Dell XPS 13 Review: Now with FHD Screen

This compact Ultrabook fits a 13.3-inch 1080p display with IPS technology into a small chassis. Read on to see why we really like this premium offering from Dell.

Read the full content of this Article: http://www.notebookreview.com/notebookreview/dell-xps-13-review-now-with-fhd-screen/

 

Are those hex screws securing the bottom casing?

 

First time around with the XPS 13, I felt the only thing missing was the screen resolution. An IPS FHD option more than makes up for that now, so it's definitely a nice package at a reasonable price.

 

I strongly feel that in the "Cons" section, the glossiness should have been mentioned.
Is there a matte option?


Also, how is the feel with respect to durability to falls and bangs of this laptop? How does it compare to business grade laptps?


The 1080 screen res + viewing angles are awesome

 

Considering that nearly all non-business laptops don't have matte screen options, that's not really a reasonable "con." Also, many people prefer glossy screens over matte displays. In any case, I think it's a small sacrifice for IPS + FHD

 

^^ Nearly all non-business laptops have this con

If we consumers dont speak up, the companies will assume we dont care.

I am thus speaking up, and saying that glossiness is a big con to me.

I will also say that the 1080 IPS display is a big plus to me.

A 1080 IPS matte display would have been superawesome.

 

Charles does mention the gloss as a drawback. All looks nice on this DeLL but hard for me to get excited as I like mine better for many reasons.

 

Yes, it is mentioned in the main review, but it is ommited in the final cons section.

If it were me, I would put it in big flashing red colored font

Well, not really, but you get the idea

 

I've heard feedback on "taste tests" in regards to glossy vs. matte screens when they're presented to consumers and apparently a glossy screen just edges out the matte screen with overall preference. That's why manufacturers like Dell go with it in their consumer models, they probably end up annoying 40% of buyers by doing so but keep 60% happy. It really should be an area where you're given a configuration choice, it might increase costs due to having to keep more inventory and sourcing from different manufacturers, but I'd be willing to pay more for a matte screen if there's a need to pass on those costs.

And as far as the XPS 13 review goes, nice job Charles, agree on all points there and this is certainly a solid Ultrabook offering. It's too bad Dell's PC unit seems to be suffering with sales of late, they have some nice offerings.

 

The screen on this model is covered in a layer of glass, which means you can't have a matte version. Just like if it had a touchscreen.

This screen upgrade brings the XPS 13 up into being my favorite Ultrabook. Great design and now a great screen.

 

I'd get the XPS 12 over the XPS 13 for the more versatile form factor. That said, this is one heck of a well-done ultraportable. Dell really brought their A-game.

 

Exactly Andrew, in such a split preference issue, offer us a choice. I would definitely be willing to pay higher for a matte screen.

The following link courtesy of Ajfountains:
Samsung Shows Off Series 9 Laptop With Retina-Matching Display | PCWorld

The Series 9's display has a resolution of 2560 by 1440 pixels and a matte finish

So, for me the Samsung series 9 beats the pants off the XPS

 

The XPS 13 is a real production model you can actually go out and buy. That Samsung was a one-off prototype at a show six months ago; unless I've missed something, there's been no announcements about a production model.

 

Why would Samsung tease like that, and not deliver?

 

But actually, Samsung will be introducing the new Series 7 ultra 13" in a few months. And that one will indeed blow the pants off EVERYTHING. That has 1080P IPS, touch screen, card reader, better port selection, great speakers, something like 8 hour battery life, JBL speakers, 8570M Radeon discreet GPU. Apparently, also will offer 4G as well. Believe me, the new series 7 ultra is a no compromise ultra book except in price. Samsung has not stated price but it will be hundreds more then the dell. But I don't care. I'm getting one. Its a perfect machine. Just check out the CES review on the recent you tubes.

 

Wait, if series 7 is just coming out, when will series 9 come?

 

From this article: AnandTech - Hands on with Samsung's 2013 Notebook Lineup It looks like the series 9 will now have PLS matte non touch 1080P screens. Also at CES it was in some other colors. I'm thinking the whole line will be available soon. Might be a good device if they let you have W7 on it. Moving forward, I think its better to have the touch with W8. I realize that many don't care for 8 but IMO touch is here to stay. So much that I can see Apple back peddling to put touch on OSX. They won't like it but they won't have a choice.

 

Also a concern of mine!
I bought a Dell Precision M4600 because it was one of the few where I could get decent resolution (would have preferred 1920*1200 over the 1920*1080 though) and a matte screen. Unfortunately I could not afford the IPS. I've been quite happy with the notebook except for the really, really bad quality of the keyboard. It took only 6months before the paint on the keyboard started wearing off to a point where customers notice it. (It's backlit, so it's quite obvious)! Quite a pitty - otherwise it's a decent machine!
I'd probably avoid Dell next time - but in these glossy times it's hard to be picky if anyone is offering matte screens... ;-)

 

The screen glossiness is con, I mentioned it in the screen section. I feel like a broken record complaining about screen glossiness article after article. Personally I'd invest in an anti-glare screen protector if I owned a notebook with a glossy screen.

