
Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition review - sheff
http://www.jx0.org/2013/12/dell-xps-13-developer-edition-review.html
======
robertfw
I've been using one of these with the HD screen since the spring, here are
some thoughts:

Nice: \- Good battery life. With screen on full, wifi on I can get between 3-5
hours depending on CPU utilization. With screen brightness turned down, wifi
off, low utilization, ~6 hours

\- Keyboard and mouse pad are great

\- No issues with unsupported bits and pieces from ubuntu, with exception of
video output via usb

\- the battery strength indicator on the side is handy for quickly checking if
i need to grab my power cable without having to turn the machine on as well

\- Display quality (minus the glossy finish) is great, wide viewing angle,
vivid colours

Naughty: \- Glossy screen is a pain in the ass. Forget about using in
sunlight, I also need to adjust mine to avoid getting the overheads in our
office.

\- Temperature management is pretty poor - the air vents on the bottom don't
have much clearance even on a flat surface, and don't seem to move enough air.
I worry about the long term lifespan of this machine because it regularly
operates > 70c. When I can, I sit the machine on a laptop platform with a fan.

\- (minor) the function keybind for adjusting the volume requires 2 hands -
the fn key is on the lower left, while the volume up/down are on f11/f12.

\- only 2 usb ports and no SD card reader.

Overall I've been happy with it.

~~~
micampe
3-5 hours is good battery life in 2014?

~~~
alexchamberlain
It's the one thing that hasn't improved over the years.

~~~
micampe
My laptop goes easily to 7-8 without changing my usage significantly, 9 if I'm
only doing email. I hardly carry the power brick outside the house anymore.

------
Al-Khwarizmi
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.

~~~
crazygringo
Serious question: aside from data-entry people and accountants, who uses
numeric keypads anymore?

As a developer, I don't exactly type a lot of numbers. And they're too far
away from the home position of the hands to make the numpad efficient to use
for numbers in mixed alphanumeric text.

It really seems like they are rightly turning into a very niche input product,
like Wacom tablets, instead of a general-purpose one.

~~~
akbar501
I dislike the trend of putting number pads on laptop keyboards. It moves the
entire keyboard to the side.

~~~
josteink
For me it's a complete and utter deal-killer. Any laptop with a number-pad,
regardless of any specs and price otherwise, is a laptop I will not buy.

Numpad = No deal.

I still curse the trend of putting them on laptops. May it soon pass.

------
davidw
I have one of these and think it's pretty good. I am really happy to have been
able to give my money to someone selling me something with Linux on it.

~~~
igravious
Hi David,

I have one of these too! But which one, that is the rub. As far as I can tell
there are now three versions of project Sputnik. I too am so happy to throw my
€ in Dell's direction. I have the second because I bought mine just before the
recent Haswell refresh, gah :(

Please correct me if I am wrong.

Original version ... November 2012 1:
[http://bartongeorge.net/2012/11/29/sputnik-has-landed-
introd...](http://bartongeorge.net/2012/11/29/sputnik-has-landed-introducing-
the-dell-xps-13-laptop-developer-edition/)

Brings 1080p (after much clamour and feedback) ... February 2013 2:
[http://bartongeorge.net/2013/02/18/spuntik-2-is-here-
xps-13-...](http://bartongeorge.net/2013/02/18/spuntik-2-is-here-
xps-13-developer-edition-goes-1080p-and-launches-in-emea/)

Brings Haswell ... November 2013
[http://bartongeorge.net/2013/11/15/introducing-
sputnik-3-and...](http://bartongeorge.net/2013/11/15/introducing-
sputnik-3-and-its-unofficial-big-brother/)

Not sure which version the original poster is reviewing, I always meant to
review mine and haven't done so yet. I upgraded from Ubuntu 12.04LTS to 13.10
and had to futz about a bit with backlight keys. Wifi drivers kept glitching
out until recently. I had to add TRIM support myself (I had thought it was
there, it wasn't!)

Might be an idea to set up a Sputnik User's site unless one exists :) as
opposed to a Dell forum or employee's blog.

tip o' the hat ...

