7 ms·

Dan, I apologize for your experience. If you ever run into something like this again, besides contacting support directly, you can ping @dellcarespro on twitter

Dan, I apologize for your experience. If you ever run into something like this again, besides contacting support directly, you can ping @dellcarespro on twitter and, if its related to the developer edition or project Sputnik you can loop me in @barton808. thanks!

Mithaldu 9y ago
Would you follow up on the issue he had if he provided you with the order details and repair communication? There should be a good chance of there being a paper trail to follow and a mismatch between communication to customer and repair hardware actually used, no?
- sturgill 9y ago
  I can personally speak to the fact that Barton means what he says. When Sputnik first came out in Beta, I bought a developer edition that had some keyboard issues. I dropped a casual note on Twitter and Barton went out of his way to make sure the issue got resolved. I keep contemplating a full transition to Ubuntu as my work machine, but there are still certain environment impacts (like connected devices and the need to run some Mac-only software on occasion) that has prevented it. But if I could convince myself to take the dive and go Linux-only, I wouldn't hesitate to run with the XPS line. Disclaimer: Absolutely none other than Barton is a great guy who helped a random stranger that once complained on Twitter.
jopsen 9y ago
Have you ever fixed coil whining? Whenever, I see it I always assume the product is just trash by design.
- WWLink 9y ago
  Come to think of it, my 5510 (xps 15 basically) has a stupidly bad coil whine. Ergh.
- endemic 9y ago
  The reports of coil whine are really the only thing keeping me from pulling the trigger on an XPS 13. Played with one in an MS store, love the hardware, and I'm ready to go back to Linux.
crispinb 9y ago
So you're on the team? Here's a perspective from a potential buyer. Apple having truly jumped the shark on their MB Pros, I've been mulling on and off about what to do when it's time to replace my current 13" MBP. An XPS 13 or 15 w/Ubuntu is definitely on my radar. But I am a bit scared off by reliability & quality reports. They're only anecdotal & biased samples of course, but there's not much else for a poor consumer to go on. It might be worth your team's while addressing these perceptions in some way. I don't know what to suggest (your job not mine!) other than chiming in now and then in places like HN, but it might merit some thought on your part. One thing that reduces consumer risk when buying Apple is their genuinely frictionless returns policy. It really is feasible to buy if you're unsure & just return within a couple of weeks, no questions asked. I haven't looked, but imagine Dell's terms are similar. If so, this might be worth highlighting.
- Paraesthetic 9y ago
  Remember though, its mainly the people who have had big problems with their devices that will complain online. I had multiple issues with many MBP's but still havn't changed the review I did on the first day because they serviced it very quickly. Dell service is excellent, but I can't just take it into a shop, so I'm more likely to complain about that. Having said that I love my 2017 XPS13
- sowbug 9y ago
  There are 3 in my family, a 9350 and two 9360s. All work fine. I represent the majority of people who have no reason to write anything about their computers because there's nothing to say.
  - crispinb 9y ago
    Accepted (apart from the unsubstantiated claim about representing the majority). To quote myself, these perceptions are only based on "anecdotal & biased samples". The problem is that a lack of accurate & reliable information can be a great incubator of unsubstantiated perceptions. I'm just suggesting that if the Dell team believe the XPS's not to have reliability problems, it's in their interests to come up with tactics to manage perceptions where possible. It's in our interests really, as we all would want a wide range of good developer-friendly laptops available.
travem 9y ago
I'm not a fan of the 13" form factor to shipping a developer edition XPS 15 (with 32GB) would be awesome FYI!
- aaronmdjones 9y ago
  I would also love to replace my 15" laptop that has 32 GB of RAM (a Eurocom M5 Pro). Finding a suitable vendor with nice specifications has been hard work...
  - slowmotiony 9y ago
    I just bought the version with least RAM and bought 32GB RipJaws from Amazon. It only took like 10 minutes to exchange it and I'm super happy with it.
    - aaronmdjones 9y ago
      Yeah, that's what I did with my M5; I got the 16GB (2x 8) version, and then took another 2x 8GB from my old laptop too. The thing is, I'm having trouble finding a worthy replacement (this is years old now and is dying; the left hinge is on the way out, the keyboard doesn't work properly (and it's the second keyboard this laptop has had), and the power jack is ... temperamental, but that's another story). This laptop can hold up to 4 SO-DIMMs (8GB each), 2x 2.5" HDDs, 2x M.2 2242/2280 SSDs, has 4 USB 3.0 ports (one of which is also an eSATAp port), 2 DisplayPorts, an HDMI port, a SIM card slot, SD card reader, gigabit wired Ethernet, 3 audio jacks (headphones/microphone/line-out), a Core i7-4720HQ and a 15.6" 1080p IPS matte display. It also has a GeForce GTX965M but I don't use that (it's always powered off). I'm in the United Kingdom, and I'm having difficulty finding something that can even come close to that, without going back to Eurocom (which I may end up doing). The most important aspect to me is the large memory support (I can barely get by with 16GB for all the development work I do, so 32GB is really nice) and storage (both HDDs are in a RAID-1 for /home, and both SSDs are in a RAID-1 for / -- which was handy, because one of the SSDs failed a few months ago, and I didn't have to do anything). Avoiding the Microsoft Tax would also be a bonus. To compare to the laptop this thread is about: I only see an option for 1 drive instead of 4 and it doesn't even go to 1TB, there's no wired Ethernet and no HDMI/DisplayPort connectivity. The only reason I'm hesitant to go with Eurocom again is their long lead time & shipping charges (they're in North America), and their laptop keyboards don't seem to last...
windexh8er 9y ago
I'll say that I wanted to like Dell because they seemed to be focused on delivering quality Linux laptops. However, I will never buy a Dell again. The support is absolutely abysmal. I had a 5510 that I ended up selling for a significant loss about 6 months after buying it because Dell kept "fixing" what I had, sending me back the wrong machine, etc. Total waste of time and money. Buyer beware on quality and support - what's represented in forum after forum is true. Here was my post from a while ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13943966 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13943966 I now own a Lenovo T470 and it's been without a hitch since receipt and running Linux. Hopefully the new XPS 13 isn't the 7th generation Fiero that many of us assume it will be.
- chrissnell 9y ago
  I hate to be the bearer of bad news but Lenovo ThinkPad support absolutely blows, too. I had next biz day support and a battery in my T460s died. It took two weeks of calls and emails and tweeting to find out that the replacement battery was backordered. Weeks later, I got a replacement laptop, a P50 that I had to pay extra for. Fuck Lenovo support.
  - TomMarius 9y ago
    Huh. I used the NBD support several years ago (around 2012) and it was literally next day.
jpalmer 9y ago
I bought a Precision 5520 with Ubuntu pre-installed one year ago and it is still one of the best laptops I've ever purchased. My previous three were Thinkpads with the latest being an x230. The quality of the X series has really been in decline and x230 was the last straw for me (keyboard warping). I've always heard about coil whine but maybe I just can't hear it (I'm 43). As long as the Linux support remains strong I will keep buying the Precision line.

