back to article Dell XPS 15z 15.6in Core i5 notebook

When the 15z was announced there was no small amount of fanfare, not least due to Dell’s interesting claim that this was the thinnest 15in laptop in existence. In no time at all, it had been pointed out that the accompanying asterisk needed to be the size of an actual star, since the machine the 15z was aping, the Apple MacBook …

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  1. JDX Gold badge

    1900x1080

    How on earth are you supposed to see the darn icons on your desktop at that resolution on a tiny screen? Seems pointless.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Just a guess, but it could come in handy when "back at base" and plugged into a monitor or projector?

      Clam.

    2. MrT

      It's not that much smaller...

      ....overall, a 15.6" 1920x1080 16:9 format screen is only about 3/4" smaller on the diagonal than a 17" 1920x1200 16:10 widescreen display, once it's lost the extra 120 pixels across the top - they're not that much different on width, so everything on this XPS screen is reduced by less than 5% compared to a high-spec 16:10 format 17" laptop.

  2. Gordon 10

    Wind up the fanboi's

    Wonder if you can hackintosh it?

    1. Adam Nealis
      Thumb Down

      Wind up the illiterates

      That's "fanbois"

  3. DuncanIdahoFFS
    Thumb Up

    Have to say I love it...

    I've had the 15z with the Core i7 chip and 8Gb RAM for a couple of months now and have to say have been bowled over by the machine both from a performance perspective and indeed its look and feel. Everyone has of course given reference to the Macbook issue of course - one which I can understand but never agree with. Do we criticise all HDTV's for looking effectively identical? Can you possibly be hugely diverse in your approach to designing and constructing something which has a recognised form factor and is built for utility? At the end of the day I do't care - one for the Fanboi's to argue over incessantly no doubt.

    At the end of the day it's all about how it performs for YOU the user and this machine presses all my buttons:

    1. More than powerful enough to cope with every running app I require for my business life ranging from the usual Office suspects to Xen Center, VShpere Client and Virtualbox all at the same time.

    2. Functional enough to ensure I don't need to revert to other devices - the card reader is a particular boon for Video and Photo importing.

    3. Runs any current games of choice albeit at lower resolutions than perhaps my dedicated gaming machine can cope with. (Deus Ex: Human Revolution runs respectably at the 1366 x 768 resolution point for example)

    Only two gripes with this one which people need to be aware of:

    1. Lack of USB ports - The Macbook wins here

    2. You can cook an egg on the keyboard when running the Radeon for any length of time.

    Definitely recommended for anyone looking for a stylish yet powerful desktop replacement.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    But it's a Dell !.......*cough..spit..puke*...it's shit by definition & will have hardware faults guaranteed!

  5. Captain Scarlet
    Mushroom

    Waiting for the Apple sues Dell new item

    Fire ze Lawyers

    1. Mike 29
      Trollface

      No chance, I see more than one USB port

      1. Captain Scarlet

        Really, someone should patent it before Apple decides to do so and again, fire the bloody lawyers they earn to much.

  6. Eek

    I'm not sure about your conclusion. If you want a proper full HD screen Apple simply don't offer that option on the 15" model and its the one thing that has always held me back from buying a mac.

    It will be interesting to see what the cost of the 15" macbook pro with the 2.7ghz processor is when its released later this month. Its going to a lot nearer £2,000 compared to the £1229 Dell wants for the same specification machine.

  7. Field Commander A9
    WTF?

    Just how many times do I have to point this out again!?

    What Dell claimed is that this is the thinest 15in "PC", not "LAPTOP"!!

    And like many ppl said, a Mac is NOT a PC!!

    So if you can't find a 15in that is thinner than this and comes with Linux or Windows pre-installed, then there is NOTHING wrong about Dell's claim.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      > And like many ppl said, a Mac is NOT a PC!!

      Yes it is.

      A Mac is a Personal Computer just like the dell. 'Macintosh' and 'XPS' are just brand names.

      1. Field Commander A9
        Angel

        Then Jobs would be an ultimate fool....

        To give the go on th whole "Mac vs PC" thing.

    2. Adam Nealis
      Megaphone

      Please don't point it out any more.

      Because you were wrong all the other times and you just look stupid.

      Macs are PCs.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    My best Apple Lawyer impression:

    "Honey! Pull out the brochure for the yacht again - looks like I'll be able to afford it afterall!"

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    usual screen fail

    And those that actually buy a laptop in order to work on it will want a 1920x1200 screen, but alas noone seems to make them any more which means you'd better hope your 3 year old Dell doesn't break because when it does you're stuck with a screen designed for TV rather than for documents.

    1. Eek

      Um

      Dell are one of the very few people who still offer 1920 by 1200 screens albeit as an £100 option.

      The article says that for £999 you can have it with a high resolution screen and I commented above that you can have the high resolution screen for £1229 with a i7 processor and 8gb of ram.

    2. cloudgazer
      Happy

      You could buy the 17inch MacBook Pro, it's 1920x1200, but I'm guessing thats not the answer you're looking for

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        I think the OP was getting at aspect ratio...

        and the old 4x3 screens instead of 16x9. I think Lenovo is the only mfr. still offering laptops with the older ratio. Could be wrong of course - on all counts.

