XPS 14 UltraBook Owners Lounge

I guess you guys missed out on the Samsung Series 830 256GB SSD last week at newegg.com. It went on sale for $189. Top of the line drive for rock bottom pricing.

 

I bought the 128 GB version for a mere £77


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Anytime you get to $1 USD for 1GB, the deal on the SSD seems good. $189 USD for a Samsung Series 830 2.5" 256GB SSD is exceptional. They sold out rather fast here in the USA.

Ready for the Olympics?

 

Anyone get theres and OC the gpu? If so how does it game with BF3, ME3, MP3, any newer games. Or older.

 

Olympics... sigh. Can't wait for it... to be over and done with! Doesn't interest me in the slightest. More interested in August and the start of the new football season (that's Soccer to you guys in the States!).

As for SSDs you can get 120GB for around £60 in the UK - but they're the likes of SanDisk, OCZ or Kingston. The Intel 320 goes for around £150 for 120GB so the Samsung 830 120GB at £77 seemed a good buy.

I paid £200 for my Intel X-25M 80GB over two years ago, but the 830 seems to blow it away. I had the Samsung Series 9 for a short while with the SanDisk SSD, and it was noticeably slower than the X-25M launching apps - probably taking 2-3 times longer to load. After blistering speeds, even the slightest lag becomes tedious so I sent it back.

I know I could have bought a new SSD, but mSata are still in short supply and very expensive. I'd rather buy a laptop with HDD then source my own super fast SSD for a few quid, which I've done with the XPS 14.

 

New review of the 14 (of sorts!)

XPS 14 Ultrabook: worth not waiting

Doesn't really say much, but reassuring about the keyboard.

 

Running out the door but wanted to jump in and let everyone know I'll be reading up on this thread tomorrow.

 

Welcome, Bill. Look forward to your input.


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How's this machine performing compared to something like the SONY VIAO S13a ?? Dells design is lovely though

 

I agree with that reviewer about touch input; no need for it on my notebook computer for the sort of work I do. I wonder what the viewing angles are actually like, given that this reviewer describes the display as "excellent." It seems like if they're at least better-than-average for modern thin TN displays that it should be OK for most use.

The battery issue is odd, although is it clearly a case of malfunction? I thought Win 7 disables charging above a certain threshold in the 90s% after first peaking out from a charge. Though, I thought it resumed charging around 95% or so. Maybe Dell has it set lower. ~6 hours of continuous browsing sounds pretty good if it's at 100% display brightness and has the i7.

Uh oh. The day of reckoning cometh!

 

In 1366X resolution with GT630M you can play in medium details these games, but $1199 is huge rip. You can buy an HP Sleekbook with A10-4655M with similar gaming performance for only $600.

 

You can if (a) you want HP rather than Dell and (b) you're happy for non-premium materials. I want top notch quality but not Apple, so the new XPS suits me & therefore isn't a rip off.


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Not so sure if Dell XPS has so much better quality, maybe HP Sleekbook does not use 900p screen, but built with brushed aluminum exterior and both have similar thickness (HP 19.8 mm, Dell 20.7mm) backlit keyboard, 2 USB 3.0 port, HP with Dual-Channel DDR3 1600MHz memory, an empty mSata slot, lower power consumption, perhaps less heat with less fan noise due to 25W APU.
Do not give me wrong, I prefer Dell laptops and always had, but this time Dell does not worth that so many extra hundreds dollars at all the way.

 

Build quality = aluminium body. Features and spec doesn't come into it. With XPS you're paying for Gorilla Glass, Aluminium & Magnesium Alloy. Your call whether or not you think that's worth the extra. The aesthetic, fit and finish are important to me, so I opted for the Dell.


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Certainly, I do not want you to take over not buy this XPS, it is a very nice machine. I was just telling the facts and opinion of this product .

 

I agree with you I want a good build quality and the Dell warranty this is worth paying extra.

I have been looking for a replacement for the xps m1330 notebook for over a year I have tried HP, Sony and Toshiba notebooks on everyone of them the fan was way too noisy, the HP fan was always on and it was loud.

 

Did you get yours yet? Mines has been in production for a week...

 

No it is still showing in production the eta is July 13th I ordered it on June 26th.

 

With respect, I'm an IT professional with over 15 years experience, I fully understand specs etc etc and I know what I am (and am not) getting for my money. As I said, the power is more than adequate for my needs. I like the looks, the size is right, the screen res is right (and rare!) and it has a good keyboard and it's built like a Mac.

If I didn't care about these things I'd have bought an Inspiron, DV6 or some Acer crap. Each to their own - its not for you, so fine. Kindly move along to an HP thread.


