9 ms·

Dell launches Ultrabook for $999

42 points by angel_007 15y ago

allwein 15y ago
The telling thing for me is that there is not a single image of the keyboard head-on. The keyboard is a make or break feature on a laptop of this size. I fear that not showing any images of the keyboard is indicative of a sub-par experience.
- barista 15y ago
  This problem has been solved many a ttimes before. It's not the first 13" laptop anybody has designed. So thogh I'd love to see a keyboard pic, I'd assume it's going to be inline with what's out there already. Love these new ultrabooks btw. Apple kickstarted it as always and all the platforms benefit.
  - spot 15y ago
    apple was a latecomer to the thin and light category. FYI.
    - rsynnott 15y ago
      It was one of the innovators in _affordable_ thin and light, though. While there were very light and thin laptops prior to the Air, they were usually either netbooks, or terribly expensive. Of course, so was the first-gen Air; the second one was really the interesting one.
      - spot 15y ago
        nope, there were plenty of options like the Dell X1 (2.5lbs, 2005) and Sony VAIO Z (3.3lbs, 2000). these were mainstream and affordable and functional. the first air came in 2008.
        bunderbunder 15y ago
        The X1 was light, but it was not thin. Perhaps thinner than other notebooks that Dell was making at the time. But compared to a MacBook Air, any computer that has room to stack two USB ports on top of each other is a friggin' elephant.
        rsynnott 15y ago
        What did the Vaio Z cost on release? My impression was that it, and all of Sony's ultra-small laptops, were always terrifyingly expensive. The current Vaio Z, certainly, starts at just under $2000.
    - protomyth 15y ago
      1992 was pretty early http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PowerBook_Duo http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PowerBook_Duo
      - spot 15y ago
        i don't think it qualifies, not thin and not even that light.
        protomyth 15y ago
        At the time, that was what the MacBook Air is now. It was amazing and much missed.
  - beagle3 15y ago
    For me, there are combinations of the location and size of the "Fn", "Enter", "Backspace", "Backslash" and "Right Shift" buttons that could make a keyboard a deal-breaker. E.g., my 9" eee has the shift right of the "up-arrow", and this is a poor design choice that I would hate if I used it day-in-day-out for real work. (My eee is a consumption device, so that's sort of ok)
    - darkstar999 15y ago
      Exactly. I overlooked a HUGE PROBLEM when I bought my HP DV6 online. They offset the whole keyboard one column to the right for the stupid function buttons. http://i.imgur.com/pWcax.jpg http://i.imgur.com/pWcax.jpg (someone tell me what the encircled button does) I had to disable every single one of those keys. You have no idea how many times I launched the damn calculator.
  - georgemcbay 15y ago
    "This problem has been solved many a ttimes before." Just because this has been "solved" before doesn't mean Dell solved it correctly here. I loathe Apple for a few different company policy reasons and haven't bought one of their products since the iPhone 3G, but I still can't help but cringe at the crappy keyboard/display/touchpads non-Apple PC laptop makers continue to churn out, even on higher-end laptops, despite this being a "solved" problem. There are a few exceptions to the rule, but even the PC manufacturers who manage to get things right once or twice tend to just go and screw things up in next year's refresh.
- sheff 15y ago
  The keyboard is what I look at first as well, as I dislike laptops without a decent arrow key layout. Engadget ( http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/10/dells-xps-13-ultrabook-announced/ http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/10/dells-xps-13-ultrabook-an... ) had some pics recently, including some of the keyboard.
herge 15y ago
Why make it out of aluminium? Does it have better heat properties or lighter weight than say some high quality plastics or steel, or any other metal?
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
- jimrhoskins 15y ago
  Because at first glance it will pass for a macbook air. I don't say that with any bitterness. I have and love my air, but as I find myself using less and less of OS X, and really just living in iTerm and my browser, the real appeal of the Air to me now is the hardware. If the Ultrabook stands up to the Air in quality, I'm seriously considering the Ultrabook + Ubuntu (double-u?) for my next notebook. Also assuming Ubuntu runs well on it, which my guess is if it doesn't now, it will soon.
  - shinratdr 15y ago
    Why would you do that instead of just putting Ubuntu on the Air?
    - jimrhoskins 15y ago
      In the case that Dell (or someone else) had better hardware at a better price. It doesn't look like that's the case with the Ultrabook just yet.
  - phamilton 15y ago
