XPS 15 (Haswell) Owner's Lounge

I have a few questions:

1. How is the battery life?
2. Are there any professional reviews for this?
3. Is it worth the $1700?
4. Is this one of the top laptops/ultrabooks out there and what is the competition?
5. Anything I should know before purchasing this laptop?

 

Every single one of these questions has been answered many times over in this thread and would show up with some basic searching. And before you say that it's too long to rummage around in, understand that part of the reason it's this long is precisely because people keep asking the same questions and getting the same answers like you're doing and expecting. So many people claim that they don't have time to do the required research (even though they're the ones who stand to benefit) and implicitly seem to assume that everyone else has time to hand them answers that they may already have provided many times over.

But even though this vindicates your assumption:

1. Not great, but not unreasonable given the horsepower. 3-4 hours of typical usage with the smaller battery, maybe 6 with the larger one.
2. CNET and NotebookCheck, though the latter has some content issues since they didn't disable adaptive brightness or splendid mode, and thus their negative impressions of the display are unwarranted.
3. Yes.
4. Retina MacBook Pro. Nothing else has all of the same features in the same package.
5. Coil whine exists and is annoying to some. The QHD+ panel looks great but can be problematic with certain apps, different versions have different hard drive and battery configurations, and you should disable splendid mode on the QHD+ panel (if you order it) and update drivers out of the box. That's about all I can say with a question so broadly worded.

 

That's just a huge problem with the forum format.
Crazysah, take a look here: XPS 15 Wiki, a user has compiled a lot of the answers from this thread into an easier wiki. I'll answer some of your questions anyway, though.

1. The low/mid tiers get anywhere from 3-6 hours (The one that I got only got 3 hours for some reason, others have reported 5+). The top tier has been reported to get 8-9+.
2. Check the wiki, I think there are a couple links there. Or just Google for xps 15 haswell review
3. That's very subjective. You can get lots of machines that have similar specs for half the price, but no other computer that's out right now (except for maybe the 15" MacBook Pro) has this exact combination of specs. You can get better graphics with the same CPU in a Lenovo Y510p for half the price. You can get more portability in pretty much any 13" ultrabook, for half the price. But only this computer has an i7, SSD, 16GB of RAM, 9 hours oh battery life, and all in a 4.4lb package that looks sleek. And THAT is where the value comes from. At that point it just comes down to whether or not you can stomach the price. If you can afford it, it really is a fantastic machine.
4. Only real competition is the MacBook Pro, which costs $300 more, has worse battery life, and won't run Windows as well. (If you're into OS X, that last point might not make a difference to you, but if you bootcamp Windows, then you primarily lose out on battery life because the drivers on the MBP do not conserve power very well). There are many other machines that have similar specs, but they either weigh as much as bricks, are made of plastic, have terrible displays, or have terrible battery life.
5. Read through the wiki.

 

That's annoying, if it's like other LCDs you need to leave the screen off for a day or two and it should disappear.

 

That's just horrible. And after just 2 months too. Is that permanent? I wonder if one of those dead-pixel reviving videos might help (screen flashing different colors at high speed)? I know it's not a dead pixel.

Were those reports regarding the IGZO technology in general, or only with the ones manufactured by Sharp (if there are any other manufacturers)? Any direct links? Edit: a google for "igzo burn-in" was enough ... apparently in the iPad's case, the burnin was not visible to the naked eye, but in your pics of the XPS, it's beyond visible.

I'm forced to wait until March 19 anyway as neither the XPS15 nor the M3800 are available till then, but now I'm glad I'm waiting as I'll be monitoring user reports about this problem ... a complete deal breaker for me. Who would accept this after paying 1800 USD/GBP?

Edit 2: Related: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4034848

 

I received my mid-tier laptop on Friday and I am in love. It's quiet, fast, and it looks great. I'm having trouble getting used to the Touchpad. The way the touchpad extends all the way down into the hardware buttons is taking a lot to get used to. I've been trying to learn the touchpad shortcuts which has helped a little. Is there a way to change the area of the touchpad so the buttons are not included?

 

Congratulations to your new Laptop! You say that your Laptop is quiet, so you are not experiencing any high frequent noise (referred to as "coil whine" in the forum) coming from the laptop??


