My New Dell XPS

Thank God, finally the long wait is over and my new Dell XPS got delivered a day late. This was the first time in my life I had placed an order this big through an e-commerce site; i.e. through the Dell online store. Initially I was hesitant to place an order online, especially because of the security and reliability issues which were being reported by most daily's with respect to e-com businesses. This made to pull back from placing an order online. But after making some visits to some of the prominent laptop dealers in and around the city. I came to conclude that, they could only provide me with pre-configured ones (the customization's they could offer were limited to components like RAM, Outer cover [Skin] and Video cards), but not customized versions which I was  looking for. This made me to go back to square, the Dell online store.

After visiting the Dell online store, I was quite surprised the number of options for one to choose from, in terms of components and accessories; not only that, one could see in real time, on how much each component you add or takeout is going to cost you at the end. Finally I built my customized Dell XPS laptop configuration in Dell Online store with all these components and accessories.

• Intel Core i7 2630QM - 2.00 to 2.90 Ghz
• 8GB Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1333Mhz
• 500 GB HDD (7200 RPM)
• 16x DVD+/-RW
• Wireless LAN - WiFi
• WiFi and Bluetooth
• Integrated Gigabit ethernet 10/100/1000
• Camera: 2.0MP HD with single digital mic (H.264)
• JBL 2.0 Designed n Certified Speakers
• Bluetooth v3.0
• All together 3 USB ports 
• 1 USB 3.0 port
• 1 eSATA/powershare combo
• HDMI 1.4
• Small DVI Port
• 9 in 1 card reader
• NVIDIA 1GB Graphics card
• 15.6-inch HD (720p) WLED Display
• Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit
• 6-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery

After booting up the laptop, which was itself was noticeably fast, after which I was guided through a wizard to fill in details like TimeZone, DateTime, User Account creation blah blah etc. Once the desktop was up, I was surprised to see the number of gadgets running on there, to me it seemed like a kiosk kinda screen. So what's next?, I fired up the task manager to see whether the number of processor cores they(Intel) had promised were there or not. Seeing the Performance tab of the task manager, my eyes almost popped out seeing the number of cores shown there. See it for yourself.

Literally I counted with my fingers on the columns\cells shown as cores. All together there were eight; Wow how did this happen, I thought Core i7 was just quad core processor, so how on earth they moved from quad to octal, when was this announced? After a brief search on this my Wow effect bursted into laughter. The eight core what I saw in the task manager was the hyper threading in action, which means  each core runs two threads, that why its showing eight cores. The hyper threading(HT) feature was re-introduced back with iCore series. Before this, it was newly introduced with Pentium 4 processors, a feature that made one physical CPU work as two logical CPUs. 

I though it would be better to show off my 'Windows Experience Index'. The components which didn't perform up to Microsoft exceptions where the Graphics Card and definitely the storage. I now feel like I should have gone for the SSD, but hearing the costs made be pull back its best suited for the deep pocket professionals. So here's my index of 5.9 not that bad, isn't it. 

So let me talk about features I liked the most with my Dell XPS 15.

The overall build quality is good with backcover built out of silver anodized aluminum, which makes it standout from the crowd. When turned on the XPS logo glows giving out a cool white ambient feel, which definitely will catch others eye. The frame surrounding the screen are built from high quality plastic. I would appreciate the jet black used for the frame around the display, as I felt like this will help to concentrate on the matter without any color distractions. 

Aesthetics

The moment I powered my new Dell XPS, the status lights located just next to the power button started glowing in a synchronized fashion giving a feel of festive season, during the booting process, which actually was doing the Power On Self Test routine.

WiFi

The next thing I liked the most was the placement of WiFi enabler button along with the function keys, now I just have to toggle the function(fn) key along with the function key for WiFi, previously with my Lenovo thinkpad, I had find that on\off swtich located by the side of the laptop to enable or disable the Wifi and Bluetooth access, which was a bit awkward to locate.

Touchpad

Coming to the touchpad, I really love the different options provided; including multi touch capability to zoom-in and zoom-out images by merely moving you fingers from inside out and vice verse. You could even rotate images by moving your fingers in a circular motion on the touchpad, there's still lot many patterns in the manual which came along with, which I need to go through.

Speakers

If you are a music enthusiast, the powerful JBL speakers is going to keep your ears tuned to the music flowing from these small yet powerful speakers even in the middle of a crowd. If I were to compare the speakers which came with Lenovo Thinkpad, its now where near by in terms of loudness and sharpness. The output from JBL is powerful enough to reach out to a distance of 15 to 20 yards without considerable degradation in quality. If you want to listen to those favorite tracks  without invading others privacy, there's an option to plug in your head set including mic just next to the optical drive, which I am yet to explore.

Extended Function Keys
Dell had integrated more set of functionalities to the existing set function keys by integrating features like "Multimedia Function Keys", "Contrast Control", "Display Switch", "Enable\Disable WiFi", "Enable\Disable Touchpad" so using the function keys with the "Fn" key combination will make the functions keys to execute those extended functions. 

There's a lot more to jot down regarding the features I liked the most and I hate(not a quite good design) the most. I will be updating this post soon, so watch out for more.