
Dell XPS 13 Review - ismavis
http://www.anandtech.com/show/8983/dell-xps-13-review
======
cies
A Developer Edition (with Linux preloaded) will come at some point.

Currently there are driver issues of which the non-working audio is most
persistent. Most elaborate info on it here:

[https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/1413446](https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/1413446)

In this Reddit thread...

[http://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/2u0jjd/linux_support_...](http://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/2u0jjd/linux_support_is_terrible_on_the_new_dell_xps_13/)

...you find comment from barton808, who identifies himself as the Team Lead of
Sputnik (= XPS13 Linux), and gives away that they are waiting/working on the
same issues (to be resolved).

I think it will make a great laptop. I currently own an XPS13 old version, and
think it is just a bit short of Apple hardware. I've heard this new one should
be up to par with Apple's hardware while having an eventually more compatible
hardware stack.

It will probably be the most powerful Linux-preinstalled ultrabook on the
market, when releaed.

Fingers crossed it may be released soon. :)

~~~
MetaCosm
I was excited until I read 8GB max... that can't be right can it? What modern
developer machine would have an 8GB cap?

~~~
ekianjo
I'm curious, but why do you need more than 8Gb for ? I can think of a few
potential uses of more RAM (large video files edition, R on very, very big
data sets) but 8Gb seems reasonable for most tasks. Are you really in a
situation where you need 16Gb every single day ?

~~~
dagw
_Are you really in a situation where you need 16Gb every single day?_

Maybe not every single day, but easily 3 days a week. Personally I could never
consider owning a primary work machine with less than 32 GB of RAM, as that is
just about enough (with some swap) to do something reasonable with a
moderately sized data set in reasonable time, without having to try to get too
clever. That being said, I currently have an MBA with 4 GB of RAM as a
secondary computer to complement my workstation at work, and that's fine for
most of my day to day programming tasks.

~~~
josteink
> Personally I could never consider owning a primary work machine with less
> than 32 GB of RAM, as that is just about enough (with some swap) to do
> something reasonable with a moderately sized data set in reasonable time

Suffice to say, you probably don't represent the average developer, or power-
user. I can write code just fine without having to resort to 32GB data-sets. I
think most other developers can too.

Not saying I don't acknowledge that some people may have such a need, but I
don't see this is a big enough issue for enough people, to think it warrants
making the already expensive developer edition even more expensive.

If you need 3-digit Gigabytes of RAM, have you considered just remoting into a
server which has all the juice you need instead? In the age of the cloud, why
on earth do you need all that power in your laptop? That just seems awfully
backwards.

~~~
masklinn
32GB might be somewhat excessive for mainstream developer laptops, but 16GB is
not. A pair of VMs (for various MSIE versions, isolated dev environments,
...), an emulator or two (Android, iOS, …), 2-3 browsers open (with many tabs
in at least one of them) and an IDE and you've blown way above 8GB working set
without working on any big dataset.

I'm currently on an 8GB machine and regularly have to pare down my working set
to avoid swapping.

------
bryanlarsen
The interesting difference between this review and that of most others is that
Anandtech endorsed Dell's claims of 15 hours of battery life.

Reviews like at The Verge[1] measured the battery life at 6.5 hours.

I trust Anandtech more than The Verge to conduct properly controlled tests,
but it really does illustrate the point that usage has a far bigger impact on
battery life on modern notebooks than it did in the past.

1: [http://www.theverge.com/2015/2/13/8030821/dell-
xps-13-laptop...](http://www.theverge.com/2015/2/13/8030821/dell-
xps-13-laptop-ultrabook-review)

~~~
jakevn
Apparently simply disabling Windows Indexing increased battery life from 7.5
hours to 9.5 hours in some tests.

~~~
Someone1234
If you have a Pro or Enterprise edition of Windows, you can configure this:

1) Launch mmc (Win+R, "mmc")

2) File -> Add/Remove Snap-In

3) Group Policy Object Editor -> Add -> Local Computer -> Ok

4) Expand Local Computer Policy -> Computer Configuration -> Administrative
Templates -> Windows Components -> Search

5) Find "Prevent indexing when running on battery power to conserve energy"

6) Enable -> OK -> Close

If you're on Home Edition then make a new *.reg file with the following
content:

    
    
         Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
    
         [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Search]
         "PreventIndexOnBattery"=dword:00000001
    

And run it.

