Dell’s XPS 13 Plus is the first laptop certified for Ubuntu 22.04 LTS
theverge.com
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Average user = Not doing anything that requires Windows or Linux.
M2 Air has a better screen, faster CPU (plugged or unplugged), faster GPU, more battery life, fanless, runs cooler, better speakers, thinner, and it's cheaper.
Also, I think not having function keys is a mistake. Touch keys are just awful on a keyboard. In addition, if you want to do even light gaming, you'd want function keys
If I need a high-performance laptop with Linux---and especially if extended distribution support is important---I'd be wiser to go with the first one certified against the latest LTS rather than trying to convince a "built for Windows" laptop to work: one expected to provide full ACPI access/control, a working fingerprint reader, S/PDIF, a working graphics stack, performance optimizations.
As one example: If you're a university robotics program, it makes sense to get 20 of these at the B2B price tier for your incoming students and they'll >>just work<< for the entire duration of someone's graduate degree and beyond. (Unless something changed recently, Northwestern does this.)
As far as function keys, I also hate capacitive buttons ever since having a touch bar on a work computer. Using vim, you're constantly pressing the glass... nothing corner.
For laptops, it is sensible to default the top row to various controls (brightness, media keys, airplane mode, etc.) rather than F1, F2, etc. But once you have a dedicated Fn key, why not make F1 = Fn + 1, F2 = Fn + 2, etc.? It would take a week of getting used to but makes the most sense---especially if your top row of "real buttons" is now the number keys.
No, it's not. I'm hitting F4, F5, F5, F10 way, way more often than I change the brightness (ones in a while), volume (more often but NOT EVERY GODDAMN MINUTE) or ExternalOutput (nowadays - never).
Your use case is definitely different than mine. I constantly want to adjust volume or mute when someone walks in or adjust brightness if I'm in the dark. The only time I really need function keys are in OpenSCAD and maybe once or twice a day in other programs. If I'm doing a lot of batch edits in vim, I'll nnoremap to the function keys if I have a full keyboard. For closing a window, it's almost always Ctrl+W or Ctrl+Shift+W, for refresh it's Ctrl+R, etc.
And the thing is, this is a muscle memory from almost the three decades of usage[0]. I don't have a problem hitting Fn+F1/F2/F3 for Mute/Vol-/Vol+ but I would have a problem if hitting F5 would turn off my WiFi.
And by the way - I have big hands but even I struggle to hit Fn+F12/whatever key on the top right. Therefore I bought a laptop with a second Fn key.
[0] Edit: and most of them are in CUA or de-facto standard ones. I still hit Ctrl+Ins/Shift+Ins sometimes. Not on the modern laptop keyboards, of course...
The Apple Silicon hardware is so good, it should make Linux users rethink being Linux users. At least until Asahi Linux has decent hardware support, but even then Linux just doesn't cut it in terms of UI.
Minor performance and power efficiency gains aren't worth putting up with Apple's software and hardware limitations IMO. I like having full control of the UI, I like having the ability to swap out the SSD and not need to pay $200 for 512GB at time of purchase. I like being able to use 2 external monitors. And to have screen size options bigger than 13" that cost less than $2000
edit for me, obviously, not necessarily for everyone
OSX window management is...horrendous. I want to be able to have two monitors and simply (with a keypress) move a window to either screen, or to use half of a given screen. Both windows and Linux WMs get this right. In OSX you have (or had last time I tried) two "fullscreen" buttons. One blue button, which maybe made it full screen, but most often just filled the height. Cause it decided that you wanted to see 3cm of the desktop background.... And then some apps, but not all, had a little arrow on the right which made it super-fullscreen! But then it made a virtual desktop, and screw whatever you had on the other screen. And using anything but the mouse? Lol forget it.
I see I sound like I want a flamewar. I don't. I want to buy the M2, but first be told that apple has fixed its shitty UX since last time I tried:-P
It works very well, a native version would probably be better but most of the time I don’t notice it’s running, just press the keyboard shortcuts and move on. There’s also tiling WMs that go deeper, but I haven’t needed them.
Makes sure I won't buy it never.
Also no ContextMenu key and no way to hold it with one hand (because the keyboard takes all width and doesn't have a border).
Now imagine you are standing, holding it on the palm of one hand and... now you need to press Fn (leftmost part of the keyboard), RCtrl (rightmost part) and touchable F10. All with one hand.
Amazon disagrees. Perhaps you should have saved time and fuel and shopped online?
You could have it ordered within ten minutes and delivered within a few days. Also, you can custom-configure Macs ordered online, whereas only a few specific configurations are sold at retail.
And also not overheating like the m2 does, but honestly at this point who knows if the dell doesn't have the same problem...
Hence, the "average user". Also, I wouldn't try to play games on the Dell as it has a weaker GPU and no function keys.
> And also not overheating like the m2 does, but honestly at this point who knows if the dell doesn't have the same problem...
M2 does not "overheat". It throttles like any CPU. It should still run cooler, faster, quieter than the Dell.
But in addition the M2 air runs hotter. They both throttle. But the M2 reaches over 100 degrees.
You can see in this review: https://www.ultrabookreview.com/56837-dell-xps-13-plus-9320-...
That XPS 13 plus settles at around a continuous cinebench scores of ~1515. While the first run was 1795. That means it has a stability of about 84%.
In contrast look at the M2 Air: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15V44ovoUWE&t=8m2s
It's not the same cinebench version so the scores are not directly comparable but the stability is. The M2 settles to around 7300 with the initial score being 8551. That gives a stability of 85%. About the same as the XPS.
