The biggest computer mistake ever.Beware the Dell Xps 13 15
Hello y'all A couple weeks ago I made a thread about me purchasing a surprise computer for friend. I ended up purchasing a Dell XPS 13 with i5 & 8GB of RAM for $999 as per the suggestion of millions of articles, tons of reviews, in store try outs, and a suggestion of a nice basiler on here. I get bills and etc sent to my house and the friend happened to be over and she read what I had bought. Knowing that I wasn't buying a computer for myself, she took it as a hint to buy a Dell XPS 13 with i5 & 8GB of RAM for $999 for me too. Girl, I have the best friends! So the laptop arrived (for me), and I was shocked as hell. I had no clue of what she was doing for me, I was in tears. We both ended up loving the computers because they're sleek speed machines with sexy form (NO BORDERS FOR DAYSSS, INFINITY SCREEN ROCKS).
Fast forward 4-5 days, and we're ready to return these craps. Both of us. Why you say? The trackpad on these laptops suck! We suffered with ghost clicking, slow scrolling in chrome & various apps (oddly enough, IE always had smooth scrolling), scrolling that wasn't always registered (we would drag our fingers down the pad with two fingers and it would ignore our input), failed clicks (clicks that weren't registered even when done physically), broken pinch to zoom, broken left to right scroll, wonky touch clicks/double clicks/right clicks (they worked maybe 20% of the time), and finally, the pads are oil magnets! WTF.
So we turn to DELL for support because we aren't finna keep these computers past the time we can return it. So we packaged up these sexy touchpad nightmares and sent them to DELL with prepaid
shipping. At the moment we're waiting to be credited our ~2 thousand dollars. Having money in limbo is the absolute worst. </3 </3 </3 >.< The moral of this story? Beware the DELL XPS 13! I cannot lie, it is a beauty. The touchpad however, is reminiscent of an ugly step-sister a la Cinderella. It just did not make sense. How could DELL engineer such a wonderful laptop only to implement such a terrible touchpad?
As soon as we get our refunds (full, mind you), my friend and I are hauling ass to the Apple Store to buy maxed out Macbook Air 13's <3 I have never had a mac fail on me. Never have I experienced the aforementioned issues with an Apple trackpad. Of course, if we do get issues, we can go back to the Apple Store. The accesbility of the store is a godsend. DELL (and most PC manufacturers) has no stores. If there's an issue , you're forced to package it, send it, and wait a couple of weeks </3 >.< Also, AppleCare is superior. Googling the experiences that people had with Dell's equivalent is saddening. The MBA should've been my choice in the beginning but I swear I was swayed by armies of people that thought I ought to give PC a chance because it's "getting better", "OMG windows is much cheaper", "precision touch pad is good now. Almost on par with Apple" <--- biggest lie, etc. You get what you pay for boys and girls. I will wholeheartedly drop $1659 on a Mac if it means I will love it, have few issues, can return it easily and claim AppleCare when it is necessary.
Whatever. At least I now know where I stand in terms of allegiance to windows computers and apple computers haha
8 Comments • Newest first
[quote=CygnusBabii]...I began to get a comprehensive sense of processors, which ones are necessary, i5 vs i7...[/quote]
Before you go start to look at laptops again, I do want to note that Intel's i3, i5, and i7 naming scheme can be misleading particularly with laptops. There are ultra-low power processors meant for Ultrabooks, but are seeing lots of use in laptops. These processors are designated with a U at the end of their name such as Intel Core i5-5200U. There is also a class of more powerful, but more power hungry laptop processors that have either M or H end of their name like Intel Core i7-4710HQ.
In the Intel Core i7-4710HQ example, there's also a Q and that's very important when comparing an i7 meant for Ultrabooks, because that Q stands for Quad. Fully featured mobile i7s are not only faster, but also have twice as many cores with Hyperthreading give these i7s a total of 8 threads.
With regards to performance, a ULV i7 is about as powerful as a desktop i3 and a mobile i7 is somewhere better than a desktop i3. It's a bit weird because the desktop i5 is really powerful.
