XPS line 4th gen Intel Haswell 2013 Refresh?

Or ever. They're always embarrassingly uninformed, even about their own products. I wish there was a separate sales/support line for people for people who actually know a lot about computers, so we could skip straight to someone who knows what they're talking about, and won't tell us to restart Windows even though we KNOW the problem is a loose connector on the power adapter. /rant

How exactly do you know this?

 

It's not in the order so I think it won't have it. But then the order doesn't say what ports (USB, audio etc) it has.

 

For those who are curious about parts and what not

Code:

370-ABBH
  1  16GB Dual Channel DDR3L 1600MHz (8GBx2)       
583-BBOP
  1  English Keyboard       
490-BBOK
  1  NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M 2GB GDDR5       
658-BBQZ
  1  Wireless LAN driver       
658-BBSZ
  1  Wireless LAN driver (WiDi)       
400-ABPE
  1  512GB mSATA Solid State Drive       
619-ADTB
  1  Windows 8.1 64-bit English       
510-BBBY
  1  Waves MaxxAudio 5.0       
555-BBEH
  1  Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260 + Bluetooth 4.0       
450-AAQN
  1  Power Cord (US)       
340-AGIK
  1  Safety/Environment and Regulatory Guide (English/French/Dutch)       
340-AFMI
  1  XPS badge       
420-8878
  1  Soft Contracts Dell In-Home Hardware Agreement       
950-9797
  1  No Warranty, Year 2 and 3       
954-1900
  1  Premium Phone Support, Initial Year       
993-8544
  1  Dell Hardware Limited Warranty, Initial Year       
993-8554
  1  Dell Limited Hardware Warranty Plus In-Home Service After Remote Diagnosis, Initial Year       
492-BBGC  1  130 Watt AC Adaptor       
340-ACQQ  1  Not Included       
648-BBBC  1  Desktop Wall Paper for QHD       
640-BBLP  1  Dell SRV AOAC/Intel Smart Connect Technology       
338-BDDJ  1  4th Generation Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4702HQ processor (6M Cache, up to 3.20 GHz)       
630-AAAV  1  Software: Microsoft Office 2013 Trial, MUI       
391-BBJC  1  15.6 inch LED Backlit Touch Display with Truelife and QHD+ resolution (3200 x 1800) with Camera       
461-AAAN  1  McAfee LiveSafe 12 Month Subscription       
451-BBEL  1  91WHr 6-Cell Battery       
631-AAEI  1  Platform Quickset       
389-BDBT  1  Palmrest Label QHD+ English       
340-AFMJ  1  Placemat (EN,FR,DUT,SPN,BPOR)       
817-BBBC  1  Not Selected in this Configuration       
332-1286  1  Non-Canada Orders only       
555-BBLJ  1  Near Field Communications       
658-BBUR  1  Additional Software       
469-2486  1  CFI Not Included       
332-1530  1  Dell.com Order       
332-1530  1  Dell.com Order       
328-BBGG  1  Shipping Material       
340-AAPP  1  Directship Info Mod       
800-BBGF  1  Standard Shipment (L)

 

I took a screenshot of the order confirmation page (highest config ordered) with the part numbers for everything included in the shipment.
http://i.imgur.com/DQB6Agx.png

 

akuma-z, how'd you swing that price?

 

A 15" laptop with no numberpad, and yet there's no dedicated home/end/pg up/pg down keys. WOW.

And the speakers are on the bottom? Come on. There's a ton of wasted space there.

 

I had a 17% off coupon code I had been saving for a while. It was single use or I would have shared it.

 

cool, thanks for the quick reply

 

Well that just makes sense.

Chat is now saying the space is occupied by a new 9600 baud modem.

 

Now that the GDDR5 ram is confirmed for the Nvidia 750M was looking up some info on performance:

NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M - NotebookCheck.net Tech

Interesting that they compare it to a GT 660M for performance with the faster ram. Suddenly making me feel better about the order for a little better gaming performance than I was expecting

 

I suggest to wait some reliable review, because that are paper performance, today cooling system has a big impact on performance, so if the new XPS15 has a throttling problem as its predecessor (L521X) then even an integrated Intel GPU can beat a GT750m easily.

