Some questions to owners of 2015 Dell XPS 13

I'm considering a new 2015 Dell XPS 13 after reading many raving reviews.
I have questions to owners to help me with my decision

1. Sound quality: While I don't expect much from the small speakers of an ultrabook,
I do often listen to talk radio, watch youtube videos and occasional movie.
I'm concerned that the sound is too tinny or gets distorted at reasonable volume.

2. Dell extended warranty vs. Squaretrade extended warranty.
I'm purchasing my Dell XPS on Amazon.com, and they offer the Squaretrade extended warranty that seems comprehensive.
Not sure if my unit would qualify for the Dell extended warranty if I buy it on Amazon.

3. Does the fan ever get too noisy or distracting?

4. Is heat an issue. Mashable in their review was complaining about excessive heat on the left size of the keyboard

5. Please share your experiences with battery life. I've heard that united with the ultra-high resolution have poor battery life.
I'd be happy with 5-6 hours.

6. How is the integrated web cam. Ive read that typing on the keybord blocks the view.
Also how is the integrated microphone. I hope to use the integrated microphone for Skype conversations without a headset

7. The RAM is soldered to the board, so I must choose carefully between 4GB or 8GB, especially with consideratiion that I will have
this laptop for many years. Not sure when 8GB becomes necessary or improved performance becomes significant.

8. Is the ultra high resolution display (3000 pixels) really that much better? Worth the extra money? I know this is subjective.
I've read that such a high resolution doesn't make sense on a laptop screen this small (13"), that you really need perfect eyesight
to see the smaller fonts on this display. Also concerned that the glossy display washes out if using outdoors in sunlight.
Also does the cheaper display have gorilla glass like the sharper display panel?

9. To those who chose the 1080 display, do you miss having the touch capability with Windows 8?
Since I'm used to Windows 7, I'm not sure how important it is to have touch screen with windows 8.

10. How difficult is it to replace the SSD? I'm betting its not just a simple panel removal as it is on conventional laptops (non-ultrabooks).
I want to replace the 128GB and add a 512GB. I need the extra storage space

11. To replace the SDD in this laptop, I need to find an M.2 SSD (the successor to mSATA). I'm still searching for a 512GB M.2 SSD with hardware self-encryption for data security. This feature is easy to find among 2.5" and mSATA SDDs.

12. Any other gripes to report?

Thanks to all.

 

1. Sound quality: I never experienced any issues with the sound on this laptop. In my opinion it actually was a better/louder sound than on my Macbook Air. There were a couple times when the sound would be distorted when I had the volume maxed out, but I also think this could have been due to the Livestream video I was watching. But once I pulled down volume to about 95% or so...it cleared up the distortion. Very pleased with the sound.


3. Does the fan ever get too noisy or distracting? I never had any problems with the fan noise. I only recall hearing the fan on mine may one time, but then again it was not even that loud to bother or aggravate me.

4. Is heat an issue? Never had any.

5. Please share your experiences with battery life. I had the i5 FHD model with 4GB RAM. I usually got around 7-9 hours of battery life. I was very pleased with battery life based on my usage. I have seen where the battery life is shorter on the QHD model.

7. The RAM is soldered to the board, so I must choose carefully between 4GB or 8GB, especially with consideratiion that I will have
this laptop for many years. Not sure when 8GB becomes necessary or improved performance becomes significant. The model I originally went with only had 4GB RAM. I ended up sending mine back, and planning on purchased the 8GB FHD model. I experienced lag a few times, and noticed my RAM usage was almost always at 70%-80% with minimal usage. I'm going for the 8GB to be better prepared for future usage too.

9. To those who chose the 1080 display, do you miss having the touch capability with Windows 8? I personally don't care for touch capability on laptops. So I did not miss nor desire having touch capability at all.

12. Any other gripes to report? Touch pad can be a little tricky at times. While it's not as good as what you will experience on a Macbook Pro or Air...it is definitely the best touchpad I have experienced on a Windows laptop. One other thing to share is I noticed my laptop seemed excruciatingly slow the first day I had it. This was due to the fact the system was downloading updates. Once the updates finished downloading the system sped up for me.
I just got confirmation they received my return, and will be placing an order for the i5 FHD model with 8GB RAM in the coming days.
Hope this helps!

 

This was very helpful. Thanks
When you do have some experience with the FHD, please let us know how much your battery life took a hit
and what you get out of the better display in day-to-day use, and also if you do find any value in using the touch feature of the FHD.

 

Has anyone tried anyone tried any of the flush fitting apple MacBook pro/air MicroSD card adaptors in their XPS laptops yet, and do they fit nice and flush?

 

Difficult to answer, I thought the sound quality was fine for a laptop but nothing special or loud.

