Dell XPS 15 9560 Review • Hacker News Board

Re: Dell XPS 15 9560 Review

#11

Post by pricechild » Mon, Jul 31, 2017, 1:16 PM UTC

remotebug wrote: post #7

That looks like an amazing machine. Is it the same as in this review https://www.notebookcheck.net/Dell-XPS-15-9560-i7-7700HQ-UHD... from 4 months ago? I had lots of annoyance with a previous Optimus based notebook. How has the situation of bumblebee and primusrun and dualbooting improved in the past two years?

I've given up on bumblebee.

I have upgraded an Ubuntu laptop over a few years and every upgrade it broke, requiring some new incantation to fix it the next time. I don't think it's considered the future?

I believe the future is called "Prime Synchronisation", announced a few years ago. Good luck getting it to work though: https://devtalk.nvidia.com/default/topic/957814/prime-and-pr... I gave up after a while.

We're probably nearing the time when I'll give all the methods another go, but currently I'm back into the "change setting and log out + in" camp.

As an aside, bumblebee also seems to break my i3 environment... I get hangs & magic sysreq won't recover. I've had to go back to the default DE.

Re: Dell XPS 15 9560 Review

#12

Post by masklinn » Mon, Jul 31, 2017, 1:17 PM UTC

> They’ve opted to go with the same Killer Wireless-AC 1535 as they use in the smaller XPS 13.

FWIW this NIC is a huge liability, wifi instability is common and it will bring some machines down hard (bluescreens/kernel panics, just check /r/dell).

Dell US apparently has instructions to replace this POS by a compatible Intel NIC (7200 or 8000 series) if you have issues and complaint, that seems not to be the case for Dell EU.

An Intel NIC costs $20~30, some folks just order a 8260/8265 at the same time as the laptop and install it before even booting.

Re: Dell XPS 15 9560 Review

#13

Post by neverminder » Mon, Jul 31, 2017, 1:17 PM UTC

XPS is great, having said that I'm waiting for one with USB Type-C charging only and as far as I'm concerned it's time and all sockets should be USB Type-C. I have my Chromebook Pixel for 2 years now and I got used to plugging in a charger from either side.

Re: Dell XPS 15 9560 Review

#14

Post by foepys » Mon, Jul 31, 2017, 1:18 PM UTC

NedIsakoff wrote: post #2

It looks good, but seriously one big thing that's a no-no for me is only HDMI1.4 (not HDMI2.0). It means that you can't do 4K@60Hz.

Even Kaby Lake only supports HDMI 1.4, so there is no Intel-based laptop without a dedicated GPU on the market that is capable of HDMI 2.0. Your only choice is DisplayPort which you can use here via Thunderbolt 3.

Re: Dell XPS 15 9560 Review

#15

Post by oulu2006 » Mon, Jul 31, 2017, 1:18 PM UTC

wslh wrote: post #5

If you want to buy one you should extend your analysis beyond the hardware specs because the software and operating systems are not ready yet. I can give the example of the latest XPS 13 2-1 where Office applications like Outlook cannot recognize a monitor with a different resolution and the fonts are blurred. Look for example at https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Office-apps-appear-... high DPI is a whole issu…

Very true, the previous XPS 15 had huge problems with the Killer NIC card because the drivers for it took months to stabilise and its only recently been that a driver update has made the Wifi somewhat stable and the machine has stopped crashing every few days.

What other people seem to have done is get Dell to swap the Killer NIC with an Intel one which has much better driver support.

Re: Dell XPS 15 9560 Review

#16

Post by bhouston » Mon, Jul 31, 2017, 1:18 PM UTC

This is my current laptop and I love it. I finally replaced my desktop PC with a laptop. I use it with a 4K 32" monitor via the docking station (I have the exact same setup at work and at home, I just bring the laptop with me each day.) Having a single machine saves me so much time regarding the complex development setup.

I have a dual boot setup with Ubuntu and Windows with no issues.

