Dell XPS 12 / 13 / 15 with Skylake

Just showed up this morning, completely unexpected.

Thankfully they don't ship with too much junk on them. Cleared the dell crap except premier color off, getting it updated and getting my important stuff over to it now.

Keyboard is a lot nicer than I was expecting given it was one of the few things complained about in reviews, but I've spent an unfortunate amount of time with short travel laptop keyboards, and I mean specifically short for a laptop, and this is definitely solid. The fact there is no chassis give is definitely helping it's case, and the trackpad is as good as the reviews say. Marginally better than my old XPS 14 as well.

Screen is great, SSD is lightspeed, etc etc.

Will add more as I come across it.
 
FadedSpark said:
Just showed up this morning, completely unexpected.

Thankfully they don't ship with too much junk on them. Cleared the dell crap except premier color off, getting it updated and getting my important stuff over to it now.
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I've read that there touch pad tool(s) is really good.
 
nilepez said:
I've read that there touch pad tool(s) is really good.
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I hate the windows 10 precision touchpad stuff. It's great that it's integrated, and the responsiveness is there, but the gestures are different from the synpatics regular stuff. Three finger forward/back is necessary for personal sanity hahah, so I disabled it and went with the legacy synaptics control panel.
 
Is there any downside to buying the XPS with Home and then installing your own copy of 7 or 10 Pro? Can I d/l any dell tools that the default comes with (e.g the dell's touchpad tool/driver)? I just don't feel like paying them for a Pro license when I've got dozens lying around unused...plus I get a cleaner install (e.g. no McAfee).

Think I'll buy this week while they have 10% the off coupon.

Also, is there warranty worth getting? As a rule, i think extended warranties are sucker bets, and I suspect his one is too, but I'm all ears if anyone has a good reason (beyond peace of mind) for getting it.
 
nilepez said:
Is there any downside to buying the XPS with Home and then installing your own copy of 7 or 10 Pro? Can I d/l any dell tools that the default comes with (e.g the dell's touchpad tool/driver)? I just don't feel like paying them for a Pro license when I've got dozens lying around unused...plus I get a cleaner install (e.g. no McAfee).

Think I'll buy this week while they have 10% the off coupon.
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7 can be a pain if it's a new XPS 15 And has the nvme SSD option. You'd have to install the driver using the old f6 method during installation. It's possible, but a pain.

Windows 10 however has native support. As soon as I got my XPS 15 9550 I re installed windows using a clean iso usb stick. Worked flawlessly. And got rid of all the dell crapware. Windows automatically was activated!
 
Rav3n said:
7 can be a pain if it's a new XPS 15 And has the nvme SSD option. You'd have to install the driver using the old f6 method during installation. It's possible, but a pain.
Windows 10 however has native support. As soon as I got my XPS 15 9550 I re installed windows using a clean iso usb stick. Worked flawlessly. And got rid of all the dell crapware. Windows automatically was activated!
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A lot of licenses are old 7 Pro, but I could always activate them in a VM then install it on the Dell. Now I just need to decide on this Warranty thing. If I get it, i think I'll buy from MS instead. There warranty is much cheaper than Dell's.
 
Just got a Dell Precison 5510 with the 4K screen for work. Looks like this is the same as an XPS 15 from a design perspective. This thing easily has the best touchpad I've ever used. I had to turn off pinch to zoom and it has been flawless since then. Really good battery life too for sitting around in meetings and taking notes. The 4K screen is amazing however Windows absolutely sucks at high DPI displays. Shit is weirdly sized all over the place and Windows Zoom doesn't apply even to everything :( I'll check the specs tomorrow when I get back to work.
 
Ocellaris said:
Just got a Dell Precison 5510 with the 4K screen for work. Looks like this is the same as an XPS 15 from a design perspective. This thing easily has the best touchpad I've ever used. I had to turn off pinch to zoom and it has been flawless since then. Really good battery life too for sitting around in meetings and taking notes. The 4K screen is amazing however Windows absolutely sucks at high DPI displays. Shit is weirdly sized all over the place and Windows Zoom doesn't apply even to everything :( I'll check the specs tomorrow when I get back to work.
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I agree on the touchpad. I love mine, but again on the 9550. The build quality of the hardware is amazing. Yes you pay a premium, but the build quality has zero corners cut.
 
