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Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition with Ubuntu 20.04 LTS pre-installed

138 points by bhdzllr 6y ago

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
floatboth 6y ago
> EMEA Offline: Czech Republic, Denmark, Emerging countries, Finland, Greece, Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Slovakia, Turkey, South Africa. Mmm, love shopping in "Emerging countries", gotta get a ticket to there :D Kinda reminds me of the "hot singles near Anonymous Proxy" banners.
hetspookjee 6y ago
I seriously hope Dell finally found a way to make more solid laptops because half of the ~30 XPS laptops I've seen around me needed to be send back because of issues with the device freezing or with the display. I started out in November last year with an XPS and after multiple freezes I requested an repair that would take my laptop out for multiple weeks. Having seen my previous company send multiple laptops back multiple times I didn't have much trust in the certainty of resolution for my issues with the xps. My coworker at the time didn't have any issues with her XPS but I gave up on Dell and switched to Mac. Sadly my coworkers XPS broke down after 2 months and it's still being repaired after 5 weeks... The specs of the XPS certainly are the best and the feel is great and I so hoped it would be a succes but it just sucks the experience is so bad. I often hear others still raving and reading about non problems so somehow I still think I might have seen a really bad batch enter the Netherlands over 2 years time.
- merb 6y ago
  well it's not only that the developer editions most often have coil wine or deformed cases. no the xps 15" with windows are more often broken as well, deformed cases broken cooling, etc.
- RcouF1uZ4gsC 6y ago
  For Dell XPS, if you are in the US, Costco is a great place to get them. They often have really great deals. You can return your laptop within 90 days of purchase no questions asked. If you buy using their branded credit card, you automatically get another year of warranty free. Costco customer service is great, and I trust them more than any manufacturer.
  - dreamcompiler 6y ago
    Agree with this but Costco doesn't sell the Ubuntu system AFAIK. I bought my XPS at Costco, wiped Windows and installed Ubuntu manually. Still saved money over buying the Ubuntu version elsewhere.
    - chiefalchemist 6y ago
      You decided against Win 10 Pro and WLS? Why?
      - cephalization 6y ago
        If you don't care about windows then you sacrifice about 20% of performance vs linux on baremetal according to benchmarks on phoronix of ubuntu bare vs ubuntu wsl.
        yjftsjthsd-h 6y ago
        Is that WSL 1 or 2? I'm not sure which I'd expect to have better perf (virtualization vs extra NT ABI), but I'd expect some difference.
      - RandomBacon 6y ago
        Not OP, but Windows 10 is a spy device that happens to let you do some useful things with it. Also, I think it's great to support FOSS when able and not be apart of Microsoft's Embrace, Extend, Extinguish.
      - rmellow 6y ago
- RandomBacon 6y ago
  I bought a Dell XPS 13 (same model in article, 9300) a couple of months ago, and installed Ubuntu 20.04 on it myself. It works great. No coil whine, and I haven't heard anyone complaining about coil whine with this year's model.
- brianwawok 6y ago
  We have bought 7 or 8 for my startup in the past 4 years. Only one failure that happened at like month 3. Seems at least average reliability? In the same time we have had 2 of 4 appple laptops need a new motherboard / some drastic problem
  - dkersten 6y ago
    > need a new motherboard / some drastic problem Only because apple won’t do simple repairs. Eg, blwn capacitor worth 40 cent? New motherboard worth hundreds! [1] Of course, to the end user, the effect is the same... [1] https://youtu.be/o2_SZ4tfLns https://youtu.be/o2_SZ4tfLns and https://youtu.be/K1A9y4S60kg https://youtu.be/K1A9y4S60kg for just two examples
    - RNCTX 6y ago
      Correct me if I'm wrong, but I find it highly unlikely that there are repair contractors with people sitting behind magnifying glasses and soldering irons. I would suspect that toss and replace is the norm across the whole spectrum of hardware sellers. You could debate Apple's design choices like... say... riveted keyboards, and they'd argue durability as a retort, but I don't think they're any better or worse than others in terms of warranty work.
      - dkersten 6y ago
        Maybe not (although Louis Rossmann does say that he checks and has many videos where he does), but they do typically at least check the connectors and the main components. My brother has had a water-damaged macbook pro repaired by a third party repair shop when apple said the only thing that can be done is a logic board replacement and they fixed it without replacing it.
      - rudiv 6y ago
        From my knowledge of working as an ACMT, Apple processes every part it takes out of a computer during repair service. I couldn't say how many are fixed in the manner you're talking about, but I can say that a significant proportion of parts we received for warranty service were clearly 'remanufactured' parts. So that kind of toss-and-replace doesn't even really happen at Apple itself.
- conradfr 6y ago
  I was very interested because of the 16/10 display and the general design but besides the Intel CPU being apparently not that great compared to current AMD chips (including thermals and battery life) and the 32GB not available in my country (and not upgradable) it seems there is currently a great lack of QA at Dell that is really off-putting.
- chiefalchemist 6y ago
  Which model(s) of the XPS line? Can you share that?
- paulie_a 6y ago
  My sample size is much smaller but with two xps13 in one year, one refurb was basically DOA. The brand new one had major power issues and even with extended care it took them a month to get it straightened out. Finally got a new one and it's been working great. They will comp you by addidng additional onsite warranty though. Great machine but the QA sucks on dells
tchaffee 6y ago
My current Dell XPS had the pretty common battery swelling problem but within months of purchase. On previous models they replaced it for free but they stopped doing that. So add a possible battery replacement to their list price if you still want a Dell. Based on my experience with customer support and this battery issue this will be my last Dell. I'm looking at Lenovo for my next laptop.
- sk0g 6y ago
  I had this happen ONE DAY before the year of purchase was up on an XPS 15 9570. Very glad I messaged Dell Support straight away, as they ended up replacing it for free without much pushback.
- nmstoker 6y ago
  If this happened within a year I would simply insist they replace the battery under warranty and highlight that there was no element of discretion about it. They would do it.
  - tchaffee 6y ago
    I did insist. I don't remember the details anymore because it was a couple of years ago. I would have taken them to small claims court over it if I had been in the US but I was overseas long term. Either way, they have lost a customer who has bought many of their laptops over the decades. Over a $100 battery that clearly had a manufacturing defect.
    - BTBurke 6y ago
      Same thing happened to me. Hours and hours on the phone for battery swelling which was a known problem. I was overseas at the time and they dragged the process out long enough that eventually warranty was up and they told me they wouldn't replace it. I replaced it myself but I'll never buy a Dell again and recommend others go with Lenovo.
baylearn 6y ago
Doesn't look too bad. The page mentioned that: 10th generation Intel® Core™ 10nm mobile processors and up to 32 gigabytes of RAM But on the product page, we can only get either 8 or 16 GB of memory. Do you know if it's possible to buy these with 32GB of RAM from Dell?