~~~
Erwin
How did you resolve your WiFi issues? Quite often I've found the laptop unable
to connect to random hotel WiFi (with no useful indication of why in
logs/dmesg) and I have to connect via my S3 and share the connection via USB.

~~~
lvillani
For a while I had terrible (in the 800msec - 4000msec range) RTT pinging an AP
right next to me, running:

    
    
        sudo iw dev wlan0 set power_save off
    

did the trick for me (issued after every boot or through an UDev rule such as
[https://raw.github.com/lvillani/ansible-
playbooks/9dc40c75cf...](https://raw.github.com/lvillani/ansible-
playbooks/9dc40c75cf8579665c80fe73cc0faf30fd98e93c/roles/power-
save/files/udev/powersave.rules))

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

~~~
mwfunk
Very true, although seeing your comment made me realize how awesome it is that
people consider 6 hours to be shitty for laptops nowadays. It doesn't seem
that long ago that 90-150 minute battery life was pretty standard.

~~~
astrodust
You mean ten years ago?

------
jskonhovd
Great laptop. I got mine over Christmas and I have no complaints. I hope Dell
continues to support Linux.

------
gum_ina_package
The real issue here is battery life. Only 6 hours? The new X1 carbon from
Lenovo can get 9, the T440s can get up to 17 (with extended battery), and the
MBA can get 12 right out of the box.

~~~
ivan_ah
The Lenovo X1 carbon has a 1600 x 900 screen though... I needz my linez of
code ;)

~~~
gum_ina_package
Not the new one! It's up to 2048xsomething-or-another.

------
curtis
The first thing I noticed from the picture is that the keyboard looks
_exactly_ like the keyboard on my MacBook Pro. I haven't really looked at
Windows laptops in a long time, so maybe this is a common layout now. It just
seemed notable to me.

------
wazoox
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
used when sitting back to the window).

The touchpad feel isn't as good as a MacBook but it's large and much better
than those from most other PCs I've tried. Overall a nice machine.

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

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

~~~
smackfu
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.

~~~
supergauntlet
The thing is, Thunderbolt manages to be this amalgamation of miniDP and PCIe
x4. It is actually entirely possible to run PCIe devices on a thunderbolt
connection, which means things like external graphics cards are now again
viable (since almost no consumer computers have expresscard slots now).

------
lvillani
I have one of the first-gen (non Sputnik) systems. I simultaneously love it
and hate it so much that after one year I had to put my (mixed) feelings in
writing here: [http://lorenzo.villani.me/2013/08/19/dell-
xps-13-l321x-the-r...](http://lorenzo.villani.me/2013/08/19/dell-
xps-13-l321x-the-review-one-year-in-the-making/) (this is little more than a
pondered rant, unlike OP's thorough review).

However, I think this year I'm probably going to bite the bullet and buy a 13"
Retina MacBook Pro.

------
mkhattab
I'm conflicted about the price being in the range of MBPs and Dell competing
with Apple, supposedly, based on quality and design. I think they would be
much more competitive if they were to price this laptop significantly cheaper
than MBPs without sacrificing too much quality. I think Dell has the resources
to do this. It's difficult for me to ignore brand image and I guess this makes
me a fan boy. Although, I really do want a decent Linux laptop. I will keep an
eye on the XPS13 in case I make the switch.

~~~
davexunit
Thinkpads make rock solid GNU/Linux machines. I highly recommend the X220. It
has some issues such as not being Coreboot compatible and needing nonfree
firmware to drive the wireless chip. The former has no fix, but the latter can
be fixed with a little hack and an Atheros chip.

~~~
bluedino
As an X220 it's a very nice machine but it's no in the same realm as the XPS
or the Air/rMBP.

It has a great keyboard and underlying hardware. But it's also stuck with a
low-resolution screen with terrible viewing angles, and is also as thick as a
brick. The touchpad also leaves a lot to be desired but it does have the
TrackPoint which is great.

The X240 will supposedly have a 1080p IPS screen but I'm not sure what the
holdup is.