~~~
ninkendo
You can change steps 1-3 to just "Win+R, gpmc.msc"... which will take you
straight to the group policy editor.

~~~
Someone1234
You have to install Group Policy Tools for Windows in order to have gpmc.msc
on Windows 7 work from the run box.

Going through MMC works even on virgin Windows 7 pro/ent without installing
anything.

------
jdonaldson
I had been trying to find a decent developer's laptop for some time, and it
led me to the xps 13 "developer edition" (the predecessor to this one). Keep
in mind that I _really_ wanted to like that laptop.

However, in the end, I went back to my macbook air. There were just too many
small headaches to deal with. I'll list them here. I'd like to know if there
are any improvements this time around. I'd be curious to know if they're going
to do another "developer edition" for this new model.

1) The touchpad sensitivity was way off in ubuntu, and I couldn't use normal
configs to tune it properly. Sounds like they fixed it.

2) The wifi range was very poor compared to mba.

3) Battery life was not as good as mba.

4) Ubuntu wasn't very good at scaling high dpi resolutions on smaller
displays. The mba I have doesn't have a high dpi, and I don't need it for my
work. FWIW, the retina class displays in the mbp all are perfect.

5) The mba are better balanced. The xps13 was a little wobbly since the weight
was not well distributed. It was also slightly harder to open and close.

Honestly, all of these things add up. Darwin isn't a "true" *nix, but it's
close enough for me. If I'm off the mark on these issues these days, let me
know.

~~~
robotic
> Darwin isn't a "true" *nix, but it's close enough for me.

Yosemite is a registered UNIX 03 product.

[http://www.opengroup.org/openbrand/register/](http://www.opengroup.org/openbrand/register/)

~~~
jdonaldson
Darwin to me is pretty much the poster child for "unix-like" operating
systems:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwin_%28operating_system%29](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwin_%28operating_system%29)

------
jbk
It seems great, but I really need a 16GB RAM option. (At least they have the
512GB SSD)

With a couple of VMs, and a webbrowser, 8 GB can get tiny, and those machines
don't evolve, so I'd like to plan for a couple of years...

~~~
01Michael10
I see ultrabooks more as secondary devices. You really run VMs on a 13.3"
display? I can't see any portable PC totally replacing my desktop PC.

~~~
tramjoe_
What do VMs have to do with the size of the display? How are the two even
remotely connected?

~~~
Synroc
I think he's thinking of VMs as in Parallels or other graphical VMs

------
siegecraft
I'm surprised that Dell managed to get back to this point, but I think Apple
is no longer a no-brainer if you want a "nicer" build quality, and you can
start differentiating based on support. I never thought I would buy a non-
Apple laptop again, but I've actually been eyeing the Dell XPS and a friend's
recent experiences w/ AppleCare makes me want to take every effort to find an
alternative hardware vendor, assuming they can hit close to the same quality.

~~~
mrjatx
Man, I finally a few years ago got completely comfortable with OSX and
scripted so much stuff that I can set myself up basically anywhere in 5-10
minutes. Now I'm stuck on a MBPr and get to watch all of these amazing new PC
laptops come out that are so innovative. All of the hybrids, convertibles,
detachable convertibles, rotatable convertibles. I'm so envious.

Come on Apple, seriously.

