I think I just fell in love. That computer looks so sick!
Could have been a 15 inch display without the huge bezels.
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Build quality of XPS 13 is nothing like a MBP. I've been fooled.
- Thread starter Kendo
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Could have been a 15 inch display without the huge bezels.
Microsoft store has a pretty good return policy. might be worth trying it out yourself instead of just going by what others have experienced. every notebook will have their vocal minority. heck I'm one of them who has gone on the Razer forums to complain, but overall experience has been good so far.
I thought you could only buy them from their website. Where else are they available? What are your complaints?
the FHD (1080p) version is the only one limited to their site, but the QHD+ is on the MS store (local and online) and also Amazon. Amazon also has a good return policy. my complaints were during the ordering and shipping phase. i wanted the FHD version, so had to order direct from them. it took them almost a week to process it even though i paid for 2 day shipping. so it wasn't a complaint about the notebook itself.
oh, and i also complained that some of us who bought the RB right before they posted the free Witcher 3 promo, should be included. =p
really liking it so far. like i said above, i have the FHD version. i did have the QHD+ version, but i was not impressed with it, as colors shifted earlier compared to my MacBook Pro, and it had this weird anti-glare coating to it that made it worse. i've been spoiled by my MBP's display, so it had to go back. the FHD doesn't have this issue, tho i do wish it was retina-like. on the other hand.. the 1080p screen is perfect for the Nvidia 970m.. i mostly play Skyrim with a bunch of mods and Mass Effect 3, and the 970m doesn't even break a sweat at ultra settings. i can't wait to try this out when The Witcher 3 comes out.
quality is pretty much just like the MBP. the FHD panel they use has nice wide viewing angles, and the colors seem accurate enough. i had it side by side with my MBP and tried to calibrate it to that. the keyboard is about the same, and this has prob the best trackpad on a Windows machine. the speakers are prob a tad louder and fuller than the MBP, but it's not that noticeable. i like how the speaker grills are on the sides of the keyboard. aluminum unibody chasis is solid.. it pretty much feels like my MBP.. except it's black.
which brings me to my cons.. with the finish being black aluminum, it doesn't hide fingerprints as well as the silver aluminum the MBP has. so if you're OCD about that, then you might get annoyed. another thing is.. i miss having the magsafe. the barrel cord style feels so outdated compared to it. speaking of inputs and ports.. they are snug.. like if i connect a usb into one of the ports.. it feels real tight and secure in there. i do like that.. just not with the power plug, since it will pull the notebook if i ever accidentally trip on the wire. heat has been ok so far. i was super worried about this before buying, so i asked a bunch of current owners. only time it really heated up on me was when i was maybe 2-3hrs in gaming in Skyrim, but it wasn't as bad as i'd imagined before actually owning it. the fans can get loud tho to get rid of all that heat, so that might get put into the con category, but i get that it needs to do its job since there's a ton of power in this thin chassis.
overall i'm happy with it. like i said.. this is pretty much a MBP, but black and has a really good GPU in it. the 970m is pretty great.
oh and battery life isn't too bad. i get about 6hrs of web use. not as good as the MBP, but it's not a bad trade off having that 970m in there.
Dude. You've got it made. Playing those games on ultra? That's awesome. Sounds like a really great device. The cons are hardly cons, at least for me.
I would probably be tempted to just sell my Xbox 1 and use this as my gaming device.
Hook it up to the TV and bam. I'd be SET.
EDIT: I'd probably get the 1080 as well. That makes more sense for gaming.
The Blade has a good build (I had a 2014) but Razer's customer service is horrible. I had an issue with my computer and it took a few weeks to resolve with a lot of back and forth calls. I would advise anyone considering a Blade to not do so.
There are probably a lot of Windows laptops that won't run Windows 7 either. It's a device driver issue; if the manufacturer of a particular chip won't write a Windows 7 driver, then the computer can't run Windows 7, or else it will run with limited functionality.
Just received an XPS 13 (2015) today and already printed out the return label to ship back to Dell. Used side by side with my 2015 rMBP for a day. Mileage varies, but the touch pad is downright awful on the XPS 13 even with software update, system bios update, and Dell firmware update for touch pad. I view 500-1500 page PDFs for work and need reliable 2 finger scrolling. In Adobe for example the "main" part of the document scrolls and freezes only occasionally, but table of contents pane on the left will scroll and then freeze 100% of the time. Happens with two other PDF readers. Also the amount of pressure needed to click the touch pad is far greater than the rMPB, don't care for it. Lastly the mouse pointer is incredibly jumpy and usually moves when I press down on the touch pad.
Granted Adobe Reader is laggy as hell on the rMBP, but other apps work flawlessly for me / it is not a hardware issue with Mac. Too bad. Really love the XPS otherwise. The rMBP touch pad hardware + experience is light years beyond the XPS. It isn't even close. Not surprising to many here I'm sure. Hate Windows 8.1 scaling vs OS X but that's another topic. Just wanted to post my impressions...1 day with the Dell was enough for me.
Granted Adobe Reader is laggy as hell on the rMBP, but other apps work flawlessly for me / it is not a hardware issue with Mac. Too bad. Really love the XPS otherwise. The rMBP touch pad hardware + experience is light years beyond the XPS. It isn't even close. Not surprising to many here I'm sure. Hate Windows 8.1 scaling vs OS X but that's another topic. Just wanted to post my impressions...1 day with the Dell was enough for me.
This is the one you got for half off? IMO, sell it off you'll make some coin for getting one before it sold out and someone who wants it will get it at a decent price still.
Yeah, was a refurb from the outlet plus 25% off, really a shame. It's more than just the touch pad, the screen has a graininess to it (the QHD did as well when I looked at MS store last week) that the MBP just doesn't have. Interesting thought re: selling it, but not worth it to me, I'm fine with just a refund and calling it a day.
Fair, glad you gave it a try though. It was tempting for me too, but in the end I'm sure I'd go back to my retina pro