New Dell XPS L521X (Ivy Bridge)

yes the cpu does matter but i was just pointing it out. I think at lower res the ddr3 gt 650m would edge out the 640m ddr5 just cause it has higher clocks but at 1080p (which the xps has) the 640m will come out superior just cause of the memory bandwidth. The ddr5 gt 650m will obv be better than both of them but OCing the 640m to 650m levels shouldnt be that hard

 

The notion that you should choose a lower resolution in order to improve game performance is a myth, and is one of the worst misconceptions in computer purchasing.

Game performance should not be a reason to choose a 15.6" 1366x768 display instead of a 15.6" 1920x1080 display. For one thing, you can always make up for drops in performance associated with higher resolutions by lowering to a non-native resolution, but you cannot as easily make up for the limits imposed on multitasking by a lower resolution. In addition, despite the fact that running in a non-native resolution causes blur, games will still tend to look better running in a non-native resolution on a 15.6" 1920x1080 display than they would look running in native resolution on a 15.6" 1366x768 display, because of the sheer difference between the image quality typical of these types of displays.

If you require the larger text of a 15.6" 1366x768 display for eyesight-related reasons, that's one thing, but you should not buy a laptop that comes with the 1366x768 display instead of one that comes with the 1920x1080 display specifically to improve framerates.

While 15.6" 1600x900 displays (Samsung Series 7 aside) typically don't have the quality issues that 15.6" 1366x768 displays have, game performance still isn't a particularly good reason to choose a 15.6" 1600x900 display instead of a 15.6" 1920x1080 display, because you can always make up for drops in performance associated with higher resolutions by lowering to a non-native resolution, but you cannot as easily make up for the limits imposed on multitasking by a lower resolution. The decision to choose 15.6" 1600x900 instead of 1920x1080 for this reason is a bit more sensible than to choose 1366x768 over 1920x1080 though.

 

Finally Made a account!!!! I cant wait for the new XPS....

Just an FYI for people who plan to buy the XPS:
DELL BOGO Give a $400 eGift card, Get a $75 Promo eGift Card - Slickdeals.net

pretty much buy $400 GC and get $75 in promo credit...

 

Can you tell us until when the new NDA will be lifted?

 

hmm, giftcard is interesting. get $1200 worth of giftcards and get an extra $225 in credit, hopefully both of those is around the price of a decent xps configuration. might wanna looks into that

 

Long time lurker here, finally forced to make a decision and I was wondering if anyone here is kind enough to help me.

I'll be a first-year law student next year and I need a laptop in the next few weeks. I already have a Studio XPS desktop and an Xbox to handle most of the big stuff at home but need something I can take to class, library, exams, etc. I'd like to play the occasional game but nothing on the order of Skyrim or Battlefield 3. Likely most of this future laptops life will be spent with fairly large (20-50) numbers of legal documents open in PDF, Word, OneNote and browser form. I might do a bit of coding (Java, C) on the side for fun, but it'll mostly be a work/multimedia machine. Also, more battery life is better because I could be away from outlets for many hours at a time.

For this purpose, I've narrowed down my options to 3 notebooks: the XPS 15, the Inspiron 15R SE, and the Sony VAIO S 15.

I'd like a 3rd gen i5 or i7, at least 8gb ram, full HD screen, blu-ray, and perhaps a discrete GPU. I'm willing to spend $1500 max, but lower is better as I'm walking into three years of debt. The big draw for me right now on the VAIO is that I can get a free PS3 with it to sell for $200 making the cost of the laptop under $1000.

My questions for anyone willing:
1) Can anyone persuade/dissuade me from the VAIO? What sort of build quality am I looking at with a Sony laptop? I've had Dell laptops/desktops my whole life and can't seem to find much about Sony. New company for me = scary.
2) Is the XPS 15 worth the wait for my uses or would I just be overspending for a pretty machine?
3) Does anyone have a good article that would help me decide if it's worth paying extra for the Nvidia card? At what point will I wish I had it if I didn't? Basically, what's the best the 4000 can do on a 1080p screen?
4) What's the best way to cut down the price on the Inspiron? Is build quality/weight going to be an issue?
5) How does battery life and charge time compare on these three? I know with the sheet battery for the VAIO I can expect around 10 hours.

Finally, for Bill:
You're awesome. You alone have kept me from buying another company's notebook to this point. I simply would not have waited on the XPS this long if not for this thread. However, it's time for me to make the choice and if you can promise me that I can get the XPS with nearly the specs I have listed for under $1200, you'll likely sell me an XPS. If not, that VAIO + PS3 deal is very tempting.

