Dell XPS

[albebaubles]

I'm starting a new FTE job next week and today my computer arrived. Since I'm a native iOS/macOS dev, I need a Mac to do my job, but they messed up and sent a loaded Dell XPS. In fairness, I'm full stack so not surprised they sent a Windows machine. It's been at least a decade since I have touched a Dell and I have to say, I'm very very impressed after 2 hours of playing around. Very solid construction, fast as hell.

I need to keep a better eye on the windows hardware front.

 

[pshufd]

I'm writing this on a 2008 Dell Studio XPS. I love the XPS line. Did I mention that they last a long time? I'm learning a lot of Windows development stuff. Everything is building blocks today. You don't write a huge crapload of code, you take pieces from libraries - it is so much easier.

 

[Alex W.]

Tons of issues with dell 2020 15 / 17" units, discourage this.

 

[pshufd]

Tons of issues with dell 2020 15 / 17" units, discourage this.

Hopefully they can fix the problems.

I'm a fan of the Studio XPS (desktop) models. Though I don't like the smaller 2020 systems.

I have a 2008 Dell XPS M1330 which I haven't used in a few years. It had a defective keyboard. The space bar only had two supports and produced different results depending on where you hit it. I brought it back to Best Buy and got it back two weeks later (they had to ship it out). The new keyboard had three supports under the space bar. So they screwed up. But they fixed it too.

It may be harder to fix these today as I think that most laptops are less repairable than they used to be when they were bigger and more modular. Dell has always taken care of me on product issues and I am typing this on a Dell Studio XPS.

 

[vladster]

I'm starting a new FTE job next week and today my computer arrived. Since I'm a native iOS/macOS dev, I need a Mac to do my job, but they messed up and sent a loaded Dell XPS. In fairness, I'm full stack so not surprised they sent a Windows machine. It's been at least a decade since I have touched a Dell and I have to say, I'm very very impressed after 2 hours of playing around. Very solid construction, fast as hell.

I need to keep a better eye on the windows hardware front.

I'm also Full Stack and have been using macs as development machines since 2009. VirtualBox for virtualization for infrastructure prototyping.

I'm a little disappointed with how VirtualBox became unstable/unusable on macOS in a last couple of years. Also, Docker is supported on macs through virtualization only as well.

The only holding ground is - being able to develop for Apple mobile devices. If not this last one, I'd switch onto XPS/Linux or something alike.

 

[pshufd]

I'm also Full Stack and have been using macs as development machines since 2009. VirtualBox for virtualization for infrastructure prototyping.

I'm a little disappointed with how VirtualBox became unstable/unusable on macOS in a last couple of years. Also, Docker is supported on macs through virtualization only as well.

The only holding ground is - being able to develop for Apple mobile devices. If not this last one, I'd switch onto XPS/Linux or something alike.

VirtualBox - you get what you pay for. I used Parallels for a few years - much better product.

 

[clangers23]

QC is a real issue, the battery drain for such an expensive laptop requiring a motherboard swap isn't acceptable. I ordered an XPS 9700 with a 2060 and it took about 30 seconds to discover serious issues with it. The CPU was locked flat out irrespective of power profile and it had the legendary wobbly trackpad. The keyboard, trackpad and surface areas were burning hot to touch, fans spinning loudly before a thermally tripped shut down.

Dell took the laptop back without question, apparently a known system board issue along with the known trackpad issue.

I originally let them return it for a repair which they stated was a 3-5 day turnaround. As soon as they received it back and after repeatedly chasing them they conceded that they didn't actually have the spare parts yet and the repair would take 4-6 weeks! They eventually accepted a refund request.

It was a lovely device and I'm sure if you can get a fully functioning one it'd be great but honestly I've no idea how these laptops are getting out of the factory? Actually yes I do, no adequate QC and Dell don't really care.

