Dell Unveils Updated XPS 13 with Intel’s 10th Gen Core CPUs and 4K Panel

https://www.anandtech.com/show/14779/dell-unveils-xps-13-with-intel-gen-10-core-4k-panel

by jseliger • 7 years ago

33 64 7 years ago

solarkraft2• 7 years ago

What is the reason for the display being so high? Why don't they shift it down for a more balanced look and the ability to integrate a better (Windows Hello) camera?

bazooka_penguin• 7 years ago

I see you arent merely satisfied with your neck being bent out of shape from looking down at a 13" laptop screen, you want to snap it straight off your body

solarkraft2• 7 years ago

Yep, I'll take any 10th of a degree I can get.

paultopia2• 7 years ago

Does anyone know if the developer edition is getting a refresh too?

(Also, does anyone else find Dell's website incredibly confusing? Really hard to find a specific model on it---bizarre for a company that got its start with mail order.)

masonhensley• 7 years ago

Yep, September, with more variants in October - https://news.softpedia.com/news/dell-unveils-new-xps-13-deve...

paultopia2• 7 years ago

thanks!

pizza2344• 7 years ago

Isn't the standard (Windows) edition hardware the same as the developer edition?

I ended up buying the standard edition because there was a discount that made it cost less than the developer one (!).

hbcondo714• 7 years ago

> The CPUs are cooled down using a brand-new cooling system that relies on two fans

I'm somewhat of stickler for fan noise but I hope this implementation doesn't result in being loud

> equipped with up to 16 GB of soldered-down DRAM

That's enough for me right now but no room for expansion

> a 52 Wh battery that can enable operation for up to 19 hours on one charge

Hope real-world battery life comes close

> Dell’s new XPS 13 with quad-core CPUs will be available starting August 27 at $899.99

Quad-core for less than $1K...nice!

jbob2000• 7 years ago

I actually like fans. I think of them as an auditory indicator of the workload/heat of your machine. Rather than a blinking light or looking at something in task manager, my ears tell me all I need to know.

p0nies• 7 years ago

I always disable Turbo Boost, huge temperature difference.

rowanG077• 7 years ago

Same. Sustained performance is also a lot better for me if I disable turbo boost.

somebodythere• 7 years ago

Dual fans should be quieter as the fans can spin slower to provide the same amount of heat dissipation. Fan noise is proportional to the fourth power of RPM, so this sounds like a good thing.

Koshkin• 7 years ago

4K at 13”? I wonder who would need (or even want) that.

enriquto2• 7 years ago

i'd pay extra for a version with large pixels and much longer battery life

apk-d• 7 years ago

I'd pay extra for a version with a taller screen. I don't understand why there's next to no market for laptops that aren't 16:9

psychrometer• 7 years ago

You can pay less by buying the version with the 1920x1200 screen.

nine_k• 7 years ago

I would! I like a ton of text on my screen.

RcouF1uZ4gsC2• 7 years ago

I wish Dell had gotten away from the 16:9 screen aspect ratio which is great for watching movies, but not so great for other stuff, to 3:2 which is much better for productivity work. When I was looking for a laptop last year, I also looked at the Matebook X Pro which had the 3:2 aspect ratio, and it had a lot more usable screen real estate. I ended up going with the XPS 13, but I miss the 3:2 ratio.

dijit3• 7 years ago

Correct me if I'm wrong but the last I heard from the XPS line was that they're 16:10, and while not 3:2 it is much more usable productively; and a super compelling draw for me.

https://www.anandtech.com/show/14426/when-ice-matters-dell-a...

RcouF1uZ4gsC2• 7 years ago

That is a link to the XPS 2-in-1 which is different from the XPS 13. I believe the XPS 13 has the 16:9

baybal23• 7 years ago

I kinda don't like 3:2 as it is "neither meat, neither fish"

Software adapted for 16:9 ration with huge side toolbars get near no usable work space (photoshop, gimp) and you don't get so much space for documents as proper 4:3 or 16:9 turned vertical

And god forbid you break the screen, nothing but the original panel will fit as all 3:2 panels are custom order

totalperspectiv• 7 years ago

I have a matebook, and can confirm that the screen ratio is a dream. So is the rest of the laptop really. You can find them refurbished sometimes for 800-1000, with some serious specs. I've been using it with Windows 10 Pro + WSL, which has been perfect for hobby projects and playing some games / media consumption.

baybal23• 7 years ago

So, they reduced the battery for the third time in a row? This what I call a "Product Manager Curse:"

Just from having around somebody whose work function implies "a duty to extract value" in between the technical decisions, and optimising the product to death, you get products becoming worse with each generation, and not better.