Thanks to anyone willing to help!

 

The link says it ends on the 20th unfortunately.

 

Edit: Deleted

 

I'd add a ThinkPad T530, with i5 IVB and FHD 1920x1080 matte screen, to that list of yours. (The integrated Intel HD Graphics 4000 should be able to serve your needs.) About $1000.

The glossy sibling of that awesome screen is used in the Dell XPS 15 L502X.

I'd choose the 2012 XPS 15 over the Inspiron 15R SE.

 

Thats not how it works. The 75 dollar bonus card has a three month validity window, and it can NOT be combined with other gift cards to make bigger gift cards.

The regular gift cards don't expire and CAN be combined. You could use the 75 dollar ones to buy accessories like backpacks though.

I believe Dell allows a maximum of 3 types of payments in an order (by phone) or 2 (only one can be a gift card) by online. So by phone you could probably use a real gift card and two promos, but not three.

 

I'd get a Latitude for your purposes. Maybe an outlet e6220 for ~ 700, and keep your other machines for games. A 3 pound laptop that has a three year warranty for your classroom stuff. Its not going to have any optical drive or full HD screen, but it will be a rock solid note taker and paper writer. You could always buy a full HD monitor for use at home while you are writing your practice briefs etc.

 

The Vizio 14 could serve your purposes too

 

Considered it, but currently I don't own a blu-ray player and was hoping to knock out two birds with one stone (HDMI to tv). I also have dual monitors at home so, no worries there! I need a pseudo-desktop replacement, I think, because I'll be living in the law building for the next three years. The full HD will be nice to have two documents up (one to read from, one to write to) and have them both be readable.

 

I was actually thinking the same thing, my former xps is about to be replaced (so the system I have to choose has to be a dell), but what I really need is a digital typewriter (also studying law, typing endless nonsense is a big part of the study)
So would the xps 2012 be great for typing in class etc?
Fact is that i do want to play bf3 and diablo 3 and other high end games, but if the keyboard sucks... well that would be a huge disappointment.

Sent from my Incredible S using Tapatalk 2

 

Hate Lenovo's design...have they changed anything since the IBM days?

Also, upgrading to the FHD screen adds $250, which makes it more expensive than a similarly configured VAIO by about $300.

And I agree, not sure I like the Inspiron other than the price.

 

I have an external blu ray drive I use when needed. Its so rare I actually use an optical drive anymore. I hate to push the latitudes so much on you, but look at the 6430 *1600 x900 and 6530 * Full HD then. If you want to save money, I'd go that route. It has the dock option to become a desktop at home, great for office work, can get up to a 5 year on site service warranty, and you have dell business support, not their.. um.. quality consumer level service.

 

So true (like the entirety of your post). Thanks for stating it with the correct words it hurts to see people still buy 1366*768 for other reasons than being on a budget (which I respect)... I have always been a firm believer that if a display looks like crap it will make your game look like crap and it doesn't matter whether you're running in native and playing in high settings or not... 1366*768 on anything >=13" is atrocious and makes me want to puke everytime I open an excel file or a forum

Anyway imho anyone deciding to trade screen estate for a crappy res because they're concerned about their fps in games is in for hating himself at some point. At least I know I'd feel like crying everytime I'd get to glance at a retina/IPS or any decent TN display. And I'd probably feel like throwing my notebook over the window in 2.5 years when I'm stuck with a crappy res, colors and contrast while it is in any case outdated for gaming (therefore losing its purpose) but still more than ok for everything else.

 

My last laptop (in high school) was a Latitude D630. Loved the thing. At your prompting, I will examine the current models again.

 

I think you should wait for the XPS.... See what the prices then make your decision. Why make $1K decision without even seeing all your options.

 

You Sir, are correct.

Please read the wiki that is on the slickdeals...
I already plan to buy the XPS regardless of price. Brand loyal. Thus i am going to buy a few GC then use the $75 promo credits on accessories. Possibly a new monitor!

GC are great because now I will be able to stack the savings from the GC to my savings on the Laptop.

 

Because I'm moving around that time and won't have a stable shipping address. I want to have my new laptop at least two weeks before classes begin to familiarize myself with it and set things up properly. That means I need it delivered by the beginning of August. If I order from Sony today, I can expect it to arrive about a week before I move. Basically, I have to decide this week.

 

We have D610s at work that are still kicking.. and they are used outdoors and left in cars very often. The accidental damage warranty claims they honored made me a Dell believer (for business lines)

 

I'm pretty sure they replaced my motherboard for free six or seven times. I had a bad habit of melting them. It's a big reason why I prefer Dell. I'm just not sure I can get that from Sony.

