Review: Dell XPS 15 (2012)

Performance

Looking at the XPS 15, it’s not hard to work out where Dell has drawn inspiration from: we’ve seen this softened square design on plenty of laptops in the past, but coupling it with a machined aluminium chassis tells us Dell is channeling a look inspired by a company that has fruit in its name.

You can see this inspiration not just in the hardened silver casing, but even in the elongated capsule-shaped SD card slot on the right side of the laptop.

Dell has tried to shake things up by ditching the aluminium on the palm-rest and keyboard sections, as well as pulling it from the base. Instead of a full metal body, you can find a combination of silicone and magnesium here, providing a weird combination of slick metal and resistive black rubber-like texture when you pick up the laptop.

While we get why Dell has done this (more resistance for your fingers when you carry the laptop), it doesn’t quite work as well as Dell thinks, slipping on one side and not feeling as resistive as the surprisingly grippy aluminium Apple uses in its laptops.

Once you get past this slightly peculiar design quirk, you can get to using the laptop.

If speed is what you’re after, Dell hasn’t disappointed.

While the models differ in the various configurations available on Dell’s website, our review model featured a 2.1GHz third-generation Intel Core i7 processor with 8GB RAM, and plenty of storage with a one terabyte drive.

Graphics is taken care of with a combination of Intel HD4000 graphics for the basic stuff, as well as an Nvidia GeForce GT640M with 2GB of graphics memory. Even this isn’t the most high-end video card ever, but it should provide more than enough firepower for some of today’s gaming, as well as offering some much needed video power with applications in Adobe’s Creative Suite.

A keyboard is one of the areas where a laptop has to stand up, and while the Dell XPS keyboard isn’t the best we’ve felt, it still manages to be pretty reliable.

There’s a good solid click to the keys and the spacing and size of the keys makes it spot on to a full-size keyboard, but we still had the occasional missed letter from time to time. Nothing huge to make note of, rather that the keyboard seemed better built to heavier key-presses.

Backlighting is here too, a premium feature, with the light coming from behind the keys and shining through the lettering and the slight edges of the keys. We’ve seen a fair few backlit keyboards in our time, and while this one is fine, it doesn’t feel as effective as some of the other examples we’ve seen in the past.

The SD card slot is close to being flush with the machine.

The touchpad could do with a touch more work, ironically. For the 4.7 inch trackpad, Dell has gone with a glass button that feels as slick as the black rubberised coating its wrist-pad has. While this makes for an incredibly comfortable experience for your wrist, it can be strangely resistive for the mouse, making it feel like you’re gliding your finger over a soft tyre.

You won’t get your fingers dirty in the process – not like they would if you want them under your car – but it’s not a great feeling touchpad, and certainly doesn’t lend itself to multi-touch gestures well.

There is a full button underneath the pad, though, and like most trackpads, you can touch it lightly with individual presses to select items. You may have some problems selecting things, though, as the large button doesn’t seem to like click-and-drag gestures as much as we’d have liked. We did have some issues selecting text here and there, and you may too.