Zenbook Pro UX501 vs. XPS 15

[_Dia_]

Hey all, 

 

I'll be moving to another dorm soon and weaning off my desktop for a bit. I'm looking for a new laptop with: 15 in. screen, i7, GTX960M, and somewhat portable + decent battery life. Budget is around ~$1500. I also don't want it to look like an Apache with a keyboard so I've narrowed it down to two choices: ASUS Zenbook Pro UX501VW or the Dell XPS 15. I plan on carrying it around a moderate amount. I prefer the design of the Zenbook more but the XPS doesn't limit you to one 512GB SSD that'll be half taken up by Windows. 

 

I'm probably going to be buying it in August and I'm not too familiar with what the annual GPU refresh cycles are. I know that the 1070/80 were just announced so if I need to take that into consideration I can. 

 

Any advice would be appreciated.

 

Thanks! 

[Enderman]

i think by august the mobile 1000 GPUs will be released

how long it takes companies like dell and asus to put them in their notebooks idk

 

but I have the XPS13 and its amazing, so i highly recommend the 15

especially the version with the 84Wh battery

[HamsterBurglar]

On 5/25/2016 at 5:34 PM, Enderman said:

so i highly recommend the 15

especially the version with the 84Wh battery

As someone who owns the XPS 15, I agree. The new XPS 15 is really great, and the battery life is incredible. My only complaint is the trackpad, which they have not totally fixed from previous models. In previous models it tended to get very mushy and somewhat unresponsive after about six months of solid use.

[Enderman]

12 hours ago, HamsterBurglar said:

As someone who owns the XPS 15, I agree. The new XPS 15 is really great, and the battery life is incredible. My only complaint is the trackpad, which they have not totally fixed from previous models. In previous models it tended to get very mushy and somewhat unresponsive after about six months of solid use.

I dont like any laptop trackpads other than the apple force touch

that trackpad is amazing

 

on any other laptop I just use double tap

[Squirrel724]

I am also a student like you (electrical engineering) and I love my xps 15. It is my main machine for both school work and gaming and it handles both with ease. I have the i7 6700HQ, 16GB ram, 1080p display, 512GB ssd, and the 84Whr battery. In a school workload I get 8-10 hours of battery life and I can push it past 10 hours if I need to. It is light enough that I don't notice it in my backpack and the small footprint is good for the small lecture hall desks. I have had no hardware issues at all and the keyboard and track pad are awesome. When I got it in December there were some driver issues but those have all been sorted. I would highly recommend this laptop.

 

Also there is 400+ GB free  on the 512GB ssd when you receive the PC.

[_Dia_]

On 5/27/2016 at 11:25 PM, HamsterBurglar said:

As someone who owns the XPS 15, I agree. The new XPS 15 is really great, and the battery life is incredible. My only complaint is the trackpad, which they have not totally fixed from previous models. In previous models it tended to get very mushy and somewhat unresponsive after about six months of solid use.

I'm gonna be using it with a mouse anyway so I'm not too concerned with too much trackpad use apart from when I'm carrying it around. The battery life is good to know though. 

On 5/27/2016 at 1:53 PM, Squirrel724 said:

I am also a student like you (electrical engineering) and I love my xps 15. It is my main machine for both school work and gaming and it handles both with ease. I have the i7 6700HQ, 16GB ram, 1080p display, 512GB ssd, and the 84Whr battery. In a school workload I get 8-10 hours of battery life and I can push it past 10 hours if I need to. It is light enough that I don't notice it in my backpack and the small footprint is good for the small lecture hall desks. I have had no hardware issues at all and the keyboard and track pad are awesome. When I got it in December there were some driver issues but those have all been sorted. I would highly recommend this laptop.

 

Also there is 400+ GB free  on the 512GB ssd when you receive the PC.

400+ GB free is good to know. Microsoft Store has your version at ~$1600 for the Signature Edition, I think I can bring it down even lower with the student discount. Think I'm leaning towards the XPS for now. What games have you played/what settings and how is that? 

 

Edit: I read it wrong, I think it's $2000. Bit over budget ;/ though I might be able to stretch it with the discounts. 

[Squirrel724]

On 5/28/2016 at 11:00 PM, _Dia_ said:

I'm gonna be using it with a mouse anyway so I'm not too concerned with too much trackpad use apart from when I'm carrying it around. The battery life is good to know though. 

400+ GB free is good to know. Microsoft Store has your version at ~$1600 for the Signature Edition, I think I can bring it down even lower with the student discount. Think I'm leaning towards the XPS for now. What games have you played/what settings and how is that? 

 

Edit: I read it wrong, I think it's $2000. Bit over budget ;/ though I might be able to stretch it with the discounts. 

The microsoft version has the 4k display which adds $300 to the cost. I would recommend the 1080p display if you don't need 4k or touch as you get better battery life and don't have to deal with windows display scaling. 

As for gaming I play a large selection of games but some of the most demanding are Fallout 4, The Witcher 3, Project CARS and DiRT Rally. Most games can be run at 1080p at medium to high settings. The 960m can be considered to be equivalent to about a 750ti.

I am not sure about this since i bough mine through my school but Dell may have some student discounts.

[_Dia_]

9 hours ago, Squirrel724 said:

The microsoft version has the 4k display which adds $300 to the cost. I would recommend the 1080p display if you don't need 4k or touch as you get better battery life and don't have to deal with windows display scaling. 

As for gaming I play a large selection of games but some of the most demanding are Fallout 4, The Witcher 3, Project CARS and DiRT Rally. Most games can be run at 1080p at medium to high settings. The 960m can be considered to be equivalent to about a 750ti.

I am not sure about this since i bough mine through my school but Dell may have some student discounts.

Ok. I see that Dell has the 1080p/512GB option for ~$1800, whereas the Microsoft Store has the 4k/512GB (Signature Ed.) option for ~$1600. I'm not missing anything here am I, when I say that the Signature Edition is just a flat out better deal? 

[Dackzy]

4 hours ago, _Dia_ said:

Ok. I see that Dell has the 1080p/512GB option for ~$1800, whereas the Microsoft Store has the 4k/512GB (Signature Ed.) option for ~$1600. I'm not missing anything here am I, when I say that the Signature Edition is just a flat out better deal? 

you miss out of all the shitty bloatware, it is still a windows laptop so you can just download the things you want.

[Squirrel724]

17 hours ago, _Dia_ said:

Ok. I see that Dell has the 1080p/512GB option for ~$1800, whereas the Microsoft Store has the 4k/512GB (Signature Ed.) option for ~$1600. I'm not missing anything here am I, when I say that the Signature Edition is just a flat out better deal? 

Damn. Didn't realize the microsoft edition was such a good deal. I paid $1700 for mine. Just expect battery life more in the 6-7 hour range due to the 4k display.