Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition with Ubuntu 20.04 LTS pre-installed

I applaud the change to a 16:10 screen (the ratio used in all Apple laptops and sadly few others for years). The extra vertical space for the same area is very welcome; 16:9 feels very cramped at laptop sizes once you add a few menu bars and headers and banners. I hope more laptop manufacturers decide to go this direction.

At this point, waiting for the mobile Ryzens to appear across the laptop ranges seems like a good idea. They&#x27;ve crammed 8 cores instead of 4 into the same TDP and made laptop chips that are in the same ballpark as the dekstop counterparts:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.cpubenchmark.net&#x2F;compare&#x2F;Intel-i7-10610U-vs-AMD-Ryzen-7-PRO-4750U-vs-AMD-Ryzen-7-4800U-vs-Intel-i9-9900K-vs-AMD-Ryzen-7-3700X&#x2F;3738vs3740vs3721vs3334vs3485" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.cpubenchmark.net&#x2F;compare&#x2F;Intel-i7-10610U-vs-AMD-...</a><p>The graphics should also be better than the Intel ones.<p>So far the only interesting laptop I&#x27;ve seen is the Lenovo T14s which is their lower-end ultrabook from the X1 Carbon. Frustratingly they&#x27;ve limited it to 1080p screens in the AMD version when the Intel version includes a great 4K option:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;psref.lenovo.com&#x2F;syspool&#x2F;Sys&#x2F;PDF&#x2F;ThinkPad&#x2F;ThinkPad_T14s_Gen_1_AMD&#x2F;ThinkPad_T14s_Gen_1_AMD_Spec.PDF" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;psref.lenovo.com&#x2F;syspool&#x2F;Sys&#x2F;PDF&#x2F;ThinkPad&#x2F;ThinkPad_T...</a><p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;psref.lenovo.com&#x2F;syspool&#x2F;Sys&#x2F;PDF&#x2F;ThinkPad&#x2F;ThinkPad_T14s_Gen_1_Intel&#x2F;ThinkPad_T14s_Gen_1_Intel_Spec.PDF" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;psref.lenovo.com&#x2F;syspool&#x2F;Sys&#x2F;PDF&#x2F;ThinkPad&#x2F;ThinkPad_T...</a>

I seriously hope Dell finally found a way to make more solid laptops because half of the ~30 XPS laptops I&#x27;ve seen around me needed to be send back because of issues with the device freezing or with the display.<p>I started out in November last year with an XPS and after multiple freezes I requested an repair that would take my laptop out for multiple weeks. Having seen my previous company send multiple laptops back multiple times I didn&#x27;t have much trust in the certainty of resolution for my issues with the xps. My coworker at the time didn&#x27;t have any issues with her XPS but I gave up on Dell and switched to Mac. Sadly my coworkers XPS broke down after 2 months and it&#x27;s still being repaired after 5 weeks...<p>The specs of the XPS certainly are the best and the feel is great and I so hoped it would be a succes but it just sucks the experience is so bad. I often hear others still raving and reading about non problems so somehow I still think I might have seen a really bad batch enter the Netherlands over 2 years time.

I alternate between a (now ageing 9350-model) XPS 13 running Ubuntu and a (newish) MacBook Pro (for work), so perhaps my experience is interesting to some.<p>I like both, but switching between the two is a bit jarring. The different keyboard layout is particularly annoying. Maybe this is worse with a British keyboard though. I switched the Mac to use the &#x27;PC&#x27; layout, which helps a bit, but adapting between the cmd-ctrl-fn is difficult. And there are inconsistencies in the readline behaviour that I haven&#x27;t worked out. I&#x27;m fairly indifferent to the feel of the keyboard - maybe a slight preference for the XPS.<p>I like the 16:9 ratio of the XPS, but not a big deal.<p>The 20.04 update has been such an improvement. The fan used to be constantly running, maybe because of the previously-experimental fractional scaling, but since the update this runs so smooth. If anyone from Gnome&#x2F;Ubuntu reads this: thank you!<p>The trackpad on the MacBook is obviously nice: support for gestures and the bigger area. I can&#x27;t stand the touch bar - I&#x27;m constantly accidentally pressing buttons. TouchID is nice - the fingerprint reader in this new version sounds good.<p>Few other things that are better on the MBP: speakers, brightness (especially the auto-adjusting brightness), and webcam (this version of the XPS has the webcam below the screen, which sucks).<p>I don&#x27;t make any use of the touchscreen on the XPS and I haven&#x27;t got around to turning it off from the BIOS. Seems kind of wasteful.<p>The coil whine on the XPS is really bad. Interested to know if this is fixed&#x2F;better on the newer models?<p>I replaced the battery on the XPS recently, but turns out the battery isn&#x27;t as official as Amazon promised so the LED occasionally does an angry flashing sequence. But yay for being able to replace this.<p>Also the Dell support turned out to be pretty good. At one point there was an issue with my screen and they sent a guy to my house to replace the screen for free.