Looking forward to hearing owners input on the battery life they are seeing under various scenarios. From other forums, it sounds like patches have finally evened out a lot of the issues on the xps 13 and 15.
 
Deinos said:
Looking forward to hearing owners input on the battery life they are seeing under various scenarios. From other forums, it sounds like patches have finally evened out a lot of the issues on the xps 13 and 15.
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I unplugged my laptop an hour ago at 10:55AM. Currently at 89% battery and 3 hours and 26 minutes remaining. Core i7 6820HQ, 16 GB RAM, Quadro M1000M. I'll post a few more updates through the day.
 
Ocellaris said:
I unplugged my laptop an hour ago at 10:55AM. Currently at 89% battery and 3 hours and 26 minutes remaining. Core i7 6820HQ, 16 GB RAM, Quadro M1000M. I'll post a few more updates through the day.
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Thx for the updates. About how hard are you pushing it as far as work flow, and at what settings (brightness, etc)?
 
Deinos said:
Thx for the updates. About how hard are you pushing it as far as work flow, and at what settings (brightness, etc)?
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Back light up two clicks from the bottom (so 20 or 30%), work flow has been web and mobile device development, laptop on Wireless most of the time (I just connected to Ethernet to download a 2GB file though). Nothing computationally heavy.
 
strikeout said:
any version with a 970m?
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I haven't seen any, the 2gb GPU is really week. It needs a better one.

Ocellaris said:
Just got a Dell Precison 5510 with the 4K screen for work. Looks like this is the same as an XPS 15 from a design perspective. This thing easily has the best touchpad I've ever used. I had to turn off pinch to zoom and it has been flawless since then. Really good battery life too for sitting around in meetings and taking notes. The 4K screen is amazing however Windows absolutely sucks at high DPI displays. Shit is weirdly sized all over the place and Windows Zoom doesn't apply even to everything :( I'll check the specs tomorrow when I get back to work.
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What's the main difference between the two?

Deinos said:
Thx for the updates. About how hard are you pushing it as far as work flow, and at what settings (brightness, etc)?
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I keep mine plugged in, when it's not plugged it lasts a 5 hrs just about. Gf uses it more, I'll ask her.

One thing that's really crap, is the way Dell ships it out the do not package it well and the first two came with cracked screens since it's literally just in a laptop box
 
dpoverlord said:
What's the main difference between the two?
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Just the upgrade options from what I can tell. I have a Quadro instead of a 960M, so I can use those fancy Quadro drivers for the absolutely nothing I need those drivers for :p
 
Update: Just got the 10% battery warning, almost exactly 5 hours of use, screen on almost the entire time.
 
dpoverlord said:
What's the main difference between the two?
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GPU and the options. The Extended Warranty is priced differently and there's a separate battery warranty too (not sure if the battery on the XPS is covered by it's extended plan.
If you're doing your own upgrades, you can get a stripped down XPS and replace the drive and RAM with parts from Newegg for much less. The only thing I haven't found is 1TB M.2 drives

dpoverlord said:
I keep mine plugged in, when it's not plugged it lasts a 5 hrs just about. Gf uses it more, I'll ask her.
One thing that's really crap, is the way Dell ships it out the do not package it well and the first two came with cracked screens since it's literally just in a laptop box
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The battery is one thing I don't like. I really wish the battery could be taken out, since that'd extend it's life.
Are you using the 4k version?
 
i just got the dell xps 13 9350 and just to warn you, the touchpad is pure trash. i had to disable the driver and install synaptics very own driver to compensate for it.
 
TFchris said:
i just got the dell xps 13 9350 and just to warn you, the touchpad is pure trash. i had to disable the driver and install synaptics very own driver to compensate for it.
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Virtually every review considers it second only to Macs.
 
nilepez said:
Virtually every review considers it second only to Macs.
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Unfortunately, being second to macs is too vague for anyone to to make any use of that statement.

Having $1000 in the bank, while others have $999, and I have $50 billion, technically makes you second richest between the group, but doesn't mean you're rich.

Trust me, the default dell xps 13 touchpad drivers are absolute trash. You're free to disagree but if you buy one, but it's my honest opinion since I absolutely love everything else about this laptop.

I just hope Dell addresses their trackpad issues if they with to survive in the ultrabook market.
 
I don't find the touch pad too troublesome but I have heard this complaint a lot when talking about the 13's and 15's. I own both and prefer the 1080 13 for mobility it's a great machine.
 
