11 ms·

My review of Dell XPS 15 as a developer laptop

83 points by p8donald 10y ago

JazCE 10y ago
I'm glad people are doing reviews of laptops from developer perspectives. It amazes me that it's 2016 and none of the windows based laptop makes have come out with anything that approaches the macbook pro. Microsoft seem closest with their surface book line, but that seems beset by driver issues, and Razer might have something with their Blade series, but that doesn't seem to be available in the UK 3 or 4 years on from launch. ASUS also seem close but again beset by a few odd build quality issues. If I knew anything at all about this kind of thing i'd be tempted to do a kickstarter to fund the development of a quality developer laptop that was windows/*nix based that aped the macbook pro as much as possible.
- temac 10y ago
  A kickstarter to compete against Apple on their MBP? Yep, can confirm you don't know anything...
  - JazCE 10y ago
    up voting for constructive feedback.
- ylk 10y ago
  Take a look at ThinkPads!
- amalag 10y ago
  A lot of it must have to do with patents. I am just addicted to the quality of the MBP touchpad. I don't think I could use another laptop now. Plus the nice-to-haves like the magnetic power plug so you don't have to worry about tripping over your power cord and messing up your motherboard.
- drzaiusapelord 10y ago
  >It amazes me that it's 2016 and none of the windows based laptop makes have come out with anything that approaches the macbook pro. The problem I see is that Apple sells a business quality laptop at premium pricing yet people compare them to consumer junk on the Windows side of things. The problem is these models aren't at Best Buy, so a lot consumers don't see them, and if they do they balk at the price because a laptop should be $599, not $1099. You just can't compete with a macbook at $599 or $699. I find the Thinkpad line in general is really nice. HP and Dell also have a business line of lighter/thinner laptops that compare in quality, but cost just as much.
radicalbyte 10y ago
For the love of everything that is good, if you buy this laptop, go for the 4k screen. It's beautiful. It's a big laptop, you'll use it on a desk, so the battery life is fine. I use my XPS 9550 for work and carry around a MBP13 for email / reading / surfing. The biggest problem with the 9550 by far is the keyboard. The MBP keyboard is amazing in comparison. However it is a laptop keyboard, I have yet to encounter a good one (old Thinkpads come the closest). Just buy a decent mechanical keyboard and plug it in.
- funkyy 10y ago
  Not all laptop keyboards suck. I have Asus laptop and the keyboard is great, much better than mechanical for me. Light on the fingers with proper mechanics behind tapping keys. And I am developer, so I type a lot...
  - gonzo41 10y ago
    Thinkpad t460 - great keyboard, not as good as the past but switching over from a macbook. wow so much travel and such comfortable keys.
  - radicalbyte 10y ago
    I've used a lot of laptops and have still to find one which either types as nicely as a good mechanical keyboard or is as comfortable as the Microsoft Ergonomic (which sadly has rubbish typing action). Of course this kind of thing is very personal, it depends on a lot of factors. The 9550 keyboard just feels cheap and wobbly. The action is otherwise actually pretty pleasing. It wants to be the MBP keyboard but just isn't quite there.
- jylam 10y ago
  Not all laptop keyboards suck. My (old model) Thinkpad keyboard is really good. I even use it on my desktops (home and work) https://sc02.alicdn.com/kf/HTB1vYX2KXXXXXarXVXXq6xXFXXXp/Genuine-Original-57Y4675-ForLenovo-ThinkPad-SK-8855-Keyboard-Travel-Standard-USB.jpg https://sc02.alicdn.com/kf/HTB1vYX2KXXXXXarXVXXq6xXFXXXp/Gen...
imafish 10y ago
I own the Dell XPS 15 FHD and have experienced same issues. However, mostly I do not notice them. Have not experienced the random wakeups. Another issue is the crappy broadcom wifi card that shipped with it. Wifi connection would just randomly disappear and only return after multiple retry/reboot combinations. Replaced it with an intel card and haven't had any problems since. I do like the laptop but do not believe these problems should exist on a laptop with such a high pricetag.
- douche 10y ago
  You'd think they could build a laptop wifi card that didn't totally suck, but I've been through a half-dozen different laptops, work and personal, over the years, and they are all terrible.
  - lukeholder 10y ago
    I had the same problem for years until I switched to MacBooks
    - hbogert 10y ago
      Which use broadcom exclusively. Wanted to try linux on my macbook once. All was well, except that dreaded Broadcom Wifi. Apparently broadcom gives big middle finger when it comes to truly open source drivers. C'mon broadcom.. it's 2016.
s_kilk 10y ago
>> but the problem is that this laptop can wake up randomly and if it's in your bag it can overheat. And there is no way to tell if it's on. Deal-breaker, right there. I had a hard enough time with a previous dell/ubuntu combo pulling this trick and roasting itself alive in my bag, and I've no desire to repeat.
- simonswords82 10y ago
  Yep - I had exactly the same thing happen to me. Hot summer's day, arrive at a customer meeting. My previously fully charged Dell laptop has been running since I was on the hot and stuffy underground whilst shoved in to its laptop bag. It's now a nuclear ball of fire, with just 15% battery left and how it didn't suffer a complete meltdown is a strong testament to the quality of the hardware. This happened a bunch of times. Add to this random BSODs, keyboards that would break far too easily, the sheer weight of the thing and more inconveniences I'm surprised I stuck with it for as long as I did. 5 years ago I switched to Apple MacBooks and will never go back.
  - 2almalki 10y ago
    ive hd my macbook do that too.. opened up the bag it was running HOT HOT HOT. still works so im happy
- Jonnax 10y ago
  It also happens on Windows 10 on my XPS 13. I've been blaming Microsoft for it but I'm not too sure if Dell is involved now.
  - radicalbyte 10y ago
    My MacBook does this all the time when using Parallels. That, or it hard-crashes.
    - johnchristopher 10y ago
      I had the same problem with my trusty eeepc running debian wheezy. It got fixed at some point though since it hasn't happened in years.
jventura 10y ago
As stupid as it may sound, I really dislike laptops with 16:9 screens. That is why, together with other small things such as build quality, that I cannot seem to find anything better than Macbooks to fit my taste..
- Theodores 10y ago
  Chromebook Pixel - 3:2 aspect ratio. Best screen because of the resolution and aspect ratio. The Pixel was built for developers, hence the choice of screen. Also comes with the best keyboard and trackpad going, not to mention the best speakers (2013 version) and a rock solid build quality that makes those Apple things feel cheap. Oh, the screen is touchscreen too which helps if you are developing for things with touch screens. Price? Allegedly expensive but who cares if it actually lasts a few years.
  - ThePawnBreak 10y ago
    ChromeOS is obviously unsuitable for most developers. So then, does Google guarantee that I will have no problems using my favourite Linux distro (or at least Ubuntu), including trackpad drivers, good battery life, functioning sleep mode, wireless and other usual Linux issues on not officially supported hardware? Also, do you consider a 64GB SSD to be sufficient for a developer?
    - sfifs 10y ago
      Well I don't use a Pixel but I upgraded my SSD on HP Chromebook 14 to use as my personal development laptop some years ago - still using it. Driver support wise it takes a year plus for all the hardware to get supported in the mainline Linux kernel is what I have found. What works is to dump the distro kernel and use the latest stable mainline.
  - LaSombra 10y ago
    My only problem with the Pixel is the storage. 64GB is a bit on the low side for me as a Java developer with a local Maven repo of 17GB. If SD storage was reliable, which in my personal experience is not, then that would be a killer machine indeed.
therealmarv 10y ago
I know this Dell XPS laptops... their black surface on and around the keyboard and mousepad will look very greasy over time. Maybe it's a problem on every black surface laptop. On first sight macs don't look like this (although they can be greasy too... but you don't see it immediately).
