If you are in the US and decide on the XPS 13 Costco has the i7 version with 16GB and a 512GB SSD for $1399.99 through today. And after that it is $1599.99 which is still hundreds less than buying through Dell. If you join Costco just for the deal you end up way ahead. Costco also doubles the warranty to 2 years. If you are already a member or know one you don't need to go to a Costco the deal is available on their website. $14.95 for shipping.
Ask HN: What should I buy? Macbook Air or Dell XPS 13?
31–40 of 43 posts
Re: Ask HN: What should I buy? Macbook Air or Dell XPS 13?
#32I recommend going for the thinkpad carbon x1, it's the same form factor of Mac air, looks better in my opinion and has one of the best keyboards on a laptop that size, not to mention it's developer friendly (has actual page up/down, home/end keys). I'm running Ubuntu on mine (3rd gen) without problems. The 4th gen ones can take 16gb ram as well.
I am running Xubuntu on this thing and I hate it so much. Palm detection is so broken that even after tweaking Synaptics and trying libinput (customized it "perfectly" under Arch with no improvement already), I had to disable the trackpad. The pointer nub on new Thinkpads is terrible now that it's secondary, so I have to set low sensitivity.
Colors are messed up with poor contrast. Windows looks much, much better. I messed around with exporting color profiles and importing other users' color profiles with no real improvement. So it's really only useful as a headless machine or in low light. Which leads to the next issue...
External displays don't work properly with lid closed unless you boot with the lid closed. Even then if you suspend, you will wake up with no screen. If you set to "turn display off" on lid close, then when you close the lid the cursor becomes completely erratic and unusable. I'm sure this can somehow be fixed with some arandr and acpid scripting, but seriously fuck that noise.
The keyboard is crap and the form factor hurts my hands. Even my old R500 education line Thinkpad is better in this regard.
It sits on my shelf and collects dust. Every now and then I bust it out because I love programming on Linux, but always go back to the MBP for the reasons mentioned. I want to sell the Carbon X1 and regret spending $1500 on it so hard, but I'm wary of my ability to install Windows and get the right drivers on board (have done it, but also was getting terrible offers for it so decided not to sell at the time). And I'm holding out hope that these issues get fixed some day.
Seriously, just get the Mac. It's sad that the state of Linux on the laptop is worse now than it was a decade ago, when you could get a T4* or T6* and everything worked like a dream. A big part of the problem is that non-Apple hardware is utter crap nowadays (not that Apple's stuff is universally amazing). Going Linux laptop shopping right now is the most depressing experience.
Re: Ask HN: What should I buy? Macbook Air or Dell XPS 13?
#33The main reason for going Mac IMHO is the OS which feels like 2016 compared to Linux. If that's not what you want go for the XPS
And I see it totally reversed. I see OS X as a pile of junk that has not been updated since 10.1.
I'm not an OS X user, but Wikipedia says that the latest release is 10.11.6, last updated 34 days ago [0].
Re: Ask HN: What should I buy? Macbook Air or Dell XPS 13?
#34I got an HP Spectre 360 .. loving it. Get a USB docking station, an external keyboard and mouse. Awesome dev setup. Oh .. I was an avid Mac user before. Was in the same situation as you. I also thought the only alternatives were Mac or Dell XPS. I then had to waste an hour at a best buy and spent time with all the machines they had in stock. Liked the HP one the best. It has a finicky touchpad but I was able to adjust the trackpad settings to make it usable. Finally ... I recommend Windows Signature edition so you don't have to deal with too much third party bloat.
Re: Ask HN: What should I buy? Macbook Air or Dell XPS 13?
#35I have an rMBP13 (2015) and have been given a new XPS 13 at work. I'm an Apple fan, and prefer my macbook but I'd go for the XPS 13 - I think the MBA is a bad buy at this point. The XPS 13 has great hardware (it looks so small compared to my rMBP and has a 13" screen still), that display is fantastic and performs great. I can't give anything non-subjective about the SSD but it feels as fast as my rMBP unless Windows is doing something stupid. I don't use the built in keyboard much because it's usually docked at work, but when I've used it it feels good - I haven't used it enough to compare to Apple though. The trackpad is good, and gestures work, which is more than I've ever seen from a non-Apple laptop. I haven't tested the battery at all, obviously MBA's is amazing in practice.
All my complaints are with software (Windows specifically), so just make sure your Linux distro behaves sensibly with a 3200x1800 screen and whatever external monitors you want (Windows doesn't).
Re: Ask HN: What should I buy? Macbook Air or Dell XPS 13?
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
I own a 2.5 years old i7 X1, and it made me start contemplating abandoning ThinkPad brand after 10 years of loyalty. The battery life is poor (3.5 hrs max), and I had to replace the CPU fan a few weeks ago (free of charge, thanks to 3y warranty). What's worst, however, is the deterioration of customer support. Lenovo has introduced this 'community' concept where users are expected to post their woes to a forum, hopin…
> What's worst, however, is the deterioration of customer support. Lenovo has introduced this 'community' concept where users are expected to post their woes to a forum, hoping that a mix of other users and Lenovo affiliates (not sure whether they are employed by Lenovo, or just volunteering) would solve their problem. ... but there's still regular customer support you can call. The forums are optional. My T460s is t…
> but there's still regular customer support you can call. The forums are optional.
Maybe in the US and some other major countries, but not in the 'rest of the World' countries...
Re: Ask HN: What should I buy? Macbook Air or Dell XPS 13?
#37I am also looking for a computer to buy. Looks like the 13 Mac book pro with retina display is a better value for the money.
I found the dell xps 13 very expensive and heard some people with wi-fi issues.
Both Mac book pro and air seem to be close to change so it might be worth to wait for their next version.
I don't know other brands that people use with Linux.
At the moment I am using a Toshiba that I bought very cheap with i3 and 8gb of ram running Ubuntu 16 and everything just works... Damn marketing/consumer instinct making me want to buy a more powerful machine.
Re: Ask HN: What should I buy? Macbook Air or Dell XPS 13?
#38I recommend going for the thinkpad carbon x1, it's the same form factor of Mac air, looks better in my opinion and has one of the best keyboards on a laptop that size, not to mention it's developer friendly (has actual page up/down, home/end keys). I'm running Ubuntu on mine (3rd gen) without problems. The 4th gen ones can take 16gb ram as well.
Just a quick question ! How would you put ubuntu on it ? I have tried changing the boot partition to GRUB and somehow windows still ends up loading ! like how is that even possible ??
Use your bootable Linux usb/disk and:
(easy way) : install "boot-repair" and run it
(harder way) : chroot into the linux partition and run "sudo update-grub"
Re: Ask HN: What should I buy? Macbook Air or Dell XPS 13?
#39I'm in a similar situation to yours and been reading some positive reviews about this https://slimbook.es/ They seem to be very responsive in terms of doubts, questions, etc. but as most small companies their main disadvantage is brand awareness when compared to Dell or Apple. But of course this is greatly compensated by a cheaper price.
That looks like a MacBook Air clone.