New Dell XPS 15 (L521x) First Impressions Review & Pictures

Hey guys, so I received my XPS 15 yesterday and as promised I'm posting some pictures and giving my first impressions of it. I haven't run any tests on it yet but I will be sure to get some games on it and run some benchmarks.

I have one minor problem which Dell will be fixing within the next couple of days, the screen when tilted at a certain spot will lose some color and show vertical lines and Dell support have came to the conclusion that the alignment is off and will send a technician to come and fix it. Nevertheless I was still able to take pictures of the screen as it is otherwise fine except for that certain spot.

My model is as follows:

• i7 3612
• GT640m 2GB GDDR5
• 750GB HDD 7200 RPM
• 32GB mSATA SSD
• Blu-Ray Drive
• FHD 1080p Screen

The first impressions of it is that it is very solidly built and surprisingly thin. The entire thing feels very nice in the hands and not flimsy at all. I could not find any signs of flex throughout the lid, keyboard and palmrest.

It was to my liking that there actually is a decent amount of space between the USB ports, I was able to plug in a bulky flash-drive and adapters without them interfering with one another.

Opening the laptop you really see how great this thing actually looks. The two stickers that come on the palmrest are easily lifted with inching a gentle fingernail underneath a corner and pulling it off, it left no residue whatsoever. the Lid and aluminum sides show almost no fingerprints at all along with the soft touch inside. You will find small specs of dust and fuzz on the plam rest but it is easily wiped away.

The keyboard is much more comfortable to type on than I had expected. Although the throw could've been slightly more the feedback and feel is great. The trackpad takes some getting used to as the material can become somewhat tacky but overall it works fine with multi-touch and basic uses.

The screen is very bright and vivid. I tried to capture some viewing angles but this is the brightest room in my home, I will still post them though they don't do a ton of justice it still has pretty good angles.
(sorry for some of the blur)

It was very easy to take apart with only 8 screws and very easy to put back together.

All in all my first impressions of this machine are great, it feels great and looks great and runs great. I will upload some benchmarks and gaming tests later for all of you and will take requests and try and do some of them.

I was going to insert the pictures myself but the resolution was way too big and I didn't feel like resizing all of them. Go ahead and zoom in to see closer.
Thank you all for reading I hope you enjoy!

Photo Album - Imgur

Windows Experience Index:


Web Cam picture:


Powerbrick (5" x 2" x 1.25"):


It really does not seem big at all, and very light.

Dell XPS 15 vs. HP Envy 17:
ImageShack Album - 9 images

3DMark11:


Skyrim:
Booted up some Skyrim and was surprised when I didn't get a massive drop in FPS after 20 minutes of play using these setting:

• Resolution: 1920x1080
• AA: 4x
• Anisotropic Filtering: 8x

Sniper V2:
Played smoothly in the mid to upper 30s only dipping into the upper 20s when heavy battle persisted but very smooth with all setting maxed out:
ImageShack Album - 4 images

 

Can you always hear your fan running Elands?

 

thanks for posting man how is the sound though ???
and the clarity of the camera ??
is it that heavy or relatively light for what you get ??
what about fan noise ??? maybe when u get time u can do a screen shot of temps ( after youtube/browsing, or some more intensive tasks ??)

i wanna buy this badly but its gonna cost me around 10,000 TTD i find it kinda hard to part with that much

:O the screen looks amazing in the head on shot ........ viewing angles look good better than my current Gateway NV 54

 

If I am doing something with a lot of reading/writing of the hard drive like transfering files I can hear it if I put my head right by it but other than that the fans have not been audible.

The sound is actually fairly decent for not having big speakers and a sub-woofer. It is loud enough to fill a fairly big room although you can definitely tell there is a lack of bass but that's what my Klipsh headphones are for

For the camera here is a sample picture of my camera:

I actually think it looks better while recording than taking pictures.

And really to me it doesn't feel heavy at all I would be fine carrying this around in my backpack all day.

 

Thx for sharing your first impressions!
Would be really great to see some benchmark results (especially 3dmark06).