 

Absolutely you don't trust at Dell Reps on chat, because they are completely incompetents and to sell a PC are capable of lying.

 

This particular rep wasn't lying. He was just quoting the specs posted on the website that clearly state that there is one RJ-45 port. But from all the pictures it appears there is no RJ-45 to be found on this laptop. So, either the specs are wrong, or they are referring to a USB to RJ-45 adapter perhaps included with the system. In either case the specs appear to be misleading.

 

There is no RJ45...if you check the accesories page during ordering, you will see a USB to Ethernet there...and Mini DP to DP and Mini DP to HDMI adapters...

 

Is it just me or they took the new XPS out of the webpage? I cant find it!

 

wow, I was really considering this Dell XPS but it is really expensive comparing to other offerings such as Gigabyte p35k.
I just checked dell.com where xps 15.6 with GT 750m is 1899. wow. in that rate, the asus n550 is even cheaper.

 

It's still there: http://www.dell.com/us/p/xps-15-9530/pd

 

Basically you are paying premium for QHD+ (3200 x 1800) resolution and a lot of horsepower in a very light and thin case. If 1080p is all you need, if the weight is not an issue, or if you are willing to sacrifice some other features, then you can find a lot of cheaper alternatives, I am sure.

 

It's true, it's very expensive, the higher configuration is completely out of my budget, maybe the price of middle range configuration (1699€ with 4702HQ and 1TB could be interesting, if there were a way to obtain a 10% of discount.
But after L521X fail, I can't consider an XPS without reliable good reviews and good reports from owners.

Moreover for me new middle range XPS 15 (is there someone that know is code name?) must win the comparison with Samsung Ativ Book 8. Unfortunately, the Gigabyte P35k is not available in my country..

 

Yup, 15 inch 3200x1800 IGZO display, 10h+ battery life, quad-core + dGPU, and premium build quality makes this unique in the Windows realm for the time being. The alternative is to go with the even more expensive rMBP, even that doesn't really match it yet. Cheaper alternatives will not have this resolution or battery life, but can easily exceed the XPS 15 in terms of raw power.

 

That sums up my feelings totally. That's why I placed an order

 

is there optimus in this dell xps? Not really a fan of optimus and would just like a dedicated nvidia card.

 

XPS15 has practically the same weight of Samsung Ativ Book 8 and Gigabyte P35K.
I think that 100gr/200gr cannot be considered a discriminant, and horsepower of XPS15 are lower than Samsung and Gigabyte even on paper, the only plus could be the screen, but is it a real plus?
For sure GT750m cannot handle games at that max resolution, and maybe FHD video could appear blurred at full screen, I think this screen were made to work almost ever at 1600X900.

 

how is the horsepower of the XPS less than the Samsung? The Sammy is also 13' too

 

I am pretty sure Optimus is supported (I doubt they could score 11 hours of battery life otherwise). But you should be able to disable it in BIOS if for some reason you don't like it.

 

can we disable optimus in bios in old dell xps 15?

 

XPS15 has 4702HQ (2.2GHz/3.2GHz) and GT750m
Gigabyte P35K has 4700HQ (2.4GHz/3.4GHz) and GT765m
Samsung Ativ Book 8 has 3635QM (2.4GHz/3.4GHz) and 8870m (it's a 15").

4700HQ > 3635QM > 4702HQ

GT765m > 8870m > GT750m

Haswell and Ivy Bridge have practically the same horsepower at same clock, the main advantage of Haswell are consumption and iGPU, so Ivy Bridge with higher clock is more powerful than Haswell with lower clock, moreover the Haswell update for Ativ Book 8 seems incoming, but even with Ivy Bridge battery life of Ativ Book 8 is 11.5 hours.

 

where do you get that information on Ativ Book 8 battery life? I haven't seen it listed anywhere near that high.

 

See now I'm torn. I was going to get an Ativ Book 8 a couple months ago from Best Buy (which I believe only has the 8770M), but didn't love the keyboard feel, so decided to wait and see. I was going to get this new Dell, but the prices are high...almost $1k more for the highest end one.

