**BEWARE** FYI Dell XPS 16 i7

Just sharing my experience here....

Bought a Dell XPS 16 i7 with te RGBLED a while back BEFORE reading te numerous postings on this setup.

My first issue was the OVER saturation of reds with the RGBLED monitor.
It WILL look fairly decent when watching a movie but if you're thinking about getting it for photography, you WILL NOT be able to CORRECTLY adjust the saturation levels...and also, the brightness is WAY too bright even at its lowest setting. Be cautious about 'reviewers' who say the extra $$$ is TOTALLY worth it to get this monitor...it might be ok for gaming and multimedia (alto even during those applications, I found it rather distracting) but I NOT recommend this for professional uses...don't be fooled by 112% gamut. If you feel the need to purchase this laptop, stick with the 15.6 LED...but then that begs the question: Why buy a 16 inch laptop that as a 15.6 monitor??

Secondly, Ive begun find reports that the 90w power adapter is inadequate to power the laptop. Forum users have posted benchmarks showing decreased performance using the 90w adapter compared to the battery (lol). I think this may explain why my monitor was flickering every so often while plugged in. Very annoying. Ive read of people calling and calling and calling and calling Dell CS and finally calling getting them to ship out for free the 130w power adapter which seems to fix that problem. (pretty sure you can search here and find info on this)

Thirdly, Ive been researching DDR2 compared to DDR3 and, please, correct me if I'm wrong, but using 2 dimms of DDR3 is rather ineffectual since the i7 core is built to utilize a triple channel setup. So it seems the XPS 16 doesn't really get to sow off ALL its performance.

And lastly, the idea of a subwoofer in a laptop SEEMS like a cool idea, but considering the build quality of the XPS 16, all it really did on mine was VIBRATE the plastic seams...and I couldn't really turn off or lower the bass enough even as a workaround.

I guess since Im writing this, I might as well share about the 9 cell battery...again, seems great to get a larger capacity battery, but I found it annoying to have this BULGE coming out of my laptop bag. And considering I wasnt getting much more than an hours worth of battery with the RGBLED and an i7 cpu, I always had my underpowered 90w adapter with me. Im pretty sure they include the 9 cell b/c it adds some room underneath the laptop for extra ventilation. Im wondering if they've had some warranty returns due to overheating.

Thank goodness CS allowed me to return it for a full refund after the initial 21 days or whatever it was. I did have to call and call and call and write and call and email (funny, I started googling and found the email addresses of other top execs...don't bother emailing Michael Dell) I was really looking forward to this laptop as it was to be a home-studio audio workstation replacement. Dell kinda missed the mark on this one.

Cheers!

 

shouldn't you post this on dell forum, instead of what laptop to buy?

 

Disagree, I am looking at a laptop and this is rather interesting. I am getting more and more put off this XPS.

 

Can't the oversaturation be fixed by adjusting the color settings?

Have you checked in the Dell forum for threads about adjusting the color settings?

And I'm not familiar enough with the workings of computer hardware to authoritatively say anything about DDR2 vs. DDR3, but my understanding is that the DDR3 wouldn't make much of a difference in most applications, and that total amount of RAM is more important than RAM speed or DDR2 vs. DDR3.

It's a shame about your other complaints, though.

 

I did but 2 things:
1) When adjusting one channel, another is affected and most often it was the white channel that started turning yellow.
2) I did find settings from fellow RgBLED users but the settings were just barely adequate to live with...certainly not good enough for a $250 upgrade and still no where near professional 100% gamut quality. These were roughly the same comments as the other users/ forum posters.

Yep, that is my understanding as well. DDR3 makes sense on a mother board with 3 or 6 slots in order for the i7s technology to FULLY utilize tghe performance capabilities. Until they start making 3 slots on laptop motherboards, its basically like using DDR2...(and again, please correct me if I'm missing something here) so why pay twice as much for 8 gbs?

and yes...I'm putting this on the Dell forum as well

 

All new machines coming out with i7 have DDR3 RAM. I don't believe chipset will support DDR2. Most users are pretty happy with the RGB LED screen, could be yours is defective. For the power adapter, yeah, the problem is there, correctable with ThrottleStep utility from Dell forums and either 130w or 150w adapter ($25-40 on ebay).

