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Dell XPS 13 Review

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Re: Dell XPS 13 Review

#281

Post by Encosia »

e12e wrote: post #224
gambiting wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well....1920x1080@3 bytes per pixel@60Hz = 336MB/s, while 3200x1800@3 bytes per pixel@60Hz = 989MB/s. In QHD mode your laptop is sending nearly a gigabyte of data to the display...per second. It might not be very power hungry to compute those pixels with a modern GPU, but even simply sending that much data requires a lot more power than sending "only" 330MB/s.

I'm not so sure. Given this random google hit (on 10gbps ethernet nics) -- I'm not sure it makes much difference: http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~acr31/pubs/sohan-10gbpower.pdf I couldn't find anything on hdmi/4k, but this seems to suggest it doesn't make much difference (compared to what I assume the backlight and screen draws): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thunderbolt_(interface) At any rate, if we assume it takes 4 times…

I was always under the impression that the backlight is a lot of the power that displays consume, which is why LED displays use so much less power than CCFC displays. That would remain constant with resolution, right? If that's the case, I'd think that the actual GPU work (or the RAM, like you say) is where the power difference was for me.

I could be wrong about how significant the backlight is on an LED display though.

I also thought that modern video cards (as in from the last 15-20 years) optimized 2D graphics so that regular desktop use didn't require pushing a screen full of pixels to the GPU on every frame. That would seem to diminish the significance of the actual number of pixels at QHD+.

I don't have a good answer.

Re: Dell XPS 13 Review

#282

Post by tracker1 »

cies wrote: post #89
MetaCosm wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

It's a bit of a bummer. But I can live with it. For me it's all compared to other ultrabooks, like the MacBookAir which also does 8G max. I hope I'll never need to carry a classic-full-size laptop anymore, ever.

My macbook pro isn't that much thicker than an air.. though I wound up getting the 15" retina because I needed 16gb without waiting a few weeks for it... tried an 8gb/13" retina model, and returned it, needed the extra ram.

Re: Dell XPS 13 Review

#283

Post by threedaymonk »

mrjatx wrote: post #266
josteink wrote: post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Come on Apple, seriously. By depending on one non-standard HW supplier, you are building your own jail. Have you considered breaking out? Get out there. Try these wonderful gadgets you want so badly. Taste freedom. Freedom feels good.

I'm actually not a fan of the hardware at all. I hate that I can't buy an actual dock to dock, so I'm unplugging ghetto caddy every time I want to take my laptop home from the office. Thing is I love OSX, and actually, not even specifically OSX, I love some of the apps MADE for OSX only. If these damned developers would make webapps or linux ports I'd LOVE to migrate back to either a thinkpad carbon X or some sort of…

> as long as I can virtualize efficiently with virtualbox or something

You can use VirtualBox on Linux, but QEMU with KVM is, in my experience, far more efficient, and a lot less buggy.

Re: Dell XPS 13 Review

#284

Post by iak8god »

QuantumRoar wrote: post #278
iak8god wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like the power and price advantage of paying only the retail price for storage and memory upgrades and installing them on my own. Size is a very distant third, and mostly a cosmetic issue at this point. You may be right about the long-term trend (but I hope not). In the short term my annoyance at this has me considering something other than a Macbook Pro as my next machine, which I never would have believed if you'…

Actually, the price (for the OEM) of buying completely integrated components is lower than buying separate ones. However, OEMs don't like to show that to customers. So each step in upgrading RAM or SSDs or whatever is worth $100 or more, which makes it way cheaper to just buy separate components... I'm envious of your attitude for not really caring about your laptop's size. That makes it a lot easier :)

> I'm envious of your attitude for not really caring about your laptop's size.

Well, it's not that I don't care at all, but I'd much prefer an up-to-date processor, GPU, etc in a 2011 13" MBP chassis - with the ability to expand RAM & storage - over the slimmer MPB "retina" offerings.

Re: Dell XPS 13 Review

#285

Post by bryanlarsen »

joshuapants wrote: post #280
bryanlarsen wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hold off a bit then. USB 3.1 Type C is just around the corner. Once it's established, pretty much every laptop, tablet and phone will contain a USB 3.1 Type C docking port. (and most monitors will be docking stations).

Do you have a particular timeframe on that? I'm in the market for a new laptop, and considering just getting an XPS 13 tonight. However, the advent of skylake has me considering waiting (but who knows if that'll be out in the next 6 months), as does your comment.

The rumour is that the next-gen macbook air will have it, and that this is going to happen this quarter. Iff that happens, then other manufacturers are going to hop on board too.

If not, I expect it may take over a year before it's ubiquitous -- Intel isn't including USB 3.1 in Skylake, so it will require an extra chip, something manufacturers are very hesitant to add to laptops.

Re: Dell XPS 13 Review

#286

Post by meddlepal »

72deluxe wrote: post #227
meddlepal wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My company recently gave me an Precision M4800. It's a beast to carry around, but I love it. The whole thing feels very solid. Once I updated the BIOS then Fedora 21 ran like a champ. If it didn't cost nearly $3,000 I would buy one as a personal laptop. 32GB of RAM and 2xSSD make working with a lot of VM's very easy.

