Dell XPS 13 (2015)

by Ching-Wan Yip

Last Updated: April 20, 2017 5:14 PM

First published: Mar 26, 2015

DISCLAIMER - this is an exhaustive, in-depth hands on evaluation intended for technical audiences. extreme conditions are used to test characteristics of wide range of devices. general users are unlikely to encounter all the potential issues in day to day, limited scope of usage. a long list of problems does not indicate operating difficulties in everyday scenarios. over 40+ years of personal computing, very few technologies have achieved near perfection status, especially performing many different kinds of tasks, and being compared to different design/price point/intended market products. please review the information with these in mind.

http://www.dell.com/us/p/xps-13-9343-laptop/pd

http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/xps-13-9343-laptop/pd

announced: 2015/01/06 http://www.dell.com/learn/us/en/uscorp1/secure/2014-01-06-dell-consumer-devices-portfolio-ces

Good

Bad

Specification

 

Pricing

as of 2015/03/31

Tested System

i5, 8GB, 256GB

TPM

- let's get this one out of way first, even enterprise sales rep. confused, said it doesn't have it. some configuration does have TPM.(since 2012 model? not the consumer ones, but large enterprise models? check their web page/tweet/forums etc.)

INTC 10.0 2.0

Device Manager

Benchmark - IntelBurnTest

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?197835-IntelBurnTest-The-new-stress-testing-program

v2.54

  Dell XPS 13 5200U X1 Carbon Gen 2 4300U ThinkPad Yoga
4200U		 X1 Carbon
W8E32 (v2.54)		 T430s (v2.53) T420s (v2.53)
Linepack (GFlops) 34.6988-35.6970 24.2526-27.5642 29.4538-32.9418 26.6-26.9 ~35-36  ~28-29
time (s) 25.013-25.761 32.429-36.857 27.135-30.349 33.2-33.5    

Benchmark - Graphics - 3D Mark

http://www.3dmark.com/

v1.5.884.0

(10.18.10.4013 graphics driver not approved)

  Score Graphics Physics Combined
Ice Storm 1.2

52915 (better than 7% of all results)

(X1C2 39209)
(X1C1 31733)

61463 (262.79/271.83 fps)

(X1C2 44344 (213.93/175.47 fps))
(X1C1 35603 (168/144 fps))

35591 (112.99 fps)

(X1C2 27902 (88.58 fps))
(X1C1 22989 (73 fps))

  
Cloud Gate 1.1

5246

(X1C2 4083)
(X1C1 3425)

6754 (29.59/29.15 fps)

(X1C2 5066 (22.44/21.63 fps))
(X1C1 4172 (18/19 fps))

2945 (9.35 fps)

(X1C2 2432 (7.72 fps))
(X1C1 2106 (7 fps))

  
Fire Strike 1.1

752

(X1C2 531 (7% of all results))
(X1C1 483)

810 (3.85/3.25 fps)

(X1C2 592 (2.75/2.42 fps))
(X1C1 532 (2/2 fps))

4176 (13.26 fps)

(X1C2 3518 (11.17 fps))
(X1C1 2968 (9 fps))

273 (1.27 fps)

(X1C2 182 (0.85 fps))
(X1C1 164 (0.76 fps))
Sky Diver 1.0 2774 2631 (12.89/11.25 fps) 4076 (70.28 fps) 2597

 

Benchmark - Maxon CineBench

http://www.maxon.net/products/cinebench/overview.html

11.5

  Dell XPS 13 X1 Carbon Gen 2 X1 Carbon T430s  T420s
OpenGL (fps) 24.81 18.86 14.94 17.32  10.22
CPU (pts) 2.74 2.47 2.24 3.05 2.60

