Studio XPS 13 Review

I have had my 1340 for a month now and i decided to do a review for those deciding to get one or not. This goes over the areas that i was most concerned with before buying one.


My Specs:
Intel C2D 2.4 GHZ
4 GB DDR3 RAM
CCFL Screen
320GB 7200 RPM HD
NVIDIA 9400m GPU
6 Cell Battery
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Overall Design/Build Quality/Weight:

The Studio XPS 1340 build quality is the highest I have seen in a laptop, especially from Dell. Looking at the laptop it looks awesome with its black glossy design. Picking it up, it feels like a very solid and well built notebook. It makes my XPS 1330 feel kind of flimsy. I can’t find anything wrong with the one I got (gaps or loose panels, wobbles, etc) The gloss finish is a finger print magnet, but I can live with it, you just got to wipe it down every day if you are picky. I don’t use the webcam or HDMI port but it’s nice to have if I ever needed them. Only having two USB ports is acceptable, the only thing I would plug in is a wireless mouse and MP3 player or thumb drive anyways. My absolute favorite feature is the illuminated keyboard, I think that it’s awesome to be able to see the keys in dark or low light environments and it should be a must for all future XPS notebooks. As far as the weight goes, I think that it is a bit on the heavy side for 13 inch notebooks but other notebooks on the market are heavier. I’m a student and carry it around with me, it weighs 4.85 pound for those of you that don’t already know and I would not say it’s not a deal breaker or reason to not get it. The keyboard is my favorite yet on a notebook. They are very solid and very responsive, the springs under the keys are strong and deliver perfect push.

Screen:
The edge to edge screen is great and much better looking than others available. The resolution could be a little higher but it is good enough for a 13 inch screen and most comparable notebooks have the same. I may not have the LED backlit screen that I wanted, but I think that the screen on this computer is still very bright and very clear. Plus, I saved a few hundred dollars not getting it with the Best Buy model. Is the LED screen worth it? Yes, if you can pay for it, get it. The screen is very glossy and reflective. At work under florescent lights it is not distracting unless I look hard for a reflection. I can see myself if the screen when I look for it on low brightness settings below 50%. Outdoors in direct sunlight on full brightness you can see the screen but it is very distracting because you see yourself in the reflection of the glossy screen. This is not that big of a deal for me because I’m never outside with it. I’m sure if you will be working outside often I would defiantly get the LED screen, there are few laptops with screens designed to be used outside in direct sunlight anyway and this is not designed for it.

Heat:
This laptop can get really warm at times even when just web browsing even when on power save mode. I compared the temps on other computers with the same specs and I found that temps are very similar but strangely somehow the Studio XPS 13 has a way of having the bottom of the laptop heat up more on occasion. Do keep in mind that the laptop is very compact and still has a very powerful CPU and GPU inside all adding up to lack of heat displacement. The new A06 BIOS lowered the temps of my CPU and GPU by 10c and I have noticed the difference . The BIOS update actually has the computer now turn on the fan on low and keeps it on to maintain cooler temps. I don’t hear the fan and I prefer it more than having a hotter laptop. Gaming on your lap will not be that comfortable so be prepared to use a desk or cooling pad. As far as the screen blocking the vent design that everyone is worried about, when the screen is angled completely back it is just diverting the airflow up and doesn’t block it completely, it may increase the temps a little but this laptop is not the only one that does this, the Apple Macbooks have this same similar design but with an even less exposed vent area. I don’t have any screen discoloration and the screen itself doesn’t get that hot from the air coming from the vent. For those of you wondering about temps, on power save on battery, idle, typing this with music on streaming from the web, I am getting 40-55c for the two cores and the GPU is between 51-57c. It’s been on for a few hours and is in a room temp of 78f. I would not consider the heat a deal breaker unless you want to use it on your lap with no pants on and without a cooling pad or mat on a regular basis.

Performance/Battery Life:
This laptop is extremely fast. The 4 gigs of ddr3 ram and the 3mb L2 cache on the processor. I don’t usually ever play games on my laptop and if I do I use my desktop but from what I have played it seems like it can handle just about any game just not with high FPS on the highest graphics settings with the latest games. Browsing the web, listening to music and typing a paper, in power save mode I got about 3 hours on the 6 cell with brightness set to 50%, WIFI on and Bluetooth off depending on what you are doing. I don’t really need more battery life than this but if you need more the 9-cell or just an additional 6-cell would work. I did discover that with the WIFI and Bluetooth off when typing papers that I get 3.5+ hours.

Crashing/Issues:
For those of you that are experiencing BSOD, crashes, freezing or just lags make sure you reinstall the OS from the OS disk and not the factory image on the restore partition. Windows was corrupted when they shipped the computer from the factory and so was the factory image. I had to reinstall the OS from scratch and there is a big difference in performance from when I was having issues with the corrupted OS. Also, make sure you have the latest BIOS and drivers. The bottom line is if it seems like there are issues other than it getting very warm, reinstall the OS and if there are still problem then exchange it or get the machine fixed, not all of them have issues.

 

thats a long review....

 

nice review include some pics

 

Thanks for posting your review.

+1 on the A06 bios update making the laptop cooler.

 

Thanks for giving that review.. Makes me feel better knowing I just ordered it 2 days ago from the ouetlet

 

I own and sxps 1340 and that review sounded just right
It doesn't have heat issues at all. Don't expect a 13.3" laptop with such high specs to run very cool.

BTW I'm gonna get th A06 update sometime soon

 

Mine isn't hot at all. Only hot on hybrid mode which provides zero performance increase with this crappy drivers available right now!

 

Yea I don't think hybrid sli increases the graphics performance very much...