EDIT: Just came across a folder named "temp1234" which takes up about 600MB in C/temp1234 (further structure: Windows/WinSxS). I have never had such a folder before. Is it safe to delete it and am I the only one who has it?

 

Hello everyone. This is my first post here, although I've read all of the others from the beginning of this thread. I'm eagerly anticipating delivery of my own XPS 15 9530, although it won't be here until March 10, assuming that date stands.

I just wanted to add my two cents to the "burn-in" issue. This isn't anything new with LCD displays, and it isn't traditional burn-in either, or at least not like a plasma display. It is more accurately referred to as image retention or image persistence, and is usually a temporary, rather than permanent situation. There are certain LCD display technologies that seem to be more affected than others, IGZO being one of those. Again, this does not typically result in permanent damage to the display, although it could obviously be annoying.

Having said that, it probably isn't very noticeable unless you're staring at an all white or all black screen, which I'm sure most of us don't do all that regularly.

I'll link to a couple of articles discussing image persistence, what it is and how to prevent it. One of these is on Apple's own site and specifically references iMac and Macbook Pro with Retina display, although the iPad is also known to suffer from this "problem". The Apple article gives tips on how to prevent and rectify the issue on their displays, but I'm sure these would apply to any LCD technology prone to this ghosting.

Avoiding image persistence on Apple displays

A Wikipedia explanation of image persistence as it relates to IGZO and other LCD display technologies as well as the more classic true burn in experienced with phosphor based and plasma display technology.

Image persistence - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Article at MacRumors illustrating the image persistence issue on iPad.

Some Retina iPad Minis Showing Image Retention Issues - Mac Rumors

The moral of the story? Nothing is perfect, and being on the bleeding edge of technology will mostly always involve some kind of trade off. On the bright side, it doesn't appear that this issue will result in any permanent damage. Sure it's annoying, but hopefully it doesn't become anything more than that.

 

I hope you are right and it doesn't get worse. It is only visible on dark images like grey. On white images you can't see it. Still for a 1700€ laptop this is not really acceptable.

 

Hey guys,

How much have you haggled the $2349.99 version down too?
Also, the only difference between the $1949.99 one and the $2349.99 one is the SSD right? Do I lose anything by going with the $1949.99 version?

 

You give up battery too. 61wh vs 91wh.

 

I can buy the battery separately too right?
So, how low have you got down the prices of the $2349.99 and the $1949.99 models?

 

anyone know the best battery settings? optimal

 

Theoretically yes, through Dell Spare Parts. But thus far a few have tried and none have been successful. Everyone has been told that this part simply isn't yet sold separately either due to policy and/or stock issues. Although keep in mind that if you want the larger battery, you'll need to remove the 2.5" drive that will come with the lower-spec models, which means also buying a full-capacity mSATA unit.

"Best" and "optimal" are very subjective. I assume you mean maximizing battery savings, but doing that depends on how much you're willing to tolerate to get it. For example, you could:

- Set the hard drive to spin down after 5 minutes (though that would dramatically increase wear on your hard drive if it's a spinning drive, and if it's an SSD this setting doesn't even matter)
- Set the machine to sleep or even hibernate after a short period; how short can you tolerate? Constant sleep/hibernate and resume cycles can also increase wear on components.
- Set the wireless adapter settings to maximum battery life, if you can handle reduced range and throughput.
- Set the Intel Graphics to maximize battery life
- Set the display to its lowest brightness with adaptive brightness off so it won't increase it automatically
- Set system cooling to passive if you're ok with the throttling that will result under higher loads

 

Agreed, and it's clear that there are QC and supply issues with these new panels. That's mostly Sharp's fault IMHO; I suppose you could blame Dell for launching a product that included such a product before it was ready, but for all I know the initial batches looked great and supply wasn't a concern back then. Fair or not, being on the bleeding edge has almost always involved both high prices AND extra issues. That's just the way it is, even at Apple and even outside the consumer electronics industry in general. Sure there are exceptions of awesome cutting-edge products that work perfectly, but they're just that -- exceptions. But by and large, there are those who are willing to accept potential inconveniences (and pay a premium) in exchange for being among the first to use the latest technology, and there are those who aren't willing to pay the bleeding edge tax and/or just want things to work, even if it means not having the latest and greatest. You just have to decide which camp you're in.