  10. Peter Townsend
    Thumb Down

    Style?

    Since so much of this review is taken up with comments about how much the 15z resembles the MacBook perhaps the author could suggest how Dell could have made a thin 15.6" laptop look any different? Make it circular? Have all the corners return at a sharp 90 degrees? Make it out of bakelite?

    It's as idiotic as claiming the A380 is a rip-off of the 747 because it has a rounded nose and two engines under each wing or the Nissan Micra is a clone of the Vauxhall Corsa because it has a wheel at each corner and three doors.

    To anyone who knows zero about cars the Micra and Corsa look identical. To anyone who knows anything about laptops the 15z and MacBook don't. Adopting a Bloody Obvious design for a given product is not cloning/copying/lazy design it's simply form following function.

    1. cloudgazer

      Actually I'd say that the 15z does a halfway decent job of differentiating on the detailing. It has sloping front and side edges, where the MBP is completely plum-bob vertical. It has a two tone border around the screen, primarily charcoal with an outer rim of black. The lid is slightly smaller than the base resulting in a interesting profile when closed. There's that glossy metal trim around the top edge of the base.

      The difference on the edge is really clear from the image on CNET.

      http://news.cnet.com/dells-new-xps-15z-reviewed/8301-17938_105-20065457-1.html

      The only thing I think is a bit cheesy is that they seem to have gone with exactly the same silver anodized finish. They could have used a colour anodized surface, black would be nice - and thermally superior.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Actually a bakelite laptop sounds awesome

      The post is required, and must contain letters.

    3. Silver
      Thumb Up

      Re: Style?

      "Since so much of this review is taken up with comments about how much the 15z resembles the MacBook perhaps the author could suggest how Dell could have made a thin 15.6" laptop look any different? Make it circular? Have all the corners return at a sharp 90 degrees? Make it out of bakelite?"

      Well, I'm not the author but Samsung and Sony seem to be able to manage it just fine on their newer products. Here is the rather nice looking Samsung Series 9 and it certainly doesn't scream "MacBook clone" the moment you see it.

      http://www.samsung.com/us/computer/laptops/NP900X3A-A03US

    4. darklord

      Urm Not quite

      the Nissan Micra was out wayyyyyyyy before the Vauxhall corsa, The vauxhall Nova was out then.

      But hey I get the point.

  11. Piro Silver badge
    Thumb Up

    I was about to say...

    1366x768 on a 15.6" screen? Come on...

    But at least good old Dell included an option for a screen that doesn't suck.

  12. cloudgazer

    Macbook look-a-like? Maybe circa 2006. Those big dust gathering vent grilles on either side of the keyboard went out with the unibody. I don't think there's any danger of an Apple lawsuit here to protect a design that they no longer even use anymore.

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Grilles

    "Those big dust gathering vent grilles on either side of the keyboard went out with the unibody"

    err...those would be speaker grilles not air vents.

    1. This post has been deleted by its author

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Meh

    XPS

    I'm currently working on a 3 year old 15" XPS.

    At present I wouldn't buy another. From the day the box was opened the wifi was unreliable, within a year the CD Drive stopped working, 3 years in the screen is falling to bits.

    I use the machine as a desktop replacement, and it very rarely actually moves....

    Dells business kit I find quite good, but their home laptops seem to be quite bad.

  15. Alan Denman

    The life of these is in the hands of the gods.

    I'm quite certain that once many of these devices age they will be more liable to malfunction and catch fire.

    So much so that airlines will be force to say that 'all gadgets have to fly with their batteries removed'.

    For safety reasons it is quite amazing they do not do this already.

  16. Alan Denman

    "To anyone who knows zero about cars the Micra and Corsa look identical. "

    Methinks that include most of the judiciary.

  17. Colin Ritchie
    Paris Hilton

    Dell wants to be swell too. Fanbois scoff while lawyers cough.

    Dell announced their intention to go upmarket earlier this year, possibly last year too depending how much you pay attention to hype and marketing. Unfortunately their innovation and new ideas departments still seem as underdeveloped as their website design and customer support services. So they went upmarket by buying Alienware to gain instant gaming kudos, then realised that fugly behemoth gaming rigs weren't really what anyone with a life wanted in their er.... life. So they decided to copy stylish laptops from the darlings of cool. Genius R&D that. I can hear Tiffany singing "I think we're a clone now." already.

    Well done guys, keep up the hard work. Imitation is still the sincerest form of flattery, especially if you can make a buck out of it in to the bargain. Thank Jobs you still have Apple to copy for your stylish stuff.

    HP has fallen on its corporate hardware sword because Apple spanked them in the Tablet War, how long before Dell and Acer outbid each other to sell their kit at a loss to make up for their inability to read the markets as fluently as the big A. Game on gentlemen.

    Why Paris? Hmm do you think the 15z would fool her or not? You decide, I'm really not so sure...

    P.S. Macs became PCs the day they learned how to boot Windows natively, luckily it's not mandatory.... yet.

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    perhaps they should rename it the MockBook?

    as title

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