CPU-Z

http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html

1.7.1

GPU-Z

http://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/

0.8.1

HWInfo

http://www.hwinfo.com/

4.45

LCD

Sharp

Storage

SSD - 128, 256, 512 SATA, not PCI-e

Samsung PM851 M.2 2280

Firmware EXT25D0Q

Storage - CrystalDiskInfo

http://crystalmark.info/software/CrystalDiskInfo/index-e.html

6.3.0

Samsung PM851 M.2 2280 256GB

Storage - Intel Rapid Storage Technology RST

Link Power Management LPM disabled

Storage - CrystalDiskMark

http://crystalmark.info/software/CrystalDiskMark/index-e.html

3.0.3 x64

1000MB

  Dell XPS 13 Yoga 3.03 X1 Carbon Gen 2 3.02e Helix 3.02e-X1 Carbon Win8E32 3.01-X1 Carbon Win7-64 W520 Intel 520 3.01-Win7-64 T430s Samsung 830
[MB/s] Read Write Read Write Read Write Read Write Read Write Read Write Read Write
Seq 476.9 265.6 503.4 418.0 482.6 318.2 445.8 183.5 429.6 178.1 433.4 247.1 487.9 403.5
512K 385.5 265.1 377.7 402.8 421.9 312.6 339.4 194.1 375.2 177.1 353.5 239.0 342.6 389.2
4K 21.27 97.20 33.95 86.38 38.81 99.90 21.42 43.33 19.66 41.43 19.67 48.08 22.34 55.89
4K QD32 386.8 263.5 326.8 291.9 201.1 124.1 266.2 167.4 132.7 174.2 229.7 231.6 303.6 151.3

 

Storage - AS SSD

http://alex-is.de/PHP/fusion/downloads.php?download_id=9

1.7.4739.38088

  Dell XPS 13 X1 Carbon Gen 2 4200U Samsung 128 ThinkPad Yoga
128GB Samsung MZ7TD128HAFV		 ThinkPad Yoga 256GB Lite-On LCS-256M6S X1 Carbon Gen 2 4200U LiteOn 256 LGT-256M6G X1 Carbon Gen 2 4300U Intel 240 Sony VAIO Pro 13 Helix X1 Carbon W8E32 Intel 521 Taichi DH71 W8-64 SanDisk X100 256 T420s W7E64 SSD Crucial m4 256 W520 W8E64 SSD Samsung 840 Pro 256 FW 05? (FW06+RAPID? - pending)
  Read Write Read Write Read Write Read Write Read Write Read Write Read Write Read Write Read Write Read Write Read Write Read Write
Seq MB/s 478.43 249.45 497.32 127.20 507.95 125.24 487.51 412.39 483.63 405.74 502.41 301.85 1103.7 702.45 431.23 191.37 460.82 144.24 425.79 334.97 497.34 236.56 495.07 428.16
4K MB/s 20.70 83.58 23.49 68.92 27.64 80.15 31.42 73.90 27.92 59.28 21.08 87.71 28.19 72.68 19.37 46.60 17.71 36.66 19.94 37.80 15.77 47.41 20.96 56.06
4K-64 Thrd MB/s 396.22 125.14 312.66 94.40 316.32 97.27 302.24 254.33 214.31 193.71 209.83 213.81 408.85 225.73 260.56 116.36 132.65 131.29 300.55 158.42 177.53 168.36 379.90 247.79
Acc.time ms 0.157 0.040 0.032 0.052 0.078 0.042 0.058 0.049 failed failed 0.151 0.231 0.087 .055 0.122 0.362 0.195 0.284 0.134 0.100 0.124 0.522 0.113 0.044
Score 465 234 386 176 395 190 382 369 291 294 281 332 547 369 323 182 196 182 363 230 243 239 450 347
  930 748 777 955 739 754 1183 664 470 780 599 1029

 

 

Storage - ATTO Disk Benchmark

http://www.attotech.com/products/product.php?sku=Disk_Benchmark

Storage - BlackMagic

https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/intensity/software

Disk Speed Test

Wireless

dell 1560 802.11ac

802.11n

close to 54 Mbps throughput with TRENDnet 692 2.4GHz

Audio

speakers on sides

dell audio software? MAXXAudio3 (Realtek?)

Intel Smart Sound Technology SST speakers/microphone

OEM software

desktop

start screen

programs

Firmware / BIOS

have to do F12 to get to BIOS? Esc & F1 doesn't work?

very fancy graphics

diagnostic also

Accessories

Reviews