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Dell XPS 15 9560 Review

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Re: Dell XPS 15 9560 Review

#191

Post by rayiner »

chimeracoder wrote: post #188
rayiner wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Okay I have no idea what you're talking about either, and I've used OS X on a 4K monitor. It scales to a virtual 1920x1080p by default; everything just looks sharper. What did you expect to happen?

> Okay I have no idea what you're talking about either, and I've used OS X on a 4K monitor. It scales to a virtual 1920x1080p by default; everything just looks sharper. What did you expect to happen? If it's scaling to 1080p for you, that's because either your monitor or your cable doesn't support 2560x1440 at 60Hz. If it does, it should default to 1440, assuming you're on an rMBP. In terms of "what I expected to hap…

> In terms of "what I expected to happen" - well, I expected an actual 4K resolution (like 3840x2160) to work. Maybe not by default, but at least when I enable it, it should be able to auto-scale the appropriate parts of the system and application UI in a consistent manner.

That's what it does. OS X will by default render at the panel's native resolution. But it scales everything to a lower effective resolution. Say you're running a 5K monitor at "2560x1440" (as in the iMac 5K). And the app displays a 32x32 icon at (0,0). The OS will see that you're running in 2x mode (real resolution = 2x effective resolution). So it'll pull a 64x64 version of the icon from the app's art assets. It'll take up 32x32 on the virtual 2560x1440 display, but a 64x64 image will be what's copied to the frame buffer. Text glyphs, and images, likewise, will be rendered at full resolution.

When you bypass the default setup and tell the OS to run at 3840x2160, you're not telling it to render at that resolution. You're telling it to size things as if you're running on a standard definition monitor of that size. So when the app displays a 32x32 icon, the OS will see you're running at 1x mode, and pull a 32x32 icon from the art assets. The result will be a tiny icon.

Re: Dell XPS 15 9560 Review

#192

Post by aklemm »

jpkeisala wrote: post #63
highace wrote: post #28

As a developer I can't imagine buying anything other than a Macbook Pro, and I mainly use Windows. The build quality is top of the line, the drivers are solid, and everything just works. The trackpad is industry leading, and the keyboard is great too. Performance is exceptional, especially in the 15" which comes with a HQ processor (not ultrabook-grade) and a discrete graphics card. It has a PCI-e SSD. The price is r…

I am also developer and I changed last year from Mac to Dell XPS 13". I would have stayed on Mac but the new keyboard felt strange, touchbar is... well I felt it is time to try something new. One surprising feature that I though I would never use is touch screen. I really like it and I thought it would be useless. There are some things that I think could be better. I think Windows is a bit ugly, hardware does not fee…

That's interesting about the touchscreen? Do you feel any need to get a 2-in-1 or is he simple touchscreen sufficient? I'd interested in a 2-in-1, but they don't run Linux real well and there are other issues, including cost. But if the touchscreen is useful enough, then maybe an XPS 13 along with a tablet would be a good idea.

Re: Dell XPS 15 9560 Review

#193

Post by mixmastamyk »

alvarosevilla95 wrote: post #69
stuff4ben wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Too bad Apple no longer caters to my crowd What is "your crowd"? Only thing I wish my rMBP had was more than 16GB of RAM for some of the dev I do. Other than that, I can't see switching anytime soon.

Since we're on HN, I'll assume 'his crowd' is software development. How has apple stopped catering this crowd? Let me give you my opinion. The new macbook pro's main feature is one that is totally useless to professionals. The touch bar is an interesting idea for the casual user, but for anyone who uses any software professionally, it provides no value as it is much slower than keyboard shortcuts. Not to mention that…

I used to manage with VMs on 8gb, 16 should be enough for most people using containers. Believe the laptop in this review can be upgraded to 32 for the heavy-hitters.

Re: Dell XPS 15 9560 Review

#194

Post by LaikaF »

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #189
JohnTHaller wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can enable and disable drivers and startup functionality in safe mode. You can't install or uninstall any apps or drivers that utilize Windows Installer as the service isn't running, rendering the install/uninstall/modify abilities of those apps and drivers useless. You can still install and uninstall apps and drivers that use proper installers like NSIS, etc.

OK, so "Windows Installer" is a third party app? Why's it a service; surely it only needs to run when initiated as part of an install/upgrade/uninstall rather than perpetually?

It's not a third party app. It's the thing that Windows uses to install things.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Installer

They're right though. It doesn't run in safe mode and it's a fucking pain in the ass. Makes fixing issues harder when you can't uninstall shit in safemode. Drivers especially.

