Dell Studio XPS 16 Review

A lot of people haven't had any problems with Vista. You seem to be implying that it's wrong to think Vista is the best. Vista may not be the best for everyone but I think it's understandable for those who haven't had problems to think it's the best and not be compared to people who just love bling. I think Vista had a lot of room for improvement (ie too much fat) but it's a decent enough OS that people shouldn't be belittled for liking or loving it.

Lame comparison.

 

this is great and finally, it is about time for the new hardware updates. They really loaded this sucker up. My only concern would be the leather piece on the lid, that would probably get all worn and torn over time.

 

i think the leather will start to flake in about 3-4 months,as is the case with many other leather products,what do you think????

 

i think its a apt comparison as the studio XPS has alot of room for improvement(which is the same case with vista) which is and i quote:"too much fat"...
that amounts to 6.4 pounds of it on the notebook

 

Very good review, now I have two options, the XPS Studio 1640 and the new Gateway MD-7822u, one with hd3670 and the other with hd3650, 400$ difference.

 

running @ 1280x1024...and this benchmark was run @ 1280x800...quite a difference!

 

I wouldn't call under 3 hours, for a 9-cell battery, excellent battery life. Whenever I see 9-cell, I always remember the 5+ hour battery life the Thinkpad T41p had. It did have lower performance parts than today's notebooks, but the 3d graphics held its own for years.

 

Hmmm I jus checked both 13 and 16. Wow the 13 inch will definitely outperform my XPS 1530m, thats sad, I was beginning to like my laptop already.

I noticed there isnt much upgrade options available with both the laptops. That sucks.

 

heh? isnt ur 1530 has better GPU?

 

Yeah I'm curious about that, too. I actually like the leather accent Dell put on the 1640. I think that it makes grabbing on to the laptop easier a nice touch IMO (no pun intended).

I know Asus also put leather on a few of their laptops as well. Does anyone know how well they last?

 

sadly that is untrue

i know this will sound dumb but how did you manage to get 5.9 on your memory calculations in your WEI,i have the T8100

 

But the HD3670M is no big jump from the 8600M GT GDDR3 either. Whats your 3dmark06 demo score(if you have it)?

 

well i looked up the score in this review and compared them to the review of the M1530 here and the score differs by about 400 marks

Edit:also trying to find out if the HD3670M has DDR2 or DDR3 memory

 

43XX or is quite good actually...I think its having GDDR3 memory and still,it actually sucks.

 

Don't like it one bit.

Would rather have the M1530 personally,older platform or not.

 

I sure hope this "leather" thing won't be the new trend among laptops. Glossy plastics, super-glossy LCD, black-and-red gaming laptops, and now this. Every recent notebook fashion trends are terrible.

About the laptop itself, LCD seems nice, which is a good change from recent Dells. BTW, am I the only one who thinks that keyboard looks like the one in Vaio FZ? An odd choice, I must say.

 

I like the simple and clean cut with mostly black and some silver with a black KB, but I'm not a fan of the leather. I think it looks nicer than my HDX But the heat is disappointing, my HDX runs very cool. The screen looks great, but I'm happy with the HDX's screen and it's not even LED! The 3670 seems alright, depends how well it can be overclocked. I'm not conviced that HDX18 score was done at 1280 x 800, 4100 sounds right on the money for a T9600 at 1280 x 1024 on stock clocks. OC'd I get 5500+ at 1280 x 1024, and that's a big increase.

Well I know what to do... test stock clocks 10 minutes

Stock returned 4134, so that HDX18 was run at 1280 x 1024 as well. Now the question is what res the XPS 16 was run at? If it was x1024, that's pretty good, pretty close to a ddr3 9600. If it was x800, it's equal to a ddr2 9600, and there's no telling how it'll OC.

 

Woo. This is awesome. Love the looks and not the me-too, Apple wannabes out there. Dell is trying something different. stfu if you dont like it and were never going to consider it in the first place

 

hi jerry,

I don't know if you've tried the Sony Vaio FZ or SZ keyboard, but is it like it? the key styles look similar.