All that said, people with display issues have been successful getting replacement units under warranty, and most if not all reports I've seen on here of such replacements indicate that the second unit was perfect.

 

My top tier finally arrived on 1/24 (ordered on 12/11).

That's the good news; here's the rest after 48 hours of light use

1. Screen flickering (periodically, screen goes black for <1 sec then comes back): One two occasions, the screen went completely black and would flicker back to life every few seconds. I solved it with a hard restart.

2. Touchpad stops registering clicks: This one only happened once, but when it did, I could move the mouse around just fine but none of the clicks anywhere on the pad were being registered. While this happened, the touchscreen exhibited a similar problem, where it would register swipes but not clicks. Again, solved with a hard restart.

3. Video stuttering: I consider this to be a major issue and will return the laptop if I can't get this one resolved almost immediately. I can't watch a streaming video in fullscreen without constant stuttering. I've employed the following troubleshooting so far:

- Updated video card drivers
- Downloaded the latest version of flash
- Tried multiple browsers
- Changed the power saver settings (battery and plugged in) to max performance
- Dropped the screen resolution to 1600x900
- Ensured that video had fully loaded (not an internet connection issue)

Nothing works. Does anyone have any other troubleshooting ideas before I call Dell? I understand that the video card is driving an awful lot of pixels, but if this is the performance I can expect, I will be much happier with a lower res machine.

 

tl;dr version: Never buy the first version of anything if you're not willing to potentially experience hiccups, issues etc with a brand new design

Sounds like I'm one of the lucky ones but only issue I'm having is with throttling with gaming and CPU/GPU running full tilt. Awaiting a Thermaltake cooling pad from Ebay that I'm pretty sure will rectify that issue. It's also been made clear in reviews and other correspondence that this is not built to be a high end gaming PC. Overall I'm extremely pleased with my order and as others have said there is literally no other option available for the feature set in the 9530

 

As of January 27th, I finally received my top tier XPS 15 which I had ordered a month ago (Dec 28th).

I haven’t been using the device intensively but I’ve pretty much spent the whole day uninstalling, installing, configuring applications I need. Mainly, for design, photography, architecture and music related work.

Following is a brief summary of what I did and things I want to comment on.
Due to the High Resolution, I’ve set the Windows scaling to 166% which should equal 1080p. If I take a closer look, I see icons not being sharp which do not support high DPI. I did try various scaling but 200% was way too big for me, that’s why I ended up with 166%.

Here is a brief list of applications which I’ve installed and comments to each one (at scaling 166%):
- Chrome - usable
As some of you already mentioned, Chrome has issues with high DPI displays. Text is unclear, not unreadable, but clearly visible. Trying out the same page on Internet Explorer 11 shows the difference in sharpness. But I won’t be using the Internet Explorer just because of this reason.
- Microsoft Office (Excel, PowerPoint, Word) – very usable
I am currently writing this short review in Word 2013 and at the above mentioned 166% scaling, it is more than acceptable. Clear and sharp fonts. This is actually an application which makes good use of high resolution displays.
I haven’t made PowerPoint presentations yet, but I guess if Word works just fine, that it’ll be the same with PowerPoint and Excel.

ARCHITECTURE / DESIGN APPLICATIONS
- Rhinoceros 5 (64 bit) – small icons but usable depending on your Rhinoceros “skills”
Rhinoceros 5 has similar issues to Photoshop and other Adobe apps I’ve installed but the difference is that I use Rhino with shortcuts only. Most commands are entered rather than by clicking on icons. So, it is quite ok for me. I had to adjust the font size in the options tab in order to make the fonts get smaller but now, it actually looks quite ok.
- Autodesk AutoCAD 2014 (64 bit) – usable
AutoCAD looks quite ok. I have the feeling that the appearance could be sharper but it’s acceptable.
Similar to Rhinoceros 5, I had to adjust the font size of command text in the options menu. And in addition, I had to enlarge the size of snaps, crosshair and so on.
- SketchUp - usable
Icons are pretty small, even when the standard “bigger icons” is checked. Thing with SketchUp is that it is quite a simple program so most of its functions are available via keyboard shortcuts. For me, SketchUp isn’t a big issue since I only use it for getting sample models from the Warehouse.
- Adobe Master Collection (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, After Effects, Premiere Pro) – well, not quite usable unless you are just fine with super small icons and tabs.
Well, I’ve searched on Google to find out if there is any possible tweak for this issue and as of January 2014, there seems to be no solution. If I am wrong, please let me know!
Adobe apps will be usable if you know the shortcuts of the commands you use most of the times. For adjusting or entering values, you will have to take a closer look at the display in order to find out what you’re actually doing.
I was really looking forward to use this laptop for architecture/design related work. It’s a pity that Adobe applications aren’t somehow tweakable. If it were so, I would be ok to overcome the time until solutions to each application will be released.