I like the idea of the QuadHD screen, but I wonder how it would look scaled to say 1080p. If I'm just using it at 1600x900 most of the time, then what's the point? Seems like the Ativ Book 8's native 1080p screen would be much better.

Gah!

 

I don't have the old XPS, so I wouldn't know. I know it is possible on Dell Precision notebooks, for example. If not in BIOS, then perhaps in NVIDIA control panel?
Why would you want to disable it? Do you have any specific compatibility issues with Optimus?

 

Samsung NP880Z5E 15.6-inch ATIV Book 8 1TB FHD (1080p) LED Touchscreen - Samsung UK - OVERVIEW

The touch screen model has 10.5 hours

Samsung NP770Z5E Series 7 15.6-inch FHD 1080p LED Notebook - OVERVIEW

The model without touch screen has 11.5 hours.

It's available in black or gray (in some market you can't choose the color) with touch screen or without touch screen so mate display. The battery is 90.6Whr so the same of higher XPS15

 

since when do we use OEM's talking points? Reviews I have read put the battery at 7-8 hours and it is also a bit heavier than I'd like too.

I also think that at 1880 (2nd model) with 16gb RAM, QHD screen and better if not same battery is a better deal if money is not an option. Then again if money is an option I think the HP Touchsmart is a better deal than both of them tbh

 

Still no new XPS 15 in the Netherlands... A price point of €1699 seems likely for the cheapest i7/750M model, though, if it does come. Which is a bit outside of my budget, even after a 10% student discount.

I guess I'll have to look for an alternative. I already tried and returned the Ativ Book 8 (didn't like the sparkly screen), so that doesn't leave much...

 

Someone was capable to replicate that battery life on Ativ Book 8 thread, but even the time of XPS battery life is given by Dell.
Obviously if you change the test methodology the results will be different, but the point is that battery capacity is the same of the 2000$/€ XPS15 version.

Another point that might be interesting is what kind of mSSD Dell has used to 512GB, is there any possibility that they were Samsung 840 Pro?

 

Those battery life numbers sound like their based on idle with wifi off. Samsung US quotes a more realistic 8.6 hrs based on Mobile Mark 2012.
Specs - Laptops NP880Z5E | Samsung PCs

It might be a very intriguing option with a Haswell update and slimming down, especially if they can keep the price close to where it is now.

 

Thanks, seems it was a browser cookie fart...

 

Besides the better build quality and premium look and feel, better support (support comes to your house, how do you even get support with Gigabyte?), better keyboard (the travel on the new Samsung keyboards is really short), and other little things, then sure, the "only" plus is the screen.

1080p video will not look blurry on the 3200x1800 screen. Even looking at a single frame, there's generally too much irregular texture/noise in video to notice the scaling, and played at full speed, it'll look perfectly fine. Text won't be a problem either, since DPI scaling handles that well. The only things I might worry about are static, simple images with straight lines, like icons. Of course, there's also the possibility that certain UI elements won't scale right. Engadget's review on the Ativ Book 9 Plus mentioned that Youtube's play bar didn't scale right.

Lastly, you've made it painfully obvious that you don't think highly of the new XPS 15. You've championed those Samsung and Gigabyte laptops so many times in this thread that you're sounding like a broken record. Just go buy one of those.

 

Maybe the difference is in the test software, the previously data are based on MobileMark 2007 and also it changes with configuration.
In some market Ativ book 8 is available with SSD directly from factory so maybe Samsung has used that model to make a better result, also the US models uses 8770m instead of 8870m that even if it has lower power maybe is worse in energy consumption (it's just a speculation).
If I remember correctly someone has replicate a battery life of 10 hours in Ativ Book 8 thread.

 

Just confirmed with someone inside Dell that there is no non-touch XPS coming based on haswell ATM...it might happen later on. I do prefer non touch screens...hate to see that thing full of prints and smudges...

 

oof.. decisions. I'm going travelling on 11/17. They estimate shipping 11/11 Should I trust? How is Dell with ship dates?

