Ivy Bridge Dell XPS 13 Ultrabook for $595 + FREE SHIP @ Dell Outlet (REFURB) - 2/12 BACK IN STOCK

Again, nobody ever said the screen is bad but the statement below is total grabage unless he watches 480i standard def broadcasts only on his TV's.

"I think, the screen is extremely impressive. It is way more high def than any 1080P TV we have."

Damn, this almost makes me regret my Latitude E6430 purchase from last week.. 3 years of warranty is definitely a nice plus for the latitude series, though. I think this is a decent deal!

Quote from wreckonized : there is always newer and better if you wait. by the time you make your decision, you will be 90 years old

I agree to a point but the Intel 4000 Graphics aren't meeting my needs whereas the Haswell GPU likely will... So to each his own

What happens when you put a laptop on a bed or blanket with the vents in the bottom?

Quote from GuySakar : No problem. Fit and finish may be the best on the market. It just feels like money in your hands. You just want to touch it all the time (even after 6 months). I think, the screen is extremely impressive. It is way more high def than any 1080P TV we have. The trackpad was an issue, but is now resolved with the latest driver. The main negatives for me are that the battery life sucks for its class ( around 4-5 hours in powesaver mode. I think the official ruling from pro reviewers, was 5 hours though), and the vents are on the bottom, meaning you shouldn't lay it on fabric or the like (bed, blanket, carpet, etc...) . I wish it had an SD slot, but that's not a deal killer for me. It also has no ethernet port, but a USB to ethernet can be purchased for cheap. Another thing, that might be specific to only mine, is that in a quiet room, there is a very present high pitched electrical sound. I rarely even notice it anymore, but worth noting. In short, move the vents and I would sing XPS 13 praises. The amount of screen you get for how tiny the foot print is, and for what the thing weighs, is almost a miracle IMO. Worth the no SD slot, or ethernet port, or micro HDMI vs reg HDMI, worth the shitty battery life, etc... Just not worth the vents on the bottom.

Quote from ptown434 : What happens when you put a laptop on a bed or blanket with the vents in the bottom?

serious question?

if so, it would heatup your laptop krazy and make ur fans run at full speeds making sounds of a jet engine while not accomplishing anything and "potentially" damage your laptop depdning on how much ur stressing it. if you were encoding decoding compressing and all that crap like harrrd, its a possibility that it could heat to a point where it would shut down to prevent frying of components.

Quote from ptown434 : What happens when you put a laptop on a bed or blanket with the vents in the bottom?

The vents on the bottom can get blocked. I assume that if your fan needs to run to cool things down, and the vents are blocked, things might overheat, fan motor might get strained, etc... Not to mention it sucking up all the dirt/dust on what ever surface it is on.

Quote from antec5150 : You could have stated it's a nice screen when compared to other 1366x768 resolution screens but what you said is a joke.

No it's not. I explicitly said, "for me". I have always had run of the mill dell laptops, and this is hands down the best screen I have ever had on a laptop, and outshines every tv in the home. So no, it's not a joke, it's actually a fact. What you are saying is not.

Quote from Dancancook : I'd fight another battle. The "no 1080p screen resolution in a 12" laptop" is the new "no hdmi". For the record, I'm a resolution snob and am fine with 1366x768 resolution on laptops under 13" and under...

I hear yeah. Tell me if this is correct: All things equal. Take a set resolution (like the XPS 1366x768) and two screens. One screen small, and one much larger. The much larger screen is going to have less pixels per square inch, thus have less resolution, and visa versa.

You are correct Guy, the TN panel used in the XPS 13 ultabook with amazing looking washed out colors and horrible viewing angles is far better than a 1080P TV. I wish they used this high quality panel on all laptops. Everybody would be happy and nobody would ever complain.

Quote from antec5150 : Again, nobody ever said the screen is bad but the statement below is total grabage unless he watches 480i standard def broadcasts only on his TV's. "I think, the screen is extremely impressive. It is way more high def than any 1080P TV we have."

Okay, I think we can all agree that wasn't the best statement to make.

That said, I think the point was that he enjoys the screen more than he does on his 1080p TV.

Anyway, I'm out of this thread.

Quote from Dancancook : Okay, I think we can all agree that wasn't the best statement to make. That said, I think the point was that he enjoys the screen more than he does on his 1080p TV. Anyway, I'm out of this thread.

I think the point he made was that his entire review is worthless.