MUSIC APPLICATIONS
- Ableton Live 9 - usable
Similar to some apps mentioned above, it’s unsharp but pretty much usable.
Sharpness is the only thing bothering but it will do.

- Traktor 2 – Usable
If I set the app to ignore high DPI scaling, it’s way too small.
With that setting off, it’s usable and since in Traktor, sharpness of the display isn’t that important, I will be ok using it until an update is available.
- iTunes - usable
Icons and tabs are at an adequate size but everything’s a bit unsharp.

From time to time, I play League of Legends with friends. It seems to have an issue with the high resolution display, but inside the game, at full resolution or at 1920x1080 it seemed to work fine.

Tomorrow, I will install Adobe Lightroom, which I forgot to install today, but I assume it’ll have the same problem as other Adobe apps.


A few words about the main issues other mentioned multiple times:

- Coil whine: Yes, I do have that coil whine. I didn’t hear it until I put my ears next to the bottom part of the laptop. In normal use, I shouldn’t be able to hear that.
- Display: So far, I have found one dead pixel but for me one is ok.
Regarding display color, I did change from vivid color appearance to normal. When I compare the XPS 15’s display color to the one from the Dell U2412M, Dell XPS 13 or the Dell XPS 17, it seems to be a bit yellowish?! Yes, a little bit. You don’t really see it when solely looking at the XPS 15 display but as soon as you directly compare it to the others, you’ll recognize it. I am not sure if all displays are like this. I will call Dell and ask them regarding this issue.

- Keyboard: Keyboard is ok. It takes a bit getting used to it. Not similar to my XPS 13 keyboard. A bit stiffer and I am not used to the distance of keys compared to the one in the XPS 13 or XPS 17. After a while, I’ll be fine with this.
I have one issue with the keyboard: The ‘ or “ key doesn’t work that well when pressing softly. Only recognized medium to strong key strokes. Another issue to address Dell.

- Battery: Until now, no clue how it performs.
- Wi-Fi: I have no troubles with Wi-Fi connection. Steady transfer speeds and no disconnections.

Some of you recently talked about bags/sleeves for the XPS 15.
I bought the Incase City Brief 15” for MBP and my XPS 15 wouldn’t fit in it. So I got the Incase City Field bag and it is quite ok. A very little bit hard when putting the laptop into the dedicated compartment inside the bag but it offers more than enough space for other things such as the AC adapter, mouse, mouse pad, external HDD/SSD and so on. So, I am satisfied with the size of the bag and the amount I can carry around with it.

So this is pretty much what I experienced with my XPS 15 within 18 hours.

If I have mistaken something, please let me know.

 

The Notebookcheck review about M3800 is out, but it's only in German:

Test Dell Precision M3800 Workstation - Notebookcheck.com Tests

But it's very helpful to understand the difference between batteries 61WHr and 91WHr.
It seems confirmed the short battery life of 61WHz it's just 3h 29min while surfing via WLAN, the XPS15 in the same situation can do 8h 50min, most likely the guilty is HDD (just a my speculation).

The other point where I see a big difference is in the generated external heat, on the point where there is max temp on chassis XPS15 has a 27.5°C more than M3800, that's almost unbelievable.
I was thinking a some kind of mistake, but I have seen data about power consumption, M3800 has a max power consumption of 87.6Watt while XPS15 has a max power consumption of 115.2Watt, so we are speaking of 27.6Watt more than M3800! This big increase in power consumption can justify the big difference in generated heat.

Here the link for XPS15 9530 review by Notebookcheck:
Review Dell XPS 15 (9530, Late 2013) Notebook - NotebookCheck.net Reviews

 

Okay guys, I think I'm going to go for this laptop then.

How much can I haggle down the $2,349.99 and the $1,949.99 models too?
And the only difference is HDD vs SSD and 61wh vs 91wh (how much battery life is that?)

