XPS 15 (Haswell) Owner's Lounge

off topic, so apologies, but im using the beautiful photo app on metro page, and going to videos from my cell phone, they are in 3gp format, any opinions on what I can use to watch these on this machine? it says the format isn't supported

 

VideoLAN (VLC) (Free)
VideoLAN - VLC: Official site - Free multimedia solutions for all OS!

KMPlayer (Free)
http://www.kmpmedia.net/

You can also use QuickTime

 

many thanks, and quickly, why cant this machine play 3gp without special software? is 3gp some kind of new technology that windows 8.1 or dell haven't come across yet?

 

Any Windows machine can't play 3GP video without the right software, also Microsoft has removed even codec to play DVD in Windows 8/8.1 so you have to upgrade with Windows 8.1 Media Center Pack, but a free good solution is to use software like VLC or KMPlayer and if you want free codec you can use LAV filter:
https://code.google.com/p/lavfilters/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3GP_and_3G2

 

So PC World has a review of the new XPS 15 up:
Dell XPS 15 review: A practically perfect laptop | PCWorld

Two noteworthy surprises:
1. No mention of the issues owners here have noticed.
2. The author was not impressed with the keyboard; she found the action of the keys a little heavy.

Overall, she concluded that the new 15" XPS is the bee's knees. I was a bit disappointed by the lack of big-picture analysis, though. It seems to me that PC World readers looking to inform a decision on which new laptop to buy would like to know where the XPS 15 fits in the marketplace vis-a-vis its closest competitors. Some of us found ourselves looking at XPS Dells only after realizing that the new Lenovo T540p isn't in the same league as the XPS or rMBP, even though many of us thought it would be. At the very least, however, I think the author should have commented on the difference between 15" laptops categorized as workstations (i.e., M3800, W540) and their more leisure-oriented counterparts (XPS, rMBP), with maybe even a comment or two explaining why the market is divided this way. Instead she tosses out a rather flippant "The XPS 15 is clearly geared more toward businesspeople than gamers," when that is not so clear when one compares it against ThinkPads and the like, which have only token capacity to play games no matter how much money you spend on them. It would perhaps be more fair to say that the XPS is for consumers who need to use it for serious work but are tech enthusiasts who enjoy having the sublime combination of work and play that defines the XPS line in general. Alternatively, it might be fair to say that the XPS is for consumers who like everything about the rMBP except the bits that are uniquely Apple (the Apple 'experience' and the premium price point justified by that experience).

And while it is nice that she points out that the XPS is *almost* a legitimate mobile gaming rig, she stops short of letting consumers know the extent to which internal heat management and chip throttling plays a defining role in sustained gaming sessions on the XPS, nor does she offer any comments on techniques by which users might coax lower temperatures or better sustained framerates on various titles. At no point does she acknowledge the inconsistent level of scaling experienced across various software interfaces or the possibility that the thin-and-light design might compromise heat management to the point of scorching internal components under stress.

Stunningly, she makes no mention of Dell's struggle to meet delivery schedules with this model. Surely, a 6-week delay in order fulfillment is newsworthy in this context, especially when Dell has not been forthcoming with details explaining how much Sharp's new IGZO fab plant is to blame, or whether other supply issues are truly murking the waters (as at least a few Dell customer service reps have claimed). That's the kind of investigative reporting that separates casual blog posts from professional reviews. I guess PC World was going for the casual blog thing but, honestly, what's the point of that? Readers can come here for that and get a LOT more variety while they're at it.

I realize my suggestions would have turned her review into something more involved and perhaps less approachable than the text PC World published, but I expect more than superlatives and vague commentary from a professional review. I want to trust that the reviewer *understood* the strengths and limitations of the item in question. In this case, I simply don't trust that the author did her homework. So it's nice to see that yet another person is wowed by the spec sheet and styling cues, but it would have been better if she had pushed beyond that surface.

 

Hmm alright I will give Win 8.1 a try.. my only concern is with games (i read about mouse input lag).

Check my signature for a very good guide on how to setup windows and which programs to choose (Windows 7 Installing Guide)

 

Hmm very interesting, I have my CPU set to a minimum of 100% in my power settings, is that not the same thing? Is the only way via a bios hack?