ChrisTX12 said:
I don't find the touch pad too troublesome but I have heard this complaint a lot when talking about the 13's and 15's. I own both and prefer the 1080 13 for mobility it's a great machine.
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overall, it's still a decent machine, but it drives me up a wall that i can literally make tiny circle motions on the touchpad and not have it register
 
TFchris said:
Unfortunately, being second to macs is too vague for anyone to to make any use of that statement.

Having $1000 in the bank, while others have $999, and I have $50 billion, technically makes you second richest between the group, but doesn't mean you're rich.

Trust me, the default dell xps 13 touchpad drivers are absolute trash. You're free to disagree but if you buy one, but it's my honest opinion since I absolutely love everything else about this laptop.

I just hope Dell addresses their trackpad issues if they with to survive in the ultrabook market.
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100% agreed on the stock trackpad drivers.

Installing the synaptics ones gave me the gestures I love back.
 
TFchris said:
overall, it's still a decent machine, but it drives me up a wall that i can literally make tiny circle motions on the touchpad and not have it register
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I'll have to go to an MS store and try that on the 15" model (and I guess I can try the 13" too), but I don't recall that issue when I messed with one a few months ago. If I manage to do it tomorrow, I'll let you know what I find. I kinda hope your touch pad is defective, though i suspect getting it fixed is a PitA
 
nilepez said:
I'll have to go to an MS store and try that on the 15" model (and I guess I can try the 13" too), but I don't recall that issue when I messed with one a few months ago. If I manage to do it tomorrow, I'll let you know what I find. I kinda hope your touch pad is defective, though i suspect getting it fixed is a PitA
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I actually owned 3 in less than 24 hours lol

I purchased one from microsoftsore.com, for the signature edition. It came with crackling speakers, so I went to the MS store (since I live in NYC) and exchanged it for a new one.

The second one actually had a warped touch pad... what are the odds that I would get two bad ones in a row?

So I went back yet again and got a third xps 13. No blatant problems with the 3rd. But the crappy touchpad was across all three.

Oh also, if you have your charger plugged in, and you close the lid and re-open. The screen will not resume unless you do a hard shut down which is kind of annoying. But if it's not charging, it's fine. It's a minor issue I can live with though.. but having spent $1500 on a laptop,I expected better.
 
TFchris said:
I actually owned 3 in less than 24 hours lol

I purchased one from microsoftsore.com, for the signature edition. It came with crackling speakers, so I went to the MS store (since I live in NYC) and exchanged it for a new one.

The second one actually had a warped touch pad... what are the odds that I would get two bad ones in a row?

So I went back yet again and got a third xps 13. No blatant problems with the 3rd. But the crappy touchpad was across all three.

Oh also, if you have your charger plugged in, and you close the lid and re-open. The screen will not resume unless you do a hard shut down which is kind of annoying. But if it's not charging, it's fine. It's a minor issue I can live with though.. but having spent $1500 on a laptop,I expected better.
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Well I can't speak to the defects, but if it has those issues, I think I'd have to return it. That's a lot of money to have to work around an issue. Anyone else in this thread have any of these issues (esp the resume issue)?
 
cageymaru said:
Didn't know if this was best in the Linux section or here.


Dell releases new XPS 13 Developer Edition, launches Linux-based Precision laptops worldwide
Dell releases new XPS 13 Developer Edition, launches Linux-based Precision laptops worldwide
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Been highly interested in these since the original sputnik model. I held off cause the hardware wasn't quite where I wanted it but with Skylake it's hits basically 90% of my marks. I may be picking one of these up. My biggest grip, while small, with pretty much all UltraBooks are the shitty connector/input for power. I'd love something like MagSafe but Apple has got that patented afaik.
 
TheBlueChanell said:
Been highly interested in these since the original sputnik model. I held off cause the hardware wasn't quite where I wanted it but with Skylake it's hits basically 90% of my marks. I may be picking one of these up. My biggest grip, while small, with pretty much all UltraBooks are the shitty connector/input for power. I'd love something like MagSafe but Apple has got that patented afaik.
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My main concern is the touch screen drivers on Linux; however, no requirement to actually use the touch screen if they suck. I agree on magsafe, but at least some newer laptops are moving to the multi-use usb/charge port, which is a little nicer than the crappy, old-school adapters.
 
