New Dell XPS L521X (Ivy Bridge)

4 disappointments with the 15:
Nothing but silver. Not even black.
No B+RG.
No subwoofer (Right? Or is there?).
Price. I guessed a month or two back that the base model would start at 999 USD. I was only $300 off. A bad guess, to be sure, and maybe uneducated. Doesn't change that it's disappointing.

And one dealbreaker:
Being forced to choose amongst 4 preconfigured builds instead of being able to customize one myself like I was able to previous models. Maybe it is only like this temporarily for the initial launch. Regardless, Dell/Bill/whoever, if you're reading this, I will not be giving you a penny until this changes. Let me configure it, then we'll talk.

 

Hi just looked at the new xps 15 on dell's site. Very impressed, its slik and sleek and macbook pro-like! The only thing holding me back is the price. The $1,999 model seems perfect for my needs. On the other hand i can customize an MSI ge60 with the same specs and a better graphics card for $313 less! What do you guys think?

 

36W vs 45W, it is for battery reasons.

 

I'd say no: 3rd Generation Intel® Core™ i7 Processors (Mobile)

i7-3720QM costs the same, but it isn't available with a BGA package, so it can't be a choice for Dell XPS...

 

Well I did qualify it with last time I checked. When I was looking at the 11 inch clevo, the 3612 carried a large premium over the 3610.

 

For XPS14 there are 2 version:

XPS 14 mobile broadband (with black panel on cover)
XPS 14 ultrabook (all silver)

 

From ark Intel site:

Intel® Core™ i7-3610QM Processor (6M Cache, up to 3.30 GHz):
Recommended Customer Price TRAY: $378

Intel® Core™ i7-3612QM Processor (6M Cache, up to 3.10 GHz) BGA/rPGA
Recommended Customer Price TRAY: $378

Intel® Core™ i7-3615QM Processor (6M Cache, up to 3.30 GHz)
Recommended Customer Price TRAY: $378

Intel® Core™ i7-3720QM Processor (6M Cache, up to 3.60 GHz)
Recommended Customer Price TRAY: $378

 

Yes: 3610QM 2.3/3.3GHz vs 3612QM 2.1/3.1 GHz Comparison

The only advantage to the XPS CPU is lower power. I really don't understand what target market Dell was aiming for. The XPS15 is too bulky/heavy and lacks SSD to be an ultrabook, but has a very average GPU and slow CPU to make it a very expensive, very average media and gaming notebook

 

For people moaning about costs.

1. If it was cheaper it would be predominatly plastic. They have used high grade aluminum and carbon fibre, plus gorilla glass. This is why they have the Inspiron line as cheaper, lower quality alternative on par with current XPS.
2. The XPS line was in danger of becoming a high end budget line, rather than a premium line. Dell obviously wanted to make a more distinguished difference between their laptops.
3. They are going after MPB users. You price it too low, they will call it a cheap clone. Price it too high and they will stick with MPB. Price it just enough below, and use good materials then it starts to tempt and bite in to MPB market.
4. Margins - I am pretty sure the current XPS line is being sold very close to the bone and Dell are after all a business in it to make money. Apple have proven that aesthetics and useablity can have a massive impact on customer willingness to pay more, this is what this XPS provides. It is now up to the marketing people to promote this heavily with lots of adverts and people like Bill!

At the end of the day, the first quarter of sales will give a good indication on where this product is heading.

 

There is only roughly 5% performance difference between the processors (looking at passmark). I strongly suspect this had more to do with thermals than anything else. Also, the 3612 is in no way shape or form a slow CPU.

 

Forgot to mention that I was talking about the 15, sorry. I haven't seen anything but silver. Let me know if there is a black option. Or any other option.

 

I APPLAUD YOU!!! Thank you for pointing that out to the grumbling and mumbling people -.- I 100% agree with this statement and all of those things you listed are some main reasons I'm purchasing a luxery laptop. If you've got the money, buy it, if you don't, find an alternative or save up the money/get coupons for it

 

I think the envy 15 vs xps 15 decision for me is going to come down to the screen. Any insight on which one is better?