~~~
chiph
The MBP is not all that "pro" any more. Soldered components, the bare minimum
of USB ports, no RJ-45 ethernet jack. I'd be more than willing to add
thickness & weight to one in return for those features, and better thermal
management.

~~~
bwilliams
I don't think those features are what make it "pro". I prefer it being thinner
and lighter with soldered components rather than heavier without. RJ-45's are
terrible on laptops, they're ugly, bulky, and hardly used. I'd much rather
just use USB -> RJ45.

~~~
vacri
You can point to any feature (excluding reliability) and claim that feature
doesn't make something 'pro'.

I know one senior sysadmin - the kind of guy other sysadmins go to for advice
- who's getting a Novena laptop as his next machine for work. That thing
doesn't come with a keyboard and exposes the motherboard when the screen is
up.

------
emptybits
Nice looking unit. I'm going to look seriously at it, instead of a MacBook Air
11, for a travel machine.

Dell's claim of "a 13 inch display in the chassis of an 11 inch notebook" is
reasonable:

Dell 13: 304 mm x 200 mm x 9-15 mm

Air 11: 300 mm x 192 mm x 3-17 mm

And the weights are within 100 g of each other.

------
mmilano
I ordered a XPS 13 in 2014 over the phone since there was a problem with
checking out at the website at the time. I spent 15 hours (started logging
hours after the 2nd) total fixing their mistake when I realized they didn't
order me the developer edition. Those hours were also spent fixing the screw
up of them sending it to the wrong address.

I did end up getting the laptop. It was pretty nice except I could hear an
electrical hiss coming from the bottom of the laptop when the room was quiet.

I had a friend who had one and confirmed the sound was coming from his as
well.

I sent the laptop back and spent another 2 hours with their "support" for
that.

I'll never buy from Dell again.

------
jkot
This laptop will most likely get official support for Ubuntu 14.04.

~~~
dabeeeenster
14.04 is almost a year old?

~~~
alexmunroe
14.04 is the LTS release, most corporate environments using Ubuntu that I've
encountered jump between the LTS releases due to the five year support cycle.
Being that a fairly large portion of the Dell's customer base it does make
sense.

------
whitecat
This turned out to be a longer first post than I though it would be. I don't
know why people are comparing these "good" laptops to Apple laptops in specs.
Apple laptops really have not been better than the best laptops. For every
MBPr that has come out there has been a better laptop by one of the tops Asus,
Dell, HP, Lenovo, Acer. The reason is I buy Apple is I need a stable operating
system. The last 4 Windows based machine I owned crashed when I
close/move/sleep/awoke it/plugged in another display (who would think that
would crash a computer), the reason was drivers. I switched those laptops from
Windows to try Linux and it was marginally better but again driver support did
not fix those problems. I bought 4 non Apple laptops in hopes to get a good
one.

When I switched to Apple I still faced issues bug only 1/10 the time as when I
was with other brands. I hate apple operating system lack of getting things I
want. I wish I could have stayed with Windows, I am hampered by using silly
work arounds to play video games I love. Linux is great if I didn't have so
many configuration issues, installing the correct video driver is a pain (I'm
looking at you intel video cards). The system works.

I spent 20 years working on windows machines. The last 4 years Windows
machines just have had more and more issues which pushed me to something that
is stable and will work.

~~~
virtue3
Honestly (and really, hear me out here). Alot of those crashes were device
drivers for graphics cards. Windows 8 (I know... 8.1 isn't bad) actually moved
the display drivers out of kernal space (at the chagrin of every game dev
ever) and now at least the system/applications recover from a graphic driver
dump.

Although I will say I'm having issues with 8.1 that I can't really peg down.
Sigh. We've had a string of issues with mavericks/yosemite here at work so I
can't say everything is all rosey either.

Ubuntu is pretty easy going as far as linux distros and working. At least when
you throw recent but not bleeding edge hardware at it!

I'll agree that right now osx is probably the most stable of systems for
developing but that comes at the expense of lack of some pretty critical
software (well... lets be serious, games...)