 

The Studio XPS 13 has a screen listed as:
13.3" HD WXGA Slim WLED LCD

Anyone know if it's any good? How would it compare to a Sony Vaio Z-series screen? I only know of the Z570 and Z590CTO.

I like the new Dells if only for the updates to the hardware and number of ports. I don't know if it's possible to have WXGA+ made with LED backlight but it's too bad it doesn't have that?

Also, are you able to install the Intel 5300 in the Studio XPS 13? I noticed that only the Dell 1515 wifi mini card is available at the high end. I don't know anything about that card. Can anyone comment on it?

 

There is a LED 13" WXGA+ on the Lenovo Thinkpad X300 and X301.

The XPS 13 doesn't have the Intel wireless because it's running on an NVIDIA chipset, not Centrino 2. The Dell 1515 should be fine for most users' needs.

 

they keyboard is exactly like my Vaio AR hehe

Anyway wow 70 replies in the less the 24 hours? This is probably the hottest news/review topic ever

Anyway its gonna be funny when early adopter buy this and the 4670 comes out beware as you have been warned.

 

I kind of have the same opinion. But who knows, a bit too early to tell. We'll see how well this does for Dell

 

Wow nice review. I am pretty impressed with this laptop. I think this is exactly what michael dell was looking for to bring dell back into the market in 2009. Good job guys.

 

Following Dell's momentum, I don't think Dell will put in additional GPU options for their Studio XPS line.

 

i guess that HDMI is only out, not in and out

 

the WXGA has LED backlight look at HP dv4/5 series in WXGA w/LED...

I want to know how much of a heat difference is the system when running a SSD as opposed to a HD?

very curious if that alleviates the cooling problem and if so how much does it add to the price/performance ratio

 

If you order a new studio xps 16 in the next 2 hours Dell will send you a bottle of Acme leather conditioner free!!! .....hurry supplies are limited.

 

Can you check and see if they fix the webcam lagging problem like the m1530?

 

No laptop has HDMI in. If one did, I could play my PS3 on it.

 

WHY WHY WHY NOT Intel® Core™ 2 Quad QX9300 (2.53GHz, 12M L2 Cache, 1066MHz FSB)..

I DON'T SEE 7200 RPM HDD neither.

IF DELL PUT THESE TWO GUYS IN THERE I WILL DEFINETELY GO FOR THIS LAPTOP. THAT WOULD BE THE ULTIMATE SWEETIE.

APART FROM THE VIDEO, WHICH I BELEIVE CAN BE INSTALLED IN THE xps 1530, THERE IS NOTHING ELSE IN THIS LAPTOP. IT'S JUST A NEW DESIGN WHICH BY THE WAY IS NICE. ITS THE PERFORMANCE I'M AIMING AT.

WELL I GUESS THAT WILL HURT THEIR BUSINESS LINE

 

Wow ALL CAPS.

*The test drive in the specs is a 320GB 7200rpm HDD.

*I agree. This new line should have had a Quad cpu's. But to think a 2.4GHZ cpu+that video card could fry an egg in no time, I doubt a Quad integrated in this model won't scald your lap.

 

that only reiterates the fact that it WILL flake,dell just confirmed it themselves

 

I never saw a quad-core in anything smaller than 17"...

 

Yeah and my leather wallet and leather wrapped steering-wheel flake too. Yeah seriously

 

maybe,maybe not who knows what is the quality of leather being used in your wallet,steering wheel,or for that matter of fact on the studio XPS
im not trying to bash it up in anyway,just thinking it might be a possibility which will only be proved only if people will buy it

 

I'm not trying to bash it, I have had a couple dell systems including my current inspiron 17" lappy. I just think leather is not the place for a notebook. It's kinda like woodgrain panels on the side of a car, don't do it.

 

Personally, I like the look/styling of it but think that they could lose the leather though and deal with the heat. Seriously, with that kind of heat coming from the laptop, that leather is going to turn into beef jerky!

Im not in the market for another laptop until after my wedding (wedding cash!) so i will look back into this particular model come this September. I am hoping that they give us better graphics card options, higher capacity SSDs and a slew of color choices. Dell has been pushing their artist designs and why didn't they have that option available right from the get go?

