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I think it's really impressive what Dell has put together here. As my old Thinkpad T430 is nearing it's fourth anniversary I have been looking for an upgrade fo

I think it's really impressive what Dell has put together here. As my old Thinkpad T430 is nearing it's fourth anniversary I have been looking for an upgrade for a while and compared different options with a focus on lightweight, powerful laptops with good Linux support. And so far the XPS 13 seems way more attractive than the new Lenovo Skylake laptops (e.g. the 460s), which have lower resolution displays (some models still start with a 1.366 x 768 (!) display, which is just ridiculous in 2016), less and slower RAM, smaller hard drives and -as far as I can tell from the specs- less battery life as compared to the XPS 13 but are actually 300 - 400 $ more expensive, even when choosing three year guarantee for the XPS. The only thing I don't like about the XPS is Dell's guarantee, which is "send in", meaning that I probably won't see my laptop for a few weeks if it has to be repaired, whereas Lenovo will send a service technician to me who will usually be able to repair the laptop immediately (I already had to make use of this service twice, once to exchange a noisy fan and once to replace a broken display bezel). I guess I'll wait for Apple to reveal the new MB Pro line before making a decision, but it seems that for the first time in 10 years my next laptop will not be a Lenovo/IBM.

rahimnathwani 11y ago
I'm pretty sure Dell sells 'premium support' as a paid add-on, and that it covers on-site hardware repairs. I've used this service myself, albeit many years ago, to have a laptop motherboard replaced. If you add this option, then the two laptops you're comparing may be closer in terms of price and support. Then it's just about the other factors you mention.
- ThePhysicist 11y ago
  Good point, I wasn't aware that Dell offers this kind of service, will check that again!
- marklyon 11y ago
  They do. I bought my XPS 13 (9343) through the Microsoft Store because they had a rather significant discount and then called Dell to add on an extended next-business-day onsite warranty. Just like with the Lenovo, when I had a key get stuck on my keyboard (the space bar was double-spacing every time, by itself) a nice third-party tech showed up at my office and swapped it out.
- awakeasleep 11y ago
  Dell offers remarkable on-site hardware repair to busineses. Really sui-generis support. They send a technician (with an enormous backpack full of dell parts) to your location within 24 hours. The tech will work on it on-site until repaired. I do not believe there could be a less disruptive, quicker way to repair a laptop. Not sure if they offer that same level of support to consumers, but if they do, know it blows AppleCare out of the water.
  - gambiting 11y ago
    I don't think you can order Dell laptops with the 24-hour repair warranty, but there's plenty of companies which sell them with said warranty - they buy hundreds(thousands more likely) of them as a businesses and then you can buy them directly as a customer, 24-hour repair warranty included. Every single one of my Dell laptops was purchased like that, I once had the Dell technician replacing the whole motherboard on my XPS 13 on my living room table.
    - npaquin 11y ago
      You can indeed purchase Dell laptops directly from Dell w/ next business day warranty support (this is the only way I buy them @ work).
    - kayone 11y ago
      I bought an XPS 15 just before Xmas and the sales rep was really trying to sell me on-site repair and it wasn't even that expensive (IIRC, ~$70 CAD upgrade), keep in mind this is Dell Canada so US might be different.
  - DonHopkins 11y ago
    Literally out of the water! I spilled noxious bong water in my keyboard, and the Dell technician who came to my house correctly diagnosed what the problem was, cheerfully replaced my keyboard, and helpfully offered to come back tomorrow with a replacement for a broken plastic part I hadn't even noticed. Compare that to the way Apple refuses to "handle hazardous substances". [1] [1] http://www.alphr.com/news/353512/apple-refuses-to-repair-smokers-macs http://www.alphr.com/news/353512/apple-refuses-to-repair-smo...
