back to article Dell ‘xpands XPS line with 'WORLD-FIRST' MEGA-RESOLUTION laptops

Dell has extended its XPS line of “prosumer” notebooks with an 11.6-in model that takes its cue from Lenovo’s Yoga tablet-cum-laptop. Dell XPS 11 The XPS 11 sports a 2560 x 1440 display Yes, the new XPS 11 is a notebook with a keyboard hinged to fold right back against the rear of the screen housing, just like the Lenovo …

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  1. Nya

    Finally!

    A decent screen...how much?!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Finally!

      Amazing resolution, but it is just a waste, no one can discern the difference anyway.

      Still after the lack of support and updates I had from Dell, having owned 3 different XPSs, they tend to forget once a new model comes out, I felt it was better to invest in a MacBook Pro.

      I wasn't wrong.

      Dell support stops the moment a new model comes out, sod them.

      1. Dave 126 Silver badge

        Re: Finally!

        >Amazing resolution, but it is just a waste, no one can discern the difference anyway.

        Whilst I can't discern any jaggedness to onscreen text when my eyes are further than 12" away from my screen (17", 1920 x1200 = 133 PPI), this test image demonstrates why some people will find a high PPI screen useful:

        http://www.bealecorner.org/red/test-patterns/star-chart-bars144-600dpi.png

        From a distance of around 30" from the same monitor I can make out jaggedness in lines in a CAD draughting application - which unlike much onscreen text doesn't employ anti-aliasing.

        There have been a few high resolution laptops released in the last year (including a very high res Lenovo Yoga), but all the reviews suggest that many Windows desktop applications fail to scale properly (including Adobe Photoshop).

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Finally!

          Adobe applications fail to scale incorrectly because they now implement their own stupid GUI, which is invariably alot slower, worse and buggy than the native GUI. it was possible to accidently position the top of a dialogue above the top of the desktop, and because you couldn't resize windows and dialogues by dragging the bottom, only the top for some stupid reason, it was stuck there until you reset the whole workspace

          So although super high res screens on laptop monitor's is pointless, the lack of scaling is very much the fault of the GUI amateur hackers who think they know better and should leave well alone.

      2. Quxy
        Pint

        Yep!

        When it came time to retire my T61P (1920x1200), the best replacement I could find at Lenovo was the heavy, expensive W520, with a lower-resolution (1920x1080) display. So I switched to a 15" MacBook Pro, with a 2880x1800 screen, better build quality and battery life -- at a lower price. Fedora installed and ran without any issues... the only downside is working around the lack of a middle mouse button!

      3. JDX Gold badge

        640 (x 480) should be enough for anyone

        As a wise man never actually said

      4. Captain Underpants

        Re: Finally!

        @AC 18:08

        Basing my experience on a sample of >500 desktops, laptops and servers over about 6 years at my current workplace, I reckon that if you buy a Dell consumer/prosumer laptop without seeking out a warranty upgrade, you'll have probably had an inconsistent-at-best experience. If, however, you get them to apply a ProSupport-type warranty you get excellent support including NBD onsite service for repairs/replacements. (The problem remains getting the buggers to actually offer ProSupport for any laptop with a decent-res screen in a <14" display form factor...but they're slowly getting better in this regard).

        For context, bear in mind that the fastest turnaround I've gotten on a repair for an Apple portable or display (not desktops as they still get onsite support...for now) is about a week and a half - even the shops that turn things around in a day or two still require you to wait a week or so to get an appointment, because even if you've got a case ref with Applecare that doesn't translate into any prioritisation mechanism in the Apple stores (because Apple has realised that shitty consumer-level support is cheaper to provide than anything remotely like business-class support, despite charging premium prices all the way...)

      5. LarsG

        Re: Finally!

        A retina style display is actually sufficient, a more than retina style display on a standard laptop screen, 15", 13", 11'" etc really makes no difference to what you see, 336ppi are seen no differently from 666ppi, but as someone else commented Apple scales better than Windows.

        We will probably see a 1000ppi 11" screen in a few years but for what purpose?

        I'm more interested in colour reproduction, light and reflections than I am with the pixels per inch.

        It's a bit like this FAD for 3D, it's not necessary, doesn't enhance a crap film any more than if it were on a normal screen and imposes restrictions on the way you have to view it.

        All it gives is bragging rights.

        1. This post has been deleted by its author

          1. Jess

            Simple test:

            > Create a fullscreen black image, with a single white pixel in the middle.View it at 100%. Can you see the white pixel? When you can't see the white pixel with the screen resting on your nose, then you have reached the maximum required screen resolution.

            Except for two things.

            The eye will still register points of light that are smaller than the resolution it can see.

            (Single black pixel on a white image would work).

