XPS 15 (Haswell) Owner's Lounge

Thanks much!

 

I've had mine for two weeks now as well and I'm also going to return it.

- Mine makes this humming sound constantly while it's on. I don't think it's the same high-pitched noise others have mentioned, but it's enough to drive me crazy (I have pretty sensitive hearing). It's not the hdd or the fans either.

- I absolutely unequivocally 100% hate typing on the keyboard. Way too stiff for me to comfortably use.

- I have at least 5 stuck pixels. If you connect the dots they make a little sine wave across the middle of the screen. I see them all the time and it's super annoying.

- Battery life is pretty 'meh' on the 61WHr. I was hoping for at least 6 hours but I've been getting 4 or less.

- Dat USB squealing while plugged in.

- I have my 2012 rMBP that's already paid for.

I may try Dell again when my MBP kicks the bucket. I loved all my previous Dell laptops but right now the XPS just isn't going to work for me.

 

battery is great just browsing the net i can get 7 hours i dont game so im not sure about that
you can check the review on notebookcheck.com

the number pad is an extra it wont bother me its there in case i need
also read more in the acer forum here .

edit ;it came with a one year warranty

 

Just researching what laptop I might get after this one and I come across this on a Sony laptop thread:

"Issues are touch screen will stop working once in a while and if you upgrade to windows 8.1 it'll stop working every 5mins or so"

 

For real? Man that sucks I wish Microsoft never made Windows 8, constant issues!

 

for those worrying about throttling.. i have a cooling pad under my laptop and i played grid 2 (racing) and portal for about 1.5 hours each and no throttling,1080p medium to low settings, you just goota make sure it gets its ventalation, but it does get pretty hot.

 

the weird whine you guys talk about i noticed i can hear it anytime i move the mouse, or use the touchscreen. basically when anything on the screen is moving i hear it.. weird... very annoying.

 

Are there many people with this issue or just a few? Did you get a faulty one or many are like this? What causes this?

 

I ordered 11/4 and rec'd a 91Wh battery

 

Guys also how's the battery life?? I will be gettin the mid spec one with 61 Whr battery! Please give some battery life info, will be extremely important for me in college!

 

That's interesting... My GPU-Z shows 941MHz default and 967MHz in "boost" mode, do you know why that'd be?

 

The biggest issue I'm having is that a lot of my programs don't understand the resolution, so they don't show up looking very well, and generally show up smaller than I want them too.
Working with it, trying to figure out the best way to fix/deal with it.

Maybe I'm not understanding a setting or something but it's a bit strange.

 

To those people who have had their trackpad decolored: have you considered using any kind of product in order to make it even? If so, which one would be appropriate?

To those people who still haven't had their trackpad decolored: have you considered applying any kind of protector, like those commonly used for LCDs of phones, cameras, etc?

 

feels like the whole palmrest

 

HWinfo reports max clock @1058MHz, I wonder which software is correct.
Can you try to monitor you Gpu clock while something is running on GT750m?

Inviato dal mio GT-I9100 con Tapatalk 2

 

I've downloaded HWiNFO but can't find the GT 750M clock...



I'll try to run some tests with GPU-Z later today.

 

About the touchpad discoloration, hate to break it to you but this is old news with Dell. My XPS 1530 touchpad did this constantly, while having to be replaced several times due to the mouse buttons not retaining their "click". Considering this was almost a decade ago, I can't see how Dell hasn't improved on it.

 

You must run something on GPU before to launch HWinfo.
Moreover you have to watch sensor status.

 

What you can do is apply a screen protector on it that's what I did with my other brand laptop to make it a smooth surface cause it was a little rough ,
Its also protect it,works just fine
I know its not suppose to discolor dell needs to fix it!
What you can do

 

Here are my settings - working well with most programs

 

Correct. The sensor reports 1058MHz.

 

Ok, finally finished reading 152 pages of this forum...that took a while. First let me say thanks to everyone for posting all that useful info and performing all those tests.

I have been looking for a new PC for my software development (.net, web, misc) & gaming purposes.

My choices were down to the XPS 15 & the Retina MBP 15. So I was paying extra close attention to the people who had both (ajax-jp, mheuer818, etc) . Based on all those of you who have both choosing the rMBP & all the other issues big and small people are reporting...I am going with the rMBP.

This was a hard choice since I have had 2 Dells in a row (Inspiron 600m & Latitude d820). I really wanted to give the XPS 15 a chance, but I need something stable with decent battery life that doesn't have so many quality issues with it.

EDIT: I was also considering the Samsung ATIV Book 8.

 

I got my top tier yesterday, didn't get to use it a whole lot so far. I really haven't had any of the issues people are complaining about. Touchpad works fine, touchscreen hasn't died but I don't use it that much anyways. No whine, battery life is looking to work out to around 8 hours with web browsing and some Amazon video watching. Overall pretty good so far.

