XPS 15 (Haswell) Owner's Lounge

Good news: Samsung is releasing a 1TB mSATA SSD

Engadget Article Link: Article Samsung shrinks its 1TB EVO SSD, claims industry first

 

hey guy, guess what...if your going to complain, just keep off the forum, as I said before, your "solution" of having to install kies is total BS, I shouldn't have to install anything in order for my phone to be recognized, if you READ anything I wrote earlier, no other windows 8.1 machine needed "kies" to recognize my phone...so going forward, keep it to yourself when you don't have a viable solution, this is a friendly forum, not for whiners
and so about Bluetooth not connecting with phone, I should just say "oh well" on a brand new $2,600 machine? I think not, BT doesn't connect, Samsung has no idea, dell cant figure it out, so I come here.

 

Seems that it's not a Samsung or just tricky86 problem:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=9482170

Inviato dal mio GT-I9100 con Tapatalk 2

 

I appreciate your suggestions. I cannot get the phone to connect long enough (usually) in order to select either 1)media device or 2) camera only (which is useless anyway

I have installed the drivers that the Samsung tech suggested to install, rebooted, blah blah, over and over...still, when I connect via usb, the phone cycles over and over as if its connecting, then disconnects...

I too find it surprising that no other galaxy s4 owners on this forum

 

I have an S4 and HAD a XPS15. I wasn't able to connect my phone at first, it kept connecting/disconnecting rapidly. Didn't look too much into and for some reason, it started working after a reboot. I figured the computer downloaded some drivers from windows update. I did not install Kies and I was able to browse my S4 as a USB drive. I can't verify much now because I returned the computer. I bought an inspiron 15 7000. I'll report back when I get it to tell you if I still have the same problem.

 

I wonder if there is any owner of XPS15 that has had success connecting his smartphone to an XPS15, because this seems a serious issue, at least for me that I do often tethering USB and use always 3g modem for Internet connection.

Inviato dal mio GT-I9100 con Tapatalk 2

 

Disregard... fixing issue.

 

1080p always looks better on 1080p screens. No exceptions.

 

I have skimmed through this thread, just what are the problems that the XPS 15 has? Do they affect the m3800?

I know the m3800 has a workstation graphics card, but how does it compare to the XPS 15's card in terms of watching 10-bit encoded 1080p movies or playing games on standard settings?

 

Since this is an ongoing discussion about Samsung phones and the XPS15, I'll jsut mention that my GSIII (SGH-i747m, d2att) does the same rapid connection/disconnection as other users have been reporting with S4's.

Can anybody else confirm that their SIII/S4 DOES work as intended (without rapidly connecting/disconnecting)

 

Hi, I am a Nexus 5 user and had no problems with sharing internet connection through USB or bluetooth, and also no problems with NFC. I did nothing, it was as easy as with my previous laptops and previous smartphones.

Hope it helps!

Aram

 

Dolby Home Theater v4 EQ for XPS 12 & XPS 15 (Haswell) v02

The first version was buggy and I found that the sound would not recover from sleep, and some programs and sites such as youtube would kill the sound entirely.

v02 contains the latest driver and includes the Dell sound interface (in control panel) as well.

LINK: ​ https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u...e Theater v4 for DELL XPS 12 v02 12102013.zip

Before starting, you NEED to download CCleaner and clean the registry. This will prevent you from running into issues on your new install. And after you reboot, you should run it a second time. Then do the installation.

Installation remains the same as previous, only once you are done installing, go to the Realtek sound icon on your task tray. Right click on it and go to Sound Manager. This should bring up the Dell Audio properties. Do the following:
1. turn off SRS
2. turn off MaxxAudio
3. Go to the advanced tab and under Jack Information, uncheck the Enable Auto Popup box.

Now you have the cleanest sound that gets equalized by Dolby and it sounds really great once you load my settings.

I also lowered the Dolby Gain since the new drivers sound really nice and loud.


UPDATE: If you've already installed this without running CCleaner, I highly recommend uninstalling the driver and running CCleaner, then reinstall the driver.