 

My tracking link started to work the minute it shipped. Around the 12 th. The status didn't change until it hit the UK on the 17th. It was delivered on the 18th. I got no notifications from Dell about delivery, nor from the shipping company. I just happened to check the shippers site on the 17th, and hence could be there to receive the laptop.

 

It got shipped with UPS?

 

Don't know if this has already been addressed in this thread, but since I plan to use the laptop mostly at home, plugged in, is there a setting to prevent full charge on the battery? I've seen batteries go bad several times because they stay mostly at 100%.

 

I blame software patents and the lawyers.

 

Why would you set your CPU to run at a minimum of 100%? You don't get any more performance out of it, you simply waste your battery and put extra wear on the CPU itself. Dynamic clocking works on the microsecond level, so if you're worried about "switching lag", don't be. Even in the days of the P4M the CPU was fast enough to switch between full speed and a slower speed between individual keystrokes you typed.

 

She might not have experienced any of those issues. Even on this forum most of the issues are intermittent, and you can always count on the fact that more people will complain about problems than praise the lack of problems.

Not everyone is experiencing throttling either, especially in just games and not unrealistic benchmark scenarios. I know I have not had any throttling on my machine, and I am not alone in that. Inconsistent scaling isn't a laptop issue as much as it is a software issue. She isn't reviewing applications running on the laptop, she is reviewing the laptop and trying to give people a picture of its capabilities.

The delays only popped up recently, likely after the review was written.

 

being able to play particular video formats does not depend on the machine or windows. its dependent on what codecs are install on the OS. windows media player supports only some video codecs/formats 3gp is one of those that is not used a lot so windows media player does not include support for it. hence why 3rd part software like VLC media player is needed.3gp is mostly used by cellphones, specifically nokia cellphones. most smartphones these days use mp4 or avi.

 

he was talking about doing it natively. MS could include allot more but since they sell Windows for a profit they have to pay up. That is why DVD playback is not included natively

 

Microsoft has already patched the mouse lag while gaming in Windows 8.1

I wonder if a review with pictures than come from Dell Official site (digitally created) and a wrong picture in which seems to recognize a Lenovo notebook is something that could be defined reliable...
I wonder if she has really tested this notebook or at least if she has ever seen it in real life.

Is it a XPS15 9530?

 

That was your post nr. 1337.... congrats ;P

Glad to hear the mouse problem was patched

 

Is there a way to scale taskbar toolbars? The iTunes toolbar is very tiny.

 

Nope some other company. Worldwide Logistics or something...

 

My 2 week review of the mid-range (1Tb+32gb ssd) XPS 15 9530:

When I first received this laptop I was very impressed by its build quality, weight and looks, 2 weeks later I still am!

The screen, resolution and brightness are amazing but not without faults:

As a professional photographer and graphic designer I had an initial issue with the over saturated colors the monitor was displaying, I was tearing my hair out scouring the internet trying to find a solution to it with no avail, I was about to give up and return the laptop until JP on these forums (in this thread) suggested something that fixed the issue and completely changed my view on the laptop from hate to love. For those having the same issue: Go to Windows Mobility Center, under Default Display Color turn off "Splendid" mode and set to Generic.
This has made me love the screen and I'd have to say it's the most accurate display I own, more so than my 27" Dell IPS monitor I use with my desktop editing powerhouse.
Spread the gospel as I have seen many others with this complaint and Dell Tech support is utterly clueless about this issue.

On paper the 3200x1800 QHD seems like a great idea, sure it looks great and has a great brag factor but in practice it is often a pain in the with the majority of programs that don't support the scaling to make items viewable. Photoshop, Lightroom are both incredibly difficult to use without squinting or bringing the monitor to your face. I'm open to suggestions because this is a pain!

The touch pad is a let down, let's get that out of the way now..it just is. It's sometimes frustrating, hard to predict, inconsistent sensitivity. All in all it needs help. I'm hoping driver updates can fix it in the near future.
Because of the lackluster touch pad I've resorted to using the touch screen, a feature I thought I'd never use and hated that I was paying for it..BUT now that I've been forced to use it to make up for the frustrating touch pad I can say that I love it. Maybe this was Dell's plan all along?

