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Dell XPS 15z review

Our Rating :
Price when reviewed : £1199
inc VAT

Excellent 2D and 3D performance, and it looks stunning. If you want style as well as substance, the XPS 15z is almost perfect

Specifications

15.6 in 1,920×1,080 display, 2.6kg, 2.7GHz Intel Core i7-2620M, 8.00GB RAM, 750GB disk, Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

http://www.dell.co.uk

At first glance, you could easily mistake the XPS 15z for a MacBook Pro; the slim alloy chassis, slot-loading optical drive and LED battery indicator all look incredibly similar to Apple’s iconic laptop. However, rather than simply being a good copy of the MacBook, the 15z is a fantastic laptop in its own right.

Constructed from an aluminium and magnesium alloy and measuring less than 25mm from top to bottom, the chassis is simply gorgeous and incredibly sturdy. A distinctive screen hinge lies on the top, rather than at the edge of the chassis. It looks great, especially with the power LED forming part of the design, but it limits the amount of tilt available for positioning the screen. Thankfully, viewing angles on the gloriously detailed Full HD display were better than average, with minimal loss of contrast.

Dell XPS 15z

As the name suggests, the 15z has a 15.6in screen; at its native 1,920×1,080 resolution, text can appear very small. Thankfully, Dell sets the default Windows text size to 125% in the factory, so we could easily read file and folder names straight away. Adding to the incredibly sharp picture is a very bright backlight. It’s rated at 300cd/m2 compared with the 200cd/m2 of most laptops. Contrast is also great, but it isn’t all good news. Colours were much too vibrant at the default settings and the glossy finish is also highly reflective.

We were hoping that the 15z would be able to match the excellent speakers found on the regular XPS 15, but unfortunately they weren’t quite as impressive. Music still sounded clear, even at maximum volume, and was easily loud enough to fill a medium-sized room, but bass was sorely lacking. Even so, the overall sound quality was still very high for a laptop.

Dell XPS 15z right ports

Because the chassis is much slimmer than the regular XPS, the 15z is limited to a dual-core processor, but the second generation Intel Core i7-2620M is still powerful enough for almost every task. Usually clocked to 2.7GHz, Turbo Boost can increase this to 3.4GHz for even more performance. Paired with 8GB of memory, it sailed through our multimedia benchmarks with an overall score of 61. Unless you buy a laptop with a quad-core processor, it’s difficult to get better 2D performance.

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Basic Specifications

Rating *****
Processor Intel Core i7-2620M
Processor clock speed 2.7GHz
Memory 8.00GB
Memory slots 2
Memory slots free 0
Maximum memory 8GB
Size 28x385x260mm
Weight 2.6kg
Sound Realtek HD Audio
Pointing device touchpad

Display

Viewable size 15.6 in
Native resolution 1,920×1,080
Graphics Processor Nvidia GeForce GT 525M
Graphics/video ports HDMI, DisplayPort
Graphics Memory 2,048MB

Storage

Total storage capacity 750GB
Optical drive type DVD+/-RW +/-DL

Ports and Expansion

USB ports 3
Bluetooth yes
Wired network ports 1x 10/100/1000
Wireless networking support 802.11b/g/n
PC Card slots none
Supported memory cards SDHC, Memory Stick Pro/Duo
Other ports eSATA (shared with USB socket), minijack audio output, minijack microphone input, 2x USB3

Miscellaneous

Carrying case No
Operating system Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Operating system restore option restore partition
Software included Microsoft Office 2010 Starter, Roxio Creator Starter v12
Optional extras none

Buying Information

Warranty one year collect and return
Price £1,199
Details www.dell.co.uk
Supplier http://www.dell.co.uk

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