Quote from GuySakar : What on earth are you regularly downloading on the go, so large that you would need to carry around an external? I have this exact model (and FYI you only have I think 90 G free) and I download stuff all the time and as long as I delete movies and such after I watch them, I have yet to fill it up in 6 months. Time for a reformat anyways, so I doubt I will ever fill it. I purchased a tiny, near flush 32G zip drive thinking I would use it for extra storage and have yet to need it. But yeah, not coming with a freaking SD card slot is terrible. But what's worse is that the effing vents are on the bottom, meaning you can't really use it in bed, etc...

i never understand that either
reviewers always put that on dell xps 13 no sd card reader bad
but you don't see them saying that on the macbook air
i guess they don't have an usb sd card reader
then they will complain have to carry the usb reader
yea like they don't have to carry an sd card adapter
unless they are old school and still using standard sd card and not micro sd card that most device is using now

Quote from Mr.Le : how many actual hours are people getting on these. i would like feedback from actual owners out there

I use this exact laptop for work. Typically during the day I can make it ~3-4hrs before needing a plug. Standby/Sleep battery life is downright horrible b/c of the Cypress touchpad it uses. There's a known issue with the Cypress driver not allowing the laptop to sleep. Sleep time for me is around 2 days then the battery is dead. Dell/Cypress have been trying for about a year to get the drivers right. I haven't tried the latest driver yet so maybe that fixes it, but the issues are numerous and can be crippling. I don't carry a mouse to meetings and the touchpad will just die. It only comes back after a reboot.

Also, the fan runs constantly and the laptop overall runs pretty hot. Upgrading it seems unlikely as you would have to crack the case to even attempt it. The silver tab on the bottom is only for looks, it's not a functional door into the memory/SSD area. The screen is very glossy, even in an office setting so it's a bit annoying. It's pretty fast overall so running everyday tasks or even heavier programs like Visual Studio are near instant. Quality is top notch, shocking for a Dell lappy. All that said, if the latest Cypress driver works I would recommend the laptop if you're in the market for an ultrabook and are okay with the sacrifices that entails (ie, lack of ports/upgradeability mentioned in this thread). Hope this helps.

Just bought 4. Nice little Valentine's Day gift.

Thanks for the info. I think i will hold off. I hate how all these laptop mfr. quote 5-7 hours battery and it's always 30-50% less in real life. I will admit my 2009 Dell xps13 had excellent standby battery life though. I could leave it for 1-2 months and open it up and there was still plenty of juice left in it. Don't know what it was but can't seem to fine anything like it these days.

Quote from leoniv : I use this exact laptop for work. Typically during the day I can make it ~3-4hrs before needing a plug. Standby/Sleep battery life is downright horrible b/c of the Cypress touchpad it uses. There's a known issue with the Cypress driver not allowing the laptop to sleep. Sleep time for me is around 2 days then the battery is dead. Dell/Cypress have been trying for about a year to get the drivers right. I haven't tried the latest driver yet so maybe that fixes it, but the issues are numerous and can be crippling. I don't carry a mouse to meetings and the touchpad will just die. It only comes back after a reboot. Also, the fan runs constantly and the laptop overall runs pretty hot. Upgrading it seems unlikely as you would have to crack the case to even attempt it. The silver tab on the bottom is only for looks, it's not a functional door into the memory/SSD area. The screen is very glossy, even in an office setting so it's a bit annoying. It's pretty fast overall so running everyday tasks or even heavier programs like Visual Studio are near instant. Quality is top notch, shocking for a Dell lappy. All that said, if the latest Cypress driver works I would recommend the laptop if you're in the market for an ultrabook and are okay with the sacrifices that entails (ie, lack of ports/upgradeability mentioned in this thread). Hope this helps.

Quote from GuySakar : Like I said earlier, this only comes with about 90 or so free if I am remembering correctly, so it's even worse than you think. And yeah, you do have to be aware of your storage, but that small awareness can make everything work. I doubt that, unless you are using a DSLR and saving images in raw mode, that you will fill this thing up with music and pictures. Movies, tv shows? Yeah, you will fill it up very quickly. Just erase after you watch. Or just stream. You should be doing a factory image restore about every 6 months or so anyway, and by doing that, you really do free up gobs of space that you didn't even realize were being consumed. I just re-read your post. I bet if you backed up all your stuff and reformatted, you would have way more tan 80 free. And I agree, 128 is not much, you are correct, 100%.

yeah true. i'm sure it's good, it's just more of an internet machine at 128gb to me. which is really all i want it for, lets be honest. i've never done a factory image restore.. ill have to look into it. thanks for the advice!