New Dell XPS L521X (Ivy Bridge)

Hey guys, this question is for Bill or anyone else who knows something about this, I am living in India but my uncle is planning to come from the USA to India by the end of july so i thought of ordering the 1700 dollar XPS 15. I see that it has a premium warranty which covers liquid spills and accidental drops. I am aware that warranties can be transferred from USA to India but i would like to know if all the extra features of the warranty like liquid spill protection will also be transferred

 

ordered a maxed out with 512ssd on the 27th in Australia and just received notification it has shipped from factory shouldn't be long now for me and everyone else

 

Thanks for the info. Any idea if they are going to keep the price on the "coming soon" page? Currently they are listing the top of the line 14 for 1299. I am surprised as dell is selling it for 1460 or so. I am guess if the 1299 price is legit, it is just because it will lack dell's accidental damage protection.

 

Have a look under the business section, I'm sure I saw 512GB SSD option there when I placed my order. Maybe just dropped from the consumer section as I expect business customers will get priority.


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They should be keeping that price. It's because you do not get Dell's Accidental Coverage but you do get a little bit through best buy (complete garbage though)

 

Wait...so if you buy one from BB, you have no warranty support from Dell? Or, it's just the accidental coverage that is lost?

 

Just the accidental cover not included at Best Buy - which is apparently free for the US but optional extra in the UK.

Also, I thought you were in the UK? We don't have Best Buy here, they tried but failed.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/...ld-be-a-cautionary-tale-for-UK-retailers.html


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Excellent! Thank you. I may buy through best buy but would rather try an online retailer so i can avoid the sales tax. I guess amazon would be releasing it same day or around the same time.

 

is this the l521x? I believe it is, but its a lot cheaper.
The Dell Online Store: Build Your System
on the business section of the dell website.
Is it a lot cheaper because it doesn't come with the same kind of protection plan?
Its the same specs as the 1699 version on the home section.

 

Yes it is. I wish it was only 1100 though

 

I through the price was lowered due to special offer...but i just saw that the new price doesn't include taxes anymore...

really really frustrating...

 

Nice find. It's definitely a better way to buy than the regular consumer "home" route. However, Dell still doesn't know what it's doing. The high-end config for the 14 starts at $1,499 and the 15 at $1,399 with better specs. Same base warranty, better HD, CPU, GPU... How is that possible Dell?

 

Can anyone buy from the business side?

 

thats true
at this price though, ill have to pick this up and add a new bigger ssd myself.
i can live without the accident protection.

 

Wow do you think I can buy it from the small business side and get it with a student discount?

Answered my own question. Hopefully this work in the following weeks when I'm ordering

 

Yeah most retailers will be releasing them on Tuesday online. I'm
Just nervous about how long it'll take to actually ship once you order it.

 

Doubtful, I feel as though student discounts are only applicable to the home and personal side

Oh nice! Guess that means you can get an Xbox instead!
However do you need to have a business credit card to buy it?

 

I can't sift through this enormous thread, and perhaps I should wait for more reviews, but to those who have used the XPS 15, how is the screen? Does it compare at all to IPS in terms of colour and viewing angles?

 

As someone else stated. Can anyone buy from the small business site (even for personal) or do you need to prove your business to them? I know its a longshot, but worth a shot to save 400.

 

Display is 60% NTSC gamut (vs. L502X's 72% for WLED and 96% for B+RGLED). Haven't heard much on viewing angles. Maybe someone else can answer that.

 

That's not *too* bad, given that 72% NTSC is about equal to 100% sRGB.

 

First in depth review from a Norwegian site.

http://translate.google.co.uk/translate?hl=en&sl=no&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.hardware.no%2Fartikler%2Fdell-xps-15%2F110477

+ Good build quality
+ Nice design
+ Good battery life
+ Quiet ​

- Poor performance for your money
- Keyboard and touch pad is not good enough








Screen Brightness

 

So basically the three things that are most important on any laptop: 1) Keyboard/touchpad, 2) screen quality and 3) performance... were the very three things they didn't like about the XPS 15? Nice.