The keyboard is good not great, not noticing the stiffness I've heard people complain about. Biggest complaint about the keyboard is all of the wasted space. I'm not a fan of the smaller directional arrow buttons, nor am I fan of the lack of a dedicated Page Up/Down/End/Home buttons. Get used to pressing the Function button for all of the "F" key commands as well. Alt+F4? NOPE. Alt+FN+F4 for you now.

Performance is great, although not mind blowing. I even sometimes question if I really have the specs Dell says I have. I've yet to run benchmarks but will get back to you on that.
The hard drives were somewhat a let down because of Dell's misleading advertising. I went into this purchase thinking that the 32gb SSD was actually a drive that would be useable, or at the very least house the OS but that is definitely NOT the case. Apparently it's mostly used for caching? Correct me if I'm wrong...also I am looking to upgrade to a real SSD so those who have done this already PLEASE CONTACT ME.

Battery life is so far just OKAY but a lot less that expected and even advertised. I've kept it on "Dell" mode the majority of the time and I get about 3 hours of use during word processing and internet use. More extensive testing needs to be done before I can officially comment on this aspect.

My initial conclusion on this machine:
Four steps back with one giant leap forward.
I can forgive a lot of the shortcomings because I am comfortable with the $1800 (total!) that I spent on this laptop. Not to mention the zero wait time (bought off of a store on Amazon).
Will update after a few more weeks!

 

With regard to the resolution and adobe products. The only solution really is to wait. They *will* have support for high resolution displays on Windows soon. The large number of laptops and 4k displays will make them add support. They had the same problem on OSX when the Retina Macbooks first came out, it just took time to get proper support. In the mean time you can try setting your resolution to 1600x900.

 

Wow, that's all a lot of information, far too much for me to read through.
Somebody had the idea of splitting this thread up in some more specific threads. Sound like a good idea to me. Maybe somebody who's been active in this thread since the beginning can sum up some of the hot topics?

Anyways, I'm also interested in buying the latest XPS 15, since Samsung doesn't seem to be bringing out something similar soon. I'm going for the mid-tier option (installing a 256gb mSata for the 32 one) because I need a big storage for my files.
I plan to do a clean install after replacing the mSata. Are there any issues with the Windows 8 key?

As I'm usually working with an external Monitor, I won't need the touchscreen most of the time. (Solved) - Touchscreen laptop and battery life « How-To Geek Forums has anybody tried this and can confirm an increased battery life? Can you really shut down the touchscreen hardware through the device manager?

 

Touchpad is fine. Maybe see the sensitivity settings in the tray application.

To fix your issue with the 'F' keys, go to mobility center and change the function key row setting to Function Key, or press fn+Esc (has the fn in a lock icon on the key). This will let you use the F1-F12 without pressing fn and that will allow you to use fn+f1-f12 for the secondary keys.


The ssd is usable space, but by default it is configured as cache and rapid start storage. Swapping out the msata ssd as well as making the space available is simple but you need to perform a few simple steps first.

Disable acceleration. See step 1 and 2 at the very start on how to disable rapid response (caching). Install Windows with MSATA and ISRT (Intel Smart Response Technology) - Laptop General Hardware Forum - Laptop - Dell Community

Disable rapid start. find the application (Intel Rapid Start Application) in the windows tray menu or in the start menu and open it. When open, turn off rapid start. Also, you will need to go into your BIOS to turn off this feature as well, but have a look on google as there are tons of sites that give you instructions on the how to do this..

Now you have the space on the ssd available to use. You can also swap out the disk for a large capacity now as well.



Battery life is much more than what you have reported. Word processing and internet browsing on wifi gives me around 5-6 hours. Varies around that range. I don't use all the dell setup. As soon as I got my xps 15, i did a full wipe of the system and installed a fresh copy of windows 8.1 without all the customised software. I use the dell quickset application to swap high performance when on power, then to power saving when on battery so for that reason, i use those two power plans which i have customised.
I think the battery life in hours is for the 91Whr battery. The 61Whr should be giving around 5 hours. More when being used then idle for some time, although as i said before, it varies by use. You may also want to check the battery wear level in case it is not holding its designed capacity. HWinfo can be used to check this as well as other things such as temperatures. Battery will start to wear over time.

I've had my machine for about 3 weeks now and very happy with it.
Just some minor issues with games scaling but not really a big deal.