- auggierose 6y ago
  Dell has a strange website. Last time I was looking for a model with lots of RAM it took me ages until I understood how to get to the part that lets me configure it freely.
  - auggierose 6y ago
    No, seems to me as well that 32GB is not available for Ubuntu.
    - JBiserkov 6y ago
      https://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/dell-laptops-and-notebooks/new-xps-13-developer-edition/spd/xps-13-9300-laptop/ctox13w10p1c2200u?view=configurations&configurationid=8d492ede-8d20-482a-8e4c-90aa4bd5cdc5 https://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/dell-laptops-and-notebo...
      - auggierose 6y ago
        Oh, they got me again with their site :-D
  - hsnewman 6y ago
    I agree, they used to have a configuration page where you built up your PC,now you get to scan through what they offer as canned configurations. I totally dislike it, especially since they have different sections and you have to go to each a scan for the config your looking for (and the price of course).
- parsimo2010 6y ago
drej 6y ago
What’s the story with full disk encryption on Ubuntu these days? Last time I checked (a while ago) it was a bit clunky, but now I’m considering a Linux desktop after 10 yrs of macOS and filevault, so checking my options. Thanks!
- pedrocr 6y ago
  What was clunky? The installer supports it and then all you have to do is insert the password on boot.
  - lukeschlather 6y ago
    When I got a XPS 13 ~4 years ago full disk encryption didn't work at all on Ubuntu due to the NVME drive and Dell support had no workarounds and neither did the internet. I certainly hope it's fixed by now.
    - nmstoker 6y ago
      Interesting, I've had no problems with full disk encryption on my XPS 13 from around then but I did switch to Arch Linux at the same time I was setting it up.
  - input_sh 6y ago
    The initial setup is definitely easy, but I wish additional setup would have a graphical interface. Notably, changing or removing a passphrase, both of which should be tucked away somewhere in the settings. Your current options are gnome-disks and cryptsetup, and the former simply didn't work with long passphrases last time I dabbled with it. It's also quite difficult to encrypt an existing setup without formatting the drive. You'd need to unmount your root partition, and since you can't do that from a running system, you'd need to boot off of a USB stick first. BitLocker is definitely easier in that regard.
    - kadoban 6y ago
      I stopped using it recently, but cryptsetup (with luks if it matters) definitely allows passphrases. I think my longest was ~50 characters? Not sure if you were going beyond that. I can't seem to find any old (or new) complaints about it limiting, or anything about a fix for same. You sure it was that?
dis-sys 6y ago
$1099 for a laptop with only 8G RAM, 256G SSD, 4 slow intel cores and 1080p LCD? you get far better specs for a phone in 2020 for that kind of $.
- sk0g 6y ago
  Only one of them would allow you to be productive. A big case, screen, keyboard, etc all adds up. You're overestimating the performance of phone CPUs and storage too.
amarshall 6y ago
I applaud the change to a 16:10 screen (the ratio used in all Apple laptops and sadly few others for years). The extra vertical space for the same area is very welcome; 16:9 feels very cramped at laptop sizes once you add a few menu bars and headers and banners. I hope more laptop manufacturers decide to go this direction.
- fartcannon 6y ago
  Agreed. And Id prefer they return to 5x4 for all tablets and tablet PCs. I had a tablet PC back in 04 that was a 5x4 ratio Toshiba R10 and it was marvelous. I ran Linux on it! 16 years ago!
  - emiliovesprini 6y ago
    No half measures! let's go 1:1 baby.
    - RandomBacon 6y ago
      They exist! (Well as a freestanding monitor.) I have one, and it's glorious! https://www.eizo.com/products/flexscan/ev2730q/ https://www.eizo.com/products/flexscan/ev2730q/
      - amarshall 6y ago
        I don’t know why, but those proportions rather perturb me. Being so used to having displays be wider than tall, that almost looks taller than wide. I think it’s fantastic that it exists, though.
    - Red_Leaves_Flyy 6y ago
      More expensive for a 1:1 16in than a 16:9 16in. Also 16in is usually 15.6.
- pyrophane 6y ago
  Oh, I know. I would love to see even taller displays make their way to workstation computers.
pedrocr 6y ago
At this point, waiting for the mobile Ryzens to appear across the laptop ranges seems like a good idea. They've crammed 8 cores instead of 4 into the same TDP and made laptop chips that are in the same ballpark as the dekstop counterparts: https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare/Intel-i7-10610U-vs-AMD-Ryzen-7-PRO-4750U-vs-AMD-Ryzen-7-4800U-vs-Intel-i9-9900K-vs-AMD-Ryzen-7-3700X/3738vs3740vs3721vs3334vs3485 https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare/Intel-i7-10610U-vs-AMD-... The graphics should also be better than the Intel ones. So far the only interesting laptop I've seen is the Lenovo T14s which is their lower-end ultrabook from the X1 Carbon. Frustratingly they've limited it to 1080p screens in the AMD version when the Intel version includes a great 4K option: https://psref.lenovo.com/syspool/Sys/PDF/ThinkPad/ThinkPad_T14s_Gen_1_AMD/ThinkPad_T14s_Gen_1_AMD_Spec.PDF https://psref.lenovo.com/syspool/Sys/PDF/ThinkPad/ThinkPad_T... https://psref.lenovo.com/syspool/Sys/PDF/ThinkPad/ThinkPad_T14s_Gen_1_Intel/ThinkPad_T14s_Gen_1_Intel_Spec.PDF https://psref.lenovo.com/syspool/Sys/PDF/ThinkPad/ThinkPad_T...
- codecamper 6y ago
  Anyone know how well power management works with AMD and linux? Would those AMD 8 core chips consume a similar amount of power to the i7-1065G7? (quad core 10nm)
  - dr_zoidberg 6y ago
    > Would those AMD 8 core chips consume a similar amount of power to the i7-1065G7? (quad core 10nm) A very quick summary: about the same. Intel seems to still have the lead on quickly going to lower energy states, but AMD still has the upper hand on better node: TSMCs 7nm is better than Intels 10nm+, but 11th gen 10++ seems to have finally matured enough to be on par, so Tiger Lake will be interesting to see. If your parameter is "I want a notebook today", then Renoir Ryzens are the best to go[0]. If you can wait until the late part of the year, maybe Tiger Lake will shake things up (again) in the mobile arena, or maybe they're spilling rumors to keep people away from AMD as much as they can. [0] HOWEVER it seems there's no well-rounded notebook with Zen2 yet. I was almost decided for an Asus Zephyrus G14, but decided to wait a bit and see if something a bit larger (with larger battery too) becomes available in my country.
st-isidore 6y ago
Good to see this because it means demand for new Linux laptops is still here (or even growing) but why wouldn’t someone go for a System76 laptop instead that comes with custom, FOSS firmware too?
- bubblethink 6y ago
  For one, S76 is not shipping icelake. Second, s76 = clevo + coreboot. Not everyone cares about that. Dell/Lenovo have better hardware, support, etc.
- deadbunny 6y ago
  Because shipping outside the US is expensive, especially if you need to RMA anything.
- akoncius 6y ago
  well, take a look at System76 laptops and Dell XPS. Dell looks amazing and System76 not so much. also build quality, screens can be important. also availability and warranty is important for companies too.
vbezhenar 6y ago
What about Dell Precision series? I thought they are supposed to support Linux and they certainly carry pretty impressive specs.
- senorjazz 6y ago
  I have an older precision. Built like a tank and then some, great specs, ugly as hell, on the heavy side, awful battery, huge brick sized charger, but everything replaceable, takes being dropped in it's stride, takes any abuse it receives in it's stride.
