Which Ultrabook Should I Buy

[JustTheTip]

Hey Guys 

 

I am getting an Ultrabook which I will be using for College work, some basic gaming (VERY VERY BASIC) when I'm on the go and to use when i go abroad (Which is becoming quite regular at the moment). I essentially need this thing to be small and light weight but be a powerhouse when I need, the laptop needs to be relatively sturdy and strong since I will be using this in the field when i am abroad with the Physics Department (Iceland isnt nice to laptops). Bare in mind I live in the UK so some products are not easily available to me unfortunately.

 

My current choices that I stuck deciding between are -

 

Razer Blade Stealth QHD - 256GB

 

Dell XPS 13 9350 - http://www.dell.com/uk/p/xps-13-9350-laptop/pd?oc=cnx9322&model_id=xps-13-9350-laptop

 

Dell XPS 15 9550 - http://www.dell.com/uk/p/xps-15-9550-laptop/pd?oc=cnx5512&model_id=xps-15-9550-laptop

 

My budget limit is £1250 MAXIMUM (I have already upped the budget massively from when I first started so NO more increases)

 

I also need an answer pretty quickly as to what you guys think because the only reason the XPS 13 is still within my budget is because of a deal which ends soon!

 

I want anyone who has used either of these devices to say there experiences with these devices, what they liked/disliked and what is missing from them. 

 

Thanks Guys

Spencer Skinner 

[Weak1ings]

And you do know you do not need a dedicated GPU?

[JustTheTip]

I dont mind about not having a dedicated GPU, my issues with the XPS 15 lye in battery life and the fact that i loose the touch screen ability which i quite like

[Himommies]

What games will you be playing.

[JustTheTip]

Very basic stuff, the odd game like Wargame Airland Battle, if i can push BF4 then that, CSGO. Essentially it will be a case of if it runs on my laptop ill play it but if not then im not too worried because thats not a priority for me 

[Himommies]

ITS IN CAD SO ITS ABOUT YOUR PRICE RANGE http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA4FT3K18253

[Himommies]

Sorry wrong one https://portablepicker.com/part/alienware-laptop-aw15r26161slv

 

 

 

 

[JustTheTip]

Nah thats too heavy and cumbersome, as i say i need a thin lightweight system mainly for travelling about with me and my work in my bag, i have looked at gaming laptops and they are not practical for me 

[VinsinityKT]

I have an XPS 13 for 4 months now and I love it. My situation is I already have a gaming pc so it didn't matter if I got the 15 because I didn't need a GPU. I guess it would depend more on how much you would need a GPU.

[JustTheTip]

1 hour ago, VinsinityKT said:

I have an XPS 13 for 4 months now and I love it. My situation is I already have a gaming pc so it didn't matter if I got the 15 because I didn't need a GPU. I guess it would depend more on how much you would need a GPU.

How does yours perform on games though out of interesting, if possible could you give it a try for me, its would help me allot because i also have a beast of a gaming PC as you can see in my signature 

[Squirrel724]

3 hours ago, JustTheTip said:

I dont mind about not having a dedicated GPU, my issues with the XPS 15 lye in battery life and the fact that i loose the touch screen ability which i quite like

I own that exact configuration of xps 15 and I can tell you that battery life is not an issue. I typically get 10 hours of battery from mine. This is even better than the 6-7 that the xps 13 gets with the qhd+ display.

[JustTheTip]

Just added a poll to the topic because I want to see a tabulated version of what people think too

[JustTheTip]

1 hour ago, Squirrel724 said:

I own that exact configuration of xps 15 and I can tell you that battery life is not an issue. I typically get 10 hours of battery from mine. This is even better than the 6-7 that the xps 13 gets with the qhd+ display.

So what kind of stuff do you do on it, have you done much gaming with it and has the fact it had not got a touch screen effected it in any way. Like if you could give me a relatively detail description of your thoughts and experiences with it that would be super super awesome, thanks mate

[Squirrel724]

1 hour ago, JustTheTip said:

So what kind of stuff do you do on it, have you done much gaming with it and has the fact it had not got a touch screen effected it in any way. Like if you could give me a relatively detail description of your thoughts and experiences with it that would be super super awesome, thanks mate

The 10 hours is mostly internet browsing, streaming, and paper writing for school, some matlab etc. I get about 6 when I am using solidworks since I have it set up to use the 960m.  I do a ton of gaming on it as it is my primary pc, which it handles very well. It is surprisingly quiet under full load for something so thin. As for my user experience, the 6700hq is a beast, the laptop has a very small footprint for a 15.6 inch display, and it is rather light. I like the keyboard and the trackpad is amazing, very similar to the trackpads on macbooks. The only complaint I have is I wish I had more USB ports instead of a battery indicator. As for the touchscreen, I have never really had a use for one, so I prefered the matte 1080 (I also try to avoid display scaling as much as possible) over the 4k glossy touchscreen.