&gt; EMEA Offline: Czech Republic, Denmark, Emerging countries, Finland, Greece, Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Slovakia, Turkey, South Africa.<p>Mmm, love shopping in &quot;Emerging countries&quot;, gotta get a ticket to there :D<p>Kinda reminds me of the &quot;hot singles near Anonymous Proxy&quot; banners.

I had considered buying the 15 inch XPS to replace my Thinkpad X1C (6th gen). I really need 32 Gigs to run kubernetes and compile GraalVM images locally. But the latest XPS 15 has the RAM soldered to the board. This means if I want 32 Gigs, I have to pony up the premium price. They do have a Precision that is basically the same specs that DOES allow upgrading the RAM. The biggest problem is, Dell&#x27;s website has the option to remove Windows and add Ubuntu... but you can&#x27;t add it to the cart. It complains that McAffe won&#x27;t fun on my OS of choice... and I can&#x27;t remove McAffe! That pretty much stopped me right there.

My current Dell XPS had the pretty common battery swelling problem but within months of purchase. On previous models they replaced it for free but they stopped doing that. So add a possible battery replacement to their list price if you still want a Dell. Based on my experience with customer support and this battery issue this will be my last Dell. I&#x27;m looking at Lenovo for my next laptop.

I&#x27;ve been using the XPS 13 DE at work for 3+ years and it has been a great experience. It originally shipped with 16.04; I was able to upgrade smoothly to 18.04 when it was available and I hope to do the same with 20.04.<p>I use it with a docking station and two external monitors with no problems. It&#x27;s normally physically connected to the network so I can&#x27;t comment much on the wifi. I don&#x27;t do anything with Bluetooth.<p>My personal laptop is a MBP but if Dell ever came out with a XPS 15 DE I would immediately switch.

Doesn&#x27;t look too bad.<p>The page mentioned that: 10th generation Intel® Core™ 10nm mobile processors and up to 32 gigabytes of RAM<p>But on the product page, we can only get either 8 or 16 GB of memory. Do you know if it&#x27;s possible to buy these with 32GB of RAM from Dell?

Link to 32GB version: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.dell.com&#x2F;en-us&#x2F;work&#x2F;shop&#x2F;dell-laptops-and-notebooks&#x2F;new-xps-13-developer-edition&#x2F;spd&#x2F;xps-13-9300-laptop&#x2F;ctox13w10p1c2200u?view=configurations&amp;configurationid=aa4ddc17-c908-4f5f-909e-53d2ce9b898d" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.dell.com&#x2F;en-us&#x2F;work&#x2F;shop&#x2F;dell-laptops-and-notebo...</a>

I would recommend strongly to not buy Dell laptops. The quality of the laptops are very bad. I bought a XPS 15 two years ago for around €2000 and the screen isn’t working anymore. The laptop hasn’t moved from my desk. Look at the support pages, there’s so many issues with no resolutions.<p>Current issues:<p>Screen distorted - Have to use external monitor<p>Laptop randomly freezes for 30s - Great for meetings<p>Bluetooth randomly disconnects all devices<p>WiFi randomly disconnects

I just got the 32 GB version! My top complaint after rocking the Ubuntu 13 laptop for the last 4 years was lack of 32 GB option. (Other people complain about the webcam, but I hardly use it).<p>Overall has been a great platform.

Dang I really hope they do the same with the new xps 15 and 17... But there&#x27;s probably no market for this aside from me specifically T_T

I run Ubuntu 20.04 lts on the Dell XPS 13 i7 10700 (12 ht cores!). I bought the windows version ~8 months ago. It is a great form factor and quiet and Ubuntu is a dream. I run dual 4k 32 inch monitors from the laptop when closed via the many USB c ports. It just works.

