New laptop suggestions, Programming & Gaming

[Estex]

Wow, sze5003 I'm sorry to hear that.

Honestly, I've read so many complaints about issues with the XPS 15 that, by now, it's pretty obvious their quality inspections are basically non-existent or they're unbearably understaffed. It has to be something like that, because there's no real excuse for that many issues with so many different machines. The XPS 15 would be perfect for my uses (minus the GPU performance) so I'm kind of on the fence about it because of this. I don't have the time to order it, do quality testing on my own, then send it back to have all the crap fixed that they missed along the way. Seems almost like they just said "screw it" and decided to use their customers as product testers

You'd think such a well-established company with branches like Alienware would be on top of their game by now...

I wish that MSI would give an alternate option for its GS60 model. Considering the battery life issues it has, you'd think they could give the option to forego the 2.5" HDD and instead add another battery cell, the same way that the Dell XPS 15 can.

 

[sze5003]

Wow, sze5003 I'm sorry to hear that.

Honestly, I've read so many complaints about issues with the XPS 15 that, by now, it's pretty obvious their quality inspections are basically non-existent or they're unbearably understaffed. It has to be something like that, because there's no real excuse for that many issues with so many different machines. The XPS 15 would be perfect for my uses (minus the GPU performance) so I'm kind of on the fence about it because of this. I don't have the time to order it, do quality testing on my own, then send it back to have all the crap fixed that they missed along the way. Seems almost like they just said "screw it" and decided to use their customers as product testers

You'd think such a well-established company with branches like Alienware would be on top of their game by now...

I wish that MSI would give an alternate option for its GS60 model. Considering the battery life issues it has, you'd think they could give the option to forego the 2.5" HDD and instead add another battery cell, the same way that the Dell XPS 15 can.

What sucks is there is no other machine that looks like it with the screen and all. Also, with the specs. I haven't had a dell in a while and buying a premium line I was expecting no issues.

They even sent me a windows 10 recovery USB media and told me it would reinstall the OS and partition but the system says no recovery drive found. I could boot to windows fine but if I ever needed to restore, I would be screwed.

 

[Estex]

Hell, I'd send the recovery USB back to them too! Talk about dropping the ball, Dell.

Yeah, that's my thinking as well. That's what gets me though... Obviously it's possible to produce a laptop like this and have it in a small form-factor with top-of-the-line specs and an amazing screen, but somehow only Dell is doing it. I don't understand how other companies aren't following suit. Granted, in all likelihood this is just the first of many laptops that will be similar in size, quality of construction, and design, but regardless, it amazes me that there aren't more options yet. SSDs, batteries, and hardware in general have all gotten smaller, allowing products like the Microsoft Surface Book to be made, so how come there always seems to be some huge drawback in one aspect or another?

I'll admit, I'm speaking primarily out of ignorance of the finer details, and I'm sure there's a good explanation, but it is frustrating when you're paying a huge sum of money and yet, no matter which product you choose, sacrifices need to be made.

 

[sze5003]

There is the Asus ux501 which is $1300 I think but its not in production anymore. It also doesn't have the latest processor either.

The only other option is a macbook but that's too expensive for a 15 inch and most of my stuff I would use Linux anyway.

 

[Estex]

Yeah, I've considered the macbook pro, but the AMD GPU doesn't even stack up to the 960m in the XPS 15. Not to mention you'd have to buy another copy of windows or Linux for dual-boot/formatting to the new OS, and it's simply not worth the price for these kinds of uses. What a shame.

Pretty sure the Asus has had issues with the screen, though I did look into it early on in my search. One of the reasons I really want a matte screen is because I bloody hate glare, so while I can put up with a glossy screen if I have to, the Asus has the worst glare of all screens ever made (apparently). Argh!!!

 

[sze5003]

Another reason I got this laptop configuration was because it has a 2.5 inch caddy to add another HD along with the pcie.

Dell doesn't include the sata cable though and its proprietary. One guy was able to order it from parts and services but it got delayed till January. What i want to do is add a 1tb sshd, keep windows on the 256 ssd and use half that 1tb for storage and the other half for Linux.

 

[Estex]

For those wondering, here is the first comprehensive view of the MSI GS40:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82-BY3P9GN0

GenTech PC received the first lot of the GS40, so people are actually getting their laptops in the mail starting this week.

