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I have been using the same Dell XPS 13 for about 6 years now, and I cannot say agree with most of that article. The Dell XPS line was my goto recommendation for

I have been using the same Dell XPS 13 for about 6 years now, and I cannot say agree with most of that article. The Dell XPS line was my goto recommendation for people when they ask what laptop they should get. Dell XPS support is also fantastic, if you go though the business channel and pay for support. That said, Dell XPS is no longer my recommendation as the "New" line is a serious downgrade. They removed the headphone jack and added a touch bar. The amount of disappointment I have is immense. They took their best line and decided to make it horrible.

spikej 4y ago
I have an XPS 13 also that I'll probably be replacing in another year or two. What is your new go-to I should look into?
- osigurdson 4y ago
  I have a fairly expensive Thinkpad X1 that I bought for myself and cheap MacBook Air M1 series for my kids. The M1 blows the X1 out of the water: faster, better screen, better screen aspect ratio, much better battery life. The only thing the X1 has going for it is a marginally better keyboard.
  - spikej 4y ago
    Well that and Windows. Not starting any OS debates, but would an M1 achieve the same performance and battery life if constantly running Windows in Parallels? If so, then that would put it ahead of the X1.
- zamalek 4y ago
  The HP Dev One is apparently very out of character for HP (which is a good thing). It's primarily Linux.
tomrod 4y ago
Build quality on Dell XPS has slipped dramatically. I had one whose case would flex when you would touch it (let alone pick it up or use it in a laptop). This caused all kinds of issues, from the touchpad to being unusable to the entire system freezing. Pretty paperweight after nine months of torture.
louffoster 4y ago
In June I got a new XPS13 (without the touchbar), preloaded with linux. Upon arrival, the camera and fingerprint reader did not work. The battery lasted about 2 hours and the screen literally fell out. After 2 days of frustrating tech support calls, they finally agreed to ship me a replacement. 1 month later, no replacement arrived. Many calls to support yielded no answers. I finally got them to refund my order and cancel the replacement. A very bad experience for me and I will never buy a Dell again.
- JohnJamesRambo 4y ago
  Your review right now helped me avoid them in the future.
- jjcm 4y ago
  Interestingly, your comment is now in the article itself.
bogwog 4y ago
I have a XPS 13 with a broken hinge. The hinge broke after about ~3 years for apparently no reason. The broken hinge is also next to the power button, so when the screen is opened, the detached hinge section pushes the plastic of the chassis upwards. This has both cracked the plastic, and made it impossible to press the power button normally. I fixed it by using some really strong adhesive I found (called “plastic cement” or something like that). The power button is permanently wobbly, but you can at least press it now. But exactly a week later the other hinge broke in exactly the same way. So more hours of my life and more adhesive later, it’s somewhat salvageable, but I am very gentle when opening and closing the lid. Maybe I got unlucky with a shitty unit, or you got lucky with a non-shitty unit. Either way, I think our anecdotes cancel each other out.
- BizarroLand 4y ago
  Yeah, that broken hinge issue is fairly well known. The repair is to semi-dismantle the screen and use cotton balls and superglue (or epoxy for an even more permanent fix) to bond the plastic clamshell to the hinges as the plastic they used for those models is such low-grade crappy plastic that was never meant to be used for a load bearing part that no matter what else you do it will re-break. Even with that fix, it can and will re-break, just in a different location so you have to be forever careful with this $1,200 laptop.
- abdusco 4y ago
  Oof. I was blaming myself for broking the hinge on mine (XPS 13 9350 (2016)). Didn't know this was so common. I fixed mine by gluing it with epoxy, and filled another part that was broken off with epoxy paste (it has a consistency like playdough).
zamalek 4y ago
The article mentions about 40% of users have issues. You must be part of the 60%. Such are the dangers of anecdotes.
- robertlagrant 4y ago
  60% of the time it works every time.
tipamuga 4y ago
I guess it really boils down to whether or not you specifically received a lemon or not. There's always going to be anecdotal evidence on either side of the ledger. That said, there's plenty of customer complaints that appear to point towards poor QA/QC by Dell. In particular, there's a very specific hardware defect with keyboards in the XPS line. Just search for "XPS tilde (~), F1, F2 not working". You'll quickly see this is an issue plaguing various models of XPS.
gnufied 4y ago
I think for XPS line Dell has always prioritized form over function. My wife(then GF) bought top of the line XPS13 somewhere in 2011-2012. It was red, thin and looked pretty amazing, except it had crippling overheating issues that required motherboard replacement 2 times (in India). The trend continues to this day ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZpwCpubr_0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZpwCpubr_0 ) and hence I wouldn't touch XPS line with a 10 feet stick, if I can help it.
thegeomaster 4y ago
I got a 1200€ XPS 13 Developer Edition (with Linux) a few years ago. Sleep did not work well from the start and it would randomly drain battery while sleeping. About 9 months in, the battery swelled up and outright died, and was replaced under warranty with a week+ wait. 9 months after that, so just after the 1.5yrs warranty expired, the motherboard died. 500€ to replace. Got a ThinkPad X1 Carbon for about the same price instead and never looked back - will not buy Dell again.