wahlrus 6y ago
Dang I really hope they do the same with the new xps 15 and 17... But there's probably no market for this aside from me specifically T_T
- cpascal 6y ago
  I’ve been hoping for this too. So there’s at least two of us.
- heelix 6y ago
  I've got a 17" in process -- looks like a 5 week delay for it. Picked up a M2 drive that I'll be adding to turn it into my Linux laptop. Pretty excited to have a good 16:10 screen on something this size, will all sorts of expansion options when 32G won't cut it anymore.
amedvednikov 6y ago
Does ThinkPad X/T have something similar? On their website the only option is Windows.
- bubblethink 6y ago
  No. Lenovo doesn't sell linux laptops in the US on the open market. You may be able to buy one through the IT sales channel or in some other countries.
  - thecureforzits 6y ago
    There was an announcement in April that they will "soon" be shipping some laptops with Fedora. https://fedoramagazine.org/coming-soon-fedora-on-lenovo-laptops/ https://fedoramagazine.org/coming-soon-fedora-on-lenovo-lapt...
    - amedvednikov 6y ago
      Thanks for the link, hopefully it's available soon.
fcanesin 6y ago
Link to 32GB version: https://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/dell-laptops-and-notebooks/new-xps-13-developer-edition/spd/xps-13-9300-laptop/ctox13w10p1c2200u?view=configurations&configurationid=aa4ddc17-c908-4f5f-909e-53d2ce9b898d https://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/dell-laptops-and-notebo...
- RandomBacon 6y ago
  One year of ProSupport for free is a pretty good deal at that price (looks like limited time offer). When I bought mine (32gb with Windows) a couple of months ago, the same specs were $100 more but without ProSupport. I chatted with a sales rep and got an upgrade for 1 year of ProSupport and 256gb -> 512gb ssd for about $1 more.
brianwawok 6y ago
I just got the 32 GB version! My top complaint after rocking the Ubuntu 13 laptop for the last 4 years was lack of 32 GB option. (Other people complain about the webcam, but I hardly use it). Overall has been a great platform.
acd 6y ago
Great that Dell is supporting their Laptops with Ubuntu and Linux. I like the developer experience of Linux. Most things work as they should out of the box and the system is stable. Plus it feels like the right thing to use open source software where you can contribute back if you want.
sk0g 6y ago
I wish they made these available in Australia! Wouldn't even be different to the US version, power supply aside.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
jagger27 6y ago
Looks like it comes with Killer WiFi. Pretty questionable choice there.
- Ghostt8117 6y ago
  My laptop has Killer WiFi. I know nothing about it. Why is that a questionable choice?
  - dade_ 6y ago
    My laptop as well, it has the worst wireless connectivity of all of my devices and it just doesn’t come up on book or wake from sleep. I noticed the brand in the spec, but figured it probably didn’t matter. It turns out that it became the thing I hate about the machine, and later found they have a hate club on the Internet. I wouldn’t buy another machine with their wireless. Chip was: Killer Wireless-AC 1535 (802.11ac) I just learned that Intel bought Rivet, maker of Killer wifi: https://newsroom.intel.com/editorials/intel-acquisition-may-2020/#gs.9esaz5 https://newsroom.intel.com/editorials/intel-acquisition-may-...
  - ajtjp 6y ago
    Killer is often criticized for not adding much to a laptop beyond some extra cost. The benefit Killer touts is prioritizing latency-sensitive traffic, e.g. for games. I haven't used one and can't say how effective they are, but suspect it is true that for most people, the difference wouldn't be perceptible. The software might be more efficient, but it isn't going to make the radio waves travel any quicker. But I haven't heard about reliability issues, and as long as that's the case the worst outcome is paying a couple extra bucks for a fancy WiFi card with no difference/a small enough difference you can't notice it.
- bootloop 6y ago
  From their website: > We neither develop nor support the Linux drivers for our devices, and this is common, as free and open source is the Linux way. > As such, if you encounter an issue with your Killer Networking adapter in Linux, your best, quickest, and most accurate line of support is going to be the community, either for the Linux distribution that you are using, or the driver itself. Easy way out I guess.
yuters 6y ago
I would buy this laptop in a heartbeat if I could have an ISO keyboard layout in North America.
bhouston 6y ago
I run Ubuntu 20.04 lts on the Dell XPS 13 i7 10700 (12 ht cores!). I bought the windows version ~8 months ago. It is a great form factor and quiet and Ubuntu is a dream. I run dual 4k 32 inch monitors from the laptop when closed via the many USB c ports. It just works.
cosmodisk 6y ago
I've been havin XPS 13 for nearly 2 years now. Personally, haven't had any issues in terms of reliability.I even managed to spill my soup on it a couple of times and it ended up working after it. Battery capacity halfed over this period, however I can't comment on this,as I don't know how other laptops perform in this area.the only weird thing about it is the camera positioned at the bottom of the screen...
- xmaayyy 6y ago
  I have an XPS 15, my battery now only lasts an hour
adamddev1 6y ago
Does the sound-card make any popping sounds turning on and off?? I have an older XPS 13-9343 and sadly this was a huge issue with Ubuntu/Linux. It would pop on and off whenever you used audio.
- nmstoker 6y ago
  You may be able to adjust the power/sleep options for the card to help with this.
- RandomBacon 6y ago
  I plug in my speakers through a Thunderbolt dock, and I have not experienced it. It shows as a USB sound output though. Let me know if you would like me to try plugging the speakers in directly to the laptop and rebooting it a couple of times.
  - adamddev1 6y ago
    Thanks for the info. Yes that would be great if you could check that. My issue was the built-in speakers popping whenever audio stopped and started (sound card turning off and on). It was especially loud and unbearable when using headphones plugged directly in.
    - RandomBacon 6y ago
      The built-in speakers do not pop (tested with nothing plugged in). When having external speakers or earbuds plugged into the 3.5mm jack, it does pop. IMO the pops are not loud and do not at all hurt even with earbuds in. Dell has a 30 day return policy, so if that's the only thing holding you back, you can try it for yourself.
hedora 6y ago
> Start in an instant: A built in lid sensor allows you to open the lid and power up in milliseconds, no matter what power-state you are in. Really? < 10ms resume? From hibernation, too?
gregwebs 6y ago
Is this still a glossy-only screen option? I would happily by the XPS 15 with a non-glossy screen. I have been forced to use the Precision models with Ubuntu pre-installed and suffered both mediocre performance, battery life, build quality, and even the sound output not working. Unfortunately I am using a Mac from my employer for the first time in years. It is nice to have hardware that works extremely well again! But the glare is bad in certain lighting conditions and the touch bar is extremely annoying. I have caps lock mapped to escape, but it is just a more difficult place to get my pinky finger to.
- RandomBacon 6y ago
  My understanding is that the non-touch FHD screen is not glossly, but then it is also not flush. I got the touch FHD to have the edge-to-edge glass. The glossyness hasn't bothered me, and you can get matte screen protectors cut for this model off of eBay.
joefreeman 6y ago