 

Post #3370 mentions the battery life of the smaller and bigger one!

 

NotebookCheck posted an English translation of that review which has been linked somewhere in here, but I'm too lazy to find it. I agree the power figures are farther than I'd expect, but given that NotebookCheck's impressions of the display were affected by the fact that they didn't disable adaptive brightness or splendid mode, I'm skeptical of their testing thoroughness, so I'd take that review with a grain of salt.

That display impression isn't too surprising. Lots of displays are configured to present a cooler color temperature (i.e. a bluish tinge) because people tend to find that appealing, whereas a yellowish tinge indicates a warmer color temperature. Given how accurate this display is with splendid mode disabled, I'm betting that that accounts for the difference and that technically the problem is with your OTHER laptops.

Awesome post, btw! That should help a lot of people. I just didn't want to quote the entire thing.

 

It's to soon for the review of M3800 in English (just yesterday German review was out), but with Chrome you can obtain a English translation not perfect, but enough to understand the most.
We don't know if they have disabled adaptive brightness, but we know that in the default power profile (DELL) adaptive brightness is set to off, maybe there is chance for splendid color because to default is set to on.
So it's not probable that adaptive brightness is set to on in the review even because if you change the power profile you would immediately notice the different brightness.
Also this third review confirms the wide range in max brightness, it's not a issue, I have already seen that, if fact this is the reason because exists calibration and it's useless to transfer a calibrated profile to different machine from where it's made.

 

Great, Thank you!

 

Sorry, I was thinking of NotebookCheck's review of the XPS 15, seeing as this is the XPS 15 thread. We'll see what happens with the M3800, but the XPS 15 review cited mediocre display brightness and color accuracy (even after calibration) even though the QHD+ display has proven to be one of the brightest and most color-accurate panels available (even without calibration) -- as long as you disable adaptive brightness and splendid mode.

 

Sorry to repeat my question:

Is there anybody here who knows whether it is safe to delete the Folder "temp1234" (takes up around 600 MB space on the SSD)? I don't know where it Comes from or what it's good for...

Thanks in advance!

 

I don't have that folder on mine, so I guess this is related to something you've installed? You'd assume it's assume it's safe to delete, with a name like that, but I wouldn't like to say for sure.

 

Warning! Do not try to activate HiDPI support on the last version of Chrome (released today), it become unusable and even difficult to uninstall, because you are no more able to click on dialog window for uninstallation, you have to delete Chrome setting folder to restore the control on Chrome.

 

Thank you very much for your help! Yeah, in my opinion it would be safe to delete it. (Considering that the whole structure of the folder is: C/temp1234/Windows/winsxs which can also be found in C/Windows/winsxs (which i definitely will not delete!), I assume that it is just a temporary folder whose content is not of any use. I just don't want to delete anything I could regret later on.

Perhaps any other opinions?

 

I'm gonna ask again, whats the best price I can get for the too two models? Is it possible to get the top tier one for less than $2,000? With all discounts and all?

 

Battery charge configuration (it's a BIOS setting) is completely without effect.
I have set custom mode, so I have set max level to 90% and to do not charge until level is higher than 50%.
Instead now my level is grown from 79% to 81%, this is in contrast to setting.
So I imagine that the life of battery on every XPS15/M3800 will not be much long.

Edit: my level is already at 92% even this in contrast to setting.

 

If you want to be cautious, rename the folder and see if anything breaks over the next few days. If not, delete it.

 

You do realize that people with different situations will get different prices, right? Such as different countries, access to Premier corporate or employee purchase accounts, access to educational discounts (all of which vary based on the business/educational institution), etc. Just because someone else got a particular discount doesn't mean you'll be able to. Buying a laptop isn't like buying a car. Look for discount codes online if you want, but otherwise I don't understand why you're still here thinking that the retail price doesn't apply to you even if you're not eligible for the other things I just mentioned.

I'm sorry if that comes off as harsh, but you've shown a shocking unwillingness to do any research of your own on any aspect of this system. Just asking questions and waiting for answers to be handed to you doesn't count as research.

 

Just a quick FYI for anyone buying from Costco, it does come with a year of Dell at home warranty service. I ordered a top tier model from costco around thanksgiving, recieved the computer middle of December, and received a letter last week from Dell regarding the in-home service warranty plan.