- igravious 11y ago
  I got two years on-site for a XPS 13 (9343) dev edition for not many €s at all. One year is standard I think, I paid for an extra one. Screen got some wonky pixels in that time-frame but it wasn't until the power brick started acting up that I called Dell. They did make triply sure that a house call was necessary to make sure that the engineer wouldn't be wasting their time. Friendly guy showed up who used to work servicing mainframes and miniframes until that work dried up. Took the machine apart, swapped in a new screen, gave me a new power brick and went on his way.
MichaelGG 11y ago
The XPS13 appears to have a junk trackpad (no buttons, no middle button) and a messed up keyboard (I don't always use the arrows but when I do, those tiny ones suck.) And no trackpoint? Despite better other specs, poor basic human interaction devices are a showstopper. ThinkPads are the only ones I've seen with fairly good keyboards (even after Lenovo's "redesign"). Dell does have on call service, and in some countries it's better than Lenovo by far. I've had Dell send a guy into a village up a mountain in a 3rd world country, next day (!) whereas I couldn't even figure out how to make a claim with Lenovo in that country (and friends that work for the relevant company there confirm there is no inventory).
- wazoox 11y ago
  I haven't seen a trackpad with buttons for 8 years (Apple, Dell, Asus... ditched them between 2008 and 2012). People have chosen a long time ago, and physical trackpad buttons are a curiosity nowadays.
  - dingo_bat 11y ago
    All pro style laptops (HP Elitebook/Lenovo Thinkpad/Dell Precision) have trackpad buttons and extra buttons for the nipple controller too. I must say I love having proper buttons and have used such laptops exclusively. Although I do have a Macbook air without the buttons. You're right that consumer laptops have done away with buttons nowadays.
  - MichaelGG 11y ago
    Lenovo tried ditching them on the ?40 line (T440 X240 etc). It was a disaster. Not just because it was terrible, but lacking buttons just sucks. (Though I am referring to the TrackPoint buttons (on top), which work very nicely even with the trackpad.) Maybe folks using things like Macbooks just don't notice issues like heat and poor ergonomics? Though that's not a very satisfying idea.
- treffer 11y ago
  The touchpad works well with multi-tap and can handle single/double/tripple tab. Feel free to map that to the middle mouse if needed. The keyboard is actually quite good once you get used to it. I used to need a keyboard replacement every 12-18 months on my lenovo (yes, you read that correctly). The Dell one has now survived 12 months, so I'd say the build quality is quite good, perhaps even better than the lenovo one (might also be due to design - nothing gets stuck under the keys, which helps a lot). Dell has even send me replacement parts in the past to repair stuff on my own. [EDIT] type.
sergiosgc 11y ago
If you're looking for lightweight, high spec, go for the ThinkPad X1 Carbon. It's a gorgeous machine. Leaps and bounds better than MBPs. The XPS15 is about on par with the X1C
- gcr 11y ago
  I've used a Thinkpad t430u (the "same idea, more servicable" spiritual successor to the Thinkpad X1 Carbon) and a 2014 MBP. In my opinion, t430u is the second-best laptop I've owned, but the Macbook blows it away, even in terms of build quality.
- ThePhysicist 11y ago
  Yes I actually have a X1 Carbon as my work laptop and really like it, but again I have the feeling that you can get a better spec'd laptop with similar performance for less money these days.
- eecks 11y ago
  How is it leaps and bounds better than a MBP? You say that but don't offer any reason.
  - sergiosgc 11y ago
    It's so obvious that I really don't need to be too technical. For the same price point, the X1C is thinner, lighter, has more ram, better cpu and a more dense display. There isn't a single objective measure where the X1C is worse than the MBP
    - bluedino 11y ago
