thing attracted fingerprints like crazy.
     
    joehempel, Mar 23, 2011
    #43
  44. URPradhan

    URPradhan Notebook Deity

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    The top image reminds me of a Acer laptop that I had seen couple of years back :)
     
    URPradhan, Mar 23, 2011
    #44
  45. Dinkleburg

    Dinkleburg Notebook Consultant

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    I couldnt agree more. I dont think it will be an issue with the new island type keyboard
     
    Dinkleburg, Mar 23, 2011
    #45
  46. lizard5

    lizard5 Notebook Consultant

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    were my previous posts deleted?
     
    lizard5, Mar 23, 2011
    #46
  47. joehempel

    joehempel Notebook Consultant

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    Seems a couple of mine were too
     
    joehempel, Mar 23, 2011
    #47
  48. Charles P. Jefferies

    Charles P. Jefferies Lead Moderator Super Moderator

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    The posts were deleted since they stemmed from some flaming comments; they derailed the entire thread.

    Stay on-topic from this point forward - let's not fight argue about personal preferences amongst one another. We're all on the same team here.

    Thanks.

    Edit: If you disagree you can message me privately.
     
    Charles P. Jefferies, Mar 23, 2011
    #48