XPS 15 (Haswell) Owner's Lounge

I've been using the laptop for a couple of hours now. A few things I noticed:

- The enter and backspace keys do not consistently register presses.
- The display exhibits some really bad ghosting. It actually looks like some pretty strong motion blur.
- The sparkle on the display I noticed yesterday is much worse on the right than it is on the left.
- I keep noticing additional specks of dust beneath the display. They're tiny, but annoying.
- There's that high-pitched noise around the charging port. It's quite loud and bothersome.

I'm hoping that none of this is normal, and that customer support should be able to help me out? The ghosting in particular has me a bit worried. It's pretty noticeable while gaming.

On a more positive note, it performed really well on some quick gaming tests. And the sharpness and contrast of the display continue to impress.

 

To conclude my story, I got my top spec Mac last week, I think it is somewhat better compare to XPS (more expensive as well). Here is some personal oppinions and comments. I installed linux on both machine with more or less the same configuration, so it is almost raw comparison between hardware, though I cannot rule out the chance Linux has better optimization for mac, even though the opposite is probably true.

1. Mac is definitely quieter, maybe luck struck me this time, the machine is even quieter than XPS, and the fan is at minimal even when I watch h264 video. No coil whine of any kind. So I do not think the whine is due to some uncurable flaw in Intel cpu, since the two machine have similar ones (4850HQ vs 4702HQ).

2. Now I have both machines, I can see the reason some review commented the keyboard backlight is not even for XPS. It does not matter if you look from the top vertically down, but when you look from some angle, the backlight leaking from the bottom of the keycap is not even, most of the keys you can see the white light directly, For large keys like capslock and enter, the backlight is blocked, not really a deal break, but if you really want to go nitpicking.

3. Mac throttles a lot, when ever the cpu is under pressure, the package temp goes beyond 100 C and the frequency starts dropping, this only happens when the turbo is enabled, if I block turbo the temperature is around 90 C. XPS is usually around 95 C without throttling when the cpu is fully occupied. 4850HQ runs at a higher frequency compare to 4702HQ, so the average frequency is comparable: XPS runs at 3.1GHZ, and mac fluctuating between 3.3 and 2.9 GHZ, still I am not comfortable with having the warning all the time, so I disable turbo most of the time.

4. Battery life is amazing on Mac. It consumes 9W when idle and 5W when screen is off, the cpu is only about 35C. On the other side XPS consumes 13W when idle and 9W when screen is off. I guess the main problem with XPS is the cpu, for some reason on XPS the cpu can only sleep in pc3, but Mac can sleep in pc6, which improves the battery life time a lot.

5. The video card support of Mac is even worse than XPS in Linux, I managed force the system to use IGPU only after many hours of debuging and googling, and I still need to boot into mac to switch back to the nvidia GPU. And the intel one is not wired to the thunderbolt port, that means I cannot use external monitors when I am using IGPU, people complained about it for a long time but appearently apple do not care.

6. A bonus for Mac is there are many accessaries to suck your money out of your wallet, like the shell case and keyboard cover, I do wish XPS has similar stuff, people spend 2000+ on it, so it make sense to spend a few bucks more to keep it look fresh, but I guess until XPS gain some large portion of the market the manufactures of those small gadgets will not be interested.

In summary, XPS is good but Mac is bettery if you ignore the price difference. For me it is well worth the money, but because I am mainly use Linux and use external monitor extensively I am going to return this mac as well and get one with Iris Pro only. (Interestly the GT 750M is effectively free, if you start with the standard spec of the Iris Pro only version, match the cpu/memory/harddrive to the top spec one, the price is the same...)

 

I'm coming from a 2011 MPB which I'm replacing with the XPS15.
Yes, the MPB is beautiful hardware, but if you're running windows and gaming then do NOT get the MPB - driver updates for the GPU never work. You'll be stuck using whatever 2-year-old drivers Apple provides with Bootcamp. This is especially frustrating when a driver update gives FPS increases for specific games. On the off chance you spend the hours it takes to trick the Mac in to letting you install current drivers then all kinds of other things break - no more brightness control, for example.
The hardware is beautiful, for sure, but for a gamer it's just not worth the headaches Apple causes with their almost total lack of driver updates.
Ordered my XPS15 3 weeks ago, and it looks like it'll be another 2 weeks before I get my hands on it - the wait is killing me!