davidiach 10y ago
I would encourage people to consider buying business laptops. In my experience many developers don't even consider business laptops and only buy consumer devices. Business laptops have the following advantages over consumer laptops: - they're much more reliable - better support - a lot fewer problems with drivers and other incompatibilities - they are designed for work, which means you will have fewer problems with things like virtualization - generally speaking, the keyboard and the track-pad will be better And the good thing is that some of the disadvantages of business laptops like size and bulkiness have also disappeared. You can now find business ultra-books that look good and work well.
- wbkang 10y ago
  Those are good points but XPS are solid laptops that satisfy almost all of those requirements. It would be helpful if you could point out how XPS 15 are specifically lacking compared to other business laptops.
  - temac 10y ago
    At least half of the things explained in the "What I don't like" section of the post?
- wastedhours 10y ago
  Have to agree - although I've switched to a Mac for personal development work (and caveat, my dev at work is only building a few reporting tools in Ruby), my Dell Latitude Ultrabook issued by them hands down beats the majority of other machines I've used. Enough performance, strong battery life, decent trackpad and keyboard, and very quiet. Expensive, but will probably be issued to people for years after I've gone.
- jkot 10y ago
  I am not sure XPS is a business laptop. For enterprise there is Latitude line, with more ports and higher price tag. But I am not sure the price is worth it. XPS is very good. http://www.dell.com/learn/us/en/84/campaigns/xps-vs-latitude-slg http://www.dell.com/learn/us/en/84/campaigns/xps-vs-latitude...
systemtest 10y ago
Laptops in this price range should not have coil whine, electric buzzing sounds or screen flicker. I would've returned it immediately. I have to use a very expensive HP Z-Book for work with a power adapter that has a loud coil whine. I've fixed it by not using the power adapter and only plugging it in when I'm away for lunch or on the toilet.
- therealmarv 10y ago
  yes, this is absolutely not acceptable for a real work laptop in 2016.
wepple 10y ago
I really wanted this to be a shining review. I've been looking for a daily use linux laptop and the XPS15 was at the top of my list. Sad.
- therealmarv 10y ago
  have a look on Lenovo X260 and below. I've read in some articles that some Kernel developers are using this kind of laptop series for their work. Best battery life I've seen on a Linux laptop so far (over 8h, X220 experience).
  - wepple 10y ago
    awesome, I'm going to take a look at that, thanks.
lkiux 10y ago
Sigh... another big hope of mine. I have a Carbon X1 (3rd gen), thankfully a company laptop. I'm quite disappointed by it, and I was hoping to push our company to move over the XPS line. We got the HD display with touch screen. Although it's a decent display, there's substantial glare. In fact, scrub the useless touch and get the matte, which also boosts the brightness a little bit. Not to mention, the laptop is so light that attempting to touch the display will just flip the laptop. This is my first "not antiglade" display since the CRT era, and I regret it a lot. After several months of usage, the display developed several uneven backlighting issues (some spots are quite bright), and I noticed the black is not as black anymore compared to an unused one (we have 24 of them with several to spare). We moved from the HP EliteBook series (which also has their issues), and while the contrast is much better than any elitebook I've used, we never had uneven backlighting with HP. The keyboard was a big issue, and I see that XPS does not realize how important it is. In fairness, the X1 keyboard is not too bad, except for the awful placement of the Home/End keys. No squeaking and decent feedback. But the small keys such as the arrow keys work very poorly. The rubber dome behind them is so small that if you don't press the key with some little extra force it will "pop" but not activate. In particular, this is especially bad for the up arrow, which of the 24 laptops we have was horrifying. If you use bash, remember the up arrow is "recall history". The problem is that the key is slightly slated (for "ergonomics"), causing the dome to be pressed unevenly. I fixed mine by some careful placement of scotch, but it's still not the same accuracy of other keys. The trackpad is awful for some reason. HP was much better here. No amount of tweaking would allow me to perform fine movements. Battery life is the same on both linux and windows (around 7 hours new for random workload), so no complaints here. Power management works. But, the HP EliteBook G4 we where using before has a super-easy replaceable battery, and we changed many over the years. The G4 is around 6 hours of battery runtime. Not much difference honestly. Not to mention the G4 is very easily serviceable. On linux I still have problems with the intel drivers with the carbon. The "old" drivers work, but the modesetting drivers cause "twitching" of the image especially on the second external output. Incredibly annoying to the point that I'm still using the legacy one. This is a classic issue with intel, and unfortunately it's the same for any laptop nowdays. Overall, the display is still a bit better than whan HP offers, but the rest is worse. The laptop is a bit thinner and lighter, but honestly there's not much difference here. The appreciated the serviceability of the HP line as components started to fail. Although opening an X1 is not hard, there's not much you can swap without replacing the entire laptop.
conwaytwitty 10y ago
I use mine with linux (Ubuntu Mate + xmonad) and so far I like it (as a disclaimer, the company bought it, not me personally). What I did so far: - updated all the firmware to the latest (thunderbolt has a separate firmware) - bumblebee automatically disables the nvidia gpu on startup (i don't need the extra power or power draw) I run in 1080p on the 4k screen, which is kind of sad, but the hidpi support just isn't there yet. Gnome3+ might have better support but can't replace the WM for xmonad in those variants. I used to have the first XPS13 model with linux support officially from dell and this laptop is just as good and even better due to better hardware. Slightly larger and heavier but not an issue for me. Palm detection support is ass and might have to look into it more as it's driving me crazy. There is also some firmware bug where the screen won't start after sleep. With proper hidpi support and remaining firmware fixes from dell this will be a nice laptop even with linux.
- levesque 10y ago
  That's my main issue with Linux, hardware support is always a couple of years behind. Although at some point it catches up and probably surpasses Windows (I can't stand using my touchpad with the official ASUS drivers), this limbo period with less than stellar support is a PITA. It sucks that you have to carry around the extra weight of an NVidia GPU that's never used though.
- ht85 10y ago
  For your input problem, I would recommend: - disable palm detection completely - turn off "disable touchpad while typing" completely (`pkill syndaemon` in a startup script) - use synaptics AreaX settings to ignore taps and drags starting too close to the edge - tune the tap / doubletap timing Here are my custom settings for last 2 points: AreaLeftEdge 1700 AreaRightEdge 5100 MaxDoubleTapTime 180 SingleTapTimeout 180
rukenshia 10y ago
I'm really happy with my Dell XPS 13 (9350). I'm running arch linux on it with herbstluftwm as my window manager. There are some problems with waking up my screen sometimes (I still haven't figured out why, though) sometimes but most of the time everything works fine and I would definitely buy it again. I replaced the broadcom wifi chip with a Intel one (I'd have to look up which chip I ended up using). That was definitely worth it.
forgotpwtomain 10y ago
