Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Hands-On WIth Dell's 4K Infinity Edge-Equipped Laptops (hothardware.com)

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the ok-but-how-are-the-keyboards dept.

MojoKid writes: Dell's 2015 version of the XPS 13, the company's 13-inch premium ultrabook, is arguably one of the most acclaimed laptops of the year, with its "Infinity Edge" display that comes in resolutions from 1080p up to UHD 4K, with almost no bezel, and a carbon fiber composite chassis design with a machined aluminum lid. Based on the product's success in the market, Dell recently announced they were bringing the design approach and 4K Infinity Edge display to both their XPS 15 consumer based ultrabooks as well as their Precision 15 professional line up. At Dell World 2015 this week Austin, the company had both 15-inch versions on display for demos and this quick hands on shows just how compact and well-built the machines are, though they're also now refreshed with Intel Skylake processors and PCIe NVMe SSDs.

12 of 77 comments (clear)

  1. Looks good, except for awful keyboard by qubezz · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I've tried to use these keyboards, and just can't get used to them. It seems like laptops have come with flatter and flatter chicklet keyboards, with less travel, that just doesn't allow the fingers to find home. There is no dish to the key caps and no dish to the rows. Looks good, feels like crap.

    Now that the screen dictates the size of the laptop, it's also disappointing to see all the wasted bezel space around a smushed keyboard, with shortcut and function keys to get to 9-key cluster that would be above the arrows. Even page up/down over there would be a plus. Direction arrows at least exist here though.

    At least the touchpad area is generous, but again, that makes it impossible to rest your palms anywhere without the cursor going nuts.

    Took reviewing the video to see that the screen is glossy mirror finish. Another looks shiny, is actually crap, feature.

    Please give power users a laptop free of "modern" bling.

    1. Re:Looks good, except for awful keyboard by rasmusbr · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I'm fine with they keyboard size, but the mirror-like screen totally ruins almost all laptops nowadays for me.

      I recently spent about $1k extra to get a Mac instead of a high-end Windows laptop, just because the Mac has ever so slightly less screen glare. After a few weeks of using it I have to say that was money well spent.

      I suppose I must be unusually annoyed by screen glare compared to most people, but I think that I am not the only one, and I think if Dell or Asus would release a high end laptop with a matte screen option for say $300 extra on top of the regular price, they would probably find a nice niche market.

    2. Re:Looks good, except for awful keyboard by shellbeach · · Score: 2

      I think if Dell or Asus would release a high end laptop with a matte screen option for say $300 extra on top of the regular price, they would probably find a nice niche market.

      They already do. Dell's XPS 13 (non-touch) is in fact a matte screen (IPS, 1920x1080, and one of the best I've seen). I'd assume that the non-touch version of this XPS 15 laptop will also be a matte screen (but you'd want to check this). (Having a touch screen obviously requires a glossy overlay for the digitiser, so you'll always be limited to the non-touch variants.)

  2. coil whine by Cronq · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Did they finally fix annoying coil whine? Dell wasn't able to do that for their top XPS models in last 2.5 years. Replacement boards also had this issue and Dell didn't care.

    Here is 56 pages thread: http://en.community.dell.com/s...

    Qualiity is crap these days :-(

  3. Go BIG, Dell, or go home to mama by Provocateur · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I am asking Dell to ship laptops. with no OS encumbrances. No MS tax.

    Are you still beholden to MS' bullying tactics? Where Michael sold his soul and signed on the dotted line?

    Or are you hardware makers, pure and simple?

    Ship this flagship notebook, without an OS. This is your wake-up call. Go mano a mano with the big boys. I think it is time. The Force awakens. We can buy your Windows-encumbered hardware, sure, and reach for the moon. Or you can sell us the hardware with our choice of a distro, and we can shoot for Mars instead.

    This is your wake-up call, Dell.

    Pop quiz: Do you hit the snooze button? Or show them there's a new sheriff in town, and he would like to play on your sandlot.

    --
    WARNING: Smartphones have side effects--most of them undocumented.
    1. Re:Go BIG, Dell, or go home to mama by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/xps-13-linux/pd

      Who's your daddy now ?

    2. Re:Go BIG, Dell, or go home to mama by firewrought · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Both the XPS 13 Developer Edition and the Precision M3800 come with Linux, though it takes some searching to find (dell.com/ubuntu seems the best starting point). IIRC, you actually pay ~$70-80 less for selecting Linux.

      By contrast, I wasn't able to find any similar offerings from Lenovo, Asus, HP, etc. Say what you want about Dell, but they seem to be the only big name competing for Linux in the laptop space. (There are several small players/re-branders of course, but their products are very generic since they don't have the engineering expertise.)

      --
      -1, Too Many Layers Of Abstraction
    3. Re:Go BIG, Dell, or go home to mama by Cramit · · Score: 2

      Dell has a developer version of the XPS 13 inifinity edge laptop that is $100 cheaper and ships with Ubuntu pre-installed. Furthermore the hardware is identical so all drivers are supported for install on the widows version. I am assuming that with a little work these drivers and tools could be ported to other distros if needed. I plan on getting the windos version of an XPS in the next year or two so that I can install linux and use the windows licence on a virtual machine as I am now so that I can run Autodesk Inventor and other other few pieces of software that I use with no linux parallels.

  4. Re: Linux? by ph1ll · · Score: 3, Informative

    Can't comment about the new model but I'm typing this on an XPS 13 (with Ubuntu 12.04 LTS) purchased in May 2014 and I've never had a problem with it in all that time.

    --
    --- "We've always been at war with Eastasia."
  5. Almost Perfect by jon3k · · Score: 3, Informative

    They even make a developer edition running Ubuntu. The problem is, all the reviews point out the poor keyboard and trackpad. Deal breaker for me. I'll stick with Macbooks until I can get something at least as good. Why is it so hard for anyone else to build a trackpad that good?

  6. Bare bones never sells worth spit. by westlake · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I am asking Dell to ship laptops. with no OS encumbrances. No MS tax.

    The geek has been whining about this since the nineties and the answer is always the same. The mass market shopper in his tens of millions buys nothing but the plug-and-play product.

    The "known good" balanced and tested configuration of hardware and software that will meet his expectations of price and performance without hassle --- and can be returned for refund or exchange under warranty if it doesn't.

    Walmart, with its enormous purchasing power, wasted about ten years trying to find a credible Linux system that could be sold and serviced for significantly less than the budget HP or Dell desktop. Nothing ever came of it.

    The real meaning of the M$ tax is that the product that sells in very small numbers will always be always harder to find and cost you more.

  7. Nah... by interval1066 · · Score: 2

    Prolly not gonna replace my MacBookPro 13" Retina running Mint any time soon, this thing is awesome.

    --
    Python: 'And then suddenly you have a language which says "we're all stuck with whatever the whiniest coder wants".'