New Dell XPS L521X (Ivy Bridge)

Interesting Find A little disappointed about the screen though

 

Gee, that WLED instead of B+RGLED is going to disappoint a lot of people. Hope that's not all there is!

 

1GB NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 630M Graphics Card
2GB NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 640M Graphics Card

Damn, I was expecting 650M

I think, I will go with Samsung Series 7 17". But let's see it's shape & other things.

 

Tech SpecsCustomer Ratings
Processor
XPS 15 Standard Base
Operating System
English Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium (64 BIT)
French Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium (64 BIT)
German Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium (64 BIT)
Italian Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium (64 BIT)
Spanish Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium (64 BIT)
English Genuine Windows® 7 Professional (64 BIT)
French Genuine Windows® 7 Professional (64 BIT)
German Genuine Windows® 7 Professional (64 BIT)
Italian Genuine Windows® 7 Professional (64 BIT)
Spanish Genuine Windows® 7 Professional (64 BIT)
English Genuine Windows® 7 Ultimate (64 BIT)
French Genuine Windows® 7 Ultimate (64 BIT)
German Genuine Windows® 7 Ultimate (64 BIT)
Spanish Genuine Windows® 7 Ultimate (64 BIT)
Italian Genuine Windows® 7 Ultimate (64 BIT)
Memory1
4096MB (1x4GB) 1600MHz DDR3
6144MB (1x2GB + 1x4GB) 1600MHz DDR3
8192MB (1x8GB) 1600MHz DDR3
8192MB (2x4GB) 1600MHz DDR3
12288MB (1x8GB + 1x4GB) 1600MHz DDR3
16384MB (2x8GB) 1600MHz DDR3
Video Card
1GB NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 630M Graphics Card
2GB NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 640M Graphics Card
Display
Silver Aluminium LCD Back with 15.6" FHD(1080p) True Life WLED Display and Skype-Certified HD Webcam
Hard Drive
Up to 1000GB2 SATA hard drive (5400RPM)
Up to 750GB2 SATA hard drive (7200RPM)
Up to 512GB2 Solid State hard drive

Just before it gets removed!

 

Disappointing specs to say the least, but this is the summer refresh mainly to accommodate IB. When W8 comes out later in the year, I'm pretty sure Dell will up the ante to take/make better usage of the OS and its hardware requirements. Remember, this is the L521x's birth, not its graduation day.

 

I don't know what you where expecting, I was happy with the current XPS (i7/8GBram and/gt540m) and see that new one may come with 16GB RAM blows my mind, even the procesor looks good to me (but it might be better).

I can wait until the official release specs, and until november/december when I will buy this laptop.

If people want more I guess they would better buy an Alienware.

 

Wled = B+RGled. Sony markets it as wled, lenovo markets it as wled, clevo markets it as wled, and dell markets it as... B+RGled? Juist wait and we will see.

 

I don't think that's right. The 1920x1080 B+RGLED screen in the L502x is different from the 1920x1080 WLED in the L511x. The former has a much higher color gamut (and in my opinion, much more saturated colors).

The WLED screen on the L511x is relatively unimpressive in my opinion. When I saw it in person, I noticed a sort of visible gaps between the pixels that create sort of a "chain link" pattern across the screen. I sure hope that is not the screen that will be used in the new L521x.

And cue the endless speculation!

 

Specs look fine if the 640m is the gddr5 type. i7-3612qm or 3610 I don't care both look good, the 3612qm might run cooler and give longer battery life so it'd be fine.

 

Dirty dirty dirty taking advantage of our website mistake.

Germany was awesome!! Thanks for the welcome backs. If I can find time, I'll put some pics up on Flickr if anyone's interested.

 

I really don't understand why there's all this disappointment. It's been absurdly clear for a long time that the 15 would get the 630/640. It's also almost guaranteed that the 17 will get a 640/650. Exactly what I would have expected.

 

Agreed. People expected what common sense (not to mention a ton of people here in this thread) knew would not happen.

I can almost guarantee GDDR5 will NOT be used on the XPS line...for the same reasons it isn't used on the current gen.

Dropping that widely-raved-about 15" FHD screen (if in fact true) is a big oops...

 

Im stuck, the xps 15 is going to be a slick looking machine with potentially better build quality than the hp dv6tqe but right now you can get the dv6 with ivy bridge i7,gt 650m, blueray drive, and awesome 1080p screen for $1000 OTD(because of coupon). Im guessing a similarly configured xps 15 will cost 1100-1200 not including tax and with gt 640m-but the xps will be thinner and sleek looking.

 

well if no ddr5 then no xps 15 for me

 

If Dell isn't doing DDR5 on these GT chips, no one else will. There are pretty much no DDR5 555m chips (or any other GT 5xx) being done right now. Comes down to price, the DDR5 RAM is a bit more pricey (this may have changed, in which case there is hope) and the price margin makes no sense on a lower-end GPU, which the whole GT line is. The GPUs the manufacturers can charge much higher margins on (GTX cards - gaming ones basically) get the better RAM.