If the savings going to Linux is similar to the Precision, it lowers the price 100 bucks, which may be of interest to those with a spare 7, 8 or 10 license.
 
I'm about to pull the trigger on the Dell XPS 13 9350 Core i5/8 GB RAM/128 SATA SSD model. Does anyone know if its possible to upgrade it myself with a M.2 PCI-E SSD? Or does it not have the slot at all?
 
They all come with a M.2 SSD. The 128GB is SATA version. The 256GB and up are all PCI-E version. I believe all the same Architecture is used on all 9350 machines, just the SSD is different
 
I picked up the XPS 15 from an MS store. Mostly like it, but I do find the graphics driver is crashing pretty regularly. May try reinstalling the driver, but it's the latest one. I also find that it takes a long time to come out of sleep compared to my desktop machine.
 
Jethro32 said:
They all come with a M.2 SSD. The 128GB is SATA version. The 256GB and up are all PCI-E version. I believe all the same Architecture is used on all 9350 machines, just the SSD is different
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Thanks for the response.

Does any one have a recommendation for a good M.2 drive to use with this? I was thinking of grabbing this:

SAMSUNG SM951 M.2 256GB PCI-Express 3.0 Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) - Newegg.com

Its the AHCI version instead of NVMe, though from what I've read at Anandtech there isn't too much difference in performance.
 
Hey guys,

Hoping someone has some advice.

I am looking to replace my current 6-year-old dell studio as it gets very hot and runs slow (runs to its max 4GB RAM often).

I am interested in the XPS 13 and was looking around and saw lots of battery life and trackpad and wifi complaints but then the 'expert' reviews online all say there's no issues and all is good. Has anyone here had issues? When I bought this studio I also read a tonne of bad reviews but I have been impressed with this laptop.

Anyway sorry I am rambling...has anyone experienced any issues with the XPS 13, and would it be a waste for me to get 16GB ram? I use my PC for internet, email, occasional SPSS Data analysis and watching videos, and think 8GB would suffice but I want to make it last as long as I can and don't want 8GB to become inadequate further down the line.

(ps for anyone looking to get a dell, they do offer a discount if you ask, even in the live chat!)
 
Kazaam93 said:
Hey guys,

Hoping someone has some advice.

I am looking to replace my current 6-year-old dell studio as it gets very hot and runs slow (runs to its max 4GB RAM often).

I am interested in the XPS 13 and was looking around and saw lots of battery life and trackpad and wifi complaints but then the 'expert' reviews online all say there's no issues and all is good. Has anyone here had issues? When I bought this studio I also read a tonne of bad reviews but I have been impressed with this laptop.

Anyway sorry I am rambling...has anyone experienced any issues with the XPS 13, and would it be a waste for me to get 16GB ram? I use my PC for internet, email, occasional SPSS Data analysis and watching videos, and think 8GB would suffice but I want to make it last as long as I can and don't want 8GB to become inadequate further down the line.

(ps for anyone looking to get a dell, they do offer a discount if you ask, even in the live chat!)
Click to expand...


I used three variants of Dell XPS 13 . The non-touch variants have better battery life. In my opinion, 8GB is going to be fine for your use. I had trackpad performance issue on one of laptop where I replaced the default drivers with Synaptic ones. I had issue with WiFi performance on one of them( the one with 5th gen CPU) and it never resolved for me. The webcam placement sucks on all of them though.
 
Than you for your help!

I ended up ordering from the outlet: XPS 13, 16gB RAM, 512gb SSD, QHD Touch display, i7-6500U.

It was just over £300 cheaper than the brand new equivalent the only difference being that if I had bought brand new it would have come with the i7-6560U which has better graphics but I'm not techy enough to know whether this is something I should be bothered about. I do no gaming or video editing, just lots of multitasking and watching movies and videos (don't have a TV at uni). I only realised the processor was different after ordering...d'oh

Edit: I've done some more research and I can't see any need for the iris 540 that comes with the i7-6560U. I should be fine with the i7-6500U. All I do is internet, occasional Netflix and word processing so I suppose I would be classed as an average user. So I think I've answered my own question. Whilst it would be nice to have the latest and best I don't think I can justify going through the hassle of cancelling my order and paying £300 more for the 6560U.
.

The most graphically intensive thing I can see myself doing is watching 4K video.
 
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