XPS 15 (Haswell) Owner's Lounge

guess mine will arrive after remembrance day


Nov 8, 2013 2:13 p.m. Calgary, AB Arrived at sort facility
Nov 8, 2013 2:12 p.m. Calgary, AB Picked up by Purolator
Nov 6, 2013 12:19 a.m. U.S.A. Ground Linehaul Departed sort facility
Nov 6, 2013 12:18 a.m. Purolator Shipping label created

 

I ordered on 10/29

Mine says shipped today FedEx tracking has it in TN. Delivery scheduled for Monday.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N900A using Tapatalk

 

I just got an update on my order and it's will now be here(Atlanta, GA) on 11/11. It is the top end configuration ordered on 10/29 with an original arrival date of 11/22.

 

How were u notified or r u like me hitting F5 every minute on ur order status?

Thx

PS-anyone here use WD MyCloud?

 

Glad to see some Candadians starting to get shipment information. What was your order date? (Mine was 10/28) Which model did you get? (I ordered the mid tier)

 

Quick update:

Touchscreen is working in Linux kernel 3.12 that was recently released. Tested in Fedora 21 rawhide on kernel 3.12.0-1.fc21.x86_64.

Now I just need to figure out the nvidia drivers since I am running into the 'no screens found' error. I have seen a lot of people reporting this error on kernel 3.11 and newer for the 750m and 765m and it looks like nvidia needs to release an update to their driver binaries so probably all we can do is wait. If I can't get them working I will just use bumblebee to disable the nvidia adapter to save power since I don't really want it on anyway.

 

Ummmm..... they sent me an email.

 

For those of you who have received your systems, I am curious about the power cord running from the wall into the transformer brick. Is it the standard 3-prong fitting (looks like a clover or mickey mouse)? I am interested to know about replacing just that cord, I currently live in the US am soon moving overseas to a country with UK-style outlets. Thanks!

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/del...ntel-haswell-2013-refresh-70.html#post9441261

Pics of the powerbrick on the other thread.

Would have been easier if there weren't 2 threads. I've asked the mods to close/merge/move/whatever the other thread a few times now and no response. Urgh.

 

Okay this is DUMB DUMB DUMB!!

If you don't select HOME.. and choose FOR WORK.. then select XPS 15.. the high end spec is available.. except with Windows 8 PRO vs regular WIN 8 for 100.00 more.

So everything is in stock.. unless they ran out of Windows 8 and only have PRO licenses available..(we know that's not happening) with an expected ship date of: Ship Date: 11/29/2013

 

ordered it on the first day. back on oct 18

 

Did you have to tweek the bios boot settings? I've got 2 usb sticks, one 3.0 and one 2.0 and they both hang and never get to the 'try' umbuntu screen.

Do I have to set these?

•Set Secure Boot Control -> Disabled
•Set Boot Mode -> Legacy

 

Yes. I just set the boot mode to legacy mode. I don't have any need for secureboot or UEFI since I don't dual boot. If you use a distribution with signed boot keys you should not have to disable secureboot, but I like to play around with different kernels and they are not always signed so I had to disable those settings.

 

**** dell, canceled my order in error. Had to reorder, now delivery date is pushed back by a month.

 

Yes, we got the reports. For reasons that should be obvious we can't merge the threads. (Think about it, no really. Think about it and what the end result would be).

As for closing the other thread... why? There are people happy to only post on that thread. And there are those who post on this and that thread. If we drive them all here, next complaint we'll get is that this thread moves too fast because there are too many posts making it harder to follow. And then you get the insults hurled at people who asked a question that was just answered a few pages back.

And look, I mean, just have a look at the post above this one. The poster is quipping that Dell cancelled his order... in an owner's thread. You know, a thread for people who own it and not on the verge of owning it. Are we to police those kinds of posts too? Perhaps we could make an official, "Not yet an owner's lounge?"

Moral of the story... go with the flow. Think of it as giant Twitter feeds.

 

Fair enough. I get why the threads can't be merged I was just thinking it was getting pretty confusing with people posting their thoughts/impressions in both threads, that's all. Only thing we can do is encourage people to post those things here *shrugs*

I guess the XPS11/13 are still yet to come out, as well...

 

So just ordered mine... how is preliminary battery life so far on the 91 max spec?

I happened to have one saved in my cart from yesterday.. so even though it didn't show up on the page anymore (and the rep I was chatting with wouldn't cut me any deal with a business one, but I had some discounts on the other one), I ordered the saved one.. ship date was 12/2

Seems weird to me that the same hardware specs have different ship dates, and that I could order a non existant sku now. May cancel it if something interesting comes out (XPS 13 anyone?, maybe m3800?)

