XPS 15 (Haswell) Owner's Lounge

I will reread the thread tonight but has anyone found a sleeve that will fit this laptop? Everything seems designed around the macbook dimensions

 

Can you do a cold boot video now that you have it setup. Want to see how long it actually takes to boot.

 

Dell provides a sleeve that should fit just fine. Somewhere in this forum someone said that the sleeve from dell fits.

Gesendet von meinem Nexus 7 mit Tapatalk

 

Excellent thankyou!

 

I just pushed a 1tb file up to an FTP server at 10.7 megabytes a second, then pulled it back down at 10.6 megabytes a second. I am hitting the 100 megabit limit on my building's connection. I don't see any issues with the Intel 7260.

I will re-load all of the Intel Wireless and bluetooth software. See if I can find the issue.

 

As with the previous xps model, (also you're talking about your m3800, right?) it was not a wifi card issue but a overall machine flaw. Don't let me down here, dell.
Update Edit:
Also, much appreciated Bokeh! People are talking about the differences (or lack thereof) of the 9530 and m3800. Maybe the main difference could be wifi. Unless I am wrong here and you also own a 9530 along with your pre production m3800.

 

Maybe you are too near to your router, what kind of technology are you using N or AC?
May you compare with your others notebooks increasing the distance from router?
Even on the previously generation of XPS15 L521X the issue didn't involve all the machines.

 

Hey Bokeh, are you up for doing a video review of the m3800 after it goes on sale, Thursday. I read your run through of the machine but would love some video and commentary to go with it.

 

Yes, I unplugged the I/O board and the sound disappeared from that side. The USB ports on the other side still made the same noise, although quieter for whatever reason. I can't unplug those because they're soldered directly to the motherboard.

 

I got my XPS 15 9530 over the weekend (thursday, but I was out of town). I also received a brand new MBP 15 retina late 2013 build on monday from my new employer.
I'll do a side by side comparison of the displays when I get home.
What I can say immediately is that the Dell's display, out of the box, is not as good as the MBP, but most of this is caused by a lack of calibration. I'm actually having difficulty getting a natural calibration from my Spyder 3 pro on this display. Every calibration I've done has a strong red push (whites look dirty/red tinged). I did find a calibration profile on the machine, that may have shipped from the manufacturer, but wasn't loaded. That calibration is much more natural, and extremely close to the Mac, as well as my 3 PA248Q monitors. The high gloss panel tends to cause colors to be a bit more vibrant (you see this on HDTVs as well).

As far as the trackpad goes, it's not nearly as good as the Mac's. It's better than most I've used on a laptop though. I didn't remove the dell drivers yet, but I did turn the pressure almost all the way down, turn off right clicking and enable 2 finger right clicking. That helped a lot with everything else.

Windows 8.1 was configured with scaling set to 200%. I dropped it back down to 125% to reclaim some screen real estate. 100% made things too small for the 15" display.

I haven't experienced any issues with USB Whine or WIFI. I'm currently running on my 2.4 ghz 802.11n network. I'll switch the laptop over to the 5ghz network when I get home and runs ome tests.

I did update the BIOS last night to the A01 release. There are also new audio drivers out but I didn't update yet.

The biggest issue I'm seeing with this laptop is actually that the Dell software keeps identifying it as an L521X and not a 9530. I guess they have to make some tweaks to their site. Anyone else seeing that issue?

 

I have this sleeve and it fits like a glove

Amazon.com: Brenthaven 5101101 Ecco-prene II Sleeve for 15-Inch Tablet / Laptop / Apple Macbook / Ultrabook - Black: Electronics

 

Mine is being recognized as a L501X. I don't know why. Blah.

 

Care to share this profile please?



Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Note 3 using Tapatalk Pro

 

WIFI is still broken!!!!

 

I'll post it when I get home. I didn't bring the laptop to work with me today as I was carrying the MBP.
It may already be on your machine. Go into color management and look for an ICC profile with the word calibrated in it. I didn't create it so I'm wondering if it came from dell.

Either way, I'll still post it when I get home.

 

FWIW, I just ran a quick test with speedtest.net agains my 5 year old ASUS and my new XPS15. The XPS results were identical to my asus on my home cable modem. To put this context, I ordered the Samsung 9 series over the summer and had to return it because of the poor wifi results. It was constantly cutting the connection and the speedtest was well below my ASUS consistently.

So far, I've not seen any wifi issues, but I've only been on it a tiny bit (waiting to replace my msata drive before I get serious).

 

Meh I wished someone could tell me if you could run a 120Hz screen on this laptop via displayport (and output 120Hz).. I got a 10% promotion code witch will work until end of january 2014 :S

If anyone has the chance to test this out -> Please do !