 

Hi,

Given a relatively poor economy, chances are you'll be aiming primarily for OCI summer positions, in order to try to set up a path to employment post-graduation. OCI-participating firms preferentially select from the top 5-15% of your class (by GPA), depending on the firm. Local firms may relax the requirements slightly, but with relatively few slots in most cases, GPA will dominate as the selection criteria as it's an efficient means of eliminating potential applicants from a pool that typically well exceeds available positions. As such, you will probably be spending most of your time on schoolwork. A significant amount of law students also try to gain positions on law review or journals, which are time consuming in addition to the ordinary courseload.

My strong recommendation to you is limit your gaming to your desktop computer and think of your laptop as a 'work machine.' It will help you focus on getting your work done by helping you set up certain environments as work-oriented versus play-oriented. While the idea of gaming on the laptop is attractive now, you should be thinking mainly about what will enable you to get your work done. As a side tip, I recommend you either read about or get some instruction on writing for law school ahead of time over the summer. It will save you time and effort during your first year and you will likely get better grades.

Secondly, law textbooks are heavy and you will be carrying them around routinely. Some law schools have lockers; others don't. Chances are, you'll end up wanting to just carry around whatever books you want to use as many people don't like dealing with lockers. The difference between ~3lbs and ~5-6lbs may not sound like much, but it is (think about carrying around an extra textbook). I recommend considering getting an 'ultrabook' of some sort because the thinner profile and reduced weight will make it easier to fit in your bag (or backpack) and lighten your load.

An HD4000 is capable of running video just fine. At 1366x768 resolutions, it can run some lighter-load games too, especially if you turn down the settings. I imagine Valve Source-based games should work OK. Again, though, I wouldn't prioritize that feature.

Some ultrabooks have 1600x900 screens, such as the upcoming Lenovo X1 Carbon. I personally think, when you're dealing with a lot of documents, that this is a rather useful feature. In Windows 7 you can easily dock two documents side by side so you can pull from e.g. a brief or an opinion on one side, and write your document on the other side. In terms of other models that I think would make good work machines, HP's Folio 13 and Spectre XT, Dell's XPS 13, and and maybe one of the upcoming Vizios would do a good job. The HP's keyboard works well for long typing sessions, I think. One thing to think about is the size of the palmrest when looking at potential models. Notebooks with a short palmrest may contribute to wrist stress over long work sessions. So, something like a Folio 13 may be more comfortable than a Lenovo X220, for example.

Good luck with law school.

 

Thanks! I agree that it should primarily be a work-focused laptop but I don't doubt that over the next three years there will be a game or two that I HAVE TO HAVE. It's easier to get the discrete card now than later.

Another big draw for me is the 4lb weight of the VAIO (5 with the sheet battery) compared to the Inspiron's 6lbs. The XPS is about 5.5lbs, right? And I will definitely have a locker and use it.

And I'm reading Getting to Maybe right now. Any other suggestions for exam writing?

That Carbon does look sweet though...I posted to get fewer options! Not more!

 

Well.. since you do insist on Games , I'll give you another advantage to the latitude lines. They still have express card slots, so you can set up an external GPU when at home to game and use a full desktop power GPU.

 

Attention Bill. This thread needs one of your cryptic posts. My day is lost without your riddles.

 

Get that VAIO.

 

I'm building on a Latitude E6530 right now and can't seem to get the price comparable to the VAIO or the Inspiron. All I really added was RAM, the second level processor and the FHD screen.

 

From the perspective of a Dell fanboy, what are good reasons not to get the VAIO?

 

I find the Sony's keyboard easier to type on than the XPS 13, which appears to be the same keyboard on the 15. However, the 15 is going to be faster in terms of overall processing power (including the GPU) as it has a GT640 GDDR5 whereas the Sony is a 640M LE (which can be either Kepler or Fermi) and (I think) DDR3. Either laptop will probably be fine, but in terms of anticipating future games, a more powerful GPU is the safer bet.

However, more importantly, you said you have a Studio XPS desktop already. What do you need the graphics power for on the laptop? Chances are, your priorities will change as you go through law school and what you'll 'have to have' is likely to be more oriented towards your GPA or some position in a firm or on law review. Or, supposing your priorities don't shift, you may end up with bigger concerns than whether you can run games on your laptop. I'm not trying to scare you or be unhelpful. You asked for realistic advice, so that's what I'm giving. Giving good advice to someone ordinarily involves anticipating what their future interests will be, and chances are yours will be markedly different from those you have right now.

