Dell recently updated its XPS L502X line to include the new Intel 2nd Generation Core i processors. This refresh makes the systems faster with an economical starting price of just $799. Depending on your level of gaming, an upgrade to a FullHD display and more advanced video card may be worth considering. In summary, the Dell XPS L502X is a great 15-inch notebook due to its portability, excellent audio quality, and overall value.
Although Dell also promotes the XPS line for its design, this notebook looks more serviceable than chic. It’s bulky, weighing in at 6.2 pounds, with one of the largest Dell XPS L502x AC adapter bricks I’ve ever seen. Along with the so-so Dell XPS L502x battery life, this makes the Dell XPS 15 L502X a poor candidate for frequent flyers. Its silvery aluminum chassis, including a slab-like lid with black accents, looks fairly generic, and its underside gets quite warm after extended use. The keyboard, while roomy and responsive, has no backlighting, and the touchpad seemed a bit slow to respond. The 1366 by 768 display, which is fine for video, could be a bit sharper and crisper when showing a screenful of text; Dell offers a couple of 1920 by 1080 display alternatives. You can get this same hardware in a sleeker, lighter, and more durable shell if you’re willing to pay a couple hundred dollars more for the Dell XPS 15 L502X.
The XPS L502X (Sandy Bridge)’s feature set is vast and arguably the most impressive in its class. It comes with 3 USB ports (two of which are USB 3.0, the other an eSATA/USB 2.0 combo port), DisplayPort, HDMI, and an HD Webcam. The Webcam, which allows you to shoot video in 720p, was the first for a laptop until the Apple 15-inch (Thunderbolt) included one of its own. Unlike the Apple 15-inch, this one is Skype-certified, which means you can video chat in high definition through Skype (You can only use the MacBook Pros Webcam in standard definition for video chatting on Skype; the HD resolution only works with its own Facetime client software). A Blu-ray drive , which is included in my review configuration, is ideal for watching Blu-ray movies in a full 1080p. You can also find a Blu-ray drive in the HP dv7-4283cl. Not only is the 750GB hard drive spacious, but at 7,200rpm, it also spins as fast as the one found in the Asus N53SV-A1 and HP dv7-4283cl. Alternatively, you can swap it out for a 256GB solid-state drive (SSD), albeit for an obscene amount of money.
Our configuration came with a quad-core 2.0 GHz Intel Core i7 CPU 2630QM, costing $ 175 over the CPU core. This is one of the new Intel processors Sandy Bridge in 2011. In our benchmarks, the performance was excellent and much better than last year’s dual-core i5 – not surprising since it was a generation processor and an option to the lower end of the processor. But even against other laptops in 2011 with Sandy Bridge Intel next-gen, he more than held its own to make a significant jump in speed compared to last year’s Intel CPU. We drove several windows CPU-intensive tasks and experienced almost no slowdown, even slots blowing hot air from time to time.
XPS L502X is good enough for the stereo. Speakers and subwoofer ensure a low-mounted JBL sound incredibly powerful, precise. We were too heavy bass song is like listening RB, Forget-me-not, funk, and classics like Kool and the Gang Summer Madness, or classical music, such as Richard Strauss, Also Sprach Zarathustra, the sound was clear and true, even at the loudest maximum. In fact, listening to these songs, you hear a clear separation of instruments, plucking the bass line, do not forget me, Summer Madness Dell R795X battery.
The software package includes Dell uses a handful of applications that may or may not be useful, including PhotoStage image organizer, Cosi Family Calendar, Roxio Creator Starter (for burning DVDs and CDs), and Skype, and the now ubiquitous Microsoft Office 2010 Starter Edition (with advertising versions of Word and Excel).
It seems that, at least for now, you can't duplicate your desktop to a TV/projector using the HDMI output and the Fn+F1 options - can only extend. You can duplicate using the displayport output though, and so using a DP to HDMI Dell XPS L502x adapter. This may be fixed now, using beta drivers from Nvidia.
All this is due to its use of RGB LED backlights, rather than the white LEDs that most screens use. White LEDs are actually made up of a blue LED with yellow phosphor to make it appear white, but this leaves huge holes in the red and green parts of the spectrum. RGB LEDs make a purer white and render greens and reds far more accurately.
The latop is pretty bulky and heavy too , in my case its due to the 9 cell battery. But i think those who select a 6 cell will be slightly lighter.
The vents for the GPU/CPU is placed on the left side of the laptop , compare it to the old XPS , which are behind the screen and sometimes a fully opened screen can partly block the vents , also there was big fan on the bottom , making the exhaust of hot air pretty complicated. But New XPS overcomes these problems in grand style. The vent is on the left side and there is only one 3.0 USB port , so unless you stick a big wireless device or receiver that sort on the left side ,the exhaust are pretty much open and big to push out chunk of hot air.
The reason I get into the above is two-fold: first, it illustrates a design flaw and the difficulty of upgrading the hard drive/SSD. The other item to note is that the entire top cover is made of somewhat flimsy plastic, which feels more like Inspiron quality than XPS quality. The frame on the XPS line may be solid, but the actual shell around the frame is plastic and definitely not as sturdy as Dell’s Latitude line. I’d really prefer to see the XPS line go slightly more upscale—bump the price up $50 to $100 and give us a consumer chassis that feels like it will last. Or there’s the new Alienware M11x/M14x that might fill that niche, but aesthetics are still a matter of opinion and plenty of people dislike the bling that’s present on Alienware’s offerings.
Although Dell also promotes the XPS L502X line for its design, this notebook looks more serviceable than chic. It's bulky, weighing in at 6.2 pounds, with one of the largest AC adapter bricks I've ever seen. Along with the so-so Dell XPS L502x battery life, this makes the XPS 15 L502X a poor candidate for frequent flyers. Its silvery aluminum chassis, including a slab-like lid with black accents, looks fairly generic, and its underside gets quite warm after extended use. The keyboard, while roomy and responsive, has no backlighting, and the touchpad seemed a bit slow to respond. The 1366 by 768 display, which is fine for video, could be a bit sharper and crisper when showing a screenful of text; Dell offers a couple of 1920 by 1080 display alternatives. You can get this same hardware in a sleeker, lighter, and more durable shell if you're willing to pay a couple hundred dollars more for the XPS 15z.
The new Dell XPS has the same set of ports we saw in the XPS L502X back in November, and that's OK, since those ports already were pretty up-to-date. Though the XPS lacks an ExpressCard slot, it comes with two USB 3.0 ports, an optional TV tuner (included on our config), and HDMI 1.4 with Nvidia 3DTV Play, allowing playback of 3D games or Blu-ray content onto a 3D HDTV via an HMDI cable. You'll need a 3D TV to even take advantage of this feature, of course, and we doubt many people will.
At $1,488, the Dell XPS L502X with Intel's second-generation Core i7 processor offers blistering performance, strong graphics, and stellar video and audio playback. If you don't plan on moving your notebook much, the larger Dell XPS 17 offers a 3D 17-inch display, the same great audio, and similar specs for the slightly lower cost of $1,474. And if you're looking for a more portable machine with longer Dell R795X battery life--and are willing to spend more--get the $1,799 15-inch MacBook Pro. Overall, though, those looking for a powerful 15-inch multimedia machine at a reasonable price should put the XPS 15 at or near the top of their shopping list.
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