      Worse touchpad, less battery life, display scaling issues...
      - bruo 11y ago
        less battery life? i don't have an x1, but a x240 and doing the same things i get twice the battery of the last mbp i used when new. edit: but i used a different os, which could explain that too.
sandGorgon 11y ago
While thinkpad has removed BIOS whitelist...Ubuntu has introduced charger whitelist. The forums are replete with people having a conked out charger and the replacement charger causing the laptop to run slower. But I agree with you - the current crop of thinkpad are unworthy. I'm planning to hold on to my t430s for another year.
- bvttf 11y ago
  > thinkpad has removed BIOS whitelist. Wait, what. Link please?
  - sandGorgon 11y ago
    ahh.. my mistake. it has not happened for all laptops. the /r/thinkpad threads on t450s coming without bios whitelists were what i was banking on.
johnchristopher 11y ago
Honest question: I am a bit concerned about 1080p resolution on a 13" screen. Isn't too small to read ? Or do most people just increase the rendering quality (à la retina) ?
- Kenji 11y ago
  I have a 14" 1080p screen. I put everything to 125% (like font sizes, etc.) It's okay. My eyes are very good at short distances so I don't mind things being small. But yes, Windows 7 does not have enough scaling options to make higher resolutions on smaller screens work. With Windows 10 it is no problem though. With Ubuntu it also shouldn't be a problem. Yes, you do increase rendering quality, but not by much. You can still see individual pixels. But any higher pixel density probably wouldn't be useful, considering the small visual benefits and the higher CPU and GPU and thus battery demands.
- ant6n 11y ago
  As a friend of mine said: "I'm done with pixels"
- mlvljr 11y ago
  768 on 11" is OK, btw, using it daily :)
- treffer 11y ago
  I have a QHD version. I have Firefox set to 125% (or 150%). I'm heavily relying on <ctrl> +/- to control the information density in terminals and browsers. That works really well. Most UIs nowerdays adept to DPI, so no real problems there (idea/intellij just fixed their stuff to work better on HiDPI). It's today just a matter of choice. I usually use a prescaling/font size etc. that does not pack too much information onto the screen but I enjoy that I can increase the density if needed!
- npaquin 11y ago
  I've been using the XPS 13 for years and the 1080p screen is excellent, especially if you're coding or running multiple virtual machines on the box.
- 11y ago
berkeleynerd 11y ago
I really like my new puri.sm laptop (the librem 13") ... especially the fact that it doesn't require any non-free bits in the distribution (in my case, debian stretch). I know some folks have issues with the fact that there are non-free bits under the hood (bios, etc...) but if what you're looking for is a solid, compact laptop with modern internals (I'm looking at you, my beloved Thinkpad x200) that can run a "pure" OS sans non-free components it fits the bill. I should also note there was a recent price drop for the 13" model. I also love the hardware wifi/bluetooth and camera/mic on/off switches.
- nickpsecurity 11y ago
  Whoa that costs money! My original HP 17" Media Center PC had comparable specs for less! Sounds interesting but many of us gotta wait for price drops or used on eBay.
click170 11y ago
The Dell Latitude E7250 works pretty well, Debian Jessie is missing some drivers and things (eg for Wifi) but Linux Mint (ugh, I know...) works wonderfully well. I haven't tried Ubuntu but I would expect the same experience or better. I was worried about the trackpad being horrible, but I'm actually quite impressed. It's not an Apple trackpad but it's actually pretty decent. (The Disable-Trackpad-While-typing option is almost a requirement though) Edit: I would emphasize though, if you're going to purchase with Dell, do it as a business (Just pretend you are a business, dont buy it through work). Dell consumer customer support is f#$&ing atrocious. I'm still fighting with them to rectify a problem from an order back in Nov 2015 that I never received. I can't overstate this enough, Dell consumer support is f$#&ing HORRIBLE.
