Studio XPS 16 vs. Studio 15

Going to college, need the laptop for surfing the web, multimedia, light gaming, and possibly engineering software

Studio XPS 16 specs:
SYSTEM COLOR Arctic White High Gloss Finish with Leather
PROCESSOR Intel® Core™ i7-720QM Quad Core Processor 1.6GHz (2.8GHz Turbo Mode, 6MB Cache)
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit, English
MEMORY 4GB Shared Dual Channel DDR3 at 1333MHz
HARD DRIVE 128GB Solid State Drive
INTERNAL OPTICAL DRIVE Slot Load Blu-ray Disc (Reads BD and Writes to DVD/CD) with Disney Blu Ray 4pk
HD DISPLAY 15.6 FHD WLED Display in Alpine White with leather and 2.0 MP Webcam
WARRANTY AND SERVICE 2 Year Advanced Service Plan
OFFICE SOFTWARE Microsoft® Office Home and Student 2010
VIDEO CARD ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 5730 - 1GB
WIRELESS CARDS Intel© Centrino© Advanced-N + WiMAX 6250
BATTERY OPTIONS 85 WHr 9-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery


Studio 15 specs:
PROCESSORS NEW 2010 Intel® Core™ i7-720QM Quad Core Processor 1.6GHz (2.8GHz Turbo Mode, 6MB Cache)
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit, English
MEMORY 6GB Shared Dual Channel DDR3 at 1066MHz
HARD DRIVE 640GB 5400 RPM SATA Hard Drive
VIDEO CARD ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 5470, 1GB with 6ft HDMI Cable
WIRELESS CARDS Intel© Centrino© Advanced-N + WiMAX 6250
HD DISPLAY 15.6” Full High Definition (1080p) High Brightness LED Display with TrueLife™ and Camera
OPTICAL DRIVE Slot Load Blu-ray Disc (Reads BD and Writes to DVD/CD) with Disney Blu Ray 4pk
SOUND OPTIONS High Definition Audio 2.2
WARRANTY AND SERVICE 2 Year Advanced Service Plan
OFFICE SOFTWARE Microsoft® Office Home and Student 2010
BATTERY OPTIONS 85 Whr Lithium Ion Battery (9 cell)


As far as I can tell, the only major differences are the superior hardrive on the 16 and the nice finish on the 16. However, the 15 is customized to have a cardinals logo on the back, which is nice. Both have backlit keyboards also...
Please help me choose!! I have also looked at the sony vaio f series so that could be a choice also.

 

The 16 has a far superior graphics card. I say compare the sony F series with the xps 16. The Vaio are pretty sexy

 

The quad-core CPU is probably overkill, it will generate more heat and decrease battery life. I would look into dual-core solutions instead.

What is the pricing like? The Studio 15 should be cheaper, possibly a good deal cheaper.

 

ok, switched the processor in the xps 16 and compared that with the sony vaio f series, here is what they look like...

XPS 16:
PROCESSOR Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T9600 (6MB cache/2.8GHz/1066Mhz FSB) edit
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit, English
MEMORY 6GB DDR3 SDRAM at 1067MHz (2 Dimms) edit
HARD DRIVE 500GB 7200 RPM SATA Hard Drive edit
VIDEO CARD ATI Mobility RADEON™ HD 4670 – 1GB edit
INTERNAL OPTICAL DRIVE Slot Load Blu-ray Disc (BD) Combo (Reads BD and Writes to DVD/CD) edit
WIRELESS CARDS Intel 5300 Ultimate-N Half Mini Card (3x3) with MyWiFi edit
BATTERY 84 WHr 9-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery edit
SOUND OPTIONS High Definition Audio 2.0 edit
BLUETOOTH Dell Wireless 370 Bluetooth Module (2.1+EDR)
WARRANTY AND SERVICE 2 Year Basic Service Plan
OFFICE SOFTWARE Microsoft® Office Home and Student 2007 - Word, Excel + PowerPoint
HD DISPLAY Edge-to-Edge FHD Widescreen 15.6 inch WLED LCD (1920x1080) W/2.0 MP


Vaio F:
Intel® Core™ i7-840QM processor (1.86GHz) with Turbo Boost up to 3.20GHz
Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Black
500GB Hard Disk Drive (7200rpm)
6GB (4GBx1 + 2GBx1) DDR3-SDRAM-1333
Blu-ray Disc player
16.4" VAIO Full HD Premium Display (1920x1080)
NVIDIA® GeForce® 330M GPU (1GB VRAM)
No Fresh Start
Adobe Bundle
Microsoft® Office 2010 Home & Student
Norton Internet Security™ 2010 (3 year subscription)
Engraving
Large capacity battery
LED Backlit Keyboard
2 Year Express Ship Service Plan for Notebooks

Not quite sure which of those graphics cards are better, but the vaio is about 100$ cheaper... now which one?

 

Have you checked the Dell Outlet's pricing? The refurbished systems are a great deal and carry the same warranty as new.

