
New Dell XPS 13 developer edition now available - sahaskatta
https://bartongeorge.io/2019/01/23/the-new-dell-xps-13-developer-edition-now-available-in-the-us-europe-and-canada/
======
AceJohnny2
Wonderful! I was excited when they announced they had _finally_ moved the
camera to the top, and was hoping for a Dev Ed soon. Didn't expect it so
quickly! Good job Barton & team!

Weight-wise, it's under the Macbook Air... Feature-wise (and pricewise), it's
closer to the MBP.

Starting weights:

    
    
      * XPS13: 2.7lbs/1.23kg
      * MBA: 2.75lbs/1.25kg
      * MBP (13.3"): 3.02lbs/1.37kg
    

Screen resolution:

    
    
      * XPS13: 13.3" 3840x2160 (or 1920x1080)
      * MBA: 13.3" 2560x1600
      * MBP: 13.3" 2560x1600
    

Ports:

    
    
      * XPS13: 3xUSB-C 3.1 (TB3, PD, DP USB3.1 Gen??), headset, MicroSD
      * MBA: 2xUSB-C 3.1 (TB3, PD, DP, USB3.1 Gen2), headset
      * MBP: 4xUSB-C 3.1 (TB3, PD, DP, USB3.1 Gen2), headset
    

And pricing (for closest equivalent HW I could find, not quite equal, XPS with
4k screen, 8GB RAM, 256 SSD):

    
    
      * XPS13: i7-8565U (GPU Intel UHD 620): $1590 (+tax)
      * MBA: i5-8210Y (?) (GPU Intel UHD 617): $1400 (+tax)
      * MBP (no Touch Bar): I5-7360U [1] (GPU Intel UHD 640): $1500 (+tax)
    

And with 16GB Ram, 512 SSD (max for XPS13):

    
    
      * XPS13: $1840
      * MBA: $1800
      * MBP (no TB): $1900
    

[1]
[https://everymac.com/systems/apple/macbook_pro/specs/macbook...](https://everymac.com/systems/apple/macbook_pro/specs/macbook-
pro-core-i5-2.3-13-mid-2017-retina-display-no-touch-bar-specs.html)

~~~
cpmsmith
A 4K 13-inch display feels like absurd overkill to me. Am I in the minority on
that?

~~~
apcragg
I have the older 13" 3200x1800 screen and it is amazing. I put Ubuntu 18.04 on
it since it wasn't available as a developer edition. The display scaling is my
only problem but that's more a gnome thing. Running it with Windows was a
almost perfect (why, Xilinx can you not do display scaling...). I thought I
wouldn't notice the extra resolution due to the small screen but it both looks
really nice for text and allows me to scale everything slightly smaller so
that I can fit more on my screen for productivity. That being said, I use it
as a laptop, on my lap. The extra resolution is pretty useless if I'm using it
on a desk or table. But for that I have an XPS15 + 27" 4K setup.

~~~
AsyncAwait
As far as I know GNOME can do display scaling, but not fractional display
scaling yet.

~~~
apcragg
Yeah that's the problem. 2x is too big and 1x is too small on 3200x1800.
Luckily there's a workaround to scale text to 1.5x which for most purposes is
fine.

~~~
Tepix
I like 2x scale on the XPS 13 9350 (with 3200x1800). It results in a super
sharp 1600x900 which is ideal for the 13.3" screen site.

------
wjoe
Sad to see the XPS 13 line going the same way as Apple and removing the USB A
ports. On the plus side, it's at least possible to connect two monitors to the
USB C ports now (the 2017 version I have has only one USB C port), but it's
less overall ports now since the power jack is also replaced by USB C. The
body seems the same size as previously, so the excuse of "more thinness"
doesn't really apply.

That said, the XPS 13 has been the best experience I've had with Linux on a
laptop. The bundled Ubuntu install works out of the box, but even on other
distros it's not difficult to set up, and I've not encountered any driver
issues, which have been common on every other laptop I've installed Linux on.
It helps that it's a great quality laptop in general - anecdotally in my
office, we see far more hardware issues with the latest Macbooks than with
XPSs.So I'd recommend it for anyone who wants a Linux or Windows laptop, or is
considering switching away from Mac without compromising on hardware quality.

~~~
pdpi
Apple has the common decency to make all of their USB-C ports identical, and
support just about every allowable feature I know of, so, in theory, there's
no reason you'll ever plug a device into a Mac and have it not work because
the port isn't compatible (even though it's physically the same). Great in
theory, I just wish the ports were more reliable — I've now had two laptops
with flaky ports.

Dell dropped the ball by giving this laptop two TB3 ports and one that only
does USB.

~~~
Rebelgecko
On some MBP configurations (I think the 13 inch model?), the USB-C/Thunderbolt
3 ports on the left and right side don't have the same capabilities.

~~~
lookingsideways
That was the case with the 2016 and 2017 models of 13" MBP w/touch bar - the
right side had reduced PCI Express bandwidth. The 2018 model has full
bandwidth on all ports.

~~~
dawnerd
Does the 15 have the same problem?

~~~
SomeHacker44
ISTR that the 15” of all generation had 4 lane TB3 ports on both sides. The
distinction was the older 13” had two lanes on the right.

