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I've been kind of flopping back and forth on whether or not I want to buy a XPS 15. I can max out the specs and get a laptop that I actually want for significan

I've been kind of flopping back and forth on whether or not I want to buy a XPS 15. I can max out the specs and get a laptop that I actually want for significantly cheaper than a Macbook Pro. However, even though the build quality is good, I've heard some stories about the XPS 15 breaking down after a year or so, and then... having to deal with the horrors of Dell customer support.

M_Grey 10y ago
Dell support, and I say this having used it for years off and on, is either seamless and painless, or mortal agony. Which you get seems to depend largely on the quality of your last animal sacrifice to the darkest of gods. Bleating in background "Hush goat!"
- StillBored 10y ago
  Its not just the support, its the variable quality across products (or updates). I have one of the ~2014 venue 7pros (exact model number escapes me) which came with win8 and I upgraded to win10. I disabled instantgo, and its a fantasic device, the battery lasts for days with my usage patterns, it resumes from standby in a couple seconds/etc. So, when it started having some serious cosmetic issues early this year, so I sprung for a newer one with a slightly newer (and in theory lower power CPU). The new one is a complete POS, the back gets hot, the battery lasts 1/4 as long, it takes literally 10's of seconds to wake-up and get out of the BIOS, the s3 standby options are actually disabled (no bios support), the wifi driver gets stuck. BIOS updates, driver updates, config changes, nothing fixes its load of issues. About the only thing that is better is they swapped the power and windows buttons which on the old one were inconveniently placed. So, there are reviews of people having similar problems with the older tablet I have until dell fixed it sometime right before I purchased mine. But, good luck convincing dell's tech support that their firmware is a load of crap, and isn't working right. Rather they are like, did it boot, you must have a virus, please reinstall.. I might ask for a replacement but I suspect that won't fix anything.
intopieces 10y ago
Test the trackpad before you decide to pull the trigger. I had an XPS 13 for a while and I thought I'd live with it, but in the end it was just not good enough.
vanattab 10y ago
I worked in computer repair in college and at least back then I thought that Dell had some of the best customer support in the industry. I have only interacted with them a few times since but I have had no problems.
marklyon 10y ago
Shell out for the 5 year next business day onsite warranty. You get an entirely different tier of phone support and the onsite folks are the same ones who come to take care of my Lenovo stuff. Did this with my XPS 13 (9343, early 2015) and they have been wonderful. Had an issue with the space bar double-clutching and they showed up at my office the next morning with an immediate fix. It's been a great machine.
- justinc8687 10y ago
  I concur. I bought with "ProSupport" and they come next day to fix things. If you don't need the absolute latest, I'd also highly plug the refurbished models. I recently bought a refurbished Precision 5510 (XPS 15, but more configurable) and saved $1000. Also avoided some Kaby Lake / Linux kinks still being worked out.

M_Grey 10y ago

Dell support, and I say this having used it for years off and on, is either seamless and painless, or mortal agony. Which you get seems to depend largely on the quality of your last animal sacrifice to the darkest of gods. Bleating in background "Hush goat!"

StillBored 10y ago
Its not just the support, its the variable quality across products (or updates). I have one of the ~2014 venue 7pros (exact model number escapes me) which came with win8 and I upgraded to win10. I disabled instantgo, and its a fantasic device, the battery lasts for days with my usage patterns, it resumes from standby in a couple seconds/etc. So, when it started having some serious cosmetic issues early this year, so I sprung for a newer one with a slightly newer (and in theory lower power CPU). The new one is a complete POS, the back gets hot, the battery lasts 1/4 as long, it takes literally 10's of seconds to wake-up and get out of the BIOS, the s3 standby options are actually disabled (no bios support), the wifi driver gets stuck. BIOS updates, driver updates, config changes, nothing fixes its load of issues. About the only thing that is better is they swapped the power and windows buttons which on the old one were inconveniently placed. So, there are reviews of people having similar problems with the older tablet I have until dell fixed it sometime right before I purchased mine. But, good luck convincing dell's tech support that their firmware is a load of crap, and isn't working right. Rather they are like, did it boot, you must have a virus, please reinstall.. I might ask for a replacement but I suspect that won't fix anything.

intopieces 10y ago

Test the trackpad before you decide to pull the trigger. I had an XPS 13 for a while and I thought I'd live with it, but in the end it was just not good enough.

vanattab 10y ago

I worked in computer repair in college and at least back then I thought that Dell had some of the best customer support in the industry. I have only interacted with them a few times since but I have had no problems.

marklyon 10y ago

Shell out for the 5 year next business day onsite warranty. You get an entirely different tier of phone support and the onsite folks are the same ones who come to take care of my Lenovo stuff. Did this with my XPS 13 (9343, early 2015) and they have been wonderful. Had an issue with the space bar double-clutching and they showed up at my office the next morning with an immediate fix. It's been a great machine.

justinc8687 10y ago
I concur. I bought with "ProSupport" and they come next day to fix things. If you don't need the absolute latest, I'd also highly plug the refurbished models. I recently bought a refurbished Precision 5510 (XPS 15, but more configurable) and saved $1000. Also avoided some Kaby Lake / Linux kinks still being worked out.