1900x1080
How on earth are you supposed to see the darn icons on your desktop at that resolution on a tiny screen? Seems pointless.
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 …
....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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
"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
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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.
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.
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.