Dell XPS 15z: Sincerely Flattering
by Jarred Walton on September 2, 2011 1:30 AM ESTDell XPS 15z Battery Life: Up to 7.5 Hours
It’s interesting to look at battery life for what should otherwise be similar laptops, as the results aren’t always what you’d expect. Consider NVIDIA’s Optimus Technology, which allows the discrete GPU to complete shut off when it’s not in use. Given that the dGPU isn’t using any power in such laptops, in theory we should see consistent relative battery life across all Sandy Bridge (or Second-Generation Core i-series if you prefer the official name) laptops—with dual-core offerings doing somewhat better than quad-core laptops. A look at the results in Mobile Bench however proves that this doesn’t always happen.
ASUS’ K53E uses an i5-2520M and manages 6.43 min/Wh in the Internet test, but the Toshiba M645 only gets 5.23 min/Wh. On the quad-core side of things, the initial Sandy Bridge test laptop got 5.86 min/Wh—a mark yet to be equaled by any shipping SNB quad-core laptops! Alienware’s M14x gets 5.02 min/Wh in the same test while the Dell XPS 15 L502x only scores 4.73 min/Wh (or 4.8 min/Wh with a larger 90Wh battery). There’s certainly variance among the laptops, more than we’d attribute to LCD size or other factors. The question then is where the XPS 15z places, and thankfully it does much better than the XPS 15.
Dell’s XPS 15z not only beats the XPS 15, but it also leads most other Optimus enabled SNB laptops that we’ve tested. The ASUS K53E still wins out for dual-core SNB laptops (it’s not shown in the above charts, but you can see the comparison in Bench), but the only other SNB system to match/exceed the 15z is the Alienware M11x R3—a smaller laptop with a ULV processor. Idle battery life is over 7.5 hours, and if you want to drop the LCD below 100 nits (we tested at 33% brightness), you could probably hit eight hours. For more reasonable use cases, Internet browsing battery life is still an impressive 6+ hours, and H.264 playback from the HDD lasts over four hours.
In terms of modern laptops (e.g. excluding Atom netbooks and older CULV offerings), the only laptops that get better relative battery life than the XPS 15z are equipped with Brazos or Llano, or the already mentioned ASUS K53E and Alienware M11x R3. That puts the 15z in good company as far as operating off the mains is concerned. Of course, if we want to bring OS X into the picture, you’ll still have a hard time matching the 9+ hours the MBP13/15 can reach, but run Windows 7 on a MacBook and you’ll get substantially worse battery life. Unless you want/need more than six hours unplugged time, the XPS 15z should have you covered—at least until your battery starts wearing out and you have to pry open the chassis.
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Gazziza - Friday, September 2, 2011 - link
Agreed here. 16:9 is the worst thing to happen to laptops in the past 2 years and I'm not sure why all the Windows laptops makers have jumped shipped over to the "HD" resolution. The #1 reason I bought the new MBA was because of the 1440x900 resolution.lihtness - Friday, September 2, 2011 - link
The keyboard layout of dell laptops sucks. With so much real estate available they can do a much better job.bji - Friday, September 2, 2011 - link
I agree, that is the worst keyboard I have ever seen on a laptop. It doesn't even have dedicated page up/page down/home/end keys. Instead you get 2 inches of speaker grill on either side of the keyboard.Absolute, complete, and total design fail.
JarredWalton - Friday, September 2, 2011 - link
And lifted directly from the Apple MBP keyboard that so many people apparently love. Funny, isn't it?bji - Friday, September 2, 2011 - link
You know, I had never paid close attention to the Mac laptop keyboards, but now that you mention it, I have taken a closer look and I am really disappointed. I had been thinking about getting a 15 inch Macbook Air when they come out (and assuming that they have Ivy Bridge and are cooler/quieter than the current generation) but suddenly I am given pause.Spivonious - Friday, September 2, 2011 - link
Why the comment about wanting >400 nits? That seems like it would be way too bright unless you were using it in direct sunlight. I'd rather have lower black levels - 0.5 is pretty bad.JarredWalton - Friday, September 2, 2011 - link
Turn the brightness down to 100 nits and the black level is .20. I want 400 nits on the top for when I'm using the laptop outside, on the road, etc. You can always turn a bright display down, but if a display maxes out at 200 or 300 nits there's no way to get 400+ nits out of it.tipoo - Friday, September 2, 2011 - link
http://www.engadget.com/2011/09/02/dell-teases-xps...Anyone thinking of buying, there is a 14 inch one coming out before 2012.
ptuttle - Friday, September 2, 2011 - link
Do not buy this thing. I had bought one when it came out and had nothing but issues. The biggest issue is the touchpad. When you try to type anything it jumps the cursor to different locations on the screen and you have to move the cursor and reclick where you were typing. It may not sound that bad, but it does it almost every other word when typing. I was on the phone will Dell Tech Support many times and at first they tried to tell me it was a driver issue so they remotely took over my system and installed a different driver. When that didn't work they finally offered to replace the touchpad because they had a large amount of defective touchpads. I said ok, then they responded by saying they were out of the touchpads and i would have to wait over a month. At this point in time i had the laptop for about 3 months so i coulnd't get a normal refund. I demanded to speak to a supervisor and i explained my issues with them. After 3 weeks of dealing with them they finally let me return the laptop for a full refund, and i ordered a HP Envy 17, which ended up having a lot more in it for less money. (there is a 30% off coupon floating around) So buyer Beware....JarredWalton - Friday, September 2, 2011 - link
In the words of Jobs: you're holding it wrong! ;-)Actually, I've played around with the touchpad sensitivity, and I don't find it much worse than other touchpads I've used. It's a bit larger than most laptops, and if you brush it you can accidentally "click". Options you might consider are turning off "tap to click", decreasing the sensitivity, or just plugging in an external mouse if you have to and turn off the touchpad.