Mithaldu 9y ago

Would you follow up on the issue he had if he provided you with the order details and repair communication? There should be a good chance of there being a paper trail to follow and a mismatch between communication to customer and repair hardware actually used, no?

sturgill 9y ago
I can personally speak to the fact that Barton means what he says. When Sputnik first came out in Beta, I bought a developer edition that had some keyboard issues. I dropped a casual note on Twitter and Barton went out of his way to make sure the issue got resolved. I keep contemplating a full transition to Ubuntu as my work machine, but there are still certain environment impacts (like connected devices and the need to run some Mac-only software on occasion) that has prevented it. But if I could convince myself to take the dive and go Linux-only, I wouldn't hesitate to run with the XPS line. Disclaimer: Absolutely none other than Barton is a great guy who helped a random stranger that once complained on Twitter.

jopsen 9y ago

Have you ever fixed coil whining? Whenever, I see it I always assume the product is just trash by design.

WWLink 9y ago
Come to think of it, my 5510 (xps 15 basically) has a stupidly bad coil whine. Ergh.
endemic 9y ago
The reports of coil whine are really the only thing keeping me from pulling the trigger on an XPS 13. Played with one in an MS store, love the hardware, and I'm ready to go back to Linux.

crispinb 9y ago

So you're on the team? Here's a perspective from a potential buyer. Apple having truly jumped the shark on their MB Pros, I've been mulling on and off about what to do when it's time to replace my current 13" MBP. An XPS 13 or 15 w/Ubuntu is definitely on my radar. But I am a bit scared off by reliability & quality reports. They're only anecdotal & biased samples of course, but there's not much else for a poor consumer to go on. It might be worth your team's while addressing these perceptions in some way. I don't know what to suggest (your job not mine!) other than chiming in now and then in places like HN, but it might merit some thought on your part. One thing that reduces consumer risk when buying Apple is their genuinely frictionless returns policy. It really is feasible to buy if you're unsure & just return within a couple of weeks, no questions asked. I haven't looked, but imagine Dell's terms are similar. If so, this might be worth highlighting.