 

[pshufd]

QC is a real issue, the battery drain for such an expensive laptop requiring a motherboard swap isn't acceptable. I ordered an XPS 9700 with a 2060 and it took about 30 seconds to discover serious issues with it. The CPU was locked flat out irrespective of power profile and it had the legendary wobbly trackpad. The keyboard, trackpad and surface areas were burning hot to touch, fans spinning loudly before a thermally tripped shut down.

Dell took the laptop back without question, apparently a known system board issue along with the known trackpad issue.

I originally let them return it for a repair which they stated was a 3-5 day turnaround. As soon as they received it back and after repeatedly chasing them they conceded that they didn't actually have the spare parts yet and the repair would take 4-6 weeks! They eventually accepted a refund request.

It was a lovely device and I'm sure if you can get a fully functioning one it'd be great but honestly I've no idea how these laptops are getting out of the factory? Actually yes I do, no adequate QC and Dell don't really care.

I had a similar experience with a 2008 XPS M1330 but the problems were different. They took it and I got it back a few weeks later and they fixed the problems. Some of it was a design problem. Dell makes good stuff. Eventually.

 

[vladster]

VirtualBox - you get what you pay for. I used Parallels for a few years - much better product.

I know of parallels and then there's vmware fusion. I'd agree if VirtualBox was always bad, but just several years ago it was very robust and fast product on macs.

I'd fevelop some C++ app on Windows VM, Java development/ ios on host machine, prototype infrastructure/network/database on a group of linux VMs and all this would work for years. This whole thing was flying fast on macbook pro 13, i5 16gb circa 2012.

Nowadays linux VM would be sluggish to the point of being unusable from the start. Then it would just crash, corrupt and all work be lost. I thought my mbp 13 got outdated and upgraded to i7 with even more ram, but appears this is just the direction things go. Regret buying latest mac.

And then with move to ARM processors overall - virtualization of production environment approach becomes questionable including Docker VM.

Might end up keeping mac for ios dev only and some linux laptop for the rest. Macbook I just bought is overkill for just that and I will miss flrxibility of being able to do everything on a single computer.

P.S. Not advocating XPS necessarily... my experience on using linux at different laptops is that it is mostly inefficient comby with fans on and battery draining fast. I'll look into some builds that target linux.

 

[pshufd]

I know of parallels and then there's vmware fusion. I'd agree if VirtualBox was always bad, but just several years ago it was very robust and fast product on macs.

I'd fevelop some C++ app on Windows VM, Java development/ ios on host machine, prototype infrastructure/network/database on a group of linux VMs and all this would work for years. This whole thing was flying fast on macbook pro 13, i5 16gb circa 2012.

Nowadays linux VM would be sluggish to the point of being unusable from the start. Then it would just crash, corrupt and all work be lost. I thought my mbp 13 got outdated and upgraded to i7 with even more ram, but appears this is just the direction things go. Regret buying latest mac.

And then with move to ARM processors overall - virtualization of production environment approach becomes questionable including Docker VM.

Might end up keeping mac for ios dev only and some linux laptop for the rest. Macbook I just bought is overkill for just that and I will miss flrxibility of being able to do everything on a single computer.

P.S. Not advocating XPS necessarily... my experience on using linux at different laptops is that it is mostly inefficient comby with fans on and battery draining fast. I'll look into some builds that target linux.

Again, what do you expect for a free product? Oracle may have spent a lot of money on a product that they didn't get any revenue from. We all know what eventually happens with those kinds of products. They're a public company and their job is to make money for shareholders. I think that there is some benefit in that a customer can run OEL on VirtualBox to play around with it but, at the end of the day, products have to have revenues and profits.

 

[vladster]

Again, what do you expect for a free product? Oracle may have spent a lot of money on a product that they didn't get any revenue from. We all know what eventually happens with those kinds of products. They're a public company and their job is to make money for shareholders. I think that there is some benefit in that a customer can run OEL on VirtualBox to play around with it but, at the end of the day, products have to have revenues and profits.

