New Dell XPS L521X (Ivy Bridge)

1. Crap customer service
2. Crap screen
3. DDR 3 GPU
4. You get what you pay for.

 

Error Encountered - The Dell Online Store

I personally won't mind getting something like an acer m3 if I can gret it for £400 with gt 640m.

 

Everything is true, but with this L521X you pay much more than what you get

 

@Viper: Where are you seeing the NL prices? I can't find the XPS15 on the Dutch/Belgian website ?

 

Well, you do get Dell support. Honestly, I've found Dell to be the best of any company I've dealt with in terms of support. For me at least, that goes a long way in favor of their products. However, the reviews of the L421x laid down some pretty hefty cons

 

Dauntless, go to: laptops/ultrabooks, click xps, scroll down... They are there. (on dutch site atleast) If the price was like 200 lower i would buy in an instant, now i might go for the new zenbook prime... I need a biiig discount code

 

Just read that Gigabyte U2442V will have 4xUSB and Intel Thunderbolt port. Lets see if the 2GB GPU memory is DDR 5 and if the screen and built quality is nice. I will at least wait until this one is released.
Also found a Dell voucher for 10% but still....too expensive. At least unless the reviews say it is near perfect.

 

Acer Aspire Timeline Ultra M3-581TG-32364G52Mnkk (15.6 inch) Ultrabook Core i3 4712196075231 | eBay

I seen one for £475 before with gt 640m. All it needs is a faster cpu and you will have good performance.

Anyway at the end of the day that acer is great value for money. I might be looking at msi next soon as they are cheaper and have gt 650m.

My acer is better then the new xps in keyboard, probably speakers and touchpad and mine is 16:10. Its ironic as I used to use thinkpads, lattitudes, elitebooks and this laptop feels the best apart from maybe week battery life and protection to back of screen it is very good. Also most of the business notebooks had faults after a while, this laptop I have is incredibly reliable.

I just hope acer go back to a similar design of the 5942g and add 1080p screen. They tried to copy the cheap sopny vaio look.

 

Wow, Dell has missed the mark here on so many counts. Fancy design doesn't warrant a high price tag when the internals are nowhere near up to scratch. It really seems like they're out touch with reality. I honestly can't believe there's no bluray option, in a media laptop! Absurd.

I had only just forgiven them for lack of GT650, but the lack of customisability with regards to SSD, RAM, GPU, CPU, no anti-glare/RGB Screen and lack of bluray option makes this an entirely unattractive option. I had high hopes, and now I'm left looking into other options sadly. Like many of you, I've been waiting for this laptop to be released, it feels like we've been led by the nose and let down at the last moment.

 

Go the website, laptop/notebooks and the XPS series

The XPS14 is the most right, you'll be able to scroll to the right using the red arrow.

XPS 15 is next to it

 

Here are the models and prices for Germany: Neu! XPS 15 Notebook – Details – Entertainment-Notebook | Dell Deutschland . In case you choose the top model, Win 7 professional and the 3 year premium service you hit 2539,97€ (3171,91$) including delivery and 19% VAT. That's freakin' close to the MacBook Pro Retina... (I don't want to start the Dell vs. Apple thing again! It's just a thought.)

 

question for those technically minded...

What's the difference in terms of performance for a 1tb 5400RPM HDD with 32GB msata vs a pure 512gb SDD (start up times, loading programs, transferring files?)

Thanks!

 

Let's not get crazy... remember that these intro prices WILL be marked down. Dell has a sales culture that embraces coupons/vouchers and discounts. That doesn't necessarily help you if you're ordering today. But even so, when comparing Apple to Dell in the UK, Dell comes out way ahead in price:

Dell XPS 15 £1299 = i7 3612QM, 1920x1080, 1TB, 8GB (1 DIMM!), 2GB 640m

Apple MBP 15 £1819 = i7 3612QM, 1680x1050, 1TB, 8GB (2 DIMM), 1GB 650m

£520 difference, with higher resolution and better RAM upgradeability on the Dell. I realize there are some problems with configurability, but do you really think these options are the end all be all for the XPS line? I think they should have more options on release day, but just because they don't at the moment doesn't mean they won't in the future.

Also, if you're in the States, there WILL be a Bluray option, so stop flipping out about it! ( Dell outs XPS 14 with optional mobile broadband, XPS 15 with Kepler graphics -- Engadget) View the press release from Dell... Bluray is listed. At least if you're in the States... let's not start flipping out about the lack of options before it's even on the US website!

 

Fortunately I should be able to get a nice discount, but the price tag is kind of rough I have to agree.