 

Thanks, I'm able to boot into Umbuntu now with just the usb stick. Its amazing how many hardware features are supported right out of the box. I set the resolution to 1920x1080 (same 16:9 aspect ratio) for my middle-aged eyes, and everything looks great.

 

For those of you opting for the smaller battery + HDD, I just upgraded the small 32gb msata to a 256gb boot drive. It's a bit of a pain. A few notes from my day today that may save someone some grief..

- 32gb msata is raided to the 1tb hdd. You have to de-raid them in bios before you begin, or bad things happen when you try to upgrade. : ) Make sure sata mode is set to ahci before you start.
- Tear-down guide is in the owners manual on the dell site. Swapping msata is pretty simple if you've done similar stuff. Bottom pops off after removing several T5 torx screws and releasing tabs around the carbon fiber bottom with a plastic pry tool, or guitar pick.
- You don't have to remove the battery. Just carefully disconnect the power connector. Then remove the ribbon cable over the msata.
- Dell oem windows 8.1 key isn't written anywhere on the machine. You have to use a program or script to find it.
- Dell oem key will not work with the windows 8.1 download tool. Torrents are your friend.
- Installed W8.1 edition is core, not pro. Choose your iso accordingly.
- use windows 7 iso to usb tool to make usb install media
- Dell oem key will not work for W8.1 clean install. You have to find another key to install with, then switch to your oem key after install, but before activation. Make sure it is a core edition key.
- Boot priority is F12 on startup
- W8.1 installer text is hilariously small in 1800p. Get a magnifying glass if your eyesight isn't good.
- All the latest drivers and bios update are on the dell site.

It's a bit of a hassle, but man.. totally worth it. This thing is screaming fast now, w/ 1.25tb of storage. Now to install Adobe Creative Suite...

 

Instead of changing the resolution try making the changes recommended in this link. That should make the text easier to read but still keep the default resolution.
http://askubuntu.com/questions/19770/how-do-i-change-fonts-and-adjust-their-size

You can follow these steps to fix the scaling in firefox:
https://github.com/gnome-integration-team/firefox-gnome/issues/196

I am still looking for a good workaround to get chrome to scale to the default resolution.

 

Question: Is the displayport 1.2? Support daisy chaining? I can't find any documentation on it to be sure either way.

 

Thanks a lot for this, I plan on doing the same with my 80gb msata drive, so knowing that it works is great. I should probably order some T5 screwdrivers though.

 

This is a naive but do you have to reinstall windows? Can you use clonezilla to clone the 32gb to the new 256gb without changing the raid?

 

Ordered mid spec October 23rd.
Anyone in Canada have it yet? Mine will probably arrive Monday or Tuesday.

Nov 8, 2013 5:12 p.m. Toronto Sort Ctr/ctr Tri, ON Departed sort facility
Nov 8, 2013 5:00 p.m. Toronto Sort Ctr/ctr Tri, ON Arrived at sort facility
Nov 8, 2013 4:59 p.m. Toronto Sort Ctr/ctr Tri, ON Picked up by Purolator
Nov 5, 2013 11:33 p.m. U.S.A. Ground Linehaul Departed sort facility
Nov 5, 2013 11:32 p.m. Purolator Shipping label created

Does anyone have a good case for it? Please post links.

 

Don't think so. As shipped, the 32gb drive is a cache, only. You can't even see it in windows until you turn off raid. Anyway there's nothing on it to clone. Windows is on the HDD. I don't think you could clone HDD to msata either. Windows configures itself differently on SSDs than HDDs. Anyway, it's worth the trouble to be free from all the bloatware and Dell branded crap.

 

Welcome to 2013. Ever tried using an Android device without a gmail ID or MAC OSX without and Apple ID?? Exactly, can't blame the OS when features designed for registered users require an ID.

We're all at the mercy of Google to update Chrome to handle high res apps. The same thing happened when Apple released the rMBP last year

 

If I say XPS Badge...what comes to mind for u All? I am working on a theory here...I think someone across the way on the other forum is passing pics purportedly to be the new Haswell but I believe it's a phoney.

So...what is an XPS Badge?

 

Chrome looks pretty good scaled at 200%. Not bad at all. But I gotta say, IE is spectacular. Text anti-aliasing is perfect. I've never seen text look so good on screen. As a designer, it almost hurts to say it. Still not sure if I will switch, though. After all the pain that browser has put me through..

 

What? What are you on about? Link?

 

10 point screen tested.

 

Booo. My computer's at the local facility about 1/2 hour from my house, but since Saturday isn't a 'Business Day' it's going to sit there until Monday.

 

Glad that helped you!

The Synaptics touchpad drivers were great except that only like the right 60% of the right mouse button worked for me

So maveric101 and I both have had laggy experiences with Firefox, does anyone else have the same thing? IE/Chrome/Opera are all fine. Even using the touch screen to scroll w/ Firefox is ok, so I'm wondering if it has something to do with the touchpad?

