Rate your experience with Studio XPS 16.

Rate how your overall usability experience with the Studio XPS 16 was from 1 to 5 in the poll above.

Also, please share how/what purpose you use the system every day.

Excited to hear your verdict on the system.

 

Gave it a 4 (XPS 1645). I use it as a 'desktop replacement' (even though it seems no one uses that expression anymore). It only gets moved around once in a while.

Minor annoyances: shipped with 90w (but I called and had 130w next day), 9-cell battery was ONLY option and it sticks out, fan design is poor, disgusting material (smudges in 1 touch)

Bigger annoyance: when throttling occurs, it occurs big time (might be fixed now, but not convinced).

I'd probably give the laptop a 3 if the XPS 16 wasn't so cheap compared to other brands with similar specs.

Edit: why is there no option between good (3) and bad (2)?

 

4, too.

It's perfect and much better than any other laptop I've seen. But it isn't perfect. I wish it didn't produce any heat, I wish I didn't have to deal with the throttling issue, I wish the SSD option was cheaper, I wish the battery life was at least 5 hours.

I wish for a lot (lol), but for the money, this is one of the best laptops out there now, especially with the 5730.

~Ibrahim~

 

4 for me. It's a beatiful laptop with great build quality and a loveley screen but there are a few things that annoy me a bit.

1. the speaker grilles
2. the reflections on the screen
3. the battery life
4. the heat

Other than that, it's pretty much as perfect as perfect can be.

 

My vote is yet to be casted...the refurbished 1645 I received as a replacement system was a true lemon It had many, many, problems...so my vote is out until I it returns from the Dell "Depot"...BUT even as a lemon my feeling is that I really liked the computer...I just wish they could fix it so it would be reliable.

 

I give it a 2. The laptop is drop dead gorgeous, the build quality is quite nice, but at the same time, beauty is only skin deep. The SXPS is truly ugly on the inside. The throttling issues, heating issues and just the big F U from dell in regard to the issue affected my rating. Not to mention other nuances like the riplock on the blu-ray burner I spent so much on. As someone else mentioned the speaker grilles and reflective screen are other nuances. Honestly it'd be tough to go ahead and say I'd buy this machine again.

 

3 should be named average

 

Voted 2

Cons:
1) Initial CPU throttling
2) Initial GPU throttling problems (heat)
3) Initial audio hard locks
4) Vent placement (can't play games with LCD open or with XPS on flat surface)
5) i7 is not stable (-> no steady FPS in games)
6) Speaker rattle
7) CPU speed problems after hibernation/sleep
8) Bad battery life (90min max)

Pros:
1) Performs OK if not haunted by Cons above
2) Nice design (visually)
3) Nice LCD (WLED even!)..except for reflections but all glossy screens have this prob
4) Nice keyboard

 

excellent replacement desktop

1. no throttling with latest bios. also helps having a cooler underneath. played DAO on max settings for 5 hrs w/o throttle.

2. always like dell's warranty service - excellent response. can't say that for hp, acer, sony.

3. beautiful fhd wled screen. responsive backlite keyboard. great ati video card.

 

He stated pretty much everything I would have stated. All the cons listed are things that I've experienced at some point (except for maybe 5,7, & 8). Most have been fixed (I'm not even sure about that anymore) but if I wasn't tech-savvy at all, every single thing on this list would have just sent me overboard in anger. I've had to do quite a bit just to get the laptop to function well, something no one should have to do out of the box.

Otherwise I like the keyboard, screen is fantastic (needed calibration though ), and I love its look. Also Dell's customer service is great (IMO), and I'd stick with them just for it. There should be a rating between 3 and 4. I would give it a 3.5, but since I can't, I'll go with.... 3

 

near perfect, aside from speaker rattle (but i always use speakers).

1. Standard battery life for such a monster
2. No throttling
3. Absolutely beautiful design (none comparable)
4. Silent running (can only hear the hard disk if in the middle of the night)
5. PERFORMANCE!!

 

5. How is the i7 not stable? There is a tweak flowing about the forums about disabling core parking which has helped some AW m15x i7 users , if that's your issue?

6. What CPU speed problems after sleep/hibernation? I use sleep all the time and my CPU works at full blast (when needed).

7. Without qualifiers, that statement is a bit vague. My SXPS 16 gets a bit over 3 hours on a full charge using Dell Extended Battery and normal usage (Office, Firefox).

Con 4 = I think you're supposed to use it on a flat surface.

~Ibrahim~

 

Love mine so far. still breaking it in though..

 

My i7 jumps from lets say ~2.4 ghz to 1.8ghz to 2.0ghz etc during games like FSX. My fps in FSX is sometimes 20fps.. Because FSX is so CPU dependant, my FPS will drop to 14 because of the decreased CPU speed..then back to 20.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/6324960-post199.html

I get 90min MAX even on max battery mode.. Then again I only have the 60wH battery....

Actually it was one of the dell employees on the forum who told me it wasn't LAPtop anymore but a notebook since you weren't supposed to put it on your lap etc.. If i play a game with the XPS on my lap (or cloth or whatever) it will shoot up to 90c GPU and it's almost unbearable. Also with the LCD up the vent is blocked causing even more heat.

 

Voted 4 but admittedly this isn't my primary machine. I have a full fledged high end desktop backing this notebook up while at home. The Dell SXPS is only used while away or for watching movies at home.

