DellStudioXps13
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Dell Studio XPS 13 and 16 turn white, we fall in love
Rarely does anyone make a purchasing decision about a big-money piece of electronics like a laptop based on color alone, but it's good to know that if you've made up your mind to get yourself a Dell XPS you can choose a hue that suits your personality -- or at least your shoes. After dropping white from its XPS lineup many moons ago, the company has added it back, with "Arctic White High Gloss" being a $40 option on either the XPS 13 or 16. For that money you could get an extra 1GB of DDR3 RAM, but we must admit to being too smitten by the combination of pearly gloss and brushed metal to care about such menial upgrades. Read - Studio XPS 13Read - Studio XPS 16
Dell Studio XPS 13 reviewed, loved, and respected
There's been much talk of Dell's leather-bound Studio XPS 13 ever since it made its first appearance... and now the fine folks over at Hot Hardware have put it through the motions for you, and we can tell you that they really liked what they found. Really really. In terms of overall build, they were very impressed, specifically with the chunky hinges and that decorative leather strip (the one which we found to be rippled in our own hands-on). They also claim that the Studio XPS 13 might have the "best keyboard" they've "ever touched" on an ultraportable, and they similarly loved the trackpad's clickiness (although we found the trackpad cramped and awkwardly placed). Performance-wise, they consider themselves blown away by the laptop, though they noted a few hiccups here and there (while tabbing around Firefox), and said that they felt the Studio XPS 13 outperforms others in its class. Hit the read link for the full on, glowing review -- one more shot after the break.
Dell Studio XPS 13 unboxing and hands-on
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!