That laptop sounds insane, particularly with that resolution! It does look like something from the mid 1990s unfortunately, but at least nobody will pinch it based on looks alone (more likely with Apple hardware sadly)

It's pretty awesome. I don't have the 3K resolution screen, but the 1920x1080 is still great. It is heavy though and my commute involves a lot of walking so that can be a bit annoying.

I kinda like the mid 1990's look. I think the best thing though is the more traditional keyboard. I really cannot stand the chiclet-style keyboards that have become all the rage.

Re: Dell XPS 13 Review

#287

Post by joshuapants »

bryanlarsen wrote: post #285
joshuapants wrote: post #280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have a particular timeframe on that? I'm in the market for a new laptop, and considering just getting an XPS 13 tonight. However, the advent of skylake has me considering waiting (but who knows if that'll be out in the next 6 months), as does your comment.

The rumour is that the next-gen macbook air will have it, and that this is going to happen this quarter. Iff that happens, then other manufacturers are going to hop on board too. If not, I expect it may take over a year before it's ubiquitous -- Intel isn't including USB 3.1 in Skylake, so it will require an extra chip, something manufacturers are very hesitant to add to laptops.

Hmm. Rumor has it the next Air refresh is next week. If that's not the next-gen one, then I'm a bit skeptical that they'll put a brand new model out right after a minor change. I guess I'll see what happens next week and then make my decision.

Re: Dell XPS 13 Review

#288

Post by whitecat »

whitecat wrote: post #91
maaaats wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The last 4 Windows based machine I owned crashed when I close/move/sleep/awoke it/plugged in another display What century was this? I could understand one model having these issues, but 4? I think you embellish.

I actually didn't tell enough. I have had 2 Asus, 1 Dell, 3 Lenovo, 1 HP, 1 Chromebook, 1 MBPr 2013 late. In the span of 5 years 2008-2013. I only stick need my Apple now. I purchased and sold 4 of those the Asuses, Dell, and HP. The Lenovos were purchased by my Prof. I complained and she gave them to the incoming students and I got a new one.

Update: Thanks for down voting because I am the most unlucky person with crappy crappy computers.

Re: Dell XPS 13 Review

#289

Post by jdonaldson »

e12e wrote: post #207
jdonaldson wrote: post #23

I had been trying to find a decent developer's laptop for some time, and it led me to the xps 13 "developer edition" (the predecessor to this one). Keep in mind that I really wanted to like that laptop. However, in the end, I went back to my macbook air. There were just too many small headaches to deal with. I'll list them here. I'd like to know if there are any improvements this time around. I'd be curious to know i…

I very much doubt that any pc laptop married with any given Linux distro will ever be a better macbook experience than a macbook running OS X. I understand that a lot of people like working in a Mac -- but unless you point out what don't like on the Mac it's hard to see why you'd switch. Personally I love bare xsession+monad+apt-get of Debian, along with a sprinkle of schroot for running testing and sid in parallel,…

At some point, OSX will jump the shark. It just doesn't fully take part in the nix ecosystem. Different projects like homebrew address some of these issues, but still, Darwin feels more like a nephew, rather than a son of nix. I don't think OSX has done anything really stupid yet.

On the other had, the nix ecosystem has really flubbed a lot of key opportunities for progress. You mentioned liking X11. Personally, I hate it. It's incredibly outdated. Rather than unifying behind a next generation display api, we have efforts divided between Weyland and Mir, ensuring that the display landscape for nix remains fragmented for the foreseeable future. This really is bonkers.

So, to answer your question, I want to move off OSX for the typical philosophical reasons, but I'm not willing to do it at the expense of basic ergonomics and fit and finish.

Re: Dell XPS 13 Review

#290

Post by e12e »

jdonaldson wrote: post #289
e12e wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I very much doubt that any pc laptop married with any given Linux distro will ever be a better macbook experience than a macbook running OS X. I understand that a lot of people like working in a Mac -- but unless you point out what don't like on the Mac it's hard to see why you'd switch. Personally I love bare xsession+monad+apt-get of Debian, along with a sprinkle of schroot for running testing and sid in parallel,…

At some point, OSX will jump the shark. It just doesn't fully take part in the nix ecosystem. Different projects like homebrew address some of these issues, but still, Darwin feels more like a nephew, rather than a son of nix. I don't think OSX has done anything really stupid yet. On the other had, the nix ecosystem has really flubbed a lot of key opportunities for progress. You mentioned liking X11. Personally, I ha…

> So, to answer your question, I want to move off OSX for the typical philosophical reasons, but I'm not willing to do it at the expense of basic ergonomics and fit and finish.

It's good that we have diversity; I wouldn't move to OS X at the expense of basic ergonomics either (even though I do admire the finish :-).

I'm a bit curious about the frustration with X11. Sure, it's a cludge and has issues and so on -- but does it matter so much that people can't wait for the alternative? I really only see two cases were it matters: If you're writing an X11 server, or if you're writing an X11 screensaver. As we have both of those, and they work fine -- I don't really feel the pain.

I'll admit that I don't do a lot of programming for X11, but both qt and gtk seem fairly pleasant to work with as far as I can tell. It might be papering over cracks -- but those cracks have already been papered over?

Did you consider running chrome OS (maybe with a full GNU/Linux chroot)?

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