Dell XPS 15z

Review for Dell XPS 15z 


The Dell XPS 15z laptop is available for a starting price of Rs. 70,800—our review sample retails for a price of Rs. 81,800, since it’s a higher-end model. For that price, you get a sophisticated, premium 15-inch desktop replacement laptop for home entertainment. It’s very well built and feels elegant and premium on touch with a quality finish. And apart from most laptops that come with 1 year warranty, the XPS 15z comes with 3 year Complete Cover, making sure your hefty investment is insured for a long time.

Pros

• Stylish, well built
• Full-HD widescreen display
• Very good features, performance
• Free 2GB online backup
• 3-year warranty
• No dedicated number pad
  
  
  Hardware & Features
  
  We received the high-end model of the Dell XPS 15z for review, a powerful machine to say the least. It comes with a dual-core Intel Core i7-2620M 2.9 GHz processor (Turbo Boosts up to 3.4 GHz), 8 GB of DDR3 RAM, 750 GB hard drive spinning at 7,200 rpm, and 2 GB dedicated Nvidia GeForce GT 525M graphics. The laptop has onboard Intel HD 3000 graphics also and Nvidia Optimus to intelligently switch between the two. As you can see, the Dell XPS 15z is well-equipped to be a powerful all-purpose laptop for your home, tuned for multimedia and entertainment use.
  
  Not only does the 15-inch Dell XPS 15z have above-average internal hardware, the laptop comes with abundant connectivity features. On the left edge of its chassis, you can find an HDMI, mini DisplayPort (with mini DisplayPort to VGA cable), hybrid eSATA and USB 2.0, and two USB 3.0 ports. There’s also a 5-in-1 card reader slot and MacBook Pro style battery indicator—press to see how much juice is left inside. The XPS 15z’s slot-loading DVD drive, headphone and mic jacks are located on its right edge, while the Ethernet jack and power port are placed on its spine.
  
  
   
  Wireless connectivity is taken care by Wi-Fi 802.11n, Bluetooth 3.0 and Intel WiDi for transmitting HD content wirelessly to a nearby TV through a supported adapter (not included with the laptop). The XPS 15z features Dell DataSafe, free 2 GB of online data backup for a year, and Dell Stage, a quick-launch dock that sits on your desktop—it comes in handy for accessing music, videos, apps, etc, directly through the desktop. The laptop comes with 64-bit Windows 7 Home Premium and three years of limited warranty, which is a great insurance cover.
  
  
  
  Performance
  
  
  It’s absolutely no surprise that the Dell XPS 15z flies through most of our benchmark tests. What else do you expect with a powerful dual-core processor, oodles of RAM, faster hard drive and a mid-ranged GPU? The laptop posted one of the highest PC Mark Vantage scores at 8,786 but its 3D Mark 06 score (7381) was behind that of the DellInspiron 15R (7752) and AcerAspireTimelineX 5830TG (8734). Just goes to show that the Dell XPS 15z could’ve had a better GPU inside, but maybe Dell has restricted the higher-end GPUs exclusively to its Alienware offerings.
  
  
  
  But having said that, there’s absolutely no problem while multitasking with several apps on the Dell XPS 15z, the laptop is good for video editing and graphics rendering as well—not just for commonly used apps. Gaming on the bundled 2 GB Nvidia GeForce GT 525M is quite good for casual gamers—Far Cry 2 at 1024x768 and medium settings played decently at 45 fps; slightly better frame rates by a similar card on the Dell Inspiron 15R. Don’t expect to game at the laptop’s native resolution (1920x1080) with latest games, you’ll be sorely disappointed. The laptop’s hard drive is quite good, transferring 4 GB of data between partitions at 44 MB/s. The laptop gets hot around the edges while playing a game, but not uncomfortably so.But if there’s one single thing the Dell XPS 15z does very well then it’s movie watching experience. The full-HD widescreen display does a very good job of displaying crisp, colourful visuals and the accompanying onboard audio is better than most laptops we’ve heard recently. The laptop’s speakers—situated on either side of the keyboard—are loud and clear at high volume with minimal distortion, bass levels are acceptable as well. Watching an HD movie is quite an immersive experience on the Dell XPS 15z.
  