The 2 lower tier configurations are screwy with the tiny msata SSD. Barely useful. Since the top config uses msata for the 512mb SSD boot drive, I should be able to upgrade the mid-tier config msata to 256mb and boot W8.1 from it, and then use the 1tb HDD for storage, right? I'd rather have the extra drive space than the bigger battery. I guess we don't know yet how easy it will be to crack the case and upgrade the msata.

The Dell Advantage Loyalty program offers 5% off. Any better discounts? I've got an edu email. Is that enough for a student discount?

 

Someone else said that Dell is generally conservative with their ship dates. I think you would be fine, but there's no guarantee.

Why do you think the 32 GB mSATA is "Barely useful?" From what I've read, Intel's caching tech works pretty well, and I think the max cache size it allows is 64 GB. It's a lot better than a bare HDD, though obviously not as fast as a dedicated SSD. Swapping in a larger mSATA should be possible, and if you do, I would recommend setting up a 32 GB partition as a cache for the HDD, and use the rest for your boot partition. Basically sacrificing a little space on your SSD to speed up your HDD a lot.

 

The idea is to boot off the SSD. Hopefully that would be possible in BIOS.

 

My wife is a professional at a university with an .edu address -- similar to maveric101's question, is that enough for the discount?

 

no way its the 840 Pro which I already own and is superb...these are some mSATA... Dell only uses Samsung SSDs as far as I know so it will be interesting to see

even if they have same battery, Haswell will be more efficient and IGZO display should draw less power so Dell should get the upper hand in battery

 

The OEM Samsung MSATA SSD that will be in these (pretty obvious since the Samsung PM841/851 SSDs are the only ones available in 512gb configuration) are essentially an 840 Pro in MSATA form.

 

HD video will look just fine on that resolution. It looks just fine on both Windows and OSX on my rMBP with it's 2880x1800 screen. I even played some Civ5 at the full rez and it ran decent enough on low settings. I was running Windows 8 on it at full rez and scaling up but that led to some weird stuff in Windows menu's and web pages. I'm going to try the full 'retina' rez on Windows 8.1 as soon as it finishes downloading. Downscaling the screen to 1900x1200 looks decent enough, but there's some slight blurring on text occasionally.

Order placed for the middle option XPS 15. Can't wait to have a proper Windows machine again. Suck it, Apple.

 

Which costs about $450 in retail. Considering the cost of SSD and larger battery, the top model actually is a pretty good deal. In fact, new XPS 15 is the first laptop I've seen where the bottom model is the worst deal by far. The middle model and the bottom model have 400$ difference, for which you get much better (and more than twice as expensive) CPU, 750M, QHD screen (for many laptops, this is $200-$300 upgrade in itself), and double the HDD -- which, combined, clearly worth more than $400.

I am seriously considering getting it as well, with two caveats -- I am concerned about the potential heat problem, and SSD model goes over my budget. I suppose I wll wait for 4 days to see what new rMBP will be like, and maybe they will have review of XPS 15 by then.

 

Yea, that's why I ended up just going with the top end model. Too much messing around swapping out the SSD and what not. The low end model is a joke

MBPR should be interesting, but my guess is it'll just be more of the same... who knows....

 

I can't wait to see how the battery going to last with that high res screen and the CPU, GPU combo ,there is a reason they put a big battery in it.

Now if they would offer the cheaper model I5. CPU and integrated GPU with that huge battery that would be a fantastic deal for a lot of people with a loooong battery life would beat the MB air big time.
At least they could have a option to add the big battery .
They have the space cause there is no dedicated graphics.

That would only happen in a perfect world. Lol

 

The high-res display is IGZO, which is more battery efficient than regular TN and IPS. It won't be an issue. Also, the Nvidia GPU will be off whenever it's not needed. The battery life will be fine.

The dedicated graphics don't really take up any space. The dedicated graphics don't go on a separate card; they're soldered to the motherboard along with the CPU. I'd bet the motherboards of the i5 and i7 versions are the same, so the i5 version will just be missing a chip.

The only way to fit a bigger battery is to remove the HDD and put in a bigger mSATA SSD, and I guess Dell didn't want to have an i5 model with that.