Again, subjective really - I found the fan noise irritating particularly as the machine can run silently for a while then will fire up noticeably when a virus scan is running or windows updates are installing in the background. It doesn't seem to be able to run at a quiet low speed and instead revs intrusively up and down repeatedly at times

I found the underside of the machine felt hot on my lap even though the underside of the machine didn't seem that hot to touch, it put me off using it on my lap.

I reckon that would be doable, I was getting around 7-8 hours on an i7/8GB/512GB/QHD+ XPS 13 with browsing and light use

I didn't use it, the position is a bit strange for that

Hotly debated, if I'd had the choice I'd have gone for 4GB (8GB is the only choice in the UK) as Windows has become more efficient in the last couple of iterations and it's unlikely I'd ever be doing any heavy work on the machine. Plus I doubt the longevity of the PC anyway given the ram is soldered on, the battery isn't easily replaceable, the cooling system doesn't seem very good (all the vents are on the underside) etc. Clearly 8GB is the safer bet though.

You can't run QHD+ native on a screen this small as the interface is absolutely tiny (I did actually try it briefly) so the display is scaled instead so everything is the same size but it's sharper and more detailed. It works well in the newer touch interface but in the desktop mode it's more problematic and I found the scaling behaviour to be inconsistent, some elements were too small, some too large, some blurry and some oddly stretched. Given the choice (again not one we have in the UK) I'd have hands down taken the 1080p option as that can be run with minimal scaling which I think looks far better. Others prefer the QHD+ screen though

I was coming from a hybrid PC that I primarily used touch on so even though the XPS 13 isn't a hybrid device I'm used to touch gestures but as the machine is just a normal laptop form factor I could manage without the touch particularly to get the 1080p screen

It's pretty easy, for an ultrabook the XPS 13 is pretty good for serviceability:

https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Dell+XPS+13+Teardown/36157

M2 is still a new standard and is still largely OEM only so it may take a little while for the variety of drives to improve

The touchpad was one of my main annoyances with the PC, it's highly rated but I found it irritating there was no way to customise its behaviour at all as there are no settings you can change for it.

John

 

XPS 13 has a number of ongoing issues - I myself still dealing with a paperweight on my desk:

http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/software-os/f/4997/p/19645539/20828098#20828098

 

1. Sound quality: While I don't expect much from the small speakers of an ultrabook,
I do often listen to talk radio, watch youtube videos and occasional movie.
I'm concerned that the sound is too tinny or gets distorted at reasonable volume.

The speakers work just fine in my opinion. They aren't booming speakers and the base isn't going to be intense. If someone wants outstanding speakers then get a portable speaker system. But for an ultrabook these speakers are sufficient. I still stream Pandora or play my iTunes library from it and it's fine.

3. Does the fan ever get too noisy or distracting?

I hardly hear the fan, if ever. Not an issue for me thus far.

4. Is heat an issue. Mashable in their review was complaining about excessive heat on the left size of the keyboard

No heat issues noticed.

5. Please share your experiences with battery life. I've heard that united with the ultra-high resolution have poor battery life.
I'd be happy with 5-6 hours.

I have Win10Pro on my laptop on a clean install. Battery life isn't that great but that could be due to lacking power management utility. Not sure yet. I have my power cord handy.

7. The RAM is soldered to the board, so I must choose carefully between 4GB or 8GB, especially with consideratiion that I will have
this laptop for many years. Not sure when 8GB becomes necessary or improved performance becomes significant.

I opted for the 8Gb of RAM. I firmly believe in maximizing the RAM just in case.

8. Is the ultra high resolution display (3000 pixels) really that much better? Worth the extra money? I know this is subjective.
I've read that such a high resolution doesn't make sense on a laptop screen this small (13"), that you really need perfect eyesight
to see the smaller fonts on this display. Also concerned that the glossy display washes out if using outdoors in sunlight.
Also does the cheaper display have gorilla glass like the sharper display panel?

I'd rather have a matte finish and really do not care for the touchscreen. I opted for the i7 XPS because I wanted the i7 power. The display is fine outside from the 1 or two times I took my computer outside. While I do not care for glossy screens this one isn't too bad.

10. How difficult is it to replace the SSD? I'm betting its not just a simple panel removal as it is on conventional laptops (non-ultrabooks).
I want to replace the 128GB and add a 512GB. I need the extra storage space

Yes, changing out the SSD is just that simple. I changed mine out to a Samsung M.2 512Gb SSD loaded with Win10Pro (my own copy). I had problems with my original XPS13 and Dell sent me a replacement. My LiteOn SSD is now a spare.

12. Any other gripes to report?

Touchpad was an issue until I performed a modification to the registry files ( this thread ). Windows 8.1 does not allow for disable of the tap to click feature. Windows 10 does. I found this to be a major problem but this a Windows issue not an XPS issue. So far the XPS (my second one) has been pretty decent. I am happy with it.