 

Spoke with them yesterday after I noticed the huge gap in delivery dates on the product details @ Belgium:
Details van XPS 15-laptop met aanraakscherm | Dell België
1080p still has a mid-december delivery date, while the igzo's are pushed back to 13/11.

My order should've arrived today (the order overview still mentions 10/12 -_- expected an update there :|), but I was starting to get worried since it was still in production.

The customer service confirmed that the "touchscreens" were delayed by 25 days; most probably she meant the IGZO panels.

Offered me to cancel the order (or wait a while longer and still cancel if it takes too long), but meh...
Even though I "need" it for the business, I'll just keep using my desktop and old laptop for now, and sit this one out.

 

Replied to you in the M3800 thread. If you want more details on problems, skim a bit more.

 

Just received my laptop today,

Whining / Screeching / Coil Whine / high pitched buzzing noise (whatever you want to call it) coming from the power button area. Only happens when the battery is fully charged and the power is plugged in.

Otherwise everything is great, Extremely Quiet (otherwise), temperature is OK , could be better, but then it's a thin laptop? It averages 55-60 Celsius. heats up to 70 when under load. When gaming the fans kick-in to full speed and the performance is pretty good, I got around 150-200 fps constant with 20 players on CSGO. The keyboard takes a few days to get used to, but otherwise feels good.

Screen is stunning, the only problem I found so far is Chrome doesn't like QHD screens. But firefox does a very good job. iTunes is a tiny bit pixalated, but again this would happen on any QHD screen.

Pros:
- Powerful
- Screen
- Light
- So Quiet that you can't even hear the laptop running when it's on battery
- Diamond cut edges to the chassis (like an iPhone)

Cons:
- Annoying Noise when plugged in
- trackpad has a horrible finish which makes way too much traction with your finger, just about usable though.

Overall a very impressive laptop (IMO much better than a macbook pro!), but unless the screeching noise gets fixed, I'll be sending it back.

If anyone wants to try, changing the power plan to power savings and /or disabling the HD4600 seems to reduce the noise by about 50%. It's still unacceptable, but at least a lot more tolerable.

P.S Im on the SSD model

 

Can anyone make and post a video/registration of this noise please? I would like to have better idea, since some poeple refer to it as "very annoying".

 

I'll post one tonight if you like

 

Last night i just noticed i have the "whine" or "buzz" coming from under the keyboard (by the G,H,J buttons, roughly) i didnt really pay attention to the posts regarding this noise b/c mine was not affected. my noise is intermittent, its like it turns on and off, and i would characterize it as a high pitched buzz rather than a whine. i rebooted...and it stopped....for a few minutes, then i opened some web pages and it returned.
also, i am not with my machine now, just thought id say this is the noise i am hearing...@jphughan, now that ive got the "whine" to boot, is this something you would send back, or are we all just accepting the noise...as someone else mentioned...if its whining now, could this cause damage down the road...the noise doesnt bother me, its whats causing the noise...and is it a sign of a larger problem....

**EDIT - noise occurred while ON battery, about 25% left...nothing else open other than a couple web pages...no other programs running (that i am aware of)

 

I have a Samsung Galaxy Nexus. My phone works fine on Bluetooth and USB. I installed the Samsung USB drivers. That is why I suggested to tricky long ago to try the Samsung drivers (they are hard to find solo, the easiest way to get them is to install Kies).

 

I'm definitely not sending this machine back over this. For one, there's no other laptop on the market I'd rather have. But more than that, I've heard this noise on basically every other high-end laptop with powerful components I've ever used -- same pattern of intermittent occurrence, seemingly correlated with GPU load (though that might just be because that entails higher power consumption overall, not necessarily a GPU issue), and quiet enough that any noise in the room or audio from the laptop would mask it anyway. The follow-up post from the electrical engineer in the M3800 thread here suggests that this does NOT indicate a damage risk, but is rather a product of lots of current passing through the laptop when it's under load -- and considering that this laptop draws a lot more power than entry- or mid-level models because of its hardware, it doesn't surprise me too much that this noise might be new to some people here, especially if they're new to laptops in this performance bracket. But as someone who's used high-power laptops that require 130-210W power bricks for the last 10 years, I've always heard it.