The Samsung sounds great but that's on paper. The XPS 13 hits a home run in basically every area, including the all-important keyboard and touchpad. I haven't seen anyone do Ultrabook input devices better than Dell so far. I'd need to see the Samsung in person to judge that. I admit I developed a soft spot for the XPS 13 (and the XPS 12, which I reviewed here:
Dell XPS 12 Review). We don't give out Editor's Choice awards on a whim!

 

I've been waiting for this laptop for quite some time, and it seems it's finally here!!

However, now that Intel's been developing haswell, I kind of want to wait for that too - I guess you can play the waiting game forever though, and they fixed pretty much the only complaint that it had had - plus it's form factor, very tempting

DELL XPS XPS 13 (XPS13-2501sLV) Ultrabook - Newegg.com < cheapest I've seen so far

 

That is NOT the 1080p screen, be warned.

(If I'm wrong I apologize)

 

I didn't know there was a different screen version of the new xps?

 

From what the reviewers said at ces, the track pad/gestures for the new series 7 was really very good and the pls screen will probably be nicer then the dell. it won,t be long for the ultra. Just for the battery life and superior port selection I would get the samsung. They changed ALLOT on this new model.

 

I believe Rykoshet is correct; Googling the model code seems to indicate that that model is indeed a 1366x768 version, as described on Amazon and Microsoft Store.

 

I had a chance to review the original XPS 13 last year. It was a quality product. I liked that Dell kind of did their own thing instead of trying to make an Air clone, but the screen was its Achilles Heel. Not only was it average, but covered in Gorilla Glass, which may be worse the glossy. Dell now ups the ante with a 1080 IPS, but it's glossy, which is a let down. Personally, I'd be more happy with HD+, but that's me.

I also noticed accidental coverage, which was standard on the old XPS, is now an upgrade and the upgrades are somewhat expensive.

 

wow good catch, thank you - any word on the 1080p version?

 

No no, Charles, we appreciate you pointing it out article after article. As you can see in this thread, there are lots of us who care about this. So please keep pointing it out, and also put it down in the final pros/cons summary. Keep up the good fight.

 

okay i'm seeing the following versions on newegg:

DELL XPS XPS 13 (XPS13-1000sLV) Ultrabook - Newegg.com
DELL XPS XPS 13 (XPS13-1500sLV) Ultrabook - Newegg.com
DELL XPS XPS 13 (XPS13-2501sLV) Ultrabook - Newegg.com
DELL XPS XPS13R2-1100sLV Ultrabook - Newegg.com

none of these are the 1080p version then?

 

any word on this?

edit: must be this one - http://www.amazon.com/Dell-XPS13R2-...WGQ/ref=sr_ob_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1362239451&sr=8-1

 

I've read in different threads both in this forum and dell's one that there were issues related to the Fan noise.
Did Dell resolve this issue completely ? I would like to use this ultrabook as my development machine, fan
noise is a big deal for me. Thanks in advance.

 

The lack of dedicated home/end pgup/pgdown buttons might not make it the greatest for developing code...but you could get used to it I guess...

 

Hi Rykoshet, thanks for the comment, so fan noise has been solved? I just wrote an email to dell's salesman asking for details
on the same issue, but he didn't answer me yet...
If both of the things on the list below is good I would buy this ultrabook instantly.

• fan noise
• general temperature

Thanks Joe

 

Agreed, I use those keys frequently enough that I end up making a not insignificant amount of extra keystrokes when I have to use the [Fn] key to access them. Developing code or long text files on a 13" screen isn't ideal either though. Personally I like notebooks either 14" in size or 17"; 14" because I think that's the right balance of easy portability and usability, and 17" because that's a great desktop replacement size. 15.6" is too big to be fluidly portable and if that's the case, why not just get a 17".

 

I agree with your saying, in general I would use a desktop all the time.
My question was completely different: related to the fan noise issue and temperature but didn't get any answer on that.
Btw I do appreciate your comments and feedback.

 

Very well put. :thumbsup:

 

One other issue is no touch screen on this. This would be a great machine if you could get W7 on it but you can't. I talked to someone at dell about it and only W8 is available for the IPS HD screen. I'm not too crazy about W8 but I can say its even worse without touch. I played with the new Asus 13" touch ultrabook at BB with 1080P IPS touch and have come to the conclusion that it is the best ultrabook on the market at this point in time. Blows the Acer S7 out of the water for battery life, much better KB and the trackpad really works good.. much better then Acer and older Asus. The lid is stiff so it does not wobble when touching. And they put a huge battery in there. It looks much like a MB air 13 but much nicer. Absolutely amazing machine and I could not really find anything bad while I played with it for about 20 minutes. I really wanted to buy but would like to see maybe a haswell in that with a 256 SSD which is not available. But for 1100 dollars its clearly the best machine for the money at this moment in time. There are over 50 reviews on BB web site on this machine and it rates at 4.9 stars. That is like unheard of on BB reviews. But after playing with it, I can see why. Asus nailed it. Pretty much like an air, with a nicer screen and better looking KB/design that runs W8. Yeah, they copied Apple but IMO made something even nicer.

