Dell XPS 15z: world’s thinnest laptop PC

I’m really not the type of person that falls for companies’ statements about best, thinnest, smallest and all that jazz, but I have to admit that Dell might be right for starters, talking about their new XPS 15z 15” laptop. The above mention laptop is the first in the company’s new series of ultra-thin portables.

Just because this is thin, and light as well, doesn’t mean it’s not powerful. Dell thought of making the XPS 15z appealing to a wider range of customers, from your average road warrior to students that just need the portability, and even to small-business owners that have their specific needs.

The specs

Enough chit-chat, let’s pop the hood and take a look inside, which mind I tell you – is bad for the warranty – but I’m speaking figuratively here. Since this is the main-stream architecture nowadays – Dell packs each XPS 15z with a choice of Intel’s second generation Core i5 or Core i7 processors, aided by up to 8GB of DDR3 random access memory and Nvidia’s GeForce GT 525M with 2GB of video memory, for you to watch, and play with the content stored on the 750GB 7200RPM hard disk drive, on the Full HD 15,6-inch display. And don’t worry, Dell didn’t forget the rest, like a built-in slot load DVD-RW, a backlit chiclet island type keyboard, their specific touchpad, the Intel Advanced-N for wireless 802.11 a/g/n and Bluetooth 3.0 connections.

Also, there are two USB 3.0 ports, one USB hybrid eSATA with PowerShare, a HDMI 1.4, a Mini Display-Port, Gigabit Ethernet and audio of course. For students’ commodity, there’s even a 9-in-1 built-in card reader. With a minimum weight of 2.51kg, Dell’s XPS 15z is said to provide a battery life of up to 8 hours, when using an 8-cell pack, but we all know that’s a bit rubbish, since you won’t actually be able to use the laptop that long without dimming brightness to a minimum and turn off all wireless devices, which is not a real world scenario.

Mind that the standard package only comes with 4GB of RAM, the graphics card only 1GB and the display is natively just HD (hopefully a little bit more than 1280 x 720, like HD ready, and hopefully not a glossy type). Since I started with the geeky tech specs already, I’ll leave the design for last, and continue with the usability of this here laptop. Given the horsepower inside, I really can’t see a specific type of user for this, but I can definitely say I could take use of it when playing with Photoshop, but only the average type of work, like painting over some pictures or blending in a panorama. I don’t have a doubt the XPS 15z can do more than this, but at some point, after many hours of continuous work, I do believe that the cooling will start to be an issue, simply because this is a laptop. Other than that, specs top my current desktop computer.

I mentioned design earlier, so let’s us have a look at the aesthetics of this presumably-thin laptop. The thin part is actually a 24.68mm thickness, pay attention, at its thickest point – unlike other manufacturers that laud their products by the thinnest point. Personally I don’t like the design that much, at least from its profile. It looks like the Adamo a little, but not enough to make it that stylish and minimalist. There’s not really much to say about the anodized aluminum finish that the XPS 15z sports, since this is the industry standard lately. Or maybe I’m just a little harder to impress.

And the official XPS 15z video teaser from Dell (official page):