
Dell Unveils Updated XPS 13 with Intel’s 10th Gen Core CPUs and 4K Panel - jseliger
https://www.anandtech.com/show/14779/dell-unveils-xps-13-with-intel-gen-10-core-4k-panel
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dijit
These are really compelling machines in general, I know some youtubers are
saying the style is dated, but I disagree. The only way they get better imo is
to have dedicated ethernet. But that's incredibly unlikely these days and many
of you probably don't even consider it to be a loss at this point as the world
has kinda moved on.

the only downside for me, as a linux user, is the "killer" wifi. My last brush
with this card was not pleasant at all, reminiscent of the mid-2000's era of
"not working" and "when it does it randomly drops stuff". But I suppose the
card is easily replaceable. (as, I have a precision and it's basically an XPS
with ECC, a Xeon and a proper intel wifi card).

Now I have to figure out how to convince my IT dept. to buy me one. :)

~~~
wayneftw
I got a lowly Acer E5-575G for $799 that came with discrete ethernet, vga and
hdmi ports and Manjaro has been rock solid on it for a year.

Why is it incredibly unlikely for Dell to do the same?

~~~
close04
Laptops become thinner and thinner. The XPS is 0.46" thick. Your laptop is
1.2" thick. That's a lot of extra height to put larger ports like Ethernet.

~~~
wayneftw
Thanks! I didn't realize that techies cared so much about how thin their
laptop is.

Maybe I'm an outlier because I'd rather have more ports and convenience than a
thin laptop. In fact, I don't like very thin devices because I feel like the
thinner they get, the harder they are to repair and the easier they are to
break.

~~~
close04
The general audience for laptops is far wider than just techies. Techies might
actually be the minority. Between this and the fact that many people will
never see/need an Ethernet cable in their life it makes sense for
manufacturers to compete with specifications that the average buyer craves:
thin and light.

They could have included one of those flip down Ethernet ports though [0][1],
since I see there is plenty of space under the edges of the laptop to drop
that flap.

[0]
[https://memestatic1.fjcdn.com/comments/I+think+hp+did+it+pre...](https://memestatic1.fjcdn.com/comments/I+think+hp+did+it+pretty+well+this+is+the+_53e8b0b4da8822f68622eefa159e277a.jpg)

[1]
[http://bcchardware.com/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.Downloa...](http://bcchardware.com/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=43511&g2_serialNumber=2)

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RcouF1uZ4gsC
I wish Dell had gotten away from the 16:9 screen aspect ratio which is great
for watching movies, but not so great for other stuff, to 3:2 which is much
better for productivity work. When I was looking for a laptop last year, I
also looked at the Matebook X Pro which had the 3:2 aspect ratio, and it had a
lot more usable screen real estate. I ended up going with the XPS 13, but I
miss the 3:2 ratio.

~~~
dijit
Correct me if I'm wrong but the last I heard from the XPS line was that
they're 16:10, and while not 3:2 it is much more usable productively; and a
super compelling draw for me.

[https://www.anandtech.com/show/14426/when-ice-matters-
dell-a...](https://www.anandtech.com/show/14426/when-ice-matters-dell-
announces-xps-13-2in1-with-ice-lakeu)

~~~
baybal2
I kinda don't like 3:2 as it is "neither meat, neither fish"

Software adapted for 16:9 ration with huge side toolbars get near no usable
work space (photoshop, gimp) and you don't get so much space for documents as
proper 4:3 or 16:9 turned vertical

And god forbid you break the screen, nothing but the original panel will fit
as all 3:2 panels are custom order

~~~
derekp7
3:2 is great for tablets or convertibles. For me, 16:9 vertical (9:16?) is way
to narrow for most web sites. Whereas 3:2 is the sweet spot that works in
either orientation fairly well.

The other thing I like about it is when watching pre-hi-def TV shows, the
black bars on the sides aren't really that bad, and widescreen content isn't
as bad as on 4:3.

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tannhaeuser
Owner of an older 2016 XPS 13 here. I'm mostly satisfied with it, but after 4
years there's a very noticable bulge (due to thermics?) on the left to the
touchpad and extending into the keyboard. Touchpad sticks out 1mm+ on the
left, and has kindof always been a bit difficult to operate for right-click.
Should I be worried the battery will explode or something?

Anyway, bought the XPS because of the matte screen, excellent keyboard, and
rich interfaces (for a notebook of this size) incl USB-A and SD both of which
I use frequently, but these are gone on the newer model. Also not enthusiastic
about USB-C as a power connector; had my Samsung smartphone connector wear out
within less than a year's time. It's sad because the notebook generally worked
very well for me, but with the changes Dell made ceased to stand out. Any
recommendations for alternatives (maybe I should finally come around and buy a
Thinkpad)?