 

^I agree about the no touchscreen issue, Windows 8 is not 'natural' without it. Without getting too far off-topic, I think Windows 8 is a poorly developed product that serves no productive purpose relative to Windows 7; it's a full step backwards. I fail to see the logic behind the interface and what it is intended to do. Windows 7 didn't hold me back, and neither did XP (until some software stopped supporting it). I hope Microsoft is hard at work on a replacement interface, otherwise I think I may choose a different OS on my next PC (which I plan to buy within the next year).

I didn't notice any issues with the fan during my review period, it behaved normally. The XPS 13 isn't the quietest machine when the fan's running full tilt though; you should be fine as long as what you're doing doesn't over-utilize the CPU.

 

I am using the XPS 13 FHD for one month, the model with a i7-3537U and 256 GB SSD.

The fan is not disturbing. Of course you can hear it most of the time (if you are in a quiet room) but it's not a problem, I am very picky on such details but it remains totally acceptable for me. It becomes noisy if you watch a FHD video on youtube for example, but honestly it's not a problem. Uninstalling the pre-installed McAffee antivirus helped a lot, it was using too much CPU, the Microsoft AV is much better on this point.

Battery life while developing (Visual Studio) + Internet surfing is above 5 hours. The screen is a master piece, and the reflect are not a problem except when the image is very dark.

The best ultrabook i tried up to now, very light, assembly is excellent. The mix of carbon fiber + aluminium mix is a success.

Two things I regret:

-You can't keep this laptop on your knees if you wear thin clothes... The corners and the edge of the chassis are very sharp and it quickly become painful.

-The "vent grid" on the bottom, (it's not an exhaust, but an entry for fresh air), it would have been perfect if Dell did the same as Apple, no grid at all on the bottom.

Overall, i love this ultrabook, very powerful, 8GB of RAM (the only real ultrabook with this amount of memory), an amazing SSD, a decent battery life, an excellent screen, very light and extremely compact, nice design, pleasant keyboard. I definitely recommend this ultrabook to all demanding users who want use an ultrabook for more than surfing and watching videos.

PS: sorry for my terrible english

 

I haven't been as lucky as a few owners who love their XPS 13 FHD. I recently purchased L322X model as Dell is running a USD200 discount until April 26. I got first one with bad screen.. it had dead pixels. A screen replacement was attempted because it's a new machine, not because screen is bad... a few dead pixels are expected. This is per the floor supervisor V___t. He tells you to 'research' the Internet for LCD standard. The screen replacement didn't work, as the tech brought old school 1366x768 screen with him. OK.. we'll take the offer to replace the machine. And guess what's not perfect in the replaced machine either...? Yes, you're right.. . it's the screen again! Almost twice as many dead pixels. Again went through the same rigmarole of tech support and again found myself talking to V___t. I listen to his same broken record, as I wait for them to send the tech over to replace the screen on this second machine. And guess what screen the tech brings with him this time? It's the same 1366x768 screen. Oh, and btw this tech had the gall to claim that he can't see any dead pixels. When showed over different colored backgrounds, he claims that's just a dust particle stuck between the glass cover and LCD... go figure!

Dell was going to call me to see if I wanted a third replacement. I never got the call, and I canceled the order. Dell didn't even bother to send me a return shipping label when they replaced the machine the first time... sigh! Oh well, it wasn't meant to be. I really liked the machine, except if Dell could competently fix this eyesore... may be that's why they're going private... go Carl Icahn!

Btw, I 'researched' the Internet for defective pixel standard, and see that wikipedia says some manufacturers have zero-tolerance policy for such pixels, and these LCD panels are deemed 'Class 1'.... guess who doesn't have zero tolerance for dead-pixeled LCDs going into their PCs?

Dear Dell -- please stop advertising 'IPS FHD' feature of this machine if you can't deliver, let alone stand behind it.

May be I should go for UX32VD-DS72... that's what I initially had in mind. But I'm even more scared of Asus' purported technical non-support. What if I purchase via Amazon and add Square Trade's warranty to it... is that insurance/warranty genuine? Way too many positive reviews make me wonder....

 

Yes exactly the glossy finish just kills my eyes. Most laptops these days come with glossy screens, it is just a cheap way to make the screen look better and colors appear brighter. In reality it causes a lot of glare and eyestrain. I just switched over from a Matte screen and my head is aching.

still they really should stop using glossy screens.