For that reason I'm not even going to try for a replacement motherboard, because if new systems are still shipping with this noise, that tells me that a fix either hasn't been implemented yet (if it ever will be, which it might not given that it's a common noise on other models) or hasn't been implemented completely, in which case there's no guarantee that a replacement would resolve the issue. But whenever I ask for replacements, especially on a repair as involved as a motherboard swap, unfortunately I always have to weigh the benefit of the repair against the cost of an incompetent tech damaging my system in the course of repair. I just had my worst experience yet a few days ago with another system and I'm not eager for a repeat occurrence.

To the poster asking for a video, I don't think it will capture this particular noise very faithfully; if you've ever heard the high-pitched noise that comes off CRT TVs, it's kind of like that but intermittent. Or if you search for videos of the "Mosquito ringtone", it's not quite that high-pitched. And again it's fairly quiet.

 

I think the noise is definitely worse for some people than others. The fact is that the laptop is such a joy to use when it's on battery, then you plug it in and it sounds like a dial-up modem. Definitely not acceptable from a premium product, something you might expect on an older machine.

 

If your laptop literally sounds like a dial-up modem, then your issue is clearly MUCH more severe than what I'm experiencing. If you were exaggerating, please try to keep it literal for the benefit of prospective buyers trying to amass as much accurate information as possible. :thumbsup:

 

That's the reason why I was asking for a record/video, expecially from the people defining this noise as "annoying". If it is really so, it should be clearly audible even through a video recording, even though distorted maybe. In that way also the people that have it but don't complain about can say if it's the same or not...

 

Quick note for you on Chrome: it's normally my browser of choice but didn't originally work for me either. But I found a solution and now it works perfectly on qhd. It's so simple that I felt a little silly when I figured it out.

Launch chrome. Go to the right - side drop down menu and select 'relaunch chrome in desktop mode'. You will find that everything is enormously improved. You only have to do this once. It will remember your preferences on relaunch. Enjoy!



Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk

 

Even in desktop mode Chrome has a slew of issues with support for high DPI displays. You can go into Chrome settings and enable the experimental High DPI support flag, that will solve some problems like the tabs not using the entire width of the display but scrunching into less than half. It does not solve issues like the right click context menu appearing an inch below where the mouse pointer is on activation. Chrome still needs work with the new crop of high dpi displays. On the plus side, this is new stuff and that support will come in time and can only get better from here. I would rather be on the cutting edge of hardware and let software catch up to me than to have last years tech that will get outdated before the life of my machine is up!

 

There are 'generic' drivers out there for Android that someone in the community put together, that works in Win 8 / Win 8.1, but you must temporarily disable driver-signing requirement to install them.

I needed to use them to get the Android Debug Bus (?) working properly with my Nexus 7.

Dunno if it'd help y'all.

 

Just curious, does the "Battery Charge Configuration" in the "Advanced" tab in the BIOS working for you? I am not completely satisfied with the capacitor explanation because the noise is obviously amplified when the machine is on AC and the battery is fully charged, this phenomenon seems to indicate something more than cpu/gpu waking up from powersaving state and roaring for current. And I somehow feel the charge setting in the BIOS could be related to this amplification of the noise. The fact something in the BIOS does not do what it suppose to do really worries me (I update BIOS to A01 version and still no change).

 

I haven't played with the battery setting and I leave my machine on AC almost constantly except when I travel. Sorry! You can try submitting a comment at the Direct2Dell blog. I've gotten responses both times I've clicked the contact the author link. They created it to give customers a way to communicate concerns straight to engineers, so it can't hurt to try.