I alternate between a (now ageing 9350-model) XPS 13 running Ubuntu and a (newish) MacBook Pro (for work), so perhaps my experience is interesting to some. I like both, but switching between the two is a bit jarring. The different keyboard layout is particularly annoying. Maybe this is worse with a British keyboard though. I switched the Mac to use the 'PC' layout, which helps a bit, but adapting between the cmd-ctrl-fn is difficult. And there are inconsistencies in the readline behaviour that I haven't worked out. I'm fairly indifferent to the feel of the keyboard - maybe a slight preference for the XPS. I like the 16:9 ratio of the XPS, but not a big deal. The 20.04 update has been such an improvement. The fan used to be constantly running, maybe because of the previously-experimental fractional scaling, but since the update this runs so smooth. If anyone from Gnome/Ubuntu reads this: thank you! The trackpad on the MacBook is obviously nice: support for gestures and the bigger area. I can't stand the touch bar - I'm constantly accidentally pressing buttons. TouchID is nice - the fingerprint reader in this new version sounds good. Few other things that are better on the MBP: speakers, brightness (especially the auto-adjusting brightness), and webcam (this version of the XPS has the webcam below the screen, which sucks). I don't make any use of the touchscreen on the XPS and I haven't got around to turning it off from the BIOS. Seems kind of wasteful. The coil whine on the XPS is really bad. Interested to know if this is fixed/better on the newer models? I replaced the battery on the XPS recently, but turns out the battery isn't as official as Amazon promised so the LED occasionally does an angry flashing sequence. But yay for being able to replace this. Also the Dell support turned out to be pretty good. At one point there was an issue with my screen and they sent a guy to my house to replace the screen for free.
deeg 6y ago
I've been using the XPS 13 DE at work for 3+ years and it has been a great experience. It originally shipped with 16.04; I was able to upgrade smoothly to 18.04 when it was available and I hope to do the same with 20.04. I use it with a docking station and two external monitors with no problems. It's normally physically connected to the network so I can't comment much on the wifi. I don't do anything with Bluetooth. My personal laptop is a MBP but if Dell ever came out with a XPS 15 DE I would immediately switch.
philplckthun 6y ago
I only ever owned an XPS 13 9350 (~2015) and it suffers from really horrible coil whine, regardless of whether anything is plugged in or not. I really wonder whether they’ve fixed this issue, as I’ve heard that some models after this one still suffered from the same.
- lwhi 6y ago
  I heard there were problems with build / coil whine when I last bought a laptop back in 2018. I wanted to run Ubuntu as the primary OS .. ended up choosing a ThinkPad. Still certified for Ubuntu, and the fact it came with a Window's license was a benefit for the few times I've needed to use Win10.
- RandomBacon 6y ago
  I have the current model (9300 ~2020) running Ubuntu 20.04. I do not have coil whine, and I couldn't find anyone else reporting coil whine when I bought it 2 months ago (I bought the Windows version and installed Ubuntu myself).
OldTechSucks 6y ago
gnome is terrible comparing to macOS WM/DM. So many bugs and there is no way to tweak things like in mac. Please do me a favor and look about it before buying.
- yjftsjthsd-h 6y ago
  Not that I like GNOME, but that has to be the first time I've seen someone advocate macOS on the basis of customization. Could you say where you found macOS to let you tweak something that GNOME didn't? Is this including extra tools (GNOME Tweak Tool), or pure stock?
  - OldTechSucks 6y ago
    I didn't find any reason to tweak macOS because it's perfect. I don't like the clock on middle, I hate it when I close the lid it's suspending and after failing changing the behaviour I joined the ubuntu channel then they said we don't do that kind of stuff and to reinstall just to restore the suspending. Nonetheless, GNOME Tweak Tool is not function. I think the biggest thing on Ubuntu 20.04 that is finally have Nvidia drivers support while other distros failing to do it.
hsnewman 6y ago
I ordered my XPS 13 last night, it's not the developer edition, but I plan on pulling the 128gb ssd and replacing it with a 512 anyway, and at that time will convert it to Ubuntu 20.04. I can't wait!
nobleach 6y ago
I had considered buying the 15 inch XPS to replace my Thinkpad X1C (6th gen). I really need 32 Gigs to run kubernetes and compile GraalVM images locally. But the latest XPS 15 has the RAM soldered to the board. This means if I want 32 Gigs, I have to pony up the premium price. They do have a Precision that is basically the same specs that DOES allow upgrading the RAM. The biggest problem is, Dell's website has the option to remove Windows and add Ubuntu... but you can't add it to the cart. It complains that McAffe won't fun on my OS of choice... and I can't remove McAffe! That pretty much stopped me right there.
- ssivark 6y ago
  Why not the Thinkpad T-series then?
  - nobleach 6y ago
    For me, it's been battery life. Even running TLP, my Current ultra-light just isn't seeing great battery life. It's fine now working from home, and plugged in all day. But should I ever get back to taking it to meeting after meeting at the office.... I want to say, I see 4 hours unplugged depending on what I'm doing. (not watching video)
    - fomine3 6y ago
      Modern mobile ThinkPad supports USB Type-C charging. So you can buy any mobile batteries that supports USB-PD charging (likely 45W is enough)
Ecstatify 6y ago
I would recommend strongly to not buy Dell laptops. The quality of the laptops are very bad. I bought a XPS 15 two years ago for around €2000 and the screen isn’t working anymore. The laptop hasn’t moved from my desk. Look at the support pages, there’s so many issues with no resolutions. Current issues: Screen distorted - Have to use external monitor Laptop randomly freezes for 30s - Great for meetings Bluetooth randomly disconnects all devices WiFi randomly disconnects
- BTBurke 6y ago
  Agreed. Do not buy Dell. You'll find hundreds of people with the same problem on support boards, but if you call support they will act like you're the first one ever to have a problem. Happened to me with the battery swelling issue on the 2016 model. I would never buy another Dell after that experience.
  - flo123456 6y ago
    The roughly dozen XPS13 we bought for work are mostly fine. And support has been great on the ones that were not.
- castratikron 6y ago
  I would recommend strongly to buy Dell laptops. The quality of the laptops is very good. I bought a XPS 13 four years ago for around $1000 and everything still works great. The laptop has come along during international travel.
shawnb576 6y ago
I am running Ubuntu 20.04 on a Dell XPS 13 9370 from a couple years ago. It’s amazing! First time I’ve had a Linux distro that really works well including battery life, sleep, devices etc. I had previously given up on this and was excited that WSL2 was finally available, but installed 20.04 and haven’t looked back.
pan69 6y ago
When you click through to purchase, in the Customize section at the bottom there is a "Keep Your Hard Drive" option up to 4 years. What exactly does this mean and why up to 4 years and not more, e.g. forever?
xellisx 6y ago
I have a normal XPS 13 for work. I don't like it. I have increase font sizes on the laptop screen. No expandable memory or storage. Fan on high is normal. Some versions BigFoot wifi controller that will drop out all the time when it's slightly warm. One of devs had to get an external cooler to help that issue, but eventually went for an external WiFi adapter.
alexeiz 6y ago
I don't know how Dell makes any money on this laptop. It's too expensive. It's much cheaper to buy a Windows Dell XPS 13 laptop with the same specs and then just install Linux on it.

