Please tell me some good about the XPS-15, L521X.......

Dell is swapping out our XPS-1640 under warranty, and is giving us a NEW XPS-15, L521X. The new one will have Windows 7, I7 Processor, 8GB RAM, 750GB HD with 32GB SSD, 2GB Video card, and DVD.

Would like to hear from you guys with the L521X on how good this computer really is overall, how long you have owned it, and any problems you've had.

We are thankful Dell is giving us a new computer, but am very concerned as our last two Dell XPS computers have both had Motherboard issues around the 3 year mark.

Thank you

 

159 views, and not one comment; what's up?

 

There's a *ton* of discussion on the L521X on this system, I know that people wish new-questions like this would at least surf some of those.

However, I think as far as the L521X I can summarize it like this..

It has faults.

Primarily the WiFi performance and heat management during gaming as the system cooling isn't sufficient when the CPU and GPU are both heating up.
Secondarily some people have reported displeasure with the screen quality (visible grid lines), many find it fine.

The WiFi is impacted by range- and connection-stability issues, the most reliable WLAN cards seem to be the Killer-N 1202 or the new Intel 7260. I have used both extensively and the latter works much better, particularly if used on an 802.11ac network. It is NOT ideal nor *can* it be fixed. The problems seem to stem from design of the mainboard (e.g.layout) and the casing (bottom, top, and lid). If WiFi performance is critical then you need to carry a USB dongle around for those times when the on-board doesn't work. I do.

The thermal management can be improved somewhat as-is, cleaning and re-pasting the CPU and GPU to improve the cooling helps. Some people have removed the optical drive and reported that has dramatically improved the situation.

Some people have problems not having the trackpad move the mouse around when typing on the keyboard, it is very sensitive and there doesn't seem to be an effective driver tweak to prevent it.

I have not seriously measured battery endurance. I'm sure it's more than 4 hours end-2-end in moderate use, but YMMV.

The good.

Overall the system seems to be well built, and mine has been largely fine. Physical structure is solid and holds up to transport well. System performance is pleasing.

I replaced the 32Gb mSATA with a 120Gb mSATA and reinstalled Windows onto that device and operationally the system "screams" in a very pleasant way. I have all my data on the HDD. The performance of the 750 Gb 7200 RPM HDD in that way has been fine.

IMO great as a general use machine including some software development.

Multimedia playback is fine.

I haven't been gaming notably.

 

Thanks c0derbear!

I had perused some of the 600+ pages in the L521X Lounge, but was hoping to find out if Dell had fixed the WiFi on the most current builds; I'm somewhat disappointed that I'll be getting a new computer with issues, especially since they've had time to fix them.

 

I'm pretty sure that Dell's fix is the Haswell edition.

I honestly don't think there IS any way to fix the L521X issues without essentially exchanging for a completely different physical design.

If I were you I'd see how it plays out and ENDLESSLY - but politely - if it has wifi or thermal problems with your usage.

This means you will need 'the patience of Job" and be willing to invest time on the phone with dell support.

Done right you may just be able to engineer the situation into them replacing the faulty hardware with the new model.

There also seems to be better support yielded through the DellCares twitter, but I don't know that from personal experience, only anecdotally.

 

The other concern is the only warranty we will have on it is the remainder of our Dell extended warranty which runs out in Feb 2014.

With the known issues, I'm going to have to pick up another warranty like a SquareTrade as soon as it arrives to ensure we have some coverage after Feb.

 

Dell should be able to extend (for a price) the warranty on the replacement laptop.

which should be better than a square trade warranty (IMO)

 

To cost to extend the Dell warranty for an additional year is almost $400, which is way too much

 

Another option maybe to sell the replacement laptop and buy something newer.

my understanding from squaretrade is they are only obligated to repair up to the price of the warranty costs. after that you maybe out of luck.