 

Has anyone tried looking for a protector for the trackpad? If so, what have you tried that's the right size? I haven't been able to find anything and I'm thinking about customizing an order but it's about $25-30 which seems like a lot. I was thinking something like: Custom Cut Screen Protector from Clarivue

 

I use AC most of the time too. Actually it is the reason I want to change the setting, keeping Lithium batteries fully charged all the time make them wear out quicker. I heard it is best to keep the battery half full. Anyway, I talked to Dell again, and they are going to replace the motherboard/battery tomorrow.

 

All,

My first post, so please go easy on me. I'm a photographer making the jump from a dual screen desktop unit to a laptop to be more mobile with my editing. I ordered the top spec from Costco + $99 3 year drop and spill. With the warranty I saved about $600 total over Dell direct. I haven't received it yet, but have a few questions/issues;

1. Has anyone ordered from costco and received there laptop? Or shipping notice? I searched but didn't find anything

2. Because the 512 is mSATA, does that mean that there is additional space for a 2.5" SSD?

3. For the $99 warranty, it says for all laptops $500 and above, but my email from square trade says i'm only covered for $1249. I have contacted both parties and they are looking into it. Has anyone else experienced this issue?

4. Has anyone done a full color calibration on the screen? Were there any issues?

Thank in advance,

 

That's true, although if this system is smart it will charge the battery to 100% and then essentially disconnect it as long as it's on AC power. The only question is how far it will allow the battery charge to drop before recharging it back to 100, and if the battery is good about not losing charge naturally when it's not being used, it could take a while to drop to that threshold. On other Dell models that don't have an adaptive battery strategy mode, Dell's QuickSet app allows you to enable Longevity Mode and Desktop Mode strategies, which will prevent the battery charging when it's between 88-100 or 50-100, respectively. I'm waiting to see what the adaptive mode does (of course part of that will involve actually using it on the battery occasionally to see if it immediately charges back to full when I plug it back in), but if it doesn't change anything then I might try a custom profile where it doesn't start charging until it drops to 50%. Unfortunately one feature that seems to be missing that I've seen on other non-adaptive Dell models is a button that says "Charge to 100% once", so even if you have a custom profile that won't normally charge until you dip below 50, you can force it to charge just once if you know you'll need it rather than having to change the profile. Then again, since I hardly use the battery anyway, there's only so much time and effort I'm willing to put into testing settings that may or may not help its longevity by any meaningful amount.

Good luck with the replacement!

 

alright, just got back from Best Buy, my second trip there since owning this machine (top tier). I had my phone (Samsung galaxy s4, sprint) with me, and my usb cord. went right to a manager, who took me right to the Samsung kiosk where a Samsung rep connected my phone to 2 separate laptops, both immediately recognized the phone and automatically installed the necessary drivers. then it was off to the dell computers...with the Samsung rep in tow. went to 2 dells, an inspiron laptop, i believe, and one of those all in one tablets. both running 8.1. both immediately recognized phone and prompted us to choose the action to be taken next, ie open in folder, act as media device, etc. that was it. my computer has NEVER responded the way each of these devices did.

I called dell on my way home and said I want my replacement that they had offered me a few weeks ago after failing to solve this issue over many phone calls. after 30 minutes of supervisors and "reading case notes" from my many hours of previous calls regarding this, they are sending me a replacement. ship date is around January 15. i am fine with that, i am sick of this issue. i told the rep, i would be more than happy to hold onto this machine if in the meantime a solution is uncovered, or if you all at some point find out what the helll is going on here. i simply want to plug my f-ing phone in, WITHOUT jumping through hoops or installing more crap, in order to connect phone to computer, just like it did tonight with those 4 other machines at best buy.

so, with that said, i know you all have listened to me and offered tips, but after seeing how quickly and seamlessly my phone connected to 4 different devices at best buy, TWO of which being very recent top dell models...i can only figure i have a faulty machine, and if not, the new machine will do the same as this one, and i will accept the sheeety reality that there's a compatibly issue and hope for a resolution but i wont hold my breath.

 

I wonder if this setting has worked for someone, so maybe motherboard replacement cannot solve the issue, until now no one has reported the this feature is working.
I have an old Sony Vaio FW series, it comes with a software that controls the max charge level of battery and it works like a charm, maybe even for XPS15 you have to set something on Windows to set the max charge level.