VMware is not free, but here you go:

VMware Engineer Confirms macOS Catalina 10.15.6 Bug Causes Crashes with Virtualization

macOS Catalina 10.15.6 seems to have introduced a bug that causes system crashes, especially when using virtualization software such as VirtualBox or...

www.macrumors.com

"A regression in the App Sandbox component of macOS 10.15.6 is reportedly leaking kernel memory, causing macOS to crash. "

And yes, for the first time in years I've seen mac os to just crash while using VMs.

So I got new laptop with catalina with tons of bugs that they will not fix as their goal is big sur already that will focus on ARM processor with intel being secondary. And with touchbar that is barely portable to other OSses I ended up with a piece of expensive hardware that is not worth the money.

 

[Alex W.]

PSA stay away from any XPS 13/15/17 units, dell has a MAJOR manufacturing breakdown with customers lately.
Massive threads on this on Dell and Reddit of major widespread issues ranging from wifi, battery, bluetooth, keyboard, trackpad, USB-C.

Avoid these for their costs, if you must buy one get the Business Pro Plus support to avoid the consumer nightmare side of support.

Overall, hard pass on Dell.

 

[grmlin]

Yeah, I noticed it reading reddit. Now I'm actually quite happy that we didn't buy one of the new XPSs for me at work.

 

[pshufd]

I'm waiting for Apple Silicon myself though I can't say that I need a new computer. I would so like to be over Thermal issues on computers.

 

[sbarton]

I love my 9500 (xps 15) and have a 9700 (xps 17 w/ 2600 max-q) on order. The 9500 is the best laptop i've ever owned - period. I have mostly owne'd mbp's for the last 10 years for contrast and i have a 2017 mbp also. The screen is amazing and the keyboard and trackpad are equal to my previous mbp's (keyboard is actually better) which amazes me because i never thought i would be saying that about a windows laptop.

I recommend Linus techtips video review as well as the mobile tech review one on youtube. These reviews are consistent with my experiences and first hand observations. There were apparently issues with the trackpad early on which were rectified and the tb3/ac charging issue on the 17" has been resolved according to Dell and has to do with the chsraging circuit or power brick. BTW there is a similar but completely separate but similar "issue" that people get confused about with the 9700. In short there will be battery drain if you use Ultimate boost mode even on AC. Dell should have communicated that up-front but just know that was/is a design choice to keep a smaller 130w ac adapter AND allow tb3 charging cabability...so don't buy it if it bothers you or your planning to use it predominantly for gaming or something that keeps the gpu and cpu lit up for hours on end.

I've had none of the issues (thankfully) reported in this thread and would recommend the 9500 to anyone looking at the mbp. Luckily i had a microcenter to go look at the unit, examine it for quality control before buying. I *did* have to uninstall and re-install my sound drivers to the latest version to get sound working correctly. I've a very detail picky person about my tech. Tolerences/gaps, hinges, trackpad, build quality, deck stiffness, bad pixels, back-light bleed..all of these things are very important to me and this thing rocks every checkbox on my list.

Will follow back up when i receive my 9700 and let everyone know what sort of quality i received and if there are any issues.

 

[Alex W.]

Wait until a year from now when everything starts to fail due to under spec engineering.

Hinged that get lose, stop closing.
Batteries that fail way sooner than expect.

Just look at the dell community for XPS and see how last year's models are failing with every type of issue.

Dell's are barely enough quality, hit or miss when their brand new, it's illogical to assume you'll get any long term life out of them according to what we've seen, what's been reported and past history with Dell. Massive trackpad issues, screen that stays partially open when shut, hardware and endless software issues.

I'd rather pay the extra 1000 for the apple and have no headaches, even in windows.

Don't even get me started on how horrible dell customer service is for consumers; simply their just a company you shouldn't support imo. Some of the worst horror stories I've seen.

 

[pshufd]

Wait until a year from now when everything starts to fail due to under spec engineering.

Hinged that get lose, stop closing.
Batteries that fail way sooner than expect.

Just look at the dell community for XPS and see how last year's models are failing with every type of issue.

Dell's are barely enough quality, hit or miss when their brand new, it's illogical to assume you'll get any long term life out of them according to what ever seen, what's been reported and past history with Dell.

