4 ms·

Dell Studio XPS or HP Envy line are good alternatives, depending on what you need. Both are available with higher-res screens and faster (quad core i7) cpus th

by jbellis 17y ago

Dell Studio XPS or HP Envy line are good alternatives, depending on what you need. Both are available with higher-res screens and faster (quad core i7) cpus than the mbp, for instance. The major caveats on the Envy are that it has serious, deep issues preventing Linux from running on it, and it has no displayport or dvi out for driving a 30" monitor. The Dell's biggest weakness is battery life.

mquander 17y ago
Slight reality check here - I've got an i5 Envy 15 that I bought a month ago, and although it had some problems with Linux for a while, I have no difficulty running it now with Ubuntu 10.04 beta. The issues I'm aware of were: - Touchpad click buttons don't work, forcing you to double-tap to click - Weird BIOS caused both TurboBoost (the Intel extension that powers down cores and speeds up others) and ACPI to fuck up, leading to no TB and no heat management, fans ran constantly, very bad news - Buggy sleep/resume Points 2 and 3 are fixed in 2.6.33+. Point 1 can be fixed via a patch to the synaptics module, but I just use an external mouse all the time anyway. I believe you can thank this fellow for many of these fixes: http://www.chizang.net/alex/blog/2009/12/21/linux-on-the-hp-envy-15/ http://www.chizang.net/alex/blog/2009/12/21/linux-on-the-hp-...
- jbellis 17y ago
  Yes, 2 and 3 are what I was referring to. Glad to hear those are fixed!
nkohari 17y ago
I owned a Studio XPS 1645 (the Core i7 model). The construction was pretty good for Dell, and the RGBLED screen was gorgeous. However, they clearly rushed the Core i7 version to market without testing power consumption effectively. The supplied power supply was 90W, and the machine drew something like 110W under load. I returned mine, but from what I hear, Dell replaced all of the power supplies. Not sure if that fixed the issue. Although they made it right, that's the last time I'm going to buy a Dell -- particularly one built on the newest tech. I don't think the QA is there.
dskhatri 17y ago
I just received my Envy 15 last night. It's a beautifully designed machine but has 2 glaring flaws: 1. The screen only tilts to ~105-110 degrees. This makes it tough to use on your lap or on a short table (commonly found in coffee shops sadly). 2. The AC-DC power supply is bulky. The plug has 3 pins too. Earth is not needed for laptop power supplies! There is no electric shock risk for a laptop user! I was dismayed to find such a hideous power supply bundled with this laptop.
- OmarIsmail 17y ago
  I have the 'first gen' Envy 15 and absolutely love it. If I were to buy a new laptop now I'd go with the new 15" MBP though. The big thing is in the battery life. Sure you have 5-6 hours on the Envy but that's with the big and heavy battery slice attached. The MBP will I'm sure go over 7 hours stock. Still, I bought my Envy about 6 months ago, so I'm not upset (at least that's what I'll tell myself).
  - jbellis 17y ago
    I get about 4h on my 10-days-old mbp battery, fwiw. Apple's benchmarks are as unrealistically optimistic as everyone else's. (I complained about this to a long-time mac user, and he said "You're probably using it with the display on.")
- deleted 17y ago
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by jbellis 17y ago

mquander 17y ago

Slight reality check here - I've got an i5 Envy 15 that I bought a month ago, and although it had some problems with Linux for a while, I have no difficulty running it now with Ubuntu 10.04 beta. The issues I'm aware of were: - Touchpad click buttons don't work, forcing you to double-tap to click - Weird BIOS caused both TurboBoost (the Intel extension that powers down cores and speeds up others) and ACPI to fuck up, leading to no TB and no heat management, fans ran constantly, very bad news - Buggy sleep/resume Points 2 and 3 are fixed in 2.6.33+. Point 1 can be fixed via a patch to the synaptics module, but I just use an external mouse all the time anyway. I believe you can thank this fellow for many of these fixes: http://www.chizang.net/alex/blog/2009/12/21/linux-on-the-hp-envy-15/ http://www.chizang.net/alex/blog/2009/12/21/linux-on-the-hp-...

jbellis 17y ago
Yes, 2 and 3 are what I was referring to. Glad to hear those are fixed!

nkohari 17y ago

I owned a Studio XPS 1645 (the Core i7 model). The construction was pretty good for Dell, and the RGBLED screen was gorgeous. However, they clearly rushed the Core i7 version to market without testing power consumption effectively. The supplied power supply was 90W, and the machine drew something like 110W under load. I returned mine, but from what I hear, Dell replaced all of the power supplies. Not sure if that fixed the issue. Although they made it right, that's the last time I'm going to buy a Dell -- particularly one built on the newest tech. I don't think the QA is there.

dskhatri 17y ago

I just received my Envy 15 last night. It's a beautifully designed machine but has 2 glaring flaws: 1. The screen only tilts to ~105-110 degrees. This makes it tough to use on your lap or on a short table (commonly found in coffee shops sadly). 2. The AC-DC power supply is bulky. The plug has 3 pins too. Earth is not needed for laptop power supplies! There is no electric shock risk for a laptop user! I was dismayed to find such a hideous power supply bundled with this laptop.

OmarIsmail 17y ago
I have the 'first gen' Envy 15 and absolutely love it. If I were to buy a new laptop now I'd go with the new 15" MBP though. The big thing is in the battery life. Sure you have 5-6 hours on the Envy but that's with the big and heavy battery slice attached. The MBP will I'm sure go over 7 hours stock. Still, I bought my Envy about 6 months ago, so I'm not upset (at least that's what I'll tell myself).
- jbellis 17y ago
  I get about 4h on my 10-days-old mbp battery, fwiw. Apple's benchmarks are as unrealistically optimistic as everyone else's. (I complained about this to a long-time mac user, and he said "You're probably using it with the display on.")
deleted 17y ago
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