 

Considering the numbers of reports about this issue I have many doubts that a replacement solve the problem...
Have you try a bluetooth paring with Wi-Fi active on both XPS and GS4?

 

yes Bluetooth doesn't work. dell reps failed on more than 3 occasions to get them to pair and stay connected. also, I don't see how I can keep a machine if my phone wont connect via usb. and I certainly don't understand how my phone has no issue connecting to other dell devices, and not this device. what could they possibly have done differently to this machine that wasn't done to the other brand new dell machines...and if there is a difference between the machines, why cant the dell techs simply see that the systems used are different, and pinpoint what in this XPS is either missing, or has too much of, that is preventing it from talking to phone. the all in one was an icore 7 windows 8.1. what else is there to be different about the two?

 

Some (trentmh, *Snow*, paulthuong, dlang) have received their Costco purchases, though if I recall correctly each one said that their machines were shipped to their home directly from Dell and Costco was uninvolved other than being the point of sale. At least one of these (*Snow*) reported that he had received notice that the package was in transit 24 hours before it arrived on his doorstep. November orders were shipped about 10 days after the order was submitted.

For those of us who didn't get our orders in until this month, however, odds are exceptionally good that we won't see delivery before mid-January (apparently due to supply chain issues with the QHD display). Cross your fingers that the supply is restored by then.

The 512 GB variant (often called 'top tier' in this thread) uses the HDD slot for a larger battery (50% greater capacity than the 'mid tier' variant), so there is no space left for an additional drive. Some have suggested waiting until 1+ TB SSDs become available (and affordable) and simply waiting until you feel cramped on 512 GB to upgrade it. My solution is a bit more mundane: I have an external 2 TB USB 3.0 drive that I use for backups and as a media repository. When I back up my data I can swap out any media files that appeal to me. It's not perfect, but I need my laptop (an aging XPS M1330) to dual-boot Windows & Linux and the two OSes in their separate partitions gobble much of my 500 GB HDD on that machine. I expect my life with the XPS 9530 to be more of the same in that regard.

A good point to consider. There are a few things that make the Dell warranty stronger than the Square Trade service:

A. In-home service. Dell sends technicians to your home, minimizing turn-around. For some, that's a deal-maker and worth the expense of the Dell plans. I used that service once with my XPS M1330 and loved it, but it isn't worth $350 to me so I went with Costco instead.

B. Replacement value. Dell is willing to replace your entire laptop under warranty if that is necessary. Square Trade makes no such offer. That being said, you have to do a lot of damage to a laptop to max out Square Trade's upper limit. I'm specifically investing in that plan in case I crack the Gorilla Glass screen. I've never seriously damaged any of my computers (in 30 years of computing, moving through homes in 2 countries and 6 U.S. states, and on several long road trips per year), but I've never had such a large, thin, glass-covered display in my backpack before, and it makes me a little nervous. $99 worth of nervousness, to be precise.

C. One destination for all problems. By buying through Costco, Dell is going to resist dealing with you directly no matter what your issue may be. They'll want you to take your problems elsewhere because you turned Dell down when they offered to sell you that support. They're still on the hook if it turns out there is a fatal flaw in the machine, as happened with the discrete nVidia GPU on my XPS M1330, which eventually cooked my motherboard because the motherboard was poorly engineered around the power/thermal requirements of the GPU. And given the uneven experiences folks have been having with unwanted noises coming out of their new laptops, there might be some other quality control issue coming down the pike. So for some things you should go to Dell and for everything else you should go to Square Trade. Most people prefer to have a single company to complain to, since as soon as there is another option, you're going to have to fight with each one of them to convince them your problem needs to be addressed by them and not the other company.

Seancho color-calibrated his display, as has ajax-jp. One of them (sorry; I can't remember which) posted a file with calibration settings for those who lack calibration equipment. I've never done anything like this and it is way above my head.

Hope that helps.