I know that many of you think that these complaints will be handled in the coming months and I seriously hope so. When I come back on the market in less than 9 months, I want to see a decently powerful laptop (though anything is more powerful than what I have now! ), lower price, no leather and no heating issues.

Anyone have any other laptops I should consider in the mean time?

 

How about considering a top of the line Sony Vaio FW 390 Series, plenty of options, no leather, 16.4" wide screen HD theatre.

http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs...Id=10151&langId=-1&LBomId=8198552921665729701

 

Pretty decent review but I'd like to point a couple things out.

• The screen used in the review machine is a $150 upgrade. Standard screen is 1366x768 (pitiful on 16.4" screen) and there's no in-between option.
  
• No Mention that this is a 16:9 screen as opposed to a 16:10 in previous XPS and Studio notebooks.
  
• How the heck does a Studio 17 (T9300 and HD3650) score 900 points less on 3DMark06 than a Asus M70 with the same hardware?

I did like that he called it a desktop replacement though. 16.4" is not a portable machine like a 15.4" is. Kudos on that and thank you. So now there's no mid sized Dell unless you want to buy old tech. :\

How??? The 1340 comes with 9400M (integrated) or 9500M upgrade. The wider FSB will certainly help in the CPU area, no doubt there but GPU wise, I don't think there's that much competition w/the 8600M GT in the M1530.

He's comparing a 1340 (not a 1640) to a 1530.

Once again... a 1340 not 1640.

 

oops my bad for the first post,but in the second post p1990 specifically mentions the HD 3670

 

Oh ok, no probs.

Anyways, I think it's a very slick looking machine. Not sure how the leather is going to wear though. Would be nice to have more res options and last but not least, a mid-sized version. The graphics seem alright but really I am an Nvidia man as their drivers are usually way better. And of course I hate 16:9 screens.

 

Am I the only one here that misses nvidia?? Where are the nvidia options??!!

 

I was hoping Dell had solved the "hot palmrest" problem that annoys me with the Studio 17, but judging from those temperature tests it looks like this machine is just as bad if not worse.

Not impressed with the battery life.
Didn't see any commentary on the color accuracy of the RGBLED screen, which is a problem with the Studio 17.
Would have liked to seen a graphics downgrade option to save battery life.
The edge to edge glossy screen concept is not practical and should be optional.

About the only good thing I can say on this machine vs. the Studio 1737 is the blu-ray is being offered cheap on this machine.

 

This is no longer a laptop one can roam around on campus with. This is definitely a desktop replacement. It is a mere 0.2 in smaller than the Studio 17.
I wished they had kept with the original 15.4 in screen.
The industry is concentrating in making multimedia powerhouse and has forgotten the primary purpose of a laptop.
15.4 (width being 14in) has been the ideal dimension for students.

And that thing is getting heavier and heavier. Who would like to haul that across campus all day.
Leather looks good but is not longlasting. In a few months that thing will start looking ugly, and then what do you do.
Have been waiting for this XPS and I am so disappointed.

 

They also seem to have completely forgotten about battery life. My new Studio 17 with the supposedly more battery friendly P8400 only gets 1:15 on battery.

 

I say no to 16:9.

We have a beautifully crafted laptop good for watching movies. What about working on it: word, excel, webpage design, and programming.

Programmers like to look at several lines of a program, they would rather have a vertical screen.
15.4 in is what we need. In the mean time they keep pushing the 16:9 down our throat.
Look at Sony. They new "rolling wave design" is on their 13.3 in, 16.4in, and 18in, but not on their 14.1 and 15.4 in. And the latter being the segment when you sell more laptop.
Wish the XPS had retained the 15.4, it would have been great for both work and play.

 

Yeah, I'm with you on that.

 

I carry a 16" 7 lbs laptop around all day. Have you even used a 16:9 laptop? 16:9 isn't bad. I don't seem to mind after going from 4:3. I use Excel a lot and don't mind the scrolling of PDFs or even the WXGA resolution. I'm not really all into the leather part though.

 

yeah i also carry around a 16inch, 7.3lbs notebook on campus and while its not the best, its definitely do-able

im still not a big fan of 16:9 though, and the 768 vertical resolution on my screen is pitiful