Dell XPS 14z 14in Core i5 notebook

Don’t worry, the XPS 14z may be one of Dell’s new "thin and powerful" range, but it doesn’t fit into the superslim Ultrabook category so there’s absolutely no need whatsoever for a gratuitous comparison with Apple's MacBook Air. Dell XPS 14z 14in notebook It’s certainly a more stylish affair than the businesslike hardware I’ …

[Stephen 2]

Fatbook Pro?

Wow, it's like a mix of the 2008 Macbook pro and the 2011 Macbook pro - just fatter and uglier.

[Michael H.F. Wilkinson]

Looks like a candidate

to replace my aging Vaio SZ. Quite compact but with a decent (NVidia) graphics card. Could do some CUDA/OpenCL stuff on that.

[Fuzz]

Expensive laptop, crappy screen

One of the good things about Dell was that you could spec your laptop with a high resolution screen. I went to the Dell site to check and this machine has one crappy shiny 1366x768 panel.

I don't get it, I've never heard anybody say, "the thing I really like about my laptop is the way I can use the screen as a mirror"

[Anonymous Coward]

@Fuzz

Amen to that. I never did understand the fuzz around all those glossy screens, for me it would be a reason /not/ to buy a laptop.

[Piro]

Whoops!

Make that a 1440x900 screen and you're on to a winner.

[Kurgan]

Crapware

Uhm... too much crapware, and too low screen resolution.

[Anonymous Coward]

Nice!

Yet another fantastic XPS laptop.

Right now, if you want something that's stylish, well built, not an out and out gaming laptop, and not a Mac. The best choice is the Dell XPS range.

This just ads to it with a smaller than usual and far more portable offering.

I do agree with the low-res comment, Dell should just not offer the lower res screens. Make the product truly premium.

[Dom 3]

Comes with crapware.

We know that. Could El Reg either just stick to the hardware, or let us freetards know how well it spins up a LiveCD? (To be chosen at random from Fedora, ubuntu, etc., on the roll of a dice).

Got to agree on screen resolutions. WTF is the point of a 14 or 15 incher if it's barely got more pixels than my ten year old 12 incher?

[ColinP]

Agree

I'd like to see that in all laptop reviews as well, as Linux on a modern laptop can be hit and miss, depending on the hardware.

As for the XPS, it uses Nvidia Optimus, which doesn't well at all in Linux, and Nvidia have said they do not intend to support it.

[Piro]

I'm of this opinion about crapware.

In that I don't care in the slightest. Infact, load it down to a crawl with crapware if it makes the laptop cheaper, I say.

Anyone sensible is going to nuke and pave anyway, so it's of no importance to an El Reg reader.

[Robert E A Harvey]

768?

Again with the cheap & nasty screen resolution? On a premium product? Yuk.

[Anonymous Coward]

Midrange product?

Maybe compared to prices of expensive bis of Apple or Sony kit, but 850 to me is expensive

Please more reviews of MEDIAN priced kit

[Anonymous Coward]

Only 2xUSB ports?

So after the obligatory mouse, that makes one.

Come on, even my £150 netbook has 3!

[joejack]

This review is useless

What's the max amount of RAM that can be installed? What're the other options that can be maxed out? Is the "SD slot" for SDHC? SDXC?

Not that it matters with the miserable resolution and mirror screen. Too bad the Macbook Air only allows 4GB RAM, no upgradeable SSD, and no USB3. Still waiting for a decent ultrabook.