- Cincinnatux

 

The 512GB mSATA version uses a larger battery that fills the space that would otherwise have been used for a 2.5" HDD. To use a 2.5" HDD you'd have to buy the smaller battery and also get the SATA ribbon cable and sled through Dell Spare Parts, though to my knowledge nobody has confirmed that that's possible yet.

Yes, there have been at least two people in the M3800 thread (or here, can't remember) who have done professional calibrations on the QHD+ panel. They both found a Delta-E of less than 1, indicating that the display is already pretty dead-on out of the box. But one of those calibrators even attached a color profile to his post, which I'm re-attaching here. I don't know how transferable these profiles are from one display unit to another (i.e. how much manufacturing variance there is between units that might make a calibration from one panel not work so well on another), but here it is. I'm running it on mine and based purely on my subjective experience, I think it looks great. But it also looked great before I loaded this profile, in fact I didn't notice any real difference at all. The only thing you really MUST do is disable Vivid/splendid mode in Mobility Center, which ridiculously oversaturates the colors.

View attachment QHD Calibration.zip

 

Have you try a connection with Wi-Fi direct? Both XPS15 and GS4 have NFC so maybe they can paring with NFC and do a data transfer through Wi-Fi direct.

 

With regard to the display delay, I saw this:
Apple offers—then withdraws—32in 4K Sharp LED monitors | SciTech | GMA News Online

Apparently, Sharp convinced Apple that IGZO panels would be forthcoming, so Apple advertized the new monitors. Now that it's sales time and there are no panels, Apple pulled down the listing.

Sound familiar?

Geez, I'd hate to be in management at Sharp these days. Must be stressful missing all these shipping schedules, 'cause you gotta believe companies like Dell and Apple secured contracts with consequences for missing deadlines. Note that IGZO panels were also responsible for the retina iPad Mini missing its November 29 launch date as well (though Apple has left it on the website, they're not shipping units yet). By and large, these IGZO panels are going on expensive hardware. CEOs notice when their sexiest products are not on shelves before the Christmas rush begins.

I hope the delay is something minor, rather than an emerging technical hurdle to sustained mass production. The backlog is growing....

 

Thank you so much for the detailed response. I'll keep everyone updated on when mine ships. I agree that the dell service is superior, but to have a 3 year guarantee for only $99, its a steal. As far as Dell 'not wanting to deal with you' if you don't get there service plan, how does that work with squaretrade? They claim that they double the manufactures warranty, then squaretrade takes over for the last year (unless it is drop or spill)



So would I not get 2 years of the in home service? This is free at costco, even without the squaretrade plan, but does Dell honor it?

Thanks again

 

Ah. Some space for informed speculation:

Sharp to make cutting-edge LCDs in China | GulfNews.com

So Sharp's IGZO panels are being produced in Nanjing, by a local company ramping up a brand-new facility. Don't get me wrong - China's industrial sector achieves mind-boggling things. You have to see it to believe it. But supply chains in China are a perpetual headache, as are quality controls. AQSIQ (China's quality standards administration) is all paperwork and (almost) no inspection. Pay your bribe/fine, and you get your approval paperwork chopped.

In addition, the fact that this is a new facility with untrained employees implementing a nascent technology means that there are going to be a lot of unplanned stoppages and QC issues. It's the nature of the beast. The good news for consumers is that other Chinese companies are going to get access to IGZO technology soon (it would have been part of the agreement that let Sharp manufacture IGZO screens on the mainland, as was the requirement to let a domestic company own and run the factory, with Sharp as a minority partner), which means it may get commoditized in the coming few years.

Meanwhile, if you have an IGZO screen that is defect-free, be wary of swapping it out for the next few months while this shop in Nanjing gets workers up to speed with QC protocols.

 

So you tried this BIOS and it is not working on your machine as well? I think I am the only one reported it is not working, so I hope most people just do not care to try or do not think it is important to mention the setting is actually working. After all, put some placebo function in the BIOS does not make a lot of sense. I tried to find some software setting in the various *Dell* software but did not get any.

