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New Dell XPS 13 ordered
The touchscreen, 3200x1800 one.

8GB/i7/256GB.

Will report back when it arrives.

New Sounds promising. i7 typo?
The Verge review.

Dell doesn't show me an i7 version - http://www.dell.com/us/p/xps-13-9343-laptop/pd?oc=dncwt5131s&model_id=xps-13-9343-laptop

The backlit keyboard sounds nice (though it depends on how it's done - I've got an E6400 with a backlit keyboard that shuts off too soon). Being limited to 8 GB bites though - I've got a couple of Toshiba R835s that max out at 8 GB. :-(

The Verge review says their i5 version with the touchscreen only gets about half the claimed battery life. Presumably an i7 is worse. But 6 hours is great compared to maybe 2 from the E6400.

Enjoy! And do let us know how you like it. The high-res screen sounds great (would be better if one could get it without the touch stuff though. ;-)

Cheers,
Scott.
New Nope, no typo.
i7-5500U.

Edit: your inferior colonial Dell is only showing i5s. Superior imperial Dell shows better configuration choice: http://www.dell.com/uk/p/xps-13-9343-laptop/pd?ref=PD_OC

Also, 8GB is actually about twice as much as I need for the intended use-case - sofasurfing and mobile photo processing. Remember, since Vista, Windows has been getting more memory-efficient, not less (unlike a certain Cupertino-based OS we could mention, where things are so bad they had to put a memory compressor wossname in it) and Windows 8 onward will run very happily in 2-3GB.

Lightroom is CPU-bound (hence my selection of the i7) and tends to top out at 3GB used (it's Photoshop CC that loves RAM like a survivalist from Montana loves guns and tinned food).

You know, you don't have to touch it :p
Expand Edited by pwhysall Feb. 14, 2015, 04:22:19 AM EST
New Yeah...
I know, I don't have to touch it. But it's one more layer between the pixels and one's eyes. (I've seen touch screens on phones where you can see the touch sensors pretty easily if the angle is just right.) Plus, $500 for the screen?!?

The 8GB issue isn't the OS. It's the stuff you want to do with it. I've got Chrome, Thunderbird, SumatraPDF, and a couple of tiny things running on this R835 i5 with 8 GB (Win7 Home), and I'm using 6.72 GB of physical RAM. With a 1366 x 768 display. I've already maxed it out (I just replaced the DVD drive with a second 512 GB SSD).

Plus, who was reminding us that when you're pushing lots of pixels, you really need lots of dedicated video memory? ;-) I assume the XPS 13 is just using the integrated HD 5500 graphics which uses system RAM. No doubt it's reasonably fast and clever, but it'll still be eating the system RAM.

Plus, there's the antivirus/antispyware/etc. abortions that Winders users need to run all the time. :-/

All that said, it does sound like a nice machine. Apple should be worried about it. Especially with an i7. Looking forward to your review!

Cheers,
Scott.
New Got it.
It comes in a very small amount of packaging, which is refreshing. So many things come in huge boxes with oceans of packing peanuts and miles of cellophane. This comes in an outer shipping box about the size of a small attache case, in which is a smaller black box and a separate compartment for the power brick and cord.

And what a lovely thing it is. If it didn't have "Dell" written on it, you wouldn't guess. Fit and finish is genuinely first-class. The hinge is solid yet smooth, there's a handy little button with 4 LEDs on the side for remaining battery (so you don't have to open the thing, or flip it over, to find out), the upper and lower clamshells are metal. Magnesium. Aluminium. Somethingorotherium. I dunno. Looks and feels nice, anyhoo. The soft "snick" noise when you close the lid is just another manifestation of the fact that someone's sat down and actually thought about this.

There's a single solitary "Intel Core i7 inside" sticker on the wrist rest (the carbon fucking fibre wrist rest), which, although muted in tone, will be going. All the usual dreary compliance stickers and service tag malarkey is hidden under a flap on the bottom of the machine, which is also where the XPS branding is, so even the bottom looks neat and tidy.

The screen is truly glorious - vivid and tack-sharp and so bright. The keyboard is fine; the keys have a satisfying resistance and the backlight has a couple of levels. The way it goes within 5mm of the edge of the lid is just delightful.

The surprise for me is in the touch - firstly, I'm already poking the screen to do stuff and secondly, dat touchpad. Apparently tired of a cavalcade of one shitty OEM touchpad after another, MS have taken charge of the situation. Result? A touchpad experience that's not dissimilar to that which you get on a Mac laptop. Two finger this, one finger that, pinch the other.

Performance? Hard to tell. It's got an SSD, 8GB and an i7, so it's no slouch, but until I get LR and PS CC onto it, all I can say is "it's plenty quick for regular desktop stuff".

Speaking of software, the only two items of preinstalled software I felt moved to remove were McAfee and DropBox. No PowerDVD, no trials of creative this or that. There's an Office trial installed, but that just saved me a massive download when I activated my Office 365 subscription.

Protip: set the display scaling to 100% at least once, just for shitzngigz.

Also, the webcam is in a stupid place. Don't care. Never use it.
Expand Edited by pwhysall Feb. 26, 2015, 08:18:33 AM EST
New Sounds like a nice box. Enjoy!
New Sounds fab.
I'm currently wishing I'd found more coins than the $600 I spent on my Asus laptop 12 months ago, which definitely feels like it was built down to a price. Similiar feeling to the spare Acer laptop I bought second hand for no good reason, except that now I'm glad I did because I broke the digitiser on the Asus last night (I dropped it, edge-down, onto tiles).

But enough of my woes. :-)

Wade.
     Dell XPS 13 ordered - (pwhysall) - (6)
         Sounds promising. i7 typo? - (Another Scott) - (2)
             Nope, no typo. - (pwhysall) - (1)
                 Yeah... - (Another Scott)
         Got it. - (pwhysall) - (2)
             Sounds like a nice box. Enjoy! -NT - (Another Scott)
             Sounds fab. - (static)

Stop thinking in all caps.
89 ms