I'd rather pay the extra 1000 for the apple and have no headaches.

I have a 2008 Dell XPS m1330 laptop. I booted it up yesterday.

My 2008 MacBook Pro 17 died in 2018 due to battery expansion and the display died earlier.

I'm running a 2008 XPS Studio as my main desktop alongside my 2015 MacBook Pro 15. Apple computers have their problems too.

 

[Alex W.]

All of the YouTube reviews are apart of Dell's review program, they get QA cherry picked units that have been hand pampered, they also are forced into giving desirable reviews or they get kicked out of the program.

Linus is a member. The product you get isn't the one they have, far from it. I'll tell you right now his review is ******** he's obviously overlooking alot of major issues from coil whine, battery drain, bsod, thermal issues, software issues, bloat wear, the entire day to setup each unit with a reinstall. The trackpad that doesn't wobble that still has issues with it disconnecting from time to time, a common issue that many people have currently.


I've been informed of this directly from a yotuber with 500k followers. I have personally had multiple of these units for my company and can confirm widespread issues across them all. Look closely, every single one of these units had issues in our office.

If you think it's fine, look closer, use the unit harder, try pushing it and then you'll notice them.

I cannot recommend them to anyone, I've dropped 35,000 on these units to discover this reality that XPSs are not professional quality machines. I think it's a bad investment and I'm certain in the long run it will prove to be a nightmare vs Apple, Lenovo's etc.

 

[thejadedmonkey]

I have the XPS 13 from 2014, the first one with that slick screen. It's over 6 years old at this point. It's been through two toddlers, one who smeared lollipop all over the trackpad, and aside from replacing the trackpad due to the aforementioned lollipop, it's been rock solid.

More recently I've replaced it with a Surface due to an unidentified and intermittent screen tearing and BSOD issue, but it's still functional when I want to use a laptop and not a tablet or desktop.

I don't think you can go wrong with it, personally.

 

[sbarton]

All of the YouTube reviews are apart of Dell's review program, they get QA cherry picked units that have been hand pampered, they also are forced into giving desirable reviews or they get kicked out of the program.

Linus is a member. The product you get isn't the one they have, far from it. I'll tell you right now his review is ******** he's obviously overlooking alot of major issues from coil whine, battery drain, bsod, thermal issues, software issues, bloat wear, the entire day to setup each unit with a reinstall. The trackpad that doesn't wobble that still has issues with it disconnecting from time to time, a common issue that many people have currently.
chines. I think it's a bad investment and I'm certain in the long run it will prove to be a nightmare vs Apple, Lenovo's etc.

nah..sounds more like a lot of hyperbol tbh. i think his reviews are some of the best out there. Anyway, I'm more inclined to trust him over some random guy that runs arounds pooping negative comments on every xps thread that pops up on macrumors.com.

 

[Pangalactic]

I love my 9500 (xps 15) and have a 9700 (xps 17 w/ 2600 max-q) on order. The 9500 is the best laptop i've ever owned - period. I have mostly owne'd mbp's for the last 10 years for contrast and i have a 2017 mbp also. The screen is amazing and the keyboard and trackpad are equal to my previous mbp's (keyboard is actually better) which amazes me because i never thought i would be saying that about a windows laptop.

I recommend Linus techtips video review as well as the mobile tech review one on youtube. These reviews are consistent with my experiences and first hand observations. There were apparently issues with the trackpad early on which were rectified and the tb3/ac charging issue on the 17" has been resolved according to Dell and has to do with the chsraging circuit or power brick. BTW there is a similar but completely separate but similar "issue" that people get confused about with the 9700. In short there will be battery drain if you use Ultimate boost mode even on AC. Dell should have communicated that up-front but just know that was/is a design choice to keep a smaller 130w ac adapter AND allow tb3 charging cabability...so don't buy it if it bothers you or your planning to use it predominantly for gaming or something that keeps the gpu and cpu lit up for hours on end.

