
Dell XPS 15 review: A bigger version of the best PC laptop - ingve
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/01/dell-xps-15-review-a-bigger-version-of-the-best-pc-laptop/
======
bd
If you are interested in this new Dell XPS 15, this is a much better review
[1]:

[http://www.notebookcheck.net/Dell-XPS-15-9550-i7-512GB-
UHD-I...](http://www.notebookcheck.net/Dell-XPS-15-9550-i7-512GB-UHD-
InfinityEdge-Notebook-Review.156462.0.html)

NotebookCheck folks do some of the most thorough testing of notebooks you can
find anywhere.

\-------

[1] For example: ArsTechnica review seem to have botched graphics tests
somehow.

Having Nvidia GTX 960M GPU is a big part of XPS 15 value proposition (and what
makes it stand out from e.g. Macbook Pro).

This doesn't show up in ArsTechnica review, yet it is completely obvious in
NotebookCheck one.

~~~
revenz
Anyone know if this will allow GPU-passthrough of the Nvidia GPU? It seems to
have most of the requirments

~~~
fulafel
GPU passthrough requires a hardware video output for the discrete GPU. You can
go looking through the moaning of Oculus Rift users[1] as they prowl laptops
that do this, but it's pretty much unheard of in current standard laptops.

[1] Rift needs better video latency than you get with routing the DGPU output
through the IGPU. Apparently there are now some specialized 17" gaming laptops
that support a "direct mode" that might allow GPU passthrough to HDMI given
software support.

------
stormbrew
_sigh_ Another laptop with plenty of room for another column of keys on the
right omitting discreet home/end/pgup/pgdn keys for no good reason.

Really tired of bad ideas like this becoming universal traits.

~~~
harel
This is the reason I bought the 3rd gen lenovo carbon and not the xps. Not to
mention the keyboard is superb and very coder friendly.

~~~
pierre_massat
I had the X1 carbon 3rd gen and I have the XPS 13 9350 right now, I don't see
a lot of differences in the keyboard. Why do you like the ThinkPad one better?

~~~
harel
I think the carbon keys have much better travel, and best of all, dedicated
Home/End/PG Up/Down keys. Those are priceless to me.

------
castratikron
I'm not sure I'd call the XPS 13 the best PC laptop. The keyboard is pretty
terrible, and the touchpad is so wide that my palms will rest on it and cause
the cursor to move around while I'm typing. There's also some bounce on the
spacebar which results in sometimes registering double spaces (the latest BIOS
alleviates the problem, but not completely).

The DPI of the screen is really high and doesn't scale well under XFCE, but
I'm not sure if that's really a fault of the laptop.

~~~
snerbles
I currently run Debian Jessie on an XPS 13 - GNOME 3 handles high DPI with
minimal configuration. I'm sure KDE could manage as well, but I did not have a
magnifying glass available to navigate the miniscule menus. I've run into more
issues with apps that don't scale - some games and the Arduino IDE being the
biggest offenders I've come across.

I agree with regard to the touchpad size/palm sensitivity - accidental clicks
are a big problem.

~~~
szatkus
You can disable "click on tap" in Gnome settings. For me it's much better this
way.

------
untog
As someone who has been buying MacBooks since 2006, I'm starting to feel
envious of the various PC laptops out there - in particular the XPS 13 and the
Surface Book. With OS X not proving itself to be a fantastic OS in recent
revisions I'm wondering how long it'll be before I give into temptation.

Maybe when someone finally gets a trackpad that's as good as the Macbook.
Almost every PC laptop I've tried has paled in comparison.

~~~
kunai
I tried a friend's Surface the other day and got blown away by how smoothly
everything ran and how quick Edge was compared to Safari. No hang-ups, no
"This application was forced to quit," no opening iTerm and having to kill a
process by hand, better memory management, and pretty decent battery life. Of
course, the trackpad and keyboard were still not as good as the ones on the
MBP; there's some weird Apple magic going on there and while OEMs are catching
up I wonder how much longer it'll take to actually match the performance of
Apple's input devices.

