Now It’s Time to Play :)

My Dell XT2 arrived late yesterday afternoon, so I’ve had just over 24 hours to play with it. It is amazing! It definitely beat my expectations.

The laptop is much more stylish than I thought it would be after seeing the limited number of pictures and videos on the internet. The slate effect chassis cannot be seen to well in pictures on the internet, but it looks and feels extremely nice and durable.

The display is much brighter and clearer than I expected, having used a tx1 in the past. True, the display is not as sharp and clear as most glossy screens, but that’s the trade off you get for a touch screen. There is also not the speckled effect I was expecting that some users of other touchscreens complain of. However, there is a very faint grid that can be seen on black backgrounds or when the machine is off, so the XT2 likely won’t be very good for those who like to watch movies etc. Nonetheless as a touchscreen computer, it’s display is pretty much perfect.

The feel between the felt (blue) stylus tip is the best for writing on this screen. After an hour or so I became used to writing on it, and now after 24 hours it feels natural. So for those of you eager to have a natural pen-paper feel, you won’t be too disappointed. When I ordered the XT2, I ordered some screen protectors from www.photodon.com which haven’t arrived yet, but they should further improve the pen-on-screen feel and I’ll write a short review of them once they are here.

As a laptop, the keyboard is a fantastic keyboard, especially for such a compact (and light) laptop. The keys are large, have a good grip and the keyboard leaves ample room for you to rest your wrists. One thing that is a slight disappointment is the trackpad and buttons. They are both pretty small, and the trackpad is not as smooth and responsive as many laptops (this may be because I’ve been used to MacBook trackpads).

The performance of the 128gb Solid State Drive is outstanding. The machine literally boots up in 10 seconds, even after installing all my software. I therefore recommend that everyone considers an SSD over a Hard Drive if their budget allows.

All in all, this is an excellent machine and if Dell was to give the XT2 better speakers, graphics and trackpad it would be perfect.

If anyone is considering purchasing this machine, please contact me with any questions you have and I’ll be happy to answer them.

Over the coming days and weeks I’ll be discussing how I plan to use software such as OneNote and Outlook to help me study this year, so stay posted.