I've just bought this laptop and I like it a lot. I was very picky, I was looking for a lightweight desktop replacement laptop for graphic design (I am always on the road so external monitors are not an option for me), preferably with a touchscreen. Previously I had Vaio S15 which was just perfect but it died only one year after the purchase and they weren't able to repair it :( They gave me a full refund (1000EUR) so I went looking for a replacement around the same price range. I bought and returned 4 other laptops before trying out this Inspiron, which I will keep. I got it for 1000 EUR.
Primarily, I was looking for a good IPS panel. This Inspiron is not advertised in shops as IPS so it wasn't on my radar from the beginning. There is a discussion in online forums about the screen type and people report having different models. I am happy to say that mine has the same panel as reviewed on this website - the LG IPS. It was purchased in the Czech Republic. I think the colours will need a little calibration but in general they are excelent - definitely among the best you can find in the 15 inch laptop category. I compared it with my friend's MacBook and it is similar in brightness and quality (of course different number of pixels, but I didn't want a Retina anyway, below I will explain why).
The design of this laptop is similar to MacBook, it looks very stylish. It is very thin and its shape somehow eliminates the fact that is is a bit heavy for an ultrabook (2,6kg) - I was hesitant about the weight but I don't mind it at all, it just doesn't feel heavy. The case is very solid and nice to touch, and unlike most other laptops it doesn't catch fingerprints on the lid.
The computer is surprisingly quiet and even if the fan goes on, it is not disturbing at all - no high pitched sounds like in some of the laptops I tested. This was my big worry because the other computers I tried were very noisy even during browsing or youtube. The temperature is also fine - it gets a bit hotter if you work in bed and the air conductor at the bottom is covered - but it is not a big problem, you can still use it.
My configuration has the i7 processor, 16GB ram, NVIDIA graphics, 1TB 5,4 hdd with a small SSD cache, and Win 8.1. The HDD is slowing the machine down considerably. I will replace it with a 1TB SSD tomorrow because 5400 HDDs are a disaster (I had a 7200rps in my Vaio and it was much better)... I was going to buy an SSD for whatever computer I get, so I am not doing it particularly because this Dell would be slower than others - they are all slow. I found out in forums that the Samsung SSD Pro series doesn't work well in this laptop so I will go for the Evo line, which is available here for some 400 EUR for 1TB (I have a lot of data that I access often and I hate having to carry external hard drives around all the time).
Some people report issues with wifi on this laptop. I haven't had any such problems. My signal is as strong as in all previous computers and it is stable. I haven't updated any drivers - it works in the factory settings.
Just for comparison, I want to report on the other laptops i tried in last 3 months, what I didn't like on them and why I ended up with this Dell. Just very briefly - I may write a longer article about all of them later, and if I do, I will post a link here.
Acer V7 - this was a quick emergency purchase when my Vaio died and I still hoped they would fix it in a week. The IPS panel was good but the white colour seemed a bit red-ish. I didn't try to calibrate it because I would return it anyway - it was too loud even during casual work like browsing many websites at once and playing videos. I was also afraid of staying with the brand since it doesn't have a good name here... although I understand that the quality my have gone up in the last few years.
Sony Vaio Flip 15 - it has a great IPS panel, probably best of all I tested. Very good brightness and colours. It also has a pressure-sensitive stylus support. However, the computer is quite loud (annoying sound) and the problem stays even after applying the bios update that is supposed to fix it. The shape of the case is not good, it has many sharp metal edges and is not comfortable to work on in bed - it cuts into your belly. But I returned it mainly because I couldn't live without the num-pad (I thought I would try, but it was too annoying, so I added it back to my must-have features).
Toshiba Satellite P50T - it's the first 4K resolution laptop. The resolution is wonderful for work with vectors and fonts and I am still getting used to be back on FHD which now looks pixelated to me... however the world is not yet ready for 4K laptops. Half Adobe programs can't adapt their interface to the DPI, so if you wanna cut videos in Premiere you have to switch to FHD resolution. And try to design standard sizes web banners on it... It's just not good for pixel-perfect graphic work, and also, it has to magnify images in websites so they all get blurry. The screen has some anti-glare coating that makes the screen "glitter" and the white is just not white, it looks noisy. I havent seen this effect on any laptops other than Toshibas (one of my previous had it too but it was possible to take the foil off - here you cant because its below the gorilla glass). The brightness of the screen is very low. Rendering everything to 4K consumes so much power and the computer is ALWAYS hot and renders things very slowly despite having a high voltage CPU (for example, browsing photos in fullscreen mode in lightroom = 5sec delay to load the next photo). The case feels plastic and bulky. On top of all that, the fan is located on the right side, just where your mouse is, and it blows hot air on your hand all the time. The highlight was the keyboard which I loved most of all I tested, but that's not enough of a reason to have a 1400EUR laptop, right? :)
I also shortly tested the new Asus Flip TP500 hoping that the 15 inch model might have an IPS screen like the 13 inch one. There was some missleading information about this online. Well, it doesn't have an IPS, it has a TN panel that some people call good, but I hated it, it made my eyes sore in 30 minutes and I returned it the morning after. The case is really good, though, it looks stylish, sturdy and it is very light... it's a pitty that they screwed up the screen because all other things on that computer are great.
So, that's how I got to own and love this Dell :) I hope this may help someone choose their computer and cut off few days of online research.
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