- ThePhysicist 11y ago
  Thanks for pointing this out, I wasn't aware that they offer this kind of service.
  - click170 11y ago
    Neither did I, I just filled in a company name at one point in the purchase process and that apparently flagged me as a business. This lead to further complications because their consumer support department couldn't even find the order as a result.
CydeWeys 11y ago
> And so far the XPS 13 seems way more attractive than the new Lenovo Skylake laptops (e.g. the 460s), which have lower resolution displays (some models still start with a 1.366 x 768 (!) display, Laptop shopping is so frustrating because almost all of the manufacturers are clearly segmenting the market into two groups: shit and non-shit. In the shit group, you get painfully slow HDDs and painfully low res displays that would feel right at home on a laptop from a decade ago. In the non-shit group, you get SSDs, good displays, and prices that are two to three times higher even though the actual cost of the components hasn't gone up by nearly that much. It's infuriating, not so much for myself (I end up wanting the high-end anyway), but when trying to give recommendations to friends and family on more limited budgets, because the entire lower end of the market is unnecessarily terrible. I just end up recommending Chromebooks because, hey, at least a lot of them have SSDs, and they're cheap. The screens typically suck, but when you're paying so little it doesn't feel like getting ripped off. Buying a mainstream $600 laptop feels like getting ripped off.
- k_bx 11y ago
  I have to admit, I expected laptops to cover that niche you described (not too expensive and not shitty), but it seems to me that tablets with keyboard-covers will rather do that.
  - CydeWeys 11y ago
    Which tablet? I was thinking you were talking about the Surface Pro 4, but its bargain basement model, which is actually not great (only 4 GB RAM, 128 GB SSD, Core m3 processor), costs over $1,000 once you throw the keyboard cover in. So, going down-market, the Surface Pro 3 when similarly specced* is $730, which is still a bit high. * I don't think it's actually similarly specced, it just has the same amount of RAM and SSD space, but I suspect that everything is lower performing, and the screen is smaller as well. Too lazy to look up benchmarks though.
    - k_bx 11y ago
      Yeah, I didn't mean anything specific (plan figuring that out myself). But I see iPad Air as a good enough $400 solution comparing to shitty-screen laptops. Just need to find decent keyboard for <$100.
dayjah 11y ago
I've an XPS 13, and I like it a lot. I use i3 as my window manager which, due to being keyboard driven, is quite infuriating on this device. The trackpad is incredibly sensitive and the heel of my hand being within 2" or so will trigger a contact. I've attempted to lessen the sensitivity to no avail. Most of the time this isn't an issue because I'm using an external keyboard and mouse, but when I'm on the road it drives me nuts. Enough so that I now remote work on an mbp, and desk work on the XPS.
obvio171 11y ago
The killer feature in the Thinkpad line for me is the military-grade sturdiness. Does Dell have the same kind of resistance to spills, drops, heat, etc.?
listic 11y ago
> Lenovo will send a service technician to me who will usually be able to repair the laptop immediately What is this guarantee called and where is it available? Here in Russia, I've had experience of giving away my ThinkPad to the service company for 2 months; they didn't call and the call center girl could not provide further information than "it's being worked on" (the law here requires service centers to complete repairs of such equipment in 3 months,). When I finally had enough and went to the service center for the explainations, or to retrieve my laptop back, and asked them what took them so long, they said they have "emailed IBM but they didn't answer back" (it was a while back and my ThinkPad was X60s, from IBM). It even was working, I just had some issues I wanted them to work through (e.g. the cooling system became noisier and hotter, apparently having been clogged with dust; etc.)