~~~
72deluxe
What problems have you had with Mavericks and Yosemite?

~~~
mrjatx
Oh, I got this! Worst wireless reliability I've ever seen in a business. They
keep putting out 'fixes' to wpa2 authentication and we still have constant
issues in our office when going from WAP to WAP.

------
plq
I got a custom built 13.3" Sony Vaio S. It's got 12GB ram, 1TB disk, Intel i7
at 2.9Ghz, 1600x900 display, Blu-Ray Reader/DVD-RW Combo, 3G modem, gbit
ethernet, both VGA and HDMI output, 3 USB ports (2 of them 3.0) SD Card and
MemoryCard and cost 987 GBP plus tax which I got back on my way out. Oh and
it's got very good Linux compatibity out of the box. Resumes from ram without
a hitch, I only reboot when I need to get something done with the kernel. I'm
writing this while listening music via my bluetooth headset. Battery sustains
around 2 hours of work, but it used to be better. It was leaps and bounds
ahead of what Apple had to offer with its Macbook PRO line at the time at 2/3
of its weight, and I fear still is.

I'm looking at Dell's machine and yes it's got a higher resolution display
(but is it _better_ at that display size? I hope!), and presumably an updated
processor, but that's it. No nic, no disk spinner, less ports, no VGA, etc.
Call me old-fashioned but I can't consider a laptop without a couple easy ways
to get data on/off (e.g. ethernet ports, disk spinners) as a development
workstation.

Top that and I'll pay you.

And shame on you, Sony, for not being able to properly sell today's market
leader that you came up with two years ago. Shame on you.

~~~
morsch
And I'd call a computer with 2 hours of battery runtime a desktop with a UPS.
:) I jest.

That said, I think the Dell is okay in terms of connections. There's seemingly
half a dozen video output plugs at the moment, including one that's been
around since 1952[0]. I'd rather buy 4 adapting cables than have more than one
video out on a subnotebook.

Getting data on/off seems easy: there's wifi, there's 3 USB ports for
everything else[1]. Spinning (optical) disks? Really? Might as well put a LTO
tape drive in there. I'd have like Ethernet, too, but in those cases where
you're most likely to need it (at home, in the office), it's easy to stash an
adapter.

[0] I'm not even kidding.
[http://www.dansdata.com/gz061.htm](http://www.dansdata.com/gz061.htm) [1]
Also bluetooth. And there's an SD card reader, if your development process
includes taking photos. External optical drives are like, 20 bucks.

------
mhomde
I've had the high end version (i7 & hi-res touchscreen) for a couple of weeks
as my primary development machine and so far is pretty satisfied

The keyboard is more plastic than for instance the Zenbook but good. I've had
no issues with the track pad, two-finger scrolling works perfectly. Best
trackpad I've had on a PC laptop (don't know what The Verge was raving about,
maybe pinch gestures aren't as good as mac?)

As for battery issues, It does feel that it doesn’t last too long, like 3-4
hours tops (I run Bitlocker & Chrome though so that has some impact). I don't
think this is as much the laptops fault really as it depends mostly on having
a screen with very high resolution and depending on how you configure power
saving options, what kind of work you do etc.

I think it’s pretty safe to say that the Xps "13 is the best PC laptop in this
form factor right now until sharp releases the exclusivity on the screen in
November, then Asus might give them a run for their money again.

To their credit I vowed never to buy a dell laptop again but they proved me
wrong. A 14"-15" version of this laptop with more ram would be the ultimate
though, larger screen so you can use the resolution better, more battery
volume for a little better longevity.

I'm not so sure the hi-res version is the best option for developers because
of the energy drain, especially if you need to work on battery for a whole
day. The power pack buys you some time but very doubtful you'd last a whole
day.

Also matte screens is often better than glossy for development, at least when
working outside or where's there's sun.

Then again, you might need touch for development and the touch version with
gorilla glass looks much better.