 

I understand what you're saying but some people here may know some discounts that others don't know and may specific chat representatives thing can give the best price.

Like just by talking to two different representatives, I got the top model down to about $2,150 or so.

 

Try B&amp;H Photo, they have mid range.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

I doubt I'll be paying 1800 GBP to watch my laptop sit for two days unused periodically. I've never had to do anything like that with any of my laptops until now (which I have been using daily for 10+ years).

You work for DELL and have been defending DELL in all your posts (which is fine by me) but I must disagree with the mentality you support, as was the one regarding throttling, which you called "a fact of life".

It is not at all my intent to attack you; I'd just like to comment on a kind of pattern I notice in some of your answers. Although you admit things may be better, you ultimately pass some responsibility and blame onto the buyer for not weighing the risks in advance. The problem is that in this case those risks are hidden. This isn't an honest risk game like poker where the risks are known and undeniable. Here we have DELL who asks for 1800 GBP for this product, promising top quality and performance, but does not inform of these issues, which are certainly not exhibited by all laptops. If DELL was to inform me of these issues before I fork out my money, and then I still pay 1800 GBP and buy it, then yes, DELL, you and anyone else will have the right to tell me that I can't really complain because it was my choice for doing so since it was an informed decision.

I still very much appreciate you are taking the time to reply to everyone here, and be verbose, and still believe you're doing Dell a great service, but I cannot help observe some unfair blame and/or responsibility being passed onto the buyer for not figuring out some major yet hidden risks by himself when buying the latest technology in a powerful machine which was advertised by DELL as providing top notch performance and quality ...

(*) In my opinion, these are issues and not "facts of life", as long as other laptops do not exhibit these issues and companies promise top quality and performance.

Bluntly put, at this price point, all this is unacceptable. If these problems are isolated and Dell replaces defect units with problem-free ones (and keeps mum regarding risks if said risks were not made known before purchasing) then I have absolutely no problem. I really hope that's the case.

You mentioned replacement displays were perfect but I failed to see in this thread people returning any laptops because of the burn-in issue. I'd be interested in reading those posts as that would show the problem is not with the technology but with Dell and can be fixed through a replacement, which would be great news. Can you point me to those posts?

I once again thank you for your time spent in this thread and hope you'll have a great career at DELL.

Cheers

 

Interesting. There are a few differences in terms of power conusmption between the M3800 and the XPS15.

- The Quadro is a 45W chip whereas the Geforce is 37W (they are both based on the same Kepler GK107 core, but the Geforce has a few parts disabled in hardware). So +7W difference.
- A 2.5" single platter HDD would be around 2.3W.
- They ran the screen of the M3800 at 164 cd/m2 as opposed to 150 cd/m2 in the XPS15 review.
- The only place where the M3800 may sink less current is the GDDR5. In the M3800 it's clocked at 2800 MHz, whereas the GDDR5 in the XPS15 is clocked at 5000 MHz.

So I'd say somewhere between 10W more consumption on the M3800, which would make it equivalent to the XPS15 from the same review but with a 51 Whr battery instead of 91 Whr. Given the XPS scored 8h50m battery time in the WLAN test, you'd expect about 51/91 * (8*60+50) = 297 min = approx 6h

The WiFi card may influence things too. If the received signal strength from the AP is poor, the card does consumes more instantaneous power (more complex decoding in the PHY layer, may also transmit at higher power if it's adaptive). But that test visits a page only once every 40 seconds, so I don't expect much difference (wifi beacons are standard, sent with the same modulation every 100ms -- the real culprit of wifi power consumption -- so similar power consumption in both cases even if signal strength is different).

I thus wonder why they got only 3h and not 6h?

The reader's test (no WLAN) also shows a big difference : 6h25 vs 8h55 (= 14h10 * 51/91).

Something's going on there. What am I missing? Could the CPU have been in a different actual state by mistake the whole time?

 

Hi I tried renaming, deleting, as well as moving the folder.
None of it seemed to be working- "you don't have the necessary rights for this action- only "trusted installer"can do this" . (Please correct me if I am wrong in quoting this message- I am from Germany, so I get it in German.)

What can I do about this now since no one seems to have this folder on his/her unit?
Perhaps it is there because of a faulty installation?