rahimnathwani 11y ago

I'm pretty sure Dell sells 'premium support' as a paid add-on, and that it covers on-site hardware repairs. I've used this service myself, albeit many years ago, to have a laptop motherboard replaced. If you add this option, then the two laptops you're comparing may be closer in terms of price and support. Then it's just about the other factors you mention.

ThePhysicist 11y ago
Good point, I wasn't aware that Dell offers this kind of service, will check that again!
marklyon 11y ago
They do. I bought my XPS 13 (9343) through the Microsoft Store because they had a rather significant discount and then called Dell to add on an extended next-business-day onsite warranty. Just like with the Lenovo, when I had a key get stuck on my keyboard (the space bar was double-spacing every time, by itself) a nice third-party tech showed up at my office and swapped it out.
awakeasleep 11y ago
Dell offers remarkable on-site hardware repair to busineses. Really sui-generis support. They send a technician (with an enormous backpack full of dell parts) to your location within 24 hours. The tech will work on it on-site until repaired. I do not believe there could be a less disruptive, quicker way to repair a laptop. Not sure if they offer that same level of support to consumers, but if they do, know it blows AppleCare out of the water.
- gambiting 11y ago
  I don't think you can order Dell laptops with the 24-hour repair warranty, but there's plenty of companies which sell them with said warranty - they buy hundreds(thousands more likely) of them as a businesses and then you can buy them directly as a customer, 24-hour repair warranty included. Every single one of my Dell laptops was purchased like that, I once had the Dell technician replacing the whole motherboard on my XPS 13 on my living room table.
  - npaquin 11y ago
    You can indeed purchase Dell laptops directly from Dell w/ next business day warranty support (this is the only way I buy them @ work).
  - kayone 11y ago
    I bought an XPS 15 just before Xmas and the sales rep was really trying to sell me on-site repair and it wasn't even that expensive (IIRC, ~$70 CAD upgrade), keep in mind this is Dell Canada so US might be different.
- DonHopkins 11y ago
  Literally out of the water! I spilled noxious bong water in my keyboard, and the Dell technician who came to my house correctly diagnosed what the problem was, cheerfully replaced my keyboard, and helpfully offered to come back tomorrow with a replacement for a broken plastic part I hadn't even noticed. Compare that to the way Apple refuses to "handle hazardous substances". [1] [1] http://www.alphr.com/news/353512/apple-refuses-to-repair-smokers-macs http://www.alphr.com/news/353512/apple-refuses-to-repair-smo...
igravious 11y ago
I got two years on-site for a XPS 13 (9343) dev edition for not many €s at all. One year is standard I think, I paid for an extra one. Screen got some wonky pixels in that time-frame but it wasn't until the power brick started acting up that I called Dell. They did make triply sure that a house call was necessary to make sure that the engineer wouldn't be wasting their time. Friendly guy showed up who used to work servicing mainframes and miniframes until that work dried up. Took the machine apart, swapped in a new screen, gave me a new power brick and went on his way.

MichaelGG 11y ago

The XPS13 appears to have a junk trackpad (no buttons, no middle button) and a messed up keyboard (I don't always use the arrows but when I do, those tiny ones suck.) And no trackpoint? Despite better other specs, poor basic human interaction devices are a showstopper. ThinkPads are the only ones I've seen with fairly good keyboards (even after Lenovo's "redesign"). Dell does have on call service, and in some countries it's better than Lenovo by far. I've had Dell send a guy into a village up a mountain in a 3rd world country, next day (!) whereas I couldn't even figure out how to make a claim with Lenovo in that country (and friends that work for the relevant company there confirm there is no inventory).

wazoox 11y ago
I haven't seen a trackpad with buttons for 8 years (Apple, Dell, Asus... ditched them between 2008 and 2012). People have chosen a long time ago, and physical trackpad buttons are a curiosity nowadays.
- dingo_bat 11y ago
  All pro style laptops (HP Elitebook/Lenovo Thinkpad/Dell Precision) have trackpad buttons and extra buttons for the nipple controller too. I must say I love having proper buttons and have used such laptops exclusively. Although I do have a Macbook air without the buttons. You're right that consumer laptops have done away with buttons nowadays.
- MichaelGG 11y ago
  Lenovo tried ditching them on the ?40 line (T440 X240 etc). It was a disaster. Not just because it was terrible, but lacking buttons just sucks. (Though I am referring to the TrackPoint buttons (on top), which work very nicely even with the trackpad.) Maybe folks using things like Macbooks just don't notice issues like heat and poor ergonomics? Though that's not a very satisfying idea.
treffer 11y ago
The touchpad works well with multi-tap and can handle single/double/tripple tab. Feel free to map that to the middle mouse if needed. The keyboard is actually quite good once you get used to it. I used to need a keyboard replacement every 12-18 months on my lenovo (yes, you read that correctly). The Dell one has now survived 12 months, so I'd say the build quality is quite good, perhaps even better than the lenovo one (might also be due to design - nothing gets stuck under the keys, which helps a lot). Dell has even send me replacement parts in the past to repair stuff on my own. [EDIT] type.

