Dell Launches XPS 15 7590: OLED Display, CPU Up to 5 GHz
anandtech.com
anandtech.com
It wasn't until I bought an Intel AC 8265 on ebay and replaced it myself that the WiFI actually started working perfectly.
I can't understand why they don't just ship it with Intel WiFi chips instead of these flaky Broadcom and Killer ones. Is it because they have some sort of OEM agreement with Broadcom or Killer? I don't get it. It's a fantastic machine in every other way, but if the wireless is flaky then it's a showstopper.
Also with regard to this new machine, I would rather have good battery life and decent performance than a really fast CPU that drains my battery quickly and heats up my machine.
I wish they went with Intel chips too :(
02:00.0 Network controller: Qualcomm Atheros QCA6174 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter (rev 32)
Subsystem: Bigfoot Networks, Inc. Killer 1435 Wireless-AC
Kernel driver in use: ath10k_pci
In the end I ordered a bunch (10 or so) different WiFi AC modules off EBay (including newer Intel modules), PXE booted 100 laptops with an image that created a suitable amount of traffic, and powered them on one by one until something failed.
The Intel modules were both the worst and most expensive. They best by far were the atheros wifi modules - and they were also the cheapest.
Now that I think about it, I don't recall seeing an Intel WiFi module in a router, so that outcome was not as surprising now as it was then. And of course now I've seen Intel fail to deliver the 5G modems Apple was waiting on.
It doesn't help battery life that some applications I run like Docker for Windows like to enter a permanent CPU usage state that prevents the system from idling and reducing power usage below that high water mark. But since I run a lot of VMs and containers, I don't expect a lot of battery life on either.
The fixed camera placement is probably the biggest feature for me. Oh, and up to 64GB of RAM.
Of course, the OLED is pretty great. I hope more laptops use it soon. Sad I'll end up waiting about six years before replacing, if I can get away with it.
Also, Dell had better fix their bios bugs. The bios has issues, they reduced the tjmax for the nvidia gpu a few updates back, there are sleep bugs, processor state bugs, audio bugs, and many others. If Dell wants to pitch a premium machine, they'd better ship a premium firmware with it.
I had a lot of luck adding thermal pads on a bunch of components on my xps-15. But the fact that I can alleviate the issues makes me wonder why they're not doing that at the factory.
I have a 9560, and would not have bought it if I was aware of the thermal issues. I'm very angry that this is even legal - Dell (and the other OEMs, including Apple) should be required to put big red signs everywhere if their customers cannot fully use the computer without buying it.
By default, just stressing the CPU makes it downclock to the minimum of 800 MHz and the computer becomes unusable. Undervolting the CPU in Linux took an hour, now I can run it at max and the temp goes to 70/75 degrees with no performance issues. But using both the CPU and Nvidia GPU kills everything, since the GPU heat also spreads to the CPU. On Windows you can underclock the GPU but it doesn't make a big difference. Playing Overwatch at minimum settings and 1080p should work well on the GTX 1050, but I have to resort to hacks like limiting the CPU to 70% speed and putting a 70 FPS limit in Overwatch to keep the GPU from burning itself. And even then it stays at 90-95 degrees and sometimes crashes. Training neural networks was a bit more doable but still not fun.
I have no idea how they put a 6-core i7 in the 9570 without it melting down. And this new 5GHz one seems similarly ridiculous.
TL;DR just buy a gaming laptop - they're cheaper for the same specs and generally have a sturdy build. You might not get 10-12 hours battery and will need to carry around a charger, but the thermal issues are not worth it. Plus you get an Ethernet port included usually, and more USB ports.
https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/thinkpad/thinkpad-p/Thi...
One thing that I've found is very important is to clean out the fans often, otherwise dust builds up and prevents cooling. Just unscrew the plate on the underside of the laptop and blow / brush / pick out the dust that's built up (both the fan intake and the fan outlet). Doing this every few months has been a game changer for my 9550.
- display dims when using dark themes. Had to use a sketchy unofficial leaked firmware patch to fix it.
- bluetooth + wifi not working
- changed chipset, now bluetooth only working when I activate/deactivate it once after startup
- after 2.5 years or so the battery of one bloated (got free replacement, quite nice to have the battery refreshed actually)
- bluescreens
- the dock... I had my display not turning back on when disconnecting, USB stopping to work after disconnecting, slight electric shocks from one even. Oh and the USB-c dock blocks your only usb-c slot and does not have any usb-c hub.
- I blew a speaker in week 2 (don't EQ it, neither yourself, nor with the dell eq stuff)
- the case screws are tiny. I was afraid I put one in at an angle, another one got lost because I didn't have any locktight.
Other than that very nice machines... I also now people without any of these problems.
I have an XPS 9550. The issues I have with it are:
- The speakers have self destructed 3 times now. Just prior to self destructing they were wonderfully loud (which I at first thought was feature). By the 3rd time I was aware of the flaw is when some app decided I really needed to hear the notification I turned it done so it was only a few seconds - but it was enough.
- The Bluetooth has never worked. It took me a while to notice as I don't use it a lot, and I run Linux so I put it down to a software issue. But then I found if I was real persistent I could get it to pair, but then it sounded like the 2.4GHz signal was woefully weak. I asked Dell to fix it on one of their warranty visits and they replaced the module - but no difference. I now suspect it's an antenna problem.
- As others have said it regularly overheats. On a hot day it will spontaneously reset.
