Dell XPS 15z Review

Dell XPS series laptops have always found themselves to be among the top-of-the-line models with an A++ grade in everything from design to performance. Keeping that in mind, the price of all the XPS series, so far been high. Dell has recently launched the new XPS 15z Notebook. But, does this pack it all for a worthy purchase? Read on to find out. 

Brilliantly designed

Design and Build Quality

The 15z comes in a dual-tone finish of Silver on the exterior and Gray on the interior of the laptop. An all-silver tone definitely adds a lot as far as style and classiness is concerned. A small and shiny chrome plating runs throughout the edges of the laptop, adding to its exquisite looks. The 15.6-inch screen is placed inside a Black frame with Silver hinges underneath. While the whole design looks extremely classy, the slight drawback is that the design of the hinges don’t really match with the rest of the laptop.

Speakers are located on either side of the keyboard

The connectivity options include an HDMI slot, display port, eSATA cum USB 2.0 port, two USB 3.0 port, a memory card reader slot, the microphone and headphone jack slot and the slot-in DVD writer. There’s also a button at the side of the laptop, which displays the current battery level. The battery that comes with the laptop is not user-replaceable. The screen is super thin, but having said that it doesn’t compromise on the sturdiness. The hinges are strong and there’s no visible weakness, as far as the build of the laptop is concerned. The whole structure is made out of anodized aluminium and the Dell XPS definitely gives an idea of superior designing and construction. 

Features

The Dell XPS 15z is powered by Intel’s Core i7 CPU running at a speed of 2.7 GHz. There’s 8GB of RAM with a 750GB hard disk and an NVIDIA GeForce GT 525M graphic card. The XPS has a large 15.6-inch Full HD screen and comes with an eight-cell Lithium-ion battery. As part of the features, it comes with a 1.3 megapixel camera and Bluetooth 3.0. 

Sleek, thin and stylish

Thankfully, Dell hasn’t pre-installed a lot of applications and software. There’s only the Dell DataSafe Backup software and Dell Stage software that come pre-loaded. The Dell Stage provides users with quick access to music, photos, videos, games and offers synchronization for any devices connected to the laptop which is a neat little feature.

Performance

The keyboard is chiclet-styled, but has an extremely soft feedback, which makes it a joy during long typing hours. The track pad is responsive too. We did notice some heating on the left of the laptop and the downer is that it’s not minimalistic. The laptop generated quite a bit of heat overall when running a lot of applications at the same time and this might not be great news for those wanting to use it for extended hours on their lap. The speakers sound crisp and clear and watching high-definition videos on the screen is quite impressive with good colour accuracies. Tilt and viewing angles are pretty standard like most other laptops and the screen brightness is adequate enough. 

Brilliant keyboard feedback

We’ve compared the Toshiba Qosmio to the Dell XPS 15z and below is a comparison chart for the same.

Performance Chart

Battery Life

Battery Eater Pro gave a total battery run time of 1 hour and 22 minutes in high performance mode with full brightness. On an average, we were able to get around 2 hours and 40 minutes, which is expected out of an average laptop battery.

The Dell XPS 15z

Verdict

The Dell XPS 15z is priced at Rs. 81,800 and comes pre-loaded with Windows 7 Home Premium. If you’re only going by the specs, the Dell Vostro is a cheaper purchase, but as with XPS laptops, you’re paying premium bucks for the looks, build and the overall feel of the laptop. So, if these things do matter to you, then the Dell XPS 15z is definitely worth the buy.