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Ordered mine June 26th with ETA July 16th! Checked the status the next day and it said 'cancelled'. No emails, nothing! Had to re-order, with an ETA of the 17th July.

To top the lot, I could have got £50 discount via the Employee scheme at work and forgot all about it. Ar$e.


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Ordered on June 28th with ETA July 18th.. Wonder what takes so long? I can't wait another 2 weeks? The suspense is killing me!

 

Well that sucks, can you call back and get the discount?

I am not sure why it takes so long as you really can't customize the systems, the only thing I added to mine was the extra warranty and microsoft office.

 

I did email asking if the discount could be applied retrospectively, no reply as yet. I'm guessing not, and I don't want to cancel the order and start all over again for the sake of £50.

Dell used to build their own laptops which is why there were lots more configurable options. For the past couple of years they've been outsourcing the manufacturing to the likes of Foxxcon and Compal.

It would increase production costs significantly if there were a zillion different combinations.

The lead time is probably due to stock levels. It's a new product and they probably only had a few units at each country to start with. We're probably waiting for them to be shipped to some central distribution depot.

The ETA is however the maximum date it will be delivered by. In my past experience it's often delivered a few days or even a week before that date.


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I hope so mine is supposed to be at my house on Thursday. I just ordered it yesterday i was a little shocked at the quick turnaround time. Hope its not too good to be true

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i also ordered mine around the same time as you guys. june 29th, slated for delivery on or before july 18th. i'm dyin', i want it. sad thing is i'm so busy gonna be hard to find the time to get everything installed (memory upgrade, ssd, software). will probably have to keep my E6510 for my primary for a stinkin' month after this thing arrives.

i ended up going for the base model ($1099) + 3 year NBD warranty. still mulling the ssd purchase. i have an intel 320 120gb here i can use, but w/ only 1 drive i might want more space. so may be adding a crucial 256 m4.

fyi, if anyone is looking for an 8gb memory upgrade...and there are cheaper options. but tigerdirect has the crucial 204pin sodimm 1333/8gb for $20 cheaper than crucial or newegg.

i assume this is what will fit the XPS 14...

Crucial CT102464BF1339 Memory Module - 8GB, 204-pin SODIMM, DDR3 PC3-10600 at TigerDirect.com

 

If you check back to my first post at this thread, might you can realize I answered for someone else who concerned about performance . Considering the specs other than 900p screen and the available similar alternatives, it is what I just told before. Not mentioned I have not talked about Inspiron or Pavilions but XPS vs. Envy Sleekbook.

I understand you are really satisfied the look at this laptop and overall, to tell the truth looks perfect. However I would not be so sure of the extraordinary quality only because use aluminium finish and damn expensive, especially if you do not have the two laptop to compare. Believe me; Latitudes and Precisions are solid as a rock for many years with excellent cooling management, while XPS quality just like an Envy .

And what notebookreview forums is about? To discuss facts, you cannot wish me to other topic just because we have different view points .

 

1. I've owned 3 different Latitudes and can vouch for that. Although in this regard you're talking 'build quality' as in reliability and robustness. I've had a fair few Latitudes that lack the 'fit & finish' of say a Mac Book Pro. ie: wobbly batteries, speaker grilles not fitting flush with the chassis. Small things maybe, but VERY important to me. This new XPS covers those things for sure.

2. Dell XPS 14 product preview - Laptop - Trusted Reviews

Quote:

"Build quality is accordingly superb. If the new XPS entrants are not the best-built laptops we’ve yet seen, they’re certainly up there. We realise this is a sweeping statement, but these puppies could make a MacBook Pro feel slightly inadequate."

That in my book means it's MUCH better built than the Envy. I had a play with the one that has the ugly, volume switch on the side that ruins the general aesthetic - I wasn't overly impressed to be honest.

And yes, of course you're welcome to your opinions but considering this thread is for people who either own or are thinking of buying the XPS 14, I don't see much point in you posting your negative views about something we all like.

 

Oh, look! An XPS thread that's actually not filled with FUD. Looking forward to this.

Think about this: leave the mSATA right where it is, as it is- a cache drive. Then upgrade that spinner to a nice SATA III SSD. Fast, fast, fast.

It should do well with Linux, and you may want to look at our Project Sputnik. We may have a Linux distro for the 14 along with the benefits of the Sputnik community.
Introducing Project Sputnik: Developer laptop « Barton's Blog

Far from a marketing gimmick. I think you are talking specifically about the accidental damage coverage, so I'll leave out onsite service and such.
Theft- should be covered by home owners' or renters' insurance anyway.
Loss- ditto, or if it were actually misplaced by the user, there's not a warranty in the world that will cover owner absent-mindedness that I'm aware of.
Fire- home owners'
Flood or acts of nature- home owners'
It will cover spilled glass of orange juice, drops, misfire of your Colt .45 while cleaning, run over by car, left on roof of car, toddler steps on screen, cracked LCD, dog pees on keyboard...Shall I go on?

