Submitted 3 weeks ago by faizalr@fedia.io to technology@lemmy.world
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A new, thinner XPS 13 is also coming later this year.
Replacing the function keys with a capacitive bar was the stupidest thing they have ever done. So silly that even Apple walked back on that design choice.
Any serious laptop buyer would rule out a laptop just for that. And any casual buyer looking to spend XPS money on a laptop is going to buy a MacBook.
My work gave me a Mac with this. I absolutely hated it - constantly triggering random things I didn’t want or need and apparently something about the wiring caused the physical keyboard to fail prematurely.
Fortunately we’ve moved on from those dark days. I still have to use a Mac, but at least there’s no touch bar.
Also Lenovo, who were the first ones to give than nonsense a whirl (X1 Carbon Gen 2, 2014).
Lenovo's was present for just that single generation. Apple kept it for 6 generations over 7 years. Dell 4 generations, 3 years.
Can't say I'll miss any of them.
It was dumb. Forced you to always look at your keyboard.
The touch bar worked well for me on a Macbook. Most of the hotkeys there use cmd+something instead of the f-keys, so I needed the f-keys with only a couple apps, namely Double Commander. But what’s better, there are apps to put custom controls into the touch bar. The most useful one for me was the button to hand off the Bluetooth headphones from the laptop to the phone (via a bash script of mine). Plus I could also have app-specific custom buttons.
I’m a fan of unusual control surfaces and this thing has had me salivating for years. Sadly they’re pretty difficult to procure so I haven’t had the chance of owning one (and probably realizing they’re not all that great irl)
The touch bar is pretty good if a) most everyday shortcuts you use are on the modifiers and the alphanumeric keyboard instead of the f-keys, and b) you can put custom controls in the touch bar. Both of these are true with Macbook: there’s a third-party app for controlling the touch bar. E.g. I’ve put in it a button to handoff the Bluetooth headphones from the laptop to the phone or the other way around.
I feel like it doesn’t have to be either or? I’d like a touch bar in addition to fn keys. Too bad nobody is making that option.
I don’t see anything wrong with touch bar+proper control keys either. There isn’t anything inherently bad about a touch bar in itself.
But replacing your function keys with a touch bar is a bad idea. It’s not standard.
Sticking to standards plus giving other alternative control methods are fine. Kind of like how Asus implements a numpad into the toucpad. I think it’s a gimmick but it doesn’t hurt anyone.
And the worst part is, Apple has a lot more influence over software on MacOS than Dell does over software on Windows. Meaning Apple was able to influence at least some (though not most by any measure) 3rd party developers to make the touchbar context aware. I somehow doubt Dell had any such luck, so it would’ve been even worse than the Apple touchbar which was already shit.
When I last bought an XPS 13, there was an option for Ubuntu. I agree that many people will choose a Macbook, but the XPS line has been decent. Perhaps someday they will discover the third OS option.
I’ll never buy an xps again. Last one needed pretty much everything replacing, and within 3 years dell stopped manufacturing the battery!!
$2k on a laptop that’s a brick within 3 years?
Framework 13 all the way
I cancelled my framework 16 order because of their “big tent” policy meaning they give funding to Hyperland and Omarchy, I will not give my money to people who fund racists
I’m a little miffed with framework actually.
I had a order with them that they chose to cancel because they just randomly charged the account one day months after I had pre-ordered something, and there wasn’t enough money in the account because I didn’t know when they were going to charge for it. They didn’t they didn’t contact me or anything, they just cancelled the order. Thanks guys.
Yes, but jokes aside, it seems like you can find whatever you need for MacBooks from circa 2010 to 2012. At least, when I needed something, I could find it without issues.
What are you on about? I’ve been running a 9370 for 7 years, only replaced the battery last year and now I’m back at 8 hours. I changed the cooling paste just the other week. Best laptop I’ve ever owned, the only thing I’d want is a larger trackpad. There’s just a small amount of coil whine so I might replace the fans if it gets worse.
Keeping in mind I’ve abused this thing, was in my backback on my two major falls on my eboard. Only bending one of the corners slightly. This thing is a tank and a powerhouse.
Um, I was just sharing my experience with an xps. You have different experience, with a different xps model I’d guess. I’m glad you’re happy with it!
I didn’t even share the worst part of my experience: when it died it just died, refused to turn on. Immediate brick, no warning. This has happened to quite a few people I found, from frantic searching at the time.
I’ve bought dell for 20 years but their quality has been falling for the last decade, in my opinion and based on having bought about a dozen (for various people).
