XPS 15 (Haswell) Owner's Lounge

You're welcome
So re. the PCIe SSD in the rMBP: yes it has greater read/write speeds (in the high 700's compared to the 500s for mSATA) - mSATA is currently SATA3 so tops out at 6Gb/s, PCIe x2 2.0 (in the rMBP) tops out at 1GB/s.

However, the high perf numbers for the rMBP SSD are for sequential read/writes, not random read/writes: so you'll see a noticeable perf increase over the mSATA SSD for moving large files around (think Photoshop or video editing work), but not sure how much you'd see for anything else as most OS and standard app disk IO is random access read/writes (i.e. reading and writing to lots of different files, rather than sustained reading/writing from large files).

See here for a bit more (although with MBA not rMBP but same SSD): AnandTech | 2013 MacBook Air: PCIe SSD and Haswell ULT Inside

I've also seen some comments that if you get the 1TB rMBP you get 2GB/s as you get PCIe x4 2.0 i.e. 4 lanes. Saw that here: Latest MacBook Pro 15 gets blazing SSD performance thanks to 4-channel PCIe (updated) | 9to5Mac

Haven't seen that anywhere else though...

Also haven't yet seen a detailed review of the PCIe SSD in the the new rMBP (looking on Anandtech) though may have missed it if anyone else has seen one?

 

The XPS15 is bigger and heavier (duh!) than the XPS13z. 4.6 pounds (high end SSD only version) vs 3 pounds according to my digital bathroom scale. I am the cloud operations and service manager for a transport company and am on call very often. The 13z is a perfect size and weight to keep in handy in the car or even toss into a backpack when I'm away from the office. I dont think I'd treat the XPS15 that way. I will be keeping both.

Picture attached (I'm a newbie here.. I hope it posts correctly)

 

Cool, thanks, that's good to know - so that's 2.08kg, the advertised weight is 2.01kg... I can live with that.
My current Studio XPS is 6.4lbs (2.9kg) so at least the XPS15 is lighter...

PS: I can already see fingerprint smudges on your new XPS... best I keep a polishing cloth handy for mine

 

That sucks about the trackpad. I'm surprised all the trackpad issues haven't been resolved yet.

 

Oh, and the charger for the 15 is much heavier that the 13. Still looks like I'll get about 6 hours out of a fully charged battery.

I just ran a quick IO benchmark (CrystalDiskMark)



I'm not sure why the 4K reads & writes are so much worst than the 512K reads and writes. Will have to read up on that disk. I ran it twice wiith similar results.

 

No, just the laptop, quickstart guide, and the power brick. There was no network dongle included.

 

What version of XPS 15 do you have?

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I didn't really pay close attention to that to be honest, but I believe the XPS was a little more reflective than the rMBP screen. I have the 60 Wh battery. I did have the brightness set to 100% the whole time also. My coworker with the rMBP had his set up that way, so I change the brightness to match it.

 

I personally love the keyboard, but it is very small. I do tend to hit the caps quite a bit. For the lid, you definitely need two hands to open the screen. It opens about an inch, and then needs your second hand to hold the bottom down. Yes, you can scroll using the touchscreen in desktop apps like file explorer. You can also use the touchpad like the touchscreen. So I scroll up and down in desktop apps by swiping two fingers up and down on the touchpad rather than reaching across and touching the screen.

Right now I'm still trying to get used to Windows 8.1. I have had 8 even before it was released, but having a touchscreen has thrown my brain for a loop LOL! I get confused on what I want to do.

There is one thing that I have found to be annoying so far. The touchpad doesn't like for you to click on the very bottom left corner, or very bottom right corner (for left and right click). You have to click towards the middle of the left-hand or right-hand side. I thought the touchpad was not responding right until I figured this out. I've already gotten used to it though. I have also noticed that it does get pretty warm on the lap while just surfing the Internet. Not as bad as my 3 year old HP though.

 

The 4k read is at a single queue depth I think. Not many drivers can get higher than 40 MB/s on that one (see here for a little bit more info on that: http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/5239/samsung-840-pro-512gb-ssd-review/index9.html).
For comparison, here's my 512GB Samsung 840 Pro (although running a bit under load) - I get slightly different results each time I run the test - my 4k QD32 (i.e. 4k random read/right with a queue depth of 32) is looking a bit low:



So yours don't look too shabby,
Be interested to know what make/model of SSD you have in the XPS - you could always look in Device Manager, or open a PowerShell window and type: "get-disk | ? model -match 'ssd'" (obviously without the quotes) to find out.
Or download a disk utility of some sort...

 

Mine hasn't arrived yet but I asked my Dell sales rep and he assures me that the 91Whr battery sits on top of the 2.5" drive bay and that there is definitely room in the 2.5" bay for a second SSD or HDD. I will confirm this next week when mine arrives but if you look in the owners manaul, one of the pre-requisites for "Replacing the hard drive" is to remove the battery first so I am optimistic that what the sales rep has told me is correct.

 

I found that the touchpad was not easy to use in one aspect - if you used a finger to move around and a finger on the bottom-left side to click, you can't rest your finger on the left-click area like you could with a separate click button or a mouse.

