Dell Studio XPS 16: the Eyes Have It
by Jarred Walton on April 2, 2009 6:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Laptops
Subjective Evaluation
Using the Studio XPS 16 on a day-to-day basis, mostly the experience is what you would expect. Performance is more than fast enough for all but the most demanding users, and the only area where performance might be a concern is if you want to play 3D games.
As always, the first thing we did after booting up the laptop was to remove all the extra software that we didn't want - things like Norton Internet Security, for example. We were still left with a lot of miscellaneous processes, but most are typical tools that you would use on a notebook and don't consume a lot of resources: drivers for the GPU, audio, Intel chipset, touchpad, and power saving and keyboard shortcuts. With a dual-core processor, 4GB of RAM, and a 64-bit OS, we're not overly concerned about shutting down every extra process.
Once we had all of our applications and benchmarks installed, we began using the Studio XPS 16 on a regular basis. Two features stood out from other laptops, with the most noticeable being the LCD. As we've already hinted, this is without doubt the best laptop LCD we've used. Colors are vibrant and noticeably better than on other notebooks, and they're good enough to rival many desktop LCDs. Our only complaint is that the LCD is still a TN panel. Some might say that TN panels have more limited viewing angles, which is desirable for a notebook since you don't want people looking over your shoulder all the time. Honestly, if that's what you're worried about you could pick up any of the hundreds of other notebooks that also use TN panels. Personally, we would love the option to purchase a laptop with a PVA or IPS LCD - or perhaps we'll just need to wait for OLEDs to come down in price.
The other feature that we came to appreciate was the keyboard with its backlighting. The backlighting makes it easier to use the laptop in dark environments without fishing for keys - something you can really appreciate at presentations and conferences. We also just like the overall feel of the keyboard and the key placement. Opinions differ about the location of certain keys, as well as whether or not number keypads should be included on larger notebooks. Dell has always done very well when it comes to notebook keyboard layouts, and given the choice between the clean layout of the Studio XPS 16 and a layout that manages to cram in a number keypad, we'll take the Studio XPS 16. Of course, it's also possible to get the best of both worlds and get a clean layout along with a number keypad, but that might require something larger than a 16" chassis.
One item that's a bit odd at first involves the LCD backlighting. Most laptops change brightness levels quickly at the touch of a button. The RGB LEDs apparently don't change intensity as far as CCFLs or white LEDs, so there's a lag of a couple seconds between when you adjust the brightness and when you see the result. If you start at maximum brightness and quickly change to minimum intensity, you get a slow fade with colors that temporarily distort. It only lasts a few seconds, but the first time it happens you might think something is wrong. Once the backlight intensity stabilizes, however, things are great. In fact, outside of the first few seconds the backlight stabilizes much faster than other LCDs - CCFLs for example need 30 minutes or more to "warm up", but the RBG LEDs appear to hold steady within a minute or two of changing the intensity.
Our only real complaint about the XPS 16 is an old refrain: battery life. Frankly, we were a bit surprised that battery life wasn't longer, as most of the components are rather tame as far as power requirements go. Once again, we can only wish that more laptops allowed users to disable the discrete GPUs in order to conserve battery life. The Mobility Radeon HD 3670 isn't a high-end GPU, but it definitely uses more power than integrated graphics, and the technology now exists to provide both graphics performance as well as battery life.
Dell provides a 9-cell upgraded battery option, which improves battery life by roughly 60% over the standard 6-cell battery. The extended battery raises the back of the laptop about an inch, but the design is clever and manages to keep the laptop balanced. The problem is that even with the extended battery, maximum battery life tops out at less than four hours, or just over two hours with the regular battery. That's with the display brightness turned down most of the way; crank up the brightness to maximum and idle battery life checks in at a paltry 108 minutes - but admittedly, at almost 300 nits there's rarely a need to run at maximum brightness.
While the Studio XPS 16 isn't perfect, looking at the whole package there's still a lot to like... or rather, there's one aspect that we really like a lot. The LCD alone makes this laptop worth the price of admission for those who value quality displays. That's not to say the display is perfect, but so far we haven't seen anything better. Obviously, if Dell can go out and purchase this LCD, other manufacturers can as well. Prices and other features might vary slightly, but we wouldn't count on finding this sort of display in a laptop that doesn't cost close to $1500.
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MadBoris - Monday, April 6, 2009 - link
So with this review getting the juices flowing, and the aformentioned sale coming tomorrow I started reminding myself why I want this Lappy.Here is a rundown on why I decided on this lappy as my next lappy purchase, in no particular order:
* 64 Bit OS standard, everything works w/ 64 bit.
* 1920x1080 with RGBLED in a 16" screen.
* Blu Ray drive option, 1080p natively supported.
* 2.1 speakers with built in subwoofer, impressive for a laptop.
* Sturdy construction, no flex in chassis or keyboard.
* CPU using 1066 FSB rather than 800.
* 4GB DD3
* Firewire port
* Full digital HDMI
* Display port
* eSata port
* 3 powered USB's(optionally powered when PC is off).
* Backlit keyboard with good key orientation, size and sensitivity.
* Synaptics touchpad, nicely textured, with multitouch support.
* 500 GB 7200 RPM drive or great 256GB SSD upgrade.
* Webcam built in for video conferencing.
* Facial recognition software for security, it's a cool tech toy atleast.
* Included Lojack for a year, at least used to be offered.
All for a good price IMO.
The only big drawbacks:
* While beautiful black obsidian and leather, it's a finger print magnet.
* Gets hot when it's being stressed hard, even to the touch below the touchpad.
* 3670 GPU not a ATI 4xxx. But if it had more GPU there would be no reason to get any of Dells XPS laptops for gaming. I have a gaming machine, I don't do laptop gaming.