Personally the feature I'm dying to get now that we have almost bezel free
computers are Amoled screens. Bezelfree where the true blacks of the screen
blends into the little bezel there is would be truly droolworthy

------
CalRobert
I own the generation preceding this (xps 13 9333) and use Ubuntu 14.10 on it.
In general I'm pretty happy with it, though the coil whine is an annoyance.
The touchpad is good, though if I'm being completely honest it's not _quite_
on par with that of the MBPr I use for work. 128GB hasn't actually been a
problem, but I pretty aggressively offload all media on to owncloud so I'm not
storing movies, pictures, etc.

I bought a refurb on ebay so it wasn't terribly expensive, but at list price
it would be a little difficult to justify compared to a MBA. I bought it
because I wanted to use Ubuntu as my primary OS and am not completely thrilled
about giving money to a company that loves walled gardens.

------
vrodic
It's strange that no 28W Broadwell-U machines have been reviewed yet.

Since they have almost 2x of the power budget than the 15W ones, I expect them
to be a whole different beasts for loads where you need both GPU and CPU to be
active.

------
grn
_Amazingly, Dell claims 15 hours 12 minutes of battery life, and on our Light
test we hit exactly that._

That sounds _really_ impressive. Congratulations!

I have mixed feelings when it comes to Dell. I use Dell U2713HM. Initially I
got the first revision which had issues with a buzzing sound emitted when
displaying a pattern on the screen. It completely died after a few weeks. I
got a replacement (third revision) and haven't experienced any problems since.

I haven't owned a Dell laptop. How good are they when compared to other PC
laptops and MacBooks?

~~~
noinsight
> I have mixed feelings when it comes to Dell. I use Dell U2713HM. Initially I
> got the first revision which had issues with a buzzing sound emitted when
> displaying a pattern on the screen. It completely died after a few weeks. I
> got a replacement (third revision) and haven't experienced any problems
> since.

I have the same issue. You got it replaced? When I called Dell they sent me a
refurb that had dead pixels and buzzed as well. I sent that right back. My
brand new display also had a dead pixel from the start. And actually all you
need to do to get that buzzing is to display a lot of text on the screen i.e.
Wikipedia or something. It's super annoying when you're working in a quiet
environment and all you can hear is BUZZZZZZ. I'm still kicking myself for not
going with Eizo because Dell was $100 cheaper. I vowed... Dell, never again.

------
blinkingled
For those looking for a Ultrabook form factor workstation with 16GB RAM
capability - the HP ZBook 14 looks like a great choice. Anandtech review here
- [http://anandtech.com/show/8186/hp-zbook-14-review-mobile-
wor...](http://anandtech.com/show/8186/hp-zbook-14-review-mobile-workstation-
meets-ultrabook) . You don't get a ton of battery life out of it but there's a
choice of bigger battery.

------
at-fates-hands
As much as I love SSD's, is 256GB actually enough for power users? Or are they
assuming the OS will be on the SSD and you can hook up an external HD for more
space?

Just curious.

~~~
micv
What are your usage patterns?

I've found 256GB to be a bit of a sweet spot. I can't get everything I would
ever want on the disc, but it's enough with maintenance and uninstalling
things I'm no longer using to any great extent. And the performance advantage
of an SDD is so ridiculously nice that I would never give it up for a bit of
extra convenience.

If you're doing things that are seriously space heavy like video editing,
you'd probably need an external storage source to make up the difference. But
for coding and general use, I find it to be more than enough.

Saying that, I'm sure there are developers out there who couldn't live in
256GB. I'm not sure how common they are but I'm sure they exist.

~~~
sliverstorm
_If you 're doing things that are seriously space heavy like video editing,
you'd probably need an external storage source to make up the difference._

You'd probably need external storage either way. I used to have some friends
who were big into video editing, they could chew through 1TB with just a few
projects.

