The XPS 16 Terrifies Me

My first post and here's my story. I bought my first laptop 3 1/2 years ago. It's a Dell XPS 1210. I use it everyday and in all these years not a single problem, Nada, nothing, zilch Everything, hardware software works perfectly.

I do a lot of photo editing with Adobe Lightroom and the little 12 inch screen no longer cut's it. So it's a no-brainer to go to the Dell website and order a new XPS 16. I even have some extra money from a work grant program. So I'm going to go all out and get the RGB screen and SSD.

At the last minute I decided to check out a few reviews and ended up here. Now I'm lying in bed having cold sweats and nighmares about throttling, screen flickering, oversaturated reds, crapped out PSU's and god knows what else.

Now I'm riddled with indecision. I've been to the brick and mortar stores and looked at dozens of different makes and models but now even more confused. All I wanted was a really good 1080 screen lots of ram and a decent processor for photo-editing. I have never been more impressed by computer like my good ole XPS 1210 I thought a replacement would be a slam dunk

What would YOU DO in my situtation?????????????????

Thanks to all for any and all advice

Brad Friedrick

 

From my understanding (and it depends what model your getting 1645/1647) the throttling is fixed with an update, the overdone colours in RGBLED are fixed by changing specific settings (theirs a few guides on this forum for this) Havent heard to much on screen flickering? but Im pretty sure the new ATI Update fixed this?

Sorry If I am wrong with everything I just said (please correct me if I am) but that is my understanding, from what I hear its a good laptop with good customer service if the delivery time at the moment is a little awry.

Just my 2cents

 

Yeah,i gone through all the problems you have mentioned and still ordered S-XPS 16...just hoping everything will clear out soon...

Already Throttling has been reduced by 130W and bios update...so hope other porbs will also be over soon..

 

Hey Heddok I was in similar situation. I am about to graduate from my university in a multimedia program and I also work at a local photography studio doing weddings/senior photos etc, so the SXPS 16 for me had a primary purpose of being used with Adobe products and some other multimedia programs. One thing to note - I have the 1080 WLED, not the RGB, so I cannot comment on oversaturation with the RGBLED screen, but it should be pretty easily fixed. I also have the SXPS 1647 model.

About your throttle worries, there are two types of throttling - CPU and GPU. CPU has been fixed. GPU has not and is caused due to overheating, however, this will only occur during heavy gaming sessions or benchmark testing. Having said that, I have been doing some gaming with Modern Warefare 2 and Mass Effect, and though it does get pretty warm to the touch and blows some pretty hot air out of the vent when I game, I have not experienced any throttling of any kind. If the most intense thing you will do on this laptop is more multimedia/photography based, like Adobe Lightroom, you will be completely fine. If you will do gaming, there are those reports of GPU throttling still, but I haven't experienced it. I did have one problem with my laptop with dust behind the clear plastic panel that coats the LCD screen, meaning you could not get to it to clean it. It was fairly prominent and in two areas. Nothing is perfect, but a few ppl on this forum had some bad luck getting this fixed, and dealing with Dell's support can be a very time consuming and difficult thing to do, though I was the only one apparently that had the issue corrected quickly and efficiently. Really in my experience of the laptop the only downfall I can think of is the inconsistent level of Dell's support when something goes wrong. After having this laptop for about 3 - 4 weeks now, I would recommend it for you, especially if you work with photography, as I can tell you firsthand it is great for editing.

 

I am probably the biggest critic here, and I do not regret my purchase. You would be hard pressed to find the RGB display anywhere else.

CPU throttling is fixed with Bios A.08, and the 130 Watt adapter.

Screen flicker, either you will notice it or you won't. Kinda like the 60 Hz thing back in the day, either it bothered your eyes or it didn't. Mine does flicker, occasionally; on battery, on the lowest screen brightness. It does NOT bother me.

GPU WILL throttle at 84C. You will rarely hit that, UNLESS you are gaming.

Heat. There is some concern, among some people that they heat coming out of the back of the machine will do damage to the LCD. It does get warm, but I bake my Television with hotter temps. Poor analogy, but I'm saying that after playing with this since Dec, I don't see a long term problem.

I sold my MacBook Pro 15 for this. I bought it off Ebay, NEW, and I am happy with my decision.

 

Go find an enthusiast/support forum for ANY product/brand/item/model/revision of ANYTHING on the internet. 70% of the posts there will be about problems. The vast majority of people don't seek out a forum like this unless they have a problem so what you are seeing is the very vocal minority.

 

I just received my new XPS16. i7, WLED 1080p HD screen,(cannot order RGB screen anymore), Solid State Drive . A.08 bios, and 90 w adapter. (haven't called yet for the 130 w adapter). I coudn't be more pleased with this laptop. This is my 3rd XPS laptop. I do not game on this laptop so I have not experienced any heat or throlling issues. I am also very happy with my purchase.

 

Runs WoW and EQII like a charm, so it works for me.

