Hands on Dell's Awesome New XPS 11, XPS 13, XPS 15

Dell unveiled some pretty outstanding new notebooks today, and we spent a little while getting to know them.

Read the full content of this Article: http://www.notebookreview.com/news/hands-on-dells-awesome-new-xps-11-xps-13-xps-15/

 

Very cool! The XPS 15 looks like a very credible rMBP competitor with a respectable midrange GPU in addition to an ultra-high-res screen (a lot of so-called rMBP competitors forget the GPU half of the equation), and I think the XPS 11 has a cool take on the Achilles heel of the yoga hinge. I'd want to try typing on one for a while before buying, though.

 

that is one strange keyboard...

 

Yeah I think the XPS 15 might get a boost if the rumors about Apple dropping a discrete GPU in the next-gen MacBook Pros is true.

The XPS 11...I'm not a huge fan of the keyboard. But I think that's mostly me coming to grips with something new and weird, and if I spent a little time on it, I would probably get used to it just fine.

 

Hmm, those look pretty lame to me. 15" model costs more but is less powerful than their own much better Alienware 14. 11" model has a non-keyboard keyboard and costs as much as Surface 2 and similar tablets. heck, HP's got CHEAPER tablet hybrids with better keyboards that also detach.

 

The Alienware 14 which is far heavier, far thicker, and has a smaller, lower-res screen? It's got better gaming performance but it's certainly not "better" in every respect. They offer both because one isn't better for everybody.

This is the core point to remember with convertibles: one form factor isn't best for everyone. Sliding, detaching, and folding each have their benefits. If you prefer detachable designs to folders, well shop for detachable designs. Compared to other folding designs, this doesn't result in the "dead keys on the back of your tablet" feel of the Yoga lineup, and gives audio and haptic feedback (unlike the Surface's touch cover). It also offers a larger, higher-res screen than the Surface's and most likely far better battery life (an Achilles heel of the Surface Pro).

 

Where is this event space exactly?

I think I answered my own Q.. looks like 6th ave and 29th street.. Maybe i'll pop over there..

i was hoping possibly there was a dGPU option for the XPS 13 but it looks like probably not. The Gigabyte P34G looks like a good option to compete with these.. about 1lb less than the XPS 15 with a 760M..

 

Awesome display resolution :thumbsup:

 

The XPS 15 looks very interesting

Love that these Retina-competition displays are getting more and more popular! If only they had been around a couple years ago when I was really looking for a PC laptop... >.<

Either way, I'm definitely considering this new XPS 15!

 

Just want to say I've been watching the alienware 14 since July time frame - it was 'almost' what I wanted but too dang heavy.

The XPS 15 is perfect for me and has twice the battery life of an alienware 14. The base model of the alienware 14 isn't even 1080 in terms of resolution and the base HD doesn't come with the SSD boot drive, which according to spec even the lowest option for the XPS 15 will come with a 32 GB SSD - that's an extra 100 dollars on the alienware 14.

 

Nit: "3200x1800 display, called Quad HD ( HD is 1600x900, and this equals four of them, get it)."

Fix: "3200x1800 display, called Quad HD+ ( HD+ is 1600x900, and this equals four of them, get it)."

As I understand, computer screen resolutions with 16:9 aspect ratio can be abbreviated as follows:

1366×768 = HD
1440×810 = ? (not in laptops?)
1600×900 = HD+
1920×1080 = FHD

2732×1536 = QHD
2880×1620 = ?
3200×1800 = QHD+
3840×2160 = QFHD (rumored)

(QFHD is one of several resolutions with varying aspect ratios that are sometimes lumped together as "4K"; others are closer to 4000 pixels wide.)

 

nelson when you see the m3800 can you say to me if the build quality is different? because sure as hell they have the same chassis

which is good news for the xps 15, since last year that throttletastic, crappy wifi left a bad taste in a peoples mouth.

all in all, I prefer the design of the inspiron n7000, but I can't complain much, its a better job than what HP is doing

 

Those lappys look really slim!

Anybody have any idea how good the cooling system is on the XPS line? I'm not really familiar with Dell laptops.

 

It's been an issue over the past few years. Some models got so hot they were uncomfortable to hold; others had fans that would ramp up and down continually, driving some owners crazy. I don't think all XPS models have had cooling/fan issues, but a notable number have. It's definitely not the XPS line's strong suit.

 

Oh, well that's unfortunate as these laptops actually look really slick and not flashy.

Sent from my XT907 using Tapatalk 2

 

In all fairness, I have no idea whether this particular model has any cooling or fan issues. I'm only talking about some of the previous XPS models.

 

The carbon base will help any heat issues :thumbsup:

 

I have to say these look really good. The current gen XPS 12 and 13 were in-the-park home runs; XPS 12 review: Dell XPS 12 Review
Improving the design and adding a better screen ...now I'm quite unsure how to make it better.

There are three areas that can actually improve productivity w/ a notebook computer today: screen real estate, input devices and batteries. (Fast processors/storage yes but for most of us we've long passed into the age of "good enough" computing where such components have ample power for our purposes.) Getting these high resolution screens is a step forward without a doubt. The best input device at the moment seems to be the keyboard/mouse (hooray for Microsoft for trying and miserably failing with Windows 8 touch crap though); and batteries - which is kind of off topic - but given all of mankind's past extraordinary accomplishments, the best we can do is make a portable computer last 8 hours with minimum screen brightness? We need a Bruce Wayne ...

 

These look great! I had an XPS 14 and the only thing that really bothered me was the screen resolution (1600x900). Squeezing 1920x1080 our of the 13" surely means that the 14 will be receiving the same treatment. Can't wait!

 

I have the old XPS 13, had it for four years. Dang is it durable. Dropped it many times, still works relatively fine. Hopefully they keep up the build quality

 

It's the same engineers designing these models year after year. If they haven't been able to implement a well controlled fan, and solve cooling issues by now, they never will. A good bet is that these XPS models will suffer from the same problem... Alienware has the problem, as well.

Cooling without throttling, fan behavior, trackpad behavior, very important things. People rave about specs, but if the engineers don't care about the details that make the laptop comfortable to the customers, then it's pointless to have things like a ultra high resolution screen, right.

Another interesting aspect to notice is that no one seems to use Thunderbolt ports on their Haswell laptops...

 

While I do not own an Alienware, your comment runs contrary to many, many Alienware reviews I've read. Generally what I've read of recent Alienwares is that the cooling is noisy at full tilt (certainly noisier than an Asus G-series) but effective, and the trackpads are some of the best in the PC industry.

 

LOL, a 15" laptop with no dedicated home/end keys when there are ~3" of space on either side.

Dell engineers and/or designers are flipping stupid.

 

No, dell marketing is unoriginal. They're creating a rMBP competitor, so they're trying to imitate the keyboard design.