We finally managed to wrestle one of the sleek
Studio XPSs from Dell's mitts, and we've got the pics to prove it. At first glance, the 13-inch laptop is striking, with its leather wrapped back and high gloss finish. However, we have a few minor quibbles that make the laptop a little less exciting than we'd hoped. Firstly, the leather is a bit rippled across the top -- not a huge deal, but it skews the "design" aspect here. In a similar fashion, the super-glare display is just as distracting as it is on other screens of this type, and there seems to be another slight ripple -- or wave -- in the plastic (though this isn't wholly uncommon). Once you open the box, you're greeted to a matte, low-profile keyboard that feels terrific to the touch, though unfortunately the trackpad is not only minuscule in size, but located to the left of center, which makes no sense to us (especially on something of this size). For hands like ours, we found the experience to be a bit cramped. On the software side, the boot into Vista was certainly speedy, and though we had typical issues (crapware, pop-ups, general bugginess), the system still felt pretty snappy. We're going to be taking a more in-depth look -- especially at the capabilities of that NVIDIA GeForce
9400M G 9500M GPU -- but for now, feast your eyes on the gallery below!
Update: Our mistake! We actually have the model with the 9500M GPU. Even better!
posted March 31st 2009 11:59AM
It looks like black plastic trash if you ask me (like most of dell's computers). One nice thing is is this, it can double as a on the road mirror for your wife when you travel together. You would be better off throwing your money down the crapper. Dell = ultra fast fail.
I'm glad Engadget have finally got one of these: I've had my eye on one of these for a while now (as a potential competitor for my £££ to a Unibody MacBook), and it'll be good to get some decent feedback.
With the current offers from Dell, one can be picked up for £800.10 (2.4 GHz C2D, 320 GB 7200 rmp HDD, LED backlit screen, Nvidia Geforce 9500M, bluetooth), which is pretty damn good deal, if it's everything Dell promises it to be.
Bring on the full review Engadget!
If you are considering switching to a Mac, make sure you want to do so for the software - the hardware is nice but it's the software that will either make you very happy or drive you nuts.
Thanks for the tip. I'm a student studying Computer Science, and on my course, the use of Microsoft Visual Studio is mandatory, so if I got the MacBook, I'd be running Windows via Boot Camp a good deal of the time. For the price of a Studio XPS 13, I'm limited to the entry-level Unibody MacBook (£799 with Apple's Education Discount). At the moment, I'm leaning more towards the Dell, though I'm going to wait until the release of Snow Leopard (hopefully this Summer!) before I decide and buy.
I would be interested to its speed and usability compared to its big brother Studio XPS 16 of a similar price/spec
What? a SINGLE USB port?
Dell's website says something about the eSATA port being USB 2.0 compliant. Does that mean a USB device can be connected through that eSATA port as well? Explain please 'cause that would bring the USB port count up to 2, though I doubt it's possible...is it?
That's right, it's a combined E-sata/USB port.
I have one of these, the eSATA port does double as a usb 2.0 port
I bought the XPS 16 and I'm still waiting for an eSata external drive enclosure that is powered by the same cable. I found the cable online but no enclosures you could pop a 2.5 drive into.
Am I the only one that thinks leather on a laptop is a terrible idea? You take this thing in and out of a case a few times a day and you're gonna start seeing wear/cracking on the leather parts.
On the plus side I can finally recreate the look of the top of my old beater towncar in laptop form......
I got the studio XPS 13 1 month ago and exchanged it the following day for the studio XPS 16. The XPS 16 running Win 7 is the best computer I have ever owned. I used to build them myself, but got a real job and starting running out of time to do this sort of thing. I went to the Studio XPS 16 because the 13 was way too hot, the keyboard and track pad were cramped, and the screen was poor (dim/glare) in well lit rooms. The 16 is simply extraordinary. Actually not that much bigger/heavier than the 13, and much much smaller than my e1705 which it replaced. I got it close to maxed out for about $2300 delivered (haggled with the rep for a while). 9500 processor, 4gdddr3, bluray, 225gb SSD. I didn't even boot into Vista, just wiped it immediately. If you get one be sure to demand ALL of the software on Disk (cyberlink w/ bluray support specifically) or you won't be able to watch dvds or bluray disks. You still can't download all of the essential stuff from Dell's site.
not suprising, the m1330 had overheating GPUs that burned the motherboard. i hope this time THEY DIDNT WIELD THE GPU TO THE MOTHERBOARD.