------
timeattack
I do own XPS 13 9360 and there are number of issues:

\- coil whine under load;

\- poor heat sink, under little load i7 goes to 100C and CPU throttling kicks
in;

\- sometimes 'w' button seems to be 'stuck' in pressed state even when it's
physically un-pressed; seems to be a firmware keyboard bug, since I've seen
same problem on another XPS 13;

\- I've had to replace Killer WiFi card, because RTT for packets spiked up
every time card was scanning for networks;

\- that 'spidey-fingers' webcam;

\- that 'Content Adaptive Brightness Control' when gamma-level goes off every
time you switch from black to white image on the screen;

\- unable to replace battery, since even when I've ordered battery from
authorized service center they gave me non-official third-party battery which
was not accepted by laptop;

\- connecting 4K@60Hz is kinda problematic, since you need to find USB-C
adapter which supports it;

~~~
kowdermeister
I have 9370 (the 2018 model) and I only have these two:

\- that 'spidey-fingers' webcam;

lol, that's a weird one, but solved with the external keyboard

\- that 'Content Adaptive Brightness Control' when gamma-level goes off every
time you switch from black to white image on the screen;

that's a weird one, how to turn that off? (win 10)

~~~
kinduff
You can do that from the BIOS and disable Dynamic Brightness Control in the
display options

------
aschampion
I split my development time between a 2015 rMBP and a Precision 5530 (pro
model of the XPS 15). I still can not switch fully to the Dell because of a
few issues:

\- The touchpad is just garbage compared to the MBP, to the point I have an
even more keyboard centric setup on it than my desktop, because I want to drop
it out of a window every time I use the touchpad.

\- Fans. I've accepted that most laptops will run active cooling more than any
radiative chassis MBP, but the issues are that while the fans run constantly,
they also change speeds constantly in both Windows and Ubuntu. They'd be far
less annoying if they ran at a higher, but steady RPM by averaging response
over a large time window. Manually managing fans feels like 1998. Also, for a
$3.5K laptop that runs fans constantly, these are some of the jankiest, most
rattling prone fans I've heard. Most colleagues with XPS 13/15 have sent them
in for fan replacement at least once.

A more niche gripe is that 16:9 is the wrong aspect ratio for a professional
laptop.

Pros:

\- Screen quality and brightness.

\- Keyboard (why I can't just get a new MBP).

\- Hardware configurability.

\- Many hardware issues at first, especially in linux, were quickly and
effectively fixed by Dell driver and firmware updates.

~~~
JCharante
> A more niche gripe is that 16:9 is the wrong aspect ratio for a professional
> laptop.

What aspect ratio is more fitting for a professional laptop? 4:3?

~~~
aschampion
16:10 is great, although I did briefly trial run a Surface Book 2 and loved
the 3:2 screen, as well as the rest of the hardware. Only decided against it
because of the amount of compromises and maintenance when running Linux on it.

~~~
anuragsoni
I'm hoping more device start offering 3:2 screens now. I was interested in the
surface line too but decided against it for the same reasons as you. I ordered
Huawei's Matebook X pro yesterday which was the only other laptop I saw which
offers a nice 3:2 display. I'm hoping everything will work out of the box
(this laptop uses intel wireless unlike the marvell chip on the surface) with
any recent distro.

Sidenote: I've also read about decent openbsd support for the older version of
this laptop. [1]

[1] [https://jcs.org/2017/07/14/matebook](https://jcs.org/2017/07/14/matebook)

------
gioele
Why does a "developer edition" notebook come with a glossy screen?

I sort of understand why computer makers like glossy screens: because they
just look better to the causal shopper. OK. But in a laptop that is aimed at
professionals? People that stare at the screen all day long are sophisticated
enough to know that a matte screen is just better.

I'm often on the train and I do not envy the poor souls that work on an
enterprise-bought laptop with a glossy screen and that have to swing their
heads the whole time to avoid reflections from the train window.

BTW, a thorough (p)review of the 9380:
[https://www.ultrabookreview.com/24336-dell-
xps-13-9380/](https://www.ultrabookreview.com/24336-dell-xps-13-9380/)

~~~
LeoPanthera
The matte finish has horrible optical qualities, causing ambient light to
scatter ("antiglare") washing out colors, and also causing light from
individual pixels to scatter and refract back into neighboring pixels. This
reduces the quality of displayed images, and in high density LCD displays it
causes pixel-fine details (small text) to appear smeary.

By contrast, well-designed glossy displays minimize internal refraction and
also cause light at high angles to reflect, reducing the amount of ambient
light which pollutes the display. The result is that the display appears much
brighter in any setting, black are blacker and do not get washed out by
brights. Colors show higher dynamic range, and small details are crisper. In
addition, well-designed glass glossy displays (such as those on the MacBook
Pro) are actually visible and easy to use outdoors in full daylight. Even when
reflections show up on glass displays, it's easy to see past them because
they're full optical reflections with correct depth in stereo vision, meaning
that you can correctly focus on the screen without focusing on the reflection.

Glossy displays are bad under basically two conditions:

* They are warped plastic, such as on older Dell laptops, causing weird shiny glossy glare at all angles that cannot be ignored.

* You have positioned your screen so that there is a small but very very bright reflection behind you, and cannot tilt your display.

~~~
mbrumlow
You say all that -- regardless how superior your glossy screen is on paper; I,
and many others still prefer to look at matte screens and have far less
problems with them in real world situations.

~~~
tinco
I don't even know any developers that work on matte screens. What problems are
we supposed to have in the real world?

~~~
jenscow
I'm a developer and I prefer matte screens. Here's why:

Comfort: I don't need to adjust myself or the screen's position depending on
the light.

Power saving: My brightness can be lower, because it's not competing with
reflection.

To me, these greatly outweigh any advantages of a glossy screen.

On thing which may be important: I require a dark desktop theme.

------
no_gravity
There is a lot to of good to be said about the XPS series. I love them for all
my coding tasks.

The only problem is that you cannot open the display up fully. They block at
160° or so.

In many situations it would be super useful to have the laptop opened up 180°.
In a plane for example. Or when it sits on a desk in a laptop stand and you
use an external keyboard.

Running a laptop comparison site myself
([https://www.productchart.com](https://www.productchart.com)), I wonder if we
should add '180°' to the filter list. It seems like an odd feature. It's super
useful to me. Never heard anybody else talk about it though.

