The quality control concerns in the comments mirror my experiences. I would not buy one. I would still rather get the new MBP with function keys vs. the Dell XPS Developer Edition.
Ask HN: Is Dell XPS Developer Edition a Good Replacement of Macbook Pro?
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Re: Ask HN: Is Dell XPS Developer Edition a Good Replacement of Macbook Pro?
#72I carried a 2013 Dell XPS Developer Edition and a MacBook Air in parallell for a while this year. Note that not all of this necessarily applies to more recent versions of the XPS. * My XPS has a really awful touchpad. When I first got it, it was definitely my main reservation. I tried a 2014 model and noted that it wasn't much improved. * The battery life is much, much worse on the XPS, which is probably the main rea…
Yeah, touchpad is crap if you're used to a Mac. I think the battery life is because the OS config is not optimized.
Re: Ask HN: Is Dell XPS Developer Edition a Good Replacement of Macbook Pro?
#73Yes, I've been using a Retina MacBook Pro 13" (early 15) and 15" (mid 15) and just picked up the xps 13 9350 with iris pro. There are definitely some quality control issues but once you get a working model with no faults (I had one that wouldn't reboot and had terrible coil whine, one that had loose trackpad and yellow tint on screen but this could also be because of Amazon's shitty packaging where the laptop was in…
> once you get a working model with no faults (I had one that wouldn't reboot and had terrible coil whine, one that had loose trackpad and yellow tint on screen I never understood how people can deal with multiple rounds of RMAing (or whatever) a defective product and still turn around and recommend it to other people. If a company can't consistently deliver their products intact and functional, why should I waste ho…
this is a complete not starter. I had an XPS 15 that stopped turning on after a week and I immediately returned it and did not bother trying a new one. Such a waste of time to get situated on a new device then find out said device is broken.
Re: Ask HN: Is Dell XPS Developer Edition a Good Replacement of Macbook Pro?
#74In a similar boat. The closest machine to the Macbook Pro is the razer blade stealth. http://www.techradar.com/reviews/razer-blade-stealth-2016 It's basically a rip-off of the (2015) macbook machined aluminium body design. It has the 7th gen processors rather than than the 6th of the new macbook, and a similar price. Not sure about linux support, from what I've read there may be an issue with the webcam.
I'd say Stealth is more compatible with Macbook Air. The dual-core processor is really the only thing that stops me from picking one up.
Re: Ask HN: Is Dell XPS Developer Edition a Good Replacement of Macbook Pro?
#75Best developer laptop is a Dell Precision 5510. Up to 32GB ram, thinner and lighter than a Macbook, SSD that does >1.5GB/sec, and has a docking station.
Re: Ask HN: Is Dell XPS Developer Edition a Good Replacement of Macbook Pro?
#76Be warned that the current XPS 13 is kaby lake and has a rather slow (non-IRIS) gpu. 3200x1800 is quite a few pixels and the built in GPU is pretty weak.
Might want to consider the skylake version, sure it's the previous generation, but the CPU perf is pretty similar, and the Iris 540 is a significant GPU upgrade. Not a nvidia/ati killer by any means, but much better than the normal intel integrated graphics.
Either that or way for similar to ship in it's kaby lake incarnation.
Also keep in mind that the "upgraded" 3200x1800 screen about halves the battery life and is reflective. Not really worth it for me (at least in a 13" screen).
Sadly you can't get more ram or an i7 with the 1080P (they called it FHD) screen.
Re: Ask HN: Is Dell XPS Developer Edition a Good Replacement of Macbook Pro?
#77I don't know about the developer edition specifically, but I just had a XPS13 (with a skylake processor, so not what's available on the store right now) with stock Windows 10 pro on my desk, and debian stable installed just fine except for the wireless card (which is the only network interface on the machine). It wasn't mine to play with so I didn't try to figure that out but whatever version of KDE that gets installed with Debian 8.6(?) seems to be 99% of the way there.
Re: Ask HN: Is Dell XPS Developer Edition a Good Replacement of Macbook Pro?
#78I don't know about the developer edition specifically, but I just had a XPS13 (with a skylake processor, so not what's available on the store right now) with stock Windows 10 pro on my desk, and debian stable installed just fine except for the wireless card (which is the only network interface on the machine). It wasn't mine to play with so I didn't try to figure that out but whatever version of KDE that gets install…
I really liked the physical feel of the trackpad. It'll be a sad day when that rubberized cover gets nicked. The KDE system setup couldn't set the trackpad up for taps instead of clicks but I didn't spend a whole lot of time with it. ISTR that kernel 4.4 had wireless NIC drivers but I didn't have time for that.
Re: Ask HN: Is Dell XPS Developer Edition a Good Replacement of Macbook Pro?
#79I have had a few models of the XPS 13 now and each one seems to get better and better. They're both light enough to carry around and they are still quite strong, I have seen a lot of them dropped without any damage. Initially I though I would never use the touch-screen, but it is actually quite useful when reading things (scrolling) or quickly clicking basic things when not really sitting behind the keyboard on a des…
Does Linux use the touchscreen?
It does on my install of Ubuntu 14.04 LTS
Re: Ask HN: Is Dell XPS Developer Edition a Good Replacement of Macbook Pro?
#80Yes, I've been using a Retina MacBook Pro 13" (early 15) and 15" (mid 15) and just picked up the xps 13 9350 with iris pro. There are definitely some quality control issues but once you get a working model with no faults (I had one that wouldn't reboot and had terrible coil whine, one that had loose trackpad and yellow tint on screen but this could also be because of Amazon's shitty packaging where the laptop was in…
> once you get a working model with no faults (I had one that wouldn't reboot and had terrible coil whine, one that had loose trackpad and yellow tint on screen I never understood how people can deal with multiple rounds of RMAing (or whatever) a defective product and still turn around and recommend it to other people. If a company can't consistently deliver their products intact and functional, why should I waste ho…
If a company can offer a product substantially cheaper than a competitor with lower reliability but offer acceptable customer support for dealing with these issues, the hours of my time I spend fixing the issue might very well surpass the extra money I spend on a competitor.