    I'm in the same boat with one crutch: Netflix. While I enjoy the fantastic gestures of OS X, I could survive without them. Netflix on the other hand, is irreplaceable. If (or hopefully when) Netflix runs on Linux, I'd consider it if the hardware were on par.
- krschultz 15y ago
  Aluminum is easily machinable, lightweight, has great heat transfer, can be annodized so that it has a nice surface finish, and is not that expensive. Titanium would be a good choice as well, but it is far more expensive. Steel isn't a good choice for a variety of reasons, but #1 in my mind is surface finish. Typically you have to paint or plate steel. A high end plastic or composite can be made nice, but people are moving away from it.
wasd 15y ago
All I want for Christmas is for a Linux optimized Ultra Book.
- macmac 15y ago
  Yes, why does no manufacturer see that they could get a bunch of developers onboard by creating such a product? Is the developer segment really that uninteresting?
  - shinratdr 15y ago
    > Is the developer segment really that uninteresting? Yes. It's also much, much more fragmented than you make it out to be. It's not like all developers are waiting with bated breath for the perfect Linux laptop. Many are perfectly happy with what they currently use. A machine targeted towards developers wouldn't even appeal to the majority of developers, which is already a niche market to begin with. It's quite obvious why nobody does this.
- wmf 15y ago
  System76 will probably have a rebranded one soon enough.
eropple 15y ago
So I clicked through this article, expecting something that totally misses the point (like their Adamo a few years ago). It doesn't match my immediate expectations. Which is good! The machine looks solid. I don't know if I like it more than my Air, but it looks promising. I keep clicking through. In a machine like this, two things really matter: keyboard and display. As allwein says in another comment thread, they don't show the keyboard head-on. Which is concerning, but I can live with a crappy keyboard if the screen is great. So click click click, I keep on looking for display information. "A tough yet brilliant 13.3" screen in a compact form similar to an 11" laptop." This sounds...well, I'm not sure what they're saying, but it sounds interesting at least! So I go to check out the specs. No specs, anywhere. After a bit I realize that clicking "Buy XPS 13" takes me to the (god-awful, ugly) Dell page for the product line, where (if I pick "Customize") I can get some specs. The prices get me a bit frowny, but they're not that crazy. So I look at the bottom-line one, which for my use case is more or less equivalent to my 11" Air except in size. At last, there it is...WTF? "Silver Anodized Aluminum and 13.3" HD (720p) Truelife WLED Display with 1.3MP HD Webcam". There we go--there's the "attention to detail is for suckers" Dell I've come to know and loathe. Apple puts a 1440x900 display in their 13" Airs. They put a 1366x768 display in the 11" Airs. I mean, that's just sad--Dell is using a worse panel in their 13" 'ultrabook' than Apple does in their 11" Air. Dell has no excuse. Somehow, the lessons of "don't make people use screens that suck" is lost along the way to the rest of the laptop manufacturers out there. I am (not very) deeply sorry, Dell, but packaging crap in a thinner, lighter box only makes it thinner, lighter crap.
- JoshTriplett 15y ago
  Most manufacturers seem to do that these days, hiding display resolution somewhere obscure, while it represents one of the most important details that I need to know. Personally, I'd like an Ultrabook with the 13" 1080p screen from the Sony Z series. (But not made by Sony, since I need something with decent quality, a decent warranty, and a decent company.)
  - rhizome 15y ago
    hiding display resolution somewhere obscure, while it represents one of the most important details that I need to know. This isn't a coincidence. Sales can profit from ignorance, whether natural or engineered.
ghost91 15y ago
I want to see my code on the screen not myself! Who needs these glossy screens?
- jc4p 15y ago
  Matte displays show images more true-to-print too, I prefer my matte display both for programming / being outside / editing photos. I really don't understand why anyone would want a glossy display other than "it's easier to clean"
- insideout 15y ago
  I think what you will be seeing in the reflection is the illuminated keyboard. Even if they weren't right next to the screen light up keys seem like a silly gimmick to me
zyang 15y ago
To get to the spec, click "Buy Xps 13", "Customize and buy", go to "Review and checkout" tab, scroll down - took me 5 minutes of clicking around to get to it. wtf dell.
phamilton 15y ago
A 13" laptop a little bit bigger than the 11" Macbook Air, a little worse screen resolution than the 11" Macbook Air, at about the same price point as the 11" Macbook Air.
- tdicola 15y ago
  And companies wonder why ultrabooks have been a flop...
delsarto 15y ago
