The XPS 13 Developer Edition | Hacker News Reader

The XPS 13 Developer Edition

arstechnica.com

29 pointsmacco13 comments

Does it beat a decent modern thinkpad?

Not sure, but it doesn't beat a fully loaded Thinkpad from 4+ years ago. I hope Lenovo rolls out the retro design they are teasing.

I came here to comment about the Thinkpad.

They are cheap, they are sturdy, and they are fast.

The design is one that works with the user. Even though it doesn't look 'good', I love it and don't think I'll ever be able to change.

This video embodies my opinions of how great the old thinkpad designs are: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doEZMNXz1JY

My coworkers have the newest 13:DE. Meanwhile, I just bought a T460s for personal use.

Honestly, they're pretty comparable. The Dell is an attractive package, and has a better display, but the ThinkPad wins the input battle (IMO) with it's keyboard (curved keycaps, better travel) and trackpoint. I also have more ports and RAM available (one stick is soldered, the other is user-replaceable).

Another thing to take into account is that you can get the Dell w/Linux out of the box. In my case, I had to pay the Windows tax and then install Linux.

What do you guys think of it? I think it's beautiful!

Anything smaller than a 15" screen feels cramped to me these days. I'd like to see it in person before passing judgement, but the specs don't really seem worth the premium price to me. For that kind of money, you can get into a pretty nice Macbook Pro.

I prefer my XPS13 over a Macbook Pro though.

It's lighter, much smaller, same screen size, the carbon fiber inside feels comfier than the macbook's cold and hard aluminum.

And it's definitely drawn more attention than the (now) rather plain looking macbook pro.

The biggest negative is the webcam position. It's under the screen, and makes me look terrible on calls.

The webcam is also obscured by typing fingers which is more annoying than the weird angle to me.

The problem with the screen on the 13" version is that it's edge-to-edge. This, in my opinion, coupled with the high-resolution display makes it very difficult when it comes to text heavy work. I would prefer to go for the 15" version of this product over this one.

The benefits of the 13" version is that it's chargeable over USB-C (using the Google Pixel charger).

I am working since one year with the last XPS 13, the lower priced version and it is a very good notebook for developers imho, I might would buy it again. Only might because Dell sold the last model including quite a few bugs (Sound and Keyboard didn't work). Before you could work with it you had to upgrade the bios and the OS. Considering the amount of time required for this it was expensive. Dell did know about the problems but sold it anyway. I sweared I will never buy a Dell again, but then there aren't too many other options left anymore.

Using a Windows version of the 2015 edition, and it's pretty damn nice. Honestly, I'm just waiting to see how the July update with Ubuntu tools for Windows 10 pans out. If it doesn't, I might just throw Linux onto this one. The only problem is that the Linux Edition of the laptops use slightly different hardware that's better supported by open drivers--in this case, the Linux version has an Intel wifi card as opposed to a Broadcomm one so as not to need a proprietary driver. That's definitely a concern if I do decide to throw Linux onto it, since this thing doesn't have an ethernet port.

To avoid Wifi I am using it with a "USB 3.0 3 port Hub & Gigabit Lan adapter" from Digitus which costs about 20$.

Judging by what people are saying on Reddit and other message boards, they just buy the normal XPS13 and replace the Broadcom wifi chip with an Intel chip.

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