~~~
wongarsu
If 180° opening angle is an important feature for you it might be worth it to
go towards the XPS 2-in-1 series which features a 360° opening angle. In a
car, on a plane or on foot that can be an awesome feature to have.

~~~
no_gravity
I would love a 2-in-1! Especially if the keyboard could be disconnected.

But then you don't have the option of a matte screen. And that is essential
for me.

I am waiting for the day we have matte touchscreens.

~~~
Shorel
You can search for "Antiglare Touch Screen Protector" in Amazon and some
suitable products will appear.

Why would you do such atrocity and how can you really keep clean a non-smooth
surface which you constantly touch with your fingers are two issues that I
better not think too much about.

------
mscrivo
Why are they still using Killer WiFi NIC's on these things. They are
absolutely terrible. We have a bunch of XPS 13 and 15's at our office (9360's
up to 9570's) and every single one of them has random connectivity problems on
our office WiFi and people's home networks.

We've had to replace all of them with Intel 9260's and the problems instantly
disappear. I don't know how this is not a customer support nightmare for them,
and why they continue using them given the relatively low cost of the Intel
cards.

~~~
jhasse
I have a 9370 and never had any problems with the WiFi. I've connected it to
lots of home networks, coffee chops, etc.

Reception is perfect, even better than the Intel card my previous latptop had.

(running Fedora Linux out-of-the-box btw)

~~~
killjoywashere
how's the trackpad?

~~~
jhasse
The best I ever had. Me previous laptop was a VAIO and a MacBook Air (no Force
Touch yet) before that one. The trackpad is a little bit better than the MBA's
and a lot better than the one from the VAIO.

------
terhechte
Maybe somebody on here knows. Is there a (mostly) Linux compatible laptop that
offers the following?

\- 10-11 inch (preferably the size of the 11" Macbook Air or 10.5 inch iPad)

\- Good touchscreen (with Linux support)

\- Good keyboard with hinged display (2-in-one would be awesome, but I doubt
that's possible given the other constraints I already have)

\- Solid CPU options (i.e. no Atom)

I bought a Chuwi Surbook Mini and installed Linux on it but while the Hardware
works fine, the touchscreen is so-so and the attached keyboard cover is awful.
I'd buy a Microsoft Surface 10" but Linux on there doesn't support hibernation
and that's a must for me (and I won't go with Windows. I tried that with the
Chuwi, that OS is just not for me, I loathe it). I'd also maybe go with a
Pixel Slate but 12.3 inch sounds too big for me and Google doesn't sell it
here so I can't even preview it.

~~~
opencl
The 12" Chromebook models (Pixel Slate, Pixelbook, Samsung Chromebook Pro) are
not any larger than the 11" MBA. They're narrower and slightly taller. The MBA
just has enormous bezels and also a different aspect ratio.

~~~
terhechte
Thanks, I haven't had a chance to try them out because the few Google products
I'm actually interested are apparently only for the US marked. I'll look at
some comparison pictures and make up my mind.

------
RomanPushkin
> Up to 16GB of LPDDR3 memory at 2133MHz

"Up to 16GB" in 2019 means it's not upgradable, and not worth buying, because
developers like hardware that they can upgrade in 2-5 years if needed.

~~~
dmix
Anyone know why this is the case? Using a limited motherboard or something?
16gb should be standard these days for a developer laptop... with expansion to
32gb.

~~~
mixmastamyk
Ultraportable limits are generally courtesy of the Intel chipset.

~~~
Latteland
This would be a way for amd to make headway into the laptop market, if they
made it easy to get 32+ gb.

------
mikenew
I really _want_ to buy a "Linux laptop" like this because I want to vote with
my money and I don't want to be paying for a Windows license that I'm not
going to use. But _why_ don't they sell an XPS 15 Developer Edition? Surely
there's a lot of professional types wanting a bigger laptop right? Is there
some hardware difference between the two that causes problems? What's the
deal?

~~~
anuragsoni
Their Precision 5530 is the developer edition XPS 15. The same chassis with a
different GPU and intel wireless instead of killer.

Although those tend to be a lot pricier than the regular XPS 15's

~~~
mikenew
Did not know that. Honestly I would pay a bit more for Intel wireless vs.
Killer. Thanks.

~~~
anuragsoni
I think some of the price increase is also because of the different CPU
options. In general their Precision line should be a lot more configurable.

------
samcday

      InfinityEdge display with top camera placement
    

I wonder how many human-years of effort went into this improvement?

~~~
daenz
You mean you don't like the webcam at the bottom left of the display so your
typing fingers occupy 50% of the image when you're typing and broadcasting? :)

~~~
rbanffy
OTOH, they are a plus if your hair is getting thin.

~~~
buckminster
Unfortunately it moved into my nose.

------
satysin
Tempting but how is the coil whine on the new model? I had a 9370 for two days
last year but the coil whine was irksome to the point of returning it.

Also what is the point of 4K on a 13" laptop? Honestly the 1080p model needs
scaling to at least 1.25 as 1.0 is just painful even with perfect vision. Am I
missing something obvious or is it just so Dell can tick the 4K marketing
check box?

Providing it has no coil whine the only potential issue I see is the crappy
SOLDERED(!) Killer wifi card. Damn shame you can't get it with an Intel one.

~~~
tamrix
The coil whine is per device not per model. You can get lucky and have no coil
whine or unlucky and have it loud af on the same model laptops produced at the
same time.

~~~
craftyguy
I must be incredibly unlucky for having owned several XPS 13 systems over the
last 5 years, each with the coil whine.

~~~
mixmastamyk
What exactly is coil whine? Mine makes a light chatter sound when scrolling or
animation happens onscreen. Is that the same?