Paraesthetic 9y ago
Remember though, its mainly the people who have had big problems with their devices that will complain online. I had multiple issues with many MBP's but still havn't changed the review I did on the first day because they serviced it very quickly. Dell service is excellent, but I can't just take it into a shop, so I'm more likely to complain about that. Having said that I love my 2017 XPS13
sowbug 9y ago
There are 3 in my family, a 9350 and two 9360s. All work fine. I represent the majority of people who have no reason to write anything about their computers because there's nothing to say.
- crispinb 9y ago
  Accepted (apart from the unsubstantiated claim about representing the majority). To quote myself, these perceptions are only based on "anecdotal & biased samples". The problem is that a lack of accurate & reliable information can be a great incubator of unsubstantiated perceptions. I'm just suggesting that if the Dell team believe the XPS's not to have reliability problems, it's in their interests to come up with tactics to manage perceptions where possible. It's in our interests really, as we all would want a wide range of good developer-friendly laptops available.

travem 9y ago

I'm not a fan of the 13" form factor to shipping a developer edition XPS 15 (with 32GB) would be awesome FYI!

aaronmdjones 9y ago
I would also love to replace my 15" laptop that has 32 GB of RAM (a Eurocom M5 Pro). Finding a suitable vendor with nice specifications has been hard work...
- slowmotiony 9y ago
  I just bought the version with least RAM and bought 32GB RipJaws from Amazon. It only took like 10 minutes to exchange it and I'm super happy with it.
  - aaronmdjones 9y ago
    Yeah, that's what I did with my M5; I got the 16GB (2x 8) version, and then took another 2x 8GB from my old laptop too. The thing is, I'm having trouble finding a worthy replacement (this is years old now and is dying; the left hinge is on the way out, the keyboard doesn't work properly (and it's the second keyboard this laptop has had), and the power jack is ... temperamental, but that's another story). This laptop can hold up to 4 SO-DIMMs (8GB each), 2x 2.5" HDDs, 2x M.2 2242/2280 SSDs, has 4 USB 3.0 ports (one of which is also an eSATAp port), 2 DisplayPorts, an HDMI port, a SIM card slot, SD card reader, gigabit wired Ethernet, 3 audio jacks (headphones/microphone/line-out), a Core i7-4720HQ and a 15.6" 1080p IPS matte display. It also has a GeForce GTX965M but I don't use that (it's always powered off). I'm in the United Kingdom, and I'm having difficulty finding something that can even come close to that, without going back to Eurocom (which I may end up doing). The most important aspect to me is the large memory support (I can barely get by with 16GB for all the development work I do, so 32GB is really nice) and storage (both HDDs are in a RAID-1 for /home, and both SSDs are in a RAID-1 for / -- which was handy, because one of the SSDs failed a few months ago, and I didn't have to do anything). Avoiding the Microsoft Tax would also be a bonus. To compare to the laptop this thread is about: I only see an option for 1 drive instead of 4 and it doesn't even go to 1TB, there's no wired Ethernet and no HDMI/DisplayPort connectivity. The only reason I'm hesitant to go with Eurocom again is their long lead time & shipping charges (they're in North America), and their laptop keyboards don't seem to last...

windexh8er 9y ago

I'll say that I wanted to like Dell because they seemed to be focused on delivering quality Linux laptops. However, I will never buy a Dell again. The support is absolutely abysmal. I had a 5510 that I ended up selling for a significant loss about 6 months after buying it because Dell kept "fixing" what I had, sending me back the wrong machine, etc. Total waste of time and money. Buyer beware on quality and support - what's represented in forum after forum is true. Here was my post from a while ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13943966 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13943966 I now own a Lenovo T470 and it's been without a hitch since receipt and running Linux. Hopefully the new XPS 13 isn't the 7th generation Fiero that many of us assume it will be.

chrissnell 9y ago
I hate to be the bearer of bad news but Lenovo ThinkPad support absolutely blows, too. I had next biz day support and a battery in my T460s died. It took two weeks of calls and emails and tweeting to find out that the replacement battery was backordered. Weeks later, I got a replacement laptop, a P50 that I had to pay extra for. Fuck Lenovo support.
- TomMarius 9y ago
  Huh. I used the NBD support several years ago (around 2012) and it was literally next day.

jpalmer 9y ago

I bought a Precision 5520 with Ubuntu pre-installed one year ago and it is still one of the best laptops I've ever purchased. My previous three were Thinkpads with the latest being an x230. The quality of the X series has really been in decline and x230 was the last straw for me (keyboard warping). I've always heard about coil whine but maybe I just can't hear it (I'm 43). As long as the Linux support remains strong I will keep buying the Precision line.