Put the laptop through some real work usage today - VS2013 and the WP8 emulator work great. Not sure about the exact battery life, but maybe 5-6 hours with heavy usage (VS/Hyper-V/music/chrome/firefox open)?

So far definitely a keeper. The keyboard feel and touchpad are probably my only main gripes, but hopefully I'll get used to them over time.

 

What kind of 'gains' and 'losses' do you get from this?

Definitely finding it hard to move around on the touchpad right now, like if you need to click links or stuff, select many individual files as a group etc.

Are you on the large battery?

Did you try desktop Chrome and apps Chrome? When I went on apps Chrome and tried to sync my tabs from google, it opened them but all I got was a blank page (almost like full screen view) and I couldn't see any tabs. Relaunching (as apps) was okay, but if you scaled anything (like 175 or 200) there and then relaunched as desktop Chrome, it keeps the scaling and so becomes unusable without manual (page by page) zooming back out (to 100). But then in desktop Chome won't show me tab labels, it bunches them up on the left side of the screen (I have maybe 20/25 tabs out, this never happened in Windows 7).

Seems like you can only choose one from apps vs desktop? What are the differences? Sorry noob Windows 8 user here. Maybe IE is better? Haven't tested Firefox.

 

Same here. I called Fedex and they had a logical explaination why I couldn't pick it up. Monday's the day.

 

Ok regarding wifi this isn't definitive but may helps all those L521x owners.

This is via speedtest:

L521x ping of 24 max download speed today and for the last 16 months since I have had my xps 8.5mbps
Haswell XPS ping of 10ms download speed of 16.62Mbps

This is using a standard wireless N router. I have bought a d6300 AC modem/router but are yet to plugged in. Can't wait to see what it can achieve with AC and beamforming.

Also now that I have removed the crazy window 8 login screen my load times to desktop from starting the laptop are amazing.

Having also replaced windows 8 start menu with the windows 7 version I am now 110% happy with this laptop. Screen is amazingly clear and bright and keyboard is great and really easy to type on quickly.

Don't think you could ask for more

Just one thing I agree it is weird hearing the fan turn on. Came on for the first time since I have received the laptop 48 hours+ ago when installing new graphics card drivers. I don't think it is that loud and is more of a whoosh of air rather than a fan noise but just surprising due to it being dead quiet at all other times.

 

Mine is in production and scheduled for 3 dec. It is top spec, looks like I got my order in just before that version vanished from the dell website.

Any more info on real-world battery life with light/moderate use?

Anyone run 3dmark11 to see how the gddr5 does with the 750m?

How about a pcmark07 test?

Windows experience test?

Thanks!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

I wouldn't install Windows 7... Let us know what happens.

So you aren't using it in a raid anymore? So basically you have windows installed on the msata and your hard drive as your data d:\ drive?

 

It might have been bit premature, as the windows failed to load the driver configuration screen after the reboot (it may has to do with Setpoint for my rather buggy logitech mouse, though). After running the synaptic driver installer (didn't actually have to reinstall) and rebooting, it is working again. I didn't have any problem with right clock. By the way, Firefox is working perfectly for me, and this is with many extensions (including Zotero, which is one of the heaviest extensions around).

"Enchanced" driver gives you gesture controls.

The original driver gives you the ability to fine-tune many more settings (especially useful for accidental tap prevention, as XPS lacks shortcut to disable trackpad), ability to use side areas of the trackpad for scrolling (I actually prefer circular scrolling of my old Alps over two-finger scrolling or this, but I know this is Synaptic). I believe it also gives you "four finger swipe to task switcher" function, which is very useful (the enhanced driver may had this one). My impression is that "enhanced" one is designed for Metro, whereas the original is made for desktops. Anyway, with the enhanced driver, I was struggling with erratic clicking, and also its tendency to enter zoom mode when I am not trying to (very annoying). I don't suffer any of these problems with synaptic driver.

Technically, you don't have to reinstall windows. Many of the recent cloning software are SSD aware, so they will automatically fix disc alignment as it goes. UEFI/GPT of newer laptops make it difficult to clone -- but some software (such as the one made by Paragon) are supposed to be able to handle them fine. Paragon is coming out is the version that supports Windows 8.1 soon, I believe. There are not much bloatware aside from Mcafee.

At the default configuration, 32gb SSD is set up as Intel RST cache. You will have to first disable Intel RST on Windows, then change it to AHCI on BIOS afterward. Afterward, I imagine you can put a new mSata fine. I am planning to do this once new Paragon software is out, as well -- I need 1TB HDD for my media files (mostly FLACs).