 

Ok, so the touchpad drove me nuts out of the box, but I've made it completely usable by installing the Synaptics driver and under the settings and only enabling the following:

Two-Finger Scroll (others might prefer edge scroll, but I wouldn't recommend both)
Pinch Zoom
Rotating
Three-Finger Flick
Clicking

I hate tapping the touchpad to click anyway, but the Edge Swipes were by far what got me the most. I figure between the touchscreen and the equivalent mouse click/cursor hot zones actions for those (not to mention the fact that I hardly expect to use those functions ever anyway), losing quick access to edge swipes was well worth making my touchpad usable. I now have no issues with it at all and find that clicks register even in the extreme edges.

 

So after trying the Dell, I had a top tier rMBP on order.. and cancelled it.. decided to try this instead
Amazon.com: Acer Aspire V7-482PG-6629 14-Inch Touchscreen Ultrabook (Cool Steel): Computers & Accessories
Acer Aspire V7-482PG-6629
Decided that maybe the QHD screens just aren't all their yet. If I can get 2-3 years from this one (upgrade the Ram some, and put in an SSD I have laying around) then it's awesome for the price.

Good luck with your guys XPS's.

 

@3minutes there is the xps 15".

so the touchpad is "greyish"? or its the lights who made him this way?

 

How is the built in webcam? I will be using that a lot so was wondering how the quality is (Google Hangouts, Skype, etc) or should I look for an external webcam?

Thanks

 

i think you will like it i have the 15" one same cpu and so far so good getting 7 hours of web browsing , 35% screen brightness
report back with your impression

 

Maybe you should read the rMBP thread. Many ppl are reporting quality problems too. Don't let the vocal minority in either case sway you. Buy them both if you can and return one of them.

 

Ok guys update on the noise from the laptop.

Had dell come out today and replace the motherboard. This has removed the really annoying noise that many of us have been noticing when on full charge and plugged in.

There is a very soft humming noise but that is constant and can only be heard if you put your ear to the keyboard. The way i test if the noise is there is scrolling with up and down keys through a PDF document in adove as that is when it always showed up.

On another note I notice after replacing the motherboard (had to turn intel rapid start etc back on as well as update the BIOS) during startup I am now seeing the windows screen loadup with the logo as well as quickly asking if I want to press f2.

I have never seen this before. Is this due to the new motherboard or is there a way to remove this in the BIOS?

 

My screen froze 3 separate times today, had to log off and back in to get it back. Also My Dell support app on metro page still doesn't open. I uninstalled and reinstalled but still get nothing.
I still think this is a great machine but getting tired of the screen issues and they still can't tell me why my phone won't connect.
Time to consider options...replace machine? Refund? I wont go apple so sorta stuck.

 

And I mentioned to the last tech rep about getting a tech to come over he said it's not likely bc my issues don't warrant tech visit...@mark pozzi, how did u get tech rep to come out so easily? I've got 3 years of premium support I paid for, and the phone guys can't seem to figure one thing going out for me and I've spent literally over 3 hours wasted w them.

 

Hi all, I have been following this thread since the beginning but I think this might be my last post here

I was one of the very first to ordered Xps (order first day, live in Australia). Like a lot of you, I wanted to spend a bit of money to get the best 15 inch laptop there is, and my options were down to XPS and MBPr. I decided to go with dell because the price different and better screen resolution. Plus, I was a Mac user for many years but really wanted to switch back to windows because I am studying engineering and need to run many programs in windows. Beside, I started to become an apple hater because of how they charge so much money for all their products and how they use other people's innovation and turn it to theirs and make a big deal out of it.

Anyway, XPS arrived 2 weeks later and guess what, the touch screen was not working! I have to talked to a few different tech rep people, spending a couple days and then come to conclusion that it needed to be replaced. The replacement unit however, I will arrive until this Friday (that's about 3 weeks since the replacement unit paper launched). I was so annoyed of how they took so much time to do anything. I kept reading posts here and a lot of people have problem with the product.

I then decided to order MBPr (top tier, no customise), knowing that there is a change of mind returning policy and I still have the XPS. I ordered on Thursday morning and it arrived the very next day!!

Everything just work out of the box for mac, and after using it for 4 days, I decided to keep the MBPr and returning the dell for many reasons. Though if I have to say in one word; 'touchpad'.

Here is my comparison between the two:

-although the screen resolution is higher on XPS, I personally prefer MBPr screen, it is just gorgeous! The colour is amazing and accurate (I calibrated dell's colour but still haven't achieved the same level as the mac out of the box). The texts look slightly sharper on the dell but overall, mac screen looks better.

-Touchpad on the dell is not great, I thought I would spend a lot of time in the metro apps where the touchpad works fine but I ended up spending lot of time on desktop and touchpad is not amazing. With MBPs, you know how that go.

-I just installed a parallels desktop 9 and run windows 8.1 in it, and it works great (not good for game) so OS platform is not an issue.

- the design, the body on MBPs feel more solid and look way more expensive than dell. I love that they keep the base thickness at the same level and this make it look absolutely beautiful, the screen size is perfect 15.4 and I hardly notice any lost of screen estate switching from the XPS which have 0.2 bigger screen. Mac feel better and provide better grip on the hands due to its unibody design.