30 March 2005: X1 announced (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dell_Latitude http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dell_Latitude) 1280 × 768 at 16.8 million colors 1.140 kg with 58 Whr Li-Ion 6 cell w: 286 mm h: 25.0 mm d: 196.8 mm XPS13 ultrabook 13.3" High Definition WLED, 300-nit (1366x768) 720p; Weight: Starting at 2.99lbs (1.36kg)6 47WHr battery; 6-Cell Li-Polymer (built-in)3 Width: 12.4" (316mm) Height: 0.24-0.71" (6-18mm) Depth: 8.1" (205mm) So in 7 years, we've added 86 pixels and gotten bigger and heaver. I'm not sure if the X1 laptop was revolutionary, or laptops just haven't gotten that much better. Certainly the X1 was the best investment I've ever made; with a SSD upgrade it's still going strong!
- PhrosTT 15y ago
  I'm waiting for the Asus UX31 to drop to about $700. Unless the new Pro/Airs with 2000 by 1500ish rez are closer to $1000 than $2000. They have a 1600x900 screen resolution. This is the most important spec for me. Everytime I see 1366x768 I cringe to imagine what an Eclipse Debug perspective would look like on that. Hey look "3 lines of code and 2 variables are viewable at the same time!"
  - delsarto 15y ago
    Yeah, I was quite interested in them too. However, my worry is that initial Linux support with all the new parts would be a PITA. When I got the X1 7 years ago, I was a student and patching kernels and poking around various wiki-pages to get various things working was fun. Now I'm in the old and boring "just want it to work" camp :)
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
nathanwdavis 15y ago
What is really interesting is not the product itself, but the animation that progresses as you scroll down the page. Very neat! Basically instead of time controlling the sequence of frames, it is the scroll position.
- eropple 15y ago
  I found it inconsistent, unintuitive, and jarring. Bad web designer. No cookie.
fady 15y ago
no matter how pretty they make their laptops, they still run crappy software, IMO. i would buy this, wipe it out and load ubuntu, vs using windows. i find the ubuntu experience on dell laptops to be pretty good. i'm still rocking a e1405 with ubuntu 10.4
- aswanson 15y ago
  Always a good option, although you have to be wary with respect to wireless/wifi drivers. The ubuntu releases tend to trail new hardware for wireless networking by several months for new windows laptops.
  - fady 15y ago
    good to know. i was curious how the support has been for the wireless/wifi drivers in their newer machines...
peteysd 15y ago
Is this posted because the Ultrabook is interesting, or because the scroll-to-animate functionality of the website is interesting? For me, it's the latter, since I have long forsaken Dell. Once the site loaded completely (which took a fair bit of time), I was able to use scrolling to move forward/backward through the animation of the demo. This is certainly an interesting UX, but after about 20 seconds of this I found it cumbersome.
- darkstar999 15y ago
  Cumbersome. Yes. Definitely an anti-pattern. I shouldn't have to work so hard to see your stupid marketing campaign. It reminded me of this comic http://i.imgur.com/MgmdP.png http://i.imgur.com/MgmdP.png
kaiwetzel 15y ago
From a quick glance it looks ok but there are a few features (missing, I think) which would make me (as a mac book air 11") envious: - 1080p screen - 1080p web cam, tilting - large choice of colors for the anodized aluminum lid (the carbon body is a nice touch, assuming they can't find factory capacities to produce a full aluminum body at the moment ?) - matte cormin gorilla glass (no idea if that's physically and chemically possible but cool it would be) - alternatively, a glossy screen which does not only look like but is a capacitative touch screen (I always end up trying to use touch on the macbook air, oh my) - some other detail which really surprises people and makes you really want to own one of those ... - linux driver support for all components edit: - an external blue ray player, thin and matching in style Still I'm looking forward to hear from people how the build-quality turns out, could be a nice affordable alternative for people looking for a windows notebook!
sandis 15y ago
Why use Flash for a site that's not even that.. flashy? Almost the exact same site could've be done in HTML and Javascript, except potential customers could view it on their iPads, for example.
Zarathust 15y ago
Anywhere I can find specs? I mean real specs, with black on white columns containing numbers? I hate flash so much mostly because it is impossible to get real data out of it. I mean, you support wifi? you don't say!
kittxkat 15y ago
No-deal for me; keyboard looks like a piece of plastic: http://www.engadget.com/photos/dell-xps-13-hands-on/#4704588 http://www.engadget.com/photos/dell-xps-13-hands-on/#4704588
wyclif 15y ago
It's only a matter of time until John Gruber is alerted to this, and writes a Dell-bashing response.
blisper 15y ago
Wiping windows off, and replacing the HD with a clean Ubuntu install would be the first order of business. To me Keyboard, battery, and lack of fan noise are important in an Ultrabook.
Vitaly 15y ago
I absolutely hate this new bread of "scroll to do some js/flash magic" kind of interfaces.