~~~
micv
Fair enough, but if someone's producing terabytes of data I can't imagine that
they'll be satisfied with any laptop's storage for too long.

------
mavdi
Switched to Linux a few months ago after I got tired of running out of memory
and CPU power on a 16GB i7 MBPr. My productivity has increased 2x. All those
little customisations to OS that you end up doing when using Linux really do
end up making your life a lot easier in the long run.

I think Apple is on the same path as Microsoft was more than a decade ago.
They are losing developers.

------
wldlyinaccurate
I own a 2014 XPS 13 and I absolutely love it, but my next machine will be a
Macbook. The reason is pretty simple: resale value. Upgrading to the latest
and greatest Macbook is absurdly cheap since you can sell your old model for
close to the original price. Whereas I'll be lucky to get half of what I paid
for my XPS 13.

~~~
mingmecca
_Upgrading to the latest and greatest Macbook is absurdly cheap since you can
sell your old model for close to the original price_

Oh how I wish that were true. I have a 2012 15" Macbook Retina (8gb/256gb)
that I bought for $2200. The typical price on eBay is around $1200. So, I can
get about half, which is your lament about the XPS 13.

~~~
nonuby
For a three year old, out of warranty, used, old laptop thats pretty
impressive

~~~
72deluxe
I forget that 2012 is now 3 years old. My MacBook is a mid2012 non-retina MBP
(with all the ports on it) and it's still absolutely fine but I know in the
fashionable computer world, it's ancient.

Still fetches a good resale value though.

~~~
abrowne
That one is a weird case because it's still the latest model of "classic"/non-
retina MBPs. And, probably, the last.

------
plg
what about GNU/Linux compatibility? Are they going to release a version with
GNU/Linux preinstalled?

------
airnomad
I just don't understand why vendors limit max memory nowdays. I mean, I have
8GB in 8 years old T61.

------
noja
Does the left usb port support full power devices like hard drives? The 2013
model didn't.

------
hobarrera
It looks to me like a Macbook Air 13" is better in spec and at almost the same
price range. Did I miss something?

------
simonebrunozzi
The single thing that prevents me from switching from a Macbook to a Dell XPS
is the Apple trackpad. Think about it.

~~~
sliverstorm
A nice little thought-terminating stance. Considering Dell computers can never
have Apple parts.

~~~
micv
If, after years of trying, OEMs still can't produce a trackpad on par with
Apple's offerings, that's on them, not their potential customers who are
turned off by the absence.

~~~
Artemis2
Maybe it's because of patents?

[https://www.google.com/patents/US8049736](https://www.google.com/patents/US8049736)

~~~
72deluxe
Very informative, thanks! I didn't realise how much I enjoy the trackpad (that
is, don't fight it and curse at it) until I come to use a Windows laptop and
pinch to zoom, swipe left/right etc. doesn't work.

In fact, using a MacBook in Windows is a frustrating experience as the
touchpad doesn't work as it does under OSX.

------
nqzero
> 16:9

not even once

------
wbsun
Looks like Mac is still the best choice of a good quality *NIX laptop that
works out-of-box. PC still has a long way to go.

------
balladeer
People I know, who have used this laptop (the previous avatar), never had a
good thing to say about this laptop - from the extremely high prices to
rampant overheating.

3 years back I went for an Air, and till date that's been my only iProduct -
yes, the iPrice just doesn't make sense to me, price was the reason I didn't
buy any other laptop but the Macbook Air. My needs were clear >= 4GB RAM, 100+
SSD being the prime needs along with extremely good battery life and extremely
light-weight and solid machine (And I was indeed lured by the polished/pretty
OS - but I do still love my xubuntu). Yes, Air delivered that. I am from India
and at that time a comparable machine (wasn't one available really) was
available for at least ~30% higher than the Macbook Air price and the that
scenario is pretty much still the same (both the higher price part and
"alternative not really available" part). (I guess it may not be the same in
US or other western countries)

