Dell's build quality (xps)

Now i know this has been discussed a lot, sorry if this is your 10th time answering this. but im curious how well built the XPS line is....i have seen alot of posts concerning a grainy screen and screwed up hinges/ unstable bottem ,etc,etc. But i also have seen posts where people have great comments on the build quality. IMO when i first saw the xps i thought they were pretty pretty, but now i sorta learned that looks also have a cost to it =( so i wanna hear from u users!


thanx in advance!

 

i use the xps M1330 and build quality is pretty good, my only complaint is the lid sits about half a millimeter higher on the left side than the right side when closed which obviously isnt a huge issue, but i am being picky... i didnt have any issues with grainy screens, uneven base, or anything like that. It is one of the most solid notebooks i've owned.

 

The build quality has certainly improved since its introduction. Occassionally, some get grainy screens, but over the past few months, I have seen fewer and fewer posts regarding grainy screens on the m1330.

 

Do you guys believe that after a year or so people will start having problems due to component failure, because of rumors of bad quality?

 

No I don't believe that at all. I have a 2 yr warranty on my xps m1330 but I think if a component fails it will not be because of build quality. In saying that, I was a little disapointed with the build quality of my laptop on arival, a small corner panel and the bezel near the screen were loose. I managed to click the little panel in now and so it no longer bothers me. These issues may effect the laptop casing but I do not belive it will effect the hardware.

Rob

 

Only time will tell. Personally, I was not happy with the construction of the M1530 that I had, so I returned it.

I think that there is a good chance that heat will cause problems. The case integrity was not very solid, IMHO. A lot of flex.

Who knows, it might be a great long lasting machine.

 

I was pretty nervous when I purchased my XPS (reading all of these NBR complaint threads really scared the bejeezus outta me). That said, when i received it, it surpassed all of my expectations.. very solid in my opinion.

Everyone has different levels of tolerance, and something invisible to a person could be a HUGE problem to another. Try to find one in person and give it a good look, 'cause you'll mostly find complaints in this forum, buddy

 

just got my 1530 this morning an have to say I'm really disappointed. I'll put up some pictures shortly, but there is a panel on the bottom of the machine that doesn't seem to fit, the keyboard seems to be slightly out of shape (raised slightly left of middle) and worse of all, whoever put it together has used a screw that is too long or has overtightened it so that it has put a convex dent in the stainless palm rest on the right hand side. Sure in the grand scheme of things these are minor issues, but I paid £1100 for this thing and it looks like it was kind of thrown together and not checked over before it was sent out.


Not sure about the screen either, it's a Samsung and doesn't look as sharp as I had hoped and the viewing angle is a bit disappointing.

Think this may be going back!

 

My 1530 is pretty solid.

 

I'm genuinely happy for you, let's hope my replacement unit is too.

 

1730 here, the build quality is fantastic, it's solid as a rock, no flex whatsoever, and the temperatures are nothing considering the amount of power under the hood.

the only slight niggle i have with it, is that the machien takes in air from the bottom, but the legs could do with being just a little higher to allow for more air flow (as alot of people have noted), but that's easily corrected by simply placing a small bit of plastic or wood underneath the back legs.. but even without the adjustment, the systems cool enough that the fans only turn on sporadically, even when gaming heavily.

it's sturdy, bulky but not heavy, the screen's hinge is stiff enough to prevent it wobbling or loosening, but loose enough to open it one-handed with no problems.. the only real oversight is that it lacks a HDMI-port, but other than that it's pretty solid all around, and i'm very happy with it.

admittedly, i've always thought of dell as a pretty bad company, i'd had alot of bad experiences with friends and family purchasing dell equipment, it going wrong and having to sort it out for them, but i'm happy to say that the 1730 certainly has changed my view of the company, i only hope that their Customer Relations arm can stick to the same standard of service, should i ever need it.

 

Hi Abraham,

thanks for your time on the phone this morning and for your efforts to resolve the issues I am having. I have attached the photographs of the problems I am experiencing.


To clarify my issues (so far, as I have only spent 30 minutes looking at it) are as follows.

dented palm rest where a screw has been either over tightened or the wrong screw has been used.
poor closure or incorrect fitting of a covering panel on the base of the machine.
damaged vista recovery disk.
poor viewing angle on the LCD screen.
Some graining of the LCD (the quality is not what I was expecting at all).
To reiterate my expectations of Dell from this point forward.
I would like to hold on to this laptop until a replacement is sent out. I would then like to swap the hard drive in this machine into the replacement unit.
I expect all panels to be scratch and dent free and to fit properly.
I expect the screen to have a reasonable viewing angle and to be free of graining.
I expect all discs and accessories to be in working as new condition.
I would like to enter my service tag on to the Dell website and not be told that the system was purchased outside the UK (I can assure you it was not)
I am happy with the screen resolution I have ordered. However I have some reservations with it as the screen I have is below the standard I was expecting. Added to this there appears to be a lot of negative talk about the Samsung screens on various forums on the internet (most notably on www.notebookreview.com) and on top of this Dell appear to have withdrawn this resolution from sale. If there is still an issue with the use of the Samsung manufactured LCD units I would like to ensure that either an LG unit is used in the replacement unit (the part number for your records is or the screen is moved to a 1920 x 1200 resolution screen. I am hoping that Dell will find their way to doing this by some way of compensation for the lackluster customer service I have received so far.


