4 ms·

I have a new 15" MBP on order at £3300. I also have a similar spec XPS 15 which cost me £2600. So yes the MBP is £700. The XPS also has a better CPU (i9-8950HK)

I have a new 15" MBP on order at £3300. I also have a similar spec XPS 15 which cost me £2600. So yes the MBP is £700. The XPS also has a better CPU (i9-8950HK) but that is kind of a waste, I only got it with that because Dell basically upgraded me to it for free. However I have had no end of issues with my XPS 15. To the point that I have had enough and I am returning it for a refund and will pickup something else. The first unit had physical damage to the lid so I got a replacement sent. The replacement has coil whine, interference on audio out. backlight bleed and the space bar has developed a wobble so does not pick up all presses. For a £2600 that is unacceptable. I know people like to hate on the new MBP keyboards but I have not had a single problem with my 2016 MBP. That machine is basically perfect and I hope/expect the 2018 model to be the same. To be honest I am fine with pay £700 more for a machine that doesn't develop a problem with the spacebar after 11 days as well as all the other problems I have had. If I were to calculate the amount of time I have spent on the phone with Dell and waiting around for collections/deliveries I doubt I would be far off that £700 in time waste to be honest.

kace91 8y ago
>To be honest I am fine with pay £700 more for a machine that doesn't develop a problem with the spacebar after 11 days as well as all the other problems I have had. I'd argue that is a bad comparison. You're basically judging them both on a vacuum (since one is x amount more expensive but gives me reliability, that X extra is justified). but putting those two devices in context, if we take a look at earlier models, we see that macs have increased enormously in price without providing an equivalent amount of improvements. For me it's more of a case of a company abusing it's status as leader, while others are unable to provide a real alternative.
- npunt 8y ago
  They haven't increased enormously in price, when comparing like models and factoring in exchange rates to USD. The 2012-2015 generation 15" were bifurcated in 2013 between integrated and discrete graphics. You need to look at discrete graphics models. The 2009-2012 generation 15" was the midrange model, and the 17" was the top of the line model, so you need to compare to that model. The 2018's have introduced new tiers of parts on the super high end (i9 and 4tb ssd) that bump the fully spec'd model up in price. Of course that's getting a lot of attention, but those don't represent the typical builds. See this chart on historic USD pricing [0] and historic pricing by country [1], and historic 10Y exchange rates (pick any currency) [2]. I did this comparison for someone on reddit [3] with CAD and each of their examples of price increases were 100% accounted for by looking at exchange rates. [0] https://everymac.com/global-mac-prices/mac-prices-us-usa-united-states-america.html https://everymac.com/global-mac-prices/mac-prices-us-usa-uni... [1] https://everymac.com/global-mac-prices/index-global-international-mac-prices.html https://everymac.com/global-mac-prices/index-global-internat... [2] https://www.xe.com/currencycharts/?from=USD&to=CAD&view=10Y https://www.xe.com/currencycharts/?from=USD&to=CAD&view=10Y [3] https://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/8yqu2p/the_prices_of_the_macbooks_have_been_increasing/e2d8jw5/?context=3 https://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/8yqu2p/the_prices_of...
- satysin 8y ago
