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Dell XPS 13 Review from a lifelong Mac user

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Re: Dell XPS 13 Review from a lifelong Mac user

#261

Post by sigzero »

gizzlon wrote: post #254
grimgrin wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who has a useful trackpad anyways? An actually great one, besides Apple? I have no idea why this is the case? Patents or too expensive to justify? Genuinely curious

I like my XPS 13 trackpad :) The mac ones seems too big, suspect it would be in the way and hamper the keyboard. (I haven't used a the newer Mac models enough to be certain). Dells works great on Linux (Arch + KDE)

It is too big. It's nice but too big. It is, however, an excellent trackpad. Reviews constantly name it #1.

Re: Dell XPS 13 Review from a lifelong Mac user

#262

Post by bootloop »

dboreham wrote: post #252

Costco are selling the 2018 model XPS13 (4K, 16G, 500G) in stores at present so you can head down there to take a look. I've been using one for a few months. The article is reviewing (I think) the old 2017 model. It seems odd to complain about the low resolution of the 1080p display, then also say that the available 4k panel isn't going to solve that problem. Mine works just great. According to Lisa on Mobiletechrevi…

Do you have the 2015 XPS13 and are you using it in dualboot Win/Linux? I love this thing but the audio problems are killing me as now I need it a lot for video calls. It bothers me that the only reason I would have to update is because of the audio.

Re: Dell XPS 13 Review from a lifelong Mac user

#263

Post by e12e »

bogomipz wrote: post #64
tamatsyk wrote: post #55

Good summary, I share most of the points provided in the post. Also, I think a few more things worth to mention. Pros: - XPS has a decent hardware (I got 16GB, i8Gen, 500GB SSD and forgot about having a few docker containers running on the background which was an issue with my MacBook Pro 15 (8GB, 2.5Gh) - It is really 1k$ cheaper than the same config MacBook model. Apple's Retina and Touchbar are really cool, howeve…

>"WiFi is super shitty in XPS series. If you have not had any issues yet - than you have not bought one yet. It is better to replace with 30$ adapter to not have issues with differently configured routers;" This is really surprising. Can you say what specific replacement worked for you on that laptop?

Wifi hw is also an issue for surface pro 4 (under windows and Linux both). Apparently ms finally fixed in the 5th generation.

Anyone know if there's any really great wifi cards internal or USB, that allows full AP, "war driving" etc - and also 5ghz and such? Preferably with great drivers for Linux and freebsd?

(I doubt internal is an option for my surface pro 4, but for refurbished ThinkPads/dells it might do the trick..)

Re: Dell XPS 13 Review from a lifelong Mac user

#264

Post by eropple »

acomjean wrote: post #139
eropple wrote: post #14

I was going to get the XPS 13 today and I ended up with an HP Spectre x360 13" (newer one--i7-8550U, 16GB of RAM, 512GB SSD that'll probably eventually be replaced with a 2TB when the price comes down). Installing Fedora on it right now. I'm in on a chunkier trackpad click, and the HP has that over the rather light Dell click that's common across every Dell I tried. Also, I preferred the keyboard on the Spectre x360…

Let us know how the install goes.. I'd be curious. Thanks

At a first approximation, everything in the actual machine works. The touchscreen was picked up immediately, the machine stays pretty cool, it's reading about 7h40m in battery life (this is the 4K model with the i7 and 16GB of RAM; I expect more like 4h to 5h). I really like the keyboard, and the keyboard correctly turns off when it's folded back.

This seems at least as good as the XPS 13. Only downside so far is that the pen is a little finicky in Krita, but I haven't tested yet if that's a battery problem (it popped a battery warning right away) or a software problem. But this thing feels really good. I'll probably keep it.

Re: Dell XPS 13 Review from a lifelong Mac user

#265

Post by Macha »

jonmb wrote: post #74
bogomipz wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>"WiFi is super shitty in XPS series. If you have not had any issues yet - than you have not bought one yet. It is better to replace with 30$ adapter to not have issues with differently configured routers;" This is really surprising. Can you say what specific replacement worked for you on that laptop?