Still it seems it really feels like a high-end, refined machine so I'll wait till I have mine in hands to say if it's indeed justified or not

 

I spoke with Dell support and there are no current customisation options for the L521X in the UK, only fast ship models (poor ones at that). They could not give me a date that these options would be available.

 

The old XPS15 had a GT540m
The new XPS 15 has a GT630m

the GT540m was GDDR3 and 40nm (fermi)
the GT630m (rebranded GT540m) has GDDR5 and 28nm (kepler)

Is this correct ?

 

The 32GB are only used as cache, meant to allow faster (SSD)-boot times and speeding up your most common programs (some manufacturers - like Asus - allow you to even set which files and programs should be cached) and the most commonly used parts of Windows. For everything on the cache partition you get SDD-speed.
It won't do anything for loading non-cached files (the large majority) like movies, pics, games or music. Or less often used programs, where you fall back to the rather slow HDD. It's the cheap compromise for manufacturers who don't want to include a full SSD or people who need more storage space.

 

Nuts- I was going to go for the i7 but it only comes with a 5400rpm drive and no MSATA, ?

 

the difference is massive. in the hdd+msata the ssd only works as cache for a few important files, and to speed up resume, but everything else needs to be read from the very slow 5400rpm hdd. in the ssd only option, everything resides on a blazingly fast drive, so you can expect a big speedup in almost every scenario. not to mention that bigger ssd drives are faster than their smaller counterparts

 

I didn't compare Dell with Apple at any point there, as I'm not in the market for an apple, I'm in the market for a windows laptop. Comparing Dell's prices to other windows laptop manufacturers is much less favourable. I'm interested in a balance of form and function, and it looks like other manufacturers are hitting the mark, and Dell are falling short.

I'm based in the UK, and there is no bluray option for us here. I listed several other grievances though.

Is it common practice for Dell to release a product with so few options, and then ramp up customisability later on after the initial wave has been purchased? If there is previous precedent, how long has this been typically?

 

I have some questions for Bill:
1) Customers especially here, have expressed their opinion that the laptop should be customizable(personally i preferred when you could downgrade also), and that was a huge advantage Dell offered. Now you cannot customize it(is there any good explanation for it).
2) L502x had a base price of 799/899(which oen?), and now the base price is 1299. That is almost 45% to 70% higher. A considerable rise don't you think?
3) What dell is gonna offer when the competitors are offering better specs at almost 200-300$ less than dell products?
4) Why Dell did not here the public request about a better screen? I understand that speakers were not possible but i would like to here a justification about the rest.
5) Why a customer should not move from dell? Yes i know the support thing? anything else besides that?

PS: Very disappointed from your prices and lack of customization. Is there any official mail to complain?

 

The price increase is partly justified by the fact that the default system has a much, much nicer display (so basically comparing the price tag of both doesn't make much sense, you should add the B+RG screen on the L502x to begin with). Also the L521x targets a different segment (which means more effort has been put in the design and the materials and it shows, it looks like a high-class notebook and apparently feels like one).

Though I agree that the complete lack of customization is disappointing and that it could have been priced lower, I hope that answers some of your questions.

 

More customisation will come later in the future as it has always been with Dell (I hope). This is just to start the ball rolling.

As for price and if you're in the UK, you can get several coupons from quidco and the like to get a better deal. In fact you could get a 18% discount as of writing this from quidco. The base price are pretty good considering the display you are getting with these systems.

Engadget are incompetent of doing anything right. Is the noise produced actually only from the fan, or the fan and hard drive spinning? The MBP fan noise is loud when pushed but that wasn't mentioned by Engadget as per usual.

 

Thanks a lot dude! But if the prices of the XPS 14 are to be believed, the 15 would be outrageous! I mean the starting price for 14 is 80k! I'd rather do with the inspiron 17!

 

You know, not everyone lives in the US, and as I said before Europe is not the third world, it's not difficult tu provide an optical drive....and btw a blu-ray option is definitely fundamental in a high-end multimedia laptop, it should be available in every country, just like the fullHD display.

 

B+RG screen was 150 more to 799 so 949$. If base model was priced at 1099$ due to it's professional design i would be more than happy. Now I have a WLED 1080p screen and a huge price gap from previous model.

 

Manual is finally up http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/xpsL521x/en/om/en_om.pdf

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/xpsL421x/en/om/en_om.pdf

Looks like you have to remove lots of things to even change ram. The bottom cover comes off as one piece as people suspected.

 

I saw. They're completely out of their mind!
1500/1800€ without an IPS and/or B+RG / RGBLED screen, w/out a BluRay player, and without any seriously configuration options? Trust me, bye bye Dell! When you'll almost cut in half those prices I can consider it again!