138 points by bhdzllr 6y ago

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

> EMEA Offline: Czech Republic, Denmark, Emerging countries, Finland, Greece, Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Slovakia, Turkey, South Africa. Mmm, love shopping in "Emerging countries", gotta get a ticket to there :D Kinda reminds me of the "hot singles near Anonymous Proxy" banners.

hetspookjee 6y ago

I seriously hope Dell finally found a way to make more solid laptops because half of the ~30 XPS laptops I've seen around me needed to be send back because of issues with the device freezing or with the display. I started out in November last year with an XPS and after multiple freezes I requested an repair that would take my laptop out for multiple weeks. Having seen my previous company send multiple laptops back multiple times I didn't have much trust in the certainty of resolution for my issues with the xps. My coworker at the time didn't have any issues with her XPS but I gave up on Dell and switched to Mac. Sadly my coworkers XPS broke down after 2 months and it's still being repaired after 5 weeks... The specs of the XPS certainly are the best and the feel is great and I so hoped it would be a succes but it just sucks the experience is so bad. I often hear others still raving and reading about non problems so somehow I still think I might have seen a really bad batch enter the Netherlands over 2 years time.

merb 6y ago
well it's not only that the developer editions most often have coil wine or deformed cases. no the xps 15" with windows are more often broken as well, deformed cases broken cooling, etc.
RcouF1uZ4gsC 6y ago
For Dell XPS, if you are in the US, Costco is a great place to get them. They often have really great deals. You can return your laptop within 90 days of purchase no questions asked. If you buy using their branded credit card, you automatically get another year of warranty free. Costco customer service is great, and I trust them more than any manufacturer.
- dreamcompiler 6y ago
  Agree with this but Costco doesn't sell the Ubuntu system AFAIK. I bought my XPS at Costco, wiped Windows and installed Ubuntu manually. Still saved money over buying the Ubuntu version elsewhere.
  - chiefalchemist 6y ago
    You decided against Win 10 Pro and WLS? Why?
    - cephalization 6y ago
      If you don't care about windows then you sacrifice about 20% of performance vs linux on baremetal according to benchmarks on phoronix of ubuntu bare vs ubuntu wsl.
      - yjftsjthsd-h 6y ago
        Is that WSL 1 or 2? I'm not sure which I'd expect to have better perf (virtualization vs extra NT ABI), but I'd expect some difference.
    - RandomBacon 6y ago
      Not OP, but Windows 10 is a spy device that happens to let you do some useful things with it. Also, I think it's great to support FOSS when able and not be apart of Microsoft's Embrace, Extend, Extinguish.
    - rmellow 6y ago
RandomBacon 6y ago
I bought a Dell XPS 13 (same model in article, 9300) a couple of months ago, and installed Ubuntu 20.04 on it myself. It works great. No coil whine, and I haven't heard anyone complaining about coil whine with this year's model.
brianwawok 6y ago
We have bought 7 or 8 for my startup in the past 4 years. Only one failure that happened at like month 3. Seems at least average reliability? In the same time we have had 2 of 4 appple laptops need a new motherboard / some drastic problem
- dkersten 6y ago
  > need a new motherboard / some drastic problem Only because apple won’t do simple repairs. Eg, blwn capacitor worth 40 cent? New motherboard worth hundreds! [1] Of course, to the end user, the effect is the same... [1] https://youtu.be/o2_SZ4tfLns https://youtu.be/o2_SZ4tfLns and https://youtu.be/K1A9y4S60kg https://youtu.be/K1A9y4S60kg for just two examples
  - RNCTX 6y ago
    Correct me if I'm wrong, but I find it highly unlikely that there are repair contractors with people sitting behind magnifying glasses and soldering irons. I would suspect that toss and replace is the norm across the whole spectrum of hardware sellers. You could debate Apple's design choices like... say... riveted keyboards, and they'd argue durability as a retort, but I don't think they're any better or worse than others in terms of warranty work.
    - dkersten 6y ago
      Maybe not (although Louis Rossmann does say that he checks and has many videos where he does), but they do typically at least check the connectors and the main components. My brother has had a water-damaged macbook pro repaired by a third party repair shop when apple said the only thing that can be done is a logic board replacement and they fixed it without replacing it.
    - rudiv 6y ago
      From my knowledge of working as an ACMT, Apple processes every part it takes out of a computer during repair service. I couldn't say how many are fixed in the manner you're talking about, but I can say that a significant proportion of parts we received for warranty service were clearly 'remanufactured' parts. So that kind of toss-and-replace doesn't even really happen at Apple itself.
conradfr 6y ago
I was very interested because of the 16/10 display and the general design but besides the Intel CPU being apparently not that great compared to current AMD chips (including thermals and battery life) and the 32GB not available in my country (and not upgradable) it seems there is currently a great lack of QA at Dell that is really off-putting.
chiefalchemist 6y ago
Which model(s) of the XPS line? Can you share that?
paulie_a 6y ago
My sample size is much smaller but with two xps13 in one year, one refurb was basically DOA. The brand new one had major power issues and even with extended care it took them a month to get it straightened out. Finally got a new one and it's been working great. They will comp you by addidng additional onsite warranty though. Great machine but the QA sucks on dells

tchaffee 6y ago

My current Dell XPS had the pretty common battery swelling problem but within months of purchase. On previous models they replaced it for free but they stopped doing that. So add a possible battery replacement to their list price if you still want a Dell. Based on my experience with customer support and this battery issue this will be my last Dell. I'm looking at Lenovo for my next laptop.

sk0g 6y ago
I had this happen ONE DAY before the year of purchase was up on an XPS 15 9570. Very glad I messaged Dell Support straight away, as they ended up replacing it for free without much pushback.
nmstoker 6y ago
If this happened within a year I would simply insist they replace the battery under warranty and highlight that there was no element of discretion about it. They would do it.
- tchaffee 6y ago
  I did insist. I don't remember the details anymore because it was a couple of years ago. I would have taken them to small claims court over it if I had been in the US but I was overseas long term. Either way, they have lost a customer who has bought many of their laptops over the decades. Over a $100 battery that clearly had a manufacturing defect.
  - BTBurke 6y ago
    Same thing happened to me. Hours and hours on the phone for battery swelling which was a known problem. I was overseas at the time and they dragged the process out long enough that eventually warranty was up and they told me they wouldn't replace it. I replaced it myself but I'll never buy a Dell again and recommend others go with Lenovo.

baylearn 6y ago

Doesn't look too bad. The page mentioned that: 10th generation Intel® Core™ 10nm mobile processors and up to 32 gigabytes of RAM But on the product page, we can only get either 8 or 16 GB of memory. Do you know if it's possible to buy these with 32GB of RAM from Dell?