It's amazing how the tables have turned; I can't imagine myself saying
anything like this 5-6 years ago.

~~~
basch
"the trackpad and keyboard were still not as good as the ones on the MBP"

did you touch a Surface Book?

~~~
kunai
Nope, this was an SP3 with the newer type cover IIRC. Haven't had the chance
to see an SB in person yet, but I've heard good things about it.

------
rayiner
> Unfortunately, even with this 84Wh battery, the battery life of the XPS 15
> wasn't tremendous. The blame for this lies almost certainly with that large
> screen. Dell's own battery life estimates (which are in the same ballpark as
> ours, given some differences in testing methodology) suggest that swapping
> out the 4K panel for the 1080p one would extend battery life in similar
> workloads by 60 percent or more.

Why is Apple the only one that can build a 15" retina laptop with 9-10 hours
of battery life?

~~~
smackfu
I'm sure it helps to write the OS.

~~~
Eric_WVGG
It’s definitely the OS. Battery life on a Macbook Pro in Windows via Boot Camp
tanks.

One could make the argument that substandard drivers for the Apple hardware is
to blame here, so perhaps battery benchmarks on a Hackintosh vs the same
hardware in Windows would settle the debate, but that's some tinfoil hat shit…
Apple has been vocal about battery life as a top priority for the company
going all the way back to the PowerPC/Intel switch.

~~~
notacoward
I'm not so sure it's the OS. The new Pixel has even better battery life than
the latest Macbooks, in a similar form factor, and it's all Linux underneath
the hood. IMO it's more of a commitment to tweaking whatever OS you have, not
necessarily to writing the whole thing.

~~~
Eric_WVGG
I think we're saying the same thing just a little differently.

Apple didn't write Darwin from scratch, after all.

------
nly
Personally I'm wondering if/when they'll expand the sleek Latitude 7000 series
to 15". After being disappointed by where Lenovo took ThinkPad, I've been
really happy with my 15" 6540 (c. 2013) and would happily buy a 15" machine
from Dell again.

[http://www.dell.com/uk/business/p/latitude-e7470-ultrabook/p...](http://www.dell.com/uk/business/p/latitude-e7470-ultrabook/pd?ref=PD_OC)

------
antaviana
The problem with these 4K laptops where you need to set your font as 250% is
that if you RDP to a HyperV Windows 7 VDI machine at the higher resolution,
you see nothing because you cannot change font size or resolution on the
remote machine.

So before you RDP, you need to change the local resolution to something
compatible with normal font size (100%) and 15". It is such an annoyance to
change resolutions back and forth that you end up configuring the lower
resolution permanently.

~~~
dzhiurgis
You might try looking for this OS X feature:
[http://superuser.com/questions/316133/how-to-zoom-in-
windows...](http://superuser.com/questions/316133/how-to-zoom-in-windows-
using-the-mouse-like-in-os-x)

------
ctangent
I got one of these in November and primarily run Ubuntu on it, and I'm really
happy with it. The only thing that (really) sucks is that Suspend/Resume is
broken, so you get a kernel panic if you shut the lid. Otherwise, it's wicked
fast (compiles LLVM in 10 minutes and CoreCLR in about 2 minutes) and the
display is really nice.

The only gripe I have with the layout of the keyboard is that sometimes the
palm of my hand grazes the touchpad while typing, which on Ubuntu causes a
click and moves the mouse cursor - a minor annoyance when typing but easily
undoable.

The Ubuntu installation process is a little dicey but some person on the
Ubuntu forums posted a detailed list of instructions and they mostly worked
for me. Upgrading the kernel did not fix my suspend/resume problem, though.
([http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2301071](http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2301071))

The battery life is not as stellar as a macbook but I don't mind. It can last
through a flight across the United States, so that works for me.

------
farresito
I would probably get a Thinkpad T460s before this laptop, especially since the
new T460s is even thinner than it used to be (closer to the X1 carbon). What
do people find so attractive about this laptop? I'm thinking about getting one
this upcoming year and neither the XPS' touchpad nor the keyboard seem very
good.

