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Dell XPS 13 Review from a lifelong Mac user

jeffgeerling.com

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Re: Dell XPS 13 Review from a lifelong Mac user

#3

Post by tomswartz07 »

bobowzki wrote: post #2

Bought a Dell XPS 13 and then returned it because of the horrible coil whine.

The new BIOS updates addressed the whine issues I had. Might have been worth checking out before just taking it back :)

EDIT: To be clear, my issues were resolved after an update back in Dec 2017: http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/Drivers/DriversDet...

"Optimize CPU loading to Improve EE noise" is specifically one of the issues that BIOS update addresses.

Re: Dell XPS 13 Review from a lifelong Mac user

#5

Post by skrebbel »

I like this writeup but I sort of expected it to contain a "Windows 10 Review from a lifelong macos user" embedded in it. I was surprised that this was just about the hardware.

As a happy lifelong Windows user, surrounded by programmers who call me insane (or an idiot, even) for liking it, I was curious to learn more about what a developer who's used to Mac thinks about the Windows 10 dev experience. (notably for a more honest impression of what I might be missing)

Re: Dell XPS 13 Review from a lifelong Mac user

#6

Post by skrebbel »

tomswartz07 wrote: post #3
bobowzki wrote: post #2

Bought a Dell XPS 13 and then returned it because of the horrible coil whine.

The new BIOS updates addressed the whine issues I had. Might have been worth checking out before just taking it back :) EDIT : To be clear, my issues were resolved after an update back in Dec 2017: http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/Drivers/DriversDet... "Optimize CPU loading to Improve EE noise" is specifically one of the issues that BIOS update addresses.

Wow, I'm impressed that a BIOS update can fix a coil whine. Got any background info on how they did it? Or did they just disable some core hardware feature for it?

Re: Dell XPS 13 Review from a lifelong Mac user

#7

Post by IloveHN84 »

tomswartz07 wrote: post #3
bobowzki wrote: post #2

Bought a Dell XPS 13 and then returned it because of the horrible coil whine.

The new BIOS updates addressed the whine issues I had. Might have been worth checking out before just taking it back :) EDIT : To be clear, my issues were resolved after an update back in Dec 2017: http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/Drivers/DriversDet... "Optimize CPU loading to Improve EE noise" is specifically one of the issues that BIOS update addresses.

Inpatient Apple user

Re: Dell XPS 13 Review from a lifelong Mac user

#8

Post by meritt »

tomswartz07 wrote: post #3
bobowzki wrote: post #2

Bought a Dell XPS 13 and then returned it because of the horrible coil whine.

The new BIOS updates addressed the whine issues I had. Might have been worth checking out before just taking it back :) EDIT : To be clear, my issues were resolved after an update back in Dec 2017: http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/Drivers/DriversDet... "Optimize CPU loading to Improve EE noise" is specifically one of the issues that BIOS update addresses.

Oh, that is great news. I have an XPS 13 (9350) and the whine is incredibly frustrating.

Re: Dell XPS 13 Review from a lifelong Mac user

#9

Post by reacharavindh »

I have a Dell XPS 13 as my personal machine. It runs Linux. Everything works.

But, I still find myself using my MacBook Pro (provided by work) for almost everything even at home.

Two things that keep me in the Mac land.

1. Retina Display and the 16:10 aspect ratio. 2. Smooth, and usable touchpad.

XPS13's display is too rectangle and I'm not watching movies in it. It feels too cramped for looking at code. GNOME out of the box does not do fractional scaling (125%) hence everything looks either too big or too small to my taste.

I dont have the patience or the know-how to tune the touchpad to be decent in Linux.

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