  Oh it isn't a good comparison I agree with that. I can't help but be pissed off with Dell though. This isn't the first problem I have had with their "premium" laptops either. I only bought the 9570 as Apple was silent on upgrades to the MBP at WWDC but it has been the worst purchase I have made in years. The MBP may be expensive but I have never had any issues with my previous MBPs so I feel much more confident buying one. I have a busy week this week with a lot of travel and I have to now make do with this XPS with a half working spacebar as Dell's "ProSupport" can't get me an engineer until Wednesday while I am on an flight! I am just so frustrated right now.
  - prolikewh0a 8y ago
    XPS 13 9370 has been the best purchase I've made in years, and Dells customer support really isn't too bad considering they don't have stores in every city like Apple does. MBP's have their own sets of issues, and aren't flawless either.
    - MrMorden 8y ago
      Dell and Lenovo both come to you if you choose the right warranty plan. It beats the heck out of the Genius Bar.
      - satysin 8y ago
        Yes I have Pro Support (on-site, 24h) but they don't have the part (keyboard in this case) in stock so the earliest they can do is Wednesday (when I called Thursday) which is no good for me as I am over the Atlantic that day. Not Dell's fault that I am not available but I had hoped they would have a keyboard in stock or could at least get one next day but apparently that wasn't possible. I ended up initiating a return so it will be picked up the following week.
      - prolikewh0a 8y ago
        We do have Lenovo on site! Sometimes they're there same day, or next business day. It's pretty awesome.
    - 8y ago
mciancia 8y ago
I can't understand how computers with that bad coil whine can pass QC, especially at this price point. I bought brand new XPS 9360 for my father and when I first used it I thought that there is regular HDD inside because of how loud coil whine was.
- satysin 8y ago
  Yes! This is what my 9570 is like and it is driving me insane. My MBP is due on July 26th, that date cannot come soon enough.
gambiting 8y ago
It's fascinating to me that Dell STILL hasn't fixed the bloody coil whine on the XPS. I have the top-of-the-line XPS 13 from few years back and had the motherboard on it replaced 3 times because of the whine, and it's still there. In comparison, my 2012 Air was perfect, absolutely no issues.
- prolikewh0a 8y ago
  I have absolutely no coil whine on my 2018 9370. It is dead quiet.
  - techdragon 8y ago
    I find sometimes the whine is there... you (and others like you) just lack the high frequency hearing to perceive it. I’ve walked into plenty of places and complained about many high pitched whine noises over the years, and more often than not, I get a puzzled look followed by some variation of “what noise?” And to preempt the obvious possibility I was merely hearing things or have tinnitus. Yes I’ve had my hearing checked, and I’ve also, on a couple of particularly egregious occasions, used sound measuring equipment that in one case validated that there was in fact a loud intermittent, nearly inaudible noise fluctuating between 80 and 85 decibels whenever it was occurring, that apparently no one else in the office noticed.
bproven 8y ago
I agree the Dell XPSs are hit or miss on quality. I had a 9550 and after dealing with its issues moved over to the Thinkpad line (with Linux). Zero problems after that + better a much better keyboard than the Dell. I will say even on Thinkpads you cannot approach the greatness of the Mac trackpad ... Maybe the 13" XPSs (dev editions) are better - I dont know. I do think that if you are going Dell @ 15" it may be worth checking out the Precision line. Since this is the business version of the XPS it may have better build quality.
- chx 8y ago
  XPS is a consumer line, ThinkPad T/X are business laptops and it shows.