You lost me at "plastic panel." We're not the only company who engineered a 14" highly premium build and materials Windows based PC with 10+ claimed hours of battery life...wait...nevermind. Seriously, bro. I don't know if it's a language barrier or what, and I do not at all mean to engage in conflict- but I don't think I'm the only one who finds your rhetoric a little abrasive.
Pro tip.

Actually, I think we're single sourced on this model. There are not a whole lot of choices out just now for the thin bezel spec. There are a few, but I mean to say the choices by comparison to a standard bezel are not as many.

Just judging by the photos of the HP that are available, I'd say (just my opinion, and I work for Dell, so take it with a grain of salt) the Sleekbooks are a class down in materials and build quality. I can see gaps around the hinges that I don't find on the XPS. Seems like a good value if you can give up build quality, materials, warranty and support. Are those trade-offs for less money really worth it? Not to me.

Get with me after the system arrives. I'll see if the @DellCares guys can do anything about that coupon. No promises, and I can't speak for them.
We never actually built them. We had a different kind of business relationship. It was more of a client/customer deal, whereas now it's more of a partnership. We own design, they own manufacturing and some of the quality engineering load. Our current model is what other vendors have been using for a long time, and we just started the shift a couple of years ago. The more configs and customization we would ask the factory to manage would add significantly to the negotiated cost of having them build the systems, and reduce time to delivery from order (sore subject on this launch, so sorry about that).

A separate, general comment about weight-
We did our best to bring the weight as low as we could. A couple of elements we were not willing to sacrifice add to the weight. First Corning Gorilla Glass adds weight. It also adds structural integrity and the best available scratch resistance you can get on a laptop, bar none. It also has a side benefit, though slight, of making colors "pop" a bit more than a standard TrueLife or matte finish. Side note about color gamut while I'm at it- anybody who has one find the Dell enhancement software yet?
Second was the battery. We wanted to tell a great battery story with this product and hoped to claim best in class battery life. So we crammed the biggest battery we could fit without resorting to gluing the thing in on top of the touch pad cable (looking at you, Apple).
We feel like we can live with the hit on weight in exchange for best in class battery and high quality of build and materials.

 

"Accidental Damage Service: Service excludes theft, loss, and damage due to fire, flood or other acts of nature, or intentional damage."

 

Did you intentionally spill that OJ? I would have said "poured" to indicate intentional damage. If you intentionally pour liquid on your system, call tech support and tell them it was on purpose, you really need to think this through before dialing.

Did you intentionally drop the system? I would have said "throw" to indicate intent. Same as above applies in regards to reporting the problem to tech support.

Did you accidentally discharge your Colt .45, or did you intentionally go all pshyco parent like this dude? Again, if you did get mad at your daughter and pop a cap in her laptop, would you seriously tell tech support you did that?

Did you run over it in your car on purpose? Spotting a pattern yet?

And so on...

News you can use, if you happen to be Canadian:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/del...ad-post-here-help-dell-sales.html#post8674249

 

Looking forward to it ....

 

LOL you made your point Bill, I remember when I first purchased my Dell studio, after a couple of day one of the key wasnt working properly so I called tech support and the lady told me to ripped it off and put it back again, I was afraid however, she promised she would replace the entire keyboard if anything go wrong. I thought that was something.

But then again, as a uni student, I try my best to save whenever its possible and the different of $200 is a lot I can buy a SSD (mini SSD or regular SSD?) for that. It will be a newly purchase laptop and I dont think I'm be needing to get anything fixed.

Side note, if I purchase it at Bestbuy ( which btw is available to purchase now) Can I contact Dell for support or if anything go wrong?

 

Are Sony's laptops that repairable, and is Sony's support comparable to Dell's? Serious questions on that one; I am wondering. Sony's S13 looks pretty neat (1600x900, GT640, standard-voltage CPU), but I wonder what long-term ownership would be like. Having dealt with more companies than I can count, Dell's among the best I've encountered in terms of support, to the point that I'd consider their support a competitive feature of their products. One thing that does concern me is on-site repair. Maybe Bill can help out with that one. Will technicians receive training for the new XPS line?