Little boy Sully, MacBooks can be found quite a bit cheaper at a variety of places. Even if they are a little more it's not enough to buy one of these. Now go wash your mouth out with soap before I do it for you little boy. You're only a badass on the internet using your parents internet connection.
Davey boy, Dell tech support is quite good?? Right. That speaks volumes for your knowledge and requires no further comment.
Dell support actually isn't half bad. if u had it another way, sux to b you. just try not to generalize all of humankind's experience, yeah?
as far as this laptop goes, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. some like unibody, some like a little leather. some willing to spend more on their preference, some hated Vista to their guts.
personally, it looks pretty good other than the fingerprint magnet surface.... yech.....
Hmm. Strange. I walk into the Apple Store, sit down for 10 minutes until it's my turn. Go up to the counter and complain that my total battery capacity dropped by 10 percent somehow. The woman looks at me, tells me to fill out a form, and boom. New battery.
@Kizorblade
Probably best not to use the terms "battery" and "boom" in the same sentence...
Because you used the comment board incorrectly I didn't notice you responded to my post until now. The "Reply" button works beautifully if you click on it with the left button....errr only button of the magic wand thingy sitting next to your keyboard (the flat thing with all the pretty buttons).
As for your "little boy" comments, I'm wondering what I said that made you so defensive, I mean you clearly are a douche, so having someone call you that couldn't have made you angry. I also never made any anti-mac comments. I use a variety of OSes and have different uses for each. No operating system is flawless, but strictly from a frugality standpoint, this PC is a better buy than a Macbook (considering you don't have specific uses for OS X). You obviously don't have any bills of your own to pay or the small $500 discrepancy would be a blaring reason to buy the Dell over a Macbook. Yes the Macbook can be found cheaper elsewhere, but so can the Dell. If you choose to buy computers from craigslist that's your choice.
I will now sit back and let my ranking of my first post do the rest of my talking.
The shiny screen completely stops my interest in this.
I bought one of these for my wife when I bought a Studio XPS 16 for myself. My laptop came within 3 weeks and has been rock solid. Hers however, came 8 weeks later after two calls to Sales wanting to know what's going on with the constant slipping ship date. Man, I wish I hadn't rushed them to send this laptop to her. We've had major stability issues with the Dell Wireless 1515 card, and the image load has crashed on us twice within two weeks forcing me to restore it back to an earlier date. (Thank you, Windows Home Server.) Right now, it's an expensive paper weight until Dell can get their act together and release more mature drivers. This is defiantly a buyer beware.
As a current XPS M1210 owner, I am looking for my next portable. I want the better graphics, and the horsepower that can't be found in the E series, or lattitude 13" laptops, but realize I may have to deal with some heat to get it. The M1210 isn't exactly cool when it is has been running in high performance mode for a while. I like the keyboard and I usually use an external mouse anyway. I am ordering my XPS Studio 13 today.
I also upgraded from the M1210 to the Studio XPS 13.
M1210 vs Studio XPS 13:
Pros:
Much sleeker design
Bigger/nicer screen (I got the LED option)
Faster (obviously)
Lower temperature on lap
Power adapter is half the size
Bigger/better keyboard
Backlit keyboard
eSATA :)
Abundant video-out options
Quality feel - nice sleeve
Neutrals:
Touch media controls
No colour options
No option for 9-cell battery in Canada
Cons:
2 USB ports :(
Some trouble with wireless card after Vista64 reinstall (Drivers?)
Soundcard sucks (Bought as Asus U1 to replace)
Stupid hard drive partition for windows recovery
Only one exhaust vent?
Trackpad too small
Black+Glossy = Fingerprint Magnet
I had a bit of wobble when i got it, simply taking off the bottom panel and replacing it properly fixed this. I do not have any of the screen or leather 'ripple' that engadget are talking about.
Overall very pleased with this machine. The windows installation crashed and burned after a month of use, but that's not the machines fault. Should have wiped it from the onset anyway.
i really hate those style of keyboards
not as good as my hdx18's 1gb geforce gt 130m card....
(still pretty good though)
My gf has the 16" version. the plastic in front of her keyboard isn't completely flat either. The leather is nice and tight though. Still that ripple for a laptop of that price... It shouldn't have that.