 

I have a business credit card but not a business lol. You can probably pay with a regular credit card. I was thinking of using gift cards

 

They also didn't like the speakers "There is a total absence of bass "

 

I wonder if the laptop is suffering from throttling either because of something in the bios or simply a flawed cooling design. Could be something like the throttling on the G73SW where it would throttle because of something that should have been disabled in the bios.

Well it's either that or it's performing up to par for it's specs and they'd just have preferred more from a XPS system.

 

No, it's not terrible. I've seen worse, for sure. However, it's definitely a step down for the L502X folks, who from what I understand already felt that the B+RGLED was a step down from the RGBLED in the Studio XPS 16. The new Asus Zenbooks apparently are ~72%, IPS (and good viewing angles for notebook IPS, even), and ~1000:1 contrast @ 350 nits. So, my estimation is that the new XPS 15 screen is probably pretty decent but maybe not entirely competitive at its price point.

Well, they seemed to think the performance was pretty good, but not exceptional. However, they said that the performance is not very good for the price, and it looks like they didn't feel the build quality made up for the overall downsides (price/performance, keyboard, trackpad, display). It was interesting to see the comments about the keyboard. They track roughly how I felt about the XPS 13 keyboard, but it seems like a lot of people like it?

I was a bit surprised to see they only measured 254 nits for the display.

Maybe this is one of those situations where it's going to need a refresh/second generation *shrug*.

 

Possibly, the Zenbooks you mentioned are the second generation and it took the first gen to iron the kinks out.

It's always possible Dell didn't manage to do exactly what they wanted with the laptop, but launched to recoup development costs since it's still a decent laptop. This is all mere speculation of course, but that wouldn't be the first time something like that happens.

 

The complete lack of bass is a big deal and the fact that the North America version is lacking SSD only is mind boggling.

 

What's bothersome is that the Dell engineers specifically chose the 3612 for its low voltage, the 640m over the 650m because it wouldn't run as hot and was only 10% below in performance, yada, yada... And yet the handful of reviews both professional and on this site have stated it still gets warm and isn't the speediest performer around. Couple that with the lack of a 256/512GB SSD only option and what was Dell thinking?

Yes, as it turns out, less than one week after its release, we will have to wait for the L522x to get this all sorted out.

 

Na, I've seen that... Not after an SSD.... After an i7 with a 5400RPM + mSATA.

 

Checked the business section on the Canadian website...sadly, there was no SSD only option. What a let down.

 

After this flop and small numbers sold it will be a long time before we see another XPS from Dell.

 

Well, to put it in a positive light, you could order the version with the 7200RPM drive, buy a M4 when it's on sale as well as a USB 3.0 enclosure and swap the drives. You'd have a SSD and a new backup drive. Still sucks if you don't fell like upgrading yourself though. Still, being a DIY guy, that is what i would personally do.

 

Does this qualify as a flop yet? Do we know the number of initial orders? I feel like this forum doesn't accurately sample the market that Dell is trying to hit. The new XPS 14/15 may not be equipped like we would have liked, but that doesn't mean it won't sell. (Heck Transformers 3 reviewed horribly and it still made a butt load of money)

@Bill I don't know if you can answer this. In terms of release of the XPS 14 and 15, has initial interest and sales met Dell's expectations? Many people are calling this a flop. While it doesn't meet their expectations that doesn't mean it hasn't met many others. If the release did indeed fizzle in Dell's eyes, do you foresee a refresh in the future?

 

I get the sense that Dell was thinking the looks and putative build quality would carry the product (and the price). Comments from some posts in this thread and the two for the XPS 14 indicate that, at least for some buyers, this is a reasonable estimation of their priorities. However, for performance-oriented (or feature-oriented?) buyers, it seems to be a tougher sell than the previous generation, considering the price.

 

how much you wanna bet that the L522x will have better sound maybe a mini subwoofer , better screen, better cpu and GPU and hey will change the system fan entirely for a better / newer .... .... when on battery i want the system to be quiet since i wont be doing much more than surfing the net / youtube vids as well as be lap friendly unlike my current system warm i can deal with
..
off battery i dont care how loud the fan gets as long as its not overpowering the speakers / music
i wonder if they would use a matte display next time around the gorilla glass will over the benefits of glassy and the matte cuts down reflection win win

 

I wonder if I could get a L502x with i7-2760 and put my L501 b+rg screen in it?