~~~
craftyguy
Yep, that's it.

[https://youtube/watch?v=blyswNKEPEY](https://youtube/watch?v=blyswNKEPEY)

------
nwlieb
Why is the 16GB RAM + FHD screen (1080p) variant not available in the US and
Canada? It seems like this has been a long-standing issue since at least the
9360.

This is very frustrating since I don't need the 4k panel (in fact I don't want
it for resolution scaling reasons) however I absolutely do need the 16GB of
RAM.

Mind boggling.

~~~
zihaoyu
FHD + 8GB model can be upgraded to 16GB for $100 more.

~~~
sowbug
EDIT: ignore everything below. Here's the link that parent is referring to:
[https://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/dell-laptops-and-
notebo...](https://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/dell-laptops-and-
notebooks/xps-13-developer-
edition/spd/xps-13-9380-laptop/cax13w10p1c603subuntu)

======

I hope you're right, because I've tried and failed to create such a
configuration on the website. Would you mind providing a link to a RAM-
configurable 1080 model?

For example, this one allows an i5/i7 choice as well as a 1080/2160 choice,
but that's it -- no RAM/storage modifications: [https://www.dell.com/en-
us/work/shop/dell-laptops-and-notebo...](https://www.dell.com/en-
us/work/shop/dell-laptops-and-notebooks/xps-13-developer-
edition/spd/xps-13-9380-laptop/cax13w10p1c706subuntu)

EDIT: Found it, and you're right! You have to start with the i7 rather than
the i5 on the product home page, but yes, it's there! This is awesome -- never
really used the 4K or touch, and could definitely use the extra battery life.
[https://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/dell-laptops-and-
notebo...](https://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/dell-laptops-and-
notebooks/xps-13-developer-
edition/spd/xps-13-9380-laptop/cax13w10p1c603subuntu)

------
Tehchops
What's the generally hold-up with 32GB RAM being a standard option(or even
possibility) in this form factor?

~~~
ambulancechaser
Totally agree. This is why I'm going to get a T480 thinkpad with 32GB for my
next linux laptop next week rather than this.

~~~
ahnick
That's what I've been rocking for 7 months now and it is my best laptop ever.
Highly recommend it!

------
blunte
Never again a Dell. XPS 15 was such a huge disappointment, not the least of
which was capped by the near constant CPU voltage throttling down to 0.8GHz
despite reasonable temperatures.

Specs are awesome. Reality over 1.5 years was way below according
expectations. Apple may make really annoying decisions regarding function
keys, RAM limitations, ports, etc., but their stuff largely works as promised
(ok, keyboard aside).

------
jhack
If only they'd release a version of the XPS with a 16:10 or 3:2 ratio display.
Getting work done on 16:9 is just so narrow and cramped.

~~~
I_am_tiberius
I currently have a 9350 and the 3-4 centimeters of potential screen real
estate below the display which is unused, is more or less the only thing that
bothers me. Plus, kernel 4.19 causes some wifi issues currently. But the
hardware has been very reliable so far.

------
wildmindwriting
I have a 2017 13" XPS running Solus Linux. I have come to abhor this machine.
I can't tell you the amount of times I've had to reboot the computer due to
frozen or halting apps. I only have 8GB of RAM so that might be it but I can't
run Slack app or the Google Play app at the same time without definitely
causing problems.

I have a desktop with Solus and 16GB at home and never run into any issues
with it.

I don't recommend this laptop anymore to anyone.

~~~
rashkov
Do you have a swap partition? If you don't have a swap partition enabled, then
your computer will freeze when your RAM fills up.

I have the XPS 16" and this happens to me under Arch Linux, but thankfully not
very often because I have 16GB of RAM. If you really have to break out of the
freeze, then you can try switching to another terminal window (eg. ctrl-alt-F3
or some other function key), then try to kill the offending process. It might
take a minute for your keyboard inputs to take effect, but it generally can be
done.

~~~
bscphil
Tip: I have the exact same setup, and I use earlyoom
([https://github.com/rfjakob/earlyoom](https://github.com/rfjakob/earlyoom))
to prevent this. Previously, I was frequently unable to break out of the
freeze no matter how long I waited, forcing a hard reboot, but with earlyoom
just a single memory-heavy app gets killed instead.

------
gao8a
I was looking at purchasing laptop but then I saw this:
[https://www.notebookcheck.net/Dell-briefly-teases-new-
XPS-13...](https://www.notebookcheck.net/Dell-briefly-teases-new-
XPS-13-laptop-with-Ice-Lake-at-Intel-keynote.393461.0.html).

Does this mean a newer version of this will be out in a few months?

------
davidw
I've been using these for years and love them. I've had to use a MBP for work
for the last few months and boy is it ever torture to use. You know why?
Mostly it's just about what you're used to. The quality of both computers is
pretty good, but the Linux computer is set up exactly the way I want.

------
markstos
I've switched to a Pixelbook and like it for many tasks. The Pixelbook is
lighter and has a taller 3:2 screen, both positives. The Chrome OS security
model seems stronger than Ubuntu out of the box. My development environment
now runs in the safety of a VM.

I had the XPS 13 9333 and later replaced it with the XPS 13 9730. It's about a
year old now and is currently back with Dell to repair two USB-C ports that
stopped working about the same time-- around the time I got the Pixelbook.

The Crostini software and integration on the Pixelbook still needs polish, but
overall I'm happy with the Pixelbook as an XPS 13 alternative for a Linux
development environment.

~~~
krn
I hope that Pixelbook 2 will be released soon with smaller bezels and more up-
to-date hardware. Then switching from a Thinkpad running Fedora / Ubuntu to a
Pixelbook will be a no-brainer to me. I think that ChromeOS is the most secure
OS at the moment, and a Pixelbook is like an iPad Pro and a Macbook Air
combined. Which is exactly what I want for work and leisure.