 

I am using Linux and not a gamer, but I can use the official NVidia driver without any problem. With the discrete card on the machine when idle actually only take 13 W, but the power optimization of NVidia is not good enough, as long as there is any redrawing on the screen, the video card jump up the the highest frequency and stays there for another 15 sec or so, during that period the machine runs at 25 W or higher. The backlight works as well, I am actually impressed that the gradually dimming of the brightness is build into the gmux hardware, I thought it is part of the animation in OSX, until I see the same effect under Linux. Anyway I am more concerned about Linux support and battery life (and noise) so an intel only mac seems to me the best option for now.

 

I'm having problems with the hdmi. I'm connecting the laptop to a samsung tv, everything works more or less fine (I have to do some resize otherwise the image on the tv goes out of the borders of the screen), except the audio.

If I play a video (VLC), the audio is choppy.
If I play a youtube video, the audio is not choppy but everything is accelerated (audio and video).
None of those happens if the audio is routed to the laptop speakers - the video can stay on the tv.

Anyone with similar issues or a possible dignosis?

 

Here's a followup in case someone runs into similar problems.

Some BIOS settings apparently interfere with the kernel's ability to recognize or configure the touchpad, even though they don't obviously have anything to do with the touchpad. Here are the settings for BIOS version A01 that seem to work for me.

Advanced tab: Intel SpeedStep, Virtualization, USB Emulation, USB Powershare ENABLED. USB Wake Support DISABLED. SATA Operation set to Intel Smart Response Technology. Adapter Warning ENABLED. Function Key Behavior set to Multimedia Key. Intel Smart Connect Technology DISABLED. Intel Rapid Start Technology DISABLED on my system because I don't have an HDD; this might not apply to you. Battery Charge Configuration set to Adaptive. Under the Miscellaneous Devices heading, External USB Ports is ENABLED and USB Debug is DISABLED.

Security tab: Computrace is set to DEACTIVATE. Under the TPM Security heading, TPM Security is ENABLE, TPM Activation is DEACTIVATE, and TPM ACPI Support is DISABLED.

Boot tab: Boot List Option is set to UEFI. Secure Boot is DISABLED. Load Legacy Option Rom is ENABLED.

Note that you'll need to power down the machine completely after changing some settings; simply restarting isn't enough to make all the changes take effect.

I hope that's helpful for anyone else who runs into this glitch!

Allen

 

For the video being chopped off the screen, some higher-end TVs have an option for 1:1 mapping (sometimes it goes by other names, like Dot by Dot), but many TVs default to overscanning in the way you're describing, so getting the borders right may not be possible. The Intel graphics properties may have some ways to compensate for it though, but I haven't looked.

For the audio, try going to Control Panel > Sound and setting the HDMI connection as your default audio output device, then close and relaunch any audio app you've got open. You may also want to check the properties of that output device to confirm that the default output signal is compatible with your TV (e.g. 24-bit/48kHz, etc.)

What touchpad issues did you run into that you feel you've solved with this set of BIOS settings? A few notes about them, as well:

SATA Operation depends on your setup; for those using a full capacity mSATA SSD, it should be AHCI, not Smart Response.

Some may obviously prefer setting the function keys to be function keys, not multimedia keys by default.

Kind of random that you disabled ACPI support for the TPM -- why did you do that? I'm not sure what the impact of that would be, but it might interfere with apps that would use it, such as BitLocker.

But most importantly, why did you disable Secure Boot and enable Legacy Option ROMs? That configuration should only be used if you're using Windows 7, which doesn't support the former and requires the latter. If you're on Windows 8, both of those settings should be reversed.

 

I thought I posted about this yesterday or the day before...but yes, I am connecting to a Panasonic wall mounted 50", and hard connecting via hdmi...using windows media player to watch .avi and .xvid tv shows...and each and every time I lose audio AND video at the very start of the show, around the 4 minute mark...and I lose both for about 4-5 seconds...annoying. then halfway through each show, I lose audio only for same amount of time, about 5 seconds.

that's all I got

 

Strange. I connected to my father-in-law's TV (no idea what the brand was) over Thanksgiving via HDMI and Windows Media Player worked flawlessly. I was using the Combined Community Codec Pack if that matters. But I think I did have to set the HDMI output as the default audio output for it to work properly.