Screen
So the glossy screen does have reflections but I don't directly fault Dell for that since it's a side effect of glossy screens. It's also what makes the screen colors really "pop" on the RGBLED. The screen is also bright enough such that I rarely ever use all but the lower 20-30% of brightness. Even 0% is acceptable, IMHO. 100% with a complete white background could probably be used as a flashlight.

Blu-ray reader
This drive is quick and quiet. While watching a movie the drive is not what you will be worried about. I'm so used to cheap drives sounding like jet engines that I always wait to hear this drive spin up and so far, out of the 20+ movies I've watched using it, very little noise or vibration, and especially no stuttering.

Keyboard
The keyboard and backlighting are nice but I really wish Dell would have moved the speakers to enlarge the keyboard area. There is wasted space there that could be used to provide a more natural keyboard. They did a good job but sacrificed the positions of the Insert, Home, Delete, End, Pg Up, Pg Down keys. Because of this I always hit the wrong key. I expect them to be in certain places and they are not. Even my work laptop Thinkpad T42 has this right.

Battery life
This is one stat that could always be better. No one will complain of having too much battery life. That said, I'm content with 2.5hrs (150mins) of life on the 9 cell while watching an HD (1080p) quality rip but 3 hours would be better. A less CPU intensive video, such as only DVD quality, might yield 3 hours but I haven't tried it yet. The SXPS could potentially be used on a plane to watch a movie in flight. I also get 90+ minutes while gaming on battery with WiFi enabled.

Heat
This laptop gets hot while playing games. Since I only play World of Warcraft, Dragon Age, and Starcraft 2 (beta) (all at screen native res on medium/high settings)it's not been that bad but it definitely would be too hot to put on my lap. The fan also speeds up noticeably and can be heard but not embarrassingly so. I use a notebook cooler to assist with cooling as well as elevating the machine. I do play with the screen UP, so some vent blockage is occuring but hasn't caused any throttling in my games (A04 BIOS, yes, I'm behind on updates) that I've noticed.

Design/Style
It's already recieved numerous compliments on the looks and especially the screen. No one has ever said they thought it was ugly.

Touchpad
The touchpad should be matte. I know Dell wanted to stick to their design but the glossy surface of the touchpad sometimes makes my fingers stick, especially if my hands are already a bit damp/sweaty, more than they should. The touchpad also gets warm. Not unbearably so but it is noticeable.

Customer Service
I really cannot complain about Dell CSRs at this point. Their sales team leaves a bit to be desired and should know more about the products and inventory but plenty of information is available on the internet. The tech team can be difficult to understand but since I was allowed to keep the 90W adapter and 130W adapter I can deal with it.

 

@1st issue

....try disabling core parking. It may or may not help. But, if you want, you can stick with the low FPS by disabling Turbo Boost in RealTemp's i7Turbo.exe.

@2nd issue

I ran SuperPi 1M before hibernating, got 18.997s; I ran SuperPi 1M after hibernating, got 19.4s something. Not sure what happen with yours?

@3rd issue

Ah; I have the 9-cell which is what is standard on the SXPS 16 now.

@4th issue

I've heard that BS ("not a laptop") before. I do a modified lap (if I'm a couch): I put my right leg a bit over my left leg. I then rest the SXPS 16 on the right leg, leaving the intake on the left open (the laptop hovers a few inches above my left leg).

The vent issue...hmmm. I've yet to stress my laptop on a continuous basis this much for this to really mess with my computing (I don't game).

~Ibrahim~

 

Voted 5 and it 100% deserves it.

Got following scores:

PiFast - 34.28 sec
SuperPi - 16sec 323ms
wPrime 32m - 16sec 86ms

What else does one want ???

It works flawlessly...its extremely quick and responsive.

The heating problem...well at the place where i live temperature goes upto 116F...and i use my machine for 10-12 hours a day (i don't game on my XPS)...and the core temperature has not crossed 60C.

More than satisfied with my XPS !!!

 

The problem is that laptops used to have a flat non intake surface on the bottom. Now there are intake vents that get blocked. Imagine taking your air filter out of your HVAC unti and putting a panel that block the intake instead. Well it wouldn't work well would it? BUT for normal tasks using a notebook on your lap is perfectly fine, but I wouldn't recommend doing something intensive on your lap unless you like sweating.

 

The placement of the air intake and exhaust aren't great, but if I'm doing anything intensive, it's probably not on my lap. Just personal preference.

 

Yeah for general things Ill use a notebook on my lap but anything more then surfing/email/movie Ill have it on a desk or lapboard.

 

Hm ye so disabling the only 'good' thing about this 720QM is fixing the problem?

Like i said it doesnt always happen..sometimes I need to hibernate/sleep for 3-4 days (why turn it off??).. Also it's not always 900mhz, sometimes it just sticks at 1300mhz or sth.

Well why buy a i7 + 4670 1GB laptop if you don't do stressful tasks on it? You might as well buy the basic €400 version with intel graphics

 

I definitely rate my Studio XPS 16 a 5/5. Got it about a month and a half ago, and so far haven't had any problems that weren't solved by installing the latest drivers (I had lock-ups on full screen flash videos, but this problem has since been solved). Performance is incredible. I've played games for hours on end with no throttling or problems. With the latest bios (A09), I would say that it runs a little hotter than before, but still I haven't noticed any throttling. I feel the pain of those people that have had problems with this laptop, but for me it has performed like a champion.

 

lol.....maybe someone should have read a review of the i7-720QM running FSX before buying the laptop.

Does anyone else have this same problem or is it just you, DuranXL? If it's just you, complain to Dell.

I still work my i7 very well, thanks. Just not for hours straight like your gaming probably does.

~Ibrahim~