------
sowbug
Anyone know whether this model will work with USB-C phone chargers (or at
least any chargers that provide less than 45 watts)?

And does anyone have first-hand knowledge whether the Killer wifi card is non-
replaceable, as was the case with the 9370?

~~~
jhasse
I have a 9370 and charge it with a 45 watts phone charger from Inateck, works
perfectly :)

~~~
sowbug
Same here (9350). I'm looking for info about chargers designed for phones or
otherwise advertising less than 45 watts, as they're substantially smaller and
more prevalent than the ones providing 20V @ 2.25A and above.

~~~
arccy
I have a 9350, it charges with 30w from an Anker one (that apparently only
comes included with the 26800 pd battery pack) and 30w/45w (not sure) with an
Innergie 60c

------
40acres
...but did they fix the coil wine? I was very interested in an XPS in 2017, my
main criteria for a new laptop was a Linux machine, and yet during all my
research quality concerns continued to rise up regarding to XPS, either it was
coil wine, an icky track pad, poor keyboard, bad finishes.. you name it.

I ended up snagging a non touch bar MBP and haven't looked back. The elite
cell manufacturers have been able to bridge the gap between their hardware
quality and the iPhone.. why hasn't Dell?

~~~
adorton
I have a pretty new one (9370 I think) and I love it. No coil whine, the build
feels great, and I have no complaints about that keyboard or trackpad. My only
real complaint so far is the bluetooth is flaky.

~~~
bamboozled
Does the Bluetooth connection just drop out between suspensions? I’ve have
this issue across both XPS 13’s I’ve owned. It’s incredibly frustrating and
seems to be a long running issue [1]. If you care about Bluetooth I wouldn’t
recommend an XPS 13

1.[https://www.dell.com/community/Linux-Developer-
Systems/XPS-1...](https://www.dell.com/community/Linux-Developer-
Systems/XPS-13-9370-no-bluetooth-after-suspend/td-p/6022892/page/10)

~~~
adorton
Yeah, mine drops after suspending. Sometimes it shows the device is
disconnected and I need to re-pair it. Not sure if that is a problem with the
system or my MX Ergo, but it never has problems on my Windows machine.
Occasionally the whole bluetooth system dies and I need to reset.

------
darkerside
Camera's moved to the top! That addresses what's been a common complaint over
the years.

~~~
guntars
That was probably the main reason why I recently got a Precision instead of an
XPS as a daily driver.

------
nofunsir
ThinkPad X1 Extreme (15.6") is light and powerful for its size. (Small bezels)
I was worried that I'd have buyer's remorse reading this article, but I don't.
It supports up to 64GB RAM, 2x Thunderbolt (with PD), 2x USB A 3.1. Fast
charging. Bluetooth 5. 4K touch w/ wacom pen support. Infrared camera. Folds
flat. Mouse nub. Sweet, sweet ThinkPad keys. Look for discounts through your
work.

I should add:

DDR4 RAM and TWO (2) m.2 NVMe/PCIe slots!

~~~
mixmastamyk
Should be compared with the XPS 15, the 13 has a lot more compromises.

------
colemickens
Heads up, after I installed the 1.6.x BIOS update on my 9370, it takes
multiple minutes to POST, every (re)boot. After the initial update, the first
boot took nearly 15 minutes, I thought it had been bricked. I've reinstalled
firmware, I've downgraded, I've factory reset and it still does this. They've
offered to service it (I contacted them a week before my warranty expired) but
it's not quite annoying enough to be without it for days.

Just a heads up, I have a lot more to complain about the XPS13, but it's
basically exclusively BIOS issues [1]. I think they also need to improve the
heatsink/paste, but maybe they have for the 9380 model.

[1] The BIOS releases are not always in increasing version numbers. They're
repeatedly re-released versions, or released versions from different old
servicing branches, etc. Someone commented that they thought Dell was sort of
doing wide-scale A/B testing by releasing different versions and collecting
feedback. Seems a bit presumptive but it's been in my head.

~~~
colemickens
Funny coincidence, as I was writing this post, someone else was sharing a Dell
anecdote.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/Dell/comments/aj46fz/xps_9570_not_c...](https://www.reddit.com/r/Dell/comments/aj46fz/xps_9570_not_charging_after_bios_170_update/)
I partially do this to hopefully raise awareness -- if Dell would bring their
BIOS in house, I would be a very, very vocal advocate of the XPS 13 for any
non-Chromebook-level user.

edit: wow, Dell's BIOS vendor must have really butchered the last batch,
here's another one:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/Dell/comments/aiwj7u/do_not_use_del...](https://www.reddit.com/r/Dell/comments/aiwj7u/do_not_use_dell_g7_180_bios/)

------
robocat
Pluses and minuses of the 9570 (XPS 15, bought Dec 2018) - some of the
following apply to XPS 13 too (use common sense).

Pluses: \- Linux works well (needs some tweaks, but they are easily findable)
\- Fast laptop CPU (i9-8950HK) and 32GB (for VMs) \- 4k screen has great
readability (need some tweaks) \- USB-A 3 on both sides \- I've had two
firmware updates through Ubuntu (great Linux support by HP). \- I haven't had
any problems with the drivers (for the hardware I use - I haven't yet tried
video and I don't use the fingerprint sensor)

Minuses: \- No DisplayPort \- Glossy (all the touch-screen models are glossy,
the non-touch models are matte) \- Killer WiFi (works, but I've read it is
unreliable. Hopefully can replace if I have to) \- No hard PgDn/PgUp/Home/End
keys (very very annoying) \- Linux is not "officially" supported (Windows tax)
although I think the Linux support is good for a laptop. \- No Ethernet port
(I prefer a hard wire) \- Screen colours are too orange

~~~
okl
> Screen colours are too orange

Here are some pointers on how to change that:
[https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/ICC_profiles](https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/ICC_profiles)

------
jcastro
Anyone have real-world experience with this killer 1435 wifi card in Linux?
I'm hesitant to give up intel wifi's linux support.

~~~
shmerl
You can just replace it with Intel one.

