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Dell XPS 13 Review from a lifelong Mac user

jeffgeerling.com

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Re: Dell XPS 13 Review from a lifelong Mac user

#201

Post by earenndil »

procinct wrote: post #185

I have a 2015 MBP and a Dell XPS 13 (I forget the year) and the thing that blew me away the most with Dell is the support. One day I went to turn my XPS on and it wouldn’t start. After some research it seemed like a dead motherboard. I was concerned I was going to have to send my laptop away for months to have it fixed but surprisingly because the XPS is an enterprise grade machine it qualifies for their pro support.…

Really? I've had a generally poor support experience with dell. Granted, I don't have enterprise support, but still. My dell laptop stopped charging (still within warranty!), called up support and spend a while trying to explain what the problem was. Eventually, I got it through and they said they had to replace the motherboard and would charge $200 (the whole thing was ~$500) for it.

Re: Dell XPS 13 Review from a lifelong Mac user

#202

Post by azdle »

true_tuna wrote: post #19

I run Ubuntu (actually Elementary now) on my XPS 13. Works pretty well. Track pad is not as good as my MacBook was. It also has the graphics card click which is super annoying.

Update your bios: http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/Drivers/DriversDet...

That mostly fixed the chirping I had. Still get it for a few milliseconds here and there, but it's nothing like it was before.

Re: Dell XPS 13 Review from a lifelong Mac user

#203

Post by vostok »

LeftTurnSignal wrote: post #146
mherrmann wrote: post #21

I made the switch last year and am pretty happy, especially with Ubuntu instead of macOS: https://fman.io/blog/home-and-hotel/

Do you have experience with the XPS with linux and bluetooth? Also with external monitors? I love my mid-2012 MBP, I hope it lasts forever but like many I'm weighing my options.

I use the XPS13 with pre-installed Ubuntu. All of the above work great. I usually use it plugged into an external 4k monitor.

Re: Dell XPS 13 Review from a lifelong Mac user

#204

Post by krn »

goatherders wrote: post #156
krn wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's what a consumer-grade product is: when you get a substantially lower build quality for what otherwise is exactly the same machine.

So most everything out there including everything Apple is consumer grade? Ok. Some people (including me) see military grade as enhanced build of the regular product but whatever. Potato, tomato.

ThinkPads used by developers (X & T) meet the same military-grade standards[1]. It depends what do you want to happen, when your machine hits the ground.

[1] https://www3.lenovo.com/hk/en/thisisthinkpad/innovation/thin...

Re: Dell XPS 13 Review from a lifelong Mac user

#205

Post by Promarged »

cannam wrote: post #137

I recently sold an XPS 13, an i7 9543 model from 2015, which was the first laptop in a long time that I regretted buying. I got it as a Windows machine and never ran anything else on it. Technically it was broadly fine. The specs were OK, it was reasonably repairable, I had a hi-dpi screen, the case was solid. But the keyboard felt really dead, the wrist rest was smeary, the screen had a grainy impression, the machin…

> I recently sold an XPS 13, an i7 9543 model from 2015, which was the first laptop in a long time that I regretted buying.

I've got 9350 and it's also bad. Coil whine, one firmware update completely bricked it (fortunately was on warranty), "fun" with accessories (TB15 was a disaster). Would not recommend.

Actually it's only the NBD warranty that keeps me with Dell (used that and it's very convenient). Does Microsoft have something like that?

Re: Dell XPS 13 Review from a lifelong Mac user

#206

Post by eksemplar »

reacharavindh wrote: post #9

I have a Dell XPS 13 as my personal machine. It runs Linux. Everything works. But, I still find myself using my MacBook Pro (provided by work) for almost everything even at home. Two things that keep me in the Mac land. 1. Retina Display and the 16:10 aspect ratio. 2. Smooth, and usable touchpad. XPS13's display is too rectangle and I'm not watching movies in it. It feels too cramped for looking at code. GNOME out of…

This is the perfect description of why I’ll probably never leave Mac land. I want my technology to work out the box, and Mac does that.

