Dell XPS 14z: Thoroughly Reviewed
by Jarred Walton on October 24, 2011 9:00 AM ESTPerformance Rundown
Given the lack of discrete graphics in our test sample, we’re going to skip any gaming benchmarks for now. We hope to have the 14z with GeForce GT 520M in for testing in the near future, and we’ll revisit the topic of graphics performance then, but for now we’ll simply refer to the ASUS K53E review as a look at how HD 3000 handles gaming. The i5-2430M GPU is clocked slightly lower than the i5-2520M, but either way you’re going to want to stick with low detail settings for most titles. Application performance is also pretty much known; the i5-2430M should outperform the i5-2410M by a small margin, but without an SSD general performance won’t be as snappy as something like the ASUS UX21.
There’s not much to point out here that we haven’t covered numerous times already. The XPS 14z performs right where you’d expect, given the components. An SSD in place of the HDD would certainly boost the PCMark scores, but otherwise general performance is fine. 3DMark gives us a quick look at what we can expect from the HD 3000 graphics, and the scores are slightly lower than the higher clocked IGP in the K53E.
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hechacker1 - Monday, October 24, 2011 - link
Apple's reputation I think is exaggerated because they take the time to factory color calibrate the screens. I don't think any other PC manufacturer does the same.But even Apple's factory calibration lately has tended toward the cooler 6800K temperatures instead of an ideal 6500K for web browsing or watching videos. They are playing into the fact that people tend to like the ultra bright, cool balanced screens that make them seen "bright and white" when comparing them side by side.
Looking at past Anandtech reviews, it's clear the Macbook's generally have very high quality screens brightness, color quality, and contrast wise.
Sure they are lacking in resolution on the laptops, but OS-X isn't resolution independent yet.
kishorshack - Monday, October 24, 2011 - link
Go for DELL XPS 15 it has an awesome screenI can look at it for ages :)
MobiusStrip - Tuesday, October 25, 2011 - link
"This is one area where I applaud Apple, they provide high quality, high-res (16:10 in some cases!) screens."Rendered garbage by Apple's insistence on shoving pathetic glossy screens down customers' throats.
Oh, you can pay $150 extra for matte on the biggest MBPs, but you can't get it on the machines most likely to leave the house: the 13" MBP or the Airs.
Glossy screens are the biggest regression in computers ever. Yet manufacturers just get a free pass on this fraud.
Stuka87 - Monday, October 24, 2011 - link
So I like the small bezel around the screen. Its about time somebody did this (if somebody else has, I apologize for not knowing). This is one of the things that I really dislike about my Precision M4600. They could have easily fit a larger 16:10 display.Its a shame the quality of the display in the 14z is so poor. The rest of it seems to be a fairly decent design.
tipoo - Monday, October 24, 2011 - link
I really wish they kept that 525M in there like the 15", the 520 is about half as fast. In fact, its not far from the HD3000.Death666Angel - Monday, October 24, 2011 - link
"I’m not sure why they include only one SS port, given the second USB port is right next to it."Not sure if this applies here, but I couldn't install Windows 7 from my USB stick on my Llano system with an AsRock A75M-ITX and A6-3500 CPU. It just didn't recognize the stick. In the USB 2.0 ports there was no problem. I guess it's driver issues. If that is the case, I can see why they want to keep at least one USB 2.0 port available.
If that is not the case and USB 3.0 makes no problems when installing from media attached to it, then disregard this post. :-)
dagamer34 - Monday, October 24, 2011 - link
Well, Windows 7 doesn't natively have USB 3.0 drivers included on the disk, so it's going to be confused by the chipset connected to that port. Should be fixed in Windows 8 though (it has native Windows 8 support).dagamer34 - Monday, October 24, 2011 - link
Ooops, I meant native USB 3.0 support.hechacker1 - Monday, October 24, 2011 - link
Isn't it backwards compatible though? The bios might have an option to run it in HiSpeed mode or whatever if it can't be detected as USB3.0 without a driver.jpochedl - Tuesday, October 25, 2011 - link
USB3.0 can run at USB2.0 speeds, but the WinPE environment still needs a driver that supports the USB3.0 chipset in order to access the USB3.0 port....