sergiosgc 11y ago

If you're looking for lightweight, high spec, go for the ThinkPad X1 Carbon. It's a gorgeous machine. Leaps and bounds better than MBPs. The XPS15 is about on par with the X1C

gcr 11y ago
I've used a Thinkpad t430u (the "same idea, more servicable" spiritual successor to the Thinkpad X1 Carbon) and a 2014 MBP. In my opinion, t430u is the second-best laptop I've owned, but the Macbook blows it away, even in terms of build quality.
ThePhysicist 11y ago
Yes I actually have a X1 Carbon as my work laptop and really like it, but again I have the feeling that you can get a better spec'd laptop with similar performance for less money these days.
eecks 11y ago
How is it leaps and bounds better than a MBP? You say that but don't offer any reason.
- sergiosgc 11y ago
  It's so obvious that I really don't need to be too technical. For the same price point, the X1C is thinner, lighter, has more ram, better cpu and a more dense display. There isn't a single objective measure where the X1C is worse than the MBP
  - bluedino 11y ago
    Worse touchpad, less battery life, display scaling issues...
    - bruo 11y ago
      less battery life? i don't have an x1, but a x240 and doing the same things i get twice the battery of the last mbp i used when new. edit: but i used a different os, which could explain that too.

sandGorgon 11y ago

While thinkpad has removed BIOS whitelist...Ubuntu has introduced charger whitelist. The forums are replete with people having a conked out charger and the replacement charger causing the laptop to run slower. But I agree with you - the current crop of thinkpad are unworthy. I'm planning to hold on to my t430s for another year.

bvttf 11y ago
> thinkpad has removed BIOS whitelist. Wait, what. Link please?
- sandGorgon 11y ago
  ahh.. my mistake. it has not happened for all laptops. the /r/thinkpad threads on t450s coming without bios whitelists were what i was banking on.

johnchristopher 11y ago

Honest question: I am a bit concerned about 1080p resolution on a 13" screen. Isn't too small to read ? Or do most people just increase the rendering quality (à la retina) ?

Kenji 11y ago
I have a 14" 1080p screen. I put everything to 125% (like font sizes, etc.) It's okay. My eyes are very good at short distances so I don't mind things being small. But yes, Windows 7 does not have enough scaling options to make higher resolutions on smaller screens work. With Windows 10 it is no problem though. With Ubuntu it also shouldn't be a problem. Yes, you do increase rendering quality, but not by much. You can still see individual pixels. But any higher pixel density probably wouldn't be useful, considering the small visual benefits and the higher CPU and GPU and thus battery demands.
ant6n 11y ago
As a friend of mine said: "I'm done with pixels"
mlvljr 11y ago
768 on 11" is OK, btw, using it daily :)
treffer 11y ago
I have a QHD version. I have Firefox set to 125% (or 150%). I'm heavily relying on <ctrl> +/- to control the information density in terminals and browsers. That works really well. Most UIs nowerdays adept to DPI, so no real problems there (idea/intellij just fixed their stuff to work better on HiDPI). It's today just a matter of choice. I usually use a prescaling/font size etc. that does not pack too much information onto the screen but I enjoy that I can increase the density if needed!
npaquin 11y ago
I've been using the XPS 13 for years and the 1080p screen is excellent, especially if you're coding or running multiple virtual machines on the box.
11y ago

berkeleynerd 11y ago

I really like my new puri.sm laptop (the librem 13") ... especially the fact that it doesn't require any non-free bits in the distribution (in my case, debian stretch). I know some folks have issues with the fact that there are non-free bits under the hood (bios, etc...) but if what you're looking for is a solid, compact laptop with modern internals (I'm looking at you, my beloved Thinkpad x200) that can run a "pure" OS sans non-free components it fits the bill. I should also note there was a recent price drop for the 13" model. I also love the hardware wifi/bluetooth and camera/mic on/off switches.

nickpsecurity 11y ago
Whoa that costs money! My original HP 17" Media Center PC had comparable specs for less! Sounds interesting but many of us gotta wait for price drops or used on eBay.

click170 11y ago

The Dell Latitude E7250 works pretty well, Debian Jessie is missing some drivers and things (eg for Wifi) but Linux Mint (ugh, I know...) works wonderfully well. I haven't tried Ubuntu but I would expect the same experience or better. I was worried about the trackpad being horrible, but I'm actually quite impressed. It's not an Apple trackpad but it's actually pretty decent. (The Disable-Trackpad-While-typing option is almost a requirement though) Edit: I would emphasize though, if you're going to purchase with Dell, do it as a business (Just pretend you are a business, dont buy it through work). Dell consumer customer support is f#$&ing atrocious. I'm still fighting with them to rectify a problem from an order back in Nov 2015 that I never received. I can't overstate this enough, Dell consumer support is f$#&ing HORRIBLE.