~~~
derekp7
Does the x240 have the same screen dimensions as the x230? If so I wonder if
you can use it to upgrade the 230 panel.

~~~
bluedino
Chassis is quite a bit different, so probably not.

------
haswell
I owned one of the early 2013 1080p versions for about a month, but had
serious issues with backlight bleed. After having it replaced twice it became
clear that the issue was inherent to the hardware.

Aside from this, it seemed like a fantastic machine, but beware of the
potential backlight issues if you spend a significant amount of time with dark
or black windows / backgrounds. For me, this was 90% of the time between
terminal windows and Sublime Text.

------
davb
> If the laptop is turned off (or sleeping) and the battery is charging,
> there's no way for you to tell whether the batter is full or not based on
> the color of the LED. It stays white.

This isn't entirely true. While the color of the charger LED doesn't change,
the LED at the middle of the bottom/front edge (below the trackpad) goes from
orange to white when charged.

My biggest gripe with this (very nice, portable) laptop is that the wireless
card is a bit flaky with 802.11n under (x)Ubuntu 13.04 - 13.10. I find that in
some rooms of my (relatively small) flat I can't connect without disabling 11n
(sudo modprobe iwlwifi 11n_disable=1). I get a very high "Tx excessive
retries" value in iwconfig otherwise and the network connection is unusable.

It's not a failing of the laptop, but rather the bundled Intel wireless card
and the drivers that ship with Linux 3.11.0-15. My Lenovo T430s has the same
issue (it has a Centrino Advanced-N 6205).

I've seen numerous bug reports and kernel patches but haven't had much success
in resolving the issue.

------
surge
I own this laptop, had it for almost a year. I love it except after a while I
noticed random hard freezes, basically the display freezes in place and the
system doesn't respond. I would have to hold down the power button to force an
unexpected reboot (in the words of Moss). It would happen after a day, or a
week of use.

Turns out it's a problem with the kernel in 12.04 and the Intel 4400 chipset.
The only solid fix is to simply update to a non-LTS release. Since updating to
13.04 I've been okay. I shouldn't have to wait much longer for 14.04 so I
should have an LTS release soon with the updated kernel.

The only other problem I've had is some updates deleting my firmware for the
wireless, I've had to re-download it. But I did not have this problem when
upgrading Ubuntu.

Despite these issues, otherwise it's been a very solid laptop.

~~~
bpeebles
You can use
[https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/LTSEnablementStack](https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/LTSEnablementStack)
to get a newer X server and kernel while otherwise staying on 12.04 LTS.

------
grigio
I think it should be cheaper compared to a MBA with Linux.. anyway the
competition is good

~~~
skyebook
I just did some comparisons, it is indeed cheaper than a MBA in similar
configuration. In terms of price, the 13" retina MBP is a way better deal than
both the Dell and the Air.

------
lowry
Warning: Ubuntu on this laptop does not support video output on USB 3.0
docking stations.

~~~
jskonhovd
I am guessing you are referring to the USB 3.0 DisplayLink Docking Station.
Yes, DisplayLink has issues with supporting Linux. We can only hope that Dell
and other PC manufacturers will put pressure on them to support Linux.

------
stiff
Notebookcheck has a test of this laptop:

[http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Dell-XPS-13-Ultrabook-
La...](http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Dell-XPS-13-Ultrabook-
Late-2012.87006.0.html)

I love their review because they go into very much detail and some of the
information is hard to found elsewhere, like real measurements of screen
contrast and brightness, the one parameter that already eliminates 95% of
laptops every time I look for one, and of loudness.

~~~
jre
This is not the haswell/HD screen version though.

I'm currently looking for a laptop and it will be either the XPS 13 or a rMBP
13 inches. I'm currently favoring the rMPB a little bit because it seems it
get less hot than the XPS. It kinds of scare me when the review says the
laptop gets somewhat warm while surfing and I've had really bad experiences
with overheating Dell laptops.

What's your experience XPS 13 owners ?

~~~
jfb
I use and love Apple hardware, but if you're not going to use OS X, does it
make sense to pay the price in driver potential wonkiness?

------
codeape
How is the multi-monitor support on the XPS 13 running Ubuntu? I googled, but
could not find much useful information.

How many external monitors can be connected?

I found some information here:
[http://www.intel.com/support/graphics/sb/CS-031040.htm](http://www.intel.com/support/graphics/sb/CS-031040.htm)
, but it looks as if most of the info applies to Windows.

~~~
lvillani
I have the first-gen XPS 13 with 1366x768 internal display. No problems at all
in a multi monitor setup. I have a Dell S2409W, 1920x1080 at home and a NEC
1920x1200 at work.

~~~
codeape
Do you use both the internal display and external monitor?