 

Dell Latitude E6530, Ships Fast FCG3
3rd gen Intel® Core™ i5-3210M Processor (2.5GHz, 3M cache)
Energy Star 5.2 Enabled / EPEAT
15.6" HD+ (1600x900) Wide View Anti-Glare WLED-backlit
NVIDIA® NVS™ 5200M (GDDR5 1GB) Discrete Graphic with Optimus
4.0GB, DDR3-1600MHz SDRAM, 1 DIMM
Internal English Backlit Dual Pointing Keyboard
Light Sensitive Webcam and Noise Cancelling Digital Array Mic
No Out-of-Band Systems Management
500GB 7200rpm Hard Drive
8X DVD+/-RW
Resource DVD - Contains Drivers
Dell Wireless™ 1504 802.11g/n Single Band Wi-Fi Half Mini Card
Dell Wireless™ 380 Bluetooth 4.0 LE Module
No Modem
6-cell (60WH) Primary Lithium Ion Battery, (2.8Ah) ExpressCharge Capable
90W A/C Adapter (3-pin)
USH, Fingerprint Reader, Smartcard Reader and Contactless Smartcard Reader
Thank you for choosing Ship Fast from Dell
Intel Core i5 Label

For 1249 ships tomorrow (not FULL HD) on SMB site. I never buy ram from Dell on their site. Its way way way way over priced, and they don't void your warranty for upgrading yourself at home.

If you can deal with Sandy Bridge, check out the outlet and fatwallet for coupons to get the 6520 very cheap.

 

HTML:

I considered the Sony Vaio, but Sony doesn't allow you to install fresh graphics drivers from Nvidia. You're stuck with the old drivers they give you, some of which are several years old, unless you modify a lot of driver files etc. which seems kind of tedious and stupid to me. Supposedly Dell Alienware does it as well, which (imo) is sad.

If you can't afford the XPS15, I would get either the Inspiron 15R SE or the Vizio 15.6" CN15-A1 which is their new notebook with a 1080P IPS display, i5-3210M, and a GT640M LE (Confirmed kepler version). Unfortunately I am pretty sure it's 1GB DDR3 ram, but oh well. The advantage of that over the inspiron is an IPS display and better graphics switching, but the Inspiron might be a bit stronger and maybe cheaper.

VIZIO 15.6” Notebook | CN15-A1 | VIZIO - Vizio notebook for 1050$
The Inspiron 15R SE doesn't seem to be up yet, but it's ~900$ for a 2GB 7730M (not sure if that's ddr3 or ddr5)

The Inspiron has a 48wh battery, and the Vizio has a 74wh battery as well, so battery time will be better.

Vizio seems to offer a pretty good setup, but they're also a brand new company so we'll have to see what reviews look like. Inspiron is thicker and less stylish, but might also handle heat better because of it.

Edit: Business notebooks aren't designed to be cheap. You pay for the build quality and excellent customer support. Additionally, business notebook GPUs are extreeeemely more expensive compared to similar performing consumer GPUs because of some weird binning that Nvidia and AMD do to their cards that make them better for professional workloads.

I'm not a fan of Sony because of the stupid driver issues. And 7730M:

from http://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-Radeon-HD-7730M.72678.0.html

So the inspiron would outperform the XPS if the XPS uses a DDR3 640M. If that isn't clear proof on top of everything else that has been said, I dunno what is ^.^ If AMD has actually managed to make Enduro not really crappy, the Inspiron would probably be the best sub 1000$ laptop I could find.

 

Exactly what I needed concerning the GPU. Thanks! (I can't worry about the position at a future firm right now, just the laptop. One issue at a time. Today, it's laptops.)

Vizio was also tempting but I'm left in the same new company dilemma as Sony. And I feel like Sony is better established. While the driver thing was another worry, as has been previously mentioned, I have bigger fish to fry than a two year old driver for an Nvidia card that may or may not be used. I'm assuming the old drivers work, but lack features, yes?

 

From what I heard the new Inspiron lines should be up for sale tomorrow, im excited to see what they bring. So you should be able to compare the sony vaio to it tomorrow.

 

New Inspiron 15R Special Edition Laptop Details | Dell

The top level one looks comparable in price to the VAIO minus the free PS3 that can be pretty easily flipped for $200.

 

Whatever you do order Mr. Law, if its Dell, I suggest you buy the 400 dollar gift cards to get the bonus 75 dollars (offer ends the 20th). That way you can do a phone order, and possibly negotiate the prices or shipping down a little bit, use a real gift card, a 75 dollar promo card, and pay the rest with cash/credit card. Also make sure they know you are dell advantage to get the 5% promo card back.

 

I can not, but i can say is soon.

