I Can’t Believe I Liked This…

[AlexTheGreatish]

 

The Dell XPS 13 Plus features a lot of bold design decisions... and I like it?

[MultiGamerClub]

im gonna watch this tonight when im so gone

[Nystemy]

If only it had more than just 2 ports....

 

The internal view at 10:20 in the video clearly shows that there is space on either side of the motherboard for a bit more PCB, however, the keyboard behind the PCB likely makes placing any ports here neigh impossible, though an SD card reader could have likely been included, even if most people wouldn't find that as an important feature. With a different speaker design one could have likely fit the headphone jack more towards the front of the laptop, for better or worse. Honestly, there is likely room for another USB C port on either side here as well.

 

But a thin 13 inch laptop isn't particularly big, and usually at this side one do tend to trade ports and performance in exchange for a small overall size. So to be fair, I honestly think it still is a decent device, though I still think only having 2 USB ports as a bit limited, and carrying dongles for nearly everything is a bit of a chore itself.

[CyberneticTitan]

That battery life difference between the LCD and OLED is gargantuan.

 

Dell refuses to put a 1440p screen on the XPS 13 huh.

[cat milker]

love the headphone jack scene lol

[Marc barbier]

we need more of alex on camera. the section where he improved the laptop was so stupid and soo funny

[SoftBearFeet]

22 minutes ago, Marc barbier said:

we need more of alex on camera. the section where he improved the laptop was so stupid and soo funny

BRUH I loved that part too! LUL

[_a_aron___]

This adds zero value to the conversation, but is anyone able to find the wallpaper used at the very beginning of the video?

[Luscious]

Dell has always forced the user to make sacrifices with the 13 inch XPS. I have the first gen model (9350) that I also happen to put that funky green dbrand Damascus skin on top and bottom (looks absolutely fantastic btw). Ports are not the issue with the model I have, it's the soldered on RAM that doesn't go beyond 8GB that's becoming the bottleneck. That can make even simple multitasking a challenge.

 

A lack of ports though is an absolute deal breaker - using one for power and the other for headphones leaves you with nothing left, not even a full size SD card reader like on my model. That kind of sacrifice is stupid. I would not put up with it as a user and I'm scratching my head who at Dell thought people would be OK with this. Sony in their infinite stupidity showed some years ago that nerfing the ports on their VAIO laptops didn't go down too well with users who wanted to use their laptop as an actual work tool. Having to carry a dongle around is hardly convenient, never mind multiples, and should you happen to lose or break the vital accessory you are again up the creek with your laptop and any work you are desperate to finish. You just cannot sacrifice function for performance and aesthetics - to the serious user that's unacceptable. And that doesn't even touch on the roughly $1800-2000 you're paying to get a nicely equipped model.

 

Companies need to stop thinking they can make decisions for their customers, and ultimately those companies that force customers to sacrifice are the companies who's products will fail. How can you not learn from the lessons outfits like Sony, and even Apple and Dell themselves, have already been put through??? Heck, this is XPS we're talking about - a premium line of laptop!!! You just don't jerk around with your customer by forcing them to put up with a sub-par user experience or cutting corners on your product. I have been working with laptops for the better part of 20 years and it still amazes me that companies along with the executives in charge are both this stupid and still getting away with it. Michael Dell needs to hide his face in shame.

[shadow_ray]

38 minutes ago, Luscious said:

Sony in their infinite stupidity showed some years ago that nerfing the ports on their VAIO laptops didn't go down too well with users who wanted to use their laptop as an actual work tool

This is a 13“ device... I would only buy something like this in case I have to carry a laptop to literally everywhere because the screen size is a sacrifice on it's own (for me at least).  But I think it can be quite useful with a thunderbolt module that can do power delivery, connect a display and extend IO via a single cable. Unpug in the office, plug back in at home.

 

I don't understand why you get so angry for this.  Nobody forces you to buy this and this little IO will be sufficient for some people. Just because you are not the target audience does not mean that everybody is stupid.

[dogwitch]

3 hours ago, CyberneticTitan said:

That battery life difference between the LCD and OLED is gargantuan.

 

Dell refuses to put a 1440p screen on the XPS 13 huh.

i have a 2015 laptop from dell(got dirt cheap used) that over spec . from base model.

its still going Strong as hell. longest laptop i ever own

[briguycal]

The Dell XPS 13 Plus looks pretty good overall, and seems like Dell actually put some real thought and effort into it.