I also have the XPS and have experienced my WiFi dropping. Usually a few times a week. I've heard you can contact Dell support and they will send you a wifi adapter but I haven't tried it yet myself. Curious to hear of specific replacement options too.

I had massive issues with the Killer Wifi until I installed an (April 2018 iirc?) driver update from the Dell website. Dell's update tool didn't seem to install it.

Re: Dell XPS 13 Review from a lifelong Mac user

#266

Post by polshaw »

fleebjuice wrote: post #133

I'd really like to buy an XPS, but I'm after a US keyboard layout, and I'm in the UK. You seemingly can't request a layout that is not your locale. This has been my experience with every laptop I've been interested. Damn shame; I have a Happy Hacking Keyboard Pro2, and it's the best keyboard I've ever used, I want as much of that experience as I can get on my laptop. Being a touch typist, its (not infuriating but sli…

If you just want to get the device get it from ebay.

The global shipping program is really great for this IMO; you pre-pay any taxes due (just VAT for laptops IIRC) so you don't have to deal with extra waits or paying a ton for DHL/whoever to collect it from you. The seller ships the item to a distribution centre domestically, then ebay check it and handle the international leg.

There's a good chance you'll end up saving compared to buying locally in the UK even after paying for shipping and VAT on the whole thing. Have done it with my last couple of laptops and wouldn't hesitate to do it again.

Re: Dell XPS 13 Review from a lifelong Mac user

#267

Post by ezequiel-garzon »

codegladiator wrote: post #229
Clubber wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe Dell should fix their trackpad.

I am really surprised with the down votes considering this is "hacker" news. I will soon loose all meaning for the term hacker.

You just told a fellow human being you wished there were fewer people like him/her. Rephrase, maybe?

Re: Dell XPS 13 Review from a lifelong Mac user

#268

Post by cmurf »

Also lifelong Mac user, and now my primary is an HP Spectre running Fedora. The only big painpoint is a Bluetooth mouse which comes and goes for no reason I can discern super flakey, where on Windows 10 it's OK; and a distant second is the trackpad picks up stray palm touches too easily but this also happens with Windows 10 although maybe not quite as annoying.

The main technical issue driving the switch is VM usage. macOS is not a friendly VM host, it's a huge memory and CPU pig on its own which soaks up resources from the guest. And as a guest, macOS is an even worse pig, and also has an unfriendly license for guesting it on non-Mac hardware. So I'm kinda over macOS, all of the proprietary stuff I need will run on Windows 10, which is something of a regression compared to macOS, in particular privacy. But I only use Windows 10 for certain kinds of work, so it's tolerable.

I do like the system reset and refresh options in Windows 10 though. I've cobbled together the functional equivalent of this with Btrfs snapshots for / and /home so I can do either complete resets or just rollback to previous states, while keeping /home moving forward.

Re: Dell XPS 13 Review from a lifelong Mac user

#269

Post by saagarjha »

> However, the XPS 13's fans do kick in quite often, even when just doing light tasks like browsing the web or typing. I was hoping it would be more like the MacBooks, which usually won't need to ramp the fans up to an audible level unless you're doing heavier work, like encoding a video or loading a news site web page without an ad blocker... but alas the fans often kick in and are audible during normal usage.

I have a friend that returned their XPS and bought a Mac because the fan noise was driving him up the wall. I don't know how, but somehow Macs just don't have audible fans most of the time, while most other computers will turn them for even trivial tasks.

Re: Dell XPS 13 Review from a lifelong Mac user

#270

Post by saagarjha »

cannam wrote: post #145
curioussavage wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m not picky about the screen, but I am super picky about trackpads from using macs. My dell chrombook feels every bit as good as the Mac. Fortunately for me the Gallium os distro for Chromebooks reuses the chrome os touchpad driver. I dell Precision model at work and that touch pad sucks!

I think Apple's touchpads are horrible. They're too grippy and too big. (I have nothing constructive to add here, I just wanted there to be some opposition to the idea that Apple have the perfect touchpad)

What trackpad do you prefer using?
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