            Most people can't focus as close as the end of their nose. (I can't focus much closer than 9 inches, and I would not want to use a screen at less than 14 inches, preferably 18)

            1. Wam

              Re: Simple test:

              I think the better resolution test is to have two points separated with dark space and determine if they are distinct points or not

            2. This post has been deleted by its author

            3. Patrick R
              Holmes

              Re: Simple test:

              Young children can focus as close as ~11cm, which is quite further than anyone's nose (that I know). Of course it goes downhill with age.

      6. Nate Amsden

        Re: Finally!

        Can you clarify this a bit more for me ? Are you saying that they no longer honor warranties or support agreements(on site etc) when the new model comes out since that makes no sense? Or are you saying they don't work to provide driver updates or something?

        I've never owned a Dell laptop myself only IBM(before Lenovo) and since Lenovo I have had Toshiba Tecras. My current laptop has a 4 year on site agreement I've used it twice in the past two years(new keyboard, and new motherboard to fix a broken SD card slot), still got a year left on it, works very well, only complaint I suppose is the speakers. I don't travel around with it too much.

      7. Asher Pat

        Re: Finally! - And aren't u a fine convert to the iReligion!

        And aren't u a fine convert!

  2. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
    Holmes

    Meanwhile...

    Dell, HP and the other usual suspect will continue to pump out 'Bog Standard' 1366x768 laptops for the rest of us who have to pay for them ourselves to use.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Meanwhile...

      Dell, HP and the other usual suspect will continue to pump out 'Bog Standard' 1366x768 laptops for the rest of us who have to pay for them ourselves to use.

      I actually bought my Macbook mid 2010, and I took the HiRes screen, which was 1680 x 1050 (which appears still available as an upgrade), for the rest it's pretty much bog standard apart from a hybrid drive. I won't go back to a lower resolution, too useful to have lots of data on one screen :).

      Slight aside: does anyone else recall the time when the only motive for getting XWindows up and running was the ability to have many more terminal windows on the same screen? :)

  3. Christian Berger

    What's the use...

    when all you can see is the reflection of your own face because some dimwit forgot to apply the anti reflection coating?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: What's the use...

      Yeah, there is a reason I dread going into work. Or I could just shave.

  4. scubbo

    samsung does the same in 13.3"

    and it's already out for 2400NZD... google Samsung 940X3G-K01AU

    1. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

      Re: samsung does the same in 13.3"

      From thr amazon.co.uk site

      Sharp and Smart Display

      ATIV Book 9 Plus has a 13.3" FHD (1920 x 1080) LED Display with touchscreen panel. See the world in high detail with its sharp, vivid images, even in direct sunlight (SuperBright+ 350nit). What's more, it's easy on the eyes, so you can enjoy screen time for as long as you want. Light and portable, you can immerse yourself in the experience, anywhere and everywhere.

      * The best resolution setting with Windows 8.1 is QHD+ (3200 x 1800).

      So, is it a 1920x1080 screen or what?

      Can someone care to explain the Windows 8 setting?

      1. gw74

        Re: samsung does the same in 13.3"

        ATIV Book 9 Plus, 3200x1800. on sale now just 1,100 of your earth pounds

        http://www.very.co.uk/samsung-ativ-book-9-intelreg-coretrade-i5-processor-4gb-ram-128gb-ssd-hard-drive-133-inch-touchscreen-ultrabook-ash-black/1281652912.prd?aff=google&affsrc=acquisition&cm_mmc=google-_-PLA_Electricals-_-computers+ultrabooks-_-3g9wVOZy_29821781114

        no soup for you, Register or Dell. fail fail fail.

      2. Andrew Hodgkinson
        Meh

        Re: samsung does the same in 13.3"

        I think there are different revisions of the same model number, which is confusing.

        http://www.samsung.com/us/computer/pcs/NP940X3G-K01US-specs

        It seems the current one does indeed have a 3200x1800, 10 point capacitive panel which if you want to touch your laptop screen is impressive. The big problem is the 13.3" screen size. It means an equivalent 2:1 resolution of 1600x900 in a 13.3" notebook... You'd better have *really* good eyesight. Alternatively, it means Windows is going to be asked to scale even higher than x2 standard; and good luck with getting *that* working reliably across all apps! To make this particular panel really legible at that size, you really need an OS which can manage arbitrary scaling, or at least something around the x2.5 mark. OTOH, it's clearly really nice to be able to get something that high res at that size if you really want it and great to see the industry finally moving towards higher resolution panels (even if the underlying driver for all this is likely to be 4K TV so we're probably going to be stuck with 16:9 displays everywhere still).