And I hate to do this, as I love LTT content, but it looks like there is an error in the video regarding the specs of the OLED display. I believe they are conflating the specs of the UHD+ LCD panel with the OLED panel. On Dell's website, it looks like the OLED only has a resolution of 3456x2160 and only goes to 400 nits brightness (not 500). The UHD+ LCD panel looks to be the one with a resolution of 3840x2400 and 500 nits of brightness. And correct me if I'm mistaken, but since the OLED doesn't have full 4k resolution, streaming apps like Netflix will only stream in 1080p. 

Ultimately it looks like there are three display options for the XPS 13 Plus: FHD+ LCD, 3456x2160 OLED, and UHD+ LCD. Just wanted to make sure people were aware if they are interested in getting one.  

[Imbadatnames]

Why is he comparing an £1800 laptop to a £999 one instead of the £1800 one apple sells? Oh it’s because that one beats the XPS doesn’t it. 

[Techrocket9]

Disappointingly, the 14-core i7-1280P version reviewed here is not actually for sale yet on Dell's site.

 

I asked their sales chat rep about it, and the rep had no information on when this variant would be available.

[whalo]

43 minutes ago, Imbadatnames said:

Why is he comparing an £1800 laptop to a £999 one instead of the £1800 one apple sells? Oh it’s because that one beats the XPS doesn’t it. 

Linus said the laptop was 1300 dollars. The cheapest macbook pro is also 1300 dollars. 

[Imbadatnames]

32 minutes ago, whalo said:

Linus said the laptop was 1300 dollars. The cheapest macbook pro is also 1300 dollars. 

The spec they tested was £1800 so probably around $2000. It’s 1300 with the base display, less RAM and an i5.

[Luscious]

2 hours ago, shadow_ray said:

I don't understand why you get so angry for this.  Nobody forces you to buy this and this little IO will be sufficient for some people. Just because you are not the target audience does not mean that everybody is stupid.

Pretty much because I shouldn't have to lug around a second 3rd party accessory to get a workable laptop solution. And certainly not when the same functionality was there on earlier XPS 13 models... only to now be removed (aka a step backwards). There are admittedly some very useful and cool USB-C dongles out there, but relying on those is like relying on the weatherman that it won't rain. Break that dongle, lose/misplace that dongle - what are you going to do at that point? Can you even buy them if the accessory you need is no longer being sold? That's a massive user compromise when trying to work on a laptop.

 

My old HP 210 Mini netbook had 3 USB-A ports on, and I can tell you they came in VERY handy when doing serious work!!! Fast forward to today I use both the USB-A ports on my newer machine along with the audio connector so for me this model of XPS 13 wouldn't be usable, and I'm guessing it's a similar situation for many other small laptop users out there as well. YMMV 

[Jaesop]

2 hours ago, Imbadatnames said:

Why is he comparing an £1800 laptop to a £999 one instead of the £1800 one apple sells? Oh it’s because that one beats the XPS doesn’t it. 

Because it's a comparison of 13 inch laptops. That's said a couple times I think.

[whalo]

3 hours ago, Imbadatnames said:

The spec they tested was £1800 so probably around $2000. It’s 1300 with the base display, less RAM and an i5.

Sure, but taking the macbook pro 13 inch to the same ram and ssd capacity will take it to 1800-2000 dollars to 

[MIIIK]

Ok this time I just had to post because this "review" is one of the worst I saw on the channel so far. 

 

Comparing it to this 2 year old chip is far from fair. And the comments are super biased as well. When apple releases anything the comments go "For that price I can get X or Y and that's way better". When someone like Dell releases something like this "We compare 13" laptops".

 

Stating that the baseline 13" MBP costs nearly as much as this maxed out from Dell is not rly the best answer as well. Yes you need to spend a lot extra to match the 16GB Ram and the SSD space. BUT when you check the base specs of the 14" one ...look at that. Starting at 16GB Ram and double the SSD space as the 13" MBP. Oh and the 1300$ DELL Basemodel does come with 8GB of RAM as well ... With a 200$ Upgrade Option to 16GB ... just like the MBP.