I've had none of the issues (thankfully) reported in this thread and would recommend the 9500 to anyone looking at the mbp. Luckily i had a microcenter to go look at the unit, examine it for quality control before buying. I *did* have to uninstall and re-install my sound drivers to the latest version to get sound working correctly. I've a very detail picky person about my tech. Tolerences/gaps, hinges, trackpad, build quality, deck stiffness, bad pixels, back-light bleed..all of these things are very important to me and this thing rocks every checkbox on my list.

Will follow back up when i receive my 9700 and let everyone know what sort of quality i received and if there are any issues.

Can you tell a little bit more about the keyboard and battery life? I'm looking for a new 15/16 inch laptop for me, and I'm hoping this might be it

 

[clangers23]

I've bought two now and returned both. The first XPS 9700 had the well known trackpad issue and a faulty motherboard. The 2nd had the trackpad issue (worse than the 1st) and the battery drain issue (only pulling 105w from the PSU). Dell wanted me to wait 4 weeks so they could send out an engineer to replace the motherboard on the 2nd one. I gave up and eventually received a refund.

Really nice devices, the display is something else. It's just a shame it's such a QC lottery when ordering one. If you get a good one you'll be delighted. I'll hold off till the 2nd gen now and hope they've ironed out some of the issues.

 

[sbarton]

Can you tell a little bit more about the keyboard and battery life? I'm looking for a new 15/16 inch laptop for me, and I'm hoping this might be it

Battery for me is about 6+ hours (subjective, un-timed) on the 9500 doing a mixed business workload like browsing, outlook, ms teams, etc. I haven't cycled the battery many times either yet but get the feeling if i really wanted to stretch it doing lighter browsing or just youtub/netflics i could get more.

Keyboard is hands down the best i've ever used on a laptop. It feels like a mpb keyboard with just a smidge more travel and the keycaps are large, pefectly spaced (for my hands) and are very stable. I love it...trackpad too..love it..glass surface feels great, tracks wonderfully. Palm rejection of the precision touchpad drivers is now probably 90% of apples which i use as the benchmark..close enough that i no longer think about it.

If you are looking for a great deal also i would HIGHLY recommend the xps 7590 OLED as well. it's last years model and the keyboard/trackpad aren't *quite* a nice but still very very good and the oled screen is just superb. Has a gtx 1650 4gb gpu and games pretty nicely as well at 1080p. Can be undervolted still if you are so inclined to tweak performance even further. I've seen these down to around $1500 usd which imo is a steal.

 

[michael9891]

I've had a 9300 FHD+ touch screen since March. After 3 months, 3 times in 2 days when closing the lid it failed to hibernate/sleep and got scolding hot and drained the battery in 30 mins.

Had an engineer replace major parts twice and then a 3rd time (all within 2 weeks) to replace faulty speakers.

3 weeks ago I was prompted by Dell to update the Realtek drivers which eventually meant yet another clean install. I stumbled across a Reddit with info that could have easily avoided this.

The speakers aside, which was just bad luck, I put it all down to updates from Dell, not the actual hardware. But the technical support just kept suggesting parts being replaced.

Because I complained so much, they offered me a much higher spec UHD model as my configuration was no longer offered. But I didn't want the poor battery life, so they offered me a full refund and will be sending it back this week.

Despite all this, I've still got to say it's a great machine. Screen is awesome, keyboard and track pad are a joy to use and it just oozes quality. I'll just say if you plan on buying from Dell (I bought direct), get it at a time they offer up to 14% off, which is frequent. And for peace of mind, the 3 year on site repair warranty is reletatively cheap.

Spent a ridiculous amount of time this week looking at what to replace it with and can't see what I'd be happy with. Maybe one of the new Asus Zenbook or ZenBook S models. But I doubt the build quality will be on par with Dell and can't find a anywhere I can try it & return if I'm not happy.

Maybe the Surface Laptop 4 which I hope will be released soon, but they're always much more expensive. Or maybe I'll end up buying another 9300. Shame the UK doesn't get the 86Whr non touch 9500, because that would be ideal.