I've read positive and negative things about the laptop. From my understanding, the bottom plate is indeed a fairly thin plastic. Considering the cost and how it compares to the XPS 15, I'm probably going to take my chances with the latter. There's something that just doesn't sit well with me when buying a $2000+ laptop and having the build quality be less solid than the competition.

For me, I can live with the 960m in the XPS 15 and use my desktop PC as my usual gaming rig. Also, from what the review of the XPS 15 on the Mobile Tech Review website says, the XPS 15 will do a damn good job of code compiling, which is a bonus for me. I imagine the GS40 would do the same, but again...build quality.

 

[sze5003]

For those wondering, here is the first comprehensive view of the MSI GS40:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82-BY3P9GN0

GenTech PC received the first lot of the GS40, so people are actually getting their laptops in the mail starting this week.

I've read positive and negative things about the laptop. From my understanding, the bottom plate is indeed a fairly thin plastic. Considering the cost and how it compares to the XPS 15, I'm probably going to take my chances with the latter. There's something that just doesn't sit well with me when buying a $2000+ laptop and having the build quality be less solid than the competition.

For me, I can live with the 960m in the XPS 15 and use my desktop PC as my usual gaming rig. Also, from what the review of the XPS 15 on the Mobile Tech Review website says, the XPS 15 will do a damn good job of code compiling, which is a bonus for me. I imagine the GS40 would do the same, but again...build quality.

My xps 15 is coming back from repairs monday. They told me they would replace the ssd and check the speakers because they were crackling and screen was flickering.

I called to see what they repaired and they replaced the motherboard. I hope they at least reimaged the drive so that the recovery partition is on there now.

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

I'm happy that the reviews so far don't seem to show any throttling issues. Judging from the graphs showing thermals vs fps, it seems that the cooling system is indeed better than something like the P34W's.

I wish the XPS15 came with a 970M because I simply don't have the option of using a desktop for gaming

Stupid MSI for not having better build quality and stupid Dell for not allowing people to fully customize their XPS line.

 

[Estex]

Yeah it's odd that they don't all learn from each other. Part of me wonders if they do things this way to leave room for the competition. Think about it...if the XPS 15 came with a 970m, why in the blazes would anyone bother with the other 970m laptops? The price would be cheaper than the Aorus and Razer, it's thinner and lighter than most other 15" laptops, it's made of premium materials that outclass the MSI, and there are almost no other contenders worth a second look.

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

Yeah it's odd that they don't all learn from each other. Part of me wonders if they do things this way to leave room for the competition. Think about it...if the XPS 15 came with a 970m, why in the blazes would anyone bother with the other 970m laptops? The price would be cheaper than the Aorus and Razer, it's thinner and lighter than most other 15" laptops, it's made of premium materials that outclass the MSI, and there are almost no other contenders worth a second look.

I reckon it's because it would cannibalize part of Dell's Alienware line, which they spend a lot of resources to develop and market. *sigh*

 

[sze5003]

Well since my xps15 came back from repair depot, I found a dead sub pixel. Right in center of the panel, appears as a red speck on black backgrounds.

Called dell and was told to ship it to the repair depot again but this time it would only be a 3-5 day return time. I told them I wanted a replacement or refund.

I have to call in tomorrow and speak with their sales retention department. I doubt they do advanced replacements.

 

[Estex]

Man... they're seriously dropping the ball with this machine. I'm actually impressed with how bad the quality control has been.

sze5003, which model do you have? Is it the 4K screen or FHD? It would shock me if their FHD panels were bad, but 4K is so new by comparison, that I can kind of understand it.

 

[sze5003]

Man... they're seriously dropping the ball with this machine. I'm actually impressed with how bad the quality control has been.

sze5003, which model do you have? Is it the 4K screen or FHD? It would shock me if their FHD panels were bad, but 4K is so new by comparison, that I can kind of understand it.

Its the i7 256gb FHD panel 1080p version. I didn't want a 4k display as I also don't want a touch screen.

I'm surprised I'm the only one with this dead pixel. Haven't heard of too many others on reddit or the dell community with the same issue.

I would care less if it was a $500 laptop but seeing how I wanted to keep mine for a while and to have it look good as well as be powerful I didn't mind spending that amount of money. But to have these kind of issues not even a month in is surprising. I hope they they don't tell me tomorrow that I can't return it if an exchange isn't possible.

 

[Estex]

Any update on your situation, sze5003?

I'm following all of the news on peoples' XPS 15 orders carefully before I go out on a limb and order mine. It looks like I may end up taking the risk anyway, but I still have yet to encounter anyone with a flawless unit.