This is why I have grown to hate Windows:
"though we had typical issues (crapware, pop-ups, general bugginess)"................
expecting such awful flaws is the number 1 reason I love using my Macs. Cheaper they may always be, it's almost always a rocky road with any windows based computer.
i've had my studio xps 16 for about 2 months, and i truely LOVE it. for the money, and the quality i don't think i could have done any better. the leather is in perfect condition, there are no imperfections on the screen. i bought it for gaming, and portability around the house. it's really too big to be a travelling laptop. the 13 is just fine i'm sure but the 16 is too big to be HIGHLY portable.
mostly i was tired of being confined to a desk for gaming and internetting. i love it, all you apple fanboys that poo poo anything windows, don't hold the OS against a damn good piece of gear.
The Xps Studio 16 has dropped in price and soon i'll be getting it to replace my M1330 (Which is an awesome laptop).
Hi All,
I purchased this laptop about 3 weeks and unfortunately I am having a lot of problems with it. I have had pretty good luck with dell in the past so I am a little disappointed to be having problems 3 weeks in. Issues started about a week ago. Random crashes. When I plugged in the laptop, the power meter would report - plugged in, not charging. Battery will not charge. Crashes have gotten continually worse. Called XPS support (which surprisingly wasn't bad). They shipped out a new power brick. - No difference. I now have to ship the laptop to dell for repair. For the first week A+, next two weeks F.
Hopefully the repair will resolve the issue.
I've got one, and I love it. Admittedly, the system can be a bit buggy, but I expect that to improve with updates. I'd definitely buy my again. It's got a lot of currently tech packed into a nice, stylish, affordable package.
reports haven't been that great with this version. I'm writing this on my beloved m1330 and can't see any reason to upgrade. they've made 8gb available for the m1330 now, the video card may be slower, but it fine for 99% of what you'd do. It doesn't overheat (at least the newer ones) and they have the same screen. I want to know what it's going to take for dell to offer a higher resolution on a 13.3" machine. The only doing it right now is lenovo with their x300, but that machine's a snail in comparison
Now free with every Dell...dead cow parts attached to every computer.
For people who have this machine, how hard do you push it? Anyone running CS3 or 4? Revit? 3ds Max? The specs seem capable enough but I'm curious how well it responds to work as well as play.
I had this laptop for about two weeks and found it pretty sluggish. As it turns out, it actually had a problem with the motherboard and went back to Dell. I decided to just return it instead of having it replaced because it just wasn't right for me. It seems a little heavy for the size and it's also bigger than I like a laptop to be. The fan also runs more than I would like, especially with the video card in performance mode (I found myself turning the performance off only to make the damn fan quiet down). And through it all it just seemed a little too laggy.
That said, this laptop has some good qualities. The screen is fantastic - I know everybody seems to hate the non-coated screens but I love them, the picture is just way brighter and clearer (I had the Dell Latitude E4200 with the coated screen and I didn't care for it). The backlit keyboard is awesome, I type a lot in the dark and I'm not a touch typist so I loved that feature. The keyboard also feels good to type on. The build quality is good too, mine didn't have any of the ripples anywhere.
PS. To the Engadget masters, it would be nice to have a feature in the comments section to filter all the OSX/Windows debating out of the thread. I really don't care which OS people think is better, I know what I like and I hate having to sift through 100 comments to find about 20 that are about the actual thread. If I want to be educated about the pros and cons of one OS over the other I can surely find a forum for that elsewhere.
I'm looking for an ultimate HD Multimedia/Gaming 13" Laptop. Is this it??? =)
Open Budget Dude!
I'm a little confused... how does the "Studio XPS 13" differ from the "old" "XPS 13" (without the Studio branding)...?!?
I also noticed that the old "XPS 13" is no longer available in the Dell Australian store - is there a reason for it? I thought I once saw both units being on sale at the same time...
thanks heaps!
What ever happened to the in-depth look? It seems like they would have posted it by now
hey... does anybody know some place where I can get the studio xps 13 (new) for cheap? I mean cheaper than the price offered by the Dell store. I really love this laptop but the price is going to hit me hard.
secondly, the max graphics card that is currently being offered with this model is an nvidia 256mb. Now, I'm not *obsessed* (no offense) with games, but I do play games pretty frequently (NFS, COD, C&C, GTA) so is this card enough for these kind of games? and if I do buy this one, I need to use it for quite some time so will it be sufficient in the future? I spoke to a Dell executive and I was told that I can install a max 512 mb card (at my expense) later on, but will this affect the performance or any other aspect of the laptop in a negative way? any other options?
the config I have in mind: 4 gigs RAM, 320/500 GB HDD, WLED screen, (unfortunately) Vista (64 bit), Core 2 Duo P8700, standard battery.
I'm quite ignorant when it comes to all this, so please... suggestions are welcome!
also, I'm from Canada so keep that in mind.
Thanks a lot!