Build quality for Dell is down over the past few years
Hijacking top comment to report that: This is true across the industry for (most) OEMs
The Secret is to buy “Enterprise level”
Check out the LATITUDE line en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dell_Latitude
Those are enterprise fleet laptops … the ones they have to support for 5-10 years.
You know which line they don’t discontinue parts for? You know which line has repair manuals and driver updates available? wanna take a wild guess which line is usually more modular and powerful at the expense of being less sleek looking and thin?
And the best part is that you can usually buy them fairly cheap if you find them used.
I prefer Dell Latitude to HP Elitebook, Thinkpads are OK too but they’ve gone down in quality a lot since they got bought by Lenovo
TL;DR = Buy an enterprise level laptop, consumer line laptops are all trash,
Replying to my own comment to give yall one more tidbit.
The latitude product nomenclature is still standard
So for example the Latitude 9460 is the very high end laptop that came out at the beginning of this year while the 3540 was the entry level economy latitude that came out in 2023
Lenovo has been making thinkpads for 20 years. The complaint that their quality is still less than how laptops were manufactured 2 decades ago feels rather dated.
Top tip, buy a used enterprise laptop. You can get one hell of a deal when big companies throw their entire lineup out after a few years and flood the market. Some have a few scuffs here and there, but others are mint after sitting plugged to a dock for the last three years in a row.
The Latitudes are balls in the worst way. Including the new “Pro” models. I’ve had i7 and i9 Latitudes that are slower than my i5 XPS 13, and yeah that thing sucks too but at least it sucks predictably.
I got a couple of latitudes and found they had soldered ram so I couldn’t upgrade them later 😭
Tbf I took “build quality for Dell is down” to mean the Latitude lineup because their non-enterprise lineups… eh… I’ve never seen one with any build quality.
Shiiizzz i got a T32 with dual touchpad and thumbmouse… like 15 years old and still runs like a champ.
Yes , quality has gone down
The enterprise ones are shit too.
That’s why I got a thinkpad. Built like a tank.
Good Lord, they’re copying that hideous notch design from the macbooks.
On one hand, its not that bad on a Mac… but that’s because the OS is designed in such a way where there’s nothing there and it sorta gets lost. Windows isn’t like that at all.
On the other hand, At least its not right above the keyboard like some of the ones we have at work… the “up the nose” cam is not flattering.
Just give me a bezel, I want a machine not a fashion accessory.
but that’s because the OS is designed in such a way where there’s nothing there
This is not true. There are multiple third party apps that help you get that space back so menu icons don’t just disappear behind the notch. I don’t use those though, and instead blindly drag my menu icons behind the notch repeatedly until the one I want pops out from behind it.
but that’s because the OS is designed in such a way where there’s nothing there
Ehh OSX uses the top of the screen as a menu bar so for apps which have a lot of menu bar options, those are gone. A lot of third party apps also let you place helpful widgets on the menu bar so that’s kinda not a thing anymore either.
It doesn’t look like a notch. The picture with the lock screen doesn’t show the image going up around the camera.
Seems like the new naming scheme didn’t work out after all, eh?
Wondering the same. Did they ditch the iphone like naming?
Sure hope so
what the fuck is a 1 HZ display option
ot says in the article
Some Android phones do it too!
It adaptively regulates the refresh rate down to 1hz to save energy, it’s like an LTPO panel on a phone
The correct way, really
Buy a Framework, I have 4 slots that can be everything from USB-A to C to RJ45 to card readers when I need it, and I can charge the thing from any port.
I’m waiting patiently for Framework to release a 14” to 15” touchscreen 2 in 1 with stylus support. I’m glad they dipped their toes in the water with the 12, but the offerings just aren’t yet there to tick enough boxes for me.
Ha, I thought a 1Hz display was a typo until I read the article - that’s the minimum display update, not the maximum: for situations when nothing’s changing on the screen to save battery life.
On phones and tablets, variable refresh rates make an “always on” display feasible in terms of battery budget, where you can have something like a lock screen turned on at all times without burning through too much power.
On laptops, this might open up some possibilities of the lock screen or some kind of static or slideshow screensaver staying on longer while idle, before turning off the display.
With enough pitch black on the lock screen background, you should be able to keep it going for quite a bit longer, since this apparently has OLED. I think for phones, always on is usually a black background with text and stuff on it, isn’t it?
No clit-mouse, no deal.
(There are dozens of us. Dozens!)
that limits you to power books, no?
Lenovo Thinkpads are the only reliable choice pretty much and even then it’s a bit of a crapshoot whether they include them or not. HP Elitebooks used to have them too but it seems like they also stopped in 2021. Apple’s never had them as far as I know. There’s a few other one-off small-run options here and there too but they’re few and far between.