 

I don't know is wrong with this one, but I get almost identical speedtest results on my new XPS 15 and another system on the wired ethernet and a big improvement over the XPS 14. I am connecting through an Asus RT-N66U. Something is wrong with the system in the video...maybe one of the antenna connectors is loose?

 

Quick status report on my 512GB spec:
Currently doing what I would call moderate level work, but nothing crazy. Wifi on, screen brightness ~20%, downloading/opening/editing fairly large PDF, Excel, and image files. No streaming video or anything of that sort. My battery has been draining at a steady rate of 30% every 2.5 hrs from starting at 85% this morning. I've been at it for 5 hrs so far.
If that keeps up I'm looking at right about 500 mins of battery life (8.33hrs) on a full charge, not too shabby.

No signs of noises as others have reported and better WiFi reception than my older MBP and XPS desktop.

My only gripe is the trackpad and its gestures just aren't as seamless in use as they are on the MBPs. But then that is the one thing that, IMHO, Apple blows everyone out of the water with.

 

Just noticed that the top tier spec went up on price @ Dell's website.

I was fishing around for a coupon code to get a better discount than what I got when I ordered when I noticed it. Dell Price $2379.99 for the top spec now up from 2299.99 with no discounts.

 

Hi,

Yesterday, I got the new XPS 15 which had the same noise as you!!!!!! I am sensitive and it is really annoying!!!!
The strange thing is that when the laptop is not plug in, there is no such noise. The noise is only come out when plug in.

Is there anyone can sort it out?

 

No problem with wifi here, 100mbs down at Uni and nearly maxes out.

 

Turn the pressure required in the trackpad settings down close to the bottom and gestures will work better.

 

You're "internet limited" - find a local server to test. Any speed tests relying upon the Internet are not really testing the hardware capability. The server can also be a limiting factor - my hard-wired Mac Mini can't beat 200 Mbps to my L521X (which has the 7260) while I can reliably hit 400 Mbps between two 7260 equipped notebooks, at home.

I'd expect a two-antenna 802.11n system to be able to "close on" 200 Mbps to/from a good server.

Still, lots of people on the old L521X had a hard time busting past 10 Mbps. ;^)

For a good testing tool do some searching on "jperf" ... there's a package out there to make it easy to run on Windows if you look.

 

I just copied a 2.2GB .iso from a wired machine to the XPS on my wireless-n. I'd say that's pretty good.

 

dont jump the gun. I've tested each PC in my house and my new XPS matches and even exceeds them on Wireless N. On AC its no contest. I pay for 50mpbs connection and i get 58-60 on AC and 48-49 on N.

 

edit.........

 

I think his point was that he couldn't reproduce the results of the test in the video, where the wifi on that machine was significantly worse than a different machine.

I'm inclined to think there was something else going on in the video than a simple "this thing's wireless sucks". Perhaps a weird bad combination between the laptop and the router. Other people haven't been able to reproduce the problem, as far as I've seen.

 

Hi mheuer818,

What is your impression of the XPS 15 after a day or so?

 

I was doing some large file transfer from a desktop PC connected on a gigabit LAN on my WiFi last night and I get consistent 40 to 50 Mbps speed. It's a stock Verizon N router which is on the 2nd floor and I was downstairs.

 

I transfered several 1GB+ files from my desktop PC to my XPS 15 Haswell last night. I was getting 120-150 Mbps sustained. This was using a Netgear WNDR3700 N router at 5 GHz.

 

At one point they had the price listed down to 2249.99

I think I am done dealing with Dell's weirdness. I'm just going to get a Costco Membership and order it from them for $1999.99. I don't think I will need Dell's in home service, and really for the savings the Costco one can't be beat.

 

I don't know if it is the actual top spec though. It was listed as only the 61whr battery.. and not the 91. But I don't know if the extra battery would be worth the 300.. I have a top tier coming in early December, but am tempted to buy from Costco, seeing I am already a member.

 

Not to mention Costco has 90 day returns.

 

Yes I have Windows 8.1 installed via Bootcamp on my Mac. Windows scales almost exactly the same on the Mac as on the XPS. I set both to 166% scaling which works for me.

In person I definitely liked the colors on the rMBP better. The XPS screen looks awesome as well though, comes down to personal preference and access to calibration software. The screen was a bit more reflective on the XPS but you can still see the screen just fine when it's on.

Sure I'll put one up later, once it's done downloading and installing all my crap.

