Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Dell XPS 13 Review

anandtech.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

111–120 of 300 posts

Re: Dell XPS 13 Review

#111

Post by Encosia »

artimaeis wrote: post #44
whitecat wrote: post #39

This turned out to be a longer first post than I though it would be. I don't know why people are comparing these "good" laptops to Apple laptops in specs. Apple laptops really have not been better than the best laptops. For every MBPr that has come out there has been a better laptop by one of the tops Asus, Dell, HP, Lenovo, Acer. The reason is I buy Apple is I need a stable operating system. The last 4 Windows based…

This is a surprising comment to me. I've followed the laptop market pretty closely for years now and Apple consistently has offered the highest quality devices of everyone in my opinion. Most importantly to me is the sheer size/weight of the device while still maintaining features. In this way Macbooks have been superior for years - but I'm hoping there's just some lines I've missed. If you could point me to some lap…

I traded in my MacBook for an i7 ATIV Book 9 Plus about a year and a half ago. The Samsung was (I think) thinner and lighter than my Air, but had a higher than MBPr resolution display and i7 processor. Basically like a high end MBPr in an Air form factor. The Samsung was a pretty dramatic upgrade and I sold my MacBook almost immediately. I only miss it occasionally when I'd like to be able to build an iOS app.

Today, I'm using a Surface Pro 3 and actually like it even better than the Samsung. There's something impressive about being able to carry a full i7 development machine around like it's a thin, hardcover book.

Re: Dell XPS 13 Review

#112

Post by kod »

whitecat wrote: post #39

This turned out to be a longer first post than I though it would be. I don't know why people are comparing these "good" laptops to Apple laptops in specs. Apple laptops really have not been better than the best laptops. For every MBPr that has come out there has been a better laptop by one of the tops Asus, Dell, HP, Lenovo, Acer. The reason is I buy Apple is I need a stable operating system. The last 4 Windows based…

There is nothing on the market competitive with a MBPr in terms of hardware (completely ignoring software).

The XPS 15 is the closest, and it's apparently plagued by coil whine.

Re: Dell XPS 13 Review

#113

Post by seanmcdirmid »

ubercow13 wrote: post #101
simonebrunozzi wrote: post #64

The single thing that prevents me from switching from a Macbook to a Dell XPS is the Apple trackpad. Think about it.

But this laptop has a "precision touchpad" ie. one that doesn't have a 3rd party driver and interfaces with Windows directly [1] (it's maybe the first one to?). Reportedly it's much more like a Macbook in responsiveness. So maybe there are zero things now [1] https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/dn...

TheVerge gave the new xps's touchpad a fairly bad review; but ya, I think it is the biggest blocker for most of us.

Re: Dell XPS 13 Review

#114

Post by hsitz »

stcredzero wrote: post #95
hsitz wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Current 13.3" Macbook Pro weighs 3.46 pounds. The Dell XPS 13 weighs 2.6 pounds. The MBP thus weighs 32% more (0.8 pounds) than the Dell. That's a big difference to me, and to lots of people.

Something a bit bulkier, but a lot lighter and more durable would be great.

The upcoming Lenovo LaVie Z machines will weigh 1.7 lbs but be in a bulkier (tough) Magnesium-alloy case. Not sure if they'll have enough RAM, hd-storage, or battery-life for many, although if they're that light I'd probably be happy to carry an ac-adapter around for periodic charging: http://news.lenovo.com/images/20034/Lenovo%20LaVie%20Z%20Spe...

Re: Dell XPS 13 Review

#115

Post by micv »

sliverstorm wrote: post #67
simonebrunozzi wrote: post #64

The single thing that prevents me from switching from a Macbook to a Dell XPS is the Apple trackpad. Think about it.

A nice little thought-terminating stance. Considering Dell computers can never have Apple parts.

If, after years of trying, OEMs still can't produce a trackpad on par with Apple's offerings, that's on them, not their potential customers who are turned off by the absence.

Re: Dell XPS 13 Review

#116

Post by adwilson »

jakevn wrote: post #102
adwilson wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have a link to the tests or the data? I work on the indexer and am always looking for more data about what we are doing wrong.

Check out the top comment of this article: http://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonevangelho/2015/01/26/dell-x... A commenter pointed out to the author that Windows Indexing was responsible for significant battery drain and the author confirmed by running the test again with it disabled.

Thanks, not great to see, but good to know what we have to fix

Re: Dell XPS 13 Review

#117

Post by micv »

sliverstorm wrote: post #68
micv wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are your usage patterns? I've found 256GB to be a bit of a sweet spot. I can't get everything I would ever want on the disc, but it's enough with maintenance and uninstalling things I'm no longer using to any great extent. And the performance advantage of an SDD is so ridiculously nice that I would never give it up for a bit of extra convenience. If you're doing things that are seriously space heavy like video e…

If you're doing things that are seriously space heavy like video editing, you'd probably need an external storage source to make up the difference. You'd probably need external storage either way. I used to have some friends who were big into video editing, they could chew through 1TB with just a few projects.

Fair enough, but if someone's producing terabytes of data I can't imagine that they'll be satisfied with any laptop's storage for too long.

Re: Dell XPS 13 Review

#118

Post by 01Michael10 »

tramjoe_ wrote: post #70
01Michael10 wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry, didn't realize you guys were using a 13.3" PC for real work. Yikes! I guess spoiled here to have separate PCs for work (two 21" displays), home (24" display plus TV as second display), and a laptop for portable use. Using a small display laptop as my main box would be to limiting for me. When I am running a VM or logged on to another PC remotely, I like to view it on a second display instead of switching back…

You do not understand, do you? We do work on these machines. Using VMs, mostly headless. I have 10 to 20 VMs running on my X220 while on the road - in my case mostly build environments - and _none_ of them is taking a sinlge pixel on my display.

I understand perfectly... You guys have use cases much less common then mine. Sorry that I have use of more then one computer and my laptop is strictly a portable device that is stored in my backpack (I don't really want to connect and disconnect it all day long).

These were reasons to down-vote me?

Re: Dell XPS 13 Review

#119

Post by tdicola »

cies wrote: post #72

A Developer Edition (with Linux preloaded) will come at some point. Currently there are driver issues of which the non-working audio is most persistent. Most elaborate info on it here: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/1413446 In this Reddit thread... http://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/2u0jjd/linux_support_... ...you find comment from barton808, who identifies himself as the Team Lead of Sputni…

Any idea what battery life might look like on the Linux version? Really hoping it can get near the 10+ hours of the Windows version.

Re: Dell XPS 13 Review

#120

Post by Agathos »

MetaCosm wrote: post #78
cies wrote: post #72

A Developer Edition (with Linux preloaded) will come at some point. Currently there are driver issues of which the non-working audio is most persistent. Most elaborate info on it here: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/1413446 In this Reddit thread... http://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/2u0jjd/linux_support_... ...you find comment from barton808, who identifies himself as the Team Lead of Sputni…

I was excited until I read 8GB max... that can't be right can it? What modern developer machine would have an 8GB cap?

I don't know of any ultrabook that lets you go past 8GB. Not this, not the Lenovo X1, not the MacBook Air. Do you know of one?

Edit: saw your pointer to the Asus UX303LN. Interesting.

Post reply on HN