- There is some issue with the connectors on the mother board. In my case it manifests itself by it occasionally rebooting when I pick it up by a corner (thus putting a bit of torque on it). Once I realised what was happening I found I could 100% reliability get it to reboot by tapping it at the right point on under the base. I thought it was just my machine but then my brothers Precision laptop (same case) exhibited the same problem.
- Over time I've come to truly loath the layout of the keyboard with it's dedicated PgUp, PgDn and so on keys. I also disliked the feel with a passion - the cheaper Inspiron's have much nicer feeling keyboards. Of course the 9550 design when for slimness over function, and maybe others have a different opinion. Unfortunately it became less and less reliable over time. Turned out when the Dell man disassembled the thing this spill resistant keyboard was trapping huge amounts of hair. I've never seen a keyboard held in by so many screws - there must be at least 20 of them. And the Dell man asked me to get rid of the hair - it must taken me 1/2 an hour with a vacuum cleaner, and even then I didn't restore it to it's original reliability.
- There is the nostril cam issue. I don't hold that against Dell. I knew about it when I bought it, but that screen was oh so gorgeous. But I wouldn't make the same buying decision again.
- The power cord socket broke. This mostly isn't Dell's fault - the exuberant dog got itself tangled in the power cord. Still Dell design the connector, and they could have designed one that disconnected when it got a sharp yank rather than breaking.
- The rear hinge support (an intricately shaped bit of metal inside the machine) snapped. I don't know why - no event stands out in my mind. It became evident when the screws started popping out of the base, and I saw what the problem was when the Dell man fixed it. Sadly after the Dell man left I noticed the same screws were still proud of the case, and remain that way to this day.
- Early on the screen barely worked. The root cause wasn't Dell's, of course - it was Intel bloody horrible GPU drivers. It took Intel 12 months to get them close to reliable: in the end they had to appoint a new team leader who, according to an interview on LWN, just implemented some basic software engineering practices (like CI). From the outside the effect of doing that was pretty dramatic: it went from dogs breakfast to reasonably solid in a remarkably short time - it should be a case study on the effect of good software engineering practices. In the mean time if you scanned the net for reasons on why your shinny new Linux laptop screen kept hanging, what you found was hundreds of Windows users saying they were taking their new XPS's back because Windows didn't work. Turned out Intel was doing their development on Linux and was releasing their Linux drivers before Windows, so the Window users were in a worse position than I was. Dell was _very_ proactive about releasing BIOS and driver updates during that period, while in typical Dell fashion never actually telling you what the actual problem was. But stepping back and taking the 1000ft view - Dell shipped a machine they must have damned well known didn't work.
- The fans require regular cleaning. This is not a big deal of course - all fans require cleaning. But unlike other laptops the only way to clean these fans is disassemble the thing. On the positive side, removing the back off this laptop is by far the easiest of any laptop I've owned so far. But then you have to remove the fans themselves, with their tiny wires.
- Mine had a battery recall. I only mention it because the article says "like the previous models the battery is not user replaceable", which is true - that's what the previous models said too. Nonetheless, this user was sent the new battery and was expected to replace it himself. It was drop dead easy because as I said, it is almost a pleasure to remove the back off this thing.
Just to be clear I expect laptops, all laptop's, to break. All mine have and I am gentle with equipment. For example, I've never had a phone with a cracked screen or any other similar failure - they've all died from battery problems. But this is over the top - it looks to me like they pushed the thinness thing too far.
That said, MS gives ridiculous freedom to drivers. It auto-installs drivers for my 9560's audio and Thunderbolt controllers. The audio drivers include a 'Waves MaxxAudio Pro' application that stays in the system tray; stopping it makes the audio stop working. The Intel TB drivers also have a permanent unremovable notification in the system tray.
What's worse is that when you plug in a Logitech Webcam, Windows automatically downloads drivers (which are not necessary if you're on Linux since webcams use the same standard protocol), and then the Logitech drivers pop up a giant popup window asking to install their bloatware application (which is not required for the camera to work). What else does Windows let hardware manufacturers autoinstall onto your computer? Keyloggers? Rootkits?
For what it's worth, I successfully downloaded that windows iso from microsoft less than a week ago from a windows machine, and used it to reformat that same machine without any issues or workarounds.
They offer to download Media Creation Tool, which itself either downloads the ISO, burns DVD or makes an USB with installer for you.
There is one subtle difference between the ISO you can download and what the tool downloads: the ISO contains install.wim file, which is larger than 4 GB (i.e. it won't fit on FAT32 usb, if you are going to make it yourself; it is fine with UDF, when burning), while the MCT image contains install.esd, which uses different compression and fits into FAT32.
TLDR: if you want USB stick with installer, use the Media Creation Tool. You won't be able to make it easily from the ISO (aside from wim-splitting, esd-recompressing, or using NTFS if your UEFI supports it).
That also explains why I always had to flash the ISO to a USB stick with Rufus (inside VirtualBox) - just `dd` or `cat`ing it onto /dev/sdX never worked.
The magic boot sector that all those tools like Rufus create, is needed only for legacy boot.
The Windows 10 ISO from the download is using UDF filesystem and is intended for burning. If you dd it to a block device, very few firmwares support that from non-optical drive. Prior to 1809 release, it's install.wim was smaller than 4G, so you could make UEFI installer by just copying all the files to USB drive, but since 1809, the easier way is just to use the Media Creation Tool. The harder way is to recompress install.wim into install.esd, or just use NTFS if your firmware has the support (e.g. Intel NUCs do).