~~~
rogerbinns
I love Thinkpads, but the thing that really annoys me is just how much Lenovo
charge for upgrades. I end up having to buy with the smallest memory and
storage they have, and then separately upgrading them. The Lenovo prices are
often up to ten times the market rate for the same items.

~~~
basch
I view upgradability as a plus, i can buy the lowest end and do it myself.

~~~
rogerbinns
Yes, being able to upgrade is great. But I do get annoyed at how much they
charge. For example getting an additional 16GB of memory for the T450s is $309
at Lenovo (on big sale from the usual $430), while the same from Crucial is
$180. A 512GB SATA SSD for that model is $430 (on sale from $580) while a
comparable model from Crucial is $180, or a Samsung 850 Pro for $220 on
Amazon.

As a consequence I have a collection of unused 500GB laptop hard drives since
you have to order with some storage and that is the cheapest Lenovo do. I
immediately replace them, but this is wasteful and silly. If their prices were
far closer to normal then I'd just get Lenovo to do it, and they'd make more
money. Instead they see me getting the lowest specs, instead of what I
actually use.

~~~
basch
i guess i would never even consider buying from the oem unless it is soldered
on.

crucial is overcharging too. 16gb ram kits are $75

i also have a large box of 500gb drives

~~~
rogerbinns
It only has one ram slot (the other has 4GB soldered in) so you can't use a
kit - you need a single 16GB sodimm. Retail prices are around $150 everywhere.

If Lenovo charged an amount substantially similar (or better) than regular
retail, then I'd gladly pay them for the upgrades. But at multiples of the
retail price it makes no sense.

------
mmrezaie
recent Mac OSX makes me go back to windows laptops, and Linux on them, but I
wonder how this one compares to Macbook Pro 15. Touchpad, and battery are
important.

~~~
bdisraeli
I have an XPS 13 and run Linux on it. The drivers for the touchpad were very
rough with the version of Ubuntu it shipped with, but updating to a Kernel
version > 4 fixed all my problems.

~~~
vkazanov
Yeah, the worst Linux laptop I had in years:

1) the touchpad never worked; 2) the keyboard still has problems; 3) some of
the more important programs look just horrible on Linux, as the resolution is
just too high; 4) sometimes WiFi just does not work;

...so much for the Sputnik project.

~~~
bdisraeli
Is that with the 'Infinity' screen or whatever they called it? I just got the
1080p one and don't use scaling. I had a Yoga with a hidpi screen and agree
that a bunch of programs just don't work at all with scaling in Linux.

~~~
vkazanov
I should have just bought a Thinkpad :-) It's the Infinity display +
preinstalled Linux that caught my attention.

------
moonfern
Nvidia will launch this year (spring) it's new cards based on 16nm. That's a 4
year jump because cards are now 28nm. (AMD has the same plans) A six year jump
this year in storage technology is promised by intel, it's Octane disk are 7
times faster then ssd in a practice test. Intel believes it's technology can
be 1000 faster than ssd. You can always wait but this time you should.

------
dugmartin
I have one I bought a couple of months ago hooked up to a 44" 4K Visio TV via
HDMI. It is my main development machine and I love it. I bought it through the
Microsoft store to avoid crapware (via their Signature Edition line) and it
was actually cheaper than the same specs on dell.com at the time.

~~~
wahsd
I really wish Dell could comprehend just how much ill will and outright damage
they cause to their brand with all the useless trashware they put on their
systems. McAfee?? Really? That, and that horrible webcam they put in there.
It's just screams "I'm a low quality piece of junk" far louder than any
positives can make up for.

------
intrasight
Given the strength of Intel's latest integrated GPUs, it just doesn't make
sense any more to add weak dedicated GPUs to laptops. As the author said,
"this isn't a gaming laptop". I'd claim that the whole category of gaming
laptop no longer has relevance.