 

Anyone notice the shipping date on new orders after this afternoon?
March 4, yikes.
Hope they still have parts to put my computer together... I was expecting it to be shipped in the next 10 days...

 

im wondering if your solutions a few posts up might play a role in what ive got going on...I will give it a shot, but can you expand on the second point: the properties of the output device...matching up...?? id like to try this tonight as I will be watching the same shows from the same download batch

thanks jp, as always

 

In Control Panel > Sound, double-click the output option corresponding to the HDMI port (it may show up as Intel HDMI or perhaps the TV/receiver itself). Go to the Advanced tab and play around with the Default Format option. Obviously the higher you go, the better your audio can sound, but not all devices support everything (though I've seen at least some devices actually report what they can handle, in which case you'll only see options that would actually work.) Also note that this won't magically make your audio sound better; I don't believe this setting upsamples lower-quality audio, it merely prevents downsampling of high-resolution audio as long as it isn't above the Default Format selection. Of course if you don't have any high-resolution audio in the first place, it won't matter, but if you do, set it to the maximum resolution your output device will support.

 

For the screen resizing there is an apposite option in the Intel HD graphic app. From that you can resize the output screen, in width and length.

For the audio, I played a lot before posting and didn't solve anything. So I started watching the movie with the video on the TV and the audio from the laptop. After a while, since I had to set 100% volume to have it clear and decent, I decided to use my earphones in order not to ruin the speakers. The moment I plugged them in, all audio of the movie (played with VLC) went away from every possible output. I tried to unplug, play with setting, but nothing. So I tried to unplug and plug the hdmi again, and from that moment no problems at all with the audio and video from the TV.

I really don't understand what happened there, but now everything seems to work fine.

 

2 months? That's ridiculous. If it says it won't ship till April at the start of February, I'll just wait for the Y50.

Is Dell really still suffering from shortages of Sharp's displays or are they just slow to build???

Sent from my dlx using Tapatalk

 

Hey guys, anyone who has ordered from costo.com early-mid December, started receiving their xps yet? I ordered mine Dec 10th and costco just says order received. Is there a way to get order status from Dell directly?

Waiting anxiously - thanks!

 

I have no news on delivery yet, but you can get the Dell status by asking for the PO number from Costco, and then going to the orderstatus of dell and filling in the form with Costco as company name (at lease for Costco Canada).
I ordered mine on the 7th of December, and the delivery date state 27th of Jan, hope it get here before then....

 

Has anyone risked an outlet one yet? Top model in the UK outlet (512GB etc) is £1,281.61

Tempted.

 

Gaming at 144Hz with a displayport cable works fine. Also I finished my review and added the final (my personal) score for the XPS15 9530.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/del...30-haswell-2014-top-configuration-review.html

 

Hi everyone,

I wish to ask why in my bios the Intel Rapid Storage Technology is disabled, I can't switch to enable?

this happen after I formatted and reinstall window in my laptop, I used a window 8.1 CD to install.

 

Just took a punt on it, too big a saving not to. I'll report back when I have it.

 

Neat, I still can't decide if I want the cheaper 1 TB version just to get the extra drive slot. I don't care much for battery life, I just want a portable powerful machine I can move to different locations.

 

I mentioned this a few pages back. You need to shrink your OS volume and create the Rapid Start hibernation partition first. Follow these steps. I was surprised that the BIOS was smart enough to look at the disk layout to determine whether that was available, but there you have it.

And hmm, Smart Connect isn't even listed. I assume that has something to do with the type or configuration of your disk(s). Do you not have an SSD in the mSATA slot? Or have you not yet enabled Smart Response acceleration? I think if you have a spinning disk you need to be running Smart Response to use Smart Connect. Then again Smart Connect itself is of very limited value IMHO.

 

I'll just get an external HDD. Just under £400 cheaper was too tempting.

 

So an update after having the laptop for a day or so:

1. Had Dell come out to replace my Screen, a few dead pixels and ALOT of lint was behind the panel (one of those, once you see it you can never not unsee it things) - Dell Tech came out Next Business Day, replaced it, I checked all perfect - he left. Sat down, went to touch the screen and boom - the lovely tech forgot to a) either connect the Touch Digitzer or b) the replacement panel is not touch compatible (maybe jp can shed some light on if this is even possible?). Long story short, there is no stock left in my area (so new) and now stuck with a non-touch panel until they can source them - not the end of the world, but annoying none-the-less.

