XPS 13 or XPS 15 for IT Student

[DreiPunktVier]

Hello together,

I will start studying computer science in september and I need a Laptop for it.

The Laptop is only for University, I have a Desktop for Games.

I wanted to stay below 1000€, but I couldn't find something I like and now I think the XPS 13 is good for me.

But it is hard to decide between the XPS 13 [i5-7200U, 256GB SSD, 8GB Ram] (1200€) and XPS 15 [i7, 256GB SSD, 8GB RAM] (1475€)

 

My pros for XPS 13:

1,2Kg

60Wh battery

 

My pros for XPS 15:

Quadcore

GTX 1050

Ability to upgrade RAM and SSD

 

Cons for XPS 15:

Price

only 56Wh battery

 

I have a XPS 15 with i7 against a XPS 13 with i5 because the XPS 15 with i5 is 100€ lower tha i7 model, but only has 32GB SSD and a HDD. Also the XPS is configurated with a fingerprint reader, it costs 26€ extra, but that's woth it for me

 

[TheSSVids]

I'm not that familiar with computer science, but if it requires a lot of graphical horsepower I'd say go with the 15. If not, go with the 13. The form factor is way better imo.

[dmaes]

I have a 500 EUR 15" laptop for going to class. Any serious work is done on my desktop. If i need more horsepower in class, I just ssh to my desktop.

There are a lot of guys with new 300EUR or 4year old unbreakable laptops with a beast of a desktop at home/students house. They do just fine.

They all run Linux, so thats also a performance gain on old or cheap hardware.

And if you need anything specific that you don't have, you can use it from the university

[ErrystioT]

Does your country have the Dell XPS 15 option with all SSD configuration (in US it's available to say the least) ? So instead of having to occupy a slot for 2.5" SATA slot, it is fully used for the battery, making it actually occupy for a whopping 97Wh battery (over 70% increased in battery capacity when eradicating the 2.5" slot). I'm a computer science student myself (the laptop I currently use right now is shown at my signature below ) and unless you're doing something graphically intensive (for mobile video editing or graphical work), I'd say get the Dell XPS 13 instead of the 15". Since you have a desktop at home, I think this would be a more suitable option for you.

[Teddy07]

I am a computer science student myself and my 5-year-old upgraded laptop just does fine. My laptop has an i7 2670qm and no GPU. I don't have to program much and the laptop can do my small programs so far.