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XPS 13 developer edition 7th generation available

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Re: XPS 13 developer edition 7th generation available

#161
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…

Touch screen is a big con for me. I've had an xps 13 for a brief time one year ago. It was the QHD model, I wanted the resolution. Well, the screen isn't bright enough and there is too much glare, almost like a mirror. It drains the battery faster, even if you disable the touch sensor. Although the colors were nice, white areas would look dirty, like there was some grayish pattern, probably the sensor grid. All this just drove my OCD crazy and I sold it.

Re: XPS 13 developer edition 7th generation available

#162
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 mean, who uses touch screens for development?

Web developers who want to test using real touch input events rather than the quirky emulation found in a few browsers.

If you're developing for touch, in particular things like drag & drop, you want a real device.

Even if you have an iPad or smartphone test device too, it is nice to have that ability on your main development machine rather than jumping around.

Re: XPS 13 developer edition 7th generation available

#163
Last year I was in the market for a new laptop for the first time since 2011. I really wanted an XPS 13 because it was Linux first and cheaper than a MBP. Generally what put me off was various issues relating to coil whine and general "lack of craftmanship" expressed by reviewers. The dell xps subreddit was a nightmare to read.

In the end I got a MBP and have no regrets, OS X is easy to use and Apple has always gotten the physical aspects of the MBP right. I'll consider XPS again in the future (~2-3 years) but doubt they'll be able to get to the craftmanship level of Apple.

Re: XPS 13 developer edition 7th generation available

#164

Only 16 gigs of RAM? Why do companies still hold that limit in 2018? I was hoping for 32 gigs back in 2015.

Expected the new XPS to have a developer flavor soon, but also expected it to be limited to 16GB still. Was not surprised since the Windows version has the same limit. Went ahead and purchased a 32GB System76 Galaga Pro last week with the same i7-8550U available on the XPS. It's a slightly larger 13", but feels a lot closer to my 5th gen XPS 13 than the MacBook Pro the Galaga replaces. Comes with a retina-like matte…

You could go precision though. Which is what I did. Precision 5520 has an Ubuntu option and works flawlessly with Linux. 32-64g of DDR4 and 12h of battery with the 9cell upgrade

I should know. I’ve been using one for nearly a year.

Re: XPS 13 developer edition 7th generation available

#165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Try pressing space (or page down on keyboards with pg down).

when in tight vehicles (or even lying on a bed/couch), the spacebar is highly inconvenient (and often requires changing your grip of the laptop). I have used pg up and pg dn on laptop keyboards that put them in their proper place (top right by hinge). I agree with parent that touch screen is particularly nice for this (and I also never thought I'd appreciate it)

Re: XPS 13 developer edition 7th generation available

#166

My XPS 13 9350 is undoubtedly the best computer I've ever owned. I don't seem to have this coil whine thing or I just don't notice it. The 8GB of RAM has served me well and I'd never want to sacrifice any of the battery life for increasing that - it's an ultrabook after all. I've always run Ubuntu and while I did have problems with WiFi and resuming when it first came out, they are both rock solid now. I have never t…

I have an XPS 15 9560 and I _love_ it. Never had coil whine or any of those problems. I did spend a bit of time re-pasting the CPU* when I noticed CPU throttling during gaming. That fixed it.

I put 32GB of ram and (now) Fedora 27 on it. I love everything about it. LOVE!

The comment I get the most is "that screen is incredible" from mac users.

* https://www.ultrabookreview.com/14875-fix-throttling-xps-15/ (PS, unlike a mac this is something you can do. Which is part of the beauty). To get the gpu dynamic switching working "right" with bumblebee you need to compile a custom kernel with CFG_ACPI_REV_OVERRIDE. See https://xps13.landweg.nl/

Re: XPS 13 developer edition 7th generation available

#167
post #97

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…

I learned to code in the era of 3:2 displays, and I don't miss them. I never code using the full width of my display. If your lines are that long you have issues. I also don't really need any more vertical space. On my 15" laptop and my 27" display I can see plenty of code at once. Having a few more lines on the top of bottom would not magically alleviate the need to scroll. I'm all for people using the tools that su…

It's nice if you have a high resolution, large screen. But smaller screens with less resolution, 16:9 is not very usable.

Typically, a 16:9 screen doesn't have nearly as many vertical pixels as a 3:2 screen. Sure, a 27" screen fixes that (1440 pixels), but that just masks the problem.

Re: XPS 13 developer edition 7th generation available

#168
The hardware is lovely but the available configurations make me sad. For compiling the projects I work on, I need an i7 and 16 GB of memory. But this configuration only comes with the touchscreen, which is not only useless but destroys battery life, has a far inferior viewing angle, and adds an obscene amount to the cost. Amusingly, the config that I want is available, but not to me, because I'm not in Europe. I would buy this in a heartbeat otherwise.

Re: XPS 13 developer edition 7th generation available

#169
post #90

Where's the fucking USB ports?!? I have literally used or observed zero USB C devices till now. I've seen newer phones but who plugs phones into computers anymore? The main issue is flash drives, external HDDs, mice, keyboards, LTE modems, Kindle, and so on. None of those are available in type C variants and I don't want to be inconvenienced by my new laptop. If I wanted to hurt myself I'd just buy from Apple!

I'm really happy about USB-C. Since I got a new Macbook I only carry a single power adapter when traveling, plus an adapter dongle for legacy devices (Headphones, Kindle, Shaver, ...). Same for use in the office: a single cable connects you to power, an external display, Ethernet, etc. It's true that most external devices are still USB-A, but that's not Dell's or Apple's problem. It's a chicken-and-egg situation and…

My macbook's usb-c charger constantly loses connection, a slight tug and it falls out.
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