~~~
AdmiralAsshat
I tried to do that on my 9343 and pretty sure I ended up breaking one of the
clips on the aluminum case. I got it back on and after reseating it a couple
of times there's no longer a visible gap once I get all the screws it, but
there's a spot on the back of the laptop where I can press down and here a
slight clicking noise, like a latch is trying to catch somewhere but can't.

Just saying, removing some of these things can be more difficult than the
Youtube videos or internet guides would have you believe.

~~~
shmerl
I haven't used Dell really, but in many laptops, it's usually quite
straightforward.

------
chrismaeda
I've had a Dell Precision M7520 for about a year. It can have up to 64GB ram
and runs Ubuntu 16 LTS. I think it came with a Windows 10 license but I threw
it away. The only downside is that the standard power brick draws too much
current to work on airplane power outlets. It also makes you stronger because
it's so heavy (~7 lbs).

~~~
snazz
The “laptop workout” works better with a messenger bag or briefcase than a
backpack in my experience since it puts more weight on your arms than your
back.

------
jupp0r
16GB RAM? That's not going to work for many developers three years from now (I
replace laptops every three years usually).

~~~
ericabiz
This is a MacBook Air competitor. The Dell XPS 15 supports 32GB RAM.

~~~
bunderbunder
But also lacks a developer edition.

There's at least some value in that guarantee that you won't run into any
driver issues.

------
bunderbunder
Can anyone recommend a comparable notebook that supports more than 16GB of
RAM?

As great as this computer looks, I find myself doing doing more and more data
crunching work that would benefit hugely from having more memory. But I also
travel enough that a desktop (or desktop replacement laptop) just won't cut
the mustard.

~~~
chx
If this laptop has SO-DIMM slots then it supports more than 16GB RAM. 32GB RAM
sticks are available and compatible even if Intel doesn't claim they are.
Campuspoint tested them with the Lenovo ThinkPad T480, for example.

~~~
eikenberry
You can buy a T480 from Lenovo with 32GB of RAM.

~~~
chx
Yes but it works with 64gb.

------
warp_factor
I have a XPS 13 9370 with the 4K screen. I installed Linux on it and it is the
best experience I have had in a long long time for a developer product.

I was on a mac for two years before that (and Linux even before) and I would
not go back to Mac. If you are a developer, you have a lot to win to fully
embrace Linux!

------
sfkdjf9j3j
Does anyone know if they fixed the automatic brightness adjustment that you
can't turn off? I have 5th and 6th gen XPS 13s and they both have this awful
"feature" where the display readjusts brightness based on how dark/light the
colors on the screen are. It's really obnoxious to scroll over a gif on
twitter and have your brightness start cycling up and down with the image. Or
to highlight a line of code in a text editor and see the screen noticeably
dim.

Everything else about these machines is great, but this is a complete show
stopper for me. I would happily upgrade to a brand new $2500+ machine, but
only if this is fixed.

~~~
Absor
On xps 13 9360 you can disable adaptive brigthness with an update that is
available for windows. On xps 13 9370 you can disable adaptive brightness
through bios if your bios is new enough.

------
beilabs
I bought a Dell XPS 13" back in 2008 and had nothing but problems with it. The
graphics card was known to overheat and melt on the board. Dell instead of
implementing a recall ended up figuring it was cheaper to send a repair man to
replace the entire motherboard each time. It happened to me three times.

On top of that, the screen failed, the trackpad failed and the keyboard
failed. The charger burned a hole in my carpet and the motherboard running
only Linux and an IDE burned my table.

I haven't bought a Dell laptop since. Has things improved with the XPS 13
developer editions?

------
leibnitz27
I seriously considered an XPS13 for a month or so (9370), but coil whine was
an issue on 3 of the 4 examples I looked at. Pity, as it's a lovely notebook.

Instead, I went with a Samsung Notebook 9 13", and ... it's amazing.
[https://www.samsung.com/us/computing/windows-
laptops/noteboo...](https://www.samsung.com/us/computing/windows-
laptops/notebook-series-9/notebook-9-13-3--np900x3t-k01us/#specs)

2.2lbs, and I've gone from charging every day to once a week.

------
berbec
I would totally buy one if it came with the pointy-stick (whatever Dell calls
Track Point). The main reason I stay with Lenovo is eraser mouse. There's a
nice HP (830 I think) but not much else.

------
ericfrederich
Is the hardware exactly the same as the non-developer version?

... meaning, could you order one with Windows 10 and then later down the line
decide to run Linux on it and not have any issues?

~~~
sliken
In the past dell has changed the wifi chip and GPU on the linux variants they
sell. I'd check for those differences whenever you buy. In particular the
intel wifi has a much better linux driver than anything else dell sells in
laptops.

------
throw2016
The deal of the year, or last 5 years, for a nice Linux laptop has to be the
Huawei Matebook D Ryzen edition [1]. It is at $620 and was going as low as
$420 a month ago, and Ubuntu works out of the box.

Don't let that price fool you, its sleek and the build quality and performance
is up there with expensive ultrabooks.

[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exLg45Up5b4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exLg45Up5b4)

------
tmpfs
For what it is worth, I purchased an XPS13 and have had terrible problems with
the touchpad and keyboard. The touchpad likes to jump around every once in a
while and the keyboard sticks from time to time. I only found reports of this
after the purchase and it is clear others have had the same problem.

I think it is a hardware problem and as such would not recommend buying into
the XPS ecosystem. Bad quality control, will never buy a Dell again.

------
dnautics
Does anyone know if the linux-can't-handle-multiple-displays-when-one-of-them-
is-4k-and-the-others-aren't issue has been resolved, either formally or
informally? I've heard this from several folks, (and seen it firsthand once)
and it's keeping me from upgrading my linux laptop for now (I don't have 4k
monitors as a part of my work setup).