Have you tried connecting more than one external monitor?

~~~
lvillani

        > Do you use both the internal display and external monitor?
    

Yes

    
    
        > Have you tried connecting more than one external monitor?
    

Never tried. This laptop has only one mini DisplayPort output. I heard that
there are splitter cables/adapters which should allow for that but I haven't
found an affordable one yet. An alternative would be a display that supports
daisy chaining (the only one which I am aware of is Apple's Thunderbolt
display which doesn't even turn on for me).

------
bch
Sort of funny, but it looks like their Linux developer laptop keyboard has a
Windows key. Licensing issue, or just an unfinished project?

------
just_bytecode
I bought a refurbished ASUS Vivobook X202E and put Linux Mint on it. I was
pleasantly surprised that everything worked out of the box (touchscreen,
multitouch trackpad, wifi, etc). It's still important to have manufacturers
standing behind Linux on their PCs, but hardware support on Linux is always
getting better.

------
mixmastamyk
Nice, I'd consider getting one. Wish it was a bit bigger though... I have an
XPS 16 which isn't very heavy and don't want a smaller screen.

When I use the wife's Mac I'm always fumbling around the keyboard shortcuts.
However, the screen is amazing. If this Dell had a bit more DPI I'd be sold.

------
tuneit
About the low battery time I am pretty sure it is a linux problem and not so
much a hardware. Battery is really one of linux weaker spots. However I read
that the optimization ubuntu is doing for phones will help the overall battery
situation. I guess we can just cross our fingers that its true.

------
fotcorn
I bought a Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga a month ago and installed the alpha of Ubuntu
14.04 LTS on it. The only thing that didn't work out of the box was the lock
button and scrolling in Firefox using the touch screen (install the Grab and
Drag Addon). Features: matte screen, TrackPoint, Pen Input.

~~~
just_bytecode
Thanks for turning me on Grab and Drag. Firefox is one of the few things I
want to touch scroll on Linux.

~~~
taeric
Seconded! Only used it for about 30 seconds and this is already one of my
favorite add ons. :) I kind of wish it was only enabled for the touch or pen
cursors, anyone know if that is possible?

------
news_to_me
I was debating getting this laptop or a Thinkpad T440s and a Chromebook Pixel.
For me the Pixel just doesn't have the storage capacity I want, and the T440s
isn't quite as portable.

I've made a deal with myself to get this once I've paid my loans off. C'mon,
baby, just two months..

~~~
reirob
Then maybe the new Thinkpad X1 Carbon is for you:
[http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/thinkpad/x-series/x1-ca...](http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/thinkpad/x-series/x1-carbon/)

I would seriously love to buy it but the new keyboard changes put me off (see
comment on
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7016535](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7016535)).
It's a shame, because otherwise it is really a nice machine - will as well go
with T440s.

~~~
news_to_me
Oh god, it has Haswell now!! Damn the loans.

------
auggierose
Not sure why anyone would get one of these. The new MacbookPro 13 inch is the
sweetest laptop deal out there right now (if you can do with 13 inch and only
2 cores).

~~~
ternaryoperator
Because they want an Ubuntu laptop?

------
parhelium
Right now I have Lenovo w520 and I approached 3 times to configure ubuntu with
external screen, no luck.

Does Dell XPS 3 DE work fine with external monitor on ubuntu ?

------
kayoone
does Ubuntu use some kind of DPI scaling on this or is it just native FHD ?
That could be pretty small for some people. How does it handle setting to
lower resolutions ?

Also 6hours of battery life seem a bit on the short side, though he had quite
a few programs running. Id like to know how it would do in Windows8 though.

Id also be interested in how well it handles sleep/awake scenarios with an
external display attached etc.

~~~
wazoox
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).

~~~
ch4s3
how does it do with video playback?

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

------
coreymgilmore
could use a 15" brother with a bigger screen -> lets you see more lines of
code and run side-by-side editors more efficiently.

------
elchief
Does the WIFI LED flash a different colour when it uploads directly to the
NSA?

What am I going to do with 8GB of RAM? My mom has 8GB of RAM.

------
nfoz
> First boot: Ubuntu animation, __Dell User Agreement __, then the standard
> Ubuntu installer.

Seriously?

~~~
Silhouette
FWIW, I picked up on that, too. Why would a new piece of hardware running a
FOSS operating system need proprietary legalese from Dell? Not saying there
aren't reasons for it, but anyone who's interested in buying a Linux laptop in
the first place might want to know what they are.

------
platz
I'm not sure I trust anything from Dell anymore after the DER SPIEGEL
releases.

------
shirro
Two wishes. They supported 16GB RAM. Dell Australia would sell them.

------
johnchristopher
No matte screen though :(

~~~
surge
You don't need one, it's got gorilla glass, it's basically the same screen
you'd get on a high end tablet.

------
plg
how does it compare to a macbook air with linux installed?

~~~
giovannibajo1
Hardware-wise, the main differences are a better display (that is, more
dense), and a slower SSD (non PCIe) and slower graphic card (HD4200 vs
HD5000). Trackpad is probably worse as well, but I would suppose you can't see
much of a difference under Linux where the experience is suboptimal even with
the Apple one. You also don't have Thunderbolt connectors, though I doubt is a
problem for most people.

------
atmosx
Good might me next laptop series... Hm.