I tried an XPS15 and gave it up after 2 months. 1) Constant problems with Broadcom wireles. Supposedly they employ someone to work on Linux drivers but I never heard back from them. 2) As has been mentioned HiDpi support in Linux is not good, I ended up using 1920x1080 anyways. 3) Defects. I did not have coil buzz, but accidentally shaking the laptop too hard (e.g. in one's bag, or tapping the bottom) would cause screen/gpu to glitch and require a hard restart. 4) Dual video support on Linux is also quite poor. In practice running Bumblebee gave only marginal improvements. Compared to a MacBook Pro: build quality is worse, it is heavier, battery is worse, wifi problems as mentioned. I would stay away from any Dell products in the future.
- cletus 10y ago
  Nit: the XPS15 is lighter than the 15" Retina MBP.
JimmyAustin 10y ago
My employer previously supplied me with a Lenovo 440s, with a low res (1440x900) display, a dual core i5, and an inability to power the 4K monitor I had at home above 30hz, that I throughly despised. When I moved over to a new team I got given my current rMBP, which I enjoy considerably more. I think that moving forwards an Apple laptop is going to be a hard requirement before I work for an organisation. It's not that other companies don't make good laptops, it's that Apple doesn't make bad laptops, so I know if the company has a policy of buying them I'm guaranteed to get something good, instead of the POS Lenovo that the IT department bought.
- ylk 10y ago
  You could just require your employers to spend as much on a ThinkPad as they'd spend on your Macbook and get a much better machine, imo. I'd work with a ThinkPad for the keyboard alone.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- vonmoltke 10y ago
  So, I guess that means you automatically write off companies that don't give you a laptop at all?
kiwee 10y ago
XPS15 is not a good choice for developer. I went with a Precision 7510, which is more massive, but better in a lot of aspects.
kiwee 10y ago
XPS15 is not a good choice for developer. I went with a Precision 7510, which is more massive, but better in a lot of aspects.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
saint-loup 10y ago
This laptop model have sometimes problems with sleep/wake but your mileage may vary, widely. I had to return mine because it wouldn't wake from deep sleep on battery, sometimes even after trying a hard reset. No problem with the second unit I got. I confirm there's sometimes a slight squeak when I press the left of the spacebar but it's hardly a dealbreaker. So overall I'm very happy with it: gorgeous 4k screen, reasonably powerful dedicated GPU, firm keyboard with enough key travel.
rplst8 10y ago
I have a 9530 model of the XPS 15 from late 2013. It's the model immediately previous to this one (I think). It also has the coil whine problem, but only when the charger is plugged in and the battery is at 100%. It also developed a small screen glitch after about a year - but I can't rule out damage by myself or someone in my house as it was stepped on, but full weight wasn't put on it. The touchpad/clickpad/whatever drivers have been a challenge since day one. I've learned how to customize the Windows registry settings to make it mostly cooperate with what I want and they were mostly fixed by the time Windows 10 was released. I've actually thought the device itself has been a pretty good performer, battery life is not awful but not great, and mechanically it's pretty durable. The screen is pretty amazing (I have the first slightly less than 4k IGZO panel which I run at 1920x1080). My biggest complaint is the lack of dedicated home/end/pgup/pgdn keys. But this is a problem on pretty much every laptop made with chicklet style keyboard and it is SO STUPID. I was considering the new XPS 15 since mine is now three years old and I have the screen glitch, but the fact that they haven't fixed the coil whine problem shows me they just don't care. (That said I've read that not everyone reports this problem.) I've generally had good luck with the Dell Latitudes though screen quality can be a big variable from model to model and year to year. I've also looked hard at their Precision line from time to time. I do nearly all my programming on a desktop with a real keyboard. My biggest gripe using a laptop for programming is the lack of the home/end/pgup/pgdn keys and numpad on most models.
- distances 10y ago
  I've also had very good experience with Latitudes (and Linux in them), so that's what I asked for again when it was time to renew the work laptop. Sadly the nice Latitude 7000 series doesn't have an i7 quad core option, so I went for the bit sturdier E5470 with i7-6820HQ. Let's see how it turns out this time.
- whamlastxmas 10y ago
  I bought this laptop too and spent literally probably 12+ hours making the track pad work how I wanted but never got it there. Wound up returning it. Will be buying my first MacBook instead pretty soon.
pavanky 10y ago
If people here are interested in Linux and are not convinced about the Dell XPS developer model, check out their precision models: http://www.dell.com/learn/us/en/555/campaigns/xps-linux-laptop?c=us&l=en&s=biz http://www.dell.com/learn/us/en/555/campaigns/xps-linux-lapt... I am using a previous generation model (Precision M3800) and am quite happy with it so far. I get ~4 hours of battery on Linux. This includes a lot of browsing, watching a few videos. I also have the ability to get a higher capacity battery (from 60Whr to 90Whr) in the future. It is also quite easy to take apart and upgrade any internals you want.
goombastic 10y ago
Been in the market looking for a good replacement to my old thinkpad, but I don't know if people have noticed, most laptops today cannot be upgraded for RAM and in some cases even the HDD/SSD and batteries are soldered on to the board. Add to it, keyboards seem to come down a few notches in terms of quality. So, earlier my laptops have typically been with me for nearly 6 years each, these days, with the constant upgrades it feels like Iam buying a mobile phone that is sealed shut and demands an upgrade every 2 years. I've now stopped updating OSes as a result of the slowdowns I see everytime I upgrade the OS.
CommanderData 10y ago
I've considered buying a Yoga 710, its borderline Mac with a screen small but big enough for my Web dev / GUI work. Marketed as a premium ultrabook - It had all the necessary specs, very light, backlit keyboard, great screen, gpu and battery life. But it failed at future-proofing, no USB Type C connector. At the price range £750-800 I would expect a premium laptop to have one. Seeing cheaper sub £500 laptops are equip with them. I plug into Ethernet and need to expand at work, but this is where it stopped for me. I've had two past terrible experiences with Dell so I beg myself not to make the same mistake when I see something irresistible or too good to be true. Still searching for good dev machine. I may wait a while until Lenovo announces their new line up for 7th Gen Intel but that could be nearer to 2017.
yawgmoth 10y ago
One of the things I look for is build quality. I picked up an HP Spectre x360[1]. It plays rough with other laptops. I had my plastic-cased Lenovo in the same bag - it came out with battle wounds. In general I have found that laptops are generally 'fast enough' for the dev I'm doing and creature comforts such as battery life, keyboard, screen, and case quality are far more important. [1] http://store.hp.com/us/en/mdp/Laptops/spectre-x360-211501--1# http://store.hp.com/us/en/mdp/Laptops/spectre-x360-211501--1...!
Corrado 10y ago
I think this is a perfect advertisement for a MacBook (Pro). When I buy a computer (for business) I want it to just work and continue to work for years and years. Not having to deal with things like coil whine and screen flicker are extremely good reasons to purchase an Apple product. I've been a Mac user for years and I didn't even know what coil whine was and had to look it up. Sure, Apple products have their flaws, but they generally don't force you to deal with electronic buzzing sounds coming from the graphics drivers and the computer frying itself on the way to work. Building a computer to play with and learn from is great. But when you have to get work done, it pays to get the best. Spending time fooling around with problems that shouldn't be there in the first place is a time & money waste.
- aw3c2 10y ago
  Did you also use other machines for that long or are you just raving on your anecdote?
