I have ordered this laptop in January 2012 thru Amazon. The delivery was on time as stated on the order form. This laptop has all the features and the specs I wanted. It is very light that you can take anywhere you go without complaining abouth the weight. The other feature that I like was the thickness, it is less than 1" and sound from the Left and Right JBL speakers was really owesome. With the specs I have selected; 2.8 GHz Intel Core i7-2640M, 8 GB DIMM, 750 GB 7200 rpm Hard Drive using internet was never been so fast. I would recommend this product to everyone who like to have a high end Laptop at a very affordable cost.
Pros
Compact and lightweight, but doesn't feel cheap
Great keyboard
USB connections in the back keep cables out of your way
Fast boot up and wake up from sleep
Responsive trackpad
Runs quieter and much cooler than other Core i7 laptops I've tested
Good battery life
Better than average sound quality from speakers
Runs StarCraft 2 well in medium settings as well as other newer PC games
Comes with Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements for free
A whopping 8GBs of RAM right out of the box
Cons
Audio and mic jacks are a bit stiff
I wish the screen resolution was a bit higher
No option for a matte screen
Quite a bit of pre-installed stuff that you don't want or need
Not one USB port on the side, so you using thumb drives makes you have to reach to the back
Overall this is a fantastic laptop. It's cons are heavily outweighed by its pros and the complaints I do have are quite minor in the first place. This is a great everyday laptop and it handles PC gaming well enough to give you something to use on the go when you're not on your more powerful desktop. It handles design work okay, but if you're doing it professionally, I'd find something with a bit higher resolution screen.
In the end, I'm really happy I went this direction instead of the Apple and Samsung laptops as I got a much higher price to performance value.
Buy Dell XPS X14Z-6923SLV 14-Inch Laptop (Elemental Silver) Now
I've owned a ton of Dells over the years with this being 5th Dell laptop and 4th in the XPS line of laptops. I used to own a Dell XPS 14 (the original 2010 model, not the 2012 model) which was one of the worst laptops I had ever owned. It was so bad that Dell eventually sent me a 15z (the bigger screen version of the 14z) as a replacement laptop after 7 repairs on the XPS 14. After nagging Dell for a couple of days, they sent me a 14z instead. I've owned the 14z for about two weeks now, and I have to say this is by far the best laptop I've ever owned.For the amount of hardware you get, this thing is TINY. It's basically about the same size as a MacBook Pro, yet it packs a full 2.80 GHz i7 with discrete graphics that can be switched off to save battery power. You can also go up to a 750GB 7200 RPM HDD and 8GB of RAM. Mine came with a 500GB drive and 6GB of RAM, which is perfectly fine for me.
Screen: In terms of dimensions, this is simply the thinnest screen I've seen on a notebook. Its ridiculously thin. I would rate the color production and overall quality as above average though. Its definitely not the best display out there on laptops, but its not bad either. I use a external monitor for all my media stuff (gaming, movies, etc) so I don't frat much about screen quality. It's good enough.
Performance: Its kind of hard to tell peroformance specs between PCs but I would have to say that the 14z with a 2.8GHz i7 definitely "feels" faster than my previous laptops, which either had a Core i5 2410m (2.3GHz) or a Core i5 560M (2.67GHz). Everything loads up very quickly and never seems to lag. I haven't run any high end games yet but have played HD videos while running some old school games like Need For Speed Carbon and Most Wanted. In both cases, the i7 and GT520M held their own just fine. The hard drive performs as well as any 7200RPM drive and overall system boot-up is fairly quick.
Keyboard and Trackpad: This is one of the two categories that separates the good from the great laptops to me. Usually, Dell gets the keyboard right as I had experienced with my four previous Dell laptops. This one...not so much. The chicklet style keyboard is a nice upgrade to the XPS lineup but the keys are a bit hard when compared to something like a MacBook Pro keyboard. It is, however, something that you get used to after a few days of use. The trackpad, on the other hand, is nice. For a windows laptops that have notoriously small trackapds, this thing has a decent sized trackpad that squeezes out every inch it can from the 13.3 inch form factor. I will say that the trackpad is a bit over-sensitive at times and you may need to mess around with the settings to make it work the way you want. Overall, the keyboard and trackpad to me are both above average. Nothing special but more than good enough.
Battery Life: This is the other deciding factor in terms of how good a laptop is. Keep in mind that this laptop comes with an i7 and discrete graphics, so you can't really expect great battery life here. The question is whether or not its good enough for your needs. Overall, I'm seeing anywhere from 2.5 to about 4 hours of battery life depending on settings and usage, which is about expected. I would've liked to see 3.5 to 5 hours, but 4 hrs of usage with screen dimmed down a bit and a few power saving options enabled isn't bad for the hardware package I'm getting.