Maybe I'm not used to this type of touchpad? Or shouldn't there be a sensor to help you point and click.

 

Yeah, I noticed this too. I think I will get used to it though.

I have been using my laptop with brightness 3/4 up for 4 hours and got the 10% battery low notification. I have been surfing the whole time, and going back and forth through apps, nothing cpu intensive though. I did install and use Adobe Lightroom for about 10 minutes. I was hoping for a little better battery life.

 

That's certainly very interesting, but I dunno. If it was true, wouldn't it make sense to just make the 91Whr battery standard throughout all models? and have a top end spec with a 512gb mSATA SSD and 2.5" drive? Or even make the 512GB SSD a 2.5" drive instead of an mSATA drive (since a 2.5" drive will be cheaper than an MSATA drive)....

I guess we'll see when we get them.

 

From device manager: Samsung SSD SM841 mSATA 512GB

 

Thats great news. Hopefully it doesn't get too hot being under the battery.

 

Hmmm. On mine, I can't use the touchpad to scroll or pinch zoom. Once in a while it seems like it starts to but then flakes out by jumping around or randomly clicking a link. I hope I don't have to send this one back.

 

I hate to day this, but a lot of the phone sales reps just don't know what they are talking about with the details of the internals. In all the years I was there training the sales reps received never went as in depth as that type of knowledge, only the more superficial features and specs. In your case, the rep told you what they thought you wanted to hear and is completely wrong.

The battery is 10.63 inches long in the 61Wh and 13.48 inches in the 91Wr. .35 inches thick on both. There just isn't room inside for the battery to sit on top of a SATA HD with the laptop being .7in thick in total. Telling you to remove the battery first is just a standard safety precaution.

 

Interesting. Wonder how the SM841 compares to the PM841: Samsung PM841 512GB mSATA SSD Review - Performance and Capacity in a Client SSD | The SSD Review

Some people are saying that the PM841 is equivalent to the 840 pro whereas the SM841 isn't, others saying that the SM841 is just the version that Dell uses and is effectively the same as the SM841. Can't use Samsung firmware updates on either of them though :-(

No mention of the SM841 on this page either: Samsung shows off OEM versions of the Series 840 SSDs | Hardware.Info United States

I did find one page that indicated the SM841 was the mSATA version of the 2.5inch PM841, but Samsung's own product ages list the PM841 as an mSATA part.
Basically, I'm wondering if the PM841 has better perf than the SM841, or if they're the same SSD.

Update: I found this product catalogue that lists the differences (search for SM841): http://intelatech.com/Samsung_PSG_2013_2H.pdf

According to the catalogue, the SM841 has a 2-bit MLC, whilst the PM841 has a 3-bit MLC - other than that they're the same. The 2-bit/3-bit refers to the NAND - the 2-bit (i.e. SM841 in the XPS 15) will last longer as it has a greater write cycle count - see here for more: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/samsung-ama-ssd,3578-3.html

Interesting though - I was wondering if we could swap out the SSD in the XPS 15 for one with greater perf if necessary if the one that is supplied isn't that great.
Would like to see some perf numbers from a Haswell rMBP running Windows 8.1 to compare.

 

just received mine

 

Is that on the small battery?

 

So, I got 2-day fee shipping like everyone else here. Mine got shipped yesterday, and arrived at the regional FedEx this morning. They must have the rule stating that packages with 2 day shipping cannot be delivered in one day, as my XPS is spending the whole day sitting at the regional FedEx facility. Very annoying.

Thank you for all your reports! Yeah, it seems like the mid-trim XPS15 will get the battery life that is on the lower end of acceptable -- especially if one uses more aggressive power-saving options. Oh well, I need that 1TB drive for storing my media files.

 

In canada, ordered top spec on the 22nd, still estimated at the 18th
Yet other people who ordered after me are getting it tomorrow.
Really don't get this

 

Cool, you must be pleased!

Would you be willing to post your thoughts on it (initial impressions) plus any battery life/ SSD perf numbers if possible?

Have fun with it!

 

Its official. With the 90Wh battery, I got a few minutes shy of 6 hours.

It was a very busy 6 hours. Streaming video for a couple of hours (Netflix, NFL Game Rewind, HBO go.. all of which looked great), installing software, copying files, playing with win 8.1 native apps, and a lot of browsing. Ran very cool by I haven't loaded any temp monitors yet so I cant be more precise. I also drove my 1080p TV via the hdmi and mini-display port and the switching between pc display and tv for app was smooth. Kind of cool ... if you set video to "external only", the laptop display goes black, but screen touch still works.

-bv

 

Just to give people an idea about noise I am currently typing on a l521x xps 15 and can easily hear the fan running. The haswell xps 15 sitting next to it is completely quiet. Haven't actually heard the fans turn on as yet on the new one.

As to the screen both of the dells came with the same background which i had never change to easy to compare. I would say the new one is more glossy but is probably more detailed/has better colour reproduction.

