I have the 1080p non-touch version. Battery life is nowhere near 15 hours, serves me right for hoping. I'd say average or light workload and web browsing will get 8-10 hours. I've not yet sat down a whole day just to see how long I can get from one charge, but from extrapolating (and reviews out there will back me up), 8-10 hours is realistic.
I have decided to keep the thing because of the pros, but I want to let potential buyers know about my two main gripes:
1) The touchpad uses Windows 8.1's built-in "precision touchpad" drivers, there is no extra touchpad software included (like Synaptics or whatnot). Anyways, there is a weird delay/lag when making small movements. Jab your finger on the touchpad and make a big or quick movement and you won't feel any delay. But put your finger on and try to make a small precise movement and suddenly there's a delay in response. At least until your finger moves a few millimeters, then it sort of "wakes" up and moves. It's a very weird quirk that I think is tied to Windows 8.1's precision touchpad functionality (because there is no such touchpad delay in the BIOS), and that I can sort of get accustomed to, but I'd be happier if it gets fixed in the future. I have not used any other laptops that use Windows 8.1's precision touchpad, so I don't know if this affects other models/brands. I'd love for someone to chime in here to answer that.
2) The screen has an auto-adjusting contrast feature for which at the moment there's no way to turn off. Meaning, open up a website with mostly white on the screen and one with dark, and switch between them to see the brightness fluctuate. The jump isn't immediate, it's a gradual ramping up and down, and most other laptop owners know it to be a power saving technique that the gpu does. Intel calls it "Display Power Saving Technology" and it can be disabled in the graphics control panel options. Except the option is not there in the XPS 13, either in the Dell provided v3960 drivers or in the latest Intel release v4080. I have another laptop with a Haswell gpu using those same drivers and the option is there, so this situation is either specific to the XPS13 or the HD 5500. Googling told me that some Dell lappys have their own setting for this behavior, controlled by something called Dell Intelligent Display, part of something called Dell Extended Battery Life Options, but this software is not installed. Some users from NotebookReview forums have stated that their 1080p screens bought from a Microsoft store do not exhibit this behavior, but that their max brightness is kinda low at 190 nits. I bought mine direct from Dell, and I think my max brightness more closely matches that measured in reviews, about 300-ish nits.
Also the matte coating on the 1080p screen is just heavy enough to give a hint of the "dirty white" effect. I've seen worse, but semi-matte or light anti-glare this is not. Otherwise contrast and color saturation are great to my casual eyes.
Speakers produce surprisingly loud and clear sound, after tweaking the EQ.
I configured mine with 256GB SSD, it is the Samsung PM851 (M.2 2280). Apparently some people are getting a LiteOn one with faster speeds than the Samsung.
Just some quick casual impressions.