See, a first reduction from ~64Wh to 62Wh might've not been even visible and been a valid "product management" decision, and not impacted the sales.

A second cut from 62 to 56 might've only deterred few power users, and could also be validated from the same standpoint, if evaluated without knowledge of the context.

But the third cut from 56 to 52 will blow up, despite the rest of the product getting the biggest year on year improvement ever.

pizza2344• 7 years ago

Why does the battery matter if overall, the system lasts longer?

baybal23• 7 years ago

52Wh vs 64Wh and the claim of same battery life under a synthetic test while getting more power hungry with each generation?

Something suggests me that this claim is a plain marketing bs.

dijit3• 7 years ago

These are really compelling machines in general, I know some youtubers are saying the style is dated, but I disagree. The only way they get better imo is to have dedicated ethernet. But that's incredibly unlikely these days and many of you probably don't even consider it to be a loss at this point as the world has kinda moved on.

the only downside for me, as a linux user, is the "killer" wifi. My last brush with this card was not pleasant at all, reminiscent of the mid-2000's era of "not working" and "when it does it randomly drops stuff". But I suppose the card is easily replaceable. (as, I have a precision and it's basically an XPS with ECC, a Xeon and a proper intel wifi card).

Now I have to figure out how to convince my IT dept. to buy me one. :)

kelnos2• 7 years ago

I believe that the current XPS 13 machines have the wifi soldered on, not in a miniPCI slot like previous versions of the laptop.

drspacemonkey• 7 years ago

I had an XPS13 from two generations ago, and I completely agree with the "killer" wifi linux problems.

I'd also completely agree that it was cheap and easy enough to replace. Lots of guides online, and getting a real intel wifi card was like $15. Took me about an hour, and most of that was gingerly opening the case.

robocat2• 7 years ago

I have the XPS 15 9560 with Ubuntu 18.04, and the Killer WiFi in that has been stable (I am handy with electronics, and I bought an Intel WiFI card, but I haven't needed to change it yet).

Apparently the Killer WiFi has serious problems running on Windows.

bgeeek• 7 years ago

Puts me off too, has done for years. I thought I had read that it wasn't an issue now? If only they just ditched it for Intel all would be well. The coil whine is the other thing that put me off - with each release I end up searching for it.

wayneftw2• 7 years ago

I got a lowly Acer E5-575G for $799 that came with discrete ethernet, vga and hdmi ports and Manjaro has been rock solid on it for a year.

Why is it incredibly unlikely for Dell to do the same?

DuskStar• 7 years ago

The laptop itself is thinner than an ethernet port if I'm reading the specs right. If not, it's very close.

close042• 7 years ago

Laptops become thinner and thinner. The XPS is 0.46" thick. Your laptop is 1.2" thick. That's a lot of extra height to put larger ports like Ethernet.

bryanlarsen• 7 years ago

The Killer AX1650 is an Intel chip and without the Killer software is the same as an Intel AX200. You just need a version of the Linux kernel that recognizes the AX1650 as an AX200, 5.2.2 or later.

https://www.anandtech.com/show/14194/the-killer-ax1650-a-wif...

https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=247705&p=2

driverdan• 7 years ago

The 16GB max RAM and only USB-C are disappointing. I'll be looking for new Linux laptop soon but want more RAM and hate dongles.

aries1980• 7 years ago

Indeed. I don't know why RAM is so limited these days. My 3-year-old 13" Clevo N130BU has 2 slots, 16GB RAM each with a galore of IO ports.

andreichernov• 7 years ago

Maybe it will have been fixed after the Apple renew MacBooks (not 15´´) to the 32gb

jeffus• 7 years ago

It looks like the webcam is on the top of the screen, thankfully.

ebg13• 7 years ago

Does anyone know if they ever fixed the widely-reported coil whine problem on these?

drewnick• 7 years ago

Anecdote of one but my one-year-old XPS 13 doesn't have it. Returned the '17 model it was terrible.

robocat2• 7 years ago

I saw a review of the XPS 13 9380 mention the problem.

Googling shows it has been a problem since at least the XPS 9530 (2013). I notice it intermittently on my 9570 depending on load/activity.