2. Did a full reformat and installed the following drivers - can you check if I missed anything haha:

Dell Website
- Intel Rapid Start Technology Application
- Realtek High Definition Audio ALC3661 Driver
- Intel 8 Series Chipset Driver
- Intel Management Engine Interface Driver
- Realtek PCIE CardReader Driver
- ST Microelectronics LNG3DMTR Motion Sensor Driver
- Dell QHD+ Touch Panel Firmware Update
- Dell Airplane Mode Switch Driver
- NXP NearFieldProximity Provider Driver
- Intel Rapid Storage Technology Driver
- Intel Dynamic Platform and Thermal Framework Driver

Intel
- Intel® PROSet/Wireless Software for Windows 8.1 (v16.6.0 - JUST Driver)
- Intel® PROSet/Wireless Software for Bluetooth® technology for Windows 8.1 (v3.1.1311)
*Went to get latest HD4600 driver, but it seems Win 8 had already got the latest*

Nvidia
332.21 Geforce 750M Driver

Synaptics
Touchpad Driver (v16.3.15.1 - As Jp said, latest from Synaptic's website does not work)

Outside of that, I haven't had a chance to put this thing through a 'stress' test with some games yet - but the weekend is close . I haven't had any complaints outside of the Panel issue (moreso Dell then the fault of the XPS 15). I've started to see what people have said about QHD and scaling throughout this thread though - I use RDP alot for work, and hell its bloody annoying to have ANT sized applications... Oh and on a side-note, I hate Windows 8/8.1 (from Windows 7) hahaha.

No updates on the 91WHr Battery front either unfortunately folks .

 

The only "driver" you missed is Intel Smart Connect, but if you don't want to use it and it's not leaving you with a missing device in Device Manager, it can be skipped. I have it installed and disabled.

Yes, the touchscreen cable is separate from the video cable (and webcam cable), so what you're describing isn't too surprising. Assuming this isn't just the occasional touchscreen unresponsiveness that's been reported here, I don't think a hardware incompatibility is possible, and I don't believe there's a non-touch version of the QHD+ panel, so unless the touchscreen actually happens to be defective on the replacement unit, this should be an easy fix. I recently had a Dell tech come out to replace a display on a different system, and the webcam cable wasn't connected quite right (came up as an Unknown USB Device) and the power adapter cable wasn't connected at all, so I couldn't charge it. I don't understand why these Dell techs don't TEST everything when their work is done; I didn't care much since I knew I could fix it myself if there were issues, but that doesn't excuse his decision not to bother. Anyway, if you look at the Owner's Manual on support.dell.com under the instructions for removing the display assembly, it will identify the touchscreen cable, so just check that out -- hopefully you have the required Torx screwdriver to open this thing up yourself.

One warning though: One of the consequences of these laptops getting so thin and light is that these connectors are freaking microscopic and temperamental now. Working on my sister's Inspiron 7437 was the first time I'd ever felt like I was doing surgery on a laptop, and I've been working on laptops for years. You'll want a tiny plastic spudger or a tiny flathead screwdriver for this. First, if there's tape holding the cable down, be extremely patient pulling it up, and do so with the spudger/screwdriver in small increments, because the adhesive is sometimes stronger than the wiring it's holding down, so if you pull the wrong way on the tape you might strain the wires underneath to breaking point. Then if the touchscreen cable is one that you just pull up on and snap down into place, again use the spudger/screwdrivers to pop the connector up. If on the other hand it's a tiny ribbon cable held in place by a clip that you have to flip up to release, use that spudger/screwdriver to pop up that clip.

If you don't have that Torx screwdriver and/or don't feel comfortable doing this yourself, you could always call Dell back and explain that you believe the touchscreen is good and that the tech simply didn't connect it properly. They should be willing to send out another tech to do that; at least then you'd know for sure whether it's a hardware problem or connection problem. Good luck!

As for not liking Win8.1, someone else posted about this on the M3800 thread, and here was my reply which may help you too:

 

Since you don't care for battery life, I do not see why you can't decide...
Just get the 1TB version and with the remaining budget you can replace the mSata giving you a total of 1TB SSD + 1TB HDD if you're willing to pay for the 1T mSata SSD (Samsung evo 840= € 589 here in Belgium)

 

At the moment the UK outlet only has the 512GB version. Can't decide if I should wait for the cheaper version.

