Dell XPS 15/17

Kev_ps3

Edit XPS 15 only
15" with i5 http://ireland.dell.com/ie/en/home/Dell-Laptops/xps-15/pd.aspx?refid=xps-15&s=dhs&cs=iedhs1&ref=lthp


How does this laptop compare with other laptops of similar price (800e)?
Will be using it for video editing, internet and some gaming.

Thanks

Voodu Child

The performance fits right in where it should for laptops in that price range. The 17" seems to offer better value than the 15".

GT420M and GT435M are both decent mid-range cards, the main difference is that the 435M is clocked significantly higher, so thats the one to go for if you want to do a bit of gaming. It should be around the level of the ATI HD5650 which has thus far been the best value mid-range laptop card.

The 17" model has the option of the GT445M which is actually significantly faster. Actually, if Dell have used the best version of this card (192-bit GDDR5) then it is just about into into high-end territory (as far as laptops go).

Kev_ps3

Would a 17" laptop like that be too big and heavy to use on your lap or in bed?

Voodu Child

Kev_ps3 wrote: »

Would a 17" laptop like that be too big and heavy to use on your lap or in bed?

Its not an ideal size for that type of thing. Spec page says its 3.6kg with the battery, thats pretty beefy.

And to be honest, any powerful laptop would be full of dust and overheating in no time if that was how you were using it. They're really supposed to be used on a desk or table.

Kev_ps3

Good point, I think i'll stick with a 15".

martineatworld

Sorry to hijack, have been lookin at the xps 15 also, was messing with the configurations, and discovered it's an extra 100e for the i7 740QM over the i5 560M and graphics card wise, for the GT435M over the GT420M. Is it worth it? Also, is the upgraded screen worth the extra 200e?

Given- 15.6 High Definition WLED TL (1366x768) 720p
Upgrade- 15.6 Full HD B+RGLED TL (1920x1080) 1080p

Would appreciate any advice, thanks a million! The laptop would be mainly used for internet, office, some music production, Champ Man, and a few games such as the Total War games and Age of Empires etc.

U_Fig

well the way to tell is if you have a laptop set the screen resolution to 1366x768 and see how ya like it...the 1920x1080 is gonna be alot sharper better contrast...more vibrant color and you'll have more room on the screen..like it depends on your preference..personally i hate seeing pixelation so i'd be going for the better screen..my laptop is currently set at 1200x800 and when i set it down to 1200x768 i notice quite a big difference in quality..as for the price it's up to you to decide whether it's worth the money for the superior quality..

on the processor front..i'm not exactly an expert on hardware but have been reading up quite a bit on it recently...for day to day use the i5 would be better it will give you better battery life from less power consumption and the nvidia optmimus technology you'll will get....most applications and games at the moment cannot use all 4 of the cores.. although this is increasing..for gaming i think the i5 would be suitable to run those fine tho really the GPU is what you need for that the GT420m will do fine for what you need, the GT435m is the better of the 2 GPUs faster clock speed and more momory but ...but at the cost of battery.....if you want to future proof the laptop then get the i7 as more and more applications are utilising the 4 cores if that's not a big issue get the cheaper i5 and cheaper 420m graphics...really unless you don't have an extra few seconds/minutes to encode a piece of audio or want to run the newest game at high settings i'd say go for the the i5 and gt420m...and save your money or buy a faster HDD or SSD or something...the performance difference of that will be more than you'll see from the 2 processors

Kev_ps3

For an extra 50 euro would it be worth getting the 17" XPS model which has 17.3" HD+ WLED True-Life (1600x900) lcd and 1GB NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 435M Graphics Card(Wireless N1000 Card Only) versus the 15" model which has 15.6 High Definition WLED TL (1366x768) 720p lcd and 1GB NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 420M Graphics Card(Wireless N1000 Card Only).
Only thing is it will be used mainly on my lap and in bed. What would ye do? Im in two minds atm.

dazzday

Remember the XPS isnt a gaming laptop but rather a multimedia laptop. If you want top end gaming you will be infinitely better looking at Asus G range, sager or clevo builds or some Msi ranges.

How much video encoding do you plan to do and how much gaming? What games?
Do you want any portability?
Battery life?
Hows your eyesight?!

Sephiroth_dude

Was looking at them sager laptops and there very nice.

legrandemac

Hi Kev_ps3, was just in exactly same predicament during the week trying to decide between ordering the 15.6" or the 17" of this new xps. I eventually went with the 17" it seems to be a better bang for the buck tbh.