42 points by angel_007 15y ago

The telling thing for me is that there is not a single image of the keyboard head-on. The keyboard is a make or break feature on a laptop of this size. I fear that not showing any images of the keyboard is indicative of a sub-par experience.

barista 15y ago
This problem has been solved many a ttimes before. It's not the first 13" laptop anybody has designed. So thogh I'd love to see a keyboard pic, I'd assume it's going to be inline with what's out there already. Love these new ultrabooks btw. Apple kickstarted it as always and all the platforms benefit.
- spot 15y ago
  apple was a latecomer to the thin and light category. FYI.
  - rsynnott 15y ago
    It was one of the innovators in _affordable_ thin and light, though. While there were very light and thin laptops prior to the Air, they were usually either netbooks, or terribly expensive. Of course, so was the first-gen Air; the second one was really the interesting one.
    - spot 15y ago
      nope, there were plenty of options like the Dell X1 (2.5lbs, 2005) and Sony VAIO Z (3.3lbs, 2000). these were mainstream and affordable and functional. the first air came in 2008.
      - bunderbunder 15y ago
        The X1 was light, but it was not thin. Perhaps thinner than other notebooks that Dell was making at the time. But compared to a MacBook Air, any computer that has room to stack two USB ports on top of each other is a friggin' elephant.
      - rsynnott 15y ago
        What did the Vaio Z cost on release? My impression was that it, and all of Sony's ultra-small laptops, were always terrifyingly expensive. The current Vaio Z, certainly, starts at just under $2000.
  - protomyth 15y ago
    1992 was pretty early http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PowerBook_Duo http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PowerBook_Duo
    - spot 15y ago
      i don't think it qualifies, not thin and not even that light.
      - protomyth 15y ago
        At the time, that was what the MacBook Air is now. It was amazing and much missed.
- beagle3 15y ago
  For me, there are combinations of the location and size of the "Fn", "Enter", "Backspace", "Backslash" and "Right Shift" buttons that could make a keyboard a deal-breaker. E.g., my 9" eee has the shift right of the "up-arrow", and this is a poor design choice that I would hate if I used it day-in-day-out for real work. (My eee is a consumption device, so that's sort of ok)
  - darkstar999 15y ago
    Exactly. I overlooked a HUGE PROBLEM when I bought my HP DV6 online. They offset the whole keyboard one column to the right for the stupid function buttons. http://i.imgur.com/pWcax.jpg http://i.imgur.com/pWcax.jpg (someone tell me what the encircled button does) I had to disable every single one of those keys. You have no idea how many times I launched the damn calculator.
- georgemcbay 15y ago
  "This problem has been solved many a ttimes before." Just because this has been "solved" before doesn't mean Dell solved it correctly here. I loathe Apple for a few different company policy reasons and haven't bought one of their products since the iPhone 3G, but I still can't help but cringe at the crappy keyboard/display/touchpads non-Apple PC laptop makers continue to churn out, even on higher-end laptops, despite this being a "solved" problem. There are a few exceptions to the rule, but even the PC manufacturers who manage to get things right once or twice tend to just go and screw things up in next year's refresh.
sheff 15y ago
The keyboard is what I look at first as well, as I dislike laptops without a decent arrow key layout. Engadget ( http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/10/dells-xps-13-ultrabook-announced/ http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/10/dells-xps-13-ultrabook-an... ) had some pics recently, including some of the keyboard.

