Dell XPS 13-9350 InfinityEdge Ultrabook Review

[Michal]

"Hypothetically in the meantime, the user could always simply replace the drive with something that manages idle power consumption more efficiently. It is an unfortunate additional expense, but it is a solution nonetheless."

Do you think you will be able to replace the PCIe NVM SM951 drive with regular M.2 drive (without PCIe)? I am asking in case Samsung will not improve the drivers with their 951 drive... and other PCIe drives are very expensive (in my country about twice as much as regular M.2 drives). Thanks for your kind reply Steve.

[Steve Schardein]

Yes; the machine is specified to work both with conventional M.2 SSDs and PCIe NVMe SSDs.

Steve

[Adriano]

Hypothetically in the meantime, the user could always simply replace the drive with something that manages idle power consumption more efficiently. It is an unfortunate additional expense, but it is a solution nonetheless.

That could resolve both the battery life and write speed shortfalls if they matter enough to the user.

Steve

I would not be so sure. As far as I know, it is not known whether the problem is caused by the Samsung SSD, or maybe in a bug in the NVMe implementation used by manufacturers. If this is the case, a BIOS upgrade sooner or later could fix it. If instead the problem lays in the SSD, then a firmware fix may be on its way. I'm pretty sure it must be a bug - I find it impossible to believe that Samsung approved such a high-power SSD, after all their SSD have always been betweehn the most frugal in terms of power demands.

[Steve Schardein]

@Adriano:

Yes, it is true that waiting on a BIOS update or firmware update for the drive could also correct this problem.  However to immediately correct it it is likely that choosing a different SSD would suffice.  According to Anandtech's article referenced earlier by another reader, this very well could be the SSD's fault, or it could be a motherboard firmware incompatibility.  Samsung makes great drives, but don't put it past them to overlook this sort of thing: after all, they've released drives that were laggards in terms of Idle Power Consumption in the past (large-capacity 840 EVOs anyone?), not to mention the problems with the read degradation of those same drives that prompted the release of multiple conciliatory firmware band-aids thereafter.

I use a Samsung SSD in my personal machine, but they certainly are not exempt from oversights.  Having said that, it's true that it could be just as likely the board/BIOS which is to blame.

The safest solution ironically might be to simply defer to an M.2 SSD for the time being if the extra battery runtime is really worth it to the user.  On the other hand, this machine still has great battery life regardless...

-Steve

[Evan]

RE: Intel WiDi - The Dell - (xps-13-9350-laptop_Reference Guide_en-us) states under:

Specifications:

M.2 card
•
One M.2-card slot for solid-state drive (SSD)
•
One M.2-card slot for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and Intel WiDi combo card

Communications:

Wireless
•
Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n
•
Wi-Fi 802.11ac
•
Intel WiDi (optional)
•
Bluetooth 4.1
•
Miracast

This seems to suggest that WiDi will at leat be optional on the XPS 13 (9350).
Can anyone confirm this as I would really like to be able to use WiDi on a new laptop with a 2015/2016 LG OLED TV for 4k streaming.

Evan

[Derek]

Really great review. I'm in need of a new laptop (for college), and I love the XPS. I was right about to pull the trigger on the QHD model when I saw your review on battery life. Given that I will use Chrome (or Edge when add-on support comes out), I'm sticking with your 7 hour estimate for battery life. If QHD reduces that figure by 2 hours...5 hours! That's ridiculous. That cannot last me a day!

When do you think your review for the touch version will come out?

[ssshjp]

@JoePHX:

For what it's worth the screen looks the same to me as the previous XPS 13 FHD, and it makes sense that it ought to be also considering the panel model is also identical.  We will know sometime in the near future once our lab receives the unit back for remeasurement.  Also, though, it's worth mentioning that those ICC comparison images are a bit misleading in and of themselves at times: since you can't see them from every perspective and it is indeed a 3-D graph, some of the intersection (or lack thereof) is not fully obvious via the 2-D snapshots we provide.