~~~
neals
Running latest Ubuntu on a 4k and a 1280x1920 screen. Not ideal, but I can
work with it. Some apps still have issues, either to large on the small
screen, or to small on the big one... I feel like they're 1 or 2 version away
from it being good.

Fractional scaling (125%) is not available. There is a workaround, but I
couldn't get it to work.

~~~
paulie_a
I had plenty of issues with going back and forth. Finally I just got a Dell 4k
monitor. I think it was 700 at the time but I am pretty sure they are closer
to 350 now or less. That solved docking and so many other issues like
restarting applications, etc.

------
wmf
All you people asking for matte and USB-A (and Ethernet), this just popped up
from Japan: [https://www.anandtech.com/show/13890/dynabooks-g-series-
lapt...](https://www.anandtech.com/show/13890/dynabooks-g-series-
laptops-19-hours-under-2-pounds) Too bad about the 8 GB RAM though.

------
throwawayXPSke
Is the keyboard still wrong? Lenovo and Apple are the only companies that I
know of that get Fn/Ctrl placement correct.

Older XPS13 wouldn't let them be remapped (Fn is handled in hardware / Linux
kernel doesn't see it). If they fix this I'd buy one.

But as it is, the control key is further away from C, D keys than on a desktop
keyboard. Unacceptable to me.

------
lunchbreak
>Not only that but the 8th generation developer edition supports Suspend-to-
idle natively which allows the system to resume much more quickly from sleep.

What's different about this from before? I have an xps9350 with fedora - and
have noticed sometimes buggy suspending (it shuts down instead of suspending)
- but it usually got fixed with kernel update

------
wil421
>In the 9370 the camera is located directly below the screen. In the new 9380
the camera has been moved to the top, providing a much more flattering view of
the user while still maintaining the system’s sleek, compact design.

They put the camera below the screen? Am I understanding this right? Why on
earth would someone let this fly.

~~~
jhasse
Because there's not much space left with a bezel-less design.

I never actually use the webcam, so I don't mind for example and appreciate
the thinner top bezel instead.

------
rishabhsagar
I have the (now) older model XPS and this has been the best laptop I have
owned in a long time. Very reliable, nice keyboard with backlight, good
battery life, lightweight and came with almost no bloatware. My only slight
issue was the camera placement and looks like that has been resolved now too.
Very pleased.

------
cfstras
I had an 9360 for a few months and found it awful. Firmware bugs (some with
Windows, a lot with Linux), maddening coil whine, flimsy power plug.

The Linux TB3 support was sadly not really „ready“ (mainline Kernels
April~July 2018) in that there were constant panics when
hotplugging/unplugging monitors or the docking station.

------
bubblethink
Any word on various performance/throttling issues that have plagued recent
laptops due to Intel's DPTF ? My impression from what I read was that it's
some kludge that only works on windows (and chromeos possibly) causing
standard linux's performance to suffer unless you patch things.

------
AnabeeKnox
"Non-vPro processor".

Can someone help with a (dumb) question?

Does this mean that you can't run VirtualBox on this laptop?

~~~
kralos
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_vPro](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_vPro)

Intel vPro technology is an umbrella marketing term used by Intel for a large
collection of computer hardware technologies, including Hyperthreading, Turbo
Boost 3.0, VT-x, VT-d, Trusted Execution Technology (TXT), and Intel Active
Management Technology (AMT).

~~It means it doesn't have VTd / VTx hardware acceleration on the CPU. You can
run VirtualBox however it will be slower. When I first saw "Developer edition"
I thought; that must just mean it's got Virtualization hardware acceleration
and loads of RAM for running VM's etc... This branding makes no sense to me.~~

I just looked up the 15W parts on Intel ark (i7-8565U, i5-8265U, i3-8145U) and
they say they do have VT-d and VT-x...

------
cellover
1 year and a half after I bought my Dell XPS13 9360 developer edition, issues
started: trackpad seems to be unsticking the underlying surface, plus some
strong hiss noise appeared.

This is so disappointing when you invest around 2'000 USD in a laptop.

Hopefully this edition fixes those issues for good!

~~~
schmrz
I would offer another anecdote because I really believe this to be a very high
quality laptop. I have bought my Dell XPS13 9360 around the same time and have
never been happier with a laptop (running Fedora flawlessly, 10 hours of
battery). And it cost me around 1250€ (~1420 USD).

------
jopsen
Lost me at 16G of ram... I use chrome + vscode and is regularly out-of-memory
on my X1 Carbon.

Give me 64G, why not?

Also last I tried XPS I had to send it back due to electrical noise..
particularly under Linux (didn't really try Windows). Has Dell gotten better
at this over the past 3 years?

~~~
DougBTX
Are you having problems due to running out of memory? If memory isn’t full
then the OS isn’t putting it to best use, so overall memory usage isn’t a
great metric.

~~~
jopsen
You could possibly blame chrome and vscode... And modern web apps in general..

But yes, I run my swap full and can't launch apps because I'm out of memory.

------
jbredeche
I literally just got a new Dell 9380 today, running Windows. My plan was to
wipe and install Ubuntu. After I do that, will there be any functional
differences between my laptop and this newly announced developer edition?