 

Can anyone try running the game "www.quakelive.com" with some low settings config (e.g. http://beasty.bestmail.ws/etconfig/beAsty-q3.zip) in FullHD and then in the console set "com_maxfps 250" to see if constant 250 fps can be reached ingame?

Normally we should get 500+ (but the game is capped to max. 250).. how ever I don't even reach constant 150fps. I believe it's a driver bug. Do you have those problems as well with "OpenGL" games (e.g. quakelive) ?

Thanks

I tried all kind of settings/drivers/etc already:
https://forums.geforce.com/default/...-1-game-in-fullscreen-lag-window-mode-perfect

 

Outlet now has the 1TB version for £1,063.07

£1,281.61 for the 512GB

Ordered the cheaper version, as I have a spare 2.5" SSD for the moment.

 

Already installed it. How do I apply your config?

Gesendet von meinem HTC One mit Tapatalk

 

Download it and copy the files (autoexec.cfg, etc) to %AppData%\..\LocalLow\id Software\quakelive\home\baseq3

Then run the game and use "^" ingame to open console. Then write
exec autoexec.cfg (this will load the config)
vid_restart (this will re-start the graphic to apply the new config settings)
com_maxfps 250 (this will set the maximum fps to 250.. which you should reach constantly 99.9999%.. but for me it is always jumping around 100-160).

Another guide on how to install a config:
holy.net - holy Resources and Information.

Thanks.. I am really curious about your results.

@edit: you might also want to turn off the following settings for "quakelive.exe" in "%AppData%\..\Local\id Software\quakelive":
Vsync off
Tripple buffering off
Threaded optimisation off

Thanks again

 

Finally I have my XPS, very cool machine, "enter" key is a little ugly, but unfortunately for me there are 3 dead pixel, so now I have to call Dell...

 

Which pixeltests are u guys using? I couldn't spot any dead pixel.
Are 3 dead pixel on 3200x1xxx really that bad ?

 

A Dell tech told me that they were allowed up to 6 dead pixels on each screen when I asked for a replacement on my 7537. don't know if it's true or not

 

I'm using a simple white screen, I think that 1 of 3 dead pixel consists more than 1 pixel because is clearly visible.
I have called Dell and they have asked me to take a picture of these dead pixels... Is it happen to someone else?
Maybe it's better if I return this notebook.
Moreover he ask me a mail to contact me so he has said that has sent a mail so I would have responded to him with pictures of dead pixels but I got nothing...

 

Grab it while it's still hot: Dell released a new bios: A02!

No real comments on improvements:
"Fixes & Enhancements
Fixes -Not Applicable
Enhancements -Improved System BIOS stability."
Driver Details | Dell US

But I'll report if something other will change or not
(Had a some ACPI warning messages of conflicting resources on linux boot. @ Windowers: You also have this, but you'll never be able to see this. )

 

We will see this if we disable the boot ui (atleast in wondiws 7 it was like that).

I wonder what fixes the new BIOS version has... I wished it would fix the OpenGL issue.

 

Just updated, no change in coil whine for better or worse. There were also reports that the manual battery management settings in the BIOS were ignored on A00 and A01, so anyone using those rather than the Adaptive mode might want to test that as well.

HEADS-UP: When I updated the BIOS, I had to enter the 48-digit BitLocker recovery key to get the system to boot again; apparently the TPM detects that as a change in the boot environment and thus enters lockdown mode. So if you're running BitLocker as well, make sure you have that key handy before updating. Your regular password if you use one in addition to the TPM will NOT be accepted.

 

So just flashed A02:
Cannot see ANY difference. Not in the Bios, not on the ACPI meassages on linux kernel, no curing of coil whining.

You are right: the battery settings always had been neglected also for me (I know from my work that fully charged Li-Batteries are not happy concerning their lifetime). I just can test my max. 90% setting after I consumed 10% of my at the moment fully charged battery.

How are others experiences: Can somebody detect any change?

 

so still waiting for the laptop. ordered nov 30th, delivery date set for dec 18th, today is jan 9th and the date has not been updated on their website and neither do any of the customer service agents have a clue.

 

Wow, that doesn't give me much hope... I ordered mine on Dec 19th, and no ETA yet almost a month later. :s
On the verge of cancelling and getting something else instead. :s

 

I cannot find the latest bios update anymore on the site?