Thank you for the clarification:-) But let me explain my point in this way. I downloaded the .icm file you attached and plot it vs. sRGB. I think this is closer to what it should look like for 66% sRGB gamut.
(http://s11.postimg.org/watyt6q9d/2015_11_08_16_52_04_ICCView_3_D.jpg)

The figure in the review covers almost full sRGB even though it is only a 2D projection. A wrong icm file must be selected when making the figure.
Original review figure:
(http://www.notebookcheck.net/fileadmin/Notebooks/Dell/XPS_13-9350/vs_sRGB.jpg)

[Eric P]

This is a great review.  Can't wait to see your Surface Pro 4 review!

I've been on the fence between the latest XPS 13 and the SP4.

One thing that surprises me more than anything is how little folks are talking about that maximum fan noise recording.  30.4 dBa at maximum load?  This is some impressive engineering by Dell if true. 

I love the SP4 and the Surface Book but when that fan kicks in full "whine" when you actually push these thin-and-light machines, it gives off a feeling that it simply won't be able to last (over the course of a year or two).

Another thing folks don't get, is for every 3dB it's actually a "doubling of power" to create that noise.  So even the difference between 34 and 30 from the 9343 to the 9350.  That delta between a Surface Book at max load is atrocious.  What a loud machine!

[thegfkg]

Great review, most likely my next.

Does anyone know if the USB-C port can be used for charging the machine?

(with USB-C becoming quickly the standard across all kind of devices, would be great if 1 charger could cover my phone, tablet and laptop - another hundred grams shaved off my luggage)

[Steve Schardein]

Thank you to all for the continued comments and feedback; I can assure you that I am reading all of them.  I wanted to reach out and say I apologize for not continuing to individually reply to all of you; I am currently very busy preparing my next review (the Surface Pro 4).  Thank you for your gracious support and we at Notebookcheck truly appreciate your readership.  You are the reason for our success and growth.

Steve

[Steve Schardein]

To everyone:

I just received direct word from Dell (literally just this moment) that the tool they will be releasing does not, in fact, work on FHD models; apparently it will only work on the QHD+ panels. That's a real bummer for anyone who is bothered by this feature and the lack of control over it which the machine provides. I will be updating the review with the pertinent information later tonight.

Just wanted to let you guys know.  So this issue remains unchanged from the last model.

Steve

[JoBro123]

I thought about buying this FullHD Ultrabook, all the specs are incredible, but the "low" batterylife in comparison with the previous model really makes me think. It's still pretty good but also still quite a distance away from what dell is claiming. Do you think putting another SSD in it will help increasing batterylife, or when time continues Dell may publishes a fix for it?

I'm also confused about the bad display test results, because I thought it was the same display as in the early 2015 version. Do u think Dell will react on the issues and fix them anyway afterwards?

[Eric P]

I know own the XPS13 AND Surface Pro 4

The Surface Pro 4 is going back.

One thing to confirm from this review, is the "quiet" operation, even under load.  I can report happily that, even within a game, the Dell XPS13 stays very quiet.  You can't game with it on your lap without feeling that heat, but on a desktop, it is very quiet.  This fan/noise tuning is pretty awesome, and I'd be curious to see a teardown that compares the thermal system to last year's model (9343).  Perhaps it's just the old system, but with the Skylake CPU it can run at much lower speeds?

I think it's essential for an ultrabook to give off the impression it can handle maximum load without "sweating it".  The Surface Pro 4 has a neat hybrid system, and stays dead quiet for most light tasks, but once you need to stress the internals to do normal computer things, it sounds like a miniature vacuum cleaner.  The Dell XPS acts calm and cool under pressure.  That's a must have and the main reason I'll be sending the SP4 back.

I will miss Windows Hello dreadfully though!

To those wondering - you CAN charge the Dell XPS 13 through it's USB-C port.  To meet the standard for USB-C/Thunderbolt, you HAVE to support all parts of the standard, not just pick and choose.  The only chargers available on the market are the one for the Macbook and the Google Pixel 2's charger.  I currently have the Pixel 2 charger on order, but I've read user reports from trustworthy sources that it works just fine to charge the Dell.

[AR]

In the previous version of the XPS 13, the SD card only inserted about halfway. Did that change with the new version?

I have an old HP Spectre laptop and the SD card does not stick out, which makes it useful to expand storage.

[Adriano]

Quick question: has Dell changed the power port? My local Dell reports the Dell Power Companion is not compatible with this generation of XPS products. It looks impossible to me!