Dell XPS L502X: purchase experience and personal experiences

This article may be of interest primarily to those who are looking for a good multimedia laptop.

Purchase

It so happened that about 3 months ago I had the opportunity to buy a laptop in the USA. Interested parties know that prices there are much lower than in Russia (I live in St. Petersburg), and there is more choice. In particular, all three manufacturers whose laptops I was interested in (namely Lenovo, Sony and Dell) offer you the opportunity to independently determine the configuration of your laptop and ultimately get exactly what you need. Sony has little to choose from, Lenovo has good configuration options, and Dell has almost everything to choose =)

This is my third laptop. The first was the HP Compaq 6510b purchased at the end of 2008 (also in the USA, via eBay). The second - Lenovo Thinkpad Edge 14 purchased in October 2010 (they wrote about iton Habré, and this article played an important role in a choice). A good laptop at a great price, and even with a matte screen =) It's hard to explain why, but it didn't work out with Edge. Perhaps I subconsciously expected him to build quality T series, although for the money, probably, it was stupid of me.

When the opportunity to change Edge turned up, I began to look at what was on the market. Just then, Lenovo expected the release of new T420 and T520 laptops, and since I had the opportunity to feel the previous series (T410 and T510), I was thinking of taking just one of them. When they appeared on the Lenovo website, I was very disappointed in collecting what I wanted (Core i5, 1080p FHD display, 4-6 GB RAM, integrated video), and seeing a price of about $ 1300 at that time ... They even ask for a camera pay extra $ 30!

A small remark. I have no way to put a desktop PC at home, so I needed a full replacement in the form of a laptop.

Sony did not have decent options, and then I turned my attention to Dell, namely the updated XPS 15. For $ 999 (!) A model with a Core i7 2630QM, 6 GB RAM, a GeForce 525M, 1080p FHD display and a 750 hard drive was offered GB. The difference, as they say, is obvious.

Now a few words about the buying process. The plan was like that. I pay money for the laptop with my credit card, the laptop is delivered to my friend in the USA, and he transfers it to me. After talking with three different Dell sales support representatives (for the sake of faith), and making sure that they accept credit cards issued outside the United States, I got down to business. Having assembled my model, I paid the required amount, and literally immediately saw that the status of the order changed to Canceled.

Have you already guessed what was the matter? That's right, they DO NOT accept credit cards issued outside of the USA. So trust after that people =)

Two subsequent orders, for which my friend had already paid, were canceled due to the fact that Dell added his address to the "black list". And only for the fourth time everything worked out - after he called Dell and confirmed that he was really a US citizen, his address was unblocked. I transferred money to him with PayPal (3.2% of the commission, if my memory serves me well). For the time that all these upheavals lasted, the model for $ 999 went away, and I had to take the same one for only $ 1099 (it has a Blu-ray player, which I do not need). By the way, she is now (4th in the list ).

Fortunately, the problems were almost over. Almost because Lufthansa lost the luggage of the person who was carrying it to Russia, but delivered it the next day, safe and sound =)

Hint:Before buying, you should look for discount coupons. I saved about $ 80 with them.

Personal impressions

So, what did I get for $ 1200 in total:

Processor: Intel Core i7 2630QM (Sandy Bridge architecture)
Memory: 6 GB DDR3 1333MHz
Video: NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 525M 1GB graphics with Optimus
Hard disk: 750 GB SATA (7200 rpm )
Screen: 15.6 FHD B + RGLED TL (1920x1080)
Drive: reads Blu-ray (never tried it yet), writes CD / DVD
Connectors: on the right - microphone, headphones (2 outputs), USB 2.0 / eSATA port; on the left is USB 3.0; rear - HDMI, Ethernet, mini DisplayPort, Kensington, and another USB 3.0; front - card reader
Optional:keyboard backlight, Creative SoundBlaster X-FI MB 1.2 sound card, Intel® Centrino® Wireless-N 1030 & Bluetooth 3.0
Weight: about 3 kg

What can I say? For more than 2 months that I use this laptop, I have never regretted my choice.

I'll start, perhaps, with the display. I have not seen such bright, saturated colors on any laptop screen! The difference with the Thinkpad Edge is simply colossal. A feature of this display is that three colors of LEDs are used for backlighting (instead of one, as in most displays).

The second time I was shocked when I turned on the song on YouTube and heard the SOUND. Speakers from JBL with a subwoofer, coupled with a sound card from Creative, naturally blew my brain =) Before that, I had no idea that a laptop could produce such a thing. It is simply impossible to describe, it needs to be heard.

You can evaluate the performance yourself on the screen below.



I ran Starcraft 2 on it at maximum settings and native resolution. Everything worked great. However, if you plan to play games, then it is probably worth taking a model with GT 540M and 2 GB of memory.

Of the pleasant. Large and convenient touchpad, quite comfortable backlit keyboard. Although I type blindly, sometimes it really helps me out (I remember how I poked at the Thinkpad Edge at night in search of the right key). There is a touch panel for adjusting Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and display settings, as well as keyboard backlight and audio settings.

It almost does not work for me from the battery, so I can’t say anything concrete here. They write that the standard 6-cell battery gives about 3 hours (optional, you can take a 9-cell).

Some people don’t like the design, but I’m quite happy with it, so, as they say, “the taste and color of all the markers are different.”

The only drawback would be that the screen is glossy.

Summary

I recommend =)

For those interested

A full review can be read, for example, here or here .

Photos can be viewed here . The video is here .