Dell XPS 17 (L702x) Thread

[thisisdom]

Dell XPS 17 (L702X) Thread

Hi. My XPS 17 (L702X) arrived, and I couldn't see a thread specifically for this laptop, so I thought i'd make one myself. This is supposed to be a thread for all owners + prospective owners to talk

I realised I haven't been very active on this thread, so If you need me to add anything to this post, then let me know.

I ordered it on the 25th Febuary (2011), and it arrived on the 14th March.

I thought i'd post a short review of the laptop for anyone expecting theirs soon (or for anyone thinking about buying this laptop).

This is the plan for the thread:
- Review
- Game Benchmarks
- Owners Info
- Useful Links



Review (march 2011)

Well I've had this laptop for a couple of weeks now, so I though I'd update my review.
In terms of looks, I think it's great. It has a silver coloured aluminum back and brushed aluminum on the inside. It looks way better in person then in any pictures I remember seeing. The keyboard is different to the L701x, in that it's now an island style keyboard (this means there is a piece of plastic seperating each of the keys). Personally I prefer this, but it's down to your personal opinion. Overall, the keyboard is pretty good (there is a small amount of flex in the middle, but it doesn't bother me) The trackpad is responsive and is a good size, and multi touch works well. Overall, the build quality is great, and there a certainly no problems.

In terms of size, it's a fairly large laptop, but it's no where near as thick as I thought it would be. And it's not even that heavy, it will be fine for carrying around. It's easily light enough to have on your lap too. In terms of temperature it does seem to get quite hot around the fan area when playing games. It keeps the heat away from the keyboard/trackpad extremely well though. The fan is pretty much what I expected. It starts to get quite loud when playing games, but it's never too loud. The battery life (with the 6-cell) was around 1.5 hours while playing demanding games at full brightness. With other less demanding tasks and the screen turned down a bit, you can probably expect 3 hours or more (i'll test this out soon).

There are the following ports on this laptop: Mini DisplayPort, 2 x USB 3.0, 2 x USB 2.0 (1 eSATA/powershare combo), Integrated network connector 10/100/1000 LAN (RJ45), HDMI 1.4, AC adapter connector, headphone(2 total) with SPID/F support (1), Mic-in.

I've tested most of them out and they all seem to work well. The usb 3.0 ports are nice to have. Anyway it seems like there are enough different types of ports to keep everyone happy.

I've listened to some music and I can tell you i'm really impressed with the speakers. The sound you get from them is very full, and the bass is nice and loud too. They can easily fill a room with sound, and I they're prefect for atmospheric gaming + almost anything else you could need them for.

In terms of the screen, I chose the 1600x900, mainly so I get higher fps in games, but also because I have no need for 3d and didn't want to pay an extra £170. Lots of people have been saying it's the only thing that lets this laptop down, but I haven't found the screen to be that bad. Horizontal viewing angles are great. The vertical ones aren't as good, but they still seem fine. My last laptop probably didn't have the best screen in the world, so maybe I don't have much it to compare to, but I am perfectly happy with the screen.

Now I suppose I should probably talk about the performance then. I chose the i5-2510m (2.3-2.9 GHz) + 4GB ram (I imaging most people chose the i7). I didn't really need the quad core so there wasn't much point spending extra on it. I haven't been running any demanding photo editing software, but it's coped well with everything i've done so far. I opened up about 10 random programmes at once, and it mannaged to finish in around 20 seconds.

Now i'll talk about gaming performance. This is one of the main reasons I chose this laptop. I chose the 3GB Nvidia GT 555m card, as I'm sure most people did. In the windows experience index I got a 6.9 for gaming graphics, which seems pretty good. When playing metro in max setting (dx10 + 1600x900 resolution), I get a decent frame rate of about 25 fps (slightly less in dx11), so I it should play almost all games in very high or high. People who ordered the i7 should get slightly better frames rates (not massively different though). In terms of loading times, I was surprised how well it performed. It loads all metro 2033 levels in max settings in around 4-5 seconds, so with an i7, I can only imagine how fast it is.

I'll be adding some more detailed game benchmarks soon.
So overall I can say i'm really happy with this laptop. I'll extend this review if I need to, but I recommend buying this laptop if you haven't already!

Rating:
- Design: 9/10
- Screen quality: 7/10
- Battery life: 8/10
- Performance: 9/10
- Gaming: 9.5/10

Game Benchmarks

All of these are at 1600x900 resolution.

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (demo):
- Settings: Very High (Maximum)
- Average FPS: 80 (150+ in enclosed places)

Crysis (demo):
Settings: Very High (Maximum)
- Average FPS: 15
Settings: High
- Average FPS: 30+

Starcraft II (demo):
- Settings: Very High (Maximum)
- Average FPS: 30

Metro 2033:
Settings: Very High (Maximum - DX11)
- Average FPS: 20 (12-30)
Settings: Very High (Maximum - DX9/10 - looks almost identical to dx11)
- Average FPS: 30 (17-40)

S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Call of Pripyat:
Settings: Very High (Maximum)
- Average FPS: 45

Bulletstorm:
Settings: High (Maximum)
- Average FPS: 30

Here's a video I made of this laptop gaming (there are a few more on my channel too):

YouTube - Dell XPS 17 (L702x) - Gaming Test - Nvidia 555m

Useful Links

- Dell XPS 17 (L702X) Review
- Dell XPS 17 L701x Thread
- Dell XPS15 R2 (L502) Thread
- NVIDIA GeForce GT 555M - Notebookcheck.net Tech (Nvidia 555m)
- Drivers - Download NVIDIA Drivers (Drivers)
- Duronic LS06 17" Premium Water Resistant Neoprene Laptop Pouch Sleeve for Notebooks upto 17 inch: Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories (the case I bought for my laptop - it fits perfectly)

Just a few links you might find useful.

If you have any questions just ask.

(work in progress)

[thisisdom]

Found this review of the XPS 17 L702X that might be helpful

[bydoempire]

thankee greatly! if you get a chance, could you post cpu/gpu temps under load, and maybe some sweet sweet pictures for us poor chumps still awaiting our orders? :-D

[lisali]

Thanks for your review so far! Fab stuff, looking forward to the rest!

[fbickley]

Some Pictures would be great. Including the keyboard.

[Sk0Ne]

Could you please verify for me that you can disable the dedicated GPU in the BIOS?

[ans04]

Why would you want to disable the GPU?

If you are talking about Optimus...
On this laptop to have Optimus you must buy the laptop with the 900p screen.
The 1080p screen comes with 3D built in, which caused the GPU to run full time, in turn disabling Optimus. There is no 1080p without 3D option.

[Abreo]

How is the Keyboard and what's about the heat problem. There were rumors about similar problems referring the L701x

[thisisdom]

thankee greatly! if you get a chance, could you post cpu/gpu temps under load, and maybe some sweet sweet pictures for us poor chumps still awaiting our orders? :-D

Don't have a camera at the moment. It does look very nice though

Still not sure I really understand optimus

[thisisdom]

How is the Keyboard and what's about the heat problem. There were rumors about similar problems referring the L701x

The keyboard is ok. I need to get used to having a full keyboard though.

The laptop seems pretty cool (temp wise) and i've just been playing crysis.