I realize I’m in a very significant minority, but personally, having access to the mouse pointer for short jogs here and clicks there without my hands leaving the keyboard home row is a gamechanger and a non-negotiable feature to me. I’d never claim it’s a great way to move the mouse, but it has extremely high utility due to its convenient positioning, it’s always available even in tight quarters, and anytime space permits it pairs well with a secondary, traditional mouse for movements that are more numerous or complex or need more precision, it works very well with a text-heavy workflow.
It’s a mouse for people who would rather minimize their mouse usage, and I guess that’s me, or at least that’s the workflow I’ve gravitated to all my life. It’s not an ideology thing, it’s simply the fact that it’s deep muscle memory now, and whenever I try to use any computer without one I struggle so much, and I’ve actively tried more than once to wean myself off it, I can’t, it becomes a constant irritation that any other mouse feels so disconnected from my typing.
Touchpads are just insanely frustrating to use, I have no idea how some people tolerate using them daily unless it’s all they’ve ever known, and touchscreens are even worse in some ways since your fingers block the screen exactly where you’re trying to press, not to mention getting fingerprint smudges all over it even with the best techno-magic coatings. I loathe them both.
1 Hz display option
Btw, is there something like Adaptive Sync for display servers? Although miost devices’ drivers only allow for 30 or 20 Hz minimum, automatic change from energy saving (reading static text) to high refresh (scrolling text, playing video) would be neat.
Back when I owned an XPS, one of the driver options was ‘compressed screen updates’, which only updated the part that had changed. As far as I could tell, made no difference to battery life whatsoever - turning down the screen brightness even a notch did much more.
Daily driver laptop for nearly ten years, and the part that finally failed was the CPU fan, which wasn’t easy to obtain replacement parts for, so treated myself to a new laptop entirely. Mind you, the power connection was a PoS, would have been as well keeping that on an annual reorder for how often it failed. Pretty good laptop otherwise.
Mind you, the power connection was a PoS, would have been as well keeping that on an annual reorder for how often it failed. Pretty good laptop otherwise.
Jesus fuck were those connections bad. I’ve got at least three dead Dell mobos in the parts bin because of them. it’s like the engineer’s thought the little smd USB/power ports would be enough to “hold it”.
I was confused when I read that part of the title, I thought they accidentally typed it instead of 120. A 1hz display for all functions would be a hilarious thing to play with for a minute or two.
I probably got a lemon but regardless my XPS (~3 years old) is the worst computer I’ve ever owned. Touchy WiFi, battery that goes from 30 to 3℅ in a matter of seconds, randomly doesn’t detect the keyboard, randomly freezes, randomly doesn’t acknowledge it’s plugged in. Some days I just put it in timeout and use my 10yo netbook instead.
You never contacted dell for a warranty? That definitely sounds like a lemon to me
Why would you put up with that? Why wouldn’t you demand a replacement.
I miss my clitmouse XD
Just shows how well the rebranding was thought through.
Looks promising. If I can buy it with Linux, that’s a plus. And turn off the touchscreen.
I got my XPS 9360 because it came with Linux preinstalled.
Dell is pretty friendly to Linux and even uses LVFS. I would assume theyre maintaining that in the new models but hey techs been doing stupid things since covid so who knows.
As long as Micro$oft doesn’t get any of my money.
or you could buy the non-touch version
The touch version is higher res and OLED.
I owned several xps in a row, then got one with that touch bar. I returned it and stayed away since. Smart move to ditch it
Hmmm maybe something to convince me off my MacBook onto a Linux laptop. Port selection is kinda disappointing though as usual. Will have to see how the new intel CPUs perform / battery life. I don’t think I can ever go back to having an obnoxious fan all the time
Have the put the cord for the port replicator and the USB port on the laptop on the right side to plug it into the laptop without having to route it around itself yet?
They never stopped selling xps, what drug is Tom using?
2910000@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
1 Hz display option: like an e-Ink display?
(it says 120Hz in the article)
eightys3v3n@lemmy.ca 3 weeks ago
They might mean down to 1hz like some smart phones do, to save battery.
2910000@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Ah yeah, I should have read the rest of the article. I didn’t know about that feature though, that’s cool
joyjoy@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago
Oh boy, always on oled displays are so in now.
ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.org 3 weeks ago
That’s slower than a car blinker.
NachBarcelona@piefed.social 3 weeks ago
It says 1-120 Hz in the article (for battery saving and e.g. ehen there’s static images on the display).