Dell XPS L502X review

1 of 6

Gallery

Verdict:

Fast in games and applications, a good battery life, a fantastic Full HD screen, powerful speakers plus USB3 ports. This is the best laptop you can buy.

Review Date: 19 Mar 2011

Price when reviewed: £929

Supplier: http://www.dell.co.uk

Reviewed By: Barry de la Rosa

Our Rating 5 stars out of 5

User Rating

ExpertReviews Award

25/03/2011 - NOW ON 20-DAY PRE-ORDER AT £929.
The L502X moniker is Dell's internal part code, but it's the only easy way to differentiate this model from the previous non-Sandy Bridge XPS 15 generation. See below for Dell's E-value code for this model.

Dell's XPS line has always been a showcase for the latest technologies, and this revision of its XPS 15 laptop is a perfect example. Here Dell combines an already excellent chassis with Intel's new Sandy Bridge processors to create a truly cutting-edge laptop.

As well as the latest Intel Core i5-2410M processor running at 2.3GHz, it has two fast USB3 ports and the latest Nvidia graphics card. A Full HD 1,920x1,080 screen, a Blu-ray drive and a built-in TV tuner mean you'll never be short of entertainment, especially with the JBL-branded speaker system to pump up the volume.

This is the same set of speakers as in the last XPS 15, and they are impressively loud and deep. The sound is augmented using Waves MaxxAudio, which can be controlled using the Realtek HD Audio Manager in the tray, and you'll want to reduce the MaxxBass setting to 50% to avoid unwanted rumblings, which is most apparent in bass-heavy dance tracks.

Dell hasn't bundled any TV viewing software, but then Windows 7's built-in Media Center is the best choice anyway. There's a small aerial in the box that comes with a clip so that you can mount it on top of the screen, though you'd be lucky to get a good picture using such an aerial in the UK; there's also an adaptor for a fixed aerial.

Picture quality from the Full HD screen was incredibly good, and if we had any complaints it would be that the colours are bordering on over vibrant. The LED-backlit screen is evenly lit and incredibly bright - at 50% brightness for our battery test, it was still as bright as other laptops at full brightness. It's practically as good as the OLED screens on smartphones such as the Samsung Galaxy S.

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.

Performance from the Core i5-2410M was exemplary, scoring 112 overall and 124 in our single-threaded image-editing test. Considering that the benchmark score of 100 was set by a quad-core desktop processor a couple of years back, these results are deeply impressive, and there will be few applications that will slow the L502X down.

Prev Next

Get more reviews, tutorials and in-depth advice, every month with Computer Shopper.
Click here to try 3 issues for £1

User Reviews

See more XPS L502X reviews on Reevoo.com

< Previous Reviews : Laptops Next >

Sponsored Links

User comments

The L502x 17" HD is not RGB :(

I just purchased the L502x and have to agree with the review here - it's a wonderful laptop that's very well made. The i7 2630QM with 8GB RAM is a very capable machine easily out performing my desktop i7 920 homebuilt rig. Upgrading the RAM to 8GB 1333Mhz Crucial only cost another £75 and is an easy job.

The screen is sublime and the speakers have a superb clarity and brightness whilst still maintaining a respectable bass level. Gaming is great too - Counter Strike Source runs at the max with no problems, very smooth.

Temperatures will peak at 95C when running the CPU and GPU at 100% for extended periods, which is fine as the fans are not that obtrusive. Normal web browsing temps are around 54C. The battery is good for around 5-6 hours web browsing IME.

One thing to note though - the UK 17" version of this laptop - the L702x does not offer an RGB LED Full HD screen, but the less expensive standard backlit LED.

Well done Dell...just make sure you get the 3/4 year next day support - because you just know that things will go wrong - after all, it's a Dell :)

By Chronicle on 25 Mar 2011

20 Day Pre-Order?

Placed an online order yesterday afternoon - received confirmation e-mail today with expected delivery of 12/05/2011, which I work out as 45 calendar days from date of order, 34 week days or 30 working days allowing for UK bank hols. Not sure I want to wait that long so thinking about cancelling.

NB - Quidco members cane get an aditonal 10% off on orders placed before 31/03/2011.

By grawrees on 29 Mar 2011

Blu-ray and TV tuner - how?

I've gone onto the Dell UK website and tried to specify this laptop but don't get an option to add a blu-ray player or an internal TV tuner.

Where did this review model actually come from?

Has anyone else managed to spec either blu-ray or internal TV tuner please?

By ttarp on 29 Mar 2011

Just ordered this from Dell UK

Ttarp: as the title says you can order this by accessing the dell evalue page and input code: 123456-N00X5M59. The spec ia awesome - even backlit keyboard is standard! I added 3 yr next day service, an extra 2 gig of RAM and uprated wireless card. I found a Dell 10% off voucher and the whole thing came in at £1058.59. As I said - awesome!

By rkenny on 30 Mar 2011