Re: Dell XPS 15 9560 Review

#195

Post by blunte »

virtuabhi wrote: post #182
blunte wrote: post #49

My experience with my 1-month-old maxed out 9560: - less precise trackpad than my 3 year old rMBP - palm-sensitive trackpad - failure that politely states that I need to reboot (if I try to use fingerprint reader to login too quickly after opening the laptop) - unplanned reboots due to updates - laggy and choppy video on a single external 4k monitor (compared to no apparent lag when the old rMBP drives 2x 4k monitors…

"Thankfully this old rMBP I use is still running well (despite the screen covering deterioration in weird spotty ways)." Does it look similar to this - http://www.staingate.org/ https://www.macrumors.com/2015/10/17/apple-mbp-ar-coating-qu... . My rMBP had the same problem and I got the screen replaced for free (outside warranty).

Yes, staingate.

Re: Dell XPS 15 9560 Review

#196

Post by blunte »

lvillani wrote: post #143
blunte wrote: post #49

My experience with my 1-month-old maxed out 9560: - less precise trackpad than my 3 year old rMBP - palm-sensitive trackpad - failure that politely states that I need to reboot (if I try to use fingerprint reader to login too quickly after opening the laptop) - unplanned reboots due to updates - laggy and choppy video on a single external 4k monitor (compared to no apparent lag when the old rMBP drives 2x 4k monitors…

> despite the screen covering deterioration in weird spotty ways If it's like images at [1] you may be eligible for a free screen replacement. I got Apple to change mine after it started showing the defect (granted, I went to an Apple Store mere weeks before the Apple Care+ coverage ended). Mine is a late 2013 rMBP. The new screen, however, is starting to show the same kind of damage around the edges. [1] http://www.…

Yes, this is my problem. It's slightly unpleasant to look at, but at the moment I depend on the laptop too much to be without it for even a day.

I may just go into the store and ask them what the situation is for me.

Re: Dell XPS 15 9560 Review

#197

Post by IronBacon »

vladimir-y wrote: post #130
pier25 wrote: post #62

Did Dell fix the coil whine problems?

No as far as I know, Latitude line is also affected.

I have an XPS 13 and the coil whine is one of the things that annoyed me the most, seems like they don't care at all. I've briefly used a Thinkpad and on that front is dead silent.

If they continue to provide a model with a Linux distribution installed, I would like to support them and purchase their products again, but that defect is the only thing I would like to see it fixed.

Re: Dell XPS 15 9560 Review

#198

Post by seanp2k2 »

mi100hael wrote: post #184
guelo wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They refuse to provide a XPS15 Developers Edition.

They provide a 15" Precision developer edition which is the same form-factor as the XPS and better specs.

Kinda. The Precision 5520 can be configured with a Xeon E3-1505Mv6 ("better" CPU) but with a Quadro M1200 (Maxwell) instead of the new XPS 9960 with a Pascal GTX 1050 ("worse" graphics, quoted because it depends on workload, pro vs consumer GPUs but the pro stuff here is a generation older...they'll probably update it soon). The Precision 7720 can be had with an E3-1535Mv6 and a Quadro P5000 (similar to a GTX 1070, and Pascal), but it's a 17" and thicker. https://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-Quadro-P5000.191073.0.h...

Re: Dell XPS 15 9560 Review

#199

Post by seanp2k2 »

aarmenaa wrote: post #180
r1ch wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hate how prevalent Killer NIC chips have become. They seem to be racing to the bottom with cheap wireless and ethernet PHYs with crappy drivers, yet their reputation hasn't quite caught up. Their marketing brands them as premium and a lot of manufacturers still buy into it to target the "gaming" segment (which also hates them). I refuse to buy any board which has these chips and will pay a small premium for an Inte…

I don't recall anybody ever having a kind word to say about them. As I recall the product used to be the cheapest Atheros chips the vendor could find plus a proprietary driver that was snake oil and bugs. Not better than a Realtek and worse in a lot of cases. I suspect that they're actually cheaper than a Realtek, which is why they keep showing on consumer hardware.

HardOCP liked them at one point: https://m.hardocp.com/article/2011/09/08/gaming_killer_nic/2

I always thought of them as purveyors of snake oil and reached for Intel NICs with great results every time. I used to like Atheros for radios back in the good old bad days of WEP and MadWifi.

Re: Dell XPS 15 9560 Review

#200

Post by gizmo686 »

jorgemf wrote: post #120

This is a great laptop if you are not using the gpu and the cpu at the same time and you don't care about the screen response. So basically you put a game in this PC and after some minutes you see the great faults of the computer. The 4k screen has low response and it is a bit more blurry with movement than usual displays, although you will only notice this if you have another display to compare. The biggest issue is…

In my (anecdotal) Dell laptops have been crap at heat management. My current laptop (about 4 years old at this point) had the problem you described, except once the CPU throttling turned on, the BIOS was extremely conservative in turning it off, to the point where I would often reboot to get it running at speed again. Eventually they released a BIOS update that fixed the issue, (and started throttling earlier to avoid dropping to .8ghz)

Point being, when buying a laptop, always ask about the thermal.

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