  - Corrado 10y ago
    Oh, I've been in the business for a long time and have used many, many different types of machines. Everything from (very) cheap eMachines to IBM Thinkpad to Dell laptops; I've used them all and all I can think about is how lacking they are. I'm a professional programmer, I make my living with these things, they have to work correctly, all the time. My father was a mechanic and he had to purchase a lot of his own tools. Did he get the $3 screwdriver from Harbor Freight? No, he purchased the $45 one from SnapOn, and it was worth every, single, penny. I feel the same way about my tools. The chair I'm sitting in is a 10 year old Aeron and it works just as well as the day it was made. Sure it costs more than the $90 "office" chair at Staples, but I sit in it all day every day and it doesn't make my back hurt. It was worth every, single, penny.
    - aw3c2 10y ago
      If the price is so important, I have a €1800 Fujitsu laptop from work and could name no issue. It even works perfectly with Linux. Consumer devices are not necessarily bad but often the price increase from that to a business tool is worth it, as you say. I just find the Apple praise weird when people often never used an equivalent non-Apple device.
edtechdev 10y ago
I got Dell XPS 13 a year and a half ago that had similar problems. Also a problem with the audio jack - buzzing noise whenever you plugged in headphones. I mainly use Ubuntu, but the problems were on Windows, too. I returned it and got a Lenovo Yoga Thinkpad 14 which has been great, except I broke the headphone jack on it somehow (not laptop's fault).
rebeccaskinner 10y ago
I bought a thin gaming laptop last year (in my case a razer blade, but there are several similar laptops from other manufacturers available now) and honestly it's one of the best development laptops I've had (compared to the Thinkpads and MBPs I've had from work). Plenty of CPU and memory, and a nice screen, and I find that the keyboards on gaming laptops are more comfortable than a lot of other laptops these days).
- Scea91 10y ago
  Agreed. For my use I don't need particularly light laptop, or long battery life so I choose gaming laptops too. Simply, because they are packed with the most powerful hardware. This is my favorite right now: http://www.notebookcheck.net/Asus-G501VW-FY081T-Notebook-Review.163403.0.html http://www.notebookcheck.net/Asus-G501VW-FY081T-Notebook-Rev... Sadly, the last time I checked it didn't sell in my country.
meddlepal 10y ago
Slightly off-topic: Do people really notice coil whine that much? When I built my PC last year with a 970 GTX every review I read mentioned the horrible coil whine. I don't notice it at all. I also helped build my roommates computer with the same 970 GTX and I didn't notice the coil whine at all on that one either. It's possible that both those cards were "lucky" but it seems like literally every single 970 GTX review mentioned coil whine and I have yet to notice it.
- thebakeshow 10y ago
  I find the computer case, and tower placement as well as room acoustics can influence this greatly.
- rayiner 10y ago
  It'd be a deal breaker to me. It's one thing to have it on a desktop machine that sits under your desk and probably has a fan going at all times. Very different to have it in a laptop that you're using a few feet from your head and where the fan doesn't run unless under load. I had a Dell with coil whine, and if I was using it in the library or at home that was all I could hear.
  - nibnib 10y ago
    Is it possible to dope the coil with something to damp out the whining? I have an old Lenovo that has this, and the noise seems to vary depending on what's onscreen. It can be very annoying.
    - Gracana 10y ago
      Manufacturers often apply some goopy glue on top of inductors to damp out some of the noise, like this: http://i.stack.imgur.com/144ui.png http://i.stack.imgur.com/144ui.png
      - nibnib 10y ago
        Yeah, I've done this myself when building switching power supplies. I guess there's no reason not to tray silicone or nail varnish on noise graphics cards.
imron 10y ago
And this is why people are wrong when they say Apple Macbooks are overpriced and you can get the equivalent or better laptop for a cheaper price. Yes, you can get something with the exact same hardware specs for cheaper, but when you also consider size, weight, battery life, high-quality trackpad and other components, there are very few products that compare - and those that do are at the same or higher price level.
sakopov 10y ago
I've gone through 2 generations of XPS laptops. The build quality has just never been there. The casing is flimsy. The battery life degrades significantly after 6 months. The charger cord falls out of the charger port. They also seem to overheat and are generally noisy. However, with all of this being said I keep coming back to XPS because, until recently, they were the best looking windows laptops which still perform quit well. I know Lenovos are great but they look like bricks. My current XPS 15 is literally falling apart after 3 years of use and I'm slowly bringing myself to buy a MBP.
- blitzd 10y ago
  You may want to look into Alienware - they tend to have a way better build quality than the Dell machines, and you can get better bang for your buck than typical 'workstation' builds for laptops. I'm not sure how well their smaller form factors are, as I've always gone big - but I've used various Dell and Lenovo 'workstation' laptops and I will be sticking with Alienware for the foreseeable future. Edit: Also, my use case tends to be database development, data analysis, and virtualization.
- nightski 10y ago
  I do not disagree regarding the XPS. However I've had similar experiences with MBP. I've owned two now, and both had the charger fray/fall apart and the hinges for the display become weak/flimsy. I've experienced every issue you mention with the MBP. Thinkpads look like a brick, but that is because they are. My X220 has lasted 6-7 years and barely shows it. I've spilled coffee on it, dropped it, and it just keeps on going fine.
kyriakos 10y ago
- no home/end keys - tiny arrow keys These two points are enough for me to immediately dismiss a laptop. Especially the home / end keys are vital when writing code (for me at least)
- conwaytwitty 10y ago
  Dell actually has the fn modifier which works with the arrow keys to create pgup/dn and home/end.
bgamari 10y ago
If you are considering the XPS 15, you might also look at the E7470. I have been using one of these as my primary machine for several months now and have been quite impressed. The high-DPI display is fantastic, it's built like a tank, and I've had no compatibility issues whatsoever after a firmware upgrade. Moreover, it runs at a reasonable temperature and I can get 7 hours out of the battery if careful (`killall -STOP firefox` is a must, unfortunately). The only minor annoyance was the lack of driver support for the Alps touchpad hardware. Thankfully, after poking and prodding enough people I was able to get specifications and implement driver support. I do wish that Dell, et al would be more proactive in pushing their vendors to merge driver support but oh well. All-in-all, I'm very pleased with the machine.
hbogert 10y ago
I felt horrible when I bought a macbook air 4 years ago. "What have i done, I sold out, I should've bought a lenovo and put linux on it -- which all the hackers do as well." FFWD to today, I have a quiet laptop. Doesn't flicker on white background when dimmed 30%. Doesn't squeak anywhere. Doesn't wake up randomly. The keyboard is fine. Is easy to open. Fans are not spinning when charging. No coil whine, this shit still happens? Only thing in four years that broke was the battery. Bought a new one for €40. Thanks for sharing the experience though, seems like I still have to stick to Apple for a while for my mobile computing. Unfortunately it comes with this horrible window manager and dumbed down desktop. That said, the cons list of the XPS15 is more than enough reason to cope with OSX.
- vladimir-y 10y ago
  Have you tried to put Linux on your macbook?
  - hbogert 10y ago
    Well yes, and failed because of one thing. The irritating broadcom wifi. I tried it on a Windows laptop as well recently. Not a great time with secure boot with bios/UEFI which do not have support for different OSs as a usecase

