Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition review • Hacker News Board

Re: Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition review

#31

Post by wazoox » Tue, Jan 07, 2014, 4:21 PM UTC

smackfu wrote: post #20

wazoox wrote: post #14

I had one of these for some months and I'd say the only culprit is that there are only 1 mini DP and 2 USB ports and nothing else: no SD card slot, no Thunderbold or Firewire. Even a third USB port would have been nice. There isn't any kensington lock port, either. The screen is glossy but for some reason, it's not actually catching too many random reflections (so it's much better than my MacBook which can hardly be…

Hasn't the PC world moved on to USB3, ignoring Thunderbolt? And even Apple has dropped Firewire at this point.

Thunderbolt is an Intel technology, and it can be found (albeit rarely) on Asus (and maybe other) high-end laptops and motherboards. And even one firewire port would be better than no port :)

Re: Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition review

#32

Post by surge » Tue, Jan 07, 2014, 4:22 PM UTC

rayiner wrote: post #24

6 hours isn't great, it's shitty for a 13" laptop with Haswell.

Yeah, but not one that thin (small battery).

Re: Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition review

#33

Post by wazoox » Tue, Jan 07, 2014, 4:23 PM UTC

ch4s3 wrote: post #21

wazoox wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No DPI scaling, but it's OK for me. I always loved small fonts in term windows anyway :) 6 hours is a minimum for quite a heavy use; I myself found that mine easily does 8-9 hours when programming (Flash is a terrible battery and CPU hog).

how does it do with video playback?

Video playback is fine. And Ubuntu manages perfectly hot-plugging external monitors, TVs, projectors, etc.

Re: Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition review

#34

Post by smackfu » Tue, Jan 07, 2014, 4:24 PM UTC

rsynnott wrote: post #28

smackfu wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hasn't the PC world moved on to USB3, ignoring Thunderbolt? And even Apple has dropped Firewire at this point.

Thunderbolt is seeing some take-up on the high end; it solves a different set of problems to USB3.

I don't disagree... on a Mac.

On a PC, I'm not sure what else there is to plug in to a Thunderbolt port other than storage.

Re: Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition review

#35

Post by bluedino » Tue, Jan 07, 2014, 4:24 PM UTC

rayiner wrote: post #24

6 hours isn't great, it's shitty for a 13" laptop with Haswell.

I'm not sure why you're being downvoted, but I agree. If Apple can pull 12+ hours of out the Air, there's no excuse for 6 hours. Even the 13" Retina gets 10+ hours. 6 hours is about the bare minimum for a portable machine. The Apple machine doesn't cost any more.

Re: Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition review

#36

Post by Al-Khwarizmi » Tue, Jan 07, 2014, 4:25 PM UTC

A laptop targeted to developers should have a TrackPoint to move the cursor without taking the hands off the keyboard, a non-shortscreen monitor to see more lines of code, a matte screen to read the code better, and a numpad to, well, type numbers. OK, I guess I'm asking too much for today's standards, even if all these things were common ten years ago (sigh...), but when I saw "developer edition" I thought I would see at least two of these four features, and I see none.

This is just a standard high-end laptop. Disappointing.

Re: Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition review

#37

Post by bluedino » Tue, Jan 07, 2014, 4:25 PM UTC

annnnd wrote: post #22

surge wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I compared this to a Macbook Pro 13", which is the closest comparable hardware. It came out better in features and cost ($300 cheaper then a Macbook Pro with similar SSD and memory), and was thinner and lighter. I wanted the Macbook Pro, but I didn't see the $300 difference in the Pro.

One difference: you can't legally develop for iOS with non-Apple hardware. Which is IMHO an extortion, but there you have it.

You should see what you have to do to develop for Nintendo hardware...

Re: Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition review

#38

Post by nezza-_- » Tue, Jan 07, 2014, 4:29 PM UTC

Al-Khwarizmi wrote: post #36

A laptop targeted to developers should have a TrackPoint to move the cursor without taking the hands off the keyboard, a non-shortscreen monitor to see more lines of code, a matte screen to read the code better, and a numpad to, well, type numbers. OK, I guess I'm asking too much for today's standards, even if all these things were common ten years ago (sigh...), but when I saw "developer edition" I thought I would s…

I don't think a numpad is necessary, developers normally don't type that many numbers (except maybe 0 and 1).

Re: Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition review

#39

Post by davidw » Tue, Jan 07, 2014, 4:32 PM UTC

Al-Khwarizmi wrote: post #36

A laptop targeted to developers should have a TrackPoint to move the cursor without taking the hands off the keyboard, a non-shortscreen monitor to see more lines of code, a matte screen to read the code better, and a numpad to, well, type numbers. OK, I guess I'm asking too much for today's standards, even if all these things were common ten years ago (sigh...), but when I saw "developer edition" I thought I would s…

Agreed about the screen - it's annoying. But pretty much everything has those stupid HD style screens these days.

I thought the glossy screen would bother me. It doesn't.

Numpad? Never used one.

Trackpoint? Not my style - I mostly navigate with the keyboard and the trackpad just launches the pointer into the window I need active, and then focus follows it!

Re: Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition review

#40

Post by MetaCosm » Tue, Jan 07, 2014, 4:33 PM UTC

smackfu wrote: post #20

wazoox wrote: post #14

I had one of these for some months and I'd say the only culprit is that there are only 1 mini DP and 2 USB ports and nothing else: no SD card slot, no Thunderbold or Firewire. Even a third USB port would have been nice. There isn't any kensington lock port, either. The screen is glossy but for some reason, it's not actually catching too many random reflections (so it's much better than my MacBook which can hardly be…

Hasn't the PC world moved on to USB3, ignoring Thunderbolt? And even Apple has dropped Firewire at this point.

Thunderbolt is way too expensive for most hardware (and tightly controlled, which bothers some manufactorers), and USB3 is damn near free. Thunderbolt is expensive for the manufactorer and expensive for the user (read: complex cable requirements). With USB3.1 "doubling" the speed of USB3.0 in a backwards compatible way -- I suspect it will continue to dominate.