Dell - XPS 2-in-1 12.5" Touch-Screen Laptop - Intel Core i5 - 4GB Memory - 128GB Solid State Drive - Carbon Fiber

Overall great product we bought so that we could do demos at trade-shows and now I liked it so much that I use it for my own biz laptop. One issue is the wear of the left panel from palm which is odd as my Samsung took a year and this took 2 weeks to wear. Screen is great too yet if you do graphic software videos at all get the 8MB memory XPS. ~Clint @cazoomi

This could have been a glowing review for a truly innovative convertible since the XPS 12 is second only to the Surface Pro for performance, flexibility, and portability, but the device has a fatal flaw that I have since learned is quite common. The high resolution display is extremely susceptible to image ghosting. By that I mean, the displays in many units retain the outlines of bright images if they remain on the screen for more than a minute or two. If you own one, you can easily test whether yours has the problem by doing the following: 1) Set the Windows 8 start screen background to blue (pretty much the default). 2) Go to the Windows desktop, and set the color to something akin to the old XP blue or any comparable color. This is not necessary but does make the resulting issue easier to see in less time. 3) Pin a few items to the task bar, and add a couple icons to the upper left portion of the desktop. 4) Work on the desktop for few minutes with the task bar and upper left corner visible (five to ten minutes is enough). You can even just leave the desktop open and on the screen - no need to run anything as long as the desktop and task bar stay visible. 5) After five minutes (mine was no more than a minute after a few days), hit the Windows button to jump back to the start screen. 6) Observe the bottom of the screen that corresponds to where the task bar is on the desktop, and the upper left where you placed the icons. 7) If you have the display issue, you will see the faint to vivid outlines of the taskbar and pinned items, and the same of the upper left icons showing through as ghosts. An example is attached to this review. These will fade in anywhere from a minute to up to ten minutes. 8) You can achieve the same result by opening a bright web page in a windows and then after a few minutes switching to a darker screen. While some may think this is trivial, the above is just a test to demonstrate. It does have a real world impact in functionality. For instance, if you are working on a bright object in something such as Photoshop, you can be stuck with the ghosting when you switch to editing a darker image. On that subject, no one should have to wait for the display on a $1000 laptop to fix itself so that you can complete a task. Even more importantly, I confirmed with mine over the course of a week that the effect takes less time to be triggered the longer it is used and takes more time to dissipate. That suggests at some point there is a potential for a memory effect and permanently marred display. I would write this off as just a single defective display except if you do a search you will find numerous complaints, with Dell's solution being to replace the laptops, sometimes with ones with the same problem. I also stopped by two Phoenix area Best Buys and checked their multiple demo displays and all had the same issue. I showed this to the staff in one store who were shocked by it and acknowledged it was pretty obvious if you were looking for it. This would be unacceptable for a low end bargain machine but the XPS 12 is definitely a lot more than that. It is a performance laptop with a $1000 price tag. Under the circumstances, I cannot recommend it. If you buy one (or already own one) I would further recommend checking for the problem. It will not go away, will worsen with time, and is not limited to early production units. You should not have to live with the problem, or suddenly realize it is there after your warranty expires. As I said, it is also not just some trivial little test such as looking for a bit of backlight bleed that has no effect on actual use. This can impact actual use in very inconvenient ways. BTW, do not let anyone convince you it is common to all 1080P displays. While early MacBook Pros with Retina displays had a version of the same problem they have fixed it. The equally high resolution Surface Pro which I also own is not susceptible to the problem at all. This is a Dell XPS 12 problem, not a universal high resolution display issue.

I purchased this ultrabook convertible to replace a very good Windows 8 tablet, so I was a tad hesitant to spend the extra money. Now I am glad I did. The XPS 12 has a fast processor and plenty of RAM, so I'm running all my apps quite comfortably. It also features Intel WiDi capability, so I am streaming HD from the XPS 12 to my living room TV (using a Netgear WiDi adapter). Of course its greatest strength is the flip/swivel screen, which is a marvel of design engineering. I can convert from tablet to laptop in less than 5 seconds without skipping a beat, and then back again when I am ready. The mechanics of the screen are solid and clearly built to last, and provide a great sense of security that I am not going to break it accidentally. I was very careful about the flip conversion at first, but I now I do it almost without thinking about it. Another big plus: the screen itself. Beautiful, vibrant, crystal-clear 1080p HD. Unmatched in this price range, I am willing to bet. So what are the cons? Well, I have noticed that the system runs kinda hot under heavy app use, especially when I am watching video, and of course the fan kicks on - but it's not really loud at all. It just contributes to the battery drain. I am more worried about keeping the exhaust vents on the back/bottom clear. But in spite of this, and under some heavy usage, I am enjoying a solid 6+ continuous hours of battery life on average. But I keep my screen brightness down pretty far, too. (Tip: disable the automatic screen brightness function and set the screen to pretty low brightness. It's fine for most usage, and you can manually adjust when you need to.) OVERALL: this has proven to be an exceptional value for the price tag, and is a solid, well-built machine.