* Battery 6 cell life is under 2 hours. But getting a seperate 9 cell for $80 fixes that issue.
* Viewing angles on TN panel, but it's a lappy like others.
* Built in TV tuner not available in USA, :sad:.
None of those drawbacks are showstoppers for me, all of the positive features it comes with make up for it easily.
MadBoris - Monday, April 6, 2009 - link
Sales have not been seen on this laptop since a couple days back but...Just a heads up, a new 2 day sale on the XPS 16 starts tomorrow. Who knows, this may be the one that has me pull the trigger.
Specifics unknown, but I imagine it will be like the $363 off from the other day.
Starts 6AM, April 7th.
http://www.dell.com/xpsevent">http://www.dell.com/xpsevent
charleski - Monday, April 6, 2009 - link
Nice gamut, but a TN panel means the gamma of the display will visibly vary with viewing angle. This makes is unsuitable for serious photo editing or any application that requires accurate colours and tones unless you take pains to maintain a consistent view angle. Still, probably no worse than a MacBook Pro.Since a high-gamut display is really only of any use to people running colour-managed applications, the large gamut is actually a disadvantage to those who just want to run apps, and movies may appear to be over-saturated.
MadBoris - Monday, April 6, 2009 - link
Yep, that is a problem, people get the over saturated impression. It's too vivid.Reminds me of when people go from CRT to LCD/Plasma. It looks really over bright and over saturated but most techies have become accustomed to that now and forgot what that transition was like. But now going from CCFL to RGBLED takes it up another notch.
Problem is source material like movies that are post processed to look a little more vibrant on CRT TV's really look over saturated and even unnatural on the RGBLED. But given enough time the eyes and mind will become accustomed to it even if it's a bit unnatural. The RGBLED is just a bit too vibrant for some.
CSMR - Saturday, April 4, 2009 - link
This monitor has displayport and hdmi output.That's a point that deserves more attention IMO, since notebooks with dual digital video outputs are very rare indeed.
One question I would have is can they both be adapted to DVI, just because displayport is not common yet. If it can't be adapted, that limits dual-display options but is still better than nothing!
JarredWalton - Sunday, April 5, 2009 - link
The laptop didn't include any adapters for DisplayPort to DVI or HDMI to DVI, so I couldn't verify this aspect of the laptop. Dual digital outputs is great, I agree. Of course, if you have to use DisplayPort without an adapter, I think you might be limited to Dell LCDs for the time being.cvt - Friday, April 3, 2009 - link
Jarred,I have one of these notebooks, similar spec except with the hotter T9550.
Originally it came with the 320gb 7200rpm HDD, I have since changed it to a 80gb Intel X25-M.
The heat in the palmrest and touchpad areas of the notebook are noticably cooler. The rest of the notebook, including keyboard and base are basically unchanged. The next stage I went through was undervolting the CPU. I was able to shave 0.275v off and remain completely stable. Heat overall dropped, but not dramatically. Same can be said about battery life, without timing it, I haven't noticed any major improvement, 15min max. Even after these steps It is still noticably warmer than any of my previous notebooks (recent, D820, D830, E6500). Taking into account the hardware, and changed I made, all things are pointing to the GPU being the cause of heat.
Admitadely I have no solid data to go off, but current observation leans that way.
Slappi - Friday, April 3, 2009 - link
I have been an Anandtech reader since the start but your ATI bias is getting too obvious to ignore.Please don't go the way of TH.
JarredWalton - Friday, April 3, 2009 - link
Bias against ATI or for ATI?In the case of desktops, we've been recommending plenty of ATI cards. If it's not clear from this review, I *don't* like the idea of ATI mobile GPUs if you're concerned with driver updates. NVIDIA only provides quarterly reference drivers for laptops, but that's better than not getting any support other than the manufacturer.
From a performance standpoint, the ATI HD 3670 is better than the GeForce 9600M and lower (8700M and lower), but the 8800M/9800M/GTX 280M are all substantially faster. If you only need moderate performance, and you don't care a lot about gaming, I'm perfectly fine with running ATI GPUs in a laptop. I'd even go so far as to say my experience with ATI drivers has been better than NVIDIA drivers in terms of compatibility, just as long as you're not running CrossFire. That the August 2008 drivers Dell incorrectly installed (unless the driver version just showed up wrong) ran Far Cry 2, Fallout 3, etc. without any noticeable issues is a lot better than I would expect.
Going forward, I've got the first high-end ATI GPU in a laptop that I've seen in over two years right now, which I'm excited to test, but it's a 4870X2 CrossFire solution so I'm *really* worried about drivers - and I say that after having seen way too many issues with NVIDIA's earlier SLI laptop drivers. Anyway, the last high-end ATI mobile GPU I tested was a Mobility X1800 in an Alienware, and that review never saw the light of day because of other laptop problems.
If anyone is biased against ATI, I'd say it's the notebook manufacturers, who have begun to stay away from ATI options for the most part. I can find dozens of 8800M, 9800M, and now GTX 280M laptops for purchase from a variety of sources. How many 3850/3870 laptops are out there? None from Dell, HP, Gateway, etc. A quick search only finds one online. Heck, http://ati.amd.com/products/hd3000partnersproducts...">even AMD doesn't even list any 3800 series partner laptops! (I couldn't find any list for 4600 or 4800 either.)
Personally, I try to be as impartial as possible in my reviews, and I'm at a loss as to what bias there was in this article. Discussing the lack of reference drivers from the GPU manufacturer isn't bias, it's a fact. If you want to point out specifics other than that, however, I'm open to listen to where I've been overly harsh.
Pirks - Saturday, April 4, 2009 - link
Alienware M17 has ATI 3870 (or two of them in CF) inside. AWESOME notebook for gaming, and only $1400 - best bang for buck gaming wise you could find.