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Ask HN: Dell XPS 13/15 best developer laptop? Preparing for Black Friday

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Re: Ask HN: Dell XPS 13/15 best developer laptop? Preparing for Black Friday

#11

Post by KevinAiken »

I bought a refurbed Dell XPS 15 9550 a little over a year ago. I love it. I run Ubuntu on it and I've yet to have any problems.

Only negatives are that the webcams in an odd place, the speakers are awful, and it's a bit heavy.

The only XPS competitor I considered was various comparable Thinkpad models. They have a very different look and keyboard feel, so it's really down to personal preference or what specific deals you can find. Older but still reliable Thinkpads can be incredibly inexpensive, and are also very easy to modify.

Re: Ask HN: Dell XPS 13/15 best developer laptop? Preparing for Black Friday

#12

Post by altacc »

eljbutler wrote: post #9
altacc wrote: post #6

Personally I find that the two things that make the most difference to me are the keyboard and the screen real estate. So if you can find a shop where you can try typing on a variety of laptops. Other specs you can equalise but the hardware is fixed when you're on the move. Where I work I have a separate keyboard and monitor as full size and full travel keyboards are nicer to work with than most laptop keyboards, inc…

Thanks for the info. I travel a good bit. Hours on planes where i get lots of work done. However for this i find slightly smaller screens than 15" easier to manage.

My other laptop is an HP Elitebook 1040 with a 14" screen. I'm also happy with that and it's what I travel with the most. It's a bit thinner and lighter than the XPS but less than an inch narrower. Compared to that size difference, the screen of the XPS feels a lot larger.

Something worth noting if you're travelling a lot: the power brick for the HP is smaller and lighter than the Dell's. Considering that you'll have to carry that with you, it should be part of the weight calculation.

Re: Ask HN: Dell XPS 13/15 best developer laptop? Preparing for Black Friday

#13

Post by jkeuhlen »

macmac wrote: post #3

I can certainly recommend the XPS 15 as a dev laptop. Don't get the high end screen it eats battery like crazy. I run Ubuntu as my only OS and it works perfectly out of the box. Keyboard is excellent and the screen is big enough for daily use. USB-C hub works very smoothly.

> it works perfectly out of the box.

Did you install a specific version of Ubuntu or something? I have a recent XPS 15 that I installed 18.04 on, and I have had a fair number of problems. My USB-C hub (from Dell as well) doesn't work properly for USB pass through. My bluetooth headphones require me to connect, disconnect, and reconnect every single time to work properly. My wifi drivers will randomly disappear from time to time. And I have a scattering of other random issues with it.

Most of these feel like "minor" problems, as I can still work productively with my setup. But I definitely couldn't describe my experience as smooth.

Re: Ask HN: Dell XPS 13/15 best developer laptop? Preparing for Black Friday

#16

Post by inertiatic »

I just started using an XPS 13 as my work equipment and it's... Okay?

The trackpad is okay but nothing spectacular, feels worse than a MacBook, the keyboard is okay but slightly mushy.

Small bezels and generally alright design, but that's about it.

I wouldn't prefer it to any random well specced laptop. A price comparison site lists my configuration as costing 1700 euro which is a stupid amount of money if you ask me. My wife's old Zenbook feels about as premium and certainly held up great after 4-5 years.

Re: Ask HN: Dell XPS 13/15 best developer laptop? Preparing for Black Friday

#17

Post by kugelblitz »

I saw the Dell G5 (entry level gaming series from Dell) with a i7-9750H, 16 GB DDR4 RAM, RTX 2060 and 512 GB SSD for currently 1260 EUR (screen is Full HD IPS), that's quite a nice deal.

But in general in regards to laptop / computers, there's no one size fits all. It really depends on what your focus is.

I'm shelling out for a Mini Tower soon, including a new Ryzen. Not sure yet if going for the 8 core 3700X or go all in with the 16 core 3950X.

If you like portability, the Dell XPS or something like Razer Blade (Stealth) or MSI GS series might be nice. If you need power, maybe something more in the lines of an XMG Ultra with a desktop CPU fits better.

Re: Ask HN: Dell XPS 13/15 best developer laptop? Preparing for Black Friday

#18

Post by intersys »

It's a great laptop, I have it for 3 years already and it works perfectly... until the battery died, two weeks ago. Now i'm searching for a replacement and dell's support is awful. They don't take care the responsibility of the computer parts. Instead, they forward you to a 3rd party partner who should provide you them. If I only had Apple care..
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