Dell XPS 15 L502x: Now with Sandy Bridge
by Jarred Walton on April 20, 2011 1:10 AM ESTDell XPS 15 L502x: Everything Changes
The majority of this review shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. We know quad-core Sandy Bridge is faster than Clarksfield, and it’s much faster than Arrandale. It also manages reasonable power usage under light loads, although higher loads can definitely suck down power. So take one of our favorite laptops from last year and update the system with a Sandy Bridge CPU and a slightly newer GPU and what do you get? A better laptop, at least as far as performance is concerned. The only difficulty is that the rest of the market isn’t standing still, and it seems like the few changes Dell made—specifically to the keyboard—aren't necessarily for the better. While we still like the XPS 15 there’s definitely competition to discuss.
For the mainstream users, the L502x remains an excellent choice. You get awesome sounding speakers and a great 1080p LCD, with a decent chassis and most of the features you might want—USB 3.0, eSATA, HDMI, and DisplayPort are all present. There’s no FireWire or ExpressCard, but USB 3.0 is already more useful than FireWire (unless you happen to be an A/V professional with FireWire equipment) and ExpressCard is mostly showing up in business laptops these days. Blu-ray (including 3D support on an external display) is also available, and you can choose from a wide range of options with pricing starting as low as $800 and extending upwards of $2000 with some configurations. Our test sample didn’t max out every component—there’s still room for a faster 2720QM or 2820QM CPU and a very expensive 256GB SSD—but we did get just about every higher performance upgrade.
The result is a price of $1425, which is only slightly lower than MSI’s GT680R; you get to choose between much better battery life and a nicer looking chassis with the XPS, or more graphics power and storage capacity with MSI. We also have the Clevo P151HM with similar specs to the GT680R in for testing, only with a single hard drive; our test system comes from CyberPower and has the same awesome LCD used in the P150HM, and it also costs around $1450 with the 2630QM and 8GB RAM. Having used all three laptops (we’ll have full reviews of the GT680R and Xplorer X6-9300 in the near future), I can say that in general I prefer the Dell XPS, but for gaming the GTX 460M is hard to beat. At $1425, the XPS comes with a good 1080p LCD, a backlit keyboard, and generally build quality, but both the MSI and Clevo alternatives are worth a look. For mobile users (as opposed to mobile gamers), the XPS L502x is going to be superior. Drop down to a dual-core processor but keep the 1080p LCD and you still get all of the good aspects of the original L501x with improved battery life and moderately improved performance for under a grand.
The bad news of course is that if you didn’t like the updated XPS design unveiled last year, the 2011 refresh so far doesn’t change much. The XPS laptops are really just upscale Inspirons, with better performance options and the potential for a better display, along with better speakers. The exterior of the chassis may look different, but the internal structure seems 99% the same. I’d rather see an XPS that builds off the strengths of the Latitude line rather than using a modified Inspiron chassis—I’ve seen far too many worn-out hinges on Inspiron laptops over the years to trust that the XPS 15 will last through several years of regular mobile use. I can say the same of most other consumer laptops, of course; it’s very difficult to point to a laptop that offers the build quality I want without a massive price premium. (Yes, Apple, I’m talking about your MacBook Pro markup.)
If you’re looking for another alternative that packs a bit more punch without sacrificing all of the battery life that Optimus affords, your best bet looks to be the newly updated Alienware laptops. The M11x R3 now offers Sandy Bridge CPUs with the same GT 540M graphics as the XPS 15, but matched to a 1366x768 LCD it’s going to be far more capable of native resolution gaming, and you get it in a much smaller chassis (about two pounds lighter). The other option is the brand new M14x, which can support up to quad-core SNB processors and a GT 555M GPU; that setup should go with the upgraded 1600x900 LCD quite nicely. I can’t speak for the display quality, unfortunately, which is one of the few remaining areas where the XPS 15 is a safer bet. However, I mentioned in our look at the now-discontinued XPS 14 that a 14”-screen chassis is probably where I feel I get the best balance of performance, size, and ease of use (i.e. I don’t feel like the keyboards are too small), so the M14x looks very compelling. We will try to have one of those for review in the not-too-distant future.
We awarded the Dell XPS 15 L501x our Gold Editors' Choice award last year, so normally I'd just say the L502x update maintains that standing. From the performance side, it's certainly a worthwhile update. The problem is the keyboard and plastic palm rest. I personally prefer the old version, but some will probably like the new chiclet style more. I'm not going to actually give an official award here, letting the Gold sort of carry over, but with all the good there's still room to make the XPS line better. Maybe that's what Dell is doing with their Alienware brand, but there's certainly room for a less-guady laptop with better build quality, and Alienware doesn't usually cater to those wanting the former.
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JanusSoCal - Thursday, April 21, 2011 - link
I second everybody who has left comments to say that this is probably the most thorough and detailed review I've read of the XPS 15 so far. But I was curious about three things. First, you didn't mention what you thought of their new island-keyboard design, which I thought was a pretty big change from the 1st gen. Did you find the typing experience and build better with the 1st gen. keyboard or 2nd gen. keyboard? Also, you mentioned that the frame is solid but the top is plastic... I was wondering if that meant the build quality is good or not good, since the frame is supposedly made of magnesium alloy. So, is all that marketing about how the top cover and palm rests are made out of anondized aluminum for a sturdier build is just mere marketing? Is it literally like a very thin coat of aluminum over cheap plastic? And finally, I guess since you gave the Gold Editor's Choice to the 1st Gen XPS 15, did you consider the 2nd Gen XPS 15, against the current crop of laptops more of a silver, bronze, copper?Again, thanks for writing an excellent review, I've been waiting for Anandtech's take on the 2nd gen. XPS 15 for a long time.