 

I know that the 3G versions come with Leather on the lid instead of aluminum but idk if the 15 comes in mobile broadband or not..

 

envys is fixed

 

Go with the XPS. Dell may disappoint some with the releases of their products, but one thing is d@mn straight, their laptops last a long time, and this screen looks fabulous. With the Gorilla Glass it'll hold up for a good long time, along with the rest of the engineering. Go with the Dell.

 

And I'll let you know about the XPS 15 friday.

 

For a laptop this is really easy to to disassemble. Have you ever tried taking apart an hp elitebook, those are not easy to take apart.

 

carbon fiber is only in XPS13

We are waiting for some link the proof that...

 

uh they may be going after mbp users but i think the overarching goal is to get sales. they arent going to get many if its targeted towards mbp users. most of the poeple who have mbp are people who are fanboys and have the money to buy a macbook regardless of the specs. yes there are people who choose it for other reasons but the majority go just for the name and looks.

Yes i admit that the xps is a beautiful machine but the pricing is a tad bit high. If the specs were better (gpu/audio/screen wise) i would probably buy it at that price, if the price was better i would probably live with it.

I think the xps aims to compete against other windows multimedia laptops. but i think in that regards it falls short besides style. and we all know what fruity company is known only for their style

dont get me wrong its a good machine but i just cant justify the price

 

Yeah but for $313 less you're losing the incredible design of the xps 15.

 

Cheers

I am very happy with dissemble. It means it will be much easier for me to repaste the cpu when I want and clean the fan! Is the empty Dimm the one underneath the mobo or on top Downlinx?

 

please do if the xps does turn out to be worth it.. i will return my envy and get the xps. so far its a no

remember its not marketed towards that group

what kind of proof are u looking for? I have my envy right now so leme knwo what u wanna know and ill c what i can do if its within my powers . but i cna assure u they are using a new panel and the orangegate issue is no more

 

the MBP (its biggest competition) has 8 screws so...

 

No Student Discount?

 

Well just went ahead and ordered it and was able to haggle with them to drop the price from $1699 to $1600 please I was able to get the $200 student gift card and I am quite excited for its delivery on the 11th!

Thanks to Bill for all of his help, I'm sure it will be worth the little extra money.

 

Errr....Have you seen it with your eyes or just hoping/imaging ?

ninja edit: i ask you this because i think we need do not forgot that the betatester downlinux (sorry don't rememmber excat name) says that the display used for his beta XPS (that he marked as very very good) is not the same that will be mounted on XPS that we see on market now.

 

I'm going to calibrate it with the spyder4, what else do you want me to run on it Pakkii?

 

I agree with you.
The only points in which XPS is better than MBP is price and data storage,
and these things not seems so attractive for the Apple fanboys.

 

Would like to see some reviews too about heat and noise, it would be the ironic if it overheated like some similar computers

 

again i dont think the mbp is its biggest competition .

ehh not necessarily run anything on it but if possible, could u compare it to the old gen screen? right now as it stands, i would only say that the higher priced ips screens in business class laptops, the 92% gamut screens in sager/old xps, and the retina display are better than the envy's

 

How do you KNOW they are not going to sell many? I can assure you Dell have done their market research on this and priced and specced accordingly. This XPS is the closest to MPB a windows laptop has ever come, it even beats it in battery life! As stated before, with decent marketing Dell could have a monster on their hand, it could also end up a squid...

@Bill - Why no Accidental Damage Warranty for 1st year free in the UK?

 

Regarding low end Envy/non Retina MBP CPU vs high end XPS...

Yes, only a 5% performance difference between the top of the line XPS and the low range Envy or MBP. How impressive. Then there's the fact that even the mid range 3720QM in the Envy beats the 3612QM by 15% performance, and still comes in $400 cheaper than the highest config XPS. I agree, it's not "slow" per se, it's just terribly overpriced in Dell's case.

