Dell XPS 13: A Different Kind of Ultrabook
by Dustin Sklavos on March 13, 2012 9:00 AM ESTAnother Low Quality TN Panel
Stop me if you've heard this one before. AnandTech receives a notebook for review from a vendor not named Sony or Apple, and that notebook features a cut rate 1366x768 TN panel with poor viewing angles, poor color, poor contrast, and just poor quality all around. While I don't take issue with that resolution on a 13" screen, everything else only continues to be aggravating, and it's a situation notebook vendors just don't seem to be in any great rush to correct.
If you'll forgive my soapboxing for a second, this wasn't quite as aggravating before the tablet boom. At that point in time, there wasn't any device we could really point to and say "why can't we have that on a notebook?" You could argue that tablets necessitate IPS panels, but high resolution ones like the ones that are beginning to proliferate? And how do they really necessitate them any more than a notebook would, when you're still going to be looking at the screen from roughly the same angles? Yet tablets continue to enjoy excellent quality screens while notebook users are being left out in the cold.
The Sony Vaio Z2's high resolution screen runs roughshod over the competition, while the XPS 13 ranks only as one of the best of a bad bunch. It's incredibly difficult for us, as consumers, to demand better or vote with our dollars when there are virtually no notebooks out there with good panels for us to vote for. Dell is theoretically a big enough vendor to get good panels in the kind of bulk order needed for economy of scale, and I can't help but wish they'd throw that weight around.
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Viewing angles are adequate, but the sweet spot is hard to find as is often the case with TN panel notebook screens in this size class. Really, we just need better screens.
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Dustin Sklavos - Tuesday, March 13, 2012 - link
I had an A8Jm a loooooooonnnnnng time ago. If you're remotely interested in the history of Dustin's laptops (which he changes out like once a year because he can't settle on anything for too long):A8Jm -> HP dv6000z -> HP dv2000t -> ASUS X83 -> Dell Studio 17 + ThinkPad X100e -> Alienware M17x R3 + ThinkPad X100e
rwei - Wednesday, March 14, 2012 - link
So what you're saying is that you change machines SLIGHTLY more often than I do =/Oddly, though, for the first time, I have trouble seeing any reason why I'd upgrade for some time, other than hardware/battery wear (and I have 2 batteries for the Envy, so...). I game way less than before - besides, the Envy 17 is still potent enough for pretty much anything I throw at it - and I don't see anything on the horizon that would require more performance. That was not at all true when I owned the A8Jm. Even the x120e is plenty for browsing, video watching, and whatever else I'd do on the go. Only complaint about my current setup is that the Envy 17 -> Thinkpad x120e transition is really jarring with the $)*@ing bad screen on the x120e...I wish, so dearly wish, I could stick a "New iPad" screen on the x120e (time to get a dremel tool and soldering iron??). Would be just about a perfect device.
The only thing I can think of that would make me upgrade is a Win8 tablet/notebook hybrid (which I partly bought a WP7 device in anticipation of), but I see that being at least 2 years out for reasonably mature hardware and a good software ecosystem.
It's a strange thing that, these days, when (normal) people ask me "what computer should I buy", I can pretty much entirely discount the performance of the CPU as a consideration (barring Atom, and sometimes Zacate netbooks - "yeah, sure, that one's 60-150% faster, but who cares?!").
AMD might be on to something with their new strategy.
Hulk - Tuesday, March 13, 2012 - link
Okay that's it. My 5 year old Inspiron with a half decent high resolution screen and a C2D at 2GHz is going to have to hold me until I can buy a relatively thin and light laptop (~1" thick and around 4lbs) with a good IPS screen.If I'm going to suffer I might as well suffer with my current lappy and save some money. I'll just put an SSD in it when the performance gets unbearable.
bji - Tuesday, March 13, 2012 - link
I'm with you. Except my laptop is a 7 year old Panasonic Y2 with a Pentium M at 1.6 Ghz, and I'm just holding out for a 15 inch Macbook Air, which I thought was supposed to come out Q1 this year but is completely MIA at this point.santeana - Tuesday, March 13, 2012 - link
I've never been a fan of Dell. But if ever they had a good laptop, it was their XPS line. Great performance for the price they offered it at. Now, to see an XPS machine, supposedly a premium mainstream laptop going from a discrete graphics solution to an onboard HD3000 chip.... I dunno. Just doesn't seem right to me.c4v3man - Wednesday, March 14, 2012 - link
XPS laptops have always been hit or miss. Exceptionally heavy, usually run somewhat hot, and questionable reliability. The best laptops are enterprise grade units and mobile workstations, such as Dell's Latitude's, their Precision Mobiles, HP's EliteBooks, and Toshiba's Tecra lines to name a few.It might be good for gaming, but not for much else.
bhima - Tuesday, March 13, 2012 - link
2 things Dell could have done to make this Ultrabook look better than the competition:1) a good MATTE screen. I do not understand why we still have glossy screens on mobile devices (except for phones because the gorilla glass is needed for protection), especially when all of the best screens whether desktop or laptop are all matte.
2) Where is my Dell docking station jack? It may seem like a "little" thing, but having a Dell docking station and using a Dell laptop as your main computer is actually quite amazing. Having instant access to more ports, real keyboard and mouse AND a nice second display really solidifies the laptop as a capable primary workstation. When you are on the go, you hit one button and take your laptop off the dock. This should be on EVERY Dell laptop.
These things would set it apart from the entire competition and would give people good reasons to choose this Dell over say a MacBook Air.
Malih - Wednesday, March 14, 2012 - link
The touchpad is basically what I'm complaining about today's laptops, specifically Windows laptops, Apple does really well in this departement.But I've seen the demo video in YouTube (/watch?v=mL_jasHqrVI) for the Synaptics Clickpad with WIndows 8 which seems to be quite sensitive and seems to tackle most issue I have with current touchpads,
I just wonder whether they will release the Clickpad before Windows 8 release, perhaps coupled with laptops with decent graphics, like Trinity laptops (possibly).
Stas - Wednesday, March 14, 2012 - link
I'm really liking this laptop. Sexy, quick, Windows, 256GB SSD for <$1500. Too I wouldn't use one much. Between power of my desktop and portability of the smart phone, I'm hard pressed to justify hauling a laptop around.Stas - Wednesday, March 14, 2012 - link
Too bad*