[JustTheTip]

2 hours ago, Squirrel724 said:

The 10 hours is mostly internet browsing, streaming, and paper writing for school, some matlab etc. I get about 6 when I am using solidworks since I have it set up to use the 960m.  I do a ton of gaming on it as it is my primary pc, which it handles very well. It is surprisingly quiet under full load for something so thin. As for my user experience, the 6700hq is a beast, the laptop has a very small footprint for a 15.6 inch display, and it is rather light. I like the keyboard and the trackpad is amazing, very similar to the trackpads on macbooks. The only complaint I have is I wish I had more USB ports instead of a battery indicator. As for the touchscreen, I have never really had a use for one, so I prefered the matte 1080 (I also try to avoid display scaling as much as possible) over the 4k glossy touchscreen.

OK this actually helps me allot, to be fair a 1080p screen of that size will look beautiful anyway because pixel density serves it well. And I also get the feeling I wouldn't use the touchscreen enough to warrant getting it so I think it may be the XPS 15 as a final decision. My only last potential issue is its size, how easy is it to carry around etc

[Squirrel724]

1 hour ago, JustTheTip said:

OK this actually helps me allot, to be fair a 1080p screen of that size will look beautiful anyway because pixel density serves it well. And I also get the feeling I wouldn't use the touchscreen enough to warrant getting it so I think it may be the XPS 15 as a final decision. My only last potential issue is its size, how easy is it to carry around etc

Size wise this is by far the smallest 15.6 inch laptop you can buy. Yes its larger than the xps 13 but you get a significantly larger screen and 3x the power. I don't notice it when I am carrying it around in my backpack at all.

[JP89__]

I'm currently trying to pick between the 3 also, with the current Dell offers, its making waiting to see how much the razer will be here in the UK quite hard!. The XPS 13 with the slightly better i7 and the iris 540 in benchmarks runs a bit better than the stealth (Looking at the benchmarks from notebookcheck), and looks like battery life will still be a bit better on the XPS 13 from reviews. 

 

The XPS 15 is tempting, mainly the 2 sodimm slots rather than the soldered ram in the stealh and xps 13, but i think its a bit out of my budget. In terms of the performance boost you will get with the 16gb ram spec on the 15, for only around £100 more is a steal . Especially as the reviews i've seen mention it is still quite lightweight, so shouldn't be too cumbersome to carry around. The main difference would be with the more mid-range 15 within your budget, would be the 1080 non-touchscreen. The quad core xps 15 will likely be a lot better if your going to be running programs like matlab/stats modelling for physicsy type stuff if you use it.

 

My usage is very similar to what your looking for, a lot of pdf annotation/document editing. a few games of CS:GO and general web browsing. I'm probably gonna wait for the stealth pricing, and hopefully dell will have some more offers soon if i still want to go for an XPS. 

[JustTheTip]

20 minutes ago, JP89__ said:

I'm currently trying to pick between the 3 also, with the current Dell offers, its making waiting to see how much the razer will be here in the UK quite hard!. The XPS 13 with the slightly better i7 and the iris 540 in benchmarks runs a bit better than the stealth (Looking at the benchmarks from notebookcheck), and looks like battery life will still be a bit better on the XPS 13 from reviews. 

 

The XPS 15 is tempting, mainly the 2 sodimm slots rather than the soldered ram in the stealh and xps 13, but i think its a bit out of my budget. In terms of the performance boost you will get with the 16gb ram spec on the 15, for only around £100 more is a steal . Especially as the reviews i've seen mention it is still quite lightweight, so shouldn't be too cumbersome to carry around. The main difference would be with the more mid-range 15 within your budget, would be the 1080 non-touchscreen. The quad core xps 15 will likely be a lot better if your going to be running programs like matlab/stats modelling for physicsy type stuff if you use it.

 

My usage is very similar to what your looking for, a lot of pdf annotation/document editing. a few games of CS:GO and general web browsing. I'm probably gonna wait for the stealth pricing, and hopefully dell will have some more offers soon if i still want to go for an XPS. 

I am almost set on going for the 1080p Non- touch because the likely-hood ill need touch is slim and the lower res compliments the battery life and the ppi still makes it look AMAZING anyway as Linus said in his review, it also supposedly has a small footprint  for what it is and the specs are amazing and they are all thermally quite sound. I had a chat with the Director of sales for Razer the other day and dont hold up for the stealth is Mid May to June time for the EU and having done some calculating i reckon it will be about £1150 for the QHD-256GB so really over prices with regards to the specs.

 

My honest opinion i reckon is going with the XPS 15