83 points by p8donald 10y ago

JazCE 10y ago

I'm glad people are doing reviews of laptops from developer perspectives. It amazes me that it's 2016 and none of the windows based laptop makes have come out with anything that approaches the macbook pro. Microsoft seem closest with their surface book line, but that seems beset by driver issues, and Razer might have something with their Blade series, but that doesn't seem to be available in the UK 3 or 4 years on from launch. ASUS also seem close but again beset by a few odd build quality issues. If I knew anything at all about this kind of thing i'd be tempted to do a kickstarter to fund the development of a quality developer laptop that was windows/*nix based that aped the macbook pro as much as possible.

temac 10y ago
A kickstarter to compete against Apple on their MBP? Yep, can confirm you don't know anything...
- JazCE 10y ago
  up voting for constructive feedback.
ylk 10y ago
Take a look at ThinkPads!
amalag 10y ago
A lot of it must have to do with patents. I am just addicted to the quality of the MBP touchpad. I don't think I could use another laptop now. Plus the nice-to-haves like the magnetic power plug so you don't have to worry about tripping over your power cord and messing up your motherboard.
drzaiusapelord 10y ago
>It amazes me that it's 2016 and none of the windows based laptop makes have come out with anything that approaches the macbook pro. The problem I see is that Apple sells a business quality laptop at premium pricing yet people compare them to consumer junk on the Windows side of things. The problem is these models aren't at Best Buy, so a lot consumers don't see them, and if they do they balk at the price because a laptop should be $599, not $1099. You just can't compete with a macbook at $599 or $699. I find the Thinkpad line in general is really nice. HP and Dell also have a business line of lighter/thinner laptops that compare in quality, but cost just as much.

radicalbyte 10y ago

For the love of everything that is good, if you buy this laptop, go for the 4k screen. It's beautiful. It's a big laptop, you'll use it on a desk, so the battery life is fine. I use my XPS 9550 for work and carry around a MBP13 for email / reading / surfing. The biggest problem with the 9550 by far is the keyboard. The MBP keyboard is amazing in comparison. However it is a laptop keyboard, I have yet to encounter a good one (old Thinkpads come the closest). Just buy a decent mechanical keyboard and plug it in.

funkyy 10y ago
Not all laptop keyboards suck. I have Asus laptop and the keyboard is great, much better than mechanical for me. Light on the fingers with proper mechanics behind tapping keys. And I am developer, so I type a lot...
- gonzo41 10y ago
  Thinkpad t460 - great keyboard, not as good as the past but switching over from a macbook. wow so much travel and such comfortable keys.
- radicalbyte 10y ago
  I've used a lot of laptops and have still to find one which either types as nicely as a good mechanical keyboard or is as comfortable as the Microsoft Ergonomic (which sadly has rubbish typing action). Of course this kind of thing is very personal, it depends on a lot of factors. The 9550 keyboard just feels cheap and wobbly. The action is otherwise actually pretty pleasing. It wants to be the MBP keyboard but just isn't quite there.
jylam 10y ago
Not all laptop keyboards suck. My (old model) Thinkpad keyboard is really good. I even use it on my desktops (home and work) https://sc02.alicdn.com/kf/HTB1vYX2KXXXXXarXVXXq6xXFXXXp/Genuine-Original-57Y4675-ForLenovo-ThinkPad-SK-8855-Keyboard-Travel-Standard-USB.jpg https://sc02.alicdn.com/kf/HTB1vYX2KXXXXXarXVXXq6xXFXXXp/Gen...

imafish 10y ago

I own the Dell XPS 15 FHD and have experienced same issues. However, mostly I do not notice them. Have not experienced the random wakeups. Another issue is the crappy broadcom wifi card that shipped with it. Wifi connection would just randomly disappear and only return after multiple retry/reboot combinations. Replaced it with an intel card and haven't had any problems since. I do like the laptop but do not believe these problems should exist on a laptop with such a high pricetag.

douche 10y ago
You'd think they could build a laptop wifi card that didn't totally suck, but I've been through a half-dozen different laptops, work and personal, over the years, and they are all terrible.
- lukeholder 10y ago
  I had the same problem for years until I switched to MacBooks
  - hbogert 10y ago
    Which use broadcom exclusively. Wanted to try linux on my macbook once. All was well, except that dreaded Broadcom Wifi. Apparently broadcom gives big middle finger when it comes to truly open source drivers. C'mon broadcom.. it's 2016.

s_kilk 10y ago

>> but the problem is that this laptop can wake up randomly and if it's in your bag it can overheat. And there is no way to tell if it's on. Deal-breaker, right there. I had a hard enough time with a previous dell/ubuntu combo pulling this trick and roasting itself alive in my bag, and I've no desire to repeat.

simonswords82 10y ago
Yep - I had exactly the same thing happen to me. Hot summer's day, arrive at a customer meeting. My previously fully charged Dell laptop has been running since I was on the hot and stuffy underground whilst shoved in to its laptop bag. It's now a nuclear ball of fire, with just 15% battery left and how it didn't suffer a complete meltdown is a strong testament to the quality of the hardware. This happened a bunch of times. Add to this random BSODs, keyboards that would break far too easily, the sheer weight of the thing and more inconveniences I'm surprised I stuck with it for as long as I did. 5 years ago I switched to Apple MacBooks and will never go back.
- 2almalki 10y ago
  ive hd my macbook do that too.. opened up the bag it was running HOT HOT HOT. still works so im happy
Jonnax 10y ago
It also happens on Windows 10 on my XPS 13. I've been blaming Microsoft for it but I'm not too sure if Dell is involved now.
- radicalbyte 10y ago
  My MacBook does this all the time when using Parallels. That, or it hard-crashes.
  - johnchristopher 10y ago
    I had the same problem with my trusty eeepc running debian wheezy. It got fixed at some point though since it hasn't happened in years.

jventura 10y ago

As stupid as it may sound, I really dislike laptops with 16:9 screens. That is why, together with other small things such as build quality, that I cannot seem to find anything better than Macbooks to fit my taste..

Theodores 10y ago
Chromebook Pixel - 3:2 aspect ratio. Best screen because of the resolution and aspect ratio. The Pixel was built for developers, hence the choice of screen. Also comes with the best keyboard and trackpad going, not to mention the best speakers (2013 version) and a rock solid build quality that makes those Apple things feel cheap. Oh, the screen is touchscreen too which helps if you are developing for things with touch screens. Price? Allegedly expensive but who cares if it actually lasts a few years.
- ThePawnBreak 10y ago
  ChromeOS is obviously unsuitable for most developers. So then, does Google guarantee that I will have no problems using my favourite Linux distro (or at least Ubuntu), including trackpad drivers, good battery life, functioning sleep mode, wireless and other usual Linux issues on not officially supported hardware? Also, do you consider a 64GB SSD to be sufficient for a developer?
  - sfifs 10y ago
    Well I don't use a Pixel but I upgraded my SSD on HP Chromebook 14 to use as my personal development laptop some years ago - still using it. Driver support wise it takes a year plus for all the hardware to get supported in the mainline Linux kernel is what I have found. What works is to dump the distro kernel and use the latest stable mainline.
- LaSombra 10y ago
  My only problem with the Pixel is the storage. 64GB is a bit on the low side for me as a Java developer with a local Maven repo of 17GB. If SD storage was reliable, which in my personal experience is not, then that would be a killer machine indeed.