Thanks in advance!

 

This has been the case for a while. What seems to be the best solution at present is to create a shortcut for Chrome and on the shortcuts properties, Compatibility tab, disable Windows scaling for it. THEN you can enable Google's HiDPI support. Still looks a bit ropey, but a lot better than it does otherwise.

 

im seeing this same error pop up when playing BF4, it was using only about 1gb of the memory. any one know why this happens?

also, i cant seem to find any scaling settings/options in the nvidia control panel, why is that? i change the resolution on BF4 so something smaller than 3200x1800 and it does no fit the game to screen but rather turns it into a small box

 

I was very close to buying this beauty for several reasons but ended up buying a Razer Blade 14 to replace my antiquated XPS M1530.

If the XPS 15 had a GTX 765M or better, I'd have bought it in a heartbeat, but seeing that it would cannibalize Alienware 14 sales, I don't see it happening at all.

Still, no doubt I'd have enjoyed my purchase had I bought the XPS 15. Very nice premium laptop as usual.

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

 

Sorry, but I have to correct some point.
GT750m has a TDP of 50W (but I suspect that is more) keep in mind that while K1100m has a clock of 706MHz the GT750m has a clock of 941MHz and 1058MHz in turbo mode.
The small battery (used on review of M3800) has a capacity of 61WHr instead of 51WHr.
Moreover Nvidia GPU does not have any role in battery test called surfing via WLAN, because it's not used.
We are speaking of the same reviewer so I think it's obvious that they are using the same location and the same AP to test both M3800 and XPS15, also XPS15 and M3800 use the same 7260AC card.

 

Let me begin by saying that I don't work for Dell, nor do I intend this post to be in any particular individual's defence.

Having said that, with regard to jphughan's statements referencing the pitfalls of early adoption, I have to agree. I've been an early adopter of technology for as long as I can remember. I've had good luck with emerging tech and I've had my share of bad luck.

Remember VHS and Beta? I had both, knowing full well that one would probably lose out eventually. HD-DVD? Check! These are just two of the obvious examples of making informed decisions and still choosing to buy. If you've ever heard the term "buyer beware", that's all I'm saying.

Most manufacturers will not openly disclose that their product offering has a downside. In the case of IGZO (and other display technologies for that matter), they'll tell you how accurate the color is, how bright the display, how high the resolution, etc. The rest is up to us as consumers, to discover for ourselves. The two best ways I know of to do this are to either purchase said product outright and experience all the joy and pain of ownership firsthand, or do some research before we buy.

This is 2014. There is no shortage of information concerning display technology, including IGZO, online. In a previous post, I linked to 3 separate articles detailing potential image retention on these types of displays and how to avoid and reverse it. It's not rocket science.

Armed with this easily accessible knowledge, have I chosen to avoid IGZO or the XPS 9530? Hell no! It's a great machine with a beautiful display. Will I avoid leaving the screen on with a static image for extended periods of time while I'm not actively using it? Yup.

You can't blame the laptop or display manufacturer for the image retention issue. It's a caveat of the technology in use. If you'd rather avoid it, you buy a machine with a 1366x768 or 1080p resolution, not one of the current Retina or QHD displays. That's just how it is. It's not a defect, it's how it works.

If you get a screen with pressure points, excessive amounts of dead pixels, dust under the glass, etc., then those are bona-fide defects that warrant replacement. I suspect, that if push comes to shove, anyone that is truly disappointed with their QHD display and it's inherent image retention problems can probably just return the machine for refund.

Hitting hardware manufacturers in their wallets is the best way to voice your displeasure with their product, after all.

Hopefully everyone that is experiencing image retention on their HiDPI displays, Retina or otherwise, can find a solution that works for them.

I sincerely hope these discussions help anyone considering a purchase of said display technologies, enabling them to make better decisions as informed consumers.

Cheers!

 

The burn-in issue hadn't been reported in this thread before (to my knowledge), but that doesn't change the fact that that owner should have no issue getting a replacement unit, just as others who have had issues with dust, pressure points, etc have been able to.

