Dell XPS Advice

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So I'm in the market for a new laptop and due to the price increase on the MBP I've been looking at alternatives.
My current favourite is the Dell XPS, but I'm struggling to decide between these two models and was wondering what people would go for personally.

XPS 13 (£1,395.00)
  • Intel® Core™ i7-7500U Processor
  • RAM: 16 GB / Storage: 512 GB SSD
  • QHD Touchscreen

XPS 15 (£1,440.00)

  • Intel® Core™ i7-7700HQ processor
  • RAM: 16 GB / Storage: 512 GB SSD
  • Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050
  • 1080p Non Touch Screen
Thanks for any advice on this...
 
Yeah it's mainly the basic stuff, my partner also uses it to log in remotely and work from home.
I would quite like to have the option to use it for gaming as well if possible.

The reason I was looking at that sort of price was because I was looking what I could get for the price of the base model MBP and these seem to blow the specs of that out of the water.
My thinking was also that my current MBP has lasted me around 6 years, so it would be nice to have a spec that could potentially repeat that.
 
I went for the 13 initially and got the specs you mention for 1107 off of dell outlet. Was a brilliant little laptop but at times felt like it was struggling with my workload. In the end I returned it and have just taken delivery of the xps 15 with the specs you mention but the 4k panel and its amazing. Having some issues with graphics drivers but typing on it now and its well worth it.

If you go via dell chat you should be able to haggle a 12% discount. too.
 
skaif said:
I went for the 13 initially and got the specs you mention for 1107 off of dell outlet. Was a brilliant little laptop but at times felt like it was struggling with my workload. In the end I returned it and have just taken delivery of the xps 15 with the specs you mention but the 4k panel and its amazing. Having some issues with graphics drivers but typing on it now and its well worth it.

If you go via dell chat you should be able to haggle a 12% discount. too.
Click to expand...

Thanks for that.
Have you run into any scaling issues in Windows 10 with the 4K screen?
i already need my DPI set to 125% as I have an eye condition.
 
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Apart from gaming, any budget laptop will do what you want to do. Usual spec, 4GB, dual or quad core, maybe a SSD/Hybrid drive etc.

http://www.dell.com/uk/business/p/v...68btsukie_1801&model_id=vostro-14-5468-laptop


I'd probably upgrade to 8GB, generally want lots of RAM on a laptop (if it has a regular HD) so it's paging as little as possible and putting as much as possible OS into RAM (superfetch, prefetch etc)
 
I went from a 13" Retina MBP to a 13" 1080p XPS. There is a noticeable difference in sharpness but it's not that bad. I wouldn't bother with touchscreen option myself. The XPS is a nice laptop. You won't go wrong whatever one you choose.
 
I've got an XPS13 with an "i7" 5500U and the QHD panel.

The high res panel is pointless:
- it significantly shortens battery life
- you have to use scaling to get it usable
- it's refresh rate seems low, it's noticeably laggy at times
- I never use the touchscreen, it doesn't make any sense, you just put fingerprints all over your shiny screen

The i7 dual core is underpowered:
- the system feels sluggish at times, not badly but enough to make me go and use my desktop for proper work
- it's not a real i7

The Kabylake XPS13 will be better but I'd 100% go for the XPS15.
 
Outlet. Scratch and dent, customer cancelled orders, returns and refurbished machines with 1 yr warranty. Can get some amazing deals if you search well enough.
 
hornetstinger said:
Apart from gaming, any budget laptop will do what you want to do. Usual spec, 4GB, dual or quad core, maybe a SSD/Hybrid drive etc.

http://www.dell.com/uk/business/p/v...68btsukie_1801&model_id=vostro-14-5468-laptop


I'd probably upgrade to 8GB, generally want lots of RAM on a laptop (if it has a regular HD) so it's paging as little as possible and putting as much as possible OS into RAM (superfetch, prefetch etc)
Click to expand...

4K might be overkill on a 13" screen, but that 768p screen is going to be completely garbage to use.
And to be fair, I oouldn't even consider a HDD over an SSD now. I think the idea of a cheaper notebook might be right, but this option definitely isn't the way to go.
 
The XPS13 with QHD screen is a very capable machine. I've got the i7 (Kabylake) with 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD and QHD Touchscreen.

Manages a bit of video editing, lightroom/photoshop and programming (.NET) quite capably.

I'd argue that the QHD screen is far superior than the HD one - much higher pixel density, better colour reproduction, touchscreen, and most notably, it just looks better.
 
tigerstyle said:
4K might be overkill on a 13" screen, but that 768p screen is going to be completely garbage to use.
And to be fair, I oouldn't even consider a HDD over an SSD now. I think the idea of a cheaper notebook might be right, but this option definitely isn't the way to go.
Click to expand...

1366x768 @ 14" is 111PPI. My 24" monitor 1900x1200 is 93PPI.
So it's 20% higher PPI than my monitor. It'll be fine.

It won't be garbage. And that laptop has 128GB.
 
For the OP I would just go with i5/i7 XPS 13. No need for more power in the XPS 15 and the 13 is more portable. I have a 13 with i5 6400U and yes it does get slow at some points but the SSD is great and for basic use and even for CSGO it works really nicely, and is very light
If more heavy tasks are being done then of course I'd go for the 15
 
If you're after something small and compact with reasonable built quality, it may be worth considering the Asus Zenbook UX310YUA. I've got it's predecessor, the UX305. I use this for work and personal use. I've got the version with the Core-M CPU, 8 GB RAM, and 128 GB SSD. It runs Office 2016, performs number crunching in Excel, Skype conferencing and the various websites I use without a problem.

I wouldn't want to run anything too demanding on it, but for general day to day stuff it's perfect. Portability wise, it's incredibly thin and light, and the fanless design means that you can safely use it on your lap without worrying about ingress of dust or fluff.
 
hornetstinger said:
1366x768 @ 14" is 111PPI. My 24" monitor 1900x1200 is 93PPI.
So it's 20% higher PPI than my monitor. It'll be fine.

It won't be garbage. And that laptop has 128GB.
Click to expand...

LOL

768 lines though, it can show next to no information, youll be scrolling through one post at a time on ocuk rather than seeing four at a glance. And 1366 horizontal? Even Office needs more than that to work well, 768p is garbage. Can be high quality colours etc, but the lack of available information hurts!
 
I use the 15 with i7, 16Gb, 512ssd and 4k screen and i'm over the moon with it. I actually surprisingly find myself using the touch screen quite often when casually browsing or demonstrating stuff to others.

The battery life isnt fantastic unplugged though with battery saver on i get a good 5 hours of dev time even with a fairly hefty VM on. Video playback and such brings that down though.

The 15 is a small machine for such a screen size, i'd recommend visiting a local high street retailer to get hands on with both models before you buy.
 
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