 

The 1300$ Pricetag in the video was super misleading in my mind. Because the full video you show a machine with spect that you can't even get at this point. The nearest one you can buy starts at 1850$ (Intel 1260P) and no sign of pricing for the used Intel 1280P. In the 1300$ Base Model you get a FHD Display. The Basemodel of both - the 13" and 14" MBP do come with a way higher resolution. 

 

Using 2 Benchmarks where this older Chip vom Apple falls behind has a bitter taste as well. In the M1 pro Review there where like 7 Benchmarks and a few more applicational tests. 

 

When Apple releases a Laptop with only 2 ports? Unacceptable. When someone else does it ? No big deal. Like it is a minor hiccup this time? 

Yes the Touch Bar was not rly good implemented but had a way bigger potential that was just not used. But when Dell does it - way better? 

 

Apple releases short travel keys (witch turned out to be super bad - ill admit that!) it was a big fail. But DELL does it and without any longterm tests ... way better? How? What double standards do we use here?

 

So i rly don't get the point comparing a 1300$ Laptop from DELL that is not used in the Video to an 1300$ MBP when it makes more sense to compare a Laptop with nearly identical measures like the MBP M1 Pro to this maxed out one that will costs about the same when the price finally drops. 

Why do we need to measure with 2 difference cups here ? Why do we need to point out that when apple releases something that you can get a way better machine for pice X but when someone other than apple releases something we need to compare it so such a specific model ? 

 

I feel like the DELL Model shown in the Video will be around 2k $. Witch is fine .. but then compare it to such a competitor. 

Cheers from someone who owns a Windows AND a Mac Device. 

 

EDIT: And i don't mind the Dell maybe beating the MBP M1 / M1 Pro or what ever. Tech evolves and will get better. That's a good thing. The thing I complain about is how this review was made. 

 

[MIIIK]

24 minutes ago, whalo said:

Sure, but taking the macbook pro 13 inch to the same ram and ssd capacity will take it to 1800-2000 dollars to 

No one will ever do that because the Basemodel 14" starts with 16GB and double the SSD Capacity. That's what a pricing ladder is for ... 

[hishnash]

Im not sure the CPU benchmarks you did were really a valid test of what someone is going to do on a laptop like this? 

People who are being a laptop like this are not buying it for cpu based raytracing, other cpu heavy workloads would have been much more relevant to the comparison.

Be that web browsing tests, even code compilation, excel, maybe some light video editing etc. But cpu based cycles rendering and Cinema 4d (Cinebench) is not at all relevant to the target market.

 

[hishnash]

5 hours ago, MIIIK said:

Why do we need to measure with 2 difference cups here ? Why do we need to point out that when apple releases something that you can get a way better machine for pice X but when someone other than apple releases something we need to compare it so such a specific model ? 

 

I expect the reason for they difference here is that LTT do not want to loos their connection to dell so releasing a review were they poor a load of cumbs/sand on the keyboard only to find they fail is not something they want to risk as having access to these laptops before they ship is worth $$$$ on YouTube for a channel this size. 

 

[hishnash]

11 hours ago, shadow_ray said:

I don't understand why you get so angry for this.  Nobody forces you to buy this and this little IO will be sufficient for some people. Just because you are not the target audience does not mean that everybody is stupid.

One key aspect when I see a laptop with 2 TB4 ports is to ask if those are 2 ports each with their own controller or 2 ports sharing a controller. 

If they each have their own controller then they don't end up sharing bandwidth but if they share a controller then they also share bandwidth this means you might very quickly end up very limited. This is the sort of detail that laptop reviewers with the experience of LTT should be getting into, they did cover bandwidth on the M1 Mac mini why not on this laptop were there are less ports so its even more important. 

[MIIIK]

1 minute ago, hishnash said:

I expect the reason for they difference here is that LTT do not want to loos their connection to dell so releasing a review were they poor a load of cumbs/sand on the keyboard only to find they fail is not something they want to risk as having access to these laptops before they ship is worth $$$$ on YouTube for a channel this size. 

 

Even tho I do see your point, I would say LTT stands above this. Just check what they did on secret shopper. And ofc the point of having access to review models is a valid point ... it just got a bitter taste this time. Like if DELL just told them to ONLY compare to that specific model. Normally LTT does a great Job on comparing Price per $

That's why I do ask that question ... they don't need the DELL Money as far as I can see there business structure from my pov (as someone who works as an editor in that industry as well)