herge 15y ago

Why make it out of aluminium? Does it have better heat properties or lighter weight than say some high quality plastics or steel, or any other metal?

deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
jimrhoskins 15y ago
Because at first glance it will pass for a macbook air. I don't say that with any bitterness. I have and love my air, but as I find myself using less and less of OS X, and really just living in iTerm and my browser, the real appeal of the Air to me now is the hardware. If the Ultrabook stands up to the Air in quality, I'm seriously considering the Ultrabook + Ubuntu (double-u?) for my next notebook. Also assuming Ubuntu runs well on it, which my guess is if it doesn't now, it will soon.
- shinratdr 15y ago
  Why would you do that instead of just putting Ubuntu on the Air?
  - jimrhoskins 15y ago
    In the case that Dell (or someone else) had better hardware at a better price. It doesn't look like that's the case with the Ultrabook just yet.
- phamilton 15y ago
  I'm in the same boat with one crutch: Netflix. While I enjoy the fantastic gestures of OS X, I could survive without them. Netflix on the other hand, is irreplaceable. If (or hopefully when) Netflix runs on Linux, I'd consider it if the hardware were on par.
krschultz 15y ago
Aluminum is easily machinable, lightweight, has great heat transfer, can be annodized so that it has a nice surface finish, and is not that expensive. Titanium would be a good choice as well, but it is far more expensive. Steel isn't a good choice for a variety of reasons, but #1 in my mind is surface finish. Typically you have to paint or plate steel. A high end plastic or composite can be made nice, but people are moving away from it.

wasd 15y ago

All I want for Christmas is for a Linux optimized Ultra Book.

macmac 15y ago
Yes, why does no manufacturer see that they could get a bunch of developers onboard by creating such a product? Is the developer segment really that uninteresting?
- shinratdr 15y ago
  > Is the developer segment really that uninteresting? Yes. It's also much, much more fragmented than you make it out to be. It's not like all developers are waiting with bated breath for the perfect Linux laptop. Many are perfectly happy with what they currently use. A machine targeted towards developers wouldn't even appeal to the majority of developers, which is already a niche market to begin with. It's quite obvious why nobody does this.
wmf 15y ago
System76 will probably have a rebranded one soon enough.