-I haven't tried running the bootcamp but playing game on virtual machine is not great. I am not much of the PC gamer so I can live with that.

- the wifi connection on MBP is amazing and the 802.11ac is noticeably faster.

- the only thing I don't like about MBPr is, it runs hot, and I mean hot! Although it run very quiet and cool most of the time doing normal stuff but when I start playing game or something high demand performing, it run hot, the fan is minimal and quiet though, I think Mac does not like to have a fan on unless it absolutely need to. I read MBPr forum and this is normal, as long as I don't use it on my lap when playing game, I will be fine.

Conclusion, if you only use windows and a pc gamer then go with the dell, everyone else, I really recommend MBPr. For a price different, you get a better service, wifi, faster sad, and faster cpu and better overall performance. It is totally worth it.

I am now neither a mac hater nor an apple fanboy, I just want the product that feel and looks premium when I spend that much money and Mac give you that feeling.

I hope this help

 

I have 2 years pro support in Australia. Bought it through the business section of the website also (which I find helps). I have been really impressed with their service. Constantly calling me to keep me informed. Always turning up on time etc.

I must say now that everything is done I am really happy with this laptop. It is exactly what I wanted.

 

When I had mine I got this when trying to boot to a USB, I think you have something set in your bios wrong, Go in and check to see if you have the Legacy boot mode on? It's like the next to last page in the bios. it doesn't say Legacy boot, I forget exactly what it's called....

 

The windows load screen has replaced the dell BIOS load screen and it seems the laptop actually loads faster. I wonder if dell has produced a new batch of motherboards (i noticed the stickers on the new one were yellow rather than white) but this new motherboard definitely seems to perform much better (may even help you guys whose phones wont connect)

 

Guys also how's the battery life?? I will be gettin the mid spec one with 61 Whr battery! Please give some battery life info, will be extremely important for me in college!

 

I doubt a replacement motherboard by itself would cause the logo change. My guess is that the BIOS settings are different -- for example the replacement might have the Legacy Option ROM option enabled (it was disabled by default on the system I received, making it pure UEFI), which would cause it to attempt a more traditional boot process rather than Win8 Secure Boot. Also I'm pretty sure that yellow stickers with Dell just mean refurbished or parts intended for service replacement as opposed to a part intended for a new system.

Whatever the case though, glad you're seeing an improvement.

 

One thing that I found that so far is not good. I have the high end model, no tweaking, with full battery, put the computer on sleep and this morning that batter had drained to 40%.. I have the bigger battery.

I suspect the computer is maybe doing stuff during the night on its own, but draining the battery that much is not going to be good.

 

Isn't that one of the features of windows 8 or 8.1 but when just put to sleep it will keep aps (facebook, mail etc) updated in the background?

 

that might be the stupidest feature i have ever heard of... if thats true.

 

It's not a Windows feature, it's an Intel feature called Smart Connect; Apple rebadged it as Power Nap on the Mac side. Your machine periodically wakes from sleep to refresh certain email and social media apps when it detects you're within range of a known Wifi network so that when you come back to your machine, you've got totally current data without having to wait for it to update (or not being able to update it if you're no longer within Wifi range). You can change the update interval or disable it entirely though. Still, it shouldn't have drained your battery to that extent though....

 

Yep. Saw the same thing on my Mac over the weekend. It depends on what it happens to run while it's asleep. My mac was at ~60% after not using it since Friday. It had a few updates ready to install this morning.

 

Hello everyone. I ve been using the laptop for the past week now. I dont have any of the problems other people have mentioned except the average trackpad. I have encountered though twice a problem when waking the computer up from hibernation (not sleep). When i pressed the button to wake up, although it is booted up, the screen is black giving me no other choice but to hard reboot it with the power button. Does anyone else have this problem? I dont know if it is a dell or a windows 8 bug..

 

I am not sure if your situation is the same as mine, but even in my old inspiron 6400 i have this problem with windows 7. It seems like an OS issue to me. Sometimes waiting a minute, closing the lid again, waiting for it to sleep, and then opening the lid again resolves the problem. I doubt this is a hardware problem.

 

I've had the same issue with mine. Press the power button once (or close lid if configured to sleep on close) and wait for it to sleep again. Press power button once more to wake a second time, and it should resume normally. It happens once out of every 9-10 sleep wake cycles for me. I think it may have something to do with the Intel deep sleep feature.

 

" It seems like an OS issue to me."
No. I have many win7 and win8.1 laptops and everything works ok. without this type of issue. It's looks like dell drivers problem.

 

I have this problem on my desktop computer that I built. So no, its not just a Dell problem.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

So maybe the issue is random.

 

Looks like notebookcheck is gearing up to do an in-depth test. Here's the preview:

Dell XPS 15 (Late 2013, QHD+ 3200x1800) Preview - YouTube

Looking forward to seeing what they have to say, but either way, I'm picking mine up at FedEx today.