I only ever owned an XPS 13 9350 (~2015) and it suffers from really horrible coil whine, regardless of whether anything is plugged in or not.<p>I really wonder whether they’ve fixed this issue, as I’ve heard that some models after this one still suffered from the same.

I don&#x27;t know how Dell makes any money on this laptop. It&#x27;s too expensive. It&#x27;s much cheaper to buy a Windows Dell XPS 13 laptop with the same specs and then just install Linux on it.

What’s the story with full disk encryption on Ubuntu these days? Last time I checked (a while ago) it was a bit clunky, but now I’m considering a Linux desktop after 10 yrs of macOS and filevault, so checking my options. Thanks!

Good to see this because it means demand for new Linux laptops is still here (or even growing) but why wouldn’t someone go for a System76 laptop instead that comes with custom, FOSS firmware too?

I&#x27;ve been havin XPS 13 for nearly 2 years now. Personally, haven&#x27;t had any issues in terms of reliability.I even managed to spill my soup on it a couple of times and it ended up working after it. Battery capacity halfed over this period, however I can&#x27;t comment on this,as I don&#x27;t know how other laptops perform in this area.the only weird thing about it is the camera positioned at the bottom of the screen...

I have a normal XPS 13 for work. I don&#x27;t like it. I have increase font sizes on the laptop screen. No expandable memory or storage. Fan on high is normal. Some versions BigFoot wifi controller that will drop out all the time when it&#x27;s slightly warm. One of devs had to get an external cooler to help that issue, but eventually went for an external WiFi adapter.

I am running Ubuntu 20.04 on a Dell XPS 13 9370 from a couple years ago. It’s amazing! First time I’ve had a Linux distro that really works well including battery life, sleep, devices etc.<p>I had previously given up on this and was excited that WSL2 was finally available, but installed 20.04 and haven’t looked back.

Great that Dell is supporting their Laptops with Ubuntu and Linux. I like the developer experience of Linux. Most things work as they should out of the box and the system is stable. Plus it feels like the right thing to use open source software where you can contribute back if you want.

When you click through to purchase, in the Customize section at the bottom there is a &quot;Keep Your Hard Drive&quot; option up to 4 years. What exactly does this mean and why up to 4 years and not more, e.g. forever?

I ordered my XPS 13 last night, it&#x27;s not the developer edition, but I plan on pulling the 128gb ssd and replacing it with a 512 anyway, and at that time will convert it to Ubuntu 20.04. I can&#x27;t wait!

Does the sound-card make any popping sounds turning on and off?? I have an older XPS 13-9343 and sadly this was a huge issue with Ubuntu&#x2F;Linux. It would pop on and off whenever you used audio.

Looks like it comes with Killer WiFi. Pretty questionable choice there.

&gt; <i>Start in an instant: A built in lid sensor allows you to open the lid and power up in milliseconds, no matter what power-state you are in.</i><p>Really? &lt; 10ms resume? From hibernation, too?

Is this still a glossy-only screen option? I would happily by the XPS 15 with a non-glossy screen. I have been forced to use the Precision models with Ubuntu pre-installed and suffered both mediocre performance, battery life, build quality, and even the sound output not working.<p>Unfortunately I am using a Mac from my employer for the first time in years. It is nice to have hardware that works extremely well again! But the glare is bad in certain lighting conditions and the touch bar is extremely annoying. I have caps lock mapped to escape, but it is just a more difficult place to get my pinky finger to.

What about Dell Precision series? I thought they are supposed to support Linux and they certainly carry pretty impressive specs.

I wish they made these available in Australia! Wouldn&#x27;t even be different to the US version, power supply aside.

I would buy this laptop in a heartbeat if I could have an ISO keyboard layout in North America.

Does ThinkPad X&#x2F;T have something similar? On their website the only option is Windows.

gnome is terrible comparing to macOS WM&#x2F;DM. So many bugs and there is no way to tweak things like in mac. Please do me a favor and look about it before buying.

$1099 for a laptop with only 8G RAM, 256G SSD, 4 slow intel cores and 1080p LCD? you get far better specs for a phone in 2020 for that kind of $.