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Ask HN: I am a coder and I am thinking of buying Dell XPS 13. What do you think?

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Re: Ask HN: I am a coder and I am thinking of buying Dell XPS 13. What do you think?

#31

Post by radihuq »

acs5 wrote: post #22

I've been using an XPS 13 with Ubuntu since 2017 and would recommend it but with some reservations. The fans can get noisy when using more graphically intensive apps like video calls (or even just heavy DEs like Gnome or KDE) with my external 2K monitor. Mine has a lower end (i5) CPU even for the time when I bought it though so maybe this is less of an issue with a newer one. The built in mic is barely usable (picks…

+1 my experience is the same - its a great laptop barring the fan, microphone, and camera

Re: Ask HN: I am a coder and I am thinking of buying Dell XPS 13. What do you think?

#32

Post by flippinburgers »

I use one every day for work. I installed ubuntu on it and have had to fiddle with xrandr to get the screen resolution to be reasonable (but I also use xmonad and installed this on a machine that was originally purchased with windows OS). So you will probably have a relatively flawless experience if ubuntu is pre-installed.

It is a nice machine overall.

Re: Ask HN: I am a coder and I am thinking of buying Dell XPS 13. What do you think?

#33

Post by flippinburgers »

SirChainsaw wrote: post #10

I've been using XPS13's for a good few years now. No major complaints. Video camera is in a poor location. Otherwise totally solid. Great battery life. Amazing screen. Great build. Consistently rated one of the best laptops on the market.

The newer models have the video camera located at the top of the screen as one would expect.

Re: Ask HN: I am a coder and I am thinking of buying Dell XPS 13. What do you think?

#34

Post by russianator »

whitepaint wrote: post #3
russianator wrote: post #2

I've had one of these and it runs Ubuntu really well. Personally I actually prefer the IBM X1 Carbons, they have the nicest keyboard I've ever seen and a good keyboard is IMHO a must for a coder hacking keyboard.

Yeah, I absolutely need a good keyboard. Thinkpads X1s look really nice. Why is it better than XPS?

Main advantage is the full sized keyboard.

If you do a lot of coding, it's just a better ride than "compressed" keyboards.

13" is a nice form factor, but I find the 14" X1 just has enough space to give a nicer typing experience.

Just my opinion, you should see if you can try one out, and see what you think.

Re: Ask HN: I am a coder and I am thinking of buying Dell XPS 13. What do you think?

#35

Post by clircle »

Based on my readings of tech reviews, it seems like the macbook M1 is the way to go right now. Great battery life, great performance. Maybe a better keyboard than a dell, probably not as good as a thinkpad.

What's the argument against the m1 macbook?

Re: Ask HN: I am a coder and I am thinking of buying Dell XPS 13. What do you think?

#36

Post by happymellon »

clircle wrote: post #35

Based on my readings of tech reviews, it seems like the macbook M1 is the way to go right now. Great battery life, great performance. Maybe a better keyboard than a dell, probably not as good as a thinkpad. What's the argument against the m1 macbook?

Perhaps because they use Ubuntu, and for people that don't use a Mac normally the OS switch can be a downgrade?

[Edit] I know that when I have to use my Mac, I find that I spend too much time repairing Python installations from Brew compared to how much time I spent fixing Python on Fedora.

Re: Ask HN: I am a coder and I am thinking of buying Dell XPS 13. What do you think?

#37

Post by jenkstom »

clircle wrote: post #35

Based on my readings of tech reviews, it seems like the macbook M1 is the way to go right now. Great battery life, great performance. Maybe a better keyboard than a dell, probably not as good as a thinkpad. What's the argument against the m1 macbook?

A: Apple. A company that makes the Steve Ballmer Microsoft look friendly, helpful and open.

B: OSX. The OS400 of personal computer operating systems.

Re: Ask HN: I am a coder and I am thinking of buying Dell XPS 13. What do you think?

#38

Post by happymellon »

etripe wrote: post #30

I have one for work, albeit running Windows. My gripes are: * Nonsensical keyboard layout that I personally can't get used to. Perhaps this is a unique issue with the Belgian azerty layout. * Trackpad is way too big for my tastes * Touch screen adds little value and I hate the fact it's glossy. It also attracts dust like crazy. * Fans are ridiculously loud even when just running an IDE. I can just about tell the IDE…

I find the keyboard fine, with UK ISO.

But the touchscreen is awful. I haven't yet put Linux on this one but under Windows even though I disabled it in the BIOS the touchscreen randomly enabled itself so if I touch the corner to close the lid I actually close whatever app I'm in.

Frustrating and an awful design. 4k is completely wasted and is broken in about half the stuff I use so I ended up changing the resolution to 1440p rather than using Windows scaling.

Re: Ask HN: I am a coder and I am thinking of buying Dell XPS 13. What do you think?

#39

Post by dyingkneepad »

I have one.

One of the models has an wifi chip that doesn't work on Linux (I think it's the one that comes with 32gb RAM). The others have working wifi.

Sound doesn't work unless you plug a headset.

The Home and End keys are in very awkward places instead of just being fn+arrows.

There's a small defect on the screen that it took me a while to notice and now I can't send it back. It looks something scratched it.

There's a problem on Windows where if I leave it idle for too long it just stops working and the fan gets all the way to the maximum and it gets super hot. This doesn't happen on Linux.

The Tigerlake graphics is good enough to run Street Fighter V on Windows and Dota 2 on Linux, so I'm happy with it.

It's good locking and nice but I don't think it's going to last a lot. My model from 2014 lasted a few years and then the Keyboard and Touchpad completely broke.

If I had to buy another one I wouldn't buy the same model.

Re: Ask HN: I am a coder and I am thinking of buying Dell XPS 13. What do you think?

#40

Post by TheHalfDeafChef »

atebyagrue wrote: post #20

I got one in 2020 at the start of covid for coding. Ultimately, I just sold it and ended up replacing it with a 13" MacBook Air a couple months ago. The main reasons were: the case flexes when you pick it up by the corner causing annoying errant mouse clicks, the 4k screen did not have the battery life as advertised (a lower resolution screen would have remedied this, but I had no clue going in), several times it thr…

Notwithstanding the other issues mentioned, but the MacBook Air is not exactly user repairable. IIRC, it is a SOC. So any part that breaks the entire thing needs to be replaced. I got a MacBook Pro 2018 and though it works it still makes wary.
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