Dell XPS 15 - Big is Beautiful

Big is Beautiful

Dell's XPS notebook line-up has mostly been designed with "slim" and "sexy" aspects in mind (not counting the high-end gaming XPS machines before Alienware replaced them). The newer designs however, are somewhat chunky and quite unlike the hip designs of yore.

While they do retain the popular sliver motif, the new design seems to be a tad too cumbersome to lug around. The aesthetics show that Dell did pay close attention to make their notebooks as attractive as possible to counter the chunky build. If big is beautiful, then the Dell XPS has it in spades.

The thick Dell XPS 15 machine which we'll be dissecting in this article comes packing a subwoofer, and we'll share our test findings on how that sounds later in the article. Other changes include a new backlit keyboard and an updated set of ports for all your connectivity. Specs wise, the unit comes with Intel's dual-core Core i5-460M (2.53GHz) processor, 6GB of RAM and NVIDIA's GeForce GT 420M discrete graphics engine.

Sexy Inside

If the curvacious exterior doesn't convince you, the insides with its sexy good looks will. The 15.6-inch screen boasts pretty good viewing angles, which means sharing a movie with a friend  is easier on the eyes than a screen with poor viewing angles. The native 1366 x 768 pixels resolution seems to be the standard for notebooks of this size, though we would have loved it better i the notebook had an option for a a higher resolution screen. Meanwhile, this resolution should still be favored by those who want good legibility on these small notebook screens as its less tiring on the eyes.

You'll note that the spaciousness of this notebook has allowed Dell to put in a much nicer keyboard with good spacing and backlights for typing in the dark. It would have been more favorable if they could put a numpad though on second looks, it would seem that they were a bit short on space despite the dimensions of the laptop. As for the trackpad, we found it pretty satisfactory, with tracking and button clicks responding well.

The shining feature for the Dell notebook however, has to be its audio playback. Packed with a subwoofer located at the bottom, the XPS delivered music with very good clarity and we also found the bass to be excellent. Even at maximum volume, we didn't note any distortion on bass-heavy audio tracks. Of the 15.6-inch notebooks that we reviewed recently, the Dell XPS 15 is probably the best that we've heard.

Performance Benchmarking

When we first started on our 15.6-inch notebook review frenzy, we had limited comparison points. A few laptops later, and we're now at a point where we can pick and choose hardware of various notebooks that should give a more substantive comparison of the Dell XPS 15 notebook's hardware performance. As the table below shows, the XPS 15 comes loaded with an Intel Core-i5 460M (2.53GHz) processor, 6GB of RAM and NVIDIA's GeForce GT 420M for its discrete graphics. 

PCMark Vantage

Sure enough, the innards of the XPS holds up well, with scores quite similar to the other compared notebooks. An overall score of 5925 PCMarks is nothing to scoff at. It certainly reflects well on the Dell notebook as a productivity machine and one that is easily capable of handling most of your daily computing needs.

If you note, the Acer machine fares much better in the overall score thanks to a better performing discrete option, so sometimes, having a slightly faster processor doesn't exactly translate into a better performance. Also, the Lenovo Y560 and the Samsung RF510 both feature a quad-core processor that would make short work out of more demanding applications like media transcoding, graphics rendering and other such tasks where programs are optimized for multi-threaded processors. PCMark Vantage is aimed at representing mainstream usage and in this day-to-day scenario, it's true that Core i5 and Core i7 processor won't make a difference. It's important to understand the benchmarks and the hardware capabilities so that you don't get taken for a ride by the typical salesman.

So if you're looking for a no-nonsense, no compromise machine to tackle all scenarios and if you can afford it, a quad-core CPU based notebook would be more worth your time in the long run.

3DMark06

Yes, we're still relying on the good ol' 3DMark06 for benchmarking purposes as Vantage and newer editions require higher resolutions that many notebooks don't yet support. Back to the Dell XPS 15, its NVIDIA GeForce GT 420M graphics engine managed decent scores comparable to the Samsung notebook which uses the same discrete graphics option. Sure it may not be as powerful as the Lenovo IdeaPad Y560's ATI Mobility Radeon 5730, but the results do indicate that it should tackle real world games reasonably.

Far Cry 2

Our testing shows that at the Very High settings, the Dell XPS 15 performs about the same as the Samsung RF510, but falls behind when you go to the lower and less demanding Medium settings. This is where we're guessing the quad-core processor of the Samsung RF510 comes into play and helps out better at lower resolutions. However there could be other factors pulling the Dell machine's graphics performance down as even one of the sub-tests in PCMark Vantage pinpointed low graphics performance.

Battery Test and Portability Index

Inside the thick frame of the Dell XPS 15 notebook lies a 11.1V, ~5000 mAh battery, and hopefully, despite requiring a bit more juice to power the subwoofer, we've found that the notebook isn't quite as desk bound as others of its form factor.

As you can see from the graph below, the battery life of the Dell XPS 15 is simply amazing. Sure, it's not as long lasting as the Acer notebook (which is a different hardware class), but it does beat every other quad-core notebook we've put up in this comparison. As for power consumption, despite the inclusion of a subwoofer that should suck up more power (if you recall, we use DVD playback with audio set for 50% volume), we still noted a pretty low power draw at just 18.66 watts. There's only one conclusion you can draw from this and it's that Dell engineers have worked carefully to bring about a very efficient quad-core notebook. Perhaps this efficiency slant somehow affected its graphics performance as noted on the earlier page.

Portability Index

We didn't expect the Dell notebook to do well in this comparison despite the sterling battery life as its weight and volume could have offset the advantage gained. However after running through our calculations, the Dell notebook proved otherwise with a decent ratio of 0.299. Just to run you through, this is our very own in-house index that helps us judge how portable a notebook is based on our battery life test, weight and volume. The higher the ratio, the better it is, but it only makes sense if you compare the values of similar class notebooks. In this case, if you were to compare the Dell XPS 15 against the Samsung RF-510 and others that we've constantly compared in this review, you'll note that the Dell machine is well ahead (- discounting the Acer Timeline X 5820T which uses a lower class hardware platform even though its physical form factor is similar to the rest).

Sound Proposition

Dell's notebooks have always stood in good light, and their XPS line has constantly managed good value and performance that is hard to beat. While some may like the looks of the older generation XPS machines, the updated design suits it quite well despite its chunkiness.

On the Dell XPS 15, the added thickness however comes with the additional benefit of having a subwoofer located at its underside. It is this subwoofer that helped prop the audio that we're loving from the Dell XPS 15. For example, you get to enjoy explosions with booms that have good bass (for a notebook). Plus, no distortion at full volume means a much better auditory experience. Likewise, we can't complain about the build of the unit, which felt pretty solid in our handling.

At S$1,699, the Dell notebook seems like a steal given its hardware and performance. It may not be best machine in terms of performance all-round, but it does a credible job in the other fields of battery life and multimedia. It's a good alternative to consider if you want something to appease your ears, but this is one notebook that you won't be lugging around much, no thanks to its weight and thickness. Although it fared well in our portability index, it was only because the competing notebooks had poor battery life optimization. As such, overall handling of the notebook could still be a bit cumbersome if you need to lug it around often. Otherwise, it's a very good multimedia notebook in the 15.6-inch class.

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