If they can't fix it after 5 or 6 generations, I wouldn't have much hope they will ever fix it. Apparently Dell test that the sound levels are below some limit, but that means can still hear the noise.

hub_2• 7 years ago

TBH I never had that problem on the 9360 (in over 2 years) - YMMV. Knock on wood though as I had to replace the battery and the AC adapter died.

pizza2344• 7 years ago

Anecdata: I own a 9380, and it doesn't have this problem.

KaiserPro• 7 years ago

They are nice machines apart from two things:

1) poor suspend performance (loosing ~20% battery a day)

2) Stupid pageup/down placement. I kept on hitting them when using the arrow keys.

Barring those two issues, they are great machines.

jpoesen• 7 years ago

Agreed on the pageup/pagedown placement. Highly ridiculous. I remapped those keys to left/right to stop accidental keypresses. Not ideal, but mostly works well for me.

pizza2344• 7 years ago

2) Stupid pageup/down placement. I kept on hitting them when using the arrow keys.

Personally, I'm much more irritated by the Home/End keys position, as they force the hand to do a long movement, when compared to keyboards that map them to Fn+side arrows (which don't require any movement).

kelnos2• 7 years ago

Ugh, timing. I just bought the current/old version of the XPS 13 less than two weeks ago. Part of me wants to see if I can return it and get the new one, but the thought of setting up a new machine again and re-copying data gives me pause.

Also not stoked about the new version having a smaller battery than the one I got, especially considering (as a sibling poster mentioned) it loses more than you'd expect while suspended.

tannhaeuser2• 7 years ago

Owner of an older 2016 XPS 13 here. I'm mostly satisfied with it, but after 4 years there's a very noticable bulge (due to thermics?) on the left to the touchpad and extending into the keyboard. Touchpad sticks out 1mm+ on the left, and has kindof always been a bit difficult to operate for right-click. Should I be worried the battery will explode or something?

Anyway, bought the XPS because of the matte screen, excellent keyboard, and rich interfaces (for a notebook of this size) incl USB-A and SD both of which I use frequently, but these are gone on the newer model. Also not enthusiastic about USB-C as a power connector; had my Samsung smartphone connector wear out within less than a year's time. It's sad because the notebook generally worked very well for me, but with the changes Dell made ceased to stand out. Any recommendations for alternatives (maybe I should finally come around and buy a Thinkpad)?

ohyea• 7 years ago

I had something similar happen with a Macbook. It ended up being the battery expanding and pushing up against the case/trackpad.

stetrain2• 7 years ago

Any swelling could be a potentially dangerous battery issue. Definitely have it serviced.

leetcrew• 7 years ago

I also have an xps 13. great machine but finances were tight at the time so I only got mine with 8 GB of RAM. I've been reading the reviews so I'll know what to get when the time comes to upgrade. the x1 carbon looks like a pretty obvious alternative.

aaronmu• 7 years ago

The swelling is a battery issue. Myself and two other colleagues experienced the problem and had it fixed.

blyry• 7 years ago

My employer switched to dell laptops, the first gen xps 15 and 13s, and now the precisions. As they get older we're seeing more and more battery swell. We're not sure the root cause, we speculate that it's a specific usage pattern related to the USB-C docks everyone has. Your battery is definitely not okay, you should get it replaced asap. We've looked at some alternatives like the hp spectre, or the lenovo ideapad and the asus zenbook, but none of the felt as nice as the precision line wrt build quality and bang-for-buck.

tannhaeuser2• 7 years ago

Mine isn't sitting in a dock, but gets hammered with serious workloads all the time, so I suspect it might be a thermal issue.

hub_2• 7 years ago

Yep, you need a new battery. Getting one from Dell is harder than actually replacing it.

USB-C as a power connector work great when the proprietary power supply die as you are waiting to get a replacement battery. (true story) (I have a 9360 model, which doesn't like the batteries for the 9350)

davidw• 7 years ago

Been using these for years with Ubuntu and love them.

mixmastamyk• 7 years ago

Wow 16:10! I might buy one just for that! 16:9 sucks. Now if I could only get a squarer desk monitor.

They always focus on the 13 in these articles, but I always get the 15, which is often a Precision.

genpfault• 7 years ago

Argh, Dell, please give us full-sized arrow keys!

Dell Unveils Updated XPS 13 with Intel’s 10th Gen Core CPUs and 4K Panel

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