 

[sze5003]

Any update on your situation, sze5003?

I'm following all of the news on peoples' XPS 15 orders carefully before I go out on a limb and order mine. It looks like I may end up taking the risk anyway, but I still have yet to encounter anyone with a flawless unit.

So I called them Friday and got someone in the warranty department. A replacement would take over a month due to supply constraints. They wanted me to ship it in again.

I said no and that this was ridiculous for a new unit. I haven't even had it a month. After threatening to refund they talked to a supervisor and scheduled for a technician to come out Monday and replace my LCD panel since I only have the standard warranty.

 

[sze5003]

Well the Tech came to replace my LCD Panel today. No more dead pixels..but he damaged the laptop. Another tech needs to come now to fix this or the next step they said would be to order me a replacement machine.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/0kjc2gpjqy9qa7t/IMG_20151130_134058.jpg?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/sja1n67x99602vl/IMG_20151130_134136.jpg?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/b8xgn3lzdygn9k5/IMG_20151130_134218.jpg?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/seh7wo7kkvtpzxu/IMG_20151130_134310.jpg?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/fwz3bzmx8abg70l/IMG_20151130_134319.jpg?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/egqhmpv4kn0ofni/IMG_20151130_134418.jpg?dl=0

 

[Estex]

Good god...

Wow, you must be furious at this point. That tech should be fired.
Who the hell knows what could be wrong with the replacement laptop as well. It would suck having to go through all the struggle of having the next one repaired too. Are you just going to opt-out and get a refund, or see how far they take this?

At this point, between your experience and all the others I've read, I don't dare risk buying the XPS 15.
Back to the drawing board.

 

[sze5003]

Good god...

Wow, you must be furious at this point. That tech should be fired.
Who the hell knows what could be wrong with the replacement laptop as well. It would suck having to go through all the struggle of having the next one repaired too. Are you just going to opt-out and get a refund, or see how far they take this?

At this point, between your experience and all the others I've read, I don't dare risk buying the XPS 15.
Back to the drawing board.

I called in and sent pictures. They opened another case, they are going to wait for the tech to log his notes.

Next step is to have another tech out hopefully by Friday because I can't just keep working from home every day due to this.

They told me if the next tech doesn't fix it then the other step would be ordering a replacement machine. They don't have my model on the site anymore so my guess is it would be built new.

If its still not fixed by the second tech and they can't replace it due to constraints then yes I will be asking for a full refund shipping included.

Its a shame because its a great laptop and mine was pretty much perfect until now.

Also, they will address the underclocking of the i7 in the next bios update in December.

 

[Estex]

https://www.reddit.com/r/Dell/comments/3upkfv/dell_xps15_9550_anyone_happy_with_it/

I just found this reddit thread, and it confirms what I suspected; there are indeed quite a few people with flawless 9550s, but most don't say anything because they don't need to follow-up online about it. At the same time, the experiences of others have run the entire gamut from slightly annoying to really freaking horrible. Your experience has actually been one of the worst I've read, so that really sucks

 

[sze5003]

Yea I've never had a tech do so much damage to a laptop like that. I still didn't receive a follow up email about my third dispatch. The tech was asking if it was like that already. It definitely wasn't. The LCD assembly included the panel, screen, and the metal lid with the dell logo which was brand new when he took it out the box, so he definitely cracked it during install.

I should have stayed and watched but I had work to do.

 

[linkgoron]

Also, they will address the underclocking of the i7 in the next bios update in December.

According to Laptop Mag the new bios adds ~2 hours of battery life to the Dell XPS 13, as they fixed some power issues with NVMe drives, so hopefully this will also be the case with the XPS 15.

 

[Estex]

Hey Linkgoron, has your XPS arrived yet?
Would love to hear your take on it and how it's been treating you.

 

[linkgoron]

It arrived quite a while ago (as opposed to other people, it arrived 10 days or so after I ordered it) , but I'll only get it next week. Once I have it I'll update on how it's treating me.

 

[Estex]

Hmm. Seems like it's taking forever to have these laptops shipped.

I just discovered that the Gigabyte P35W V5 has been announced and, at lest on OCUK, has a rough pre-order date of December 7th. Seems like this is going to be one hell of a laptop with the skylake upgrade. Thermals will hopefully be better than with the previous models, but I'm mostly curious about the battery life. Time to do one last comparison...XPS 15 vs. the P35W