auggierose 6y ago
Dell has a strange website. Last time I was looking for a model with lots of RAM it took me ages until I understood how to get to the part that lets me configure it freely.
- auggierose 6y ago
  No, seems to me as well that 32GB is not available for Ubuntu.
  - JBiserkov 6y ago
    https://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/dell-laptops-and-notebooks/new-xps-13-developer-edition/spd/xps-13-9300-laptop/ctox13w10p1c2200u?view=configurations&configurationid=8d492ede-8d20-482a-8e4c-90aa4bd5cdc5 https://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/dell-laptops-and-notebo...
    - auggierose 6y ago
      Oh, they got me again with their site :-D
- hsnewman 6y ago
  I agree, they used to have a configuration page where you built up your PC,now you get to scan through what they offer as canned configurations. I totally dislike it, especially since they have different sections and you have to go to each a scan for the config your looking for (and the price of course).
parsimo2010 6y ago

drej 6y ago

What’s the story with full disk encryption on Ubuntu these days? Last time I checked (a while ago) it was a bit clunky, but now I’m considering a Linux desktop after 10 yrs of macOS and filevault, so checking my options. Thanks!

pedrocr 6y ago
What was clunky? The installer supports it and then all you have to do is insert the password on boot.
- lukeschlather 6y ago
  When I got a XPS 13 ~4 years ago full disk encryption didn't work at all on Ubuntu due to the NVME drive and Dell support had no workarounds and neither did the internet. I certainly hope it's fixed by now.
  - nmstoker 6y ago
    Interesting, I've had no problems with full disk encryption on my XPS 13 from around then but I did switch to Arch Linux at the same time I was setting it up.
- input_sh 6y ago
  The initial setup is definitely easy, but I wish additional setup would have a graphical interface. Notably, changing or removing a passphrase, both of which should be tucked away somewhere in the settings. Your current options are gnome-disks and cryptsetup, and the former simply didn't work with long passphrases last time I dabbled with it. It's also quite difficult to encrypt an existing setup without formatting the drive. You'd need to unmount your root partition, and since you can't do that from a running system, you'd need to boot off of a USB stick first. BitLocker is definitely easier in that regard.
  - kadoban 6y ago
    I stopped using it recently, but cryptsetup (with luks if it matters) definitely allows passphrases. I think my longest was ~50 characters? Not sure if you were going beyond that. I can't seem to find any old (or new) complaints about it limiting, or anything about a fix for same. You sure it was that?

dis-sys 6y ago

$1099 for a laptop with only 8G RAM, 256G SSD, 4 slow intel cores and 1080p LCD? you get far better specs for a phone in 2020 for that kind of $.

sk0g 6y ago
Only one of them would allow you to be productive. A big case, screen, keyboard, etc all adds up. You're overestimating the performance of phone CPUs and storage too.

amarshall 6y ago

I applaud the change to a 16:10 screen (the ratio used in all Apple laptops and sadly few others for years). The extra vertical space for the same area is very welcome; 16:9 feels very cramped at laptop sizes once you add a few menu bars and headers and banners. I hope more laptop manufacturers decide to go this direction.

fartcannon 6y ago
Agreed. And Id prefer they return to 5x4 for all tablets and tablet PCs. I had a tablet PC back in 04 that was a 5x4 ratio Toshiba R10 and it was marvelous. I ran Linux on it! 16 years ago!
- emiliovesprini 6y ago
  No half measures! let's go 1:1 baby.
  - RandomBacon 6y ago
    They exist! (Well as a freestanding monitor.) I have one, and it's glorious! https://www.eizo.com/products/flexscan/ev2730q/ https://www.eizo.com/products/flexscan/ev2730q/
    - amarshall 6y ago
      I don’t know why, but those proportions rather perturb me. Being so used to having displays be wider than tall, that almost looks taller than wide. I think it’s fantastic that it exists, though.
  - Red_Leaves_Flyy 6y ago
    More expensive for a 1:1 16in than a 16:9 16in. Also 16in is usually 15.6.
pyrophane 6y ago
Oh, I know. I would love to see even taller displays make their way to workstation computers.

pedrocr 6y ago

At this point, waiting for the mobile Ryzens to appear across the laptop ranges seems like a good idea. They've crammed 8 cores instead of 4 into the same TDP and made laptop chips that are in the same ballpark as the dekstop counterparts: https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare/Intel-i7-10610U-vs-AMD-Ryzen-7-PRO-4750U-vs-AMD-Ryzen-7-4800U-vs-Intel-i9-9900K-vs-AMD-Ryzen-7-3700X/3738vs3740vs3721vs3334vs3485 https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare/Intel-i7-10610U-vs-AMD-... The graphics should also be better than the Intel ones. So far the only interesting laptop I've seen is the Lenovo T14s which is their lower-end ultrabook from the X1 Carbon. Frustratingly they've limited it to 1080p screens in the AMD version when the Intel version includes a great 4K option: https://psref.lenovo.com/syspool/Sys/PDF/ThinkPad/ThinkPad_T14s_Gen_1_AMD/ThinkPad_T14s_Gen_1_AMD_Spec.PDF https://psref.lenovo.com/syspool/Sys/PDF/ThinkPad/ThinkPad_T... https://psref.lenovo.com/syspool/Sys/PDF/ThinkPad/ThinkPad_T14s_Gen_1_Intel/ThinkPad_T14s_Gen_1_Intel_Spec.PDF https://psref.lenovo.com/syspool/Sys/PDF/ThinkPad/ThinkPad_T...

codecamper 6y ago
Anyone know how well power management works with AMD and linux? Would those AMD 8 core chips consume a similar amount of power to the i7-1065G7? (quad core 10nm)
- dr_zoidberg 6y ago
  > Would those AMD 8 core chips consume a similar amount of power to the i7-1065G7? (quad core 10nm) A very quick summary: about the same. Intel seems to still have the lead on quickly going to lower energy states, but AMD still has the upper hand on better node: TSMCs 7nm is better than Intels 10nm+, but 11th gen 10++ seems to have finally matured enough to be on par, so Tiger Lake will be interesting to see. If your parameter is "I want a notebook today", then Renoir Ryzens are the best to go[0]. If you can wait until the late part of the year, maybe Tiger Lake will shake things up (again) in the mobile arena, or maybe they're spilling rumors to keep people away from AMD as much as they can. [0] HOWEVER it seems there's no well-rounded notebook with Zen2 yet. I was almost decided for an Asus Zephyrus G14, but decided to wait a bit and see if something a bit larger (with larger battery too) becomes available in my country.

st-isidore 6y ago

Good to see this because it means demand for new Linux laptops is still here (or even growing) but why wouldn’t someone go for a System76 laptop instead that comes with custom, FOSS firmware too?

bubblethink 6y ago
For one, S76 is not shipping icelake. Second, s76 = clevo + coreboot. Not everyone cares about that. Dell/Lenovo have better hardware, support, etc.
deadbunny 6y ago
Because shipping outside the US is expensive, especially if you need to RMA anything.
akoncius 6y ago
well, take a look at System76 laptops and Dell XPS. Dell looks amazing and System76 not so much. also build quality, screens can be important. also availability and warranty is important for companies too.

vbezhenar 6y ago

What about Dell Precision series? I thought they are supposed to support Linux and they certainly carry pretty impressive specs.

senorjazz 6y ago
I have an older precision. Built like a tank and then some, great specs, ugly as hell, on the heavy side, awful battery, huge brick sized charger, but everything replaceable, takes being dropped in it's stride, takes any abuse it receives in it's stride.