eropple 15y ago

So I clicked through this article, expecting something that totally misses the point (like their Adamo a few years ago). It doesn't match my immediate expectations. Which is good! The machine looks solid. I don't know if I like it more than my Air, but it looks promising. I keep clicking through. In a machine like this, two things really matter: keyboard and display. As allwein says in another comment thread, they don't show the keyboard head-on. Which is concerning, but I can live with a crappy keyboard if the screen is great. So click click click, I keep on looking for display information. "A tough yet brilliant 13.3" screen in a compact form similar to an 11" laptop." This sounds...well, I'm not sure what they're saying, but it sounds interesting at least! So I go to check out the specs. No specs, anywhere. After a bit I realize that clicking "Buy XPS 13" takes me to the (god-awful, ugly) Dell page for the product line, where (if I pick "Customize") I can get some specs. The prices get me a bit frowny, but they're not that crazy. So I look at the bottom-line one, which for my use case is more or less equivalent to my 11" Air except in size. At last, there it is...WTF? "Silver Anodized Aluminum and 13.3" HD (720p) Truelife WLED Display with 1.3MP HD Webcam". There we go--there's the "attention to detail is for suckers" Dell I've come to know and loathe. Apple puts a 1440x900 display in their 13" Airs. They put a 1366x768 display in the 11" Airs. I mean, that's just sad--Dell is using a worse panel in their 13" 'ultrabook' than Apple does in their 11" Air. Dell has no excuse. Somehow, the lessons of "don't make people use screens that suck" is lost along the way to the rest of the laptop manufacturers out there. I am (not very) deeply sorry, Dell, but packaging crap in a thinner, lighter box only makes it thinner, lighter crap.

JoshTriplett 15y ago
Most manufacturers seem to do that these days, hiding display resolution somewhere obscure, while it represents one of the most important details that I need to know. Personally, I'd like an Ultrabook with the 13" 1080p screen from the Sony Z series. (But not made by Sony, since I need something with decent quality, a decent warranty, and a decent company.)
- rhizome 15y ago
  hiding display resolution somewhere obscure, while it represents one of the most important details that I need to know. This isn't a coincidence. Sales can profit from ignorance, whether natural or engineered.

ghost91 15y ago

I want to see my code on the screen not myself! Who needs these glossy screens?

jc4p 15y ago
Matte displays show images more true-to-print too, I prefer my matte display both for programming / being outside / editing photos. I really don't understand why anyone would want a glossy display other than "it's easier to clean"
insideout 15y ago
I think what you will be seeing in the reflection is the illuminated keyboard. Even if they weren't right next to the screen light up keys seem like a silly gimmick to me

zyang 15y ago

To get to the spec, click "Buy Xps 13", "Customize and buy", go to "Review and checkout" tab, scroll down - took me 5 minutes of clicking around to get to it. wtf dell.

phamilton 15y ago

A 13" laptop a little bit bigger than the 11" Macbook Air, a little worse screen resolution than the 11" Macbook Air, at about the same price point as the 11" Macbook Air.

tdicola 15y ago
And companies wonder why ultrabooks have been a flop...

delsarto 15y ago

30 March 2005: X1 announced (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dell_Latitude http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dell_Latitude) 1280 × 768 at 16.8 million colors 1.140 kg with 58 Whr Li-Ion 6 cell w: 286 mm h: 25.0 mm d: 196.8 mm XPS13 ultrabook 13.3" High Definition WLED, 300-nit (1366x768) 720p; Weight: Starting at 2.99lbs (1.36kg)6 47WHr battery; 6-Cell Li-Polymer (built-in)3 Width: 12.4" (316mm) Height: 0.24-0.71" (6-18mm) Depth: 8.1" (205mm) So in 7 years, we've added 86 pixels and gotten bigger and heaver. I'm not sure if the X1 laptop was revolutionary, or laptops just haven't gotten that much better. Certainly the X1 was the best investment I've ever made; with a SSD upgrade it's still going strong!

