Having owned several Dell laptops in the past and been quite happy, I am sorry to report this is not so with my last purchase. Please if anyone else has had similar issues I would love to know how it was resolved.
I purchased a XPS 14 1 week ago and had nothing but grief with the following issues:
- Quoted battery life 11 hours, mine while surfing and using word = 4 hours. Now I am not unreasonable and did not expect 11 hours however to achieve 36% of that is diabolical It is a key marketing/selling factor. Technical supports answer I should be very happy with 4 hours!
- My WiFi radio continues to connect and disconnect from various home and office networks. Technical supports answer was to down grade it to just b/g and wait for a update in 6 months plus time as it has been a known issue for many months.... This still did not completely resolve the issue.
- Finally the Nvidia graphics card is not displayed in any windows ratings tests even when the integrated card is disabled... Tech support no answer, in less than 5 mins of testing the card with a game, the fan kicks into a horrendous noise! I have not experienced since using a tower PC 5 years ago. The laptop becomes incredibly hot too. No answer to this.
- Finally multiple updates recommended by the Dell support site fail to download or cannot be found when clicked on. The answer from technical support staff and manager 'the site has released many updates and is having issues please wait until Saturday 9/02/13. Conclusion still no success. I asked for this to be confirmed in writing too which I was told yes but received nothing by email.
This has been my worst experience with Dell and with supposedly such a premium device... I will attempt to contact customer services on Monday...