~~~
jhugg
So my mac laptop draws into 5120x2880 buffer, then scales that down to 4k to
display on my external 4k monitor. It’s also still driving the internal retina
display with a different scaling.

External GPU helps.

------
jrcii
I would argue that the best PC laptops are the old IBM ThinkPads. The best PC
laptop in production, I'm not sure. The Panasonic Toughbooks are pretty nice
for their purpose.

~~~
rayiner
At a certain point the ThinkPad keyboard fetishization has to take a back seat
to the awful screens and miserable touchpads, no?

~~~
Someone1234
I agree on the touchpads, but I like Thinkpad screens. Give me a nice 1080p
matte finish any day over the ultra-glossy high resolution screens that make
everything tiny, burn through battery, and look terrible in bright sunlight.

With the extended battery and bay battery (no slice battery) I was seeing over
14 hours of real world wireless usage (inc. fullscreen video) on my 14"
Thinkpad. The Thinkpad is a workhorse, not a toy.

~~~
rayiner
The 1080p IPS screen on my T450s is a blurry piece of crap with awful
backlight bleed in comparison to the screen on my rMBP. I can at least control
my room lighting to avoid glare--I can't do anything about the low-resolution
hazy text on the 1080p matte screen. For a workhorse machine--I stare at text
all day--that clarity is priceless.

~~~
reirob
Is your screen glossy that reflects the lights around? I am asking, because I
am also using a T450s, with matt a 1920x1080 screen. It's the best screen I
ever had. I can work with any ambient light, does not reflect, it is not as
sensitive to viewing angle as the screens that I had before and has very
lively colours. I absolutely love this machine.

Maybe we don't have the same screens, i.e. there are different models?

------
if_by_whisky
If, like me, you're considering getting one of these to install linux on (to
replace a macbook pro or whatever), you should check out the archwiki article
on it:
[https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Dell_XPS_15](https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Dell_XPS_15)

Even if you're going to run a different distro, I find the arch wiki to be one
of the best resources for "should I try installing linux on this?"

------
pbz
Another option (much cheaper!) that I'm monitoring is UX501VW:

i7-6700HQ, GTX960M, 512 GB PCIe Gen3 x4 SSD, 4K IPS display 15 inch for $1500

Unfortunately, even though it's been out for over a month, no major websites
have reviewed the laptop.

[http://www.amazon.com/UX501VW-DS71T-Touchscreen-Skylake-
H-i7...](http://www.amazon.com/UX501VW-DS71T-Touchscreen-Skylake-H-i7-6700HQ-
Thunderbolt/dp/B018AX3OHO)

~~~
basch
"Amazing 512 GB PCIe Gen3 x4 solid state drive"

Couldnt they just say NVME so I know what they are talking about? Industry
standard terms exist for a reason. Imagine if someone stopped using USB port
and came up with their own description of the standard.

------
Bud
The ouches:

1\. Extremely poor graphics performance in benchmarks.

2\. More than 5 hours less battery life than the MacBook Pro. (!)

3\. No Thunderbolt port that can be used while charging the machine.

------
mixmastamyk
And when does the Developer edition with Ubuntu come out? Anyone know? Been
waiting for a Skylake, 4k screen, and 16GB RAM.

------
janvidar
I wish for a developer edition with Ubuntu.

------
aesthetics1
I hope that higher-res screens become standard in the 13-15in line of PC
laptops. I have an XPS13 that I love, but there are still many programs (even
certain interfaces inside Windows itself!) that do not behave well with hi-DPI
displays.

------
taf2
Does it run linux?

------
anonbanker
Anyone see that episode of South Park lately where Jimmy is the only human
that can identify an ad from real content?

Now, when I read something like this, it's obviously an ad.