 

it is not so much about price as perofrmance... I'm fine with paying a good amount of money as long as get the best performance for the money

 

Get the S XPS 1645 with the i7 and HD 5730. Anything other than that is not worth it. DO NOT GET THE CORE 2 DUO! i7 has excellent battery life don't let anyone ever tell you different. Same goes for heat. The i7 downclocks a LOT to save both heat and battery life. It will only generate heat and eat battery life like any other Intel processor with Speed Step.

I get well over 3 hours of non gaming usage with my sig rig.

 

There is no way a quad-core CPU can use less power than a dual-core, that just doesn't make sense.

My recommendation would be a Core i5. Quad-core is overkill unless you need that much power for virtualization or some other CPU-intensive tasks.

BTW, three hours on a 9-cell isn't anything to be proud of...I can get 4-5 hours on my E6400 with a 9-cell.

 

Without the RGBLED i got 4:30. But the RGBled drinks battery. But you lose battery for amazing screen its a trade off but a good one.

 

Get the i7 quad core xps16. I use mine all day every day and love it. It gets great battery life and does everything I need and want it to without a hiccup. Dont go for a core 2 duo laptop unless you want to save a few dollars and dont mind having 2008 technology. Also the WLED in the 5730 model is absolutely amazing, IMHO just as good as the RGBLED screens from alienware/dell.

 

Sure they can. All the cores clock way down when they are not being used. And I've noticed 2 of my cores shut right off when not needed almost completely. I've used both the i5 and i7 and I've noticed very LITTLE difference battery wise. 3 hours is something to be proud of if your doing more than just web browsing and get it.

 

I get ~4 hours on battery with a quad core and near enthusiast level GPU. Granted my t400 gets 8-10+ on a 9cell, but that is running on an IGP and lower voltage c2d. Turn on the 3470 and Ill get ~5 hours and not much better then my studio xps 16 packing ALOT more power. When I am idling or doing 'I am on battery' type tasks the multipliers rarely go above 7 and core can go into a sleep mode making my quad core essentially look like a low clock speed dual core.

As for the dual vs quad debate, well thats all personal preference. But even if you dont use VMs or multi-threaded applications you can still benefit from a quad core CPU. Even when Im not doing VMs or anything serious enough to tax my 720QM I still notice that the OS and applications run snappier then comparable dual core systems.

 

How does the XPS 16 look like without the leather?

 

Better IMHO.

 

I hated it. It makes the machine really slippery aswell. The leather gives grip to hold it

 

Yeah. I got to see it without the leather and it looks a whole lot better. But the weight of the laptop is just too much for college. Even the 15.6 inch.

 

See I was fine carrying my 17in workstation across campus so changing to the SXPS 16 was a big change in weight for me. But I can see how it could bother some.

 

I would get the i5. the i7 sucks alot of power,costing you maybe 30mins+ of battery life. My i7 puts out alot of heat as well. but owell.

 

I would say that 4 hours is pretty decent. Granted I could probably squeeze more time with some tweaks but still I dont see where I would require much more then that.

 

I7 + 5730 + WLED = 4+ hours
I7 + 5730 + RGB = 2:30 - 3:15 Hours

 

Outlet laptops are a 50-50 chance, a hit or a miss. If you are lucky try your luck. Note that outlet laptops are second hand laptops which has been returned to Dell by the first consumer for some issue.

 

Yet another reason why not to get an RGBLED screen. Add in a 4670 and your time goes down even more.

Some of the outlet laptops are customized laptops that never got shipped due to canceled orders.

 

Well the screen = Amazing and i don't travel with my laptop alot so its defiantly worth it

 

I would say the same thing about the WLED, plus I notice no difference between the LED types so Ill stick with the lower wattage version. Plus I take my SXPS everywhere so battery life is somewhat important.

 

WLED side by side with the RGBled its no contest its alot brighter and colors stand out more. Also the WLED is a substandard display. Compared against a 15 macbook pro 2009. The macbooks screen is so much better.

 

I went from an RGBLED to a WLED and the difference is not noticeable. I know everyone says mac has the best screens but putting my CCFL dell vostro next to a MBP 17in I notice nothing earth shattering.

 

The problem with white LEDs is they don't produce a lot of the red/orange spectrum (if you try to put a white LED and an incandescent bulb of similar brightness behind a red lens, you'll notice significant dimming with the LED). This is why they have to use RGB LEDs to get comparable results, so it's not fair to compare WLED with CCFL.

 

If you cannot notice the difference then you might want to have your eyes checked ( no offence ). Macbooks do have some really good screens but the RGBled trumps it easily. Its a fact the WLED they used in the studio xps 16 is a substandard display to use it in a premium system they should be embarrassed.

 

Thats like an audiophile telling a non audiophile to check their ears when they dont notice a difference between a $100 and $200 sound system. Im not a graphics guy and Im sure there would be some noticeable differences, but for me there is no difference in quality. I have 20/10 vision and I am not color blind so my eyes are fine.

Im glad youre happy with your RGBLED, but Im just as happy with the WLED as I was with an RGBLED.