I look forward to your comments and will welcome the opportunity to discuss any other options with you as to how this problem can be resolved. Please confirm receipt of this email.


With regards,




and the images attached were as below.

 

Sorry to GaMeRxD for the thread hijack by the way, but hopefully you can see my experience of XPS build quality. Hopefully I'm an unlucky minority.

 

Hi~ I am very happy with the build quality of my 1530! I have no grainy screen issues (mine is a LG), and the hinges are fine on mine ~ the lid closes just fine. Everthing is good with mine )

I am very happy that I chose the 1530, as I find it suites my needs very well. )

So, all-in-all...All positive for me on my 1530 )

 

This is exactly how my first Outlet M1530 came out of the box. Instead of a solid chassis with small ports to access RAM and add-in cards, they went with huge panels that cover broad swaths of bottom. The replacement unit was much better in fit and finish, but has developed the dreaded clicking in the left side of the palm rest due to the poor design and sloppy fit of the palm rest and HD bezel.

Toss in the wildly inaccurate (too blue and washed out) LCD panels (doesn't matter if it is Samsuck or LG), the webcam incapable of running faster than 8 fps in 320x240 and generally poor fit and customer service and you can see that Dell's worst enemy is Dell!

 

my XPS M1530 should arrive sometime next week... man I really hope there are no problems... but overall from all the reviews i've read the 1530 has really good build quality

Kaedo - hope all goes well with your replacement lappy

 

I got my 1530 this morning and have removed all the bloatware. It's running really well. but after closing the lid a few times, I've realised that the part where the chrome strip is ( where you touch to open the lid) is a bit loose, (not the chrome, but the wide black bit its attached to) and the bezel around the screen is a bit loose where the camera is. I've managed to pop it back in, but it's not exactly stable.

Does everybody elses 1530 have a sturdy bezel? Mine makes a tapping noise if you touch it.

 

I received my 1530 this morning also. I had a problem with twisted wires under the keyboard causing it to be uneven. I called and talked to a tech and he told me that's the way it is and that the keyboard is attached to the frame. Blah, blah, blah.

So, I set about removing bloatware but somewhere in the process I pressed down too hard on the left palmrest or something because the HDD got jacked up. I called Dell again and got a different guy (from Canada) who did all the diagnostics with me and is sending me a new drive...with 20 extra GB at that! Oh, and he walked me through taking apart the keyboard to fix the wire as well!

So, all you 1530 owners, be careful how much pressure you put on that left palmrest so you don't mess up your HDD. Otherwise, a few little joints that could be cleaner, but seems to be in good shape.

 

does it depend from which country you buy it from? i notice certain countries, such as india, that have bad customer service and bad quality products

i think its because everyone is trying out that xps 1530/1330, then they run into these major issues

 

Well my replacement unit turned up this week. So much better. No defects that I can see anyway. One thing I did notice is that the replacement unit came with scratch protection sheets on the stainless and polished plastics (the headphone jacks and media keys). The first laptop didn't come with this.

Also I got lucky and the screen is loads better. From memory the manufacturer code is LPL. The first was a Samsung and it was OK, a bit grainy and poor viewing angle, but I could have lived with it. Well I'm not sure I could have having seen how good the screen could look. The new screen has an awesome viewing angle, no light bleed and no graininess.

Dell you have a happy customer now, although it took them so long to answer the phone last night I had actually fixed the problem before they answered.

 

I've had two good m1330 so far, except for the constant overheating I still have with my replacement unit.
I monitor temps with nTune, and the GPU reaches a dazzling 104°C every minute or so when playing Guild Wars (not one of the newest ones out there, but runs fantastically!)... This is a build issue because the **** cooling s***s: one heat pipe (not more than two millimeters thick and 1 cm wide) for the gpu and CPU? come on guys! I experience constant framedrops due to heat and it doesn't matter what drivers I'm running (Geforce 8400M gs)

I'd love to hear some solution to this...

 

Use I8kFanGUI to force th fans to highest speed while gaming.. Undervolt the CPU, Use a notebook cooler, replace the thermal pads with copper plates as a forum member has done, Use AS5 as the thermal compound..

 

Decent, not brilliant, but good enough to keep me happy-ish.