 

thats where ur wrong lol... the samsung 15 in s5 has gt 640m ddr5 i believe, the hp dv6 has gt 650m ddr5. I think alot of people would be willing to pay the extra cost difference. the hd 6770m got ddr5 also and that is equal to gt 555

 

Note to self- set Outlook reminder for certain day in June to respond to this post.

 

so how much faster is the 640m compared to my 540m? i could use more frames in bf3.

 

+50%? I forget but its compared to gtx 460m i believe, so its gonna be a whole lot faster

 

The difference between my L502X's "B+RG" and my previous M11x's and M1730's "WLED" is, to me, night and day. I don't mind if other people don't care about the difference or don't even like it. Just don't be telling me that it's the same or that I should or should not be feeling a certain way about it. I love it, and I see the difference. Those are facts that aren't going to change.

So, if all they offer is the standard "WLED" and not something like what I currently have in the L502X, I will be sorely disappointed, possibly even enough to not make the purchase when I otherwise would have. My guess is that a lot of people will also be disappointed, and Dell will have some explaining to do. Why on earth omit something so popular? There must be a reason, if indeed it is being omitted. It remains to be seen. I will hold out some hope, but I have a bad feeling.

 

The 650's are reserved for Alienware, And maybe the 17 inch if there is one

 

I am perfectly fine with the GPUs, I'm currently playing Diablo 3 on near-max settings in 1080p with the 540M, stock. And going completely max is actually quite playable, but I prefer more fluidity in the framerate. I know it's not a very demanding game, but the 540M has also managed 1080p in other more demanding games with medium/low settings for me which I was fine with. So if a 640 is a ~50% improvement over that, I have no complaints there whatsoever. It is the display that worries me. :\

 

I agree, the B+RGLED screen along with the 2.1 speakers are a deal breaker for me. I think the L521x looks more like a replacement for the 15z than the L502x!

 

I am really disappointed with the WLED screen ! May be I can go for the MBP 2012; rumor is that new MBPs will have breathtaking retina display(2880x1800 for 15inch & 2560x1600 for 13inch) and quality of Mac displays are always absolutely awesome!But 15inch MBP is highly overpriced and I will go for 13inch MBP if they include a gfx card! Apple is still generation ahead of the other manufacturers(don't mind Bill )!

 

The Dell Australia website is showing links for an xps-14-l421x-mb & xps-14-l421x-nb. That's all I can give.

Dell XPS Laptops and Ultrabooksâ„¢ | Dell Australia

 

have also noticed that the Z line of laptops has been removed from the dell Aus site. Hopefully this is good news and an announcement is coming soon

 

Dell Studio XPS Laptops - Experience Power & Performance | Dell Ireland

On the Irish site there are now links to the xps-14-l421x-nb and the xps-14-l421x-mb whats the difference in the nb and mb?

 

Honestly I'm quite sure you guys are all making a fuss out of, well, nothing. Don't forget that pretty much each country gets it's own standard specs and, if you look at the current offer on the XPS 15 (L502X) for Ireland they don't have a choice for the screen (15.6" (40 cm) HD WLED TL (1366x768) 720p with 2.0 Mega Pixel Integrated Camera) which is AWFUL. In the States you guys have a choice and get better screens. As such, I'm pretty sure the same will happen for the Irish specced XPS 15 (L521X) and they won't have such a choice for screens while the US version of the laptop with have a better screen offer.
Same for the Hard Drives (the irish website didn't mention mSata drives or anything), Blue-ray options, etc, etc.

As for the GDDR5 Dell would just be killing their product if they put such a card without the latest graphics,especially since their own Inspiron SE would outperform the new XPS 15. Personally I'm lurking at either the Samsung S7 17" (it's bigger but the 15" seems just terrible), the Inspiron SE or this XPS and I have really really high hopes for the latter.

 

I took this as a pretty clear indication that it will be used. Do the rest of you not think so?

 

Actually if you go on the American site the 1080p screen isn't there anymore either! It used to be on the Irish site until recently.

 

Indeed,
As dell leaked to tweakers:

Foto en details dunne Dell XPS 15 met Gorilla Glass verschenen | Core | Tweakers.net Nieuws

It lilerally says:
15.6" 1920*1080 WLED, 300nits, covered with gorilla glass
glass trackpad, with intergrated mousebuttons
core i5-3210dualcore or i7-3612quadcore
max 16GB ddr3

GT 630m 1GB or GT640m 2GB gddr5
max 1TB HDD or 512GB ssd + 256GB msata [optional]


So far everything seems quite right...

 

how about xps l721x spec? do you guys know what it is look like?

 

Maybe check the xps L721x thread. They might have something.

 

Thats what i got from it but after further investigation im not sure... dell doesnt list the video memory specs of the current xps lineup so after seeing that it makes more sense that bill is just going clarify what it is for us when the NDA is lifted or when hes able to say...