 

quality seems good ... well maybe sound will improve in the windows 8 version
from when you opened it .... does it look like dell can squeeze in a mini subwoofer near the like the 13 mac book pro ???

image below .........

my NV54 is specked at 6.8 lbs so it will feel light to me

 

I'm sure if they wanted to the may be able to fit something by the speakers in front of the battery but it would be very cramped and I'm not sure if it would interfere with the battery itself. Sound for me in a laptop isn't as much about quality as it is about loudness. If I want quality I'll use my headphones, if I want to play a song or video for a couple people I want it to be loud.

 

OMG the pictures of the laptop are amazing.
Nice camera too but I'm more a Canon fan myself

Can you hook me up with that receipt? PM it to me, thanks.

Also, did you do a fresh install of windows or did it come like that?

 

Thanks Elands

 

You have q good point I already have dell A50 2.1 speakers from 2007 might order mine with the new dell 2.1 system and waves audio should make my headphones and the speakers sound better as long as the system has a little bass and it loud I'm good

 

Is it that heavy for being carried in your bag ? I feel it is thin enough but what about weight ?? the early reviews say it is heavier than MBP15. MBP 15 already is not that heavy for me considering its options

 

The weight is posted on Dell's site specs if you want to know how much it weighs.

 

It weighs less than a MBP 15.

Elands, can you run a HD youtube video and tell me of the fan goes bonkers?

 

I'll mention something I noticed about the weight -- there seems to be something psychological about it. My L502x weighs a little over 6 lbs. It feels significantly lighter than my L521x which is just under 6 lbs. The L502x doesn't feel bad in the hand, but the L521x feels great -- it has a dense, solid feel to it.

It's like an old maths joke -- which weighs more, 5 lbs of feathers or 5 lbs of rocks? They weigh the same but feathers 'feel' lighter than rocks

 

Just ran a 720p video, this one to be exact: THE HOBBIT Trailer HD - YouTube and the fan ran very quietly. I was a battery power so it should be running the integrated HD4000 graphics. I haven't heard the fans run at full RPM yet.

I cannot compare it to the 15z or the MacBook side by side, but my brother does have an Envy 17 and I can post some pictures tomorrow side by side so you can see. I can say that it is very bright and the colors look great.

 

How's the screen? Compared to a MacBook, Envy, or even a 15Z. That's my only remaining concern about getting one.

 

looking good, thanks for all the pictures. i wonder when they are going to streamline that power adapter. looks terrible!

 

Is there a Home or End key anywhere on that keyboard?

 

They are Fn + left and right arrow key, page up and page down and Fn+ arrow up and down. I don't really get why, there is plenty of room to either side of the keyboard for them to put full proper keys, a bit annoying.

 

Exactly. I don't get it either. Plenty of room on a 15" Windows machine for dedicated Home, End, Page Up and Down keys.

 

Thanks Elands
Photos look good, looks like the power block is pretty big, how do you feel about that ?

Thanks again.

 

Thanks Elands !

These pictures make we want even more !! .

Are you planning to run any games yet ? . Would like to know the temps and fan sound . Also can you tell how efficient is Air vent ?

 

I actually think the power brick seems smaller in person. I wasn't bothered by how big it seems, it's practically half the size of the one for an Envy17.

I plan on eventually getting some games on it (probably) next week. The vents seem to work fine so far but I haven't run anything too intensive yet so I will let you know than.

 

the reason is to keep cost down use the same keyboard from the XPS 13 14 and 15 means no more development cost only change dell made was to make key travel better on the 14 and 15 as they are thicker than the XPS 13 but why change a good thing

no number pad since it would offset the touchpad and dell said there is no room for a 10 key numeric pad the system is smaller than the average 15.6" laptop so slim bezel = no room for extra keys

 

Thanks Elands.
I was wondering, someone posted way back about a weak wifi signal, could you confirm that, or, hopefully, deny that? If you have any other issues which haven't been discussed, please come forward (slow usb, bad webcam, weak battery: not they exist but this can happen).

 

Neither do I. It appears that a new keyboard is designed for the L521X, while the L502X keyboard (which has Delete, Home, PgUp, PgDn, End, right-arrow keys down the right side) is being used in the new Inspiron 15R Special Edition.



In terms of aesthetics, I prefer the key labels on the L502X keyboard to the centered, square-font labels on the L521X keyboard.