As for throttling, we've already gone back and forth about this via PM. Your point is that you're paying a premium and therefore shouldn't have to deal with throttling and that it isn't disclosed to you. My point is that the premium you're paying isn't for anti-throttling but rather getting high-end hardware in a thin, light, and beautiful package. That package does NOT exhibit throttling for everybody, fwiw, but yes, it does seem to happen to some. The reality is that for most people's intended usage (ignoring certain units which exhibited severe throttling and warranted replacement components), throttling won't be an issue and may never in fact be encountered. Sure it might be nice if Dell and everyone else had asterisks saying, "Processor/GPU may throttle under load", but you can hardly blame Dell exclusively for being silent on that point; nobody includes notes like that. The Retina MBP is known to throttle and even drain the battery while plugged into AC under heavy load, and you don't see Apple mentioning that anywhere. It's also worth noting that a) the CPU doesn't seem to throttle under load ever, and b) Dell doesn't publish exact GPU clocks, possibly because they don't WANT to guarantee a certain level of performance (and not all manufacturers clock the same GPU at the same speed in their products, so you can't assume a certain clock based on a particular GPU). Despite the fact that I do work for Dell as you point out, I have no idea whether what I just said is accurate, nor am I authorized to speak for Dell. I work as an Infrastructure Systems Engineer with no ties to any product engineering departments and am here purely because I'm a notebook enthusiast, not because I work for Dell -- which allows me freedom to call them out for things they do that I think are boneheaded, like having splendid mode enabled by default and buried in an unintuitive location.

At the end of the day, manufacturers will never tell you everything you may want to know to make an informed decision, partly because not everybody is interested in reading information at that level of detail -- but fortunately for those of us who like to know a lot before purchasing, forums such as these exist to aid in the informed decision aspect. But you can't simply say, "I'm paying a lot of money for this product, therefore this behavior [or lack thereof] is unacceptable." Your money goes toward different aspects for different products. If you buy a Mercedes S-Class, you're spending money on luxury, so you shouldn't expect it to run fantastic lap times on a track. If you want that, spend the same amount of money on a Corvette Z06, but then don't expect the same level of interior and comfort as the Mercedes. By the same token, as I already mentioned via PM, if you want a machine that is better about managing throttling, like the Precision M 4800 that has more space for higher-capacity cooling (and also gives you a faster GPU).

And again, as I also mentioned via PM, I don't know of a system that delivers this grade of CPU and GPU in this type of package that doesn't exhibit throttling. If you know of one, then it sounds like that's what you should buy. If you don't, then I don't think it's fair for you to keep complaining that this system throttles, especially since it may not even be POSSIBLE with today's technology to deliver a system just like the XPS 15/M3800 that doesn't throttle. Product design involves tradeoffs, and Dell may have accepted some level of throttling in order to realize other priorities in this particular product. If their priorities with this system don't align with yours, then that's fine. You have other options. But it seems at this point you're faulting Dell for not designing this specific system to your particular set of priorities, which is unreasonable IMHO. Diversity of customer priorities is why there are different types of laptops, so perhaps you should simply look elsewhere at this point.

 

Hmm, well if you're familiar with taking ownership of a folder in its NTFS permissions, you could do that to rename it. However, I'm not sure whether the Security tab of the folder properties window even exists under 8.1 Core. It does on 8.1 Pro, but on Windows 7 that tab wasn't available unless you were running Windows 7 Professional or higher.

But as a last resort, I think it's likely safe to delete. Another alternative would be copying the folder to an external medium and then deleting it from the internal drive, so that you could restore it if needed, but the same permissions issue you're encountering trying to rename it might prevent you from even reading it unless you took ownership of the folder.

 

About throttling:
there are examples of laptops with higher GPU and higher CPU, with no throttling or irrelevant throttling while performing test like Prime95+Furmark:

Review Razer Blade 14 Notebook - NotebookCheck.net Reviews
4702HQ+GTX765m

Review Gigabyte P34G Notebook - NotebookCheck.net Reviews
4700HQ+GTX760m

They are both 14" laptop and the form factor is equivalent to XPS15 9530.
I want remember that XPS15 9530 could have thermal shutdown on the same test not a simple throttling.

Review Dell XPS 15 (9530, Late 2013) Notebook - NotebookCheck.net Reviews

 

I stand corrected. In that case, mastabog, it seems either of these may be a better fit for your needs and expectations.

 

Thanks, taking ownership of the folder has finally solved the issue!- I managed to move the folder to my USB-stick. The next days will show whether any problems occur.

Thank you very much for your support!