Dell’s latest XPS 13 DE delivers Linux in a svelte package | Hacker News Reader

Dell’s latest XPS 13 DE delivers Linux in a svelte package

arstechnica.com

33 pointsjseliger16 comments

I've had Dell XPS 13 DE for about a month now. Overall I'm very happy with it. It's great to have the power of linux right on the computer, not a SSH-session away. I got the 1080p version cause the battery will last longer. Too bad it also ment I only got 8 gigs or ram.

There's also some rough edges, some of them I could solve.

Touchpad is supersensitive. If you're typing a longer sentence suddenly you could jump out of the input/text-field cause your thumbs touched it. Tweakable, got better with "syndaemon -t -k -i 1.0 -d".

I think the keyboard backlight turned off too quick, tweakable with "echo 5m > /sys/class/leds/dell::kbd_backlight/stop_timeout"

The WLAN doesn't come online as fast as I would like it to after closed screen and sleepmode. Way quicker on my MacBook Pro (2015). Also feels like I have more net-problems when the WLAN-signal is weak when compared to my MacBook Pro. Mosh in a terminal is great for keeping connections from a laptop to servers though.

Bluetooth syncing to wireless speakers and similar isn't as fluid and automatic as from Win 10.

The worst part is a constant lowlevel hissing when using headphones. I haven't been able to solve that yet :/.

But overall I really like the keyboard, the screen, the formfactor and Ubuntu 16.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Dell_XPS_13_(9360)

Continuous hissing sound with headphones

Open alsamixer and set "Headphone Mic Boost" gain to 10 dB (See discussion on reddit). Note that this does reduce the volume slightly.

You may also run the equivalent command:

   $ amixer -c PCH cset 'name=Headphone Mic Boost Volume' 1

Worked! Thanks man :).

Still have odd random crackles and noise when I for example stop/start a youtubevideo. Not a showstopper as the hissing though. Tried some tips on URL you pasted but no deal.

It's a problem for me on the 9343 model as well. Loud pops and cracks when the audio driver turns on/off.

Fortunately, I've found this only happens on the headphone jack itself. Since I'm an audiophile, when I know I'll be using the laptop for several hours, I tend to plug in a USB-powered DAC instead and route all audio through that. It sidesteps the problem.

Why are laptop vendors avoiding the Iris GPU? The previous generation XPS 13 had the IRIS gpu and if you skipped the high resolution touch screen the battery life went from a pretty good 12 hours to an amazing 20 hours. Did I mention I had touch screens? Dell also has an annoying habit of restricting the NICE cpu and 16GB ram to the high res touch screen.

Seems really weird to spec such a nice laptop with the HD 620 graphics when $20 or so would get you the iris (with an on chip frame buffer) 640 which approximately doubles the performance. Same TDP even.

I have this and my three main complaints are:

- The i5 version is just too slow. Get an i7, you'll be glad you did.

- The touchpad has a lot of friction. It appears to be made of glass but the surface is rough for some reason. It's really annoying; Mac touchpads are way better on this front. According to Reddit it may vary unit-to-unit: https://www.reddit.com/r/Dell/comments/5hfyzp/xps_13_9360_gl...

- Integrated graphics are still not good enough to run Counter Strike GO at 60 FPS, even at lowest settings and very blocky resolution.

Overall an OK purchase, but I may sell it and get an i7 spin.

Yes, problem is the i7 doesn't have iris graphics (like the previous i7) and forces the choice of the power sucking glossy touch screen. Just about halves your battery life as well (20 to 12 hours).

If you want to play CSG see if you can find the previous generation with the i7+iris graphics. Not sure it will do 60fps, but it's about twice as fast as this years (with the HD620 graphics).

Why is a review from January on the front page?

A sufficient number of people upvoted it.

I submitted it again after reading this: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14654124 . I thought it was fairly well known that there are now good, works-out-of-the-box Linux laptops, but apparently it isn't true.

I use OS X (or I guess MacOS now—https://jakeseliger.com/2015/01/01/5k-retina-imac-and-mac-os...) but think diversity and freedom are important.

I've had the past two generations of this computer and I am very happy. I have been using Linux for the past 20 years and am more than happy to buy a computer that has the goal of a working Linux install out of the box.

How is this a "developer" machine? Glossy screen and apple chicklet keyboard.

Great display, lots of power under the hood, quite light, and Linux friendly.

I can accept that the glossy screen is annoying, but I don't think the keyboard is any worse than ones on other laptops.

How would you compare it to Lenovo Carbon X1?

It seems pretty comparable, and X1 has a rather nice keyboard, matte screen, and is reasonably Linux-friednly.

Can't speak for it as I haven't had a chance to try it. I will say that Thinkpad keyboards are about as good as they get on notebooks.

can you not get a matte screen? I have the G1 XPS DE with matte.

Yes, if you get the i5, 8GB ram, and no touch screen.

Sad that they don't allow you to choose.

On the up side the battery life is almost doubly the i7, high resolution, and touch screen version.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com