Anyway, thanks to Elands for the very nice photos. (Love the dog.)

 

All requests that involve pictures and benchmarks will just be added to the front page as it is easier. So everyone wondering about the powerbrick and WEI I uploaded some picture.

I was nervous at first because my Wi-fi signal would be very weak upstairs where normally it would be fine but my first shutdown installed some updates that fixed it right up. USB 2 speed seems fine I don't yet have a a USB 3 HDD or flashdrive I'm hoping to pick one up soon though. I posted a sample picture that I took with the webcam, the quality seems to be just fine. As for battery life I've been getting around 6-7 hours with 30-40% brightness on wifi browsing and listening to some music.

 

Thanks for that. I MUCH prefer that keyboard.

 

Actually, it is a tad more then a MBP, Dell 5.79lbs vs MBP of 5.6lbs and MBPR 4.46lbs.

TomK

 

Then you should buy that laptop; not this one.

 

Did the notebook arrive with 2x4GB or 1x8GB stick of ram?

Looking forward to some XPS vs Envy screen comparisons. Your picture album is top notch by the way. Thanks for that.

 

2x4GB unfortunately.

 

2x4GB is what you want to have to enable dual channel. Unless you want half the ram bandwidth that is.

 

The problem is the other ram slot is covered by the motherboard and if he wants to upgrade to 16gb he would have to disassemble the laptop completely.

 

Sorry seemed I missed your post before

Check your PM I sent you my email confirmation which was the final order and configuration. Nikon, Canon both great companies in my opinion

I did not bother to run a clean install of Windows cause it really did not come with much bloatware. It comes with McAfee which I uninstalled because my University Tech Store offers a free program that they update themselves often. Other than that you can choose not to install LoJack when you start it up for the first time so it is very clean.

 

Thanks for the post!
Time to switch to a true SSD for high performance and comfort.
I have a 7.8 hd windows score with a 2 year-old Intel SSD.

 

Which is why I'm baffled the XPS 14 has 1 ram slot. I'd also have preferred 1 x 8, but I just saw my build sheet, 2 x 4. I had fully intended on just throwing another stick of 8 gb in when I got it.

 

Hi, I'm really interested by this laptop (and a vaio S15), but I read on dell website that the HDD have a 32 Go SSD in msata.
Is this a problem to change the HDD by a 256 Crucial C300 SSD or not?
Thank you for your reply.

 

If you look at the pictures of the inside there is the HDD and there is a separate slot above the battery which is the 32GB mSATA SSD. They are two separate components so you can upgrade the HDD to an SSD without interfering with th mSATA and vice versa.

 

Thanks a lot for your flash reply^^
I really think that I'll cancel my order of the S15 for this one... the only thing that makes myself hesitate is the reflective display....

BTW, is the machine really inaudible during typing or simple web browsing (no flash video etc...)? Is it hot?
And a last question, you say that the 640M is GDDR5 vrsion, are you sure? Cause on notebookcheck, they tell DDR3.

 

Ok I have one more question is the resolution ratio 16:9 for the Full HD display
I am also between choosing this laptop and Sony Vaio S15

And the heat, how is the heat ?? I edit video files and this is why I am worried about how much hot it gets when it is under pressure

 

Yes, it's confirmed also by HWinfo

Yes, it's 16:9

It's an open discussion yet, we're waiting for a feedback from Dell's technicians about throttling (have a look at Owner's Lounge)

 

Why sad face ??

 

Why sad face ??

 

Ugh, so if I want this laptop with 16GB ram, I either pay Dell $2k for it, or be prepared to take apart the entire laptop to replace the ram?

I'm trying to decide between this and the Sony Vaio S15, and so far this ram option and not being able to configure the XPS low end model with the options I want are pushing me towards Sony...

TomK

 

16:10 is better for computing. 16:9 is because its cheaper to make/used by the movie and TV industries.

 

you are correct.

 

Confirmed by reviews, HWinfo, Dell's product page, the manual for the machine, and Bill from Dell

 

Thanks, this will be my first time owning a Sony laptop, after years and years of Dell and Apple machines.

TomK

 

Damned, I just take a look at the owner's new XPS 15 and see that there is throttling issues... not a good point