Review: Dell XPS 15z Laptop

18 September 2011, Singapore – Dell XPS 15z is a beautifully crafted, high performance and branded to be the thinnest 15” PC on the planet. The retail price of Dell XPS 15z starts from S$1,799, below is the brief specifications of the most basic build.

DELL XPS 15z Specifications:

2nd generation Intel® Core i5-2410M processor 2.30 GHz with Turbo Boost 2.0 up to 2.90 GHz
Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium 64-Bit
4GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM (2 x 2GB)
500GB 7200RPM Hard Drive
15.6″ (39.6cm) FHD Widescreen, 300-nit (typical) (1920×1080) 1080p
NVIDIA® GeForce GT 525M 1GB graphics
9.5″ SATA Slot Load DVD+/-RW
McAfee(R) Security Center – 15 Months Version
64 WHr 8-Cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery
1-year XPS Premier Service with 1-year Complete Cover

Dell XPS 15z - ports — Dell XPS 15z ports

The design is simple and sleek with rounded contours giving it the illusion of floating above the surface of the table. The anodized aluminum casing of the Dell XPS 15z makes it looks a little like the MacBook Pro, but who cares as long as it looks good. The hinge at the display screen is large and solid when opening the laptop it’s smooth and sturdy. The hinge is also designed to be able to open the laptop with one hand when placed on the table. The keyboard feels a bit cramped for a 15″ laptop, maybe I am used to the bigger size keyboard on my Alienware M15x. Maybe the should not have provided so much space for the speaker grilles on both sides of the keyboard. The placements of external input ports and optical drive are clean and neat, with a nice casing to cover the 9 in 1 media card reader.

For me, something is missing in this laptop. The VGA output port is replaced by a mini display port, so that means I will have to carry an extra VGA converter when I go out for presentation. Maybe it’s just me, but I think that a VGA port is consider basic for a 15″ laptop, since I am not buying a super slim laptop that has no room for a VGA port. Considering a 15″ laptop is already quite huge, now I have to carry an extra converter with me wherever I go.

The sounds produced by the speaker are not so great, its lacks in bass and treble. But the Full HD widescreen display on the Dell XPS 15z produces brighter and more vibrant colours when I compared it with my Alienware M15x Full HD widescreen display.

And for MacBook fans like me, the large trackpad on the Dell XPS 15z have multi-touch gestures like those found on the MacBooks. Example, the 4 finger swipe down to show desktop and 4 finger swipe up to show the active program tabs. But the multi-touch gestures is still a bit laggy on the Windows based laptop. So for those who likes big screens and always on-the-go, I will recommend the Dell XPS 15z which has a big 15″ widescreen and weighs only 2.55kg (which is light for a 15″ laptop). Visit http://www.dell.com/sg/p/xps-15z/fs to see the full range of XPS 15z configurations you can choose from.

Also check out the video review below by Daniel from Tech65.org, in the video you will see the multi-touch gesture in action.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5qr15MEJgc