wahlrus 6y ago

Dang I really hope they do the same with the new xps 15 and 17... But there's probably no market for this aside from me specifically T_T

cpascal 6y ago
I’ve been hoping for this too. So there’s at least two of us.
heelix 6y ago
I've got a 17" in process -- looks like a 5 week delay for it. Picked up a M2 drive that I'll be adding to turn it into my Linux laptop. Pretty excited to have a good 16:10 screen on something this size, will all sorts of expansion options when 32G won't cut it anymore.

amedvednikov 6y ago

Does ThinkPad X/T have something similar? On their website the only option is Windows.

bubblethink 6y ago
No. Lenovo doesn't sell linux laptops in the US on the open market. You may be able to buy one through the IT sales channel or in some other countries.
- thecureforzits 6y ago
  There was an announcement in April that they will "soon" be shipping some laptops with Fedora. https://fedoramagazine.org/coming-soon-fedora-on-lenovo-laptops/ https://fedoramagazine.org/coming-soon-fedora-on-lenovo-lapt...
  - amedvednikov 6y ago
    Thanks for the link, hopefully it's available soon.

fcanesin 6y ago

Link to 32GB version: https://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/dell-laptops-and-notebooks/new-xps-13-developer-edition/spd/xps-13-9300-laptop/ctox13w10p1c2200u?view=configurations&configurationid=aa4ddc17-c908-4f5f-909e-53d2ce9b898d https://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/dell-laptops-and-notebo...

RandomBacon 6y ago
One year of ProSupport for free is a pretty good deal at that price (looks like limited time offer). When I bought mine (32gb with Windows) a couple of months ago, the same specs were $100 more but without ProSupport. I chatted with a sales rep and got an upgrade for 1 year of ProSupport and 256gb -> 512gb ssd for about $1 more.

brianwawok 6y ago

I just got the 32 GB version! My top complaint after rocking the Ubuntu 13 laptop for the last 4 years was lack of 32 GB option. (Other people complain about the webcam, but I hardly use it). Overall has been a great platform.

acd 6y ago

Great that Dell is supporting their Laptops with Ubuntu and Linux. I like the developer experience of Linux. Most things work as they should out of the box and the system is stable. Plus it feels like the right thing to use open source software where you can contribute back if you want.

sk0g 6y ago

I wish they made these available in Australia! Wouldn't even be different to the US version, power supply aside.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

jagger27 6y ago

Looks like it comes with Killer WiFi. Pretty questionable choice there.

Ghostt8117 6y ago
My laptop has Killer WiFi. I know nothing about it. Why is that a questionable choice?
- dade_ 6y ago
  My laptop as well, it has the worst wireless connectivity of all of my devices and it just doesn’t come up on book or wake from sleep. I noticed the brand in the spec, but figured it probably didn’t matter. It turns out that it became the thing I hate about the machine, and later found they have a hate club on the Internet. I wouldn’t buy another machine with their wireless. Chip was: Killer Wireless-AC 1535 (802.11ac) I just learned that Intel bought Rivet, maker of Killer wifi: https://newsroom.intel.com/editorials/intel-acquisition-may-2020/#gs.9esaz5 https://newsroom.intel.com/editorials/intel-acquisition-may-...
- ajtjp 6y ago
  Killer is often criticized for not adding much to a laptop beyond some extra cost. The benefit Killer touts is prioritizing latency-sensitive traffic, e.g. for games. I haven't used one and can't say how effective they are, but suspect it is true that for most people, the difference wouldn't be perceptible. The software might be more efficient, but it isn't going to make the radio waves travel any quicker. But I haven't heard about reliability issues, and as long as that's the case the worst outcome is paying a couple extra bucks for a fancy WiFi card with no difference/a small enough difference you can't notice it.
bootloop 6y ago
From their website: > We neither develop nor support the Linux drivers for our devices, and this is common, as free and open source is the Linux way. > As such, if you encounter an issue with your Killer Networking adapter in Linux, your best, quickest, and most accurate line of support is going to be the community, either for the Linux distribution that you are using, or the driver itself. Easy way out I guess.

yuters 6y ago

I would buy this laptop in a heartbeat if I could have an ISO keyboard layout in North America.

bhouston 6y ago

I run Ubuntu 20.04 lts on the Dell XPS 13 i7 10700 (12 ht cores!). I bought the windows version ~8 months ago. It is a great form factor and quiet and Ubuntu is a dream. I run dual 4k 32 inch monitors from the laptop when closed via the many USB c ports. It just works.

cosmodisk 6y ago

I've been havin XPS 13 for nearly 2 years now. Personally, haven't had any issues in terms of reliability.I even managed to spill my soup on it a couple of times and it ended up working after it. Battery capacity halfed over this period, however I can't comment on this,as I don't know how other laptops perform in this area.the only weird thing about it is the camera positioned at the bottom of the screen...

xmaayyy 6y ago
I have an XPS 15, my battery now only lasts an hour

adamddev1 6y ago

Does the sound-card make any popping sounds turning on and off?? I have an older XPS 13-9343 and sadly this was a huge issue with Ubuntu/Linux. It would pop on and off whenever you used audio.

nmstoker 6y ago
You may be able to adjust the power/sleep options for the card to help with this.
RandomBacon 6y ago
I plug in my speakers through a Thunderbolt dock, and I have not experienced it. It shows as a USB sound output though. Let me know if you would like me to try plugging the speakers in directly to the laptop and rebooting it a couple of times.
- adamddev1 6y ago
  Thanks for the info. Yes that would be great if you could check that. My issue was the built-in speakers popping whenever audio stopped and started (sound card turning off and on). It was especially loud and unbearable when using headphones plugged directly in.
  - RandomBacon 6y ago
    The built-in speakers do not pop (tested with nothing plugged in). When having external speakers or earbuds plugged into the 3.5mm jack, it does pop. IMO the pops are not loud and do not at all hurt even with earbuds in. Dell has a 30 day return policy, so if that's the only thing holding you back, you can try it for yourself.

hedora 6y ago

> Start in an instant: A built in lid sensor allows you to open the lid and power up in milliseconds, no matter what power-state you are in. Really? < 10ms resume? From hibernation, too?

gregwebs 6y ago

Is this still a glossy-only screen option? I would happily by the XPS 15 with a non-glossy screen. I have been forced to use the Precision models with Ubuntu pre-installed and suffered both mediocre performance, battery life, build quality, and even the sound output not working. Unfortunately I am using a Mac from my employer for the first time in years. It is nice to have hardware that works extremely well again! But the glare is bad in certain lighting conditions and the touch bar is extremely annoying. I have caps lock mapped to escape, but it is just a more difficult place to get my pinky finger to.

