Dell XPS 15?

[Carbo]

With Christmas but a few weeks away, I'm looking at picking up a laptop as a gift. I've had two Dell desktops for many years now, and they have been trouble free since purchased. The reviews I've read on this particular laptop have been very positive. Anyone with first hand experience care to offer an opinion?
Configured the way I would want it will run about $1K. Any chance Dell will have a blowout special, (Black Friday? Cyber Monday?), between now and Christmas?

 

[StrangerGuy]

Specs?

Because with the Acer 3820TG (13.3", i3/5 + very overclockable 5650m) at ~$800 it's really hard to recommend anything else.

 

[slugg]

The 3820TG isn't available in the USA, to my knowledge...

I like the xps 15, but I'm holding off til they allow the nvidia 435m graphics card with optimus. Also, I have a gut feeling that Dell will offer some kind of deal before Xmas, but that's just pure speculation.

 

[StrangerGuy]

The 3820TG isn't available in the USA, to my knowledge...

I like the xps 15, but I'm holding off til they allow the nvidia 435m graphics card with optimus. Also, I have a gut feeling that Dell will offer some kind of deal before Xmas, but that's just pure speculation.

You can buy it from Canada and have it shipped to the US.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/acer/501992-acer-3820tg-north-america-purchase-options.html

BTW, to get the GT 435, Dell forces you to take the i7 quads = say goodbye to your battery life.

Retarded decision from Dell.

 

[Carbo]

Specs?

Because with the Acer 3820TG (13.3", i3/5 + very overclockable 5650m) at ~$800 it's really hard to recommend anything else.

Silver Anodized Aluminum 15.6" FHD (1080p) B+RGLED Display with Facial Recognition
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit, English
PROCESSOR Intel® Core™ i5-460M (2.53GHz, 4 threads, turbo boost up to 2.8GHz, 3M cache)
VIDEO CARD NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 420M 1GB graphics with Optimus
MEMORY 4GB Shared Dual Channel DDR3 Memory
HARD DRIVE 500GB 7200 RPM SATA Hard Drive
BATTERY OPTIONS 92 WHr 9-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery
INTERNAL OPTICAL DRIVE 8X Tray Load CD/DVD Burner (Dual Layer DVD+/-R Drive)

BTW, primary use will be for basic home office and school work. No gaming, no heavy apps. Internet, email, YouTube, Hulu, MS Office apps.

 

[Carbo]

Another question, please. . .what hard drive manufacturer does Dell use in the XPS line?
And how much crap and bloat do these units typically ship with?

 

[iCyborg]

You can buy it from Canada and have it shipped to the US.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/acer/501992-acer-3820tg-north-america-purchase-options.html

BTW, to get the GT 435, Dell forces you to take the i7 quads = say goodbye to your battery life.

Retarded decision from Dell.

That's what he was talking about: he wants GT435 with Optimus. i7 quad has no integrated video, so no Optimus and I agree that it sucks...

 

[iCyborg]

Another question, please. . .what hard drive manufacturer does Dell use in the XPS line?
And how much crap and bloat do these units typically ship with?

1. Seems like Seagate Momentus, don't know for SSD and doesn't matter either, it seems better to buy something like Vertex 2 considering the upgrade prices and replace it yourself.
2. About as much as any other manufacturer, which is to say, quite a bit of it.