~~~
blyry
My employer switched to dell laptops, the first gen xps 15 and 13s, and now
the precisions. As they get older we're seeing more and more battery swell.
We're not sure the root cause, we speculate that it's a specific usage pattern
related to the USB-C docks everyone has. Your battery is definitely not okay,
you should get it replaced asap. We've looked at some alternatives like the hp
spectre, or the lenovo ideapad and the asus zenbook, but none of the felt as
nice as the precision line wrt build quality and bang-for-buck.

~~~
tannhaeuser
Mine isn't sitting in a dock, but gets hammered with serious workloads all the
time, so I suspect it might be a thermal issue.

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baybal2
So, they reduced the battery for the third time in a row? This what I call a
"Product Manager Curse:"

Just from having around somebody whose work function implies "a duty to
extract value" in between the technical decisions, and optimising the product
to death, you get products becoming worse with each generation, and not
better.

See, a first reduction from ~64Wh to 62Wh might've not been even visible and
been a valid "product management" decision, and not impacted the sales.

A second cut from 62 to 56 might've only deterred few power users, and could
also be validated from the same standpoint, if evaluated without knowledge of
the context.

But the third cut from 56 to 52 will blow up, despite the rest of the product
getting the biggest year on year improvement ever.

~~~
pizza234
Why does the battery matter if overall, the system lasts longer?

~~~
baybal2
52Wh vs 64Wh and the claim of same battery life under a synthetic test while
getting more power hungry with each generation?

Something suggests me that this claim is a plain marketing bs.

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mixmastamyk
Wow 16:10! I might buy one just for that! 16:9 sucks. Now if I could only get
a squarer desk monitor.

They always focus on the 13 in these articles, but I always get the 15, which
is often a Precision.

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hbcondo714
>> The CPUs are cooled down using a brand-new cooling system that relies on
two fans

I'm somewhat of stickler for fan noise but I hope this implementation doesn't
result in being loud

>> equipped with up to 16 GB of soldered-down DRAM

That's enough for me right now but no room for expansion

>> a 52 Wh battery that can enable operation for up to 19 hours on one charge

Hope real-world battery life comes close

>> Dell’s new XPS 13 with quad-core CPUs will be available starting August 27
at $899.99

Quad-core for less than $1K...nice!

~~~
p0nies
I always disable Turbo Boost, huge temperature difference.

~~~
rowanG077
Same. Sustained performance is also a lot better for me if I disable turbo
boost.

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paultopia
Does anyone know if the developer edition is getting a refresh too?

(Also, does anyone else find Dell's website incredibly confusing? Really hard
to find a specific model on it---bizarre for a company that got its start with
mail order.)

~~~
masonhensley
Yep, September, with more variants in October -
[https://news.softpedia.com/news/dell-unveils-new-
xps-13-deve...](https://news.softpedia.com/news/dell-unveils-new-
xps-13-developer-edition-ubuntu-laptop-with-10th-gen-intel-cpus-527070.shtml)

~~~
paultopia
thanks!

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KaiserPro
They are nice machines apart from two things:

1) poor suspend performance (loosing ~20% battery a day)

2) Stupid pageup/down placement. I kept on hitting them when using the arrow
keys.

Barring those two issues, they are great machines.

~~~
pizza234
> 2) Stupid pageup/down placement. I kept on hitting them when using the arrow
> keys.

Personally, I'm much more irritated by the Home/End keys position, as they
force the hand to do a long movement, when compared to keyboards that map them
to Fn+side arrows (which don't require any movement).

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kelnos
Ugh, timing. I just bought the current/old version of the XPS 13 less than two
weeks ago. Part of me wants to see if I can return it and get the new one, but
the thought of setting up a new machine again and re-copying data gives me
pause.

Also not stoked about the new version having a smaller battery than the one I
got, especially considering (as a sibling poster mentioned) it loses more than
you'd expect while suspended.

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ebg13
Does anyone know if they ever fixed the widely-reported coil whine problem on
these?

~~~
robocat
I saw a review of the XPS 13 9380 mention the problem.

Googling shows it has been a problem since at least the XPS 9530 (2013). I
notice it intermittently on my 9570 depending on load/activity.

If they can't fix it after 5 or 6 generations, I wouldn't have much hope they
will ever fix it. Apparently Dell test that the sound levels are below some
limit, but that means can still hear the noise.

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jeffus
It looks like the webcam is on the top of the screen, thankfully.

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solarkraft
What is the reason for the display being so high? Why don't they shift it down
for a more balanced look and the ability to integrate a better (Windows Hello)
camera?

~~~
bazooka_penguin
I see you arent merely satisfied with your neck being bent out of shape from
looking down at a 13" laptop screen, you want to snap it straight off your
body

~~~
solarkraft
Yep, I'll take any 10th of a degree I can get.

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Koshkin
4K at 13”? I wonder who would need (or even want) that.

~~~
enriquto
i'd pay extra for a version with large pixels and much longer battery life

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apk-d
I'd pay extra for a version with a taller screen. I don't understand why
there's next to no market for laptops that aren't 16:9

~~~
stetrain
These are 16:10

"The display panels feature a 1920×1200 or 3840×2400 resolution"

However 3:2 would be nice, like the Surface Laptop.

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driverdan
The 16GB max RAM and only USB-C are disappointing. I'll be looking for new
Linux laptop soon but want more RAM and hate dongles.

~~~
aries1980
Indeed. I don't know why RAM is so limited these days. My 3-year-old 13" Clevo
N130BU has 2 slots, 16GB RAM each with a galore of IO ports.

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davidw
Been using these for years with Ubuntu and love them.

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genpfault
Argh, Dell, please give us full-sized arrow keys!