I cannot tell you about benchmarks (aside from it being very fast), but the consensus on battery life is about 4 hours or less for mid battery, and 6 hours or less for the large battery -- which is not too far off from other laptops with quad-core Haswell. On mid battery with tame settings, it seemed that the battery would last less than 4 hours. After switching to more aggressive setting (hey, 30% brightness with this laptop is brighter than 50% with my old laptop), it seemed like I could beat 4 hours. It was from the same run, and I didn't actually let the battery go below 50% (I got too sleepy), my estimates are, well, estimates. Maybe can squeeze more runtime if I disable touchscreen.

 

TY for info. What are those "gesture" controls? You mean 2 finger horizontal and vertical scrolling?

Yeah battery life seems meh. Most people are claiming they were using it heavily but I don't think it looks like that. Or maybe there's some variance in the battery life. I know most XPS users are the plugged in type, because we are used to that, but it was thought that with this one you maybe could take it out for a quarter or half day and still use it without a wire. Seems like that won't be the case.

 

Dell reports a arrival date of 11/11 but FedEx track shows 11/12. Hopefully it's 11/11 since as of right now it's showing the laptop is only a state away in TN.

For the price of this laptop I wasn't look for a lot of compromise so I'm hoping that with ,the large battery, the life would be around 8 hours with web surfing, video playback, and word processing. If people are showing 6 hours or less I would be highly disappointed. Maybe someone with the laptop can do a HD video loop rundown test and report their results. Thanks.

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/del...ne-4th-gen-intel-haswell-2013-refresh-70.html

I thought the "XPS" Badge was the emblem on the base of the monitor for these beauties...if you look at the pic in the link above from someone claiming that's his new xps...it simply has a Dell Badge.

I say either imposter or none of us are getting the XPS Badge

Anyone?

 

As per my post on the other thread, as far as I'm aware the only XPS badge is on the bottom plate. If you look at the photos on dells site, there logo below the display says Dell, not XPS.

Why on earth would anyone post fake photos of a dell laptop, particularly when we know people have already gotten theirs?

 

duh, this is old news. it's been out since like July... XPS 15 doesn't have an XPS logo on the screen like the old ones or the XPS 13

the only difference on the outside between the XPS 15 and the M3800 is the insignia on the bottom, one says XPS the other says Precision. Otherwise there's virtually no difference in how they look

 

Guys,
Excuse my ignorance in this area - can I seek some clarification before putting some money down for this machine...

I'm a very heavy user of many programs in the Adobe suite - Photoshop et.al. - and at the moment only one or two work with HiDPI scaling.

So... I just want to check: If I get the QHD+ 3,200 x 1,800 screen. could I simply set the screen resolution in Windows to be 1,600 x 900 - ie 'half resolution'? Would that just look and work like a laptop with a native 1,600 x 900 res screen?

If so, I'd be willing to forgo the benefits of the highre res settings until Adobe+Microsoft have sorted out the HiDPI scaling mess. Apparently 'they're working on it'.

Thanks

 

sorry...i just wanted everyone who sees my machine that i paid top dollar and am now broke, the least dell could do was slap on the insignia that says it all

:-(

on another note, as im not as technically saavy as most here on this forum....some people are now losing me when talking about the screen resolution, and making adjustments...my question is: out of the box, do i need to make adjustments...im really only using this for internet/video editing/blogging....why are these other fellows discussing all these changes they want to make to the resolution ratios, and is this something i should do out of the box

as always, thank you all

 

From reading on the M3800 thread this screen has sooo many small tightly packed pixels that it works almost like the CRT screens of old. Lowering the resolution doesn't cause jaggies and pixel blocks like lcd screens of yore. But now since people are getting these XPS in hand can someone test this and post some pictures?

 

Interesting, I'm glad firefox is working for you! I tried reinstalling and the lag is still there for me sadly. I'm almost starting to wonder if there are different versions of the touchpads - for me it's the opposite - dell's drivers are more reliable, and the synaptic oem ones have right click issues. Maybe I just got a bum touchpad?

Would you mind posting your touchpad info (you can find it I believe by the touchpad icon => about/info?

Mine is:
SGS Version: SGS 13.3
ClickPad Series 1.5 - Imaging Sensor
Driver Version: 17.0.13 05Sep13
FW Version: 1.6
Scrybe Version: Not installed
Interface: SMB
Windows Version: Win8

 

Hi there, imposter here

To answer your question, you DO need to make changes out of the box. By default it is set to about 200% zoom which will make some apps look very bad. You could either lower the zoom until you find a level you like OR you could set it to 100% zoom and drop the monitor resolution. Dropping the resolution does work just as well, its all about preference.

 

As someone earlier mentioned, 166% scaling is around 1080p, which may look better than 200%.

 

hello imposter...my bad again, sorry...and thank you for the clarification...i will play around and post my results/more questions once i get my hands on the machine, which seems like it will be never...i ordered on the 29th in new york, and still no movement from "in production" its a sad sad day over here