 

I think you can, they're the same screen!

 

Did you read the whole review, or just the summary?

The scores on the benchmarks were VERY decent compared to the other models. The other machines it was competing with all had better video cards, yet the Dell looked not so bad.

 

I think a lot of people are mistaking the new XPS for an evolution of the previous model, ie: a £700 gaming machine. What many people seem to have missed is the fact Dell has repositioned the XPS in the market. It's no longer a performance-based gaming machine. It now all about premium build to try and get a slice of the market where people buy the MacBook Pro more for its design and build quality than the OS. Once you get your head around this fact, the XPS isn't necessarily over priced. Previous XPS owners should really be looking at Alienware or the Inspiron if bang for buck is what you're looking for.

The only mistake Dell has made in my opinion is not having a complete brand image refresh at the same time. ie: change the horrible logo for something classy, like (dare I say it) the frosted glass effect Apple. Remember, Apple haven't always been a premium brand - it wasn't until they had an image makeover and launched the transparent iMac that things changed for them. Dell have made the transition in this model, and the XPS 13 - but overall brand image really needs addressing to make it all work.

 

So it seems Dell has made some killing mistakes with the new XPS15:
- positioned it as a premium notebook with a premium (high) price
- even while it is marketed as a premium notebook, the screen is poor and mediocre
- the performance you get is below average for a notebook in this price range
- little to none customization options (at least in the EU, don't know for the US)
- strange SSD options (better: no choice, only the high-end model has it...)

It is such a shame that Dell killed the XPS series with this release.

 

Clearly not, he only read what he wanted to see. I could have left that review sample out and he STILL would have found the bad points. Then you have intraweb who is consistently pulling figures out of the air about how it is a flop and that sales have tanked based on a few hundred members on a forum thread.

 

I think you're right, but maybe if Dell provided NVIDIA also for INSPIRON R SE we would have seen it as a L502X's successor more easily...

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I'm trying to contact my sales rep to change my order since it hasn't shipped yet. the SMB version is only 1399, I don't need the ADW for 300 more. I haven't heard back from him yet. It seems ADW is the only change between the two (and less bloat ware)

 

Hem... and why they should call it XPS if it's not a gaming or eXtreme Performance System? Maybe it was better to call it GSS - Gloss Stylish System... and, a premium price tag NEEDS to be sustained with PREMIUM characteristics... and Gorilla Glass alone IT'S NOT what we are judging premium characteristics, especially when coupled with a below-par screen, CPU, GPU and audio speakers, but hey, you've got instead a machined aluminium lid :facepalm: (an emoticon missing)

And, for what I recall, Apple was a premium brand since their debut to market...

You've spotted the problem. A Rep+ is coming

 

Don't buy it then, no one is making you.

I've ordered my XPS 14 and look forward to doing some software development on it - and for that purpose, it's perfect.

I've been waiting for Apple-like build quality in a PC and this is pretty much it.

Go buy a cheap Acer which may meet your hardware & price expectations but the keyboard will flex, the chassis will creak and it will disintegrate in a few months - and it looks like a plastic tub of lard.


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I hope so, but considering the descending thread that notebook industry (screens in particular) is ongoing, I'd bet they will put a 40ish% gamut screen, 150nit to save battery life confused an i5 ULV also on the 15", 1 USB3.0 port and a 2-cell battery because of the environment harm...
All this with a whopping $2099.95 attached to it...

Nah, probably you've been waiting for Apple-like price tag in a PC...

That sound like Fanboyism... Meh, when someone will criticize your favorite new toy there's always someone that spot "Go buy Acer"...

Is still possible to criticize, or we are obligated to just say "Yes sir", "Good product sir"?

Please answer my question: why the hell HP could sell the Envy with similar characteristics of the XPS (and better, especially in screen and CPU segment), for about 300$ *LESS* ?? Are they doing charity?

 

No. The Envy has been out a while. You should know as well as anyone, any new product always sells at a high price initially (Samsung Series 9) then gets discounted later on.

I'm fortunate enough to be in a position where price doesn't really come into it. I like the XPS, so I bought it. You're disappointed by it, so don't. That's all I'm saying.


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Ok, this sounds right.