Anyhow, the 14 may not be as powerful (or as light) as some of us had been hoping, but it does appear to have rather high build quality. It seems engineered to fit a certain form-factor and runs under the (probably reasonable) assumption that most users aren't going to be changing parts that often. Disassembly doesn't look that bad and if you're only occasionally doing it, it's probably going to be OK. So, 'poor engineering' seems rather uncharitable.

Oh! I'm not sure if this has been asked, Bill. Do you (or someone you know) have specs on gamut for the 14?

 

I'm just having fun. No offense. The tech was just following the script and doing her job. She knew all along she'd probably be sending a keyboard. I used to just skip all the troubleshooting and dispatch keyboards parts only to avoid wasting people's time when I was a tech back in the stone ages. I take it you're in the US by the Bestbuy reference, but the term "uni" threw me for a sec.
If you buy at BestBuy, I THINK you can transfer ownership and warranty support to Dell by use of the online ownership transfer form or by adding a year or three of warranty after the point of sale. I'll see if I can get someone who knows to weigh in on this, but I am pretty sure you can get tech help from our tech support. I could be wrong, though.

O my stars, I sure hope they are trained to work on the product! I think I posted this before but don't remember where. I think it's like 62% of some standard color gamut. Sorry I'm not more of a display geek, or I'd know the standard. There's Dell software loaded with the shipping OS image that allows you do manipulate colors to your liking. I gather it's something similar to what HP used for "orangegate."

[Oh no! Chris Carpenter to undergo season ending surgery, as seen on Twitter. I'm sad in the opposite of sad way, being a Rangers fan and all. ]

 

That would be awesome, I heard stories from people who had a lot of bad experience from their Geek Squad support

 

Hi Alistiar,

Thanks for your inquiry. If you purchase a system from Best Buy, you can receive technical support through Dell. Please visit http://dell.to/iYHDLl to complete the retail transfer of ownership. This will also transfer any service and support on that system. Note: This link is for the United States only.

Thanks,
Dell-LornaM

 

Guys, Lorna has a depth of experience working for years at Dell in customer service. She's not in tech support, but just about anything in the US that's non-tech she can handle. She's seen it all and used to handle some of the gnarliest cases in customer care escalations. I'd recommend everyone in the US put her on your buddy list and go to her for help when needed. She's phenomenal.

 

Project Sputnik is pretty cool, but I prefer to use Redhat based distributions since that is what I use for work.

The default configuration for the touchpad was difficult to use because the button area of the touchpad is touch sensitive. I created a new conifig file for the synaptics touchpad with the following entries and now drag and drop seems to be working:
# /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-synaptics.conf
Section "InputClass"
Identifier "touchpad catchall"
Driver "synaptics"
MatchIsTouchpad "on"
Option "MovementBottomArea" "4000"
EndSection

I have disabled the nvidia 630m to save power using the following instructions:
Stupid Fred Tricks: NVidia Optimus and Fedora 17

 

Dell - 14" XPS Laptop - 8GB Memory - 500GB Hard Drive + 32GB Solid State Drive - Aluminum Silver - XPS14-1591

hey guys wanted to LET YOU ALL KNOW, you can get the DELL XPS for 1299 before tax, from best buy RIGHT NOW, just went online sometime this evening. Its 200 cheaper and i scanned over the models description a bunch of times to confirm its the better model, and appears to be the 1499 model from dell. i7 model with 8gb.

saves the trouble of selling a xbox online too! not sure about warranties but im happy the DECISION war has ended for me... my ship date is 7/6-7/9 ( arrive by early next week)

only weird think is the variance in clock speeds listed by dell and best buy 2.8 vs 3.0, having a hard time figuring out why its a tad slower than dells or just a typo

 

Sacrifice, did you get the Xbox deal through Best Buy too? I know they offer it but I think it's in-store purchases only.

 

i was hoping to get the XBOX but it seemed impossible to do since this dell isnt available in store ATM. it was listed as IN STORE only yea

 

Mine shipped today but I live in canada so I am sure it won't be here until early next week.

 

What was your estimated ship date

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I ordered mine off bb.com and I'm gonna go off on them because I purchased a $1000+ laptop from them because they sold me TWO broken ones before that. I have the free xbox coupon code and coupon printed out I should be able to take my receipt in and show them the coupon and get my d*mn xbox!!!!

 

It was July 13th.

 

does anyone have a link to the repair manual?

 

Mine is expected to arrive on July 5th or 6th. Ordered it from BB

 

It's on the second or third page. I quoted it at one point.

 

Yup,
here it is again

https://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/xpsL421x/en/index.htm

Check the owners manual

 

Mine shipped today! Dell emailed me the courier link, it's currently in Shanghai and will be in Blighty on Friday


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I love getting new toys on Friday. Pics or it didn't happen.

On Friday.