 

It wasn't there when I looked either, but the direct link still works: Driver Details | Dell US.

The driver list maintained on Dell's FTP server is often a day or so ahead of the one on support.dell.com, so maybe that's how it was discovered early. The QHD+/FHD display firmware updates were the same way.

Although I admit it's strange is that NO update to the BIOS is listed now, not even A01.

 

I ordered mine on Dec 16th with a delivery date of 1/24/14 and it got pushed back to 2/14/14 and now I'm hearing until March/April. I cancelled it. Waiting on another laptop to pop-up now. Possibly Lenovo Y50

 

That where my thoughts also...

 

I apologize in advance if this sounds insensitive to those that have not received their initial units yet, but I have just received my replacement unit, actually, three days ago, it is still sitting in the box because I have not had a chance to spend any time with my machine at home.

Maybe JP or another seasoned poster here can help me with what I should do to give this replacement a thorough once over before I decide if I should keep my original, or keep the replacement, I have 7 days to return one of them, or I will be charged $2,600.

The main reason I requested a replacement was my original machine was unable to hard connect to my cell phone via usb...or BT or NFC, for that matter. As it turned out though, it was the USB cable, even though I tried 3 separate cables before learning this. ALso, the "coil whine" which I made a recording of weeks ago and posted here. And finally, the touch screen was timing out each and every day, more than once. But JP correctly pinpointed the problem and the solution to that...

My original machine has no dead pixels. I do not game, and am usually at home with it, so I am not too concerned about the battery life. WIth all that said...I would love for some real basic steps I should take out of the box with this replacement...I want to be sure I dot my I's and cross my T's before I choose which one to send back. I'd also appreciate direction on what to update first, second, third...etc once I get it out of the box.

Many thanks to all.

 

Wait, what? You're telling me you had 3 defective USB cables? I had a hard time believing that a hardware problem with the laptop would have been responsible for issues with your phone, but 3 defective USB cables isn't too easy to believe either. That also wouldn't explain why your phone worked on your previous laptop or on the system you tested at Best Buy -- or did you not use the same cable there to keep as many variables constant as possible?

In any case, if your original system is now working fine, personally I'd stick with the known quantity and return the replacement. You may also want to install the touchscreen firmware update and reverse the change I suggested earlier regarding preventing the touchscreen from going to sleep, because that change is a workaround, and if the firmware update is an actual fix, you can improve your battery life by reverting to the default setting. But if you'd like to keep the replacement system anyway for whatever reason, I'd just do a quick check that everything works (keyboard backlight, display, webcam, speakers, etc). Even if you miss something, you have a warranty, so at most you're risking some inconvenience, not having to live with a defective system permanently.

As for installing updates, there aren't many updates yet, just the BIOS, display firmware, Wifi, Bluetooth, and NVIDIA GPU drivers. The exact installation sequence doesn't matter. If you'll be installing everything from scratch, I tend to get the chipset and graphics drivers in first, but I don't think even that matters much. The only absolute dependency I know of are:

- The Intel Management Engine needs to be installed prior to the NFC driver
- If you want to use Rapid Start, you need to set up Smart Response first (if you have an HDD+SSD cache setup) and set up the hibernation partition before installing the Rapid Start app.

 

Yeah can you believe that crapp, I had 2 usb cables, both samsung usb from the original phones, both failed. then came to work, had a co-worker try his usb cable from a google phone...that cable failed...his phone wouldnt connect to the machine either...so thats why i was thinking it was totally the machine. i was dumbfounded when using my usb cable connected my phone flawlessly to other dell and lenovo machines...i had everyone at best buy scratching their heads...and when i couldnt even get the samsung reps to figure it out at best buy, thats when i demanded a replacement from dell last month.

totally ridiculous. my 4th visit to best buy, the samsung rep said try this cable...i was like, whatever...and BAM, it worked....but by then, the replacement had been ordered. so here i am

 

I'm one of those that ordered from costo.ca on Dec 8th. I emailed costco to get the Dell PO#, and pointed out that it's been a month and still no word of the laptop. I just got an email back from costco.ca saying that the expected delivery date is the week of Jan 27.

I'm tempted to cancel, but can't really find anything else that would fit the bill. The y50 looks nice, but that probably won't arrive 'till March/April, and it isn't as portable either.