I haven't been using it all that much, mostly waiting for it to download and install things. So far I like it ok. I'm used to running everything off a ssd so having the platter hdd makes it seem slow to me, even with the caching. I'm having no problems with the wifi but I do have that USB noise. I really like the soft-touch plasic on the palmrest. The touchpad isn't as good as the one on my Macbook. The keyboard is a little stiffer than I'm used to, takes more pressure to type than the Macbook does. Haven't tried any benchmarks or games as of yet. The fans just spun up and they are a bit noisier than the Macbook's fans but not overly loud. So far I'm still undecided on keeping the XPS or keeping my Macbook. I'll have to give it a week or so to really know.

 

Thanks for the answers and info on the XPS, another question do you have any limitations running win8.1 on the mac?

 

It is listed as 6-cell 91WHr on the Costco page for me...

 

Same.. but with the 512 msata.. which makes me wonder if Dell is making these specially for Costco (cause they don't offer that combo) or if there is a mistype somewhere.....

Tempted to roll the dice on Costco.. save a few hundred...

Still can't decide between this and rMBP.

 

Only limitation is the lack of Nvidia's Optimus support. It's all dgpu all the time while on Bootcamp. Otherwise it runs just as well as my desktop does on Windows 8.1.

 

What do you mean they don't offer it? Aren't all the 9WHr batteries 6 cell, and with the SSD?

Anyone got a 9 cell battery?

 

Just thought I'd post my first impressions, as Ive been using it for a couple of hours now.

Scaling support is much better than expected, the only program not working great is chrome and some ones I made

Screen is fantastic, but has one downside, which is my 23" 1080p monitor looks quite fuzzy now. Glare is something I haven't noticed so its not a problem.

SSD is fast, and I don't notice any difference from my Samsung 830 pro in my main PC.

Keyboard and Mouse work as expected, as people have mentioned the very corners don't always register but Im starting to get into the habit of tapping for left click and two finger tapping for right click which works really well.

Wifi im still not sure on, I was downloading some stuff from MSDN which kept stalling half way through and sometimes Steam would go to 0 kb/s briefly. However this was once and I haven't had issues since and Im getting 5 bars signal where I usually would so I'm not too fussed.

With regards to the noise, I can hear it if I press my ear to the top of the laptop but only slightly and the laptops silent when in normal position. Its definitely not worth worrying about if its as loud as mine.

Overall very pleased, its fast, silent, runs cool and the build quality seems very good, although I think I prefer the styling of the MBP with its clean lines but its a fair bit more money so in my opinion as a mainly windows user the XPS is better for me.

 

I think you are mistaken. The Dell top config is a 512GB mSATA with a 6-cell 91WHr battery. I can't find any differences between the Costco listing and the Dell top config other than of course the support differences. Dell wants you to use Costco support for repairs (but you can call Dell for small technical support issues according to their site). So if you are ok with sending it out for repair with a promised 5 day turn around, you actually get a 2 year warranty instead of 1 year with the Costco.

 

Exactly my point.. I am not mistaken.. the normal config at Dell is a 61whr 6cell battery.. the top tier at Dell is a 91whr 6 cell battery.. the costco site lists a 61whr 6 cell battery, but the 512gb msata.. @ dell.com the 512gb msata is only in the top tier. They have no configuration options at dell..

 

Yes, I got the exactly the same issue. What's going on with DELL TECH? Look forward to hearing from you.

 

Is there anyone know how to set the backlit turn off as default?

 

FYI, I just got off the phone with Dell about getting a Windows 8 install DVD for this thing. They said they could send me a USB drive with the factory image, but they don't know about getting a pure Windows install disc. They're supposedly asking the Product Management team about it and will get back to me.
There is a backup/restore utility included with the laptop, but it only makes factory images. I want a pure Windows 8 without all the unnecessary apps and especially no McAfee.

 

I'm not seeing that anywhere. Dell XPS 15 Touchscreen Laptop | Intel Core i7 | 2GB Graphics | Quad HD+ Display | Backlit Keyboard lists "6-Cell 91WHr Battery" and "512GB mSATA Solid State Drive". I don't see the 512SSD offered on any other costco configs.

 

Do you have the CD Key for the OS (8.1, not 8.0)?
If so:
Upgrade Windows with only a product key - Microsoft Windows Help

 

I went over to the student union for some real world testing with the M3800. Connection speed to the Access Point was 300mbps. Even with lots of people hitting the AP besides me, I was seeing up to 170mbits/s with Speedtest.net by Ookla - The Global Broadband Speed Test . Some runs were faster that others depending on the other people using the same wireless.

I even shot a shaky video...

 

Sorry if it's a repost, does anyone know what is the raid type in this XPS? And how to disable it? I know it's in BIOS, but what are the steps?