Anyway if you want a fast ultra portable neither Apple nor Intel are good choices. You have to get an and MAD 6000 series laptop.
Cinebench is a terrible CPU benchmark. Geekbench is far better. https://www.reddit.com/r/hardware/comments/pitid6/eli5_why_d...
>But in addition the M2 air runs hotter. They both throttle. But the M2 reaches over 100 degrees.
I used an M1 Air for over a year. While it can get hot if you run it a maximum, it runs extremely cool for being fanless on normal workloads. Most people aren't pushing their laptops to the max.
>That XPS 13 plus settles at around a continuous cinebench scores of ~1515. While the first run was 1795. That means it has a stability of about 84%.
Again, Cinebench is a terrible CPU benchmark.
>Anyway if you want a fast ultra portable neither Apple nor Intel are good choices. You have to get an and MAD 6000 series laptop.
Simply not true. Both Intel and Apple offer faster laptop chips than AMD.
People do not run a single benchmark tool when comparing hardware, they use multiple. Each with their own well defined characteristics and make their own conclusions depending on what matters to them.
Cinebench is part of almost every hardware review for a good reason: its characteristics (CPU only, not dependent on cache, memory speeds nor timings) are well understood and provide valuable information on a specific aspect of the hardware.
Most Youtubers base the performance of the CPU on Cinebench. They definitely aren't Anandtech, where CPU is measured with SPEC.
>Cinebench is part of almost every hardware review for a good reason: its characteristics (CPU only, not dependent on cache, memory speeds nor timings) are well understood and provide valuable information on a specific aspect of the hardware.
Cinebench is being used as an end all CPU benchmark too often. Just look at the author I replied to.
Again, if one were to use one single benchmark to denote the performance of a CPU, they should use SPEC. Absent of SPEC, they should use Geekbench. Cinebench is pretty far down the list.
The biggest source of thermal issue comes from discrete graphics (nvidia) in powered state. Disabling it (which I know can be tricky on linux) or opting for a machine with integrated graphics solves it.
As for the CPU you get to pick your poison. With hyper-threading and turbo-boost, fans will be spinning most of the time. If you disable both you get 100% passive cooling.
I see that Dell has not learned anything by the looks of XPS 13 Plus. Given that this laptop is aimed at professionals, why does it have such an atrocious keyboard? Just by looking at it, I know it would make me want to drop this laptop in the bin. Small cursor keys, no dedicated PgUp / PgDown etc.
And it's not fanless. With my XPS you can't have a Teams meeting without someone pointing out "what's that noise?" and then you have to say "oh sorry that's my laptop".
I am in the market for a new laptop, and on the issue of fans alone I am going to go with M2 Air. If I could run a linux on a VM at reasonable speed, I'll be happy.
Later I found out that batch of XPS were prone to failure. They do this “power-saving” thing where they never shut down completely. So for that reason you weren’t supposed to transport them - wtf?? I would carry it in a bag sometimes to university and you would feel it randomly turn on with the fans whirringe. From reading lots of dell support threads, it seemed like dell qc was really hit or miss. So much variation between batches.
Anyways that experience gave me ptsd for high end windows laptops and I got a M1 Air few months ago. It’s been a way better experience so far. It does laptop things really well imo. Nice display(huge!), lightweight, good battery life, great performance for everything except gaming(don’t bother). I press the on button and it instantly picks up from where I left off. That’s huge coming from xps, I would turn that shit on and wait anywhere from 1-10mins, with no guarantees that id be reconnected to the wifi. I even got a high end windows 11 laptop from work that’s more expensive then my M1 and it feels sluggish.
I had this problem with XPS 13. It would turn on in my backpack and by the time I was at work, it would be hot like lava and almost dead battery.
My XPS 9570 is the opposite - sometimes it decides to just not turn on anymore. So I can press power on and nothing happens. Sometimes it will power on for a second and dies. I found that if I open it up, disconnect the battery, then try to power it on with charger connected it will sort of half power on, then I can turn it off, reconnect the battery and then power it on without charger and then connect the charger after it boots up. I have replaced the battery to a brand new Dell one, updated BIOS etc. still the same problem. Then it sometimes charge the battery sometimes it won't. I have replaced the charging port as well, didn't help. Bought new original Dell charger twice - worked for a couple of weeks and then laptop won't recognise it. It was the same thing with XPS 13 that it won't recognise the charger after a while. I had a box full of Dell chargers. I read plenty of people have issues with XPS not powering on. Imagine going to a meeting and then spending half an hour trying to turn laptop on. It's definitely my last Dell product.
Elitebook is even worse. Looks like a cheap generic laptop from AliExpress and a crap keyboard at massive premium.
I think it's off by 2-3x compared to M2 in terms of efficency.
Aren't all buttons touch-sensitive by definition?
What does it means? Does it supports different levels of pressure? Does-it support not pushing them but just contacting the surface?
Maybe some are insensitive.
How is the quality of this thing?
I like the XPS13 for its small physical size, good Linux compatibility (if buying a brand new model, wait for the first BIOS point release to come out before purchasing) and in recent models, the 16x10 rather than 16x9 screen.
Quality is ok. Needed one motherboard replacement (under warranty) in 8 years, and that's running/cycling every day with the laptop in my backpack.
The other thing is I use it with an external monitor above the laptop. Don't use an external keyboard because I don't mind the XPS13 keyboard [1] and don't want to be changing keyboards between work/home/while travelling.
[1] Apart from the new touch-sensitive function key row... Just give me normal keys that depress. I won't buy the 2022 XPS13 if I can't buy one with a proper keyboard.
I had thinkpads before, and they worked also great