Hope this helps

 

Thanks for your super helpful and in-depth information.
I'm wondering if you wouldn't mind describing these scaling issues with games in more detail? I'm considering this laptop for work and travel, and I like to be able to game a bit in the evenings.
Also, have you tried the aforementioned disable the touchscreen in device manager tip?

 

Go into Mobility Center and switch the keyboard from Multimedia Keys to Function Keys, and then the F key will be default and you can use the Fn key for the other stuff.

 

Clean install restores all functionality as long as you install all the drivers and ancillary apps (Quickset if you want it, Intel Rapid Start, Smart Response if applicable, etc.) Are you talking about the Windows logo key on the keyboard? That works fine even before installing anything; it's just a regular keyboard key and every edition of Windows since Windows 95 has recognized the scan code mapped to that key.

 

No, I was talking about the product key of the windows installation. Somewhere in this thread somebody wrote something about a clean installation and problems with the product key.

 

That was me and a brain fart. I was thinking about another system on which I installed 8.1 and it shipped with 8.0, so the key detection didn't work and I had to use a generic install key and then switch to the OEM key later to activate. But this system ships with 8.1, so it'll be fine.

 

This was great help. I am seriously looking into getting a Crucial 240gb msata SSD to replace the 32gb and do a clean install of windows 8.1 on it. Would there be any drawbacks or would it be all positive getting rid of all the Dell factory installed bs? Also to clarify, before removing the 32gb drive I'd have to follow those steps you listed?
Regarding the battery my wear level is at 2.3%.

Thanks for all the help, very informative!

 

Ah okay, thanks a lot!

 

Just change the SATA mode in the BIOS to AHCI and you're ready to wipe and rebuild. The crapware on the factory image is actually very minimal, but I rebuild anyway.

 

Your very welcome!

The scaling issues which I have encountered is the the game doesnt use the entire real estate unless it has been set to the full 3200x1800 resolution. One example is Call of Duty Black Ops 2. It doesnt use the entire screen unless i set the resolution to 3200x1800. If i set it lower than that to something like 1920x1080, the game will be centered on the screen at the resolution with the other pixels all black, like a thick border. COD Ghosts how ever isnt doing this and works fine, so it will vary with each game and i hope that there is a fix coming soon for really hi res screens.

No, I havent tried the touch screen disable in device manager, but i'm not too worried about completely disabling it as i tend to use it anyway, but sometimes it does sort of sleep after some time of not using it.

 

No drawbacks that i have seen. Just takes off all the custom crap and gives you a fresh start with only windows and no extra applications which most people dont even use. If you do want to install specific pieces of software from dell, just visit the dell software download page and register an account then the service tag and you will be able to download the applications. I just got some drivers and dell quickset from the support page and that is all i needed.

For the msata removal, I forgot about the BIOS SATA mode and that should suffice if your gonna do a full reinstall. BUT KEEP IN MIND THAT IF YOU DO CHANGE SATA MODE, THE HDD WILL BE UNREADABLE AND WILL HAVE TO FORMAT THE ENTIRE DRIVE TO ACCESS IT AGAIN AND FILES WILL BE DELETED. THATS MY UNDERSTANDING. IT MAY BE THE OTHER WAY AROUND SO JUST HAVE A QUICK LOOK ON GOOGLE IF YOU WANT. BUT IF YOUR GONNA WIPE ALL THE DRIVES THEN IGNORE. JUST PUTTING THIS FOR THOSE WHO DONT WANT TO WIPE THEIR DRIVES.

With your battery, how long ago did you receive the computer and have you been using the battery a lot?
I have my wear at 0% but have been using it on battery quite a bit and got my computer about 3 weeks ago.

 

The key detection should be perfectly fine, as long as your installing the same version that shipped with the computer.

I did a wipe and tried to install 8.1 pro but it installed 8.1 core (shipped version) because it detected the key in the bios and used that to install. So auto detection will be fine.
For those who want to install 8.1 pro after wipe, you will need to add a file named ei.cfg in the sources folder. This will get the installer to choose the edition of windows 8.1 you want to install instead of defaulting the the version that the embedded key installs. This will also ask you to input a windows key during install. If you do not get a prompt to input a key, it is using the the built in key. The terms and conditions window will show the version that is being installed.
To create the ei.cfg file, see this link How To Install Windows 8 Without Typing In Product Key | Next of Windows

 

I'll dispute that.

