Dell XPS 14z: Thoroughly Reviewed
by Jarred Walton on October 24, 2011 9:00 AM ESTThe Screen: A Crying Shame
We’ve seen so many blasé laptop displays over the years that it’s hardly noteworthy anymore, but with the XPS 15 and XPS 15z offering good quality 1080p panels, not to mention the Alienware M14x, M17x, and M18x (the M11x being notably absent), we were hoping for a pleasant surprise. Unfortunately, like the defunct XPS 14 L401x, the XPS 14z is packing a decidedly mediocre LCD panel—and there’s no current option for an upgraded panel.
In order of importance, maximum brightness and contrast are the first two areas where we like to see good results. Looking at our global database of laptop displays, only the top third (often in high-end laptops costing $2000 or more) even manage a 500:1 contrast ratio, which is the bare minimum we’d like to see. Likewise, only the top 20% or so manage at least 300 nits maximum brightness. The panel in the 14z ranks in the bottom third for brightness and the bottom 20% for contrast. Not surprisingly, color gamut is also very low, at just 38% of AdobeRGB—that’s the fourth lowest gamut we’ve measured in nearly two years. Given those results, the color accuracy is almost meaningless, though it also rates in the bottom third.
The viewing angles of the LCD don’t help the situation. From head on, the display looks fine, and we still like the thin left and right bezels. However, off angle viewing is highly prone to color shift, and vertical viewing angles need to be within about a 10 degree arc to be useful. Compare the viewing angles with the Dell XPS 15z and you’ll see why we desperately want the option for an upgraded LCD panel—a 1440x900 display would be ideal.
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Anonymous Blowhard - Monday, October 24, 2011 - link
"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"Spoiler alert: It's probably not worth the upgrade cost Dell is asking.
Expect it to perform a little faster than a 320M or HD 3000. It has a little more shader muscle, but it will fall flat on its face in texture/render bound scenarios, or when that poor 64-bit memory bus chokes. Clock-bumped 410M, really.
320M = 48:16:8 @ 450MHz, 128bit (shared) DDR3
GT520M = 48:8:4 @ 740MHz, 64-bit DDR3
GT525M would have been a better choice but they might have ran into thermal constraints. See the 3830TG for an example.
dagamer34 - Monday, October 24, 2011 - link
What's with PC manufacturers skimping on screen resolutions? 1366x768 on a 14" display should NOT be acceptable in this day and age. Heck, the MacBook Pro cramps that many pixels into a 11.6" display!Master_Sigma - Monday, October 24, 2011 - link
$1,000+ for a laptop with a 1366x768 screen? Is this some kind of sick joke, or are there missing options in the Display category?ananduser - Monday, October 24, 2011 - link
Apple gives you a 1280x800 one for a higher price and with lower specs.name99 - Tuesday, October 25, 2011 - link
"with lower specs"Uhh --- so your take-away from Anand's long review of the display and comparing it to a MacBook Pro was "the MacBook Pro display has worse specs"?
My god --- that's some seriously broken reading comprehension.
TegiriNenashi - Monday, October 24, 2011 - link
What is this magic "p" letter. AFIR computer displays have "p" since 1980s. It is sad that diisplay resolution degraded to the point when TV screen quality is seen as benchmark.tipoo - Saturday, February 25, 2012 - link
Technically any LCD running at non-native res will revert to i/interlaced mode, but I see your point.popej - Monday, October 24, 2011 - link
On the picture on front page notebook looks like it had matte screen. Is it retouched? What's the reason to show false pictures in a review?JarredWalton - Monday, October 24, 2011 - link
The gallery images are the actual laptop; the front image is a Dell provided image, which may have been pre-rendered or at least retouched. I used it because I think it looks nice in the text of the article; if anyone buys the laptop because of that image and doesn't read the text, I'm not going to worry too much about it. :-)popej - Monday, October 24, 2011 - link
I have read your article and I appreciate it :)OK, since you have used pictures provided by Dell I can forward my question: why is Dell using false picture to advertise its product?
This is not a first time, when I notice similar trickery.