DELL XPS 14 ULTRABOOK

While I can't say that I universally liked Dell's first attempt at an Ultrabook, Here was a smartly styled, sophisticated machine free of stickers and bloatware from a company that, let's be honest, has delivered its share of each over the years. That machine was far from perfect, but it showed a purity of vision in design that you couldn't help but acknowledge.Till now, the Dell XPS 13 ultrabook had, by far, been the perfect all rounder – with excellent looks, a very premium finish and impressive performance scores. However, the new kid on the block, the XPS 14, is looking to take over that mantle. Can it do that? From what I have seen, it surely does!

BUILD AND DESIGN:-

The XPS 14 is a class apart when it comes to the design and build. The chassis is made of machined aluminium which gives it a very sturdy feel. There’s no noticeable flex anywhere, even with the lid, which makes it very durable in the long run. Dell has also used bonded Corning Gorilla Glass for the screen which makes it tough and resistant to scratches. They’ve done away with the carbon fiber base like the one on the XPS 13 and have switched to one with silicone finish. By Ultrabook standards, the XPS 14 does not fit the criteria at all. It’s not slim by any means and certainly not lightweight at 2.1kg.

Here, now, is a large rubberized pad upon which the laptop sits, surrounded by a slightly elevated soft-touch ring with slots on the front for the speakers and on the back for the (unfortunately noisy) CPU ventilation. It's a far cry from the XPS 13's über-cool carbon fiber bottom casing, its coy weave subtly exposed to the world. But, to be fair, while silicone and rubber don't look anywhere near as cool as carbon, how often are you looking at the underside of your laptop?

The edge of the 14 is comprised of an aluminum ring punctuated throughout with ports, lights and the big hinge along the back. On the left, starting at the back, you'll find a hole for that unsightly AC adapter, followed by Ethernet, HDMI, Mini DisplayPort and a pair of USB 3.0 ports. Turn to the right and there's much less clutter, just a Kensington Security Slot, an SD card slot and a combination 3.5mm headphone / microphone jack. On the front, there's just a single sliver of a light and nothing more.

The overall package weighs a healthy 4.6 pounds (2.1kg) and measures 0.81 inches (22.07mm) thick. It's 13.2 inches wide and 9.2 inches deep (335.8 x 233mm). Those are the dimensions for the model I reviewed, packing 802.11a/g/n WiFi and Bluetooth 4.0. Dell also offers Intel Wireless Display here, but should you need even more connectivity, there is a range of models offering WAN connectivity which, interestingly, sport a "full-grain charcoal gray leather" lid instead of the anodized aluminum you'll see in our photos.

Overall, Dell has once again done an excellent job with the design and build of the XPS 14. The notebook looks stunning and even though it’s not thin or light by Ultrabook standards, the attention to detail is impeccable.

KEYPAD AND TOUCHPAD:-

Unsurprisingly, the keyboard here is more or less exactly what I diddled on the XPS 13. It's an island-style layout with smallish, well-separated keys. They're on the springy side and have good enough feel, but their size isn't particularly well-suited for fingers that are of the larger size. Also, the 'Y' key has a very curious sound when depressed that almost makes the laptop sound hollow. 

The trackpad is, again, much the same as on the 13. It has a tacky, soft-touch feel that isn't nearly as pleasing to the fingers as the glass units manufacturers have been packing. It's of the clickable type, with a single, short line on the bottom designating the space allocated for left or right clicking.

DISPLAY AND SOUND:-

The 14-inch display here offers a fair number of pixels for a display of this size: 1600 x 900 to be precise. This, in a 16:9 orientation makes for a comfortable amount of screen real estate without creating a laptop too small to be comfortably used on the tray table of seat 36C. Of course, it would be more comfortable in seat 2A, the XPS 14 is well-sized for that duty.

The display is bright enough to be used in sunny situations, too, showing respectable contrast; though color temperature gets increasingly cool the higher we crank that backlight. Viewing angles are more than adequate when the laptop is turned from side-to-side, but look at it from above or below and the contrast quickly falls to unacceptable levels. You'll want to make use of that hinge to keep this non-IPS panel properly perpendicular.

And then there's the sound. Speakers are built into the bottom of the laptop, under the front lip, which is a somewhat curious and, it must be said, often less-than-optimal place. Set this thing on a soft surface (carpet, bedspread, bearskin rug) and the sound will be muffled. But, when the grille opening isn't blocked, the XPS 14 packs a surprising punch. Overall audio quality isn't immaculate, but for a laptop of this size, or any size really, I was  impressed by the output levels here.