Changing the BIOS mode will prevent *windows* from booting because the low level driver required to manage the HDD interface changes, but there is no problem reading/writing the drive filesystem as-is.

Seriously, download a live Linux CD image and boot that with the BIOS flipped and you can prove it yourself.

BUT as someone else stated, if you are going to clean-install Windows onto the mSATA SSD then you SHOULD flip the BIOS to AHCI mode first.

If you are going to"migrate" Windows from the HDD to a new mSATA SSD then you need to do the steps someone else posted, before you start ...

- disable Intel Rapid Start (from within Windows)
- disable Intel Rapid Storage (from within Windows)

I personally advocate uninstalling the support drivers and software, to be 100% safe.

THEN flip the BIOS to AHCI, install your new mSATA SSD, and copy the OS image from HDD to SSD.

You will probably need to use Windows boot media (USB or DVD) and do "startup repair" - there may be additional steps to convince your image of Windows to switch to ACHI mode access to the drives. You can probably find detailed information on that with a couple google searches.

Personally, I think it's better to do the clean install on the new mSATA (with the BIOS in ACHI mode). If you're going to run the OS on the mSATA you do not need to use the Intel drivers for Rapid XXX at all.

 

Although Photoshop is known to not play well with Windows HiDPI settings (yet), most reports indicate that Lightroom 5 scales just fine at HiDPI. Which version of Lightroom are you using and what are your DPI settings in Windows? Have you tried 200% DPI?

 

I took delivery of this laptop on December 12. I use it on battery often but every now and then I keep it on the charger over night when not in use. I definitely think something is wrong with the battery life. I keep it on Dell recommended mode with brightness less than half way up during the day and turned down to a couple of clicks at night. May contact Dell regarding this.

Scale settings in the Display menu is set at 200%, I dropped my resolution to 2048x1152 (this technique wasn't working before for scaling PS and LR) and although everything looks jumbo now, I can see the menus in both LR4.4 and Photoshop CS6 without any problems.
Annoyed that I'd have to do this everytime I wanted to use the programs. Hopefully there will be a fix for those that don't want to update to the latest Adobe programs.

EDIT: Found a liveable scaling setting for everyday use: If I leave the resolution at 2048x1152 and change desktop scaling to around 125-140% I can use PS and LR with no issues, only drawback is the loss of sharpness in internet browser text.

 

Using the backlight at half vs. at minimum will lower your battery life by quite a bit. The backlight/screen is the largest power consumer on the laptop.

 

The HiDPI scaling issue has already been addressed by Adobe in LightRoom. You just need to upgrade to version 5. I doubt that there will be a HiDPI update for version 4.
No ETA on the Photoshop CS6 update. Hopefully next year.

 

got an update from dell about my delayed order:

We apologize that your order #********* is still delayed. Your order was estimated to ship on 12/18/2013 from our distribution facility in the US. We are working to establish a new shipping date as soon as possible and you will be notified when your order has shipped. Once your order is shipped, your estimated transit time will be approximately 2 to 6 days. This is based on the transit time from United States to the Canadian distribution facility and then to your location.

 

oh i didnt know that either until i read your post. so if i understand correctly, the ssd msata does not actually have the OS installed on it?

how bing is windows 8.1? are we able to simply format it all and install windows 8.1 on the 32gb? is that something that is viable or am i better off buying a larger msta and installing windows on there?

 

The mSATA SSD unit DOES have the OS installed on it -- but only if you choose a 128GB or higher unit. The 32GB unit is used solely for caching and is transparent to the user because Intel Smart Response treats the HDD+cache unit as a RAID volume and moves high-access data onto the SSD transparently.

If you switch the SATA mode in the BIOS to AHCI, you'd expose the 32GB SSD as an independent hard drive, at which point I suppose you could install Windows onto it, but I haven't checked to see how large Win8.1 is. I think you'd be better off buying a larger SSD though if you can swing it.