I bought it for $1699 CAD for the 7700HQ + Full HD Screen (not 4K) + GTX 1050 + 256GB HD + 16GB RAM and immediately upgraded the disk to 1TB and the ram to 32GB.

Re: Dell XPS 15 9560 Review

#17

Post by masklinn » Mon, Jul 31, 2017, 1:20 PM UTC

oulu2006 wrote: post #15

wslh wrote: post #5

If you want to buy one you should extend your analysis beyond the hardware specs because the software and operating systems are not ready yet. I can give the example of the latest XPS 13 2-1 where Office applications like Outlook cannot recognize a monitor with a different resolution and the fonts are blurred. Look for example at https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Office-apps-appear-... high DPI is a whole issu…

Very true, the previous XPS 15 had huge problems with the Killer NIC card because the drivers for it took months to stabilise and its only recently been that a driver update has made the Wifi somewhat stable and the machine has stopped crashing every few days. What other people seem to have done is get Dell to swap the Killer NIC with an Intel one which has much better driver support.

Colleague recently bought one of these, has a Killer NIC, still not stable, machine hard crashes every time they boot a VM.

Re: Dell XPS 15 9560 Review

#18

Post by rootbear » Mon, Jul 31, 2017, 1:20 PM UTC

clvx wrote: post #8

chimeracoder wrote: post #3

I've used the XPS 13 Developer Edition (ie, running Linux) as my daily driver since 2012. For me, it's been way more reliable than either the ThinkPad X1 or even the MacBook Pro, both of which I used as my work laptops during that same time (running Linux and OS X respectively). I've been hoping to upgrade to the 15-inch for a while, because I like larger screens. It's nice to see the review of this point release ver…

I have the xps13 2016 dev edition too, and it's a solid laptop. Let me ask you which dongle do you use to connect to external hdmi monitors? I got this one[1] a while ago, but it doesn't output more than 800x600. I use the wd15 at home without issues, but it's not suitable for traveling. [1] https://www.amazon.com/Dell-Adapter-Type-Ethernet-470-ABQN/d...

I have the same laptop and I'm happy with it, but I'm not happy with the dongle madness that universal adoption of USB C is foisting on us. I also want a reliable travel dongle for external HDMI for this laptop but the reviews of the units I've looked at are not encouraging. The current obsession with thinness (looking at YOU, Apple) is forcing useful connectors off the main system board onto expensive, unreliable dongles. Yuck.

Re: Dell XPS 15 9560 Review

#19

Post by rtnyftxx » Mon, Jul 31, 2017, 1:20 PM UTC

I tried the XPS 15 Kaby Lake UHD touch version - coil whine - ctrl key on the most left part of the keyboard - sound - no notch for opening - fan noise - led bleeding - touchpad - surface coating + touch display + UHD/GPU/RAM/CPU

Re: Dell XPS 15 9560 Review

#20

Post by marsRoverDev » Mon, Jul 31, 2017, 1:22 PM UTC

jarym wrote: post #9

I've all but given up hope on Apple bothering with 32Gb RAM. Been researching the Dell alternatives (XPS and Precision) for a couple of months now. Very tempting machines indeed. I just want to see one in real life to see what the build quality feels like. Pssst.. Mr Schiller... it seems it is possible to stick 32Gb of RAM into a laptop AND have decent battery life. Well, that is unless you're intent on giving your p…

I own a Dell XPS 13 and it seems to be fine build quality wise. Others have not been so lucky.

To be honest though, if I had the budget and Apple weren't being ridiculous with the specs I'd still consider a mac a much better development machine; specifically due to Adobe's refusal to port photoshop to ubuntu. If you do not have any need for photoshop, then XPS developer edition is much better value.

My only concern with the dell line is that drivers really are a problem. For some reason, the audio works perfectly fine under Ubuntu and is really half baked on Windows 10 (with the newest drivers from dell). It's like upside down bizarro world.