Dell XPS 13 Ultrabook Review & Owner's Thread

[tabraha]

You won't be able to see that glossy screen outside, and if you're doing something where it's likely to get damaged...

I do plenty of work outside and the last 2 laptops I've bought have had glossy screens with no problems, this being one of them. Reflections are stronger but the matte screens actually just create a dull white haze that is terrible on bright days and even worse on overcast days.

I recently did a "taste test" with a client and showed them 4 iPads we have been prepping for field deployment. 2 gen 2's and 2 gen 3's, each gen with a matte anti-glare and a glossy screen protector. Inside they were all convinced it was a no brainer to go with the anti-glare versions. They asked me what I ran and looked surprised when I told them glossy. They asked why and I told them to walk outside of their office and go sit in a truck cab or stand outside for a couple minutes.

It was then unanimous that the glossy screen, even with its stronger reflections was much easier to see outside. I attribute it to the matte coating creating the haze when it diffuses the reflections combined with the fact that it also saps the brightness right out of the screen as well putting it at an even greater disadvantage in the sun.

[Bronsky]

It was then unanimous that the glossy screen, even with its stronger reflections was much easier to see outside. I attribute it to the matte coating creating the haze when it diffuses the reflections combined with the fact that it also saps the brightness right out of the screen as well putting it at an even greater disadvantage in the sun.

You need to get some better anti-glare SS's for your IPads. You're not seriously trying to convince us that a decent matt, outdoor viewable display like the HP Hydus, the Panisonic Toughbook or, to a lesser extent a 400 nits X220 outdoor display is inferior to a glossy display outdoors, are you. Have you tried that test with people who can see?

[Dell-Bill_B]

@Dell-Bill

If you are compiling features that we would like to see.... how about some kind of backlight around the edge of the trackpad.

The downside to it being so flush and the same color as the background, is that i can't find the edge in the dark or low light. If you use the edge scroll function, you find yourself trying to scroll off the side very often.

Good stuff. I'll get that over to the planners fist thing in the morning.

For those struggling with the trackpad. I found something interesting. I saw a post in some other thread reference the problem being related to AVG. That got me looking at my own AV solution which is Forefront End Point Protection.

As I was looking for info on the conflict I ran across a post that mentioned the processes related to the trackpad. The author states that the Cypress trackpad employs a userspace process to capture gesture data. Once that happens and the data is interpreted, commands are sent back to and from the trackpad.

It does just that and the process is called CyHidWin.exe (There is another process called CyCpIo.exe).

You can see why the realtime scanner of any av engine may take issue with this. I also believe that it may have been causing issues when the scanner hit the files that the process was using.


I excluded the processes and files, which are located in C:\Program Files\Cypress\Touchpad, from my av scanner.


For me this has resolved most issues. It is still delayed in responding when resuming from sleep intermittently but that may be unrelated.


I may be WAY off base but I thought I would throw it out there just in case it helped someone.


-PS I also forgot to say. This may explain the instances where initially the trackpad functioned normally and the ceased working. There was likely a security patch or virus definition that caused the process to be scanned or halted. I was able to reproduce the process above slamming my CPU when the AV did not have an exclusion.


If you have been reinstalling the driver over and over, you will also want to check in the device manager and make sure that all the entries are cleared. In mine I found that under the Human Inteface Devices near the top of the tree, I would have an entry for the Cypress Trackpad. But in addition further down the tree there is another entry for HID Mice Keyborads.... Under that I found several instances of the device. I removed all but the active one which will have no remove option. DO NOT remove the top entry or select uninstall driver in Advaced options. On reboot the device will detect and reinstall

Hmm. An engineer was asking me if I had heard any chatter about AVG and the touchpad. Now I have. I'll get this over to the engineering team in the morning. Thanks for this. Very helpful.

[og1996]

You need to get some better anti-glare SS's for your IPads. You're not seriously trying to convince us that a decent matt, outdoor viewable display like the HP Hydus, the Panisonic Toughbook or, to a lesser extent a 400 nits X220 outdoor display is inferior to a glossy display outdoors, are you. Have you tried that test with people who can see?

I have to agree with the OP. The XPS 13's screen is easier to see outside than many matte screens I've seen (I've worked a lot with the Toughbooks). There are better screens for outdoor work, but the XPS is definitely better than the Ipad, IMHO.

[Bronsky]

Glad to see the XPS 13 is a big hit with enterprise customers. Dell Says it Can't Build Enough XPS 13 Ultrabooks

The most interesting quote is the comment in at the bottom that "sister and brother" products to the XPS 13 are on the Horizon. Looking forward to seeing them.

[clintre]

Don't know if I like the A04 just yet. The temps stay decent, but in a quiet room it sounds like a siren off in the distance going off. It is not super loud but it just keeps going up and down. Pretty annoying if you are in a quiet place.

Also have been noticing the same thing a few others are mentioning where the SSD almost sounds like a regular hard drive doing a seek. This just recently started. Hopefully it does not mean something is going bad in the SSD. Very weird.

[pusta]

Weird, I'm not having any of these problems. A03 was a huge improvement for my fan, and A04 made it quieter. I also don't have the SSD whine. Could it be your power adapter? Did you have it replaced?

[Dell-Bill_B]

Glad to see the XPS 13 is a big hit with enterprise customers. Dell Says it Can't Build Enough XPS 13 Ultrabooks

The most interesting quote is the comment in at the bottom that "sister and brother" products to the XPS 13 are on the Horizon. Looking forward to seeing them.

So not DOA? (memory like an elephant)

June-ish for 2 of those products and October-ish for another.

[nipun_jain]

So go or no go on A04? Does it break anything? Any major benefits?

[Bronsky]

So not DOA? (memory like an elephant)

June-ish for 2 of those products and October-ish for another.

You notice I don't own one. Yet. Still, always happy to see Dell do well with a promissing new model. Enterprise users clearly agree with you. You have to admit though, Dell is so strong with enterprise users that you can probably sell them a ham sandwich with a keyboard and a display. There are few companies who can compete on warranty, price or service. Shurely not Asus, even though it probably has the best first-gen ultrabook on the market. I won't buy an Asus product because their service is so incredibly crappy (non-existant actually). HP enterprise service is probably closest to Dell reliability and their prices are in a different universe.

My office was exclusively a Dell shop until a few years ago (mostly Latitudes). My old Vostro 1500 and Studio XPS 13 are still in use by staff members. I've been waiting for the13" XPS line to be revived for quite some time. But, as you can see, I'm fussy and demanding. Am particularly interested in that October release. I'll be keeping my eyes open. Thanks.