------
jsiepkes
Does it come without LoJack (
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/LoJack_for_Laptops](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/LoJack_for_Laptops)
) ?

------
lwhi
'Easier to open' .. should this really need to be an improvement?

~~~
sowbug
If it's identical to consumer hardware, then there's no reason to design it to
be easy to open. But a developer laptop will be opened.

(I might be attacking a strawman, but I detect in your question a suggestion
that more consumer hardware should be user-serviceable. There's a difference
between being hostile toward serviceability and simply optimizing the design
for manufacturability, aesthetics, cost, and reliability, any of which can
conflict with other metrics such as serviceability.)

~~~
mixmastamyk
Believe it is about opening the lid, not the case.

~~~
sowbug
Oh, duh. Yes, I totally misinterpreted that. Thanks.

------
jypepin
Any reason why they'd still be using Thunderbolt and only put 1 usb-c instead
of full usb-c like macbooks? With even apple dropping thunderbolt, isn't it a
sign of death for those ports?

~~~
ken
"Apple dropping Thunderbolt"? Out of their 7 different Mac models, there's
only 2 that _don 't_ have full 40Gbps Thunderbolt 3 on every USB-C port -- and
they're the two that have been the longest since an update (2017 MacBook, 2013
Mac Pro).

What does "full USB-C" mean?

~~~
jypepin
oh my bad, I thought Thunderbolt meant the dongle type, as in, the shape of
the plug. My macbook only has 4 USB-C plugs.

------
alexeiz
So what's the difference between the normal XPS 13 and the developer edition,
except for the preinstalled Ubuntu? Can I buy the normal XPS 13 and then put
the same Ubuntu image on it?

------
equalunique
I appreciate being able to get Ubuntu GNU/Linux on a sleek Dell laptop, but
without a TrackStick/TrackPoint/PointStick, it's no "developer laptop" for me.

------
agrippanux
I love the Dell XPS 13 developer edition I bought over the summer, and it has
been a better value store than the Bitcoin I sold to buy it with.

------
Klonoar
Anyone have any idea why these dev-focused machines top out at 16GB of RAM?
Even Apple finally caved and bumped it on newer MBPs to 32GB max...

~~~
mixmastamyk
13" ultraportable limits from Intel.

------
bonestamp2
The $739 starting price is really nice... I was tempted to pick one up just
for fun, but then I saw upgrading to 8gb of RAM is another $300.

------
rubicon33
UHG. I just wish you could make iOS apps on non-mac devices. I really want to
move to an XPS 13, but I need to be able to develop for iOS.

------
mancerayder
I'm torn between this and the X1 and the T4xx to dual-boot Linux and Windows.
How's Linux and its drivers on the latest Lenovos?

------
CasperTol
What does NT and T after the resolution refer to?

~~~
anuragsoni
My guess would be NT => Non Touch, T => Touch

~~~
CasperTol
That makes sense, thanks!

------
bhaisaab
Has anybody seen/used the new HP spectre x360 gem-cut? Any feedback on spectre
x360 vs XPS13 for developers?

------
jbk
Is there a matte display option this time?

------
ausjke
anyone develop on the little 13" screen these days? I assume it will always be
hooked to a few monitors(2) for any coding tasks?

also what about the power consumption for linux, i bought a XPS13 for a family
member and have not turned it to ubuntu for him as linux always eats up batter
faster.

~~~
sbov
Its not so bad if you make good use of your hotkeys. E.g. on Ubuntu the
"windows key" \+ number will switch to that program in your dock. I have it
setup like this: win+1 = IDE, win+2 = terminal, win+3 = test browser, win+4 =
documentation, win+5=notes.

Then you can easily run everything on fullscreen and not worry about alt-tab-
hell.

------
IloveHN84
It's a pity there's no 32/64 GB RAM configuration.

------
pandemic_region
meanwhile, i'm still waiting for Ubuntu 18 on my 9370....

~~~
nmstoker
What's the hold up? YMMV but on my earliest XPS13 it came with 14.04 LTS I
think and 16.04 LTS was just out, so I just installed fresh and it was fine
with absolutely no issues: everything just worked.

~~~
pandemic_region
As far as I understand it's a customized version of Ubuntu with some special
drivers for the hardware. I was kind of expecting a system upgrade like
Android or iPhone does, totally managed by the hardware provider.

------
mediocrejoker
Has anyone been able to find the link on the Canadian site?

------
Double_a_92
How is this different from blatant advertising?

------
jordache
how is the trackpad on the xps w/ ubuntu? Is the dell + linux combo equivalent
to Apple's trackpad in performance?

------
usaphp
I would rather get same priced new MacBook Air, better touch pad, better
screen, better OS and better battery life.

------
Schnitz
No 32GB RAM option?

------
oweiler
Only 16GB RAM max?

~~~
rettori
yeah, that's a bummer. 2019 notebooks with the same max memory of 3-4 years
ago.

------
funkythings
I never understood, why Dell only offers a FHD and UHD model. FHD just looks
shitty after using more high def displays, and UHD sucks the life out of this
thing. Otherwise, perfect laptop.

------
chrisfinazzo
(Puts on old man hat)

XPS is a gaming machine. Save the No BS hardware for the Latitude line - which
has subsequently gone to shit, last I checked.

~~~
kkarakk
hey old man, devs can have hobbies outside of learning more about development
so i don't know why you're making a dig at gaming. a quick 15minute session of
fortnite in the middle of the day is quite nice

~~~
chrisfinazzo
Truth be told, I'm in my early 30's, but for the longest time, XPS was gaming
oriented (probably b/c of the Alienware acquisition) and Latitude was for the
business crowd.

Seeing the roles reversed - esp. as Latitude H/W has seemingly gone downhill,
because keyboards - is quite strange.