Will be interested to test wifi etc later. I have bought a new AC wifi router/modem but are moving house so internet won't be up in the new place for a couple of days

 

wow I noticed your xps15 was grey in that picture, are they all going to be a mid toned grey around the keyboard? I really hope not because on the dell site they are dark grey black...

fingers crossed mine comes out that black colour.

 

Yes, it is on the smaller 61 Whr battery in the mid tier.

 

My mid-spec model is now in transit with purolator to Toronto, it's in Etobicoke now.
Probably should arrive tomorrow or the day after, yet no estimated delivery date.
How buggy is the touchpad, and is it true that the touchscreen is bouncy?
Thanks

 

If you look at the owners manual the reason to remove the battery is because there are 2 screws that secure the hard drive sled into the case that are underneath the battery. So to remove the hard drive the battery must come out. You are correct though, there is simply no room for an SSD with the larger battery, it completely takes over that space.

 

So lucky
When did it switch to shipped?
I'm going to call dell and complain tomorrow, this is really ridiculous

 

That's weird, I looked at the photo and ur right it does look lighter gray. And he's got the XPS 13 next to it too.

Mine's the darker gray. Not as black as the keys, or what the SXPS 16 looked like, but still not that weird lighter colour.

 

I will die if i get the light colour, its the look that sold the machine for me! else I would have kept my m14x r2

 

the black around the keyboard is exactly the same colour as the previous xps 15

 

So while waiting for mine to ship I've been looking at some mSATA ssd's to replace the 32GB one. I want at least 120GB, I've never purchased a mSATA drive before, and I'm not sure what I should be looking for. I'm mostly concerned about which brands are "more reliable". I've read some good things about the Intel ones but those are a bit out of my price range. Anyone with experience with these have some advice?
I wish OCZ made some as I really like the Agility 4 I have in my desktop.

 

Avoid OCZ like the plague.

Get an Intel, Samsung or Crucial, imo.

 

Well OCZ doesn't make them anymore so that's a given.

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So why does it look black in the drll photos and promo videos

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So I received mine today...been playing with it for a little bit and I noticed the touch screen has some issues..

Sometimes it will act as if I pressed one place multiple times (when I'm typing with the onscreen KB) other times it will completely lose my finger as I move across the screen or attempt to bring up the menu from sliding in on the right.

Can anyone else who has their machine check this out? The best way to try this is to download the multi touch tester app in the windows store.

I'm really hoping its just mine..

 

Shadox can you post a pic up of urs

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Metal edge is very scratch prone. Also curious about that lighter grey colour.

 

Just ordered the top spec model (512GB, 91wh batt) off the UK site. My trusty XPS M1530 is sadly no more. No shipping date yet - website estimates 19th November delivery, but after reading every post in this thread I'm quite excited! My rep said the models destined for the UK are made in Poland?

My main issue will be to get linux running on it - I'd like to have Ubuntu as the base OS and Win7/8.1 in VMs. If any owners have tried to run linux on it I'd be very keen to know how it goes.

 

I'll be putting Ubuntu on mine as well. Let you know how it goes when it get here.. .though my delivery date is Nov 22, even though I ordered a week ago (I'm on the east coast of the US). We can race to see who gets theirs first

 

The picture I posted earliier was taken in a dark room with a flash and it made it look a bit grey.The keyboard and palm rest appear black in normal lighting, but it is *slightly* more grey than the jet black xps13z palmrest. The difference is so slight that you only notice it when they are side by side.

Here is a closeup of the two keyboards under incandescent lighting with no flash.



-bv

 

I replaced the 32gb in my L521X with a a Mushkin 120Gb I got from NewEgg, it's been flawless. I use it as my OS/App drive with bulk data on the HDD. Task Manager reports 4.8 second cold boot in Win 8.1, wake from sleep is faster than opening the lid, windows and app performance is "in quite a hurry" so the performance is fine.

It was cheap too (about 100$). If I was doing it today I'd look for 200Gb + just for future-proofing.

Mushkin Enhanced Atlas Series MKNSSDAT120GB-DX mSATA 120GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) - Newegg.com

Keep in mind that for best long term life and performance you need to maintain a safe amount of unused spaced on the device, more-so than a HDD.

Anandtech and others have done extensive performance write-ups on this but the upshot is that somewhere between 10-20% of the hardware device capacity should remain empty to allow the firmware to manage TRIM, cleanup, etc., duties.

To me this means that a 120Gb device has 8 Gb already set-aside, so to be completely save I mentally reserve 20% ... or another 17 Gb. So to me this means that a 120Gb SSD has about 100 Gb of safely usable space.

If you don't care about the lifetime and performance as much you don't have to be this conservative though.

 

anyone here planning or already tried running Microsoft .NET development studio?

i am curious how XPS will perform and how will it affect battery life.

 

Im planning to, but mines only just shipped so I've probably got a week left.

 

Does anyone else have this problem ? I guess many of you are going to get the laptop today or tomorrow. please post pictures and tell us about your experience. for those of us still on the fence, this would help making a decision.

Thanks!

 

I will be running Visual Studio also but who knows when I will get mine.

 

has anyone found a protective case for it yet? Will the old xps 15 shell fit? (the lid part only) it seems like they have the some lid size