JarredWalton - Thursday, April 21, 2011 - link
Ha! I knew something was wrong and I just couldn't put my finger on it, so to speak. I kept thinking, "this doesn't feel as solid as I recall from the first XPS 15," but I figured it was the same. Given the number of laptops I see, sometimes things get a bit fuzzy in my mind so I figured it was still fine. Now that you point it out, the keyboard definitely changed, and IMO it's not for the better. The palm rest on the L502x is also definitely made of plastic, where I believe (but am not certain) the previous model was anodized aluminum. In both cases, the change is a downgrade as far as I'm concerned.I've gone and updated the second page to discuss this a bit more. Ultimately, it's still a good consumer notebook, but it's not without flaws. The previous garnered a Gold by being one of the first laptops in a long time to give us good build quality, a great screen, awesome speakers, and decent all around performance for a moderate price of $1000. The L502x carries forward most of those aspects, but I'd actually downgrade it to a Silver this time around (or an honorable mention without the 1080p LCD upgrade).
will2 - Thursday, April 21, 2011 - link
@jaredwalton. Would appreciate any feedback on my post on above - last post of yesterday, re. if you plan to review the Latitude E6520, and from anyone also, their thoughts on ideal screen size/resolution combinations for photo-editing, film viewing and general business useJarredWalton - Thursday, April 21, 2011 - link
Responded above... sorry I missed it before. :-)will2 - Saturday, April 23, 2011 - link
Many thanks for your views on screen sizes/resolution combinations which seems to support my thinking that after working on a 14" 1440x900 for last 4 years, a change to 15" 1600x900 will maintain my work surface but reduce eye-strain a little.re. "With that in mind, I hope Anandtech can review the SNB Latitude E6520 with 1600x900 screen. Is that likely soon ?" any input on that ?
Re. another posters question, I was thinking the 2520M a good choice of CPU when limited to a 35W TDP series, although I would have preferred a 25W TDP for reduced temperatures, yet giving sufficient performance.
Re. other postings on selection of best SSD, if choosing the Latitude E6520, I was thinking to retain the HDD for data only, and take advantage of new SSD performance by adding a small internal PCIe or ExpressCard SSD to hold and boot the Windows 7 + Apps, as it has no mSATA slot. However, there seem to be few mainstream makers of miniPCIe or ExpressCard SSDs - and those I have seen, at 50 to 100MB/s Sequential Read max, are a long way short of the mSATA Intel 310 200MB/s performance - yet no cheaper ! Do you have any links to good advice on choosing small form factor SSDs for Notebook internal slots ?
Thanks again for your views on screen sizes/resolutions
cookiezulu - Friday, April 22, 2011 - link
I purchased this (LX502) and expected to have it delivered on Tuesday. (1080p, i7-2720, 8GB, 7 Ultimate)I live in the UK so at the time of buying I could only choose the 500 or 750 SATA HDD. I chose the 500 as I thought I was going to replace it with an SSD - I've been convinced by all the reviews here & elsewhere that the difference in speed/performance with an SSD is noticeable. However I'm struggling to decide (from reading the reviews) whether a 256GB Crucial c300 is the best available at the moment for this laptop in the UK. Best in terms of price / performance.
Or should I wait another 2-3 months for some other, greater, better SSD? I've not followed the SSD market in depth so I'm just checking that we're not waiting for some big improvement any day now (and I get caught out buying the c300 now.
Am I right in understanding that even for the same model (C300) the 256GB is faster than the 128GB one?
Also, does anybody know what the SATA controller is in LX502?
Thanks,
Cookie
JarredWalton - Friday, April 22, 2011 - link
The L502x should have both 6Gbps and 3Gbps SATA ports from the HM65 chipset, and presumably the HDD/SSD would use the 6Gbps ports. As such, you can definitely get better performance from the latest 6.0Gbps capable SSDs.The king of the hill right now is the SandForce SF-2200 controller, but the C400 and Intel 510 are both reasonable alternatives. It's really going to come down to pricing. For a 240/256GB SSD, I would probably go for the OCZ Vertex 3. It'll run around $530, give or take, and I have no idea what the UK prices will be, but that's likely the fastest SSD we'll see in the next 8 months.
Regarding size and performance, it depends in part on the process technology for the NAND. 34nm NAND you usually get optimal performance at 120/128GB, and maybe a little bit faster at 240/256GB. When you move to the new 25nm NAND, indications are that the 240/256GB SSDs will be where you start hitting maximum performance (thanks to parallel transfers from the NAND devices/banks). So 120GB Vertex 3 won't be as fast as 240GB, but 480GB will likely be within a few percent of 240GB. Anand discussed this in a recent article: http://www.anandtech.com/show/4256/the-ocz-vertex-...
JarredWalton - Friday, April 22, 2011 - link
Correction: HM67 chipset is what the XPS uses. Also, I have verified that while the system I have is only running the HDD at 300Gbps and the BD-ROM at 150Gbps, both ports are capable of 600Gbps operation (according to SiSoft Sandra).cookiezulu - Sunday, April 24, 2011 - link
Jarred, thanks for your reply. I will wait for my unit to arrive and see what the price for the 240GB Vertex 3 is in a couple of months (currently around £450) and then buy. I was tempted by the more affordable 120GB (around £220) but I'll wait to see what the prices for the bigger one do.Let's hope that when I do swap the HDD for the SSD I don't damage any of the 20 or so clips!
ashegam - Sunday, April 24, 2011 - link
This is has got to be one of the ugliest laptops I've seen in years. This thing looks like it was made in the 90's, wth were they thinking?