spikej 4y ago

I have an XPS 13 also that I'll probably be replacing in another year or two. What is your new go-to I should look into?

osigurdson 4y ago
I have a fairly expensive Thinkpad X1 that I bought for myself and cheap MacBook Air M1 series for my kids. The M1 blows the X1 out of the water: faster, better screen, better screen aspect ratio, much better battery life. The only thing the X1 has going for it is a marginally better keyboard.
- spikej 4y ago
  Well that and Windows. Not starting any OS debates, but would an M1 achieve the same performance and battery life if constantly running Windows in Parallels? If so, then that would put it ahead of the X1.
zamalek 4y ago
The HP Dev One is apparently very out of character for HP (which is a good thing). It's primarily Linux.

tomrod 4y ago

Build quality on Dell XPS has slipped dramatically. I had one whose case would flex when you would touch it (let alone pick it up or use it in a laptop). This caused all kinds of issues, from the touchpad to being unusable to the entire system freezing. Pretty paperweight after nine months of torture.

louffoster 4y ago

In June I got a new XPS13 (without the touchbar), preloaded with linux. Upon arrival, the camera and fingerprint reader did not work. The battery lasted about 2 hours and the screen literally fell out. After 2 days of frustrating tech support calls, they finally agreed to ship me a replacement. 1 month later, no replacement arrived. Many calls to support yielded no answers. I finally got them to refund my order and cancel the replacement. A very bad experience for me and I will never buy a Dell again.

JohnJamesRambo 4y ago
Your review right now helped me avoid them in the future.
jjcm 4y ago
Interestingly, your comment is now in the article itself.

bogwog 4y ago

I have a XPS 13 with a broken hinge. The hinge broke after about ~3 years for apparently no reason. The broken hinge is also next to the power button, so when the screen is opened, the detached hinge section pushes the plastic of the chassis upwards. This has both cracked the plastic, and made it impossible to press the power button normally. I fixed it by using some really strong adhesive I found (called “plastic cement” or something like that). The power button is permanently wobbly, but you can at least press it now. But exactly a week later the other hinge broke in exactly the same way. So more hours of my life and more adhesive later, it’s somewhat salvageable, but I am very gentle when opening and closing the lid. Maybe I got unlucky with a shitty unit, or you got lucky with a non-shitty unit. Either way, I think our anecdotes cancel each other out.

BizarroLand 4y ago
Yeah, that broken hinge issue is fairly well known. The repair is to semi-dismantle the screen and use cotton balls and superglue (or epoxy for an even more permanent fix) to bond the plastic clamshell to the hinges as the plastic they used for those models is such low-grade crappy plastic that was never meant to be used for a load bearing part that no matter what else you do it will re-break. Even with that fix, it can and will re-break, just in a different location so you have to be forever careful with this $1,200 laptop.
abdusco 4y ago
Oof. I was blaming myself for broking the hinge on mine (XPS 13 9350 (2016)). Didn't know this was so common. I fixed mine by gluing it with epoxy, and filled another part that was broken off with epoxy paste (it has a consistency like playdough).

zamalek 4y ago

The article mentions about 40% of users have issues. You must be part of the 60%. Such are the dangers of anecdotes.

robertlagrant 4y ago
60% of the time it works every time.

tipamuga 4y ago

I guess it really boils down to whether or not you specifically received a lemon or not. There's always going to be anecdotal evidence on either side of the ledger. That said, there's plenty of customer complaints that appear to point towards poor QA/QC by Dell. In particular, there's a very specific hardware defect with keyboards in the XPS line. Just search for "XPS tilde (~), F1, F2 not working". You'll quickly see this is an issue plaguing various models of XPS.

gnufied 4y ago

I think for XPS line Dell has always prioritized form over function. My wife(then GF) bought top of the line XPS13 somewhere in 2011-2012. It was red, thin and looked pretty amazing, except it had crippling overheating issues that required motherboard replacement 2 times (in India). The trend continues to this day ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZpwCpubr_0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZpwCpubr_0 ) and hence I wouldn't touch XPS line with a 10 feet stick, if I can help it.

thegeomaster 4y ago

I got a 1200€ XPS 13 Developer Edition (with Linux) a few years ago. Sleep did not work well from the start and it would randomly drain battery while sleeping. About 9 months in, the battery swelled up and outright died, and was replaced under warranty with a week+ wait. 9 months after that, so just after the 1.5yrs warranty expired, the motherboard died. 500€ to replace. Got a ThinkPad X1 Carbon for about the same price instead and never looked back - will not buy Dell again.