PhrosTT 15y ago
I'm waiting for the Asus UX31 to drop to about $700. Unless the new Pro/Airs with 2000 by 1500ish rez are closer to $1000 than $2000. They have a 1600x900 screen resolution. This is the most important spec for me. Everytime I see 1366x768 I cringe to imagine what an Eclipse Debug perspective would look like on that. Hey look "3 lines of code and 2 variables are viewable at the same time!"
- delsarto 15y ago
  Yeah, I was quite interested in them too. However, my worry is that initial Linux support with all the new parts would be a PITA. When I got the X1 7 years ago, I was a student and patching kernels and poking around various wiki-pages to get various things working was fun. Now I'm in the old and boring "just want it to work" camp :)

deleted 15y ago

[deleted]

nathanwdavis 15y ago

What is really interesting is not the product itself, but the animation that progresses as you scroll down the page. Very neat! Basically instead of time controlling the sequence of frames, it is the scroll position.

eropple 15y ago
I found it inconsistent, unintuitive, and jarring. Bad web designer. No cookie.

fady 15y ago

no matter how pretty they make their laptops, they still run crappy software, IMO. i would buy this, wipe it out and load ubuntu, vs using windows. i find the ubuntu experience on dell laptops to be pretty good. i'm still rocking a e1405 with ubuntu 10.4

aswanson 15y ago
Always a good option, although you have to be wary with respect to wireless/wifi drivers. The ubuntu releases tend to trail new hardware for wireless networking by several months for new windows laptops.
- fady 15y ago
  good to know. i was curious how the support has been for the wireless/wifi drivers in their newer machines...

peteysd 15y ago

Is this posted because the Ultrabook is interesting, or because the scroll-to-animate functionality of the website is interesting? For me, it's the latter, since I have long forsaken Dell. Once the site loaded completely (which took a fair bit of time), I was able to use scrolling to move forward/backward through the animation of the demo. This is certainly an interesting UX, but after about 20 seconds of this I found it cumbersome.

darkstar999 15y ago
Cumbersome. Yes. Definitely an anti-pattern. I shouldn't have to work so hard to see your stupid marketing campaign. It reminded me of this comic http://i.imgur.com/MgmdP.png http://i.imgur.com/MgmdP.png

kaiwetzel 15y ago

From a quick glance it looks ok but there are a few features (missing, I think) which would make me (as a mac book air 11") envious: - 1080p screen - 1080p web cam, tilting - large choice of colors for the anodized aluminum lid (the carbon body is a nice touch, assuming they can't find factory capacities to produce a full aluminum body at the moment ?) - matte cormin gorilla glass (no idea if that's physically and chemically possible but cool it would be) - alternatively, a glossy screen which does not only look like but is a capacitative touch screen (I always end up trying to use touch on the macbook air, oh my) - some other detail which really surprises people and makes you really want to own one of those ... - linux driver support for all components edit: - an external blue ray player, thin and matching in style Still I'm looking forward to hear from people how the build-quality turns out, could be a nice affordable alternative for people looking for a windows notebook!

sandis 15y ago

Why use Flash for a site that's not even that.. flashy? Almost the exact same site could've be done in HTML and Javascript, except potential customers could view it on their iPads, for example.

Zarathust 15y ago

Anywhere I can find specs? I mean real specs, with black on white columns containing numbers? I hate flash so much mostly because it is impossible to get real data out of it. I mean, you support wifi? you don't say!

kittxkat 15y ago

No-deal for me; keyboard looks like a piece of plastic: http://www.engadget.com/photos/dell-xps-13-hands-on/#4704588 http://www.engadget.com/photos/dell-xps-13-hands-on/#4704588

wyclif 15y ago

It's only a matter of time until John Gruber is alerted to this, and writes a Dell-bashing response.

blisper 15y ago

Wiping windows off, and replacing the HD with a clean Ubuntu install would be the first order of business. To me Keyboard, battery, and lack of fan noise are important in an Ultrabook.

Vitaly 15y ago

I absolutely hate this new bread of "scroll to do some js/flash magic" kind of interfaces.