Dell Studio XPS 13 Review

[Sphinx]

Saw it in best buy and its not too bad. Although the leather is a bit tacky IMHO. The only thing missing is higher resolution screen offerings, I like how Lenovo offers 144x900 in notebooks this size as it is noticeably better then 1280x800 that seems inadequate to me even on a 12in or 13.3 notebook. But then again that's just my $.02cents.

[Guntraitor Sagara]

13" notebooks are mainly used in laps. But because of the crazy heat, what's the point. Jesus, can they focus their attention on he laptop's thermal design first before anything else? And Good Lord can't these manufacturers think of any other places to place an HDD other than L or R palmrests, which palms always have contact with? tsk.

[Voldenuit]

Strange that NBR complains about heat on the Studio XPS 13 but found the same temps perfectly acceptable on the Al Macbook - despite the two machines being within 1F of each other.

So is it hot or not?

I find myself aware of the heat on my X300 (although it is not uncomfortable), and that is a good 10F cooler in the base than the dell or the macbook.

[Jerry Jackson]

Strange that NBR complains about heat on the Studio XPS 13 but found the same temps perfectly acceptable on the Al Macbook - despite the two machines being within 1F of each other.

So is it hot or not?

Fair question. Although I did ultimately say the MacBook temperatures "remained at perfectly acceptable levels," I also stated the following in that same review:

"One downside to an all-aluminum design is the entire notebook acts as one gigantic heatsink."

Bottom line, these type of temperatures are on the fence between tolerable and too hot. It really depends on your personal threshold for laptop heat.

I'd also say that in the last six months I've been exposed to more and more laptops that keep their cool, so my tolerance for hot laptops might not be the same as it used to be.

[Andrew Baxter]

They should have dropped the DisplayPort and added USB in place of it. It's nice to have a selection of video out ports, but with a 13" laptop video I think you choose one technology that's most ubiquitous (HDMI, especially since this is consumer) and then make sure the port selection is on part for everything else. 2 USB ports is not par for the course on a $1K 13" laptop as Jerry says. The point about the positioning by the other commenter is also a good one.

Can't deny the beautiful looks on this model though, not light years better than the XPS M1330, but a mild step up.

[Patrick]

I gotta say, I do prefer Thinkpad's looks over this ones. Couple that with the fact that I have never heard the fan once, plus the ability to have two hard drives in, and well...


The only thing this has over my thinkpad (In my eyes, at least), is an inch, HDMI, Displayport, and Esata.

[Voldenuit]

Fair question. Although I did ultimately say the MacBook temperatures "remained at perfectly acceptable levels," I also stated the following in that same review:

"One downside to an all-aluminum design is the entire notebook acts as one gigantic heatsink."

Bottom line, these type of temperatures are on the fence between tolerable and too hot. It really depends on your personal threshold for laptop heat.

I'd also say that in the last six months I've been exposed to more and more laptops that keep their cool, so my tolerance for hot laptops might not be the same as it used to be.

Thanks for the reply, Jerry - it does make sense (after all, expectations change and grow with progress).

Also, different materials at the same temperature will feel a different "warmth" due to differing thermal conductivity (although in this case, a Macbook ought to feel warmer since aluminum is very conductive). But I'm sure there are other factors as well, such as perhaps exhaust air, which can change the heat flux without altering the surface temperature reading.

I gotta say, I do prefer Thinkpad's looks over this ones. Couple that with the fact that I have never heard the fan once, plus the ability to have two hard drives in, and well...

Thinkpad fans have been traditionally so noisy that a program had to be specifically written to slow them down (TPFancontrol)

My thinkpad X300 was intolerable (to me) until I downloaded and used this program. The other xx00 series fare a bit better since they have room for thicker profile fans in their chassis, but I know at least a couple other people who also use TPFancontrol on the T400 and X61s).

[ImakE]

Why has NBR never reviewed the VAIO Z.. this would have been a great comparo; its an amazing machine.

[HI DesertNM]

The more I read about these glossy "frame less" displays, or the infinity dust collector displays from HP the more I want to stay far far away from them. As usual, Dell supplies below par speakers that are just an after thought. They should contract a third party speaker manufacturer like Altec Lansing like HP since they don't have a clue. For me, the two most important areas are in the visuals and sound and this system looks to be rather pathetic in this regard. As for the HD heat, I think some of the newer generation SSD's like those from Intel are the answer for lowered heat/power from the HD. I can't wait for the prices to drop on those since that would no doubt take things up a notch for notebooks. Just remember that even those that prefer glossy screens may hate the frame less ones since those tend to take glossiness up several notches. Frame less is definitely a major con here. They may look cool but that's about it.

I thought that after two years that my dv6500t would be showing its age against newer systems. Unfortunately, with 16:9 displays popping up all over and frame less being the only option on the HP HDX series I am liking what I have over whats being offered today and that's sad. I think my notebook was one of the few systems that offered vga/hdmi and s-video output as well as 3 usb ports. Is it just me or are the newer offerings from HP and Dell a let down these days.. overall that is? The only consumer system that catches my eye is HP's HDX with hi res screen and it only comes with the infinity dust collector.

[chengdude]

No offense, but since much of this review was copied verbatim from NBR's earlier review of the XPS 16, I think there should be some sort of disclaimer, at minimum clarifying just how similar these two laptops are.