Sure I could probably setup the Linux trackpad to be Mac like if I threw plenty of hours at it, but I don’t want to waste my time like that, not anymore. I did in my youth, but now I’ll just buy the thing that works.

Re: Dell XPS 13 Review from a lifelong Mac user

#207

Post by avtar »

Tijdreiziger wrote: post #120
zumu wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What MacOS software do you miss? I use MacOS, Linux and Windows daily (less often Windows these days). The only feature I really miss on other OS's is spotlight, though I can kind of replace it with rofi in Linux world. Also, in my experience the ecosystem of Linux and Windows software is much larger than that of MacOS. Not to mention Mac software is sold at a premium (even things as simple as tab switching or note t…

Check out Wox for a Spotlight replacement on Windows: https://github.com/Wox-launcher/Wox

+1 for Wox. Listary is another option http://www.listary.com/

Re: Dell XPS 13 Review from a lifelong Mac user

#208

Post by nikanj »

slantyyz wrote: post #144
nkrisc wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Someone has. It's in MacBooks.

I get that I'm in the extreme minority here, but I pretty much hate all touchpads, including Apple's. I hate Apple's the least, so I will concede that Apple makes the best touch pads. I wish all the PC makers would stop trying to copy the Apple model of "all touch surface, and the pad on a rocker for buttons". I'm probably being old and cranky (for context, my very first laptop was an Apple Powerbook 170 with a track…

On the new one, it’s no longer on a rocker. If you manage to deep freeze the kernel, the trackpad stops clicking. The click is somehow created after force touch(?) deems your press to be hard enough for click.

Re: Dell XPS 13 Review from a lifelong Mac user

#209

Post by mseebach »

subway wrote: post #192
procinct wrote: post #185

I have a 2015 MBP and a Dell XPS 13 (I forget the year) and the thing that blew me away the most with Dell is the support. One day I went to turn my XPS on and it wouldn’t start. After some research it seemed like a dead motherboard. I was concerned I was going to have to send my laptop away for months to have it fixed but surprisingly because the XPS is an enterprise grade machine it qualifies for their pro support.…

The onsite and accidental damage options on ThinkPads was (is?) absolutely amazing. I think I paid an extra $100, but when I knocked my machine off the desk, Lenovo dispatched an IBMer to my office with a replacement panel in under 24 hours.

My wife had a refurbished X40 for the longest time. One time, the fan gave in, I tried to clean it, but couldn't get it to move. I figured it couldn't hurt to Google the part-number, and quickly ended up on IBMs country-local website with a local phone number. I dialed, and braced, half for an infinite IVR tree, half for being quoted a number in the range of the GDP of a small country. But neither happened, a few minutes later, a very helpful woman had quoted me something like $9.46 including postage and taking payment by card. The new fan arrived a few days later, and the X40 went on to live for a few more years. That thing was a tank.

Re: Dell XPS 13 Review from a lifelong Mac user

#210

Post by gecko »

abrookins wrote: post #106
yulaow wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always had very little sympathy for those who express very strong opinion _against_ other OSes and their users, professionals or not. In 2018 every one of the main OSes can be used efficiently for programming purposes, windows10 too especially now that it has the WLS

I've been hearing this about WSL for a while now. However, I just spent a ton of time (like weeks) actually trying Windows 10 and the Windows Subsystem for Linux (for those who don't know what WSL is), coming from a Mac, and I gotta say, WSL isn't there yet for the code I work with. Specifically, it worked fine for some Python stuff, it built some Go code decently, I figured something out for Docker, but then it blew…

Would I be correct that you tried WSL in late summer/fall last year? I'm asking because WSL got a pile of new syscalls, a couple of which (if I recall correctly) fixed the unicorn issue you hit. Likewise, there are now standard GPOs you can distribute that exempt WSL from Defender. I 100% agree that running a Linux VM can sometimes be a lot better (and it's not exactly hard, given that Hyper-V has been in Windows for forever and has strong command-line support), but I find that I can use WSL for virtually everything these days compared to even six months ago.
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