XPS 17 or XPS 15z... Help

Hi
Wonder what you guys think - Im torn between an XPS 17 and the new 15z.

I was just about to go for an XPS 17 after seeing the offer on the dell website for under £1400 (with the extras) when along came the 15z. I have to say I do prefer the styling of the 15z and think I will be tempted to buy that instead but am I making a mistake?

I know a bigger screen would be a benefit but if I overlook the bigger screen is the 15z on par? Or would I lose anything else? Battery life? I see the 15z has 2GB NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 525M Graphics Card with Optimus whereas the XPS 17 has 3Gb..

I would be using for Audio creation/playback, MS office work, multiple tabbed web browsing, watching movies but not playing games. All things a bigger screen is good for, but the 15z looks amazing and has the speakers positioned away from the palmrests...

Please help I cannot seriously decide lol!! Cheers!!

XPS 17
Base
XPS L511z (NL, FCG18UKI) – i7-2640M (2.80Ghz, 4Threads, 4MB cache)
Microsoft Operating System

Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium (64 BIT)
Memory

8192MB 1333MHz Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM [2x4096]
Keyboard

Internal Backlit Keyboard
Video Card

2GB NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 525M Graphics Card with Optimus
Hard Drive

750GB (7,200rpm) Serial ATA Hard Drive
CD ROM/DVD ROM

8x DVD+/-RW Optical Drive
Wireless

Intel® Centrino® Advanced-N 6230 (2x2 b/g/n+ Bluetooth Combo Card) (Europe)
Cable

N1115Z07
Standard Warranty

1 year Collect & Return Hardware Support included with your PC
Enhanced Service Packs

1Yr Next Day Hardware Support
Primary Battery
8-Cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery

XPS 15z
Base
2nd generation Intel® Core™ i7-2670QM processor 2.20 GHz with Turbo Boost up to 3.10 GHz
Microsoft Operating System

English Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium (64 BIT)
Memory

8192MB 1333MHz Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM [2x4096]
Keyboard

Backlit UK/Irish Qwerty Keyboard
Video Card

3GB NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 555M Graphics Card
Hard Drive

1TB (7,200rpm) Serial ATA Dual HDD - (2x500GB)
Optical Devices

DVD+/-RW (DVD, CD read and write)
Wireless Networking

Intel® Centrino® Wireless-N 1030 (1x2 b/g/n+ Bluetooth Combo Card)
Cables

UK 250V Power Cord
Shipping Documents

English Documentation
Gedis Bundle Reference

N11X7M06
Service

Standard Service - 1 year of Collect & Return 10 day coverage included with your PC
Extended Service

1Yr Next Day Hardware Support
Primary Battery

9-cell 90Whr Lithium Ion battery

 

looks like u accidently wrote wrong headings . they should be interchanged

 

Yea...the 525m is not available on the XPS 17.

On that note, the 555m is WAY more powerful than the 525m. If you need graphics performance note that. The 555m is actually a very strong card considering it is still not considered a "gaming" card, though it does very solidly at gaming (even Crysis is fine on it).

Speakers are way better on the 17 as well, iirc the 15z speakers are not the same as on the XPS 15/17. The XPS 17 has the BEST laptop speakers on the market, there is little argument about that. I was very impressed myself.

The 15z has had issues with the chrome trim (that is merely GLUED on) falling off. Some people have no trouble, others have a lot, seems like the luck of the draw.

The 17 is more upgradable.

The 15z is certainly smaller and easier to carry around, though I don't find the 17 to be that bad honestly.

The 2670QM is a quad-core CPU versus the 2640M which is a dual core. The quad would definitely be nice for generating audio tracks and such.

Any upgrades like HDD/RAM are tricky on the 15z as it is a "closed" system. Even the battery cannot be removed!

Really it sounds like your best bet might be the XPS 15 (non-z) or the XPS 17. Either with the FHD screen. 540m (or 525m if you really don't care about GPU) GPU on the 15, or 550m on the 17 (weaker than the 555m but it doesn't sound like you need it and the 550 is still good). Quad-core CPU (2670QM is a great option. But anything with QM is a quad). The rest is your call.

 

Make sure you get the 1920x1080 / 1080p screen whichever one you get. That's the most important spec.

 

THANK YOU madmattd! Thanks for your time and insight going through the options, your thoughts were just the help I was seeking!!
I think I am more confident now that the XPS 17 is the one for me.

 

Thanks edit1754 - yes I will do! Many thanks!

 

Reading back I see you mentioned 2GB versus 3GB graphics. That honestly is a poor indicator of the GPU power. None of these cards can truly utilize 3GB RAM, and even 2GB is debatable. That said, the 555m is definitely the best GPU available in the XPS line. It's actually more powerful than most other manufacturer's 555m since Dell's is tweaked with a larger memory interface (iirc, it was something to that effect). The 550m is a solid card too on the 17" if you don't need uber GPU performance.

 

XPS 17 definitely.....