For the past 2 years I've been using the first two generations of MacBook Airs as my portable device for work and personal use. The design, form factor, build, finish, reliability and portability are top notch. That ended one month ago when I spotted the XPS. You just don't realize how convenient a touch screen is until you start using one. In the case of the XPS, the ability to convert it into a tablet is cool, especially with its large, excellent screen. I was split between this and Lenovo's Yoga. While the Yoga offers a memory slot to complement the SSD, the backlit keyboard was essential for me to work on planes and other low light conditions. I also prefer the Dell's design. The metal frame and carbon fiber finish are nice. Build quality is excellent. In terms of performance, it runs cool, batteries last 4 to 5 hours with constant use, the i5 and 4GB are fast enough for my MS Office apps and for having multiple apps open. I no longer need to travel with my MacBook Air and Ipad...this takes up less space than those two combined. This a great machine but not perfect. It is heavy compared to the MacBook Air. There are few dedicated accessories compared to the Air. Case selections are limited (I bought the Dell leather portfolio). The charger is compact but not as nice as the Mac's. The keyboard is good but the Mac's works better (the XPS's is too recessed, occasionally causing me to swipe the touchpad, in turn causing the cursor to move unexpectedly). The Mac's touchpad is also smoother both literally and in terms of scrolling or moving the cursor. And the Win8 software is less stable than the Mac's...I use my machine constantly and find I need to re-start it every day or two because it stops responding as it should (i.e. the touchscreen feature stops working or I get stuck on a page). Despite these minor shortcomings, overall I am very happy with the XPS.

I purchased the Dell XPS 12 for my daughter primarily for doing school work. She absolutely loves the convertible touchscreen. Size and weight are excellent for her. Build quality is very good and it is fun to able to say that it is made out of carbon fiber... Overall the i5 processor is pretty good and 4 GB ram are fine for our needs. I am not that thrilled with the touch pad but the touchscreen is very responsive. A larger SSD would be a plus but with all of the cheap cloud storage this is not a big deal. Battery life seems pretty good so far. I purchased this as an open box for about $750 and at that price I think it is fairly good value for the money. You pay a premium for the flippy screen... Overall nice machine.

Best designed convertible laptop / tablet I could find. Future generations might come up with a better design, but the flip screen of this model seems to be the easiest and most secure of any design presently available. Easy to switch back and forth. In laptop mode you can still use the touchscreen, and in tablet mode and you are able to call up an onscreen keyboard. Have had an occasional freeze up in tablet mode, but not yet often enough to become annoying. Does seem to have adequate internal memory and hard drive for present needs, but if you want to build a music or video library on disk, you will have to buy an external disk drive. I would prefer if they included an internal disk drive. I am use to working on a desktop computer, and originally I was wishing this laptop came with a larger screen. However, I am finding that I use it in tablet mode more often than laptop mode, and must admit that if it were much larger or heavier, it probably wouldn't be nearly as handy. In hindsight, I think they probably came up with the right compromise. I guess for longer sessions where I really miss having a larger screen, I could sit at my desk and hook it up to an external monitor of whatever size I wanted. I have had this model for about a month, and so far I am more than pleased.

Pros:The XPS 12 is a very well built laptop with nice design and can convert into a usable tablet. It works well and seems very intuitive. The battery life is decent at around 3 hours in power saving mode and 2 hours on normal battery mode. Cons: The XPS 12 is a a bit pricey for the actual components youre getting within the laptop. If you have the extra cash go for the haswell version of the XPS since it will probably boost your battery life significantly. The touchpad can also be a bit tricky to start off with but it is highly configurable. That said, it'll probably take some time to get used to but the windows 8 interface really helps alleviate some of the irks of using a touchpad when you can be using the touchscreen instead. All in all I recommend the XPS 12 if you have the extra funds laying around and want a well built if not slightly under powered laptop/tablet hybrid.

I have owned numerous Dell laptops over the last 15 years and this one is tops. Some reviews criticized the touchpad but I have had no trouble. However, when you first use the PC, be sure to run the Dell utility that updates all of the firmware. While this is somewhat time-consuming, it ensures that all of your drivers, etc are up-to-date. The performance of the SSD combined with the Core I5 CPU is quite good. While Dell offers a Core I7 for this PC, I think the Core I5 is sufficient while saving battery. Also, the Core I5 will ‘burst’ to 2.4GHz when necessary so the performance is excellent. The unit boots from a cold start in 5 seconds; faster if coming off of sleep or hibernate. The display quality is outstanding and the ‘flip’ feature works easily and the construction is quite solid. If you are primarily looking for a Tablet, look elsewhere because this unit will be larger and heavier than a dedicated Tablet. It is really a Laptop that can also perform admirably as a Tablet at a flip of the screen which is just what I needed. Sound through the speakers is marginal and no SD card slot is unfortunate. Overall, however, it is a great product.