 

I've been looking at their website all day! I've never thought to check the EPP site! They don't have them up on the regular site yet though. Thanks for that!

 

I'd take credit for it but it was found about 20-30 pages ago.

 

We'll I missed that completely...

(edit)the reviews date back to may 9th

 

Then again Bill hinted that the laptop should be revealed on the 29th so all in all one could argue that 11 days from now is soon!
Can you tell us if the NDA will be lifted before this date, or if it's this week or the following?

In any case I find it awesome that Dell sends some laptops to testers/press/bloggers before the laptop comes out so that we can have reviews on the day they launch and decide quickly on whether or not to buy that product. From what you have told you we should get it but I'm still anxious to see other reviews!

 

Well, if you consider games not booting, booting and crashing, or black screens "Working without certain features," then yes. /sarcasm P) based on everything I've seen from friends and online. (By from friends, I mean trying their comps). Drivers can make a huge difference in games. Some drivers can give upwards of 20% boosts in performance if you have old drivers. And if the drivers predate the game, I imagine the game might be extremely painful to play.

Just look for reviews on the Vizio imo. I asked them a tech support question on Sunday and got a prompt, polite, and knowledgeable response. Honestly, it was just as polite as Dell was when I asked them, and they were even more willing to answer questions. Although Dell might have reasons to be more tight lipped about their new computes. I asked the exact same question that I asked to Vizio to Sony, and got a meh response.

Specifically, I wanted to know if the 640M LE in Vizio/Sony's computer was the kepler or Fermi version. Sony told me "We don't have that information" (Kind of a crappy sales rep imo) and Vizio told me "We have the kepler architecture." Personally, I don't really see why Sony can't divulge their information on a laptop that is already shipping everywhere, while a brand new computer company that isn't even shipping yet can.

When I asked Sony about their drivers, the rep also told me "I can't tell you" basically. Slightly more polite, but it wasn't very helpful. Personally, I'm staying away from Sony.

That said, the Inspiron SE is probably a better bet than either. It's 150$ cheaper with a more powerful GPU, and a weaker battery/non IPS display. You can decide if you need the IPS display/the battery, because I think that's the tipping point. For me, I play only SC2 really, so the 640M LE might be perfect for me, as I'm only trying to achieve medium gaming on 1080P (so even if its DDR3, I'm hopefully ok). If you play more intense games, go for the Inspiron. If you want something more portable, stylish (slim), with a better battry, then get the Vizio. If you don't mind the extra cash of course. (And this is assuming fairly/relatively comparable thermals, acoustics etc. i.e. Vizio didn't do a terrible engineering job cause I'm fairly sure Dell should be ok.)

 

I know I'm going to sound like a crazy person, but sometimes I prefer to not have IPS on a laptop. The last time I was on a plane, a person across the aisle from me was using a laptop and I could read everything on their screen. Sensitive business information was easy to read by just about everyone from every viewing angle. For that reason, sometimes I prefer a good old TN screen.

 

I agree with this.... But ehh you can turn down the brightness...

 

I personally use a privacy screen protector when I'm reading sensitive information in public places. I always have it on me and it's fairly easy to put on/take off so there you go: IPS and a privacy screen protector for when you need it

 

I'm pretty sure you can buy a screen that slides/attaches to a laptop. It practically turns it into a TN panel in terms of viewing angles. If you look at it from the side, it just looks like it's off. (Black)

Something like this: http://www.amazon.com/3M-Privacy-Fi...0052587&sr=8-2&keywords=laptop+screen+privacy I'm sure there are better/less expensive ones out there, but that's the principle. If you have private information you want to protect, I would much rather use one of these than rely on a random TN panel. You never know. Plus, distorted doesn't necessarily mean unreadable, if somebody is curious enough. This would also prevent somebody from looking above/behind you in an airplane I imagine, although that would be really creepy.

Even if you get the Inspiron, this is probably a good idea if you have information you want to protect.

Edit: Ninja'd by Nicob. But yeah, same principle. See my link for example.

 

NewLaw, wouldn't you be better off with a 14 inch laptop? The XPS 14 or the Inspiron 14 SE?

 

Sorry to say this but people are filling this thread with a lot of off off off topics post. Consulting about what can be the right laptop for a user is another step of this spam flood.
I think there are other forum here created for this aim.

 

Er, what else is there to talk about? This is one of the most active threads i've seen, so its easy to get replies.

Plus, this is indirectly related. If he decides that the XPS is in his budget, he might get it and would strill want to compare it with his other options. But still, what is there to contribute? You have to admit, there isn't much left to talk about, we're just filling time