kace91 8y ago

>To be honest I am fine with pay £700 more for a machine that doesn't develop a problem with the spacebar after 11 days as well as all the other problems I have had. I'd argue that is a bad comparison. You're basically judging them both on a vacuum (since one is x amount more expensive but gives me reliability, that X extra is justified). but putting those two devices in context, if we take a look at earlier models, we see that macs have increased enormously in price without providing an equivalent amount of improvements. For me it's more of a case of a company abusing it's status as leader, while others are unable to provide a real alternative.

npunt 8y ago
They haven't increased enormously in price, when comparing like models and factoring in exchange rates to USD. The 2012-2015 generation 15" were bifurcated in 2013 between integrated and discrete graphics. You need to look at discrete graphics models. The 2009-2012 generation 15" was the midrange model, and the 17" was the top of the line model, so you need to compare to that model. The 2018's have introduced new tiers of parts on the super high end (i9 and 4tb ssd) that bump the fully spec'd model up in price. Of course that's getting a lot of attention, but those don't represent the typical builds. See this chart on historic USD pricing [0] and historic pricing by country [1], and historic 10Y exchange rates (pick any currency) [2]. I did this comparison for someone on reddit [3] with CAD and each of their examples of price increases were 100% accounted for by looking at exchange rates. [0] https://everymac.com/global-mac-prices/mac-prices-us-usa-united-states-america.html https://everymac.com/global-mac-prices/mac-prices-us-usa-uni... [1] https://everymac.com/global-mac-prices/index-global-international-mac-prices.html https://everymac.com/global-mac-prices/index-global-internat... [2] https://www.xe.com/currencycharts/?from=USD&to=CAD&view=10Y https://www.xe.com/currencycharts/?from=USD&to=CAD&view=10Y [3] https://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/8yqu2p/the_prices_of_the_macbooks_have_been_increasing/e2d8jw5/?context=3 https://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/8yqu2p/the_prices_of...
satysin 8y ago
Oh it isn't a good comparison I agree with that. I can't help but be pissed off with Dell though. This isn't the first problem I have had with their "premium" laptops either. I only bought the 9570 as Apple was silent on upgrades to the MBP at WWDC but it has been the worst purchase I have made in years. The MBP may be expensive but I have never had any issues with my previous MBPs so I feel much more confident buying one. I have a busy week this week with a lot of travel and I have to now make do with this XPS with a half working spacebar as Dell's "ProSupport" can't get me an engineer until Wednesday while I am on an flight! I am just so frustrated right now.
- prolikewh0a 8y ago
  XPS 13 9370 has been the best purchase I've made in years, and Dells customer support really isn't too bad considering they don't have stores in every city like Apple does. MBP's have their own sets of issues, and aren't flawless either.
  - MrMorden 8y ago
    Dell and Lenovo both come to you if you choose the right warranty plan. It beats the heck out of the Genius Bar.
    - satysin 8y ago
      Yes I have Pro Support (on-site, 24h) but they don't have the part (keyboard in this case) in stock so the earliest they can do is Wednesday (when I called Thursday) which is no good for me as I am over the Atlantic that day. Not Dell's fault that I am not available but I had hoped they would have a keyboard in stock or could at least get one next day but apparently that wasn't possible. I ended up initiating a return so it will be picked up the following week.
    - prolikewh0a 8y ago
      We do have Lenovo on site! Sometimes they're there same day, or next business day. It's pretty awesome.
  - 8y ago

mciancia 8y ago

I can't understand how computers with that bad coil whine can pass QC, especially at this price point. I bought brand new XPS 9360 for my father and when I first used it I thought that there is regular HDD inside because of how loud coil whine was.

satysin 8y ago
Yes! This is what my 9570 is like and it is driving me insane. My MBP is due on July 26th, that date cannot come soon enough.

gambiting 8y ago

It's fascinating to me that Dell STILL hasn't fixed the bloody coil whine on the XPS. I have the top-of-the-line XPS 13 from few years back and had the motherboard on it replaced 3 times because of the whine, and it's still there. In comparison, my 2012 Air was perfect, absolutely no issues.

prolikewh0a 8y ago
I have absolutely no coil whine on my 2018 9370. It is dead quiet.
- techdragon 8y ago
  I find sometimes the whine is there... you (and others like you) just lack the high frequency hearing to perceive it. I’ve walked into plenty of places and complained about many high pitched whine noises over the years, and more often than not, I get a puzzled look followed by some variation of “what noise?” And to preempt the obvious possibility I was merely hearing things or have tinnitus. Yes I’ve had my hearing checked, and I’ve also, on a couple of particularly egregious occasions, used sound measuring equipment that in one case validated that there was in fact a loud intermittent, nearly inaudible noise fluctuating between 80 and 85 decibels whenever it was occurring, that apparently no one else in the office noticed.

bproven 8y ago

I agree the Dell XPSs are hit or miss on quality. I had a 9550 and after dealing with its issues moved over to the Thinkpad line (with Linux). Zero problems after that + better a much better keyboard than the Dell. I will say even on Thinkpads you cannot approach the greatness of the Mac trackpad ... Maybe the 13" XPSs (dev editions) are better - I dont know. I do think that if you are going Dell @ 15" it may be worth checking out the Precision line. Since this is the business version of the XPS it may have better build quality.

chx 8y ago
XPS is a consumer line, ThinkPad T/X are business laptops and it shows.