Comment by crispinb | Hacker News Reader

Comment by crispinb | Hacker News Reader

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So you're on the team? Here's a perspective from a potential buyer. Apple having truly jumped the shark on their MB Pros, I've been mulling on and off about what to do when it's time to replace my current 13" MBP. An XPS 13 or 15 w/Ubuntu is definitely on my radar. But I am a bit scared off by reliability & quality reports. They're only anecdotal & biased samples of course, but there's not much else for a poor consumer to go on.

It might be worth your team's while addressing these perceptions in some way. I don't know what to suggest (your job not mine!) other than chiming in now and then in places like HN, but it might merit some thought on your part.

One thing that reduces consumer risk when buying Apple is their genuinely frictionless returns policy. It really is feasible to buy if you're unsure & just return within a couple of weeks, no questions asked. I haven't looked, but imagine Dell's terms are similar. If so, this might be worth highlighting.

There are 3 in my family, a 9350 and two 9360s. All work fine. I represent the majority of people who have no reason to write anything about their computers because there's nothing to say.

Accepted (apart from the unsubstantiated claim about representing the majority). To quote myself, these perceptions are only based on "anecdotal & biased samples".

The problem is that a lack of accurate & reliable information can be a great incubator of unsubstantiated perceptions. I'm just suggesting that if the Dell team believe the XPS's not to have reliability problems, it's in their interests to come up with tactics to manage perceptions where possible. It's in our interests really, as we all would want a wide range of good developer-friendly laptops available.

I also own 9360 with 1080p panel for half a year.

The only thing that bothered me was adaptive brightness (CABC) that was fixed in my case with an unofficial panel firmware at some risk to brick the device. Coil whine is perceptable only if I keep ear close to the keyboard. No other problems.

If there is someone from Dell here: please fix CABC! Unofficial patch proves that it can be done. It's especially important for linux devs who switch between dark terminal windows and browser: CABC increases backlight brightness if contents of screen are light, and decreases if it's dark. So, I switch from terminal to browser, brightness jump is already unpleasant as is, but then CABC kicks in, increases brightness and burns out eyes. Switch back to terminal -- too dark, difficult to see anything. How it's even supposed to work... Another unpleasant thing happens when CABC starts to adjust brighness back and forth while I edit code, it's highly annoing when it happens.

Edit: There were also a problems with Atheros WiFi, but new firmware from Atheros's github fixes them completely for me. Works stable since June 2017.

Adaptive brightness is a Windows setting you can change in the Power Options control panel. Click 'Change plan settings' next to your chosen power plan, click 'Change advanced settings', click 'Display', click 'Enable adaptive brightness' and change it to off.

I don't have windows installed, but it's highly unlikely that it'll help. This feature is baked into panel firmware, and while Dell releases firmware updates for some models, there is no official fix for 9360 FHD. For models with the fix there are two versions of firmware: with CABC support and without. Switching requires firmware reflash with a special vendor tool. So it's unlikely that there is a dynamic setting to switch it off.

Oh. The setting works in Windows on my XPS 13, but I have the 3200x1800 display. I disabled adaptive brightness the day I bought it, because it annoyed me for the same reasons.

Tool from Dell to disable CABC on the FHD model was released today. Happy days!

http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/04/drivers/driversdet...

To answer my own query on the returns issue:

> Restocking Fees: Unless the product is defective or the return is a direct result of a Dell error, Dell may charge a restocking fee of up to 15% of the purchase price paid, plus any applicable sales tax.

http://www.dell.com/learn/au/en/aucorp1/policies-returns (Aus version as this is where I am).

That's a real problem for online purchases in my view.

I bought a Dell XPS 9550 with terrible coil whine from the Microsoft Store about two years ago. Thinking I was just unlucky, I did an exchange (MS Store) to a different unit. This one had no coil whine, but would not wake up from sleep about half the time.

If you think Apple has fallen in terms of quality, you have no idea how low they would have to fall to match Dell's.

> If you think Apple has fallen in terms of quality

I don't. I've found Apple (hardware) to be reliable and long-lasting. It's the developer-hostile designs where I think they've gone crazy.