Although that smiley face is very misleading so lets hope.... Adding Gddr5 vid memory would be the cheapest way for dell to make the xps more powerful and stay up with their competition. Plus most people dont know how to overclock so they could keep the 650m gddr5 for alienwares.

In fact most people dont know the difference between gddr3/5 and almost none of the general public knows the 640/50/60m are all the same card. So if dell builds these laptops in the mind set that people wont buy the AW's because one of their cheaper products has essentially the same graphic card they're just being ignorant to the tech community because were really the only ones who know and were less than .5% of their sales.

Although they didnt put the weakest amd offering (7730m) in the inspiron for nothing...

 

I'm the owner of that thread and that thread not really active as this thread. hmm

 

I think no matter if will be 640. THe main aim should be keep low temperature on high load and mantain a decent power.
I have an XPS1530 and it started to suffer overheating issues after 1 year. Technician came to home, changed all the vent/cooling parts (sorry dunno the right english word) but after 6 monthes again this issue. Now it reaches 95 °C (celsius) in winter just by watching youtube video.

So i hope in a decent display (the 1530M display was grainy and generally awful ) and decent cooling plant. I will give my last try to Dell.

 

Have you ever blown your vents out or taken the heatsink out and brushed the fins clean? Might help. I do this about every 6 months with my corporate Latitude, which does the bulk of my computing, and every year or so with our personal laptops, which don't get 10 hours a day of use.
Repasting the heatsink every now and then doesn't hurt either.

 

Sound's promising

 

I'd say semi-promising.

 

I agree! I'm still running my Inspiron 9400/e1705 almost 24h/7, and I do a complete cleanup (brushing, repasting (both CPU and GPU), removing dust and dirt) about 3 times a year (ok maybe once a year for the repasting )! In my case, it's an absolute necessity!

I'm watching this thread closely since I might replace my old & upgraded 9400 with this XPS as it comes to it's end of life. 6 years of heavy use has put it's share of maintenance and need for replacement parts over the years! And the heat is pretty impressive, even more so since the upgrades I've made 3-4 years ago (GPU, RAM, HDD, etc.)! This XPS seems to be the perfect successor to my 9400 (not wanting a bulky 17" again)!

However, I'm still waiting for more info before making my final choice! At the start, it was quite promising, but my hopes got back down a little after the recent info! I will have to make a better job at comparing what the different manufacturers will be offering until august! Being a student (in computer engineering), I won't be able to go for the AlienWare product line, both for price reason, and I don't like the design style of AW products.

I would have loved my next laptop to have a 16:10 screen again, since I prefer this ratio, but it doesn't seem to exist anymore anywhere

 

Hey, I'll be thrilled if something has changed. GDDR5 has come down a bit in price from what I've read, so like I said, one can hope it will be used in mid-level cards now...just not expect like so many people here seem to be doing...

And I think a few people here who were looking for a date now have one: by June 30

Nope, not wrong. I said CURRENT gen, as in the 5xx series. I realize the 600s are now available, but they're brand-new. If more people used GDDR5 in the 6xx series, then great, there is hope.

 

Your Kung Fu is strong, though off by just a hair.

 

10char

 

But i thought that open or, better, repast chips make guaranty invalid.

 

Bill is mysterious in his ways Thanks for the hints, june cant come soon enough, picking one of these up for sure assuming it has a gddr5 640m

 

Nope. I need to add this to my sig:

Opening the case, replacing or swapping parts, upgrading parts, just plain tinkering, or any screw turning will not void your warranty. If you damage any component, your warranty will be suspended until either we fix it and validate it at the depot, or you fix it and send it in to the depot to be validated for a smaller fee than if we fixed it. We post the tear down guides for a reason- we love to tinker and know our customers do too.

Any Dell rep tells you different, it's poppycock, and feel free to link them to this post. Balderdash. Hogwash, I tell ya.

I'd have to look up some specs to say for sure, but for some reason, "640m+GDDR5" makes me go hmmmmm.

 

My guaranty has expired a long time ago... It's been very usefull though, since I needed a replacement in 2006 after I had lost all audio for unknown reason!

Nice... I didn't know that, even though I was using the tear down guides! I was affraid of being unable to open it for cleanup until the warranty was void!

 

And to add- If you damage a component, buy it off NewEgg or whatever, and replace it yourself, you're not obligated to tell us about it. So technically, you could skirt the validation requirement by never having your warranty suspended. It could conceivably get tricky in this scenario if you ever have to have it repaired by Dell, and the onsite or depot tech notices and reports the non-Dell part. Anybody think there's a chance they would even notice or know what to do if they did?

 

Are there still some decisions to be made, some stuff that might change before the official announcement, or is everything decided at this point?

 

Pretty sure it's all locked in. I haven't heard any late changes. I couldn't share any details yet anyway.