 

There's no such thing as "DDR3 is only good if you have 3 RAM slots". I don't know where you heard such a thing. The number of slots is related to the memory channel, and since in the Core i7 the memory controller is integrated to the CPU, the number of channel is determined by the CPU. That said, while the desktop Core i7 (920/940/965 etc) has triple channel memory controller type, the mobile Core i7 720/820/920M etc is dual channel type. So it's good to go. And whether it's DDr2 or DDr3 has nothing to do with the CPU/memory channel. That's up to the chipset manufacturer. Latest test I've seen shows that DDR3 only about 5 to 10% faster in performance over DDR2. But nevertheless, technology has to move forward, so DDR3 is the way to go for newer products.

 

good thing dell delayed my order, which i call in to cancel it. right after, i purchased a sony laptop instead.

 

Throttlestop + 130W adapter tends to take care of the throttling problem with the SXPS 16. Dell is aware of it and has captured a few end user laptops. They are working on a bios fix which should be released in the near future. I wouldn't worry about it too much but at the same time I'd avoid the i7 based SXPS 16 for now.

 

It sounds like the SXPS 16 can't handle an i7, which is disappointing but not really surprising given how it was originally designed for C2D's.

Dell should just stick to their old strategy of coming up with a completely new model every time they introduce new hardware rather than doing Apple-style hardware refreshes.

 

Holy smokes, I almost bought this one.. then I saw the pricetag here in Europe and decided that Dell scams, bigtime. This post kinda confirms it.

Poor people pay over 1000€ to get the Full HD i7 XPS..

 

Does not apply to mobile i7s.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=5657178&postcount=7

Also known as double posting.

 

No, you said the lack of a third DIMM meant the processor wasn't getting the memory performance it's capable of when it fact it's not capable of triple channel. It's a "limitation" of the processor, not the notebook or its motherboard.

 

my bad,I was speaking more to this:
oIt's totally useless for a notebook, Not only do you need to soldier in a third memory socket on a laptop motherboard that inherently has space limitations; triple channel is more complicated, consuming more energy while producing more heat.

I've read reports that for a comparable desktop CPU with equivalent amounts of RAM, the triple-channel still provides no performance advantage over LGA1156 based processors. The only real advantage with a non-portable system really is if you want 12GB RAM over 8GB, and you don't want to shellout like $300 per 4GB stick."
But you don't have to defend your purchase to me...I'm sure u'll love ur XPS16 ..glad to see you passed on the RGB
Cheers!

 

That notebook comes with the ATI video card so you should have no problem turning the saturation down with the ATI control panel.
Have you tried adjusting with the ATI control panel?
I have the Studio 17 with the RGB LED panel and have it adjusted pretty good.

This is a problem with any of the high color wide gamut type monitors which are becoming more common. If you have a Nvidia card there is no way to turn down the saturation unless they have fixed it by now.

I was having the same problem with my home monitors so I switched over to ATI cards and have been very happy with the results.

 

Yep...all sorts of settings, both personal preferences and settings I found from other users who "got it looking pretty good"...as well as talking with Dell "technical support" and having them do all their "little remote tricks" with driver updates and what not.
The problem was that after adjusting the level on the REDS, the WHITES typically went "YELLOW" as well as the screen being muted by adjusting the contrast...and then of course there was the brightness that even at it's lowest setting was DRAMATICALLY bright...too bright IMO for any prolonged studio work.
Maybe the 17" is using a different monitor?
I think as a multimedia computer, it could be decent, but my primary use was to be a "workstation replacement." I just figured with all that power, the XPS 16 i7 would be an "end-all-be-all" ...but when I think back to it, even watching movies on it, there was a surprising amount of rough gradation within the same color channels which really furthered my opinion that the RGBLED was NOT worth the $250 upgrade price tag...even as a "multimedia computer" monitor.
I did like the ATI control panel tho...it did offer some great flexibility in the color manipulation, I just think the hardware I got (and what seems to be A LOT of other XPS 16 users) was defective...and no amount of software control is gonna be able to fix that.