        People have criticised Apple's decision to lock OS X into a 1x or 2x scaling mode, meaning that the so-called "retina" screens are always going to be x2 versions of traditional resolutions lest user interface elements appear too small. But the thing is, it works well and is cheap to implement; the illusion of arbitrary scaling can always be achieved just by running the frame buffer at a different resolution from the panel; and even though the "retina" marketing is a retch-inducing it's based on a sound principle of typical viewing distances and average ability to "see" a single pixel. Going higher resolution is pure spec-chasing with little real world benefit. As for scaling reliably - unfortunately Windows 8 hasn't quite got there yet as Microsoft historically took the more difficult, though more flexible (near-)arbitrary scaling approach, but often apps don't seem to cope very well. I don't know what stage Linux is at here.

        All-in, given the scaling mess of Windows, comparing to Chrome Pixel might make more sense.

        1. Roo

          Re: samsung does the same in 13.3"

          Not being funny here, but open source GUIs have supported SVG icons and scalable fonts on the desktop for a *very* long time now - what is stopping Apple & Microsoft doing the same ? It's not as if they are short of cash to throw at the problem, and they have had plenty of time to do it (including at least one major revamp of their UI code).

        2. Aaron 10

          Re: samsung does the same in 13.3"

          OS X does not lock retina displays to a 1x or 2x mode. In the System Preferences, you choose the "virtual resolution" you want and all the elements scale to that resolution. It's quite impressive hands-on.

  5. Brad Ackerman
    Go

    Dell announced the Latitude 14 7000 series two months ago with rather nice specs, but they're still only selling stripped-down versions—only 4GB RAM, no smart-card reader, only 768p display. If I'm going to upgrade my 2010 MBP (which my L5-S1 disc has been advocating), I'll damn well want to take full advantage of Haswell. That means 16GB RAM and at least an HD 5000 GPU. The Clevo W740SU (System76 galu1) would be great if its keyboard didn't make the PCjr's look good.)

    Please ship some of this rather than just announcing it, Dell. I'd love to leave Apple, but if they're the only ones bothering to ship ass-kicking Haswell laptops, I can't very well do that, can I?

    1. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

      Back pains

      Kick-ass laptops do seem to weigh a lot especially if the Power Brick is included.

      My back was playing up so I bought a wheeled trolley bag. Now the only time I lift it is to put it in the Overhead Lockers when I take a flight.

      The big problem is the budget airlines. Some only allow 5kg hand baggage! The last time I flew with my camera jacket with its pockets stuffed with lenses I was told in no uncertain terms that I'd be refused access to the plane if I tried that stunt again.

      1. Brad Ackerman
        Coat

        Re: Back pains

        I should've mentioned that I'm looking for 2 kg maximum weight, so the gaming/desktop-replacement laptops need not apply.

        Your comment about budget airlines is why I flew traditional carriers whenever I could when living in the UK—it wasn't even much more expensive when you fully account for the checked-bag fee, boarding-pass fee, ticket-buying fee, fee-paying fee, and Helvetica fee.

        Coat because I always took a filled-to-near-breaking SCOTTEVEST jacket on Sleazyjet/Ryanair and never ran into your gate agent attempting to close that loophole. (Perhaps they've changed their tariff conditions since 2010.)

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    WTF? Quad HD?

    WTF is Quad HD, and who changed the definition of the word "quad"? Since when did quad mean something other than 4?

    1. Quxy
      Unhappy

      Re: WTF? Quad HD?

      Normal marketing specmanship.

      2560x1440 = 4 x 1280x720 720P "HD" TV resolution.

  7. scubbo

    samsung does the same in 13.3"

    Samsung 940X3G-K01AU --- 13.3" IPS LED 3200x1800 $2400 NZD - http://pricespy.co.nz/product.php?p=2170601

    dell are slow and unreliable in New Zealand too.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    the British version has been out a while too: Samsung NP940X3G-K01UK

  9. leeCh
    Meh

    Meh - When it comes to resolution ...

    What you really want is one of these from Panasonic.

    http://mashable.com/2013/09/08/panasonics-20-inch-4k-tablet-is-huge-museum-friendly/

  10. Paul Crawford Silver badge

    WTF 16:9 again?

    Good to see more resolution, but why oh why this fixation with 16:9 ratio? Myself, and others, want more vertical estate to actually read documents!

    Same for this retina resolution, nice but it is no f-ing substitute for a usable vertical display size!

    1. Piro Silver badge

      Re: WTF 16:9 again?

      Yup. They cram in all those pixels, and still get the ratio wrong. Top and bottom bezels are huge.

  11. Fishy

    Glossy

    Still looks glossy in the photos, so still ruined by reflection.

  12. PerlyKing

    Keyboard

    What, no comments on the keyboard yet? I'm intrigued by this solid keyboard thing - I'm hoping they don't mean ZX-81 style but there's no information about key travel or what it feels like in use. A useless keyboard would be more of a deal breaker for me than lower resolution or 16:9 aspect ratio.

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