PERFORMANCE:-

You can get your XPS 14 specked with Intel processors ranging from a Core i5-3317U chip clocked at 1.7GHz all the way up to the range-topping Core i7-3667U at 2.0GHz. I'm testing the highest-spec processor available on the non-business models, a 1.9GHz Core i7-3517U CPU with 4MB of cache.

Despite the Intel Core i5 onboard, the XPS 14 easily manages to keep up with the more powerful Core i7-based Ultrabooks.  Disk read and write performance is also pretty good thanks to the 32GB SSD used for caching, although not as good as having a dedicated SSD. Still, with that small compromise, you do get a lot more storage. 

Predictably, it performs reasonably well, particularly since it pairs the Intel HD 4000 integrated graphics with an NVIDIA GeForce GT 630M graphics chip flaunting 1GB of GDDR5 memory. There's some Optimus technology sitting between them to make sure you're only using as much graphics horsepower as you need.

The XPS 14 seldom heats up under regular usage and is very comfortable to use even over long stretches. You might not be too comfortable with it on your lap due to the weight, but it feels right at home on a desk. The rubberized padding used for the palm rest area makes it very comfortable to type on even for long duration. The back lighting is consistent across the keys and works well. I again would like to emphasized the audio quality, to be very good as well. Not only is the volume level loud, the quality of the sound is also very good with warm tones and clear and well defined mids and highs.

In my full stress load battery tests, the XPS 14’s battery lasted 210 minutes on a single charge – that is 3 hours and 30 minutes. Translate that into a traditional daily usage routine at work or at home checking mails and browsing the web with the brightness slightly less than 50%, I got a backup very similar to the HP Envy 4 – around 7 hours easily.

FEATURES AND SPECIFICATION:-

Beyond the excellent build and design, the XPS 14 continues to impress. The 14-inch display has a resolution of 1600 x 900 pixels. This is more than the 1366 x 768 pixel resolution that most ultrabooks in this price range tend to offer. The results are rather impressive – the display is a lot crisper than what most ultrabook displays offer. There is a lot of goodness in terms of the specs here as well – the Gorilla Glass with the edge-to-edge deployment doing away the need for a plastic bezel. This is brighter than the HP Envy 4-1002TX and the Samsung Series 5, but just like the XPS 13, handles colours very well. The sharpness, added to the excellent colour handling, makes this the perfect companion for watching a movie on the move. The only negative I can find with this display is that it is slightly reflective, and slightly more than the HP Envy and even the predecessor. You will have to turn up the brightness to compensate for the reflections from the environment, but that does not wash out the colours!

I received the base model for review, which comes with a Core i5-3317U Ivy Bridge CPU, 4GB of RAM, 500GB hard drive with a 32GB mSATA SSD for caching, and onboard graphics. Prices go up to Rs.1,20,000 for which you get more RAM and a dedicated Nvidia GeForce GT 630M with 1GB GDDR5 memory. As long as you don’t plan on gaming then the base model should do nicely for even heavy computing tasks. The onboard HD 4000 graphics can easily handle 1080p video as well as a bit of casual gaming, so it’s not completely useless.

Software-wise, you get some utilities from Dell, including DataSafe Online backup and a webcam utility. You also get McAfee Security Center (30 day trial) and Office Starter 2012, which includes Word and Excel. Other services include one year Dell Online Backup up to 2GB.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATION:-

• Processor: Intel Core i5-3317U processor @ 1.7GHz;

• RAM: 4GB; 

• Display: 14-inch, 1600 x 900 pixels; 

• Graphics: Nvidia GeForce GT630M with Intel HD 4000; 

• Storage: 500GB HDD with 32GB flash; 

• Connectivity: 2 USB 3.0, 

• HDMI out, 

• Mini Display Port

WRAPPING UP:-

It's easy to see the XPS 14 as just a slightly larger version of the 13 that came so recently before, but that's far from telling the full story. Yes, this looks an awful lot like that one, but it's considerably heavier, considerably faster and has a considerably better trackpad. It is, therefore, a considerably better laptop -- if you don't mind that extra heft -- but it's far from perfect. Disk I/O performance left us wanting, solid speaker performance is offset by a distracting fan and the LCD, though good, sits only on the higher side of adequate.

Having said that, if the XPS 14 is well within your budget, then the admittedly superb build quality is something that will be a delight. The use of different materials across the same chassis lends it a very premium feel. Not a surprise then that the XPS 14 will be equally comfortable in a teenager’s college dorm room as well as in the executive board room too.

RETAIL VALUE OF THIS PRODUCT IS INR; 79,000

COURTESY:- AARUSH