Dell XPS 13 7390 (non 2 in 1)

Well... After nearly 7 years it was time to put my MacBook Air out to pasture. The battery barely last an hour (I know I can get a battery for $75), the 256GB SSD was getting too small even though I supplemented it with a 400GB micro SD card permanently flush mounted in the SD slot, and the screen wasn't all that bright anymore. I'm not a fan of Apples most recent offerings so I bought a 2015 MacBook Pro with retina display, but was underwhelmed, so I returned it.

After hmmming and hawing for a week or two, I decided to go back to a PC based laptop, with the possibility of turning it into a OS X hackintosh (I have a mini PC running OS X to my tv as a media center) . No way in hell will I run Windoze 10, I would rather eat a 100 ghost peppers everyday for a year. I wanted Macbook Air form factor with some decent specs that wont have me wanting in 2 years. I narrowed it down to the HP Envy and Dell XPS, both with 13" screens. The HP had slickly implemented USB A ports, but a silver keyboard, which I can't live with. I don't really have anything that needs USB A anymore since I rarely travel these days, so the USB C only that the Dell has would be fine. Both the most recent offerings from Dell and HP have tiny bezels around the screen, but I saw a decent sale on the late 2019 Dell XPS 7390 with an i7 processor, 16GB of ram, 1TB SSD, and a 4K screen!!! So that's what I ended up with.

With free 2 day shipping, the XPS arrived a few days ago, and I unpacked it... Damn this is one sexy laptop. The form factor is almost like an 11" Macbook Air, but with a 13" screen, the aluminum body, and soft faux carbon fiber surrounding the keyboard, makes for an elegant, modern machine.


The screen is amazingly crisp, and quite bright (barely have to have it on more than 1/2 brightness). With utter disdain, the stock Windooooz 10 installation was promptly turfed in favor of something new and exciting. What OS is that you ask? Not OS X, like the icons in the dock would lead some to believe...

With no simple OS X solution for the XPS currently, I decided to give Linux a go. It's been a while since I've had Linux as an OS, so I played it safe and went with the mainstream, easy and peasy, Ubuntu 20.04. It took a day of fiddling and tracking down internet help to get everything organized and working (transfer media, firewall, local network, email, look, and feel, etc). I have to say the result is excellent so far, very snappy, and a real joy to use. Even with the exceptional 4K screen I'm getting 9-10hrs of browsing time, 7-8hrs if I start listening to music and watching videos. The fan rarely runs with web browsing, and I've only heard it really ramp up when I was backing up the system to external HD. Did I mention how awesome the screen is?

I'm quite impressed so far and hope the XPS will provide years of solid service.

 

Got the 2018 XPS 13 model from a buddy whose new job did not allow him to use Windows and only Macs. My old Asus laptop at the time was still mostly working fine at the time just showing its age and also a bit heavy. But buddy gave me a sweet price so I decided to go for it.

First few months I was little lazy and didn't use it much. But the screen to the Asus craps out one day and it would have set me back a few hundred bucks so I decide to use the XPS and its amazing.

Screen is gorgeous, the system is super quick, the build of the XPS is nothing to scoff at but still is light as heck compared to my old Asus.

The XPS 13 is my work laptop, my demo computer at shows and events, and my general travel companion.

Good job on picking up the XPS 13, I love mine minus the camera location being at the bottom of the screen. It ends up being a chin camera more than anything for me.

 

Very cool!

I ended up going with a Lenovo Yoga just last week. As a teacher, the 2-in-1 was mandatory for all the remote teaching I'm doing right now and the value for the Yoga was on point, but the XPS was always tempting.

The battery life you're getting is great. Most 4k screen laptops I see cut the battery life nearly in half.

 

The xps is easily top three for laptops that I've ever owned, worked on or sold (I'm in the business). It is arguably the best laptop ever made. The fine craftsmanship of the build, the eye popping screen that is almost bezzle free. It's simply a joy to use every time that you put your hands on it.

Whenever I have a customer who wants the best laptop, I always suggest the xps. I've sold maybe 20 of them and not once has the xps failed to impress. It's easily the best computer ever made by Dell.

 

How's the keyboard? I'm on Team Thinkpad for almost for life. That XPS keyboard looks thin.

 

Mine has the web cam up top, the thicker lower bezel, and said bezel has been shrunk down on the 2020 9300 model. The HP Envy fat lower bezel has also been shrunk down considerably for latest 2020 model as well, but at the cost of making the entire laptop thicker. I'm not sure if the latest Dell XPS 9300 is also thicker, I just saw the deal on the 7390 and could not build a similar spec 9300 for anywhere close to the same ballpark.

I suspect the great battery life has a lot to do with running Linux and not the perpetually updating, resource hungry, POS OS that it came with.

Feels pretty solid and well made, however I did start to notice a slight squeak in the space bar. That I easily fixed by prying it up, and lightly oiling the metal contact points as explained in multiple YouTube videos (plastic safe synthetic formula oil for fishing reels). I'm not a keyboard typist, so I can't really elaborate on speed typing or anything like that.

 

Dells/HP machines (in similar price class as Apples offerings) has been on par hardware wise with Apple products for a while. The Dells beats the SHIT out of them when it comes to keyboards.

 

I purchased a Dell Chromebook (I3 7310) in 2016. Basically an XPS 13. Carbon fiber lid cover.
It came with a crappy 32G MTS400 (42mm) M.2 SSD, I bought a 256G on Amazon and swapped it out.



After a year I got tired of Chrome and wanted games so I found a 3rd party BIOS to install and then installed W10 Pro on it. Its a bit flaky on power (with the BIOS), but it runs fine and the keyboard and track pad are 1st rate. It does its job buts its really a low use machine for mostly travel and a few other things.

If I was doing it all over again, I might go for a Thinkpad, or maybe a MSI gaming laptop. Actually, I could really geek for a well built laptop around a Ryzen right now.

 

My PC I built in 2013 just died .. think it might be the graphics card.. but it looks like it hosed my OS install ... Pain in the ass. Gotta pull it all apart and clean it. See what happens.

Where to go from here ? Don't even know what a thunderbolt is after looking at xps 13

 

Used to game hardcore years ago, last few years just been doing soulsbourne games and ps4pro exclusives mostly.

Graphics and 4k aren't a priority really or storage besides a 256 solid state. Probably need a good USB docking station and thunderbolt to dac cables. 13 inch is good.

I've read a bit on how the new AMD chips are killing it and all the Intel vulnerabilities. Are xps and Mac pro all Intel still ?


UPDATE: so I guess it was the graphics card. It's a gtx780 I bought at launch in 2013. I got artifacts and all sorts of weird pixelations. I swapped to I onboard video from my 4770k cpu. Got video but system hang and repeated repair failures. So today when I had time I actually pulled the card, restored to a week ago and boom like nothing ever happened. Thankfully ! I don't want to mess with this shit right now !