 

Hello folks, lurker/prospective buyer here. Can anyone who has received Costco 2K model confirm their Windows version? Costco.com say Windows 8.1, so its not Win Pro? How about non Costco models - do they come with Win Pro?

I believe M3800 comes with Win 8 Pro license.

Thanks all!

 

I bought my XPS from costco. After registering on Dell, my warrenty shows :next business day on site service" for a year, as a matter of fact tomorrow Dell will send someone to change the motherboard and battery. I did not realize costco has two year warrenty, the email I got says "Manufacturer's warranty service is available on all electronics products. See manufacturer's warranty for specific coverage terms". I feel a bit confused now...

 

M3800 at least in the US comes with Win7 Pro pre-installed but also includes a Win8.1 Pro license. XPS 15 comes with regular 8.1 unless you order it from the Business online store rather than Home, in which case you get 8.1 Pro. I'd bet that Costco would have regular.

I bought an XPS 15 spec with 8.1 and then bought the 8.1 Pro Pack from Newegg for $95 because my coupon couldn't be used in the Business store. The Pro Pack is a very smooth experience though. Install regular 8.1, enter a product key to unlock a feature, wait for 2 regular reboots (no lengthy installs or anything), and presto you're on Pro.

 

how do you disable hd4600! the screen comes from that thing

 

looks like dell increased the price of the xps 15 $50 across the board but is offering a $50 off coupon...

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk

 

Ordered mine (512GB, 91W version) from Costo on the 25th, last month, got a call today from Fedex to confirm delivery, then I also noticed that Costo updated the order page and supplied a tracking number. Checked the info on that, and it actually shipped on the 4th (doesn't say where from). So looks like 9-10 days production time, then another 8 days shipping, but I got my order in prior to the screen shortages, so hard to say how long its going to take with current orders.

Fedex should deliver tomorrow, I would love to update everyone on how the quality is, but I'm not back home till the 24th ..... something to look forward to

 

Got a couple of more question before making my decision between the XPS 15 or Precision M3800.

1. I noticed the M3800 QHD models actually say IGZO, so can we assume the XPS 15 QHD models are also IGZO (even though it isn't stated)?

2. There was many mentions that the XPS 15 and M3800 are basically the same, the difference is the M3800 has a Quadro K1100M and has ISV. But are the weights of the machines the same? Since Dell lists the XPS 15 as 4.44kg and the M3800 as 4.15kg

3. Which graphic card has lower power consumption? I looked up the 2 cards and Nvidia lists the K1100M with a consumption of 45W. Couldn't find concrete evidence for the GT 750M.

4. For the battery life, roughly what would the average value be? For those that have the machine, if you could list how intensively you use it.

5. Which model (32GB + 1TB or 512GB) would be better, if my intended use is for Computer Science Graduate studies, programming, possible web development, skype, watching 1080p movies (rarely), a Ubuntu Home VM (Hyper-V), a Windows 7 Pro VM, and maybe a Ubuntu or CentOS server VM? As well as wanting to get about 6 hours from the battery based on my uses. Note: if I get the 32GB model I am going to immediately swap it out for a 256GB and leave the 1TB in. When the 1TB mSATA SSD that was mentioned a couple of pages back reaches about $500 to $600, I might upgrade to that regardless of which model notebook I buy.

6. Based on what I intend to use the laptop for as listed in number 5, which machine would be better for me regardless of cost, the XPS 15 or Precision M3800?

7. Should I wait a month or two before purchasing because of the coil whine problem?

8. How is the wireless? Any problems like disconnects, etc? Can it use both 2.4GHz and 5GHz concurrently?

9. Does the posts about the touch screen not turning back on affect majority of the users here?

10. Which 256GB would you recommend for my uses the Samsung 840 Pro or Crucial? I read good things about both, but I also read that the Samsung has a lower life expendency for the flash roms.

11. Do most programs work fine on the 3200X1800 resolution without having to drop the resolution? Some programs that I care about are Office, Firefox, Chrome, Eclipse, Aptana, Hyper-V, Visual Studio, Media Player Classic Home Cinema (part of CCCP codec pack) and Skype.