RandomBacon 6y ago
My understanding is that the non-touch FHD screen is not glossly, but then it is also not flush. I got the touch FHD to have the edge-to-edge glass. The glossyness hasn't bothered me, and you can get matte screen protectors cut for this model off of eBay.

joefreeman 6y ago

I alternate between a (now ageing 9350-model) XPS 13 running Ubuntu and a (newish) MacBook Pro (for work), so perhaps my experience is interesting to some. I like both, but switching between the two is a bit jarring. The different keyboard layout is particularly annoying. Maybe this is worse with a British keyboard though. I switched the Mac to use the 'PC' layout, which helps a bit, but adapting between the cmd-ctrl-fn is difficult. And there are inconsistencies in the readline behaviour that I haven't worked out. I'm fairly indifferent to the feel of the keyboard - maybe a slight preference for the XPS. I like the 16:9 ratio of the XPS, but not a big deal. The 20.04 update has been such an improvement. The fan used to be constantly running, maybe because of the previously-experimental fractional scaling, but since the update this runs so smooth. If anyone from Gnome/Ubuntu reads this: thank you! The trackpad on the MacBook is obviously nice: support for gestures and the bigger area. I can't stand the touch bar - I'm constantly accidentally pressing buttons. TouchID is nice - the fingerprint reader in this new version sounds good. Few other things that are better on the MBP: speakers, brightness (especially the auto-adjusting brightness), and webcam (this version of the XPS has the webcam below the screen, which sucks). I don't make any use of the touchscreen on the XPS and I haven't got around to turning it off from the BIOS. Seems kind of wasteful. The coil whine on the XPS is really bad. Interested to know if this is fixed/better on the newer models? I replaced the battery on the XPS recently, but turns out the battery isn't as official as Amazon promised so the LED occasionally does an angry flashing sequence. But yay for being able to replace this. Also the Dell support turned out to be pretty good. At one point there was an issue with my screen and they sent a guy to my house to replace the screen for free.

deeg 6y ago

I've been using the XPS 13 DE at work for 3+ years and it has been a great experience. It originally shipped with 16.04; I was able to upgrade smoothly to 18.04 when it was available and I hope to do the same with 20.04. I use it with a docking station and two external monitors with no problems. It's normally physically connected to the network so I can't comment much on the wifi. I don't do anything with Bluetooth. My personal laptop is a MBP but if Dell ever came out with a XPS 15 DE I would immediately switch.

philplckthun 6y ago

I only ever owned an XPS 13 9350 (~2015) and it suffers from really horrible coil whine, regardless of whether anything is plugged in or not. I really wonder whether they’ve fixed this issue, as I’ve heard that some models after this one still suffered from the same.

lwhi 6y ago
I heard there were problems with build / coil whine when I last bought a laptop back in 2018. I wanted to run Ubuntu as the primary OS .. ended up choosing a ThinkPad. Still certified for Ubuntu, and the fact it came with a Window's license was a benefit for the few times I've needed to use Win10.
RandomBacon 6y ago
I have the current model (9300 ~2020) running Ubuntu 20.04. I do not have coil whine, and I couldn't find anyone else reporting coil whine when I bought it 2 months ago (I bought the Windows version and installed Ubuntu myself).

OldTechSucks 6y ago

gnome is terrible comparing to macOS WM/DM. So many bugs and there is no way to tweak things like in mac. Please do me a favor and look about it before buying.

yjftsjthsd-h 6y ago
Not that I like GNOME, but that has to be the first time I've seen someone advocate macOS on the basis of customization. Could you say where you found macOS to let you tweak something that GNOME didn't? Is this including extra tools (GNOME Tweak Tool), or pure stock?
- OldTechSucks 6y ago
  I didn't find any reason to tweak macOS because it's perfect. I don't like the clock on middle, I hate it when I close the lid it's suspending and after failing changing the behaviour I joined the ubuntu channel then they said we don't do that kind of stuff and to reinstall just to restore the suspending. Nonetheless, GNOME Tweak Tool is not function. I think the biggest thing on Ubuntu 20.04 that is finally have Nvidia drivers support while other distros failing to do it.

hsnewman 6y ago

I ordered my XPS 13 last night, it's not the developer edition, but I plan on pulling the 128gb ssd and replacing it with a 512 anyway, and at that time will convert it to Ubuntu 20.04. I can't wait!

nobleach 6y ago

I had considered buying the 15 inch XPS to replace my Thinkpad X1C (6th gen). I really need 32 Gigs to run kubernetes and compile GraalVM images locally. But the latest XPS 15 has the RAM soldered to the board. This means if I want 32 Gigs, I have to pony up the premium price. They do have a Precision that is basically the same specs that DOES allow upgrading the RAM. The biggest problem is, Dell's website has the option to remove Windows and add Ubuntu... but you can't add it to the cart. It complains that McAffe won't fun on my OS of choice... and I can't remove McAffe! That pretty much stopped me right there.

ssivark 6y ago
Why not the Thinkpad T-series then?
- nobleach 6y ago
  For me, it's been battery life. Even running TLP, my Current ultra-light just isn't seeing great battery life. It's fine now working from home, and plugged in all day. But should I ever get back to taking it to meeting after meeting at the office.... I want to say, I see 4 hours unplugged depending on what I'm doing. (not watching video)
  - fomine3 6y ago
    Modern mobile ThinkPad supports USB Type-C charging. So you can buy any mobile batteries that supports USB-PD charging (likely 45W is enough)

Ecstatify 6y ago

I would recommend strongly to not buy Dell laptops. The quality of the laptops are very bad. I bought a XPS 15 two years ago for around €2000 and the screen isn’t working anymore. The laptop hasn’t moved from my desk. Look at the support pages, there’s so many issues with no resolutions. Current issues: Screen distorted - Have to use external monitor Laptop randomly freezes for 30s - Great for meetings Bluetooth randomly disconnects all devices WiFi randomly disconnects

BTBurke 6y ago
Agreed. Do not buy Dell. You'll find hundreds of people with the same problem on support boards, but if you call support they will act like you're the first one ever to have a problem. Happened to me with the battery swelling issue on the 2016 model. I would never buy another Dell after that experience.
- flo123456 6y ago
  The roughly dozen XPS13 we bought for work are mostly fine. And support has been great on the ones that were not.
castratikron 6y ago
I would recommend strongly to buy Dell laptops. The quality of the laptops is very good. I bought a XPS 13 four years ago for around $1000 and everything still works great. The laptop has come along during international travel.

shawnb576 6y ago

I am running Ubuntu 20.04 on a Dell XPS 13 9370 from a couple years ago. It’s amazing! First time I’ve had a Linux distro that really works well including battery life, sleep, devices etc. I had previously given up on this and was excited that WSL2 was finally available, but installed 20.04 and haven’t looked back.

pan69 6y ago

When you click through to purchase, in the Customize section at the bottom there is a "Keep Your Hard Drive" option up to 4 years. What exactly does this mean and why up to 4 years and not more, e.g. forever?

xellisx 6y ago

I have a normal XPS 13 for work. I don't like it. I have increase font sizes on the laptop screen. No expandable memory or storage. Fan on high is normal. Some versions BigFoot wifi controller that will drop out all the time when it's slightly warm. One of devs had to get an external cooler to help that issue, but eventually went for an external WiFi adapter.

alexeiz 6y ago

I don't know how Dell makes any money on this laptop. It's too expensive. It's much cheaper to buy a Windows Dell XPS 13 laptop with the same specs and then just install Linux on it.