Dell XPS 13 Review • Hacker News Board

Re: Dell XPS 13 Review

#11

Post by therealdrag0 » Thu, Feb 19, 2015, 8:31 PM UTC

at-fates-hands wrote: post #8

As much as I love SSD's, is 256GB actually enough for power users? Or are they assuming the OS will be on the SSD and you can hook up an external HD for more space? Just curious.

These days my power-use doesn't take up much space. I don't store many binaries because I can always re-download them quickly. But this varies according to what realm of power-use one is doing. I don't do anything with image/video/audio.

Re: Dell XPS 13 Review

#12

Post by siegecraft » Thu, Feb 19, 2015, 8:35 PM UTC

I'm surprised that Dell managed to get back to this point, but I think Apple is no longer a no-brainer if you want a "nicer" build quality, and you can start differentiating based on support. I never thought I would buy a non-Apple laptop again, but I've actually been eyeing the Dell XPS and a friend's recent experiences w/ AppleCare makes me want to take every effort to find an alternative hardware vendor, assuming they can hit close to the same quality.

Re: Dell XPS 13 Review

#13

Post by jbk » Thu, Feb 19, 2015, 8:37 PM UTC

It seems great, but I really need a 16GB RAM option. (At least they have the 512GB SSD)

With a couple of VMs, and a webbrowser, 8 GB can get tiny, and those machines don't evolve, so I'd like to plan for a couple of years...

Re: Dell XPS 13 Review

#14

Post by jakevn » Thu, Feb 19, 2015, 8:41 PM UTC

bryanlarsen wrote: post #7

The interesting difference between this review and that of most others is that Anandtech endorsed Dell's claims of 15 hours of battery life. Reviews like at The Verge[1] measured the battery life at 6.5 hours. I trust Anandtech more than The Verge to conduct properly controlled tests, but it really does illustrate the point that usage has a far bigger impact on battery life on modern notebooks than it did in the past…

Apparently simply disabling Windows Indexing increased battery life from 7.5 hours to 9.5 hours in some tests.

Re: Dell XPS 13 Review

#15

Post by listic » Thu, Feb 19, 2015, 8:41 PM UTC

jkot wrote: post #3

This laptop will most likely get official support for Ubuntu 14.04.

How does 'official support' for Ubuntu look like?

Re: Dell XPS 13 Review

#16

Post by commandar » Thu, Feb 19, 2015, 8:42 PM UTC

jbk wrote: post #13

It seems great, but I really need a 16GB RAM option. (At least they have the 512GB SSD) With a couple of VMs, and a webbrowser, 8 GB can get tiny, and those machines don't evolve, so I'd like to plan for a couple of years...

I don't think anyone's making machines in this class with that much RAM. They practically have to be built with on-board RAM to get this thin and there's just not enough demand to justify the logistics of building 16GB motherboards for them.

Re: Dell XPS 13 Review

#17

Post by mercnet » Thu, Feb 19, 2015, 8:43 PM UTC

jbk wrote: post #13

It seems great, but I really need a 16GB RAM option. (At least they have the 512GB SSD) With a couple of VMs, and a webbrowser, 8 GB can get tiny, and those machines don't evolve, so I'd like to plan for a couple of years...

Same, laptop has great potential especially if they release a Linux version. I hope the MB supports 16GB and Dell does not solder the RAM to the motherboard.

Re: Dell XPS 13 Review

#18

Post by Adaptive » Thu, Feb 19, 2015, 8:44 PM UTC

bryanlarsen wrote: post #7

The interesting difference between this review and that of most others is that Anandtech endorsed Dell's claims of 15 hours of battery life. Reviews like at The Verge[1] measured the battery life at 6.5 hours. I trust Anandtech more than The Verge to conduct properly controlled tests, but it really does illustrate the point that usage has a far bigger impact on battery life on modern notebooks than it did in the past…

The 15 hours of battery was only for the FHD (1920x1080) display. I scanned The Verge review but wasn't clear if they tested battery life on the FHD or QHD+ display.

Toss up some terminus and vim and the FHD model sounds like a great all day coding machine.

Re: Dell XPS 13 Review

#19

Post by jbk » Thu, Feb 19, 2015, 8:47 PM UTC

commandar wrote: post #16

jbk wrote: post #13

It seems great, but I really need a 16GB RAM option. (At least they have the 512GB SSD) With a couple of VMs, and a webbrowser, 8 GB can get tiny, and those machines don't evolve, so I'd like to plan for a couple of years...

I don't think anyone's making machines in this class with that much RAM. They practically have to be built with on-board RAM to get this thin and there's just not enough demand to justify the logistics of building 16GB motherboards for them.

The MacBook Pro 13 has an option to get 512+16GB. It's a bit heavier, but not that much.

The Asus Zenbook UX303LN has 12GB (it's better), but only 256GB of SSD.

I don't mind the price, I need a powerful tool.

Re: Dell XPS 13 Review

#20

Post by jbk » Thu, Feb 19, 2015, 8:48 PM UTC

mercnet wrote: post #17

jbk wrote: post #13

It seems great, but I really need a 16GB RAM option. (At least they have the 512GB SSD) With a couple of VMs, and a webbrowser, 8 GB can get tiny, and those machines don't evolve, so I'd like to plan for a couple of years...

Same, laptop has great potential especially if they release a Linux version. I hope the MB supports 16GB and Dell does not solder the RAM to the motherboard.

> I hope the MB supports 16GB and Dell does not solder the RAM to the motherboard.

On 13", all the RAMs are soldered on the boards.