I'm the same, do most of my laptop work with me sitting and the thing on my lap/thighs so the 17" is going to be heavy but i'll get used to it.
My 13" crapped out on me recently so (and that was 4lbs) so been using an old 15.4" with a 12 cell battery while waiting for the new xps to arrive.

The 15.4" with the 12 cell is about 7lbs ish in weight and it took a bit of getting used to coming from a light little thing but it seems ok on the lap and not too awkward. For that reason I went with the 17" xps, which is about 7.5lbs weight, looks like a fairly good spec aswell.

Make such you use the 5% discount code that dell are offering lately to get a further chunk off the price making it even better bang for the buck...

5% off code is: H7DJZC3VCJL32N

from here: http://www.irelandvouchercodes.com/merchant-Dell-vouchers-deals-100015.html

Kev_ps3

legrandemac wrote: »

Hi Kev_ps3, was just in exactly same predicament during the week trying to decide between ordering the 15.6" or the 17" of this new xps. I eventually went with the 17" it seems to be a better bang for the buck tbh.

I'm the same, do most of my laptop work with me sitting and the thing on my lap/thighs so the 17" is going to be heavy but i'll get used to it.
My 13" crapped out on me recently so (and that was 4lbs) so been using an old 15.4" with a 12 cell battery while waiting for the new xps to arrive.

The 15.4" with the 12 cell is about 7lbs ish in weight and it took a bit of getting used to coming from a light little thing but it seems ok on the lap and not too awkward. For that reason I went with the 17" xps, which is about 7.5lbs weight, looks like a fairly good spec aswell.

Make such you use the 5% discount code that dell are offering lately to get a further chunk off the price making it even better bang for the buck...

5% off code is: H7DJZC3VCJL32N

from here: http://www.irelandvouchercodes.com/merchant-Dell-vouchers-deals-100015.html

excellent, thanks for that voucher code.

Kev_ps3

dazzday wrote: »

Remember the XPS isnt a gaming laptop but rather a multimedia laptop. If you want top end gaming you will be infinitely better looking at Asus G range, sager or clevo builds or some Msi ranges.

How much video encoding do you plan to do and how much gaming? What games?
Do you want any portability?
Battery life?
Hows your eyesight?!

Games like Civilization V, Age of Empires 3 and Football Manager 2011.

I think ill go with the 15", ive read a few reviews for the 17" and they say its not recommended for lap use.

Tigerbaby

power supply.

Hi a "friend " of mine is bringing me one of these XPS 15 laptops from the USA.

Can I buy a Ireland/UK power adapter anywhere locally? Anyone know model numbers etc?

many thanks,

TR.

Voodu Child

US adaptor will work fine once you replace the plug.

Tigerbaby

so the adapter will work ok with 220v power supply and also with the Us 110 dc, just by changing the plug to 3 pin 220v ac/dc?

wow, if so , thats great news. would you mind just confirming that?

thanks so much.

TR

Tigerbaby

Voodu Child wrote: »

US adaptor will work fine once you replace the plug.

thank you my friend. We got the laptop, and a plug converter from Maplins for only 10 euro and all is good. The Dell Adapter covers from 100 to 250 Volt AC.

all is fine. cheers

Storm 10

Hi tigerbaby what do you think of the XPS 15 I was thinking of getting one mysely, does it have a connection for a digital camera, any comments appreciated.

FGR

The 2nd Gen Dell XPS 17 appears to be available now with 1920 x 1080 screen. Problem is that the minute you select the LED upgrade there's an incompatibility with the colour of the cover! Thing is it cannot be changed..!

Beautiful. Just beautiful. :rolleyes:.

Dell XPS 17 2nd Gen

JonathonS

ForegoneReality wrote: »

The 2nd Gen Dell XPS 17 appears to be available now with 1920 x 1080 screen. Problem is that the minute you select the LED upgrade there's an incompatability with the colour of the cover! Thing is it cannot be changed..!

Beautiful. Just beautiful. :rolleyes:.

Dell XPS 17 2nd Gen

Ring them when you have your spec completed and saved in your wishlist. They will change it for you over the phone (usually). I got mine upgraded to Windows Professional last week, there was no option to do this online.

FGR

Thanks for the reply JonathonS. Thing now is that they've fixed that error and have replaced it with something worse..!

Dell will only allow you order the screen if you go with an i7 Processor and 3D Graphics card which pushes the cost of the order well above 1,300!

Shame, too. I was hoping I could just get a standard FullHD setup as I'm not into the whole 3D thing.