  
  
  In terms of the laptop’s battery performance, the Dell XPS 15z is about average. At full-screen brightness, 100% audio volume, high-performance preset, our test video looped for 2 hours 9 minutes. On a conservative power plan and onboard graphics, the laptop should deliver close to 4 hours of Web usage off a single charge—not bad at all. What’s more, like the MacBook Pro, Dell has sealed off the XPS 15z’s battery compartment, so you can’t really upgrade or replace it. Overall, the Dell XPS 15z’s battery performance is acceptable, not as great as we would’ve liked though.
  
  
  
  Bottomline
   
  The Dell XPS 15z laptop is available for a starting price of Rs. 70,800—our review sample retails for a price of Rs. 81,800, since it’s a higher-end model. For that price, you get a sophisticated, premium 15-inch desktop replacement laptop for home entertainment. It’s very well built and feels elegant and premium on touch with a quality finish. And apart from most laptops that come with 1 year warranty, the XPS 15z comes with 3 year Complete Cover, making sure your hefty investment is insured for a long time.
  Compared to the 15-inch Apple MacBook Pro, the Dell XPS 15z is less expensive and looks almost identical. Barring the Nvidia graphics, the laptop has very good internal hardware and feature set, a bright full-HD widescreen display and offers 2 GB of free online data storage up to a year. If you can afford it, the Dell XPS 15z is well worth the money for a style-savvy, all-purpose home entertainment laptop.
  
  
  

  Warranty (months)	36
  Price (Rupees)	81800
  Features
  Component Specifications
  Processor Model No	Intel Core i7-2620M
  Processor Speed (MHz)	2900
  RAM (MB)	8192
  RAM Type	DDR3
  Memory Speed (MHz)	1333 MT/s
  Chipset	Intel Cougar Point QM67, Intel Sandy Bridge
  Graphics Solution	Nvidia GeForce GT 525M
  Dedicated Video Memory (Y / N)	Y
  Dedicated Video Memory Size (in MB)	2048
  Audio Chipset	Intel Cougar Point HDA
  Storage size (in GB)	750
  Drive type (HDD/SSD/other)	HDD
  Optical Drive Type / Speed
  Bundled OS	64-bit Windows 7 Home Premium
  Characteristics
  Screen Size (Inches)	15.6-inch
  Type of LCD	LED backlit
  Screen Resolution (Native)	1920x1080
  Weight (Kg)	2.6
  No. of USB ports	3
  No. of FireWire ports	0
  USB 3.0 (Y/N)	2
  Connectivity (LAN / Bluetooth / Wi-Fi)	Y/Y/Y
  E-Sata (Y/N)	Y
  Display output (VGA/DVI/HDMI/Display Port)	N/N/Y/Y
  Memory Card Reader (Y/N)	Y
  Type of Memory Cards Supported	NA
  Inbuilt Webcam (Y/N)	Y
  Webcamera resolution (in megapixels)	1.3
  Build, Ergonomics and Usability (So 10)
  Body	8
  Keypad	8
  Lid, movables	7.5
  Keypad Tactile Feedback (So 10)	7.5
  Key Layout, bevelling, spacing & Usability (So 10)	7
  Shortcut Keys/Switches (So 10)	7
  Trackpad ergonomics, size, position (So 10)	8.5
  Trackpad accuracy (So 10)	7.5
  Biometrics (fingerprint/face) login (Y/N)	N
  Wi-Fi On/Off Switch or Button (Y/N)	Y
  Dedicated Bluetooth On/Off Switch or Button (Y/N)	N
  Dedicated TouchPad On/Off Switch or Button (Y/N)
  Performance
  Synthetic Scores
  PC Mark Vantage
  PC Mark Score	8786
  Memories Score	5061
  TV and Movies Score	3838
  Gaming Score	6277
  Music Score	7053
  Communications Score	10742
  Productivity Score	6966
  HDD Score	4128
  3D Mark 2006
  CPU Score	3779
  Graphics score	2657
  Overall Score	7381
  Maxxon CineBench R11.5 (CPU score)	3.05
  WinRAR 3.9 (Compression / Decompression benchmark)	2675 KB/s
  Real World Tests
  Battery Life Test (in minutes)	129
  Speaker Quality (at 50% volume) (So 10)	7.5
  HD Movie Viewing (using VLC) (So 10)	8
  DivX Encode 7.0 (.VOB to .Divx, default mode) (Sec)	29.7
  File transfer Test (4 GB test file-sequential) (Sec)	93
  File transfer Test (4 GB test file-assorted) (Sec)	139
  Doom 3 (fps) (800x600, medium detail)	NA
  Far Cry 2 (fps) (1024x768, medium detail)	44.81