XPS 13 developer edition 7th generation available • Hacker News Board

Re: XPS 13 developer edition 7th generation available

#141

Post by jhasse » Thu, Jan 04, 2018, 8:36 PM UTC

nkkollaw wrote: post #61

Very cool, but as an owner of the Cube Thinker/i35--which has the same exact 3000x2000 3:2 aspect ratio display as the Surface Book (but costs $500)--I can't imagine why any developer would put up with a 16:9 display. Specially if you have "developer" in your product name, why can't they figure out that 16:9 is not the best aspect ratio for everyone? I write code the whole day, not watch movies. That huge extra verti…

IMHO 16:9 is best for coding. You can have multiple files side by side. Or a terminal next to your editor. When Debugging: Watching variables, call stack, ... next to your code.

Re: XPS 13 developer edition 7th generation available

#142

Post by rsynnott » Thu, Jan 04, 2018, 8:37 PM UTC

cevn wrote: post #28

Why can't I get 16gb ram and have a 1080p screen? Is the touchpad still terrible? Does it still have coil whine?

Weirdly, you can in Europe.

Re: XPS 13 developer edition 7th generation available

#143

Post by LeifCarrotson » Thu, Jan 04, 2018, 8:38 PM UTC

randyrand wrote: post #93

FBISurveillance wrote: post #27

IMO, it does not make sense to buy any of those new models: whether it's Dell, HP, or else--before we see models with 32Gb of RAM. It's been told here over and over since 2016 when first Touchbar MacBook got released. It's 2018 and all of us, including manufacturers, are locked with 16GB of RAM and those upgrades look like a joke. Within last month I noticed myötähäpeä when someone asks me for laptop advice. Hopefull…

I really don't need 32GB, but considering my 15" Lenovo W520 from 6.5 years ago has 16GB too what on earth has happened to computer innovation!? 6.5 years without a DRAM increase for 15" laptops is bonkers. It was $1500 for the laptop, it wasn't even crazy expensive back then. On top of that it even supported 32GB. All in a rather sleek 15" form factor. (6.2 pounds vs 2018 XPS 15 4.6 pounds). Sources: https://forums.…

The W520 was and is an outlier in just about every category, though. Not exactly a fair comparison...

Also, if you're going to be talking about the form factor and weight, you should probably mention the power adapter...The XPS takes a 45W, 0.2 pound little USB C device. The W520 requires you to lug around a 1.7 lbs, 170W beast that definitely qualifies as a brick. That and a lack of support for the latest NVMe drives are some of the only shortcomings, IMO.

Re: XPS 13 developer edition 7th generation available

#144

Post by TeamMCS » Thu, Jan 04, 2018, 8:38 PM UTC

My newly found issue with Dell and the XPS 13 9360 series is their insane costs.

Dell you see wont give you an indication of cost, instead you must send the laptop back at a cost of £40.

Stupidly I thought they'd be fair, but no they came back with a quote for £626. They had no interest in offering a discount - so I told them to send it back and get shoved.

£40 was the cost of my laziness. Now I'll just DIY for significantly less.

Worth baring in mind if you're not confident repairing the machine yourself.

Re: XPS 13 developer edition 7th generation available

#145

Post by jsgo » Thu, Jan 04, 2018, 8:42 PM UTC

I'm confused in the color options. I went with the top spec one, Silver is only option. I go back to New XPS 13 (non-developer) and go top spec again. Silver and Rose Gold available. What happened to black/carbon fiber? Is it just for lower configurations? I'm glad they added Silver (options and all), but I like black better. Especially with the camera (I'm guessing) below the logo.

Re: XPS 13 developer edition 7th generation available

#146

Post by martinsb » Thu, Jan 04, 2018, 8:42 PM UTC

torgard wrote: post #98

Max 8gb for regular display... I mean, who uses touch screens for development? I can't really imagine a scenario where it would be helpful for me. Maybe when doing work in Illustrator and Photoshop, but I usually use a different machine for that anyhow, because of Adobe's lack of Linux support. I don't want to pay for something I won't use. I am otherwise actively looking for a laptop. System76 does not have European…

I have previous generation XPS 13 Developer Edition with hi-res touch screen. I chose the touch screen mainly because of the high resolution it provides however while using it I realized that touch screen can be quite useful sometimes. My best use case is reading long documents while commuting by train with the laptop in my lap. I find swiping with my thumb much more convenient than scrolling or pressing up/down keys. Not that it is a killer feature but still nice to have.

Re: XPS 13 developer edition 7th generation available

#147

Post by 1123581321 » Thu, Jan 04, 2018, 8:43 PM UTC

TeamMCS wrote: post #144

My newly found issue with Dell and the XPS 13 9360 series is their insane costs. Dell you see wont give you an indication of cost, instead you must send the laptop back at a cost of £40. Stupidly I thought they'd be fair, but no they came back with a quote for £626. They had no interest in offering a discount - so I told them to send it back and get shoved. £40 was the cost of my laziness. Now I'll just DIY for signi…

It's hard to evaluate this without context. What was wrong? What were independent repair shops offering?

Re: XPS 13 developer edition 7th generation available

#148

Post by olegkikin » Thu, Jan 04, 2018, 8:43 PM UTC

I looked at the i7/16GB/512GB/UHD version, it's over $2K.

Why not get a Surface Book instead for $1600?

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0163GNS5S/

Or Gigabyte Aero?

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MY2YYKB/

Re: XPS 13 developer edition 7th generation available

#149

Post by platinumrad » Thu, Jan 04, 2018, 8:44 PM UTC

saycheese wrote: post #130

nkkollaw wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Huge difference. If you're in a country where they sell the Surface Book, go take a look and you'll immediately notice that there is a _lot_ more vertical space.

Did you even look at the graphic I linked to? If so, there’s no need to “go look” at anything, since that graphic very clearly shows there’s not a major difference.

The graphic you linked shows the different aspect ratios available to cameras from Panasonic's LX series. If there's "not a major a difference" then why is the LX series so highly regarded for this feature?

Re: XPS 13 developer edition 7th generation available

#150

Post by jsgo » Thu, Jan 04, 2018, 8:44 PM UTC

torgard wrote: post #132

derekp7 wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The main reason for putting touch screens on laptops is that Windows 8 - 10 have an interface that is designed to be tablet friendly, at the expense of being desktop friendly. So it is easier to do an occasional touch gesture to do certain things. Also, things like kinetic scrolling is easier with touch. With a mouse, you have to click the button, move the mouse, then unclick while the mouse is sill moving. Much easi…

But I thought XPS developer edition was supposed to be aimed at Linux users, specifically Ubuntu. I use i3, which would (edit:) not benefit from the touch screen from the get-go. Maybe I could configure it to react to touch events in a cool manner, like moving windowed stuff around with touch. Resizing with two fingers. That might actually be pretty cool

well, as a developer they're giving you additional hardware to develop against so there's that case. But I think from the business standpoint, it probably doesn't make sense to have specific configurations for DE when being at or close to 1:1 with their Windows counterparts is probably easier in production.