therealmarv 10y ago

I know this Dell XPS laptops... their black surface on and around the keyboard and mousepad will look very greasy over time. Maybe it's a problem on every black surface laptop. On first sight macs don't look like this (although they can be greasy too... but you don't see it immediately).

davidiach 10y ago

I would encourage people to consider buying business laptops. In my experience many developers don't even consider business laptops and only buy consumer devices. Business laptops have the following advantages over consumer laptops: - they're much more reliable - better support - a lot fewer problems with drivers and other incompatibilities - they are designed for work, which means you will have fewer problems with things like virtualization - generally speaking, the keyboard and the track-pad will be better And the good thing is that some of the disadvantages of business laptops like size and bulkiness have also disappeared. You can now find business ultra-books that look good and work well.

wbkang 10y ago
Those are good points but XPS are solid laptops that satisfy almost all of those requirements. It would be helpful if you could point out how XPS 15 are specifically lacking compared to other business laptops.
- temac 10y ago
  At least half of the things explained in the "What I don't like" section of the post?
wastedhours 10y ago
Have to agree - although I've switched to a Mac for personal development work (and caveat, my dev at work is only building a few reporting tools in Ruby), my Dell Latitude Ultrabook issued by them hands down beats the majority of other machines I've used. Enough performance, strong battery life, decent trackpad and keyboard, and very quiet. Expensive, but will probably be issued to people for years after I've gone.
jkot 10y ago
I am not sure XPS is a business laptop. For enterprise there is Latitude line, with more ports and higher price tag. But I am not sure the price is worth it. XPS is very good. http://www.dell.com/learn/us/en/84/campaigns/xps-vs-latitude-slg http://www.dell.com/learn/us/en/84/campaigns/xps-vs-latitude...

systemtest 10y ago

Laptops in this price range should not have coil whine, electric buzzing sounds or screen flicker. I would've returned it immediately. I have to use a very expensive HP Z-Book for work with a power adapter that has a loud coil whine. I've fixed it by not using the power adapter and only plugging it in when I'm away for lunch or on the toilet.

therealmarv 10y ago
yes, this is absolutely not acceptable for a real work laptop in 2016.

wepple 10y ago

I really wanted this to be a shining review. I've been looking for a daily use linux laptop and the XPS15 was at the top of my list. Sad.

therealmarv 10y ago
have a look on Lenovo X260 and below. I've read in some articles that some Kernel developers are using this kind of laptop series for their work. Best battery life I've seen on a Linux laptop so far (over 8h, X220 experience).
- wepple 10y ago
  awesome, I'm going to take a look at that, thanks.

lkiux 10y ago

Sigh... another big hope of mine. I have a Carbon X1 (3rd gen), thankfully a company laptop. I'm quite disappointed by it, and I was hoping to push our company to move over the XPS line. We got the HD display with touch screen. Although it's a decent display, there's substantial glare. In fact, scrub the useless touch and get the matte, which also boosts the brightness a little bit. Not to mention, the laptop is so light that attempting to touch the display will just flip the laptop. This is my first "not antiglade" display since the CRT era, and I regret it a lot. After several months of usage, the display developed several uneven backlighting issues (some spots are quite bright), and I noticed the black is not as black anymore compared to an unused one (we have 24 of them with several to spare). We moved from the HP EliteBook series (which also has their issues), and while the contrast is much better than any elitebook I've used, we never had uneven backlighting with HP. The keyboard was a big issue, and I see that XPS does not realize how important it is. In fairness, the X1 keyboard is not too bad, except for the awful placement of the Home/End keys. No squeaking and decent feedback. But the small keys such as the arrow keys work very poorly. The rubber dome behind them is so small that if you don't press the key with some little extra force it will "pop" but not activate. In particular, this is especially bad for the up arrow, which of the 24 laptops we have was horrifying. If you use bash, remember the up arrow is "recall history". The problem is that the key is slightly slated (for "ergonomics"), causing the dome to be pressed unevenly. I fixed mine by some careful placement of scotch, but it's still not the same accuracy of other keys. The trackpad is awful for some reason. HP was much better here. No amount of tweaking would allow me to perform fine movements. Battery life is the same on both linux and windows (around 7 hours new for random workload), so no complaints here. Power management works. But, the HP EliteBook G4 we where using before has a super-easy replaceable battery, and we changed many over the years. The G4 is around 6 hours of battery runtime. Not much difference honestly. Not to mention the G4 is very easily serviceable. On linux I still have problems with the intel drivers with the carbon. The "old" drivers work, but the modesetting drivers cause "twitching" of the image especially on the second external output. Incredibly annoying to the point that I'm still using the legacy one. This is a classic issue with intel, and unfortunately it's the same for any laptop nowdays. Overall, the display is still a bit better than whan HP offers, but the rest is worse. The laptop is a bit thinner and lighter, but honestly there's not much difference here. The appreciated the serviceability of the HP line as components started to fail. Although opening an X1 is not hard, there's not much you can swap without replacing the entire laptop.

conwaytwitty 10y ago

I use mine with linux (Ubuntu Mate + xmonad) and so far I like it (as a disclaimer, the company bought it, not me personally). What I did so far: - updated all the firmware to the latest (thunderbolt has a separate firmware) - bumblebee automatically disables the nvidia gpu on startup (i don't need the extra power or power draw) I run in 1080p on the 4k screen, which is kind of sad, but the hidpi support just isn't there yet. Gnome3+ might have better support but can't replace the WM for xmonad in those variants. I used to have the first XPS13 model with linux support officially from dell and this laptop is just as good and even better due to better hardware. Slightly larger and heavier but not an issue for me. Palm detection support is ass and might have to look into it more as it's driving me crazy. There is also some firmware bug where the screen won't start after sleep. With proper hidpi support and remaining firmware fixes from dell this will be a nice laptop even with linux.

levesque 10y ago
That's my main issue with Linux, hardware support is always a couple of years behind. Although at some point it catches up and probably surpasses Windows (I can't stand using my touchpad with the official ASUS drivers), this limbo period with less than stellar support is a PITA. It sucks that you have to carry around the extra weight of an NVidia GPU that's never used though.
ht85 10y ago
For your input problem, I would recommend: - disable palm detection completely - turn off "disable touchpad while typing" completely (`pkill syndaemon` in a startup script) - use synaptics AreaX settings to ignore taps and drags starting too close to the edge - tune the tap / doubletap timing Here are my custom settings for last 2 points: AreaLeftEdge 1700 AreaRightEdge 5100 MaxDoubleTapTime 180 SingleTapTimeout 180

rukenshia 10y ago

I'm really happy with my Dell XPS 13 (9350). I'm running arch linux on it with herbstluftwm as my window manager. There are some problems with waking up my screen sometimes (I still haven't figured out why, though) sometimes but most of the time everything works fine and I would definitely buy it again. I replaced the broadcom wifi chip with a Intel one (I'd have to look up which chip I ended up using). That was definitely worth it.

forgotpwtomain 10y ago

I tried an XPS15 and gave it up after 2 months. 1) Constant problems with Broadcom wireles. Supposedly they employ someone to work on Linux drivers but I never heard back from them. 2) As has been mentioned HiDpi support in Linux is not good, I ended up using 1920x1080 anyways. 3) Defects. I did not have coil buzz, but accidentally shaking the laptop too hard (e.g. in one's bag, or tapping the bottom) would cause screen/gpu to glitch and require a hard restart. 4) Dual video support on Linux is also quite poor. In practice running Bumblebee gave only marginal improvements. Compared to a MacBook Pro: build quality is worse, it is heavier, battery is worse, wifi problems as mentioned. I would stay away from any Dell products in the future.

cletus 10y ago
Nit: the XPS15 is lighter than the 15" Retina MBP.