 

Mine has been working fine, and even tho I have a 720p WLED, the WLED screen is amazing, and I don't have to worry about calibration or whatnot. Speed and temps are fine on my xps.

 

here's the deal bro:

1) the cpu throttling has been already fixed. just make sure you have the updated bios, as everyone has already said.

2) gpu throttling will be a non-issue unless you are going to try and extort an alienware desktop like performance from the laptop. i have played crisin on full for around three hours (on power supply ) and have not experienced any problems yet.

3) IMO (strictly personal), u don't need to worry about the screen flicker. my mom has the sxps 16 with rgb, and I use the wled, and none flickers. that being said, if i were you, i will rather use the extra cash on maxing out the warranty and processor specs. you don't really need the rgb considering the other option is wled (again strictly 'IMO'). no rgb...no oversaturation worries

4) and finally DELL's support is just awesome. they replaced my sxps just because I felt the keyboard response was not just as crisp as it should be, and gave me a 2gb ram upgrade on the next system, FREE. So now I have 6gb ddr3!

So, bottomline, if I were you, I would enjoy my night's sleep. Get up, have some coffee and then go and order my studio xps 16!! good luck...

 

Just a quick question, which warranty do you have? Do you have the premium warranty that includes US based support? I just have regular warranty and I have had good luck but with everyone saying such bad things about service I've been kind of nervous. And there are two distinct types - regular/accidental, and then the premium one that includes the US support with My Tech Team (also if you order from a university purchase program, thats included by default I believe).

 

nope...I didn't purchase from any university purchase programe. mine came with a complete cover warranty... n i've always been assisted by India based service providers... the only problem you might face is punctuality... they might call you back an hour later than they said. But DELL's support is really awesome... that's one thing I have never had with any company...sony was okay, Mac sucked, asus was bearable... but DELL was like a breeze... sure they arranged the pick-up for the replacement a day later than they promised... but they replaced my system,and gave me a free upgrade nonetheless... i would rather have slow response and sure support, than fast response that says, " sorry sir, but that's outside of warranty scope...there;s nothing we can do...please dish out a few hundred bucks more..." ....

 

I'd like to thanks everyone who responded to this thread. Like I said I just found this forum a week ago. You guys are all real friendly and helpful. I'm not much of a computer guy so the info from everyone is extremely educational

I really wanted an RGB screen but don't think I'll gamble on it. Flickering would just drive me nuts. I saw the low res Wled on a XPS 16 at bestbuy yesterday and thought it was OK. Think I'll go with the 1080 WLED.

Like many have commented I'm not into gaming so unlikely to run into throttling.

 

Heddok, for your photo editing I wouldn't pass up the RGB. The flickering only happens when the screen is dimmed down... Might want to consider what you keep your screen brightness at currently as to decide if it would affect you.

 

What brightness level you guys keep your RGB screen to have it flicker free?

 

I had a xps 1645 ordered and after doing a few days of research and sleepless nights, I canceled my order. The day I canceled the order I felt like I just stepped off the Titanic before its last voyage. Battery life is also a issue for me and the battery life also is poor and its general design regarding its heat and vent design is a problem that cant be fixed. I ordered a Inspiron 1564 witha Core i5, bluray player,500gb,etc and it is solid as a rock. Its 93% of the XPS I ordered at 1/2 the price. I love it plus the reviews of the laptop from its owners are excellent. I know I couldn't deal with Dell tech and a computer design that has chronic issues.
If I were you and I was, I would cancel my order now.

 

in what way do you mean 93%? Performance? Design?

 

Performance for my needs. Its build quality is very good. Its light and flat in size and very portable. The Core i5 processing speed with 4gb DDR3, wireless N card, 500gb memory, bluray combo drive, ATI HD 512MB graphics card, 9 cell battery, W7 operating system, etc.... not to mention a design that doesnt obstruct its cooling vents with its screen, all for $750.00 USD on sale. I did video conversion/editing yesterday and the i5 was blistering fast. I did this using the Inspiron on its 9cell battery for over 6 hours and there was still life left before I charged it. I am more than satisfied. Bluray movies look amazing on its 15.6" HD display even though its not a 1080P. I feel its performance/battery saving potential not being a 1080p is now a good thing. I was worried before I got it but now I am very satisfied with the Inspirons display. I hooked it up through HDMI to my 61" 1080p media room and it played flawless 1080p content with DTS digital sound. The bluray player is blazing fast in its loading of the movie. I am not a gamer but talking to other owners that have played some advanced games and they are happy. I feel I bought a 400hp car that gets 50mpg.

 

inspiron is the basic entry level notebook from dell... the studio xps is their premium brand.... that said... just being series 5 gpu does not mean the card is super fast...look at it's tech spec.. its a very entry level card... the two cards available on the sxps 16, the hd 3670 and the hd 4670 will both outperform the inspiron card by miles..... that being said, the inspiron is really one of the best entry level notebook available out there.... congratulations on your purchase... enjoy your notebook bro....