3612QM----7938 Passmark CPU score
3610QM----8359
3720QM----9157
3820QM----9371

I wouldn't consider this a 'luxury' laptop. Luxury is high end Sony or retina MBP's where they actually do have top of the line specs, but you pay A LOT for them. In this case, the XPS comes with mid range specs (even for the highest config) for much higher prices than the same hardware from HP, Asus, Vizio, etc

In my case, I don't even have a set budget that I'm worried about exceeding. I was excited about XPS but I don't see the point in paying a lot more for worse specs. My last 2 notebooks have been Dell, but I'm not liking the direction they are taking with this release.

 

The empty slot is the visable slot after take the top off

Sorry the dell has 8 screws aswell, logic is void.

 

mac, the orange issue seems to be fixed. I'm following old and new envy thread. A new color gate seemed to pop out about blue/green but it seems only a faulty single display of an user.
THe main matter about envy for us italian is that the Envy 15 is not sold in Italy and i guess in entire Europe.

 

Awesome, then the bitcing about the ram upgrade is a non issue! The laptop max out at 16GB, so just pop an 8GB DIMM and you never need to upgrade again.

 

Potential reasons for the price of something are all well and good, but they don't instantly alleviate initial disappointment for those who were expecting or even just hoping for lower starting points. Time will likely help with that, though.

If this is to be a luxury item, as you put it, so be it. But, as another user posted, what is the target customer exactly, for this luxury laptop that is neither as light or compact as an ultrabook nor as powerful as a high-performance or extreme gaming machine? I'm not saying no one will like it or that it will fail. I just thought that the XPS line was intended to be more competitive and that if you wanted to spend close to $2000 or more, that's what the AW line was for.

I, myself, am still interested because, despite the lack of options, I still like the look over an AW. I like that you can game fairly well on it for how small and sleek it is, even though it's not an ultrabook. Disappointing price aside, however, my one true dealbreaker right now is being unable to fully customize a build. Any idea why that is?

 

I think is a little strange that HP has solved the issue and so doesn't advice probably buyers of the new screen...
New display has new code or same code of previous one?
If you have a desktop monitor you can take a picture of both (envy + desktop monitor) with a pure total red screen so we can see a comparison

 

Yep exactly right

 

Bill said earlier, it's a cost reason from Dells point of view that they offer pre-baked builds. Also allows them to ship quicker.

As to weight:

14" is 2.1kg - The MBP 13 is 2.06kg
15" is 2.6kg - The MBP 15 is 2.56kg.

So a non issue, trust me Dell have done their homework.

 

This +1000. I wouldn't be nearly as disappointed if we just had some options. I would love to get rid of the outdated 5400rpm HDD and replace it with a 256GB SSD, remove the BD-read/write for DVD (already have one on my desktop), bump it down to 8GB RAM so I can upgrade myself and have the option for Home/Pro/Ultimate. That's probably the main reason I've always purchased from Dell in the past.

 

No, it's perfectly ok because HP never admitted existence of an "orangegate" for its display.
If now HP says "Hey guy, look!! We have changed display !! New Display!! No more orange instead of Red" then she will explicity admit the orangegate.

 

Is there a specific model that only as 1 8GB module in it because I probable asked 5 reps and they all said it was 2x4GB.

 

Are they selling 8GB XPS with 1 only module in UK ? Here in Italy, all 8GB config are 2x4GB configuration.

 

i never said that it wont sell but it would be wrong to say its pitted directly agianst mbp. and i bet u if u gave the xps option to people who were legitimtely considering the mbp, they would prolly go with the mbp 80+% of the time. anyway the guy i quoted below me stated it well.

its a different panel but i htink i did post the pic somewhere.. i got one on my phone right now lemme c hold on..

 

So this new xps 15 doesn't qualify for the student offer? It's not on the page? IT shows the old xps 15

 

All this moaning over nothing, especially when their complaint has either been addressed or contradictory.

 

I picked the £1149 version, as it had a faster HDD. Anyway it says 8192MB (1x8GB) 1600MHz DDR3.

 

Do what I did and call them up to order it, when I chatted online they would'nt give me the $200 GC but I called and told them my school got the 2% discount plus the discount my school offered and asked them for the gift card and they gave it to me. Problem solved

 

I picked the 1699 pre built configuration (US) and my build says 1 x 8 GB