JimmyAustin 10y ago

My employer previously supplied me with a Lenovo 440s, with a low res (1440x900) display, a dual core i5, and an inability to power the 4K monitor I had at home above 30hz, that I throughly despised. When I moved over to a new team I got given my current rMBP, which I enjoy considerably more. I think that moving forwards an Apple laptop is going to be a hard requirement before I work for an organisation. It's not that other companies don't make good laptops, it's that Apple doesn't make bad laptops, so I know if the company has a policy of buying them I'm guaranteed to get something good, instead of the POS Lenovo that the IT department bought.

ylk 10y ago
You could just require your employers to spend as much on a ThinkPad as they'd spend on your Macbook and get a much better machine, imo. I'd work with a ThinkPad for the keyboard alone.
deleted 10y ago
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vonmoltke 10y ago
So, I guess that means you automatically write off companies that don't give you a laptop at all?

kiwee 10y ago

XPS15 is not a good choice for developer. I went with a Precision 7510, which is more massive, but better in a lot of aspects.

kiwee 10y ago

XPS15 is not a good choice for developer. I went with a Precision 7510, which is more massive, but better in a lot of aspects.

deleted 10y ago

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saint-loup 10y ago

This laptop model have sometimes problems with sleep/wake but your mileage may vary, widely. I had to return mine because it wouldn't wake from deep sleep on battery, sometimes even after trying a hard reset. No problem with the second unit I got. I confirm there's sometimes a slight squeak when I press the left of the spacebar but it's hardly a dealbreaker. So overall I'm very happy with it: gorgeous 4k screen, reasonably powerful dedicated GPU, firm keyboard with enough key travel.

rplst8 10y ago

I have a 9530 model of the XPS 15 from late 2013. It's the model immediately previous to this one (I think). It also has the coil whine problem, but only when the charger is plugged in and the battery is at 100%. It also developed a small screen glitch after about a year - but I can't rule out damage by myself or someone in my house as it was stepped on, but full weight wasn't put on it. The touchpad/clickpad/whatever drivers have been a challenge since day one. I've learned how to customize the Windows registry settings to make it mostly cooperate with what I want and they were mostly fixed by the time Windows 10 was released. I've actually thought the device itself has been a pretty good performer, battery life is not awful but not great, and mechanically it's pretty durable. The screen is pretty amazing (I have the first slightly less than 4k IGZO panel which I run at 1920x1080). My biggest complaint is the lack of dedicated home/end/pgup/pgdn keys. But this is a problem on pretty much every laptop made with chicklet style keyboard and it is SO STUPID. I was considering the new XPS 15 since mine is now three years old and I have the screen glitch, but the fact that they haven't fixed the coil whine problem shows me they just don't care. (That said I've read that not everyone reports this problem.) I've generally had good luck with the Dell Latitudes though screen quality can be a big variable from model to model and year to year. I've also looked hard at their Precision line from time to time. I do nearly all my programming on a desktop with a real keyboard. My biggest gripe using a laptop for programming is the lack of the home/end/pgup/pgdn keys and numpad on most models.

distances 10y ago
I've also had very good experience with Latitudes (and Linux in them), so that's what I asked for again when it was time to renew the work laptop. Sadly the nice Latitude 7000 series doesn't have an i7 quad core option, so I went for the bit sturdier E5470 with i7-6820HQ. Let's see how it turns out this time.
whamlastxmas 10y ago
I bought this laptop too and spent literally probably 12+ hours making the track pad work how I wanted but never got it there. Wound up returning it. Will be buying my first MacBook instead pretty soon.

pavanky 10y ago

If people here are interested in Linux and are not convinced about the Dell XPS developer model, check out their precision models: http://www.dell.com/learn/us/en/555/campaigns/xps-linux-laptop?c=us&l=en&s=biz http://www.dell.com/learn/us/en/555/campaigns/xps-linux-lapt... I am using a previous generation model (Precision M3800) and am quite happy with it so far. I get ~4 hours of battery on Linux. This includes a lot of browsing, watching a few videos. I also have the ability to get a higher capacity battery (from 60Whr to 90Whr) in the future. It is also quite easy to take apart and upgrade any internals you want.

goombastic 10y ago

Been in the market looking for a good replacement to my old thinkpad, but I don't know if people have noticed, most laptops today cannot be upgraded for RAM and in some cases even the HDD/SSD and batteries are soldered on to the board. Add to it, keyboards seem to come down a few notches in terms of quality. So, earlier my laptops have typically been with me for nearly 6 years each, these days, with the constant upgrades it feels like Iam buying a mobile phone that is sealed shut and demands an upgrade every 2 years. I've now stopped updating OSes as a result of the slowdowns I see everytime I upgrade the OS.

CommanderData 10y ago

I've considered buying a Yoga 710, its borderline Mac with a screen small but big enough for my Web dev / GUI work. Marketed as a premium ultrabook - It had all the necessary specs, very light, backlit keyboard, great screen, gpu and battery life. But it failed at future-proofing, no USB Type C connector. At the price range £750-800 I would expect a premium laptop to have one. Seeing cheaper sub £500 laptops are equip with them. I plug into Ethernet and need to expand at work, but this is where it stopped for me. I've had two past terrible experiences with Dell so I beg myself not to make the same mistake when I see something irresistible or too good to be true. Still searching for good dev machine. I may wait a while until Lenovo announces their new line up for 7th Gen Intel but that could be nearer to 2017.

yawgmoth 10y ago

One of the things I look for is build quality. I picked up an HP Spectre x360[1]. It plays rough with other laptops. I had my plastic-cased Lenovo in the same bag - it came out with battle wounds. In general I have found that laptops are generally 'fast enough' for the dev I'm doing and creature comforts such as battery life, keyboard, screen, and case quality are far more important. [1] http://store.hp.com/us/en/mdp/Laptops/spectre-x360-211501--1# http://store.hp.com/us/en/mdp/Laptops/spectre-x360-211501--1...!

