GADGET GIZMO SPECIAL XPS A FEW HITS & MANY MISSES

GADGET GIZMO SPECIAL XPS A FEW HITS & MANY MISSES   XPS is short for Xtreme Performance System. This XPS does have great design and an amazing  keyboard, but falls short in a few key areas There are many different hybrid Windows devices around -each one is trying to crack the magic formula that customers want. We reviewed the Dell XPS 12 back in December 2012. It was called the `Ferris wheel' because the screen could swivel inside a narrow aluminium frame. Looking back, it was actually a triumph of design.We called it “beautiful, solidly built and an amazing engineering feat“. This new version plays it very safe in comparison. There's nothing spectacular in the design -rather, you'll have to look closely to appreciate the finer details that Dell has included. To start, this is a proper hybrid: the tablet and keyboard are two separate parts. The keyboard is a standalone unit but it is a proper keyboard -with a large, glass trackpad and keys that are better than what you get on many laptops. The chiclet style keys have a generous 1.9mm of travel and are perfectly weighted for comfortable typing. The keys feel precise and overengineered, the same kind of feel you get from a ThinkPad keyboard. The keys are also backlit and the onoff key toggles between two levels of brightness. Unlike most other hybrids, the keyboard is not a case but a separate component in itself -one that weighs 480 grams. The keyboard is so good, we wish it wasn't proprietary to this machine. The tablet part is fairly lightweight (790 grams) and a uniform 8mm thickness. It's a smart unibody design with edge-to-edge Gorilla Glass. The screen is a lot larger than usual for this form factor because of the narrow bezels. You'll see a volume rocker, power button and capacitive touch Windows key under the screen. It uses a clever system of magnets that `guide' the tablet section into perfect alignment  -so as to complete the connection with the keyboard. You can close the screen down on the keyboard and it stays magnetically held. Looking for ports? You won't find many, except a couple of USB type CThunderbolt ports and 3.5mm audio. It's kind of strange to not have a single full size USB port. To be clear, the two ports it has are bi-directional ports that support everything: Thunderbolt 3, power (charging), USB 3.1 high speed data transfers (10Gbps), DisplayPort 1.2, VGA, HDMI and Ethernet. But whatever you need to do will have to be via additional adapters and ex tensions. One full size USB adapter is provided in the box. The device uses Intel Core m7 pro cessor -it's capable of all the usual work ( even some image edit ing and 4K video playback) and it doesn't need a fan for cooling. But obviously, there is a compromise when it comes to performance compared to the full power processors. Overall, we loved the screen, keyboard and trackpad. It's great for both work and play. But there are some things we didn't like. The tablet often separates from keyboard if you pick it up -it's not a very secure connection (unlike some hybrids, which have a release mechanism to separate the two halves). It's also a top-heavy design, means that if you're using it on your lap, it can easily tip backwards. The design only keeps the screen at one angle: you can't adjust it like a regular laptop. The 4K resolution is overkill for this kind of hybrid and screen size. It just pushes the price up, strains the hardware and reduces battery life. The battery life will be between 5 to 6 hours, depending on how you tax it. The price includes a 12 month subscription to Office 365 Personal and McAfee Live Safe. There is a cheaper version with half the RAM and storage but we think you might be better off going with a Microsoft Surface Pro 3 with keyboard (about `71k).Even the Surface Pro 4 with a Core i5, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD and keyboard is cheaper ­ `1.33L. These machines have more powerful processors but the keyboards are not as good. XPS should still stand for Xtreme Performance System, but by going with the m processor, Dell seems to have changed that to Xtremely Portable System. Hitesh Bhagat ET4MAY16