ThePhysicist 11y ago
Thanks for pointing this out, I wasn't aware that they offer this kind of service.
- click170 11y ago
  Neither did I, I just filled in a company name at one point in the purchase process and that apparently flagged me as a business. This lead to further complications because their consumer support department couldn't even find the order as a result.

CydeWeys 11y ago

> And so far the XPS 13 seems way more attractive than the new Lenovo Skylake laptops (e.g. the 460s), which have lower resolution displays (some models still start with a 1.366 x 768 (!) display, Laptop shopping is so frustrating because almost all of the manufacturers are clearly segmenting the market into two groups: shit and non-shit. In the shit group, you get painfully slow HDDs and painfully low res displays that would feel right at home on a laptop from a decade ago. In the non-shit group, you get SSDs, good displays, and prices that are two to three times higher even though the actual cost of the components hasn't gone up by nearly that much. It's infuriating, not so much for myself (I end up wanting the high-end anyway), but when trying to give recommendations to friends and family on more limited budgets, because the entire lower end of the market is unnecessarily terrible. I just end up recommending Chromebooks because, hey, at least a lot of them have SSDs, and they're cheap. The screens typically suck, but when you're paying so little it doesn't feel like getting ripped off. Buying a mainstream $600 laptop feels like getting ripped off.

k_bx 11y ago
I have to admit, I expected laptops to cover that niche you described (not too expensive and not shitty), but it seems to me that tablets with keyboard-covers will rather do that.
- CydeWeys 11y ago
  Which tablet? I was thinking you were talking about the Surface Pro 4, but its bargain basement model, which is actually not great (only 4 GB RAM, 128 GB SSD, Core m3 processor), costs over $1,000 once you throw the keyboard cover in. So, going down-market, the Surface Pro 3 when similarly specced* is $730, which is still a bit high. * I don't think it's actually similarly specced, it just has the same amount of RAM and SSD space, but I suspect that everything is lower performing, and the screen is smaller as well. Too lazy to look up benchmarks though.
  - k_bx 11y ago
    Yeah, I didn't mean anything specific (plan figuring that out myself). But I see iPad Air as a good enough $400 solution comparing to shitty-screen laptops. Just need to find decent keyboard for <$100.

dayjah 11y ago

I've an XPS 13, and I like it a lot. I use i3 as my window manager which, due to being keyboard driven, is quite infuriating on this device. The trackpad is incredibly sensitive and the heel of my hand being within 2" or so will trigger a contact. I've attempted to lessen the sensitivity to no avail. Most of the time this isn't an issue because I'm using an external keyboard and mouse, but when I'm on the road it drives me nuts. Enough so that I now remote work on an mbp, and desk work on the XPS.

obvio171 11y ago

The killer feature in the Thinkpad line for me is the military-grade sturdiness. Does Dell have the same kind of resistance to spills, drops, heat, etc.?

listic 11y ago

> Lenovo will send a service technician to me who will usually be able to repair the laptop immediately What is this guarantee called and where is it available? Here in Russia, I've had experience of giving away my ThinkPad to the service company for 2 months; they didn't call and the call center girl could not provide further information than "it's being worked on" (the law here requires service centers to complete repairs of such equipment in 3 months,). When I finally had enough and went to the service center for the explainations, or to retrieve my laptop back, and asked them what took them so long, they said they have "emailed IBM but they didn't answer back" (it was a while back and my ThinkPad was X60s, from IBM). It even was working, I just had some issues I wanted them to work through (e.g. the cooling system became noisier and hotter, apparently having been clogged with dust; etc.)