The L502x page is still up, and it's base price it's EXACTLY HALF of the new 521x (670€ vs 1300+)... Add 150€ IIRC for the FullHD, there's still a MASSIVE price increase.
And don't tell me buy the Inspiron... Inspiron is at a lower level, but also they've a near-premium price tag (1000€ for the i7)...

Bad bad move Dell, bad move...

 

nope

10 chars

 

complaints:
1. Too expensive for the hardware.
2. Lack of customization (this should LOWER cost of laptop)
3. Horrible graphics options. At least a GT650m should be an option.
4. No carbon fiber... ?
5. Needs a black option. All silver is too Mac-like.

 

What are you saying nope to?

 

Just spoke to Dell UK and they confirmed the DVD drive is user replaceable.

 

It is, but its not as easy as other models, please refer to the links I posted on the previous page for the tear down manual.

 

I keep getting a 404 error.

 

Norwegian prices are ready.

I5 config, 4 gb ram, 500gb hd\gt 630m @1530 Euros\1910 US Dollars

I7 qm3612, 4gb ram, 750 gb HD, gt 630 @1667 \2081 US Dollars

I7 qm3612, 8 GB ram, 1 TB HD, 32 GB SSD, gt640m @1799 Euro\2250 USD

I7 qm3612, 8 GB ram, 512 GB SSD, gt640m @2200 Euro \2750 USD

No blue-ray option here either.

 

Sorry, I forgot to quote there aren't manuals yet

 

Weird, I downloaded the PDFs. I don't get 404s. I wonder if they block it by region. I'm trying to upload them but they are too large.

 

Yes there are, I have the PDFs saved to my computer. PM me an email address, I'll send them to you if you want.

 

So where are the xps 14 and 15 on the US site?

 

New XPS 14 Ultrabook -Backlit Chiclet Keyboard,HD+ & Long Battery Life | Dell
New XPS 15 laptop — 1080p Full HD 15-inch display with Gorilla Glass | Dell

 

Here are the manuals. https://www.dropbox.com/sh/dh3tv2ckzkjw2wg/HxCmPlUgvc

 

thank you!
EDIT: well, mSATA is relatively easy to replace, so I guess it would be fine...

 

Can't figure out if it takes 7mm drives or 9.5 mm

The battery even looks easy to replace. Its the ram and ODD look to be annoying.

 

Yes, you must remove wireless card, hard drive, fan and heat sink...

 

Dell xps 15 already release on china:
全新！XPS 15笔记本电脑详细信息 - 娱乐型笔记本电脑 | Dell 中国大陆

FHD+GT640+I7-3612QM. disappoint. I think Asus N56 better.

 

Really disapointed ! No customization and expensive !

i hope we will see more options in near future...

 

Poland prices are ready too.

XPS 15 (i5-3210M, 4GB, 500GB SATA 7200, GT630M 1GB, CD/DVD, 1yNBD) -5199PLN / 1220Euros / 1529 USD
XPS 15 (i5-3210M, 8GB, 750GB SATA 7200 + 32GB m-SATA , GT640M 2GB, CD/DVD, 1yNBD) - 5599PLN / 1314Euros / 1646 USD
XPS 15 (i7-3612QM, 4GB, 750GB SATA 7200 + 32GB m-SATA , GT630M 1GB, CD/DVD, 1yNBD) - 5899PLN / 1384Euros / 1735 USD
XPS 15 (i7-3612QM, 8GB, 750GB SATA 7200 + 32GB m-SATA , GT640M 2GB, CD/DVD, 1yNBD) - 5999PLN / 1408Euros /1764 USD
XPS 15 (i7-3612QM, 16GB, 512GB SSD , GT640M 2GB, Blu-ray, 1yNBD) - 8499PLN / 1995Euros / 2499 USD

Definitely too much...

 

Still not available to purchase in US. If the prices in US are like those listed here, I'll probably move on.

 

why should this come with carbon fiber bottom? the xps 13 had a carbon fiber bottome like, it was not even real carbon fiber.

why would you need a gt650m, this is not a gaming laptop, this is built to go toward business model experience, not gaming. if you want gaming, then get a sager or desktop.

well duh, this is mac-like, it was built in mind to compete with mac PB. you can get over your self about customization options, this is not a sager/clevo laptop. This is dell at least your getting some customization option. They could have easily said, here this is the 2 models you get, take it or leave it.

I for one am amazed at the performance of this as a business style laptop and actually use it more then my HP elitebook and sager laptops. The battery power beats both of them hands down.

When you buy an xps you are in for the battery power, if you want gaming dell offers an alienware.

 

Dude, is your review ready?