It just seems like consumers don't care that the MacBook design is hostile to connectivity (my biggest issue) or developers in general. They're used to it from Apple, and want the latest and greatest regardless. Apple is honing in on that market, like it or not.

I don't find Apple designs hostile at all for Objective-C and Swift developers, their main developer customer base.

I disagree with the last part of this sentence. I know a lot of developers, the vast majority of whom have preferred Apple laptops for years, and very few of whom develop in Objective-C and Swift. I agree with a lot of other commenters that Apple are becoming more and more complacent and arrogant about the developer part of their customer base, which I think is larger than perhaps they realise.

Then they should have bought a laptop with a pure GNU/Linux or BSD variant, and help companies that target UNIX developers stay in business.

Pure UNIX server software was never the developers target market of neither NeXT or Apple.

UNIX compatibility was always just a means to port UNIX workstation software into their OSes, not as a means to write UNIX server software.

Just like Microsoft did in the past and is now doing it again.

Their developer target market are the ones using their sancioned languages and SDKs.

I don't see how choice of programming platform & language has much to do with the need for real keyboards, function keys, ports, etc. Nor is it true that most developers using macbooks are only or even primarily 'Objective-C and Swift developers').

It is true, however that those developers I know who have a choice (ie. because they don't have a huge professional investment in Apple's platforms) are seeking alternatives to macbooks for their next replacement machines.

If you are going Dell I think the best bet is to try the Precision 5000 series (pretty equal to XPS 15) and 7000 series (heavier and bulkier but you can really spec these things out). I have an XPS 15 (9550) and I really cannot recommend them. Lots of problems.

At least the Precision line is the buisness line which means better support, preinstalled with Linux (so its tested well) and probably from what I have read better tested/built due to being a business line. I like supporting Dell on this venture b/c they are sticking thier neck out a little by even supporting/preinstalling Linux as a big name OEM provider.

The Lenovos are great too, but I wish they would officially support Linux and offer Linux preinstalled as an option so you don't have to pay for Windows.

Thanks, I won't be actively looking for 6 months or so. I'm just keeping an eye on what's available. Precisions are prohibitively expensive here (Aus) -- starting at about AUD$6000! Thinkpads raise a nostalgic smile. My little x40 with dock was probably my favourite ever machine.

Both the Precision 5510 and the M3800 I used to have, had issues with the battery swelling. The M3800 was a piece of junk - pretty much what I'd expect when a company that makes $300 laptops uses the same design team to make a $3000 laptop. The 5510 felt much better, but the screen has a bit of discoloration at some of the edges, and while the keyboard is great, the trackpad isn't that good. The speakers are hilariously bad.

The 5510 is a lot more rigid than the 3800 was, but it still isn't rigid enough. I could carry my personal 15" macbook pro all day with one hand while still being able to click the trackpad down. With that 5510, the chassis flexes too much for the trackpad to click when you hold it from one side. And don't get me started about the cheesy chargers Dell uses.

The 5510 was worlds better, I'll admit - and it does a decent enough job running Ubuntu! There's enough to like about the laptop, but not necessarily at the price they charge.

My work laptop is an M3800, though the newer one is the 5510. Pretty solid machines in my experience. We did after market upgrades to some very fast SSD (sorry don't remember which).

That said- I'm staying with the m3800 as long as I can. It's a few years old and my battery needs replacing, but otherwise is very capable. Some people have had docking issues on and off with the 5510 (occasional crashing, though I think it's a driver/software issue), but more importantly it has the awful "Nostril Cam" which is annoying for video meetings.

In general, fast, light, good battery (for perspective, mine lasts 2-3 hours now, vs 5-7 when I got it), useful ports. The keyboard is not the best (home/end/pgup/pgdn keys are fn+arrow instead of dedicated) but very usable. I hated the glossy screen at first, but touchscreen is surprisingly useful and I got past it. I just keep a microfiber cloth in my laptop bag now.

yeah "up the nose" cam is one of the more annoying features of these Dells :( Also the non-dedicated pgup/dwn/home/end is another annoyance - I guess I got use to it after a while

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