It’s also 5400RPM, but it’s a 3.5" drive, which performs better.
Make sure you buy the most recent model of the XPS15. Last year’s model didn’t even have the infinity screen, which is the defining feature of the modern XPS series.
Yeah. They’re legit. They inspect the displays on all the refurb units they get from Dell, but I think this also lets them weed out any of the obvious lemons. They then repackage with better/more secure packaging. The units come with a 1-year warranty from Dell, same as buying a new unit direct.
My 9350 was actually $600 less than the same unit on Dell.com at the time. They also give you free 2-day shipping, and you only pay sales tax if you live in California, which I don’t.
Yeah, it appears you get the warranty the original owner had for the refurbs, transferred to you. The only thing that gives me pause is a couple of really bad reviews where someone said they tried to return a laptop and the company refused to return their emails, then lied about them asking for a refund within the required time, then threatened to sue them for every bad review they posted. Ack!
You can also shop refurb XPS 9350s from Dell Outlet.
Well, I’m very tempted by the company you referred me to. Pretty good selection of options, and VERY good pricing. It appears that if you get a good one from them, it’s a no lose situation: the warranty of the original owner is transferred to you so if you get a good one you’re dealing with Dell from that point as if you purchased from Dell. The only concern is if you open it up and it has a problem, like a bad screen or such (in which case the problem appears to be that once you buy it, they have at least a couple of reviews saying they fight returns even though they advertise them, so you’d just be faced with immediately going to Dell and testing the warranty transfer.)
Dell’s outlet store seems to be pretty sparse on XPS 15s, at least current Skylake versions.
Right now it appears the XPS 15 is, in theory, the machine I want if I can figure out how to config what I want based on their limited configs, even though pricing is pretty high (almost Apple high.) I’d be interested in your experiences with the machine, Woolen. I’m tempted to wait a little longer, as I made the mistake of reading a LONG list of issues XPS 15 owners are having over on the threads on notebookreview.com. (I sometimes think reading notebook reviews on notebookreviews.com is like reading TV reviews on AVR - they’ll scare you off of everything!) But it does sound like there are a lot of common issues a lot of Skylake XPS 15 owners are wrestling with, though it seems Dell is working on trying to fix them.
Just a small note, but the Dell Outlet is run by Dell themselves–it’s their primary public-facing refurbs/scratch-and-dent sales line, and is pretty awesome.
It’s where my folks got the gaming capable 17" monster that got me through all of college after my beloved desktop died in the mail, and said device had mercifully few issues considering the abuse I put it through!
I have an XPS 13 9350 and was essentially a brand new machine. There was a refurbed sticker on the bottom that I removed, but it works perfectly and I don’t have the notorious coil whine that a lot of XPS machines have. My warranty was almost a full year, so I suspect this was a machine that was ordered then cancelled or something. One pleasant surprise was that my 9350 has a TPM chip in it, so I use Bitlocker to encrypt the entire drive. Nice security in case it ever leaves my control.
I will admit that I was kind of nervous about ordering from MerckAmerica myself, but I did as much research as I could, and I paid using my credit card through PayPal, so I figured between PayPal and my credit card company, there would be some kind of protection there. The first hour I was scared as hell though because I installed the Intel graphics driver from Windows Update and the display would suddenly go out. After an hour of panic I installed the driver from Dell’s support site and it’s worked perfectly since.
I dunno about the r/Dell folks. Yes, there are some issues, but some folks will return a laptop over and over again over the slightest thing. “Oh, there’s 1 dead pixel out of millions and millions in the bottom right corner of the screen. RETURN.”
I really do like my XPS 13, although the QHD display does impact battery. I did a fresh installation of Win10, installed all the latest BIOS and driver updates. Then I tweaked the power settings so it goes on Low TDP when on battery, so the TDP drops from 15w to 7.5 w. It’s not as fast as when plugged in, but I don’t need all that speed when I’m in the coffee shop. The benefit is that it uses less power and it also has a lower thermal envelope, so the fan doesn’t kick in as much.
The big thing is I stopped using Chrome and went with Edge. It’s sort of a pain until Edge extensions arrive in a few months, but Chrome remains a notorious battery suck, even a year after Google pledged to start improving that. But using Chrome I’d often hear the fan kick in all the time. And, yes, I’ve already disabled Flash.
There was a post on r/Dell from someone that they heard that Dell has a new motherboard revision going in the 9550s, but there’s no official confirmation of that.
I’ve settled on the XPS13 to replace our ancient Macbook Pro, and I will be sticking to the low-end i5 / 8GB / non-touch display. (can the SSD be upgraded? not really essential as I don’t keep all that much on our laptop, but it would be nice to know if that is a possibility later) The merkamericaco.com folks rarely seem to have any low-end machines. The Microsoft store usually has a better price than Dell, but it always say ‘email me when this is available’ for the non-touch version. Including today, when they’re touting a 3-day only sale.
The 9343 and 9350 can both replace the SSD (the latter is NVMe). But all RAM on the 13-inch XPS is soldered on. The 15-inch has both replaceable RAM and SSD.
My new xps 13 does have the infamous coil whine. :(
I can only hear it if I’m in a super silent room. It seems like too much trouble to return it though.
Is it only when it’s charging or plugged in while fully charged?
There are XPS13s in the configuration I’m looking at on Amazon from 3rd-party sellers, fulfilled by Amazon (at just under $800, same as the sale price on the machines the Microsoft store doesn’t have in stock).
Is there a danger on winding up with a grey-market, no real Dell warranty box?
Yes. Only buy factory refurbished devices from authorized dealers, unless you get a REALLY good deal worth rolling the dice.
These are being sold as new, not refurb.
Should be fine, but just in case-- third-party sellers usually have a “contact the seller” button; do that and ask if they are an authorized reseller and if the product is fully covered by Dell’s warranty.
No, running on battery. It’s super quiet and the only time I notice it is when I’m on at 1 in the morning. Usually when I use the mouse pad to scroll. I saw someone suggesting to disable the video drivers but then what would I do when I want to play games?
I’ve been watching the merkamerica web site more closely, and one non-touch did just show up. Only 4GB RAM, which is a non-starter, but their price ($650) gives me an idea what they would sell the 8GB version for.
I’m also slowly getting over the nonsensical ‘list’ price they cross out. $1447 for the lowest-end configuration, which Dell will sell you for $800? Do they think they’re fooling someone?
They do list exactly when the Dell warranty expires - all I looked at were either Jan or April 2017.
They’ve got a 1080p model with an i5, 8GB of RAM, and 128GB SSD for $850. Is there even an 8GB i3 model?
I think all of the 8GB configurations are i5 or i7 (though oddball combinations seem more likely to appear as refurbs, as they may have been part of large corporate orders).
I didn’t see the one you mention earlier because it is marked as new - but they also say that it has a warranty only until Feb 2017, so I’m not sure what to make of that. The Microsoft store was claiming to be selling the same configuration new for $799 last weekend - they just didn’t have any in stock…
I ended up ordering a refurb i7, 8GB, 256SSD, QHD from Merk America for $914. The larger SSD was as much of a factor in choosing that as the screen was, but we’ll see if I end up in the “touch is surprisingly useful” camp.
If I have a bad experience with the refurb part, I’m going over to Woolen Horde’s house and tossing small pebbles at the bedroom window all night.