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Notebooks Reasons *not* to buy an XPS 13?

Discussion in 'Hardware' started by Gareth Halfacree, 10 Oct 2017.

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  1. Mister_Tad

    Mister_Tad Will work for nuts Super Moderator

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    The TB16 is a nice dock, though painfully expensive in my mind for a dock (but then most docks seem expensive to me for what they do, so could be just me)

    If I recall correctly from when I was perusing the webs for research, you may get away with a single-cable dock from another manufacturer for the XPS13 though... something about the XPS15 needing more juice than standard TB to charge, but the TB16 has something about it that it can go higher.

    The TB15 is hopelessly broken though, and a bad buy at any price.
     
    Mister_Tad, 12 Oct 2017
    #61
  2. Gareth Halfacree

    Gareth Halfacree WIIGII! Lover of bit-tech Administrator Super Moderator Moderator

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    Good to know, ta!

    Just had an email from Dell saying they expect to get me my new shiny by the 23rd. 11 days to ship a laptop? This really *does* feel like when I bought my first one all those years ago!
     
    Gareth Halfacree, 12 Oct 2017
    #62
  3. theshadow2001

    theshadow2001 [DELETE] means [DELETE]

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    I've verified my laptop on linux with usb c dock at work. Works well with two 1080p monitors. Although out of the box I think it goes a bit wonky on wake up from suspend
     
    theshadow2001, 12 Oct 2017
    #63
  4. edzieba

    edzieba Virtual Realist

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    Dell have also done the same dodgy crap, and more than once.
    And worse, unlike with Lenovo where Superfish was only on the consumer junk, that crap was on their business machines!
     
    edzieba, 13 Oct 2017
    #64
  5. Vault-Tec

    Vault-Tec Green Plastic Watering Can

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    Yeah fair play. If I ever buy a laptop for myself or family I always rip off the install and do it fresh any way.
     
    Vault-Tec, 13 Oct 2017
    #65
  6. Gareth Halfacree

    Gareth Halfacree WIIGII! Lover of bit-tech Administrator Super Moderator Moderator

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    Gareth Halfacree, 13 Oct 2017
    #66
  7. edzieba

    edzieba Virtual Realist

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    That was always a hilarious story to me. It boils down to "Linux does not support booting other than AHCI (i.e. not UEFI boot, introduced over a decade ago), so turning it off must be blocking Linux!". It'd be like claiming removal of USB 2.0 legacy support was "blocking Windows XP!".
     
    edzieba, 13 Oct 2017
    #67
    MLyons likes this.
  8. Gareth Halfacree

    Gareth Halfacree WIIGII! Lover of bit-tech Administrator Super Moderator Moderator

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    As was discussed to death in the comments, that's an entirely inaccurate comparison. The hardware fully supported AHCI mode. The BIOS fully supported AHCI mode. If you hacked the BIOS, you could switch from the default (single-drive!) RAID mode to AHCI and install your choice of operating system without a single problem.

    You just couldn't do it without hacking the BIOS, because Lenovo disabled the toggle to switch from RAID to AHCI.

    Then fusses were kicked up, it was proven that the feature was present but hidden, and lo and behold Lenovo suddenly comes up with a BIOS version completely identical to the original in every way except for not hiding the RAID/AHCI switch any more. Using that BIOS, the laptops would run Linux (or older Windows versions) just fine, proving that any and all claims that it was a hardware compatibility issue were total rot.

    Oh, and Linux has been booting from UEFI just fine since at least 2011. Source: my current system is UEFI, and I'm running Linux without a problem.
     
    Gareth Halfacree, 13 Oct 2017
    #68
  9. Gareth Halfacree

    Gareth Halfacree WIIGII! Lover of bit-tech Administrator Super Moderator Moderator

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    Woo, get hype!

    ordedeets.jpg
     
    Gareth Halfacree, 13 Oct 2017
    #69
    Vault-Tec and MLyons like this.
  10. Mister_Tad

    Mister_Tad Will work for nuts Super Moderator

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    Yeah, I had a similar run of events.

    "Your laptop will ship within the next 21 days"
    *3 days pass
    "Your laptop has shipped"

    I didn't want to mention it when you were disheartened just in case I was leading you on though :lol:
     
    Mister_Tad, 13 Oct 2017
    #70
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  11. Vault-Tec

    Vault-Tec Green Plastic Watering Can

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    Same happened to me when I ordered my Triad. There was supposedly a month wait but it came pretty darn quick.
     
    Vault-Tec, 14 Oct 2017
    #71
  12. Guest-23315

    Guest-23315 Guest

    Exactly what happened with my 13...
     
    Guest-23315, 16 Oct 2017
    #72
  13. nimbu

    nimbu Multimodder

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    Wireless on my 9350 was tat, replaced it with a proper Intel one. Best laptop I've owned. I say owned cause wife has stolen it. Picked up an i7 / super high res / 16gb ram and 512gb from the outlet for 900 quid ish delivered
     
    nimbu, 17 Oct 2017
    #73
  14. Mister_Tad

    Mister_Tad Will work for nuts Super Moderator

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    Looks like the 9360 comes with the Killer 1535 as well. So called because it kills productivity by just flaking out for funsies. In its defence, it only happened once for me, but it only needed to.

    First order of business should be to switch out for an Intel 8265NGW since you're using this for work.
     
    Mister_Tad, 17 Oct 2017
    #74
  15. Gareth Halfacree

    Gareth Halfacree WIIGII! Lover of bit-tech Administrator Super Moderator Moderator

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    Right, so, remember when I created a thread called "Reasons *not* to buy an XPS 13"? Like, *this* thread?

    Would "the wireless is shite" not have been a reason to bring up before I spent £1400 on the thing?!

    :p
     
    Gareth Halfacree, 17 Oct 2017
    #75
  16. Mister_Tad

    Mister_Tad Will work for nuts Super Moderator

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    I would have assumed you would be relatively proficient in such things, and swapping out a £15 card would present no significant issues.

    Apologies, I over-estimated you :lol:

    In all seriousness though, IMO it's not a reason not to buy it. If it was soldered to the board, then it might be a black mark, but it just is what it is. I can't fathom why Dell thought it sensible to use anything but the Intel model.
     
    Mister_Tad, 17 Oct 2017
    #76
  17. Guest-23315

    Guest-23315 Guest

    I said it was fine! I've never had any issues what so ever with the Killer card.
     
    Guest-23315, 17 Oct 2017
    #77
  18. Gareth Halfacree

    Gareth Halfacree WIIGII! Lover of bit-tech Administrator Super Moderator Moderator

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    Well, the issue there would be having to swap out a £15 card in a £1,400 laptop. For all its faults, I've never had to replace the Wi-Fi card in my MacBook Air (which is just as well, because I can't replace the Wi-Fi card in my MacBook Air...)

    I've seen quite a few complaints online (now I know what to look for), though most appear to be using Linux 4.4 or older - Ubuntu 16.04.3 LTS is on Linux 4.10, so fingers crossed I'll be good. If not, it'll have to be a screwdriver job!

    EDIT: Soon find out...

    dellorderstat.png
     
    Gareth Halfacree, 17 Oct 2017
    #78
  19. Corky42

    Corky42 Where's walle?

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    Apparently that was a known issue that got fixed with a driver update back in February.
     
    Corky42, 17 Oct 2017
    #79
  20. RedFlames

    RedFlames ...is not a Belgian football team

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    I thought Dell used intel wireless in their higher-end wares anyway...
     
    RedFlames, 17 Oct 2017
    #80
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