[quote=Burning]Sorry to read that some things didn't work out. I'll just share that after I saw [url=http://www.basilmarket.com/forum/2870309]your responses to my questions[/url], I had the [url=http://store.apple.com/us/buy-mac/macbook-pro]$1299 13-in Macbook Pro[/url] in my sight, but ...[i]"Macbook Air is not really an option..."[/i]
Laptops can't give everything and that's why I like to present multiple options. Many people are demure to the fact that the tradeoffs they make upon purchase aren't the same tradeoffs that others' are willing to commit.[/quote]
Right! The tradeoff issue is what complicates processes such as this one. Many people are accustomed to things that suit them that may not suit me/other people. Nevertheless, I really appreciated the lil' list you gave me. It gave me a nice spread of potential computers that repeatedly turned up in my search before I made the thread. As I researched the options, I began to get a comprehensive sense of processors, which ones are necessary, i5 vs i7, and ram options so this journey was a worthwhile experience. My mistake was assuming that my friend wasn't articulate in OSX. Since this was a surprise for her, I couldn't just ask her Instead I just watched her do her work on a library mac and based my judgement on her ability to move through the OS. It turns out her dad owned a iMac so she knew the ins and outs. Thanks again for the help you gave in the original thread. <3
Sorry to read that some things didn't work out. I'll just share that after I saw [url=http://www.basilmarket.com/forum/2870309]your responses to my questions[/url], I had the [url=http://store.apple.com/us/buy-mac/macbook-pro]$1299 13-in Macbook Pro[/url] in my sight, but ...[i]"Macbook Air is not really an option..."[/i]
Laptops can't give everything and that's why I like to present multiple options. Many people are demure to the fact that the tradeoffs they make upon purchase aren't the same tradeoffs that others' are willing to commit.
If you're willing to spend $1660 on a Mac, you should just spend that on a PC instead; you'll actually get your money's worth. I'd advise you to get an Asus laptop, my 3-year old gaming Asus laptop has had no issues whatsoever.
[quote=SirKibbleX2]Iunno, I thought it was common sense that
Dell computers break if you so much as poke it. (My dad's friend dropped his laptop on a carpet floor and it exploded into a bunch of pieces)
and Macs can't play games (Major casuals)
and HP is good for cooking (Good at keeping your toes warm during the winter)
and Alienware is the Mac of gaming computers that's also made by Dell (Overpriced hunk-o-junk)
and Lenovo is like saying you completely trust the Chinese (With their cheap products and their pro hacking communities.. Mine never had Superfish though.)
As long as @burning was there you should of been fine.[/quote]
She was the kind basiler I was talking about It's funny because your description of each company is.. accurate
@LiliKoby dang thats a long time. These computers are meant to last us a couple years (college). Hopefully we have a good experience like yourself and the thinkpad
@CygnusBabii: I have an extra Thinkpad that I used in 3rd grade and it still works perfectly (I don't use it anymore due to lack of RAM and hard drive space), I've never had hardware issues with Thinkpads. And yeah, dell computers suck in general lol.
[quote=LiliKoby]idk why the dell XPS is getting so much love when the only thing that's going for it is its looks. For PCs Lenova thinkpads > all imo. Always great build quality, great specs, though somewhat expensive. Not a huge fan of macbooks because it's part of the "silicon valley basic" look, along with a start up T-shirt and philz coffee.[/quote]
I'm saying I would've gotten a lenovo but the Superfish scandal and defective keyboards on my dad's lenovo laptops kept me away. The basic silicon valley look isn't something I want but at least I know I can compute in comfort with easy technical support that doesn't take weeks if I ever needed it
@SirKibbleX2 Where were you with your sage advice in the original thread
idk why the dell XPS is getting so much love when the only thing that's going for it is its looks. For PCs Lenova thinkpads > all imo. Always great build quality, great specs, though somewhat expensive. Not a huge fan of macbooks because it's part of the "silicon valley basic" look, along with a start up T-shirt and philz coffee.