 

What I (and undoubtedly many others) want to do:

1. Buy the mid tier version
2. Remove the 32GB SSD and replace it with a 480GB one (or any other size)
3. Install Windows 8.1 on the mSata SSD using the recovery partitions on the HDD
4. (replace the HDD with a 1TB 2.5" SSD) - this I might do, not really made up my mind yet but I like the idea of not having spinning platters in my laptop

How I plan on doing this:

1. unbox my XPS 15
2. remove the mSata after flipping the BIOS to AHCI (whatever this means, google will help me I guess)
3. physically install the new mSata
4. boot to the recovery partition on the HDD
5. install Windows on the new mSata
6. (remove the HDD and replace with 2.5" SSD)

These are the 6 steps I could come up with on my own. If there's any expert who can elaborate or comment on these steps this would be great.

These are the questions I already have:

• Will I be able to use the recovery partitions on the HDD to boot and install Windows on the new mSata SSD? If so, I gues this is done changing the boot drive to the recovery partition? Or does Dell have a shortcut on it's splash screen?
• Will I need to go into the BIOS after installing Windows on the mSata SSD? (flipping to AHCI? since I'll be using the mSata SSD as boot drive)

I don't really want to migrate, since It'll be a perfectly virgin system (bloatware aside) I might aswell do a reinstall of Windows in stead of migrating it from the HDD. (don't know why but it just doesn't feel right to me )

Thanks a million in advance !

 

My UPS tracking link finally works. It started to work a few mins ago:

So my package went from China to Netherlands.. is was there during christmas and today at 11:00 it left Netherlands and is on its way to Austria. Guess I won't get it before new years eve :/

@edit: Tracking link just updated again: According to UPS it will get delivered on the 02.01.14

 

Don't bother using the recovery partition from dell. It will install all the bloatware that no one really uses. Instead, just format the hdd and use it as storage for large files and install a fresh copy of windows (using windows 8.1 usb install disk) on your new msata ssd. Personally, I would just use the hdd that came with it and not buy a 1tb ssd because of the high price but, if you got the cash, go for it i guess.
To use the msata for booting windows, change the sata mode from smart response to ahci in the bios before installing windows so that the msata is visible in the installation program.

 

In theory, it should do a recovery boot. No clue if the *dell* recovery image will let you restore onto the mSATA or not, haven't heard of anyone trying it.

I'd personally try it with the Windows built-in system image backup and restore ...

- boot into windows
- disable and uninstall the intel rapid start and rapid storage (you can not have these configured anyway, with the hardware change you are doing)
- reboot windows
- make a system image backup, and recovery media (USB or CD-ROM), using the Windows System Image utility
- verify that you can boot with the recovery media you just created (F12 tap during BIOS POST to get boot menu select during reboot)
- shutdown machine, swap mSATA, power on and go into BIOS to flip drive interface to AHCI, change the boot order to favor the mSATA
- boot from recovery media
- restore windows image to new drive

disclaimer: When I moved OS from HDD to SSD on my l521x I just did a clean install. I was moving to Win8 from Win7 so there was no reason to migrate OS.

Good luck.

 

OK.
Cheers for clearing that up. I have seen somewhere that changing the sata mode makes the drive unreadable unless formatted but that might be something different.
Yes, disable those technologies within windows if cloning, otherwise if your just wiping the drives clean for a fresh install, BIOS change is all that is needed and the best option to choose when getting a new computer.

 

The base and mid level configurations use the 32gb msata as caching as there is a 1tb hdd present that holds the OS, whereas the top level configuration has the OS on the 512gb msata because there is no other storage drive as the battery uses up the hdd real estate in the computer.
Windows 8.1 requires 20GB for 64-bit system so the msata can hold the OS as there is 30GB usable space but a larger msata drive would be better for using it as the OS installation drive.

 

I got mine on December 6 and have 0% wear on the battery. I use it on battery maybe 3-4 times a week and when its all charged up I turn off the power for the charger when i'm not using it.
I use power saver on battery and high performance on power which changes automatically using quickset. Brightness is about 30% on battery and 75% on power but adjust if needed and is low brightness in the night.

 

Posted this in the Lenovo 540P thread as well, but did anyone who purchased the Dell consider the T540P as well? It's got a similar screen res, and similar innards, albeit slightly cheaper (1650 as opposed to 2k in Australia anyway).

I know the XPS is more like an Ultrabook and it'd be more of a slam dunk if the keyboard layout was better, but the T540p is looking appealing as its a bit cheaper and I really like the Lenovo KB layout.

Just after opinions really =)