Noise and Heat: To me, this category has always been the downfall of the XPS line. I have yet to own a single XPS that doesn't get loud or hot. My XPS 14 got so hot that it started melting the paint off the palmrest. While the heat issues are far far less with this laptop, they are still there. My suggestion is buying a laptop cooling pad, which is something to consider buying with any expensive laptop. Spending 20 or 30 bucks to protect a three figure investment makes sense to me. Either way, noise (especially the back fan) and heat are definitely issues with this model and I would bet my money that its an issue with all of Dells high end notebooks. You should be fine if you don't mind providing the laptop with some extra cooling, but don't expect this notebook to be ultra-quiet or ultra cool.
Peripherals and sound: Dell used to use JBL speakers in the older XPS lineup, which had incredible sound for laptops. This one, unfortunately, doesn't use the same speaker technology. Still, the sound is good enough for a laptop. I imagine most people with laptops are carrying around a pair of headphones like me and only use their speakers for when trying to watch something with a group of people, and the speakers on this unit are perfect for tasks like that.
As far as the peripherals go, this unit is a bit short on USB ports and yes most of the ports are in the back. That can be a good thing or a bad thing depending on who you ask. My in-home setup includes a monitor, a USB dongle for a keyboard, a usb adapter for some external speakers, and a few other cables that are escaping my mind right now. Basically, I have no choice but to use a USB hub anyways, so I don't really mind having just 2 USB ports, neither do I mind having the ports in the back as it keeps my desk really clean. If you're the type that will switch USB in and out all the time, then I can see how having the ports in the back can get annoying though.
Overall, this is solid buy at the right price. If you're paying anything more than 900 bucks for it, its probably too much given Dell has already come up with its successor. At the right price, this is a great deal since fewer and fewer laptops nowadays offer small form factor notebooks with full performance specs like this laptop offers.
Read Best Reviews of Dell XPS X14Z-6923SLV 14-Inch Laptop (Elemental Silver) Here
I actually bought this laptop from Costco but felt that it would be good to put my review up here too. My purchase price was $1000 and overall I am pretty happy with this laptop.I'm going to college next year and it was important to me that I get a high performance laptop that wouldn't be too cumbersome for me to take around to classes. After using it for about a month, there are really good and aspects but some shortcomings.
Good:
i7 processer. you're not going to get any better at this price range. just a heads up, it is not the newest 3rd gen i7 processor that apple is putting into their macbook pros.
750g hardrive. Honestly, I don't really care for SSD's because anything less that 300 gigs is completely unacceptable in my opinion just because I don't want to carry around a portable hardrive that I could easily lose or break. With the xps 14z, you get plenty of memory
14in. display in a 13.3 inch case: this is really awesome. Not only has dell removed the annoying black bevel that you usually get around most laptops, their shuriken screen has also allowed them to make the screen SUPER thin. some reviews say that you have a hard time seeing the whole screen but for me, that was only in very intense sunlight. When working outside at say Starbucks for example, I only had to up the brightness a little and I was fine. Also, there really is no need for full HD graphics on a laptop with a 14 in screen.
Graphics: I know that college is about studying but I want to have some fun too. I wanted a graphics card that would be able to handle easy to moderate level gaming. I was able to play Skyrim on moderate settings without any problems, even with other applications running in the background.
Dimmensions: obviously this is dell's attempt at a macbook pro and I have to say that they did pretty well. The computer is super sleek and appealing to the eye. Most impressively, they've been able to keep the laptop to under an inch in height.
Backlight: love this feature, really helpful and the sensor knows exactly when you do and don't need it
Speakers: bass is non existant but there is really no distortion even when blasting linkin park at maximum volume
Bad:
ports in back: ALL of the ports are in the back which makes plugging and unplugging usb's difficult without standing up. Also, you only get 2 usb ports which means you're probably going to be plugging and unplugging things a lot if you're going to be using this at home too.
heating: during normal use, this laptop is really cool and comfortable to use. Once you start running some higher workload programs such as Skyim or Adobe Premiere etc, you're really going to feel the heat in your left palm rest. Also the fan is noticible. This also happens when you open several programs or many web pages. Normal use however (4-6 moderate workload programs) is totally fine and the fan and heat are not even noticible.
webcam: basically, with such a thin screen, you're not going to get anywhere near HD quality
So that's about it, it's a great computer and I feel like it's going to serve me well in these few years to come. It was a little pricey compared to other products out there but I was willing to pay the price for a higher quality computer. Don't bother yourselves with ultrabooks and the such, this laptop really is the way to go
Want Dell XPS X14Z-6923SLV 14-Inch Laptop (Elemental Silver) Discount?
Hi everyone,I bought this computer like 20 days ago, it's really fast and has all the features that I wish it had. It's really worthy, its weight is less than 2 kg and very fast when working with different stuff. The price is less than 1100 USD which make it even better. I really suggest you to buy one like these, fast delivery, I cannot complain about any issue!
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