The real issue here is battery life. Only 6 hours? The new X1 carbon from Lenovo can get 9, the T440s can get up to 17 (with extended battery), and the MBA can get 12 right out of the box.
Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition review
101–110 of 169 posts
Re: Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition review
#102Earlier quoted context omitted.
Many GUI elements do not scale. For example apps like Chrome and Skype render very small, almost unusable. I'm guessing these apps are not going through X to render. Others like Firefox render ok, but the icons are a bit on the small side. Even Gnome 3 itself doesn't do a great job, when you are in the Workspaces view the taskbar on the left is a bit small. The Settings/Sound menu in the top right doesn't correctly g…
Ah yes, I see. I just tried it out, here's GIMP with a 256 DPI: http://i.imgur.com/2GpqyND.png The title-bar size is configured in pixels, so that could be fixed easily by the user, but icons, both in the GIMP and in the native window don't resize well. It seems the DPI scaling is only applied to text, and only text-containing elements are scaled accordingly.
Arch Wiki is a good resource for this: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/HiDPI
And apparently there is an update today! Can't wait to try this out.
Re: Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition review
#103I have one of these and think it's pretty good. I am really happy to have been able to give my money to someone selling me something with Linux on it.
Hi David, I have one of these too! But which one, that is the rub. As far as I can tell there are now three versions of project Sputnik. I too am so happy to throw my € in Dell's direction. I have the second because I bought mine just before the recent Haswell refresh, gah :( Please correct me if I am wrong. Original version ... November 2012 1: http://bartongeorge.net/2012/11/29/sputnik-has-landed-introd... Brings 1…
The Dell Sputnik forum has been somewhat useful, but mark me interested in a possible third party forum/list for sputnik users. I'm still running 12.04 (plus too many PPAs for apps) on my Sputnik beta XPS. Lots of folks are doing fine with other Ubuntu but I'm waiting for another LTS.
I mostly use Gnome classic and Gnome 3, fwiw.
Other than the touchpad still being too sensitive for my preferences (this gripe not limited to the XPS) it's been a awesome machine. It was my first SSD machine and still boots so fast. I'm jealous of the newer CPUs especially if battery life extends.
Re: Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition review
#104I've been using one of these with the HD screen since the spring, here are some thoughts:
Nice: - Good battery life. With screen on full, wifi on I can get between 3-5 hours depending on CPU utilization. With screen brightness turned down, wifi off, low utilization, ~6 hours
- Keyboard and mouse pad are great
- No issues with unsupported bits and pieces from ubuntu, with exception of video output via usb
- the battery strength indicator on the side is handy for quickly checking if i need to grab my power cable without having to turn the machine on as well
- Display quality (minus the glossy finish) is great, wide viewing angle, vivid colours
Naughty: - Glossy screen is a pain in the ass. Forget about using in sunlight, I also need to adjust mine to avoid getting the overheads in our office.
- Temperature management is pretty poor - the air vents on the bottom don't have much clearance even on a flat surface, and don't seem to move enough air. I worry about the long term lifespan of this machine because it regularly operates > 70c. When I can, I sit the machine on a laptop platform with a fan.
- (minor) the function keybind for adjusting the volume requires 2 hands - the fn key is on the lower left, while the volume up/down are on f11/f12.
- only 2 usb ports and no SD card reader.
Overall I've been happy with it.
Re: Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition review
#105A laptop targeted to developers should have a TrackPoint to move the cursor without taking the hands off the keyboard, a non-shortscreen monitor to see more lines of code, a matte screen to read the code better, and a numpad to, well, type numbers. OK, I guess I'm asking too much for today's standards, even if all these things were common ten years ago (sigh...), but when I saw "developer edition" I thought I would s…
"This is just a standard high-end laptop. Disappointing." Well, a high end laptop with a low resolution screen...
It's a strange world where we're saying 1080p is "low res".
Re: Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition review
#106Warning: Ubuntu on this laptop does not support video output on USB 3.0 docking stations.
AFAIK, video over USB3 ain't pretty. I wanted to buy an USB 3.0 docking station but these things seem to be Windows-only and, even there, people experience issues.
Re: Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition review
#107A laptop targeted to developers should have a TrackPoint to move the cursor without taking the hands off the keyboard, a non-shortscreen monitor to see more lines of code, a matte screen to read the code better, and a numpad to, well, type numbers. OK, I guess I'm asking too much for today's standards, even if all these things were common ten years ago (sigh...), but when I saw "developer edition" I thought I would s…
This is totally shitty naming by Dell. Name it Dell Sputnik and you are fine.
Ah, the eternal "war" between product development and marketing. I like the Sputnik name better as well, even when they called us cosmonauts :D
Re: Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition review
#108Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ah yes, I see. I just tried it out, here's GIMP with a 256 DPI: http://i.imgur.com/2GpqyND.png The title-bar size is configured in pixels, so that could be fixed easily by the user, but icons, both in the GIMP and in the native window don't resize well. It seems the DPI scaling is only applied to text, and only text-containing elements are scaled accordingly.
Arch Wiki is a good resource for this: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/HiDPI And apparently there is an update today! Can't wait to try this out.
Note that the setting mentioned there (Xft -> DPI) is the same as the one in my screenshot, found at Appearance -> Fonts.
Re: Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition review
#109Earlier quoted context omitted.
Number pads are such a colossal waste of real estate. Let alone on a 13 inch laptop, the keys would have to be so small. With regards to wanting a 4:3 display over a 16:9/10; with 1920x1080 resolution do you really need the 4:3? Are you really going to make your terminal/editing window full screen height? I use my rMBP in 1920x1200 and my terminals rarely need to go full screen height in order to see all the lines of…
I always make my terminals and windows full screen height in my 1600x1200 monitor and in my old 1920x1200 laptop. And on the desktop, I also have a vertical (1200x1600) monitor, typically used for documentation. Vertical space has always been the most important for reading text, that's why books typically come in portrait form...
So, if you have the same number of rows (say, 1200), you'd rather have 1600x1200 (4:3) than 1920x1200 (16:10) screen?
I hate 16:9 screens, just because manufacturers robbed me of 120 pixels on the screen (1920x1200 vs 1920x1080). 4:3 fascination was always strange to me - I never saw 4:3 laptop with more than 1200 pixel rows, and more pixels before my eyes is always better in my book.
Re: Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition review
#110> First boot: Ubuntu animation, Dell User Agreement , then the standard Ubuntu installer. Seriously?
FWIW, I picked up on that, too. Why would a new piece of hardware running a FOSS operating system need proprietary legalese from Dell? Not saying there aren't reasons for it, but anyone who's interested in buying a Linux laptop in the first place might want to know what they are.