Corrado 10y ago

I think this is a perfect advertisement for a MacBook (Pro). When I buy a computer (for business) I want it to just work and continue to work for years and years. Not having to deal with things like coil whine and screen flicker are extremely good reasons to purchase an Apple product. I've been a Mac user for years and I didn't even know what coil whine was and had to look it up. Sure, Apple products have their flaws, but they generally don't force you to deal with electronic buzzing sounds coming from the graphics drivers and the computer frying itself on the way to work. Building a computer to play with and learn from is great. But when you have to get work done, it pays to get the best. Spending time fooling around with problems that shouldn't be there in the first place is a time & money waste.

aw3c2 10y ago
Did you also use other machines for that long or are you just raving on your anecdote?
- Corrado 10y ago
  Oh, I've been in the business for a long time and have used many, many different types of machines. Everything from (very) cheap eMachines to IBM Thinkpad to Dell laptops; I've used them all and all I can think about is how lacking they are. I'm a professional programmer, I make my living with these things, they have to work correctly, all the time. My father was a mechanic and he had to purchase a lot of his own tools. Did he get the $3 screwdriver from Harbor Freight? No, he purchased the $45 one from SnapOn, and it was worth every, single, penny. I feel the same way about my tools. The chair I'm sitting in is a 10 year old Aeron and it works just as well as the day it was made. Sure it costs more than the $90 "office" chair at Staples, but I sit in it all day every day and it doesn't make my back hurt. It was worth every, single, penny.
  - aw3c2 10y ago
    If the price is so important, I have a €1800 Fujitsu laptop from work and could name no issue. It even works perfectly with Linux. Consumer devices are not necessarily bad but often the price increase from that to a business tool is worth it, as you say. I just find the Apple praise weird when people often never used an equivalent non-Apple device.

edtechdev 10y ago

I got Dell XPS 13 a year and a half ago that had similar problems. Also a problem with the audio jack - buzzing noise whenever you plugged in headphones. I mainly use Ubuntu, but the problems were on Windows, too. I returned it and got a Lenovo Yoga Thinkpad 14 which has been great, except I broke the headphone jack on it somehow (not laptop's fault).

rebeccaskinner 10y ago

I bought a thin gaming laptop last year (in my case a razer blade, but there are several similar laptops from other manufacturers available now) and honestly it's one of the best development laptops I've had (compared to the Thinkpads and MBPs I've had from work). Plenty of CPU and memory, and a nice screen, and I find that the keyboards on gaming laptops are more comfortable than a lot of other laptops these days).

Scea91 10y ago
Agreed. For my use I don't need particularly light laptop, or long battery life so I choose gaming laptops too. Simply, because they are packed with the most powerful hardware. This is my favorite right now: http://www.notebookcheck.net/Asus-G501VW-FY081T-Notebook-Review.163403.0.html http://www.notebookcheck.net/Asus-G501VW-FY081T-Notebook-Rev... Sadly, the last time I checked it didn't sell in my country.

meddlepal 10y ago

Slightly off-topic: Do people really notice coil whine that much? When I built my PC last year with a 970 GTX every review I read mentioned the horrible coil whine. I don't notice it at all. I also helped build my roommates computer with the same 970 GTX and I didn't notice the coil whine at all on that one either. It's possible that both those cards were "lucky" but it seems like literally every single 970 GTX review mentioned coil whine and I have yet to notice it.

thebakeshow 10y ago
I find the computer case, and tower placement as well as room acoustics can influence this greatly.
rayiner 10y ago
It'd be a deal breaker to me. It's one thing to have it on a desktop machine that sits under your desk and probably has a fan going at all times. Very different to have it in a laptop that you're using a few feet from your head and where the fan doesn't run unless under load. I had a Dell with coil whine, and if I was using it in the library or at home that was all I could hear.
- nibnib 10y ago
  Is it possible to dope the coil with something to damp out the whining? I have an old Lenovo that has this, and the noise seems to vary depending on what's onscreen. It can be very annoying.
  - Gracana 10y ago
    Manufacturers often apply some goopy glue on top of inductors to damp out some of the noise, like this: http://i.stack.imgur.com/144ui.png http://i.stack.imgur.com/144ui.png
    - nibnib 10y ago
      Yeah, I've done this myself when building switching power supplies. I guess there's no reason not to tray silicone or nail varnish on noise graphics cards.

imron 10y ago

And this is why people are wrong when they say Apple Macbooks are overpriced and you can get the equivalent or better laptop for a cheaper price. Yes, you can get something with the exact same hardware specs for cheaper, but when you also consider size, weight, battery life, high-quality trackpad and other components, there are very few products that compare - and those that do are at the same or higher price level.

sakopov 10y ago

I've gone through 2 generations of XPS laptops. The build quality has just never been there. The casing is flimsy. The battery life degrades significantly after 6 months. The charger cord falls out of the charger port. They also seem to overheat and are generally noisy. However, with all of this being said I keep coming back to XPS because, until recently, they were the best looking windows laptops which still perform quit well. I know Lenovos are great but they look like bricks. My current XPS 15 is literally falling apart after 3 years of use and I'm slowly bringing myself to buy a MBP.

blitzd 10y ago
You may want to look into Alienware - they tend to have a way better build quality than the Dell machines, and you can get better bang for your buck than typical 'workstation' builds for laptops. I'm not sure how well their smaller form factors are, as I've always gone big - but I've used various Dell and Lenovo 'workstation' laptops and I will be sticking with Alienware for the foreseeable future. Edit: Also, my use case tends to be database development, data analysis, and virtualization.
nightski 10y ago
I do not disagree regarding the XPS. However I've had similar experiences with MBP. I've owned two now, and both had the charger fray/fall apart and the hinges for the display become weak/flimsy. I've experienced every issue you mention with the MBP. Thinkpads look like a brick, but that is because they are. My X220 has lasted 6-7 years and barely shows it. I've spilled coffee on it, dropped it, and it just keeps on going fine.

kyriakos 10y ago

- no home/end keys - tiny arrow keys These two points are enough for me to immediately dismiss a laptop. Especially the home / end keys are vital when writing code (for me at least)

conwaytwitty 10y ago
Dell actually has the fn modifier which works with the arrow keys to create pgup/dn and home/end.

bgamari 10y ago

If you are considering the XPS 15, you might also look at the E7470. I have been using one of these as my primary machine for several months now and have been quite impressed. The high-DPI display is fantastic, it's built like a tank, and I've had no compatibility issues whatsoever after a firmware upgrade. Moreover, it runs at a reasonable temperature and I can get 7 hours out of the battery if careful (`killall -STOP firefox` is a must, unfortunately). The only minor annoyance was the lack of driver support for the Alps touchpad hardware. Thankfully, after poking and prodding enough people I was able to get specifications and implement driver support. I do wish that Dell, et al would be more proactive in pushing their vendors to merge driver support but oh well. All-in-all, I'm very pleased with the machine.

hbogert 10y ago

I felt horrible when I bought a macbook air 4 years ago. "What have i done, I sold out, I should've bought a lenovo and put linux on it -- which all the hackers do as well." FFWD to today, I have a quiet laptop. Doesn't flicker on white background when dimmed 30%. Doesn't squeak anywhere. Doesn't wake up randomly. The keyboard is fine. Is easy to open. Fans are not spinning when charging. No coil whine, this shit still happens? Only thing in four years that broke was the battery. Bought a new one for €40. Thanks for sharing the experience though, seems like I still have to stick to Apple for a while for my mobile computing. Unfortunately it comes with this horrible window manager and dumbed down desktop. That said, the cons list of the XPS15 is more than enough reason to cope with OSX.

vladimir-y 10y ago
Have you tried to put Linux on your macbook?
- hbogert 10y ago
  Well yes, and failed because of one thing. The irritating broadcom wifi. I tried it on a Windows laptop as well recently. Not a great time with secure boot with bios/UEFI which do not have support for different OSs as a usecase