Why oh why does it have a buttonless clickpad? I've got a ThinkPad T440p and it's terrible. I despise every minute of working on it and have to bring a mouse around. Is this just copying Apple for looks?<p>I'm dying to buy a laptop that's as good as my X201 (and keeps 12" format, though thickness doesn't matter much), but with modern specs. I'm probably gonna break down and get an X250, which is limited to 8GB of RAM for no good reason, but I've heard newer processors can handle IM's 16GB SODIMM, so that particular problem might be solved. The X250 is the first gen ThinkPad after Lenovo partially realized they had destroyed the ThinkPad line and started, albeit slightly, listening to customers again.<p>Any other suggestions? I've tried using a macbook, and the screen is great, but the keyboard, clickpad, and hot metal are very uncomfortable.<p>I'd spend hundreds on a conversion kit to drop new guts into an X201. (And to mod it with mechanical switches... I'd spend a lot.) It seems you can't spend as much on a ThinkPad these days. My X201 was over $2000 without WWAN, but the X250 tops out around $1600.
Sadly I can't get too interested in a machine like this. What I want in a work machine is the following:<p>1) 16GB RAM (or more)
2) High density display
3) SSD drive
4) Quad core or better CPU
5) Small and thin
6) Discrete NVIDIA GPU (not the Intel integrated crap)<p>Apple's MBP is the only machine I know of that fits this bill. I'm becoming less and less a fan of OSX, but you can't argue against the hardware. Can anyone point me to a non-Apple machine that does these things?<p>EDIT:<p>Thanks for the pointers! I'll look into the Dell and Lenovo machines mentioned here. It's been a year or so since I've looked for machines comparable to my older MBP, so it's cool to see some new options.
I know some are disappointed by the lack of ram in the XPS 13. If you need a beefer laptop there is another Dell "Project Sputnik" (aka Ubuntu) laptop the Precision M3800. <a href="http://www.dell.com/learn/us/en/555/campaigns/xps-linux-laptop?c=us&l=en&s=biz" rel="nofollow">http://www.dell.com/learn/us/en/555/campaigns/xps-linux-lapt...</a><p>It is more comparable to a Mac Book Pro and can be configured with 16 GB of memory as well as the hi res display.
I've been using the previous gen XPS 13 and my 2009 MacBook Pro for the past eight months. My experience with the XPS 13, and Dell in general, has been disappointing.<p>If I had to make the decision again, I'd definitely get the M3800 instead of the XPS 13.<p>1. Google about trackpad configuration (palm detection, etc.) on the XPS 13 Dev Edition, it seems to be a combination of the hardware and Linux driver support. Maybe it's fixed in this new rev, I'm not sure.<p>2. There are known issues with audio popping and crackling when you plug the XPS 13 Dev Edition into speakers.<p>3. When you're sitting in a quiet environment, like a home office at night, you can hear electrical noise coming from the laptop. It's a known issue, maybe it's resolved in this new generation.<p>4. One of our XPS 13s was DOA. It happens. It took <i>eight weeks</i> to get a replacement, starting from the first time I contacted support. Once I was connected to somebody in USA on-shore support, they were very helpful, and told me much of that turnaround time is based on their suppliers.
This looks like the perfect laptop for me at this moment. I just worry that a ceiling of 8GB of RAM means it won't be the perfect laptop for me next year. And I'd like my laptop to last me 2-3 years.
It runs Ubuntu and costs about the same of a ChromeBook Pixel here a few weeks back. (<a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9185526" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9185526</a>). Seems to be limited to 8 gigs ram, Pixel gives you 16 but has less HD space. No USB Type-C either...<p>How does the keyboard compare to a MBP? Love that keyboard.<p>Do they also include free Ubuntu stickers to cover up the Windows logo on the keyboard? :)<p>Would love to hear from real devs using this.
My Macbook Pro isn't even a year old yet, so I won't be replacing it any time soon. But hardware like this is finally competitive with Apple - I'd be taking a close look if I was in the market.<p>The fact that OS X has gotten worse and worse with every version makes me switching next time even more likely.
This was posted yesterday as well: <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9332097" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9332097</a>
To ask those complaining about 8gb not being enough... Please name one thing that won't allow you to do which is crucial in your day to day workflow.<p>I'm not saying i don't believe you, I'm just genuinely curious.<p>Edit: Looking at this thread, I have to say there has to be a cause and effect here somewhere. You have a million web-developers saying they need more than 8GB to use Chrome to surf web-pages and web-apps.<p>I'm pretty sure web-apps sucking that amount of resources was caused by giving web-devs machines with 8GBs+ of RAM to begin with. Giving them more, wont fix the problem. It will only make it worse.<p>As for a developer-anecdote: Almost all bugs post-shipping bugs I've experienced and had to fix, more than 50% has only been reproducable on low-resource constrained environments.<p>By super-specing your dev-environment, you <i>are</i> shipping bugs you cannot detect. You just don't know it.
Devil's advocate time!<p>What's to keep Dell from heavily customizing and releasing / packaging a version of Ubuntu in the same vein that apple customized, released, packaged nextstep as OS X? The only thing I can think of would be "talent at the company". And I know next to nothing about the internals of dell, let alone what they've done since being repurchased and privatized.<p>Kind of a fun thought, even if it's a little far fetched.
the lack of a native ethernet port rules it out for any operations work that requires working on the datacenter floor.<p>actually this is a frustrating trend, native ethernet adapters are 0 cost to CPU instructions, I know you can use thunderbolt (and I've not looked at the spec in detail) but USB ethernet controllers use the CPU when plugged in- and I'm not a large fan of that honestly.<p>what happened to the very small, fold out ethernet ports? like the one on the old XPS 15 (or: <a href="http://www.pcstats.com/articleimages/201304/sam540U3C_edge2.jpg" rel="nofollow">http://www.pcstats.com/articleimages/201304/sam540U3C_edge2....</a>)<p>Maybe I'm too much of a power user for a 13" but for me this feels like a step back from netbooks from a functionality and mobility standpoint, and not far enough a leap forward for performance to justify stepping "up" from a Thinkpad X201. (which I have loaded with an SSD and 8G ram)<p>but, I agree that my use-case is significantly different from most peoples. I'm still left recalling a time where manufacturers were reluctant to stop shipping with 56k modems- but seem to have dropped Rj45 pretty quick.
Having a lot of ram is nice, but every time I read that people need at least 8gb for development, I ask myself what it is that they are running. I am running chrome, sublime, docker, hbase, redis, memcached, mongodb and probably some more stuff and I hardly swap with 4gb, or maybe I just do not realize it because of my ssd. Am I missing some ultra useful, memory annihilating dev tool?
That is the kinds of machine I was looking for when I bought my MBP. I was asking for a few things :<p>16GB of RAM
An SSD drive
An FHD display<p>Unfortunately, most of the products available with these features were either similarly priced as the MBP but with clumsy trackpads reputation.
I'm continually shocked at the lack of options when it comes to having 16GB of memory in a <15" laptop. As far as I know, the only options are:<p>MBP
Chromebook Pixel
System76 Galago<p>Anything else that even exists?
The main problem for me is that you won't be able to use a docking station with this laptop since the DL-3000 Series Chips aren't supported...