path: root/ars-technica/published/dellxps-review.html

<p>Dell's XPS Developer Edition laptop family has produced some of the best Linux "ultrabooks" in recent memory. The company's Developer Edition moniker refers specifically to the <a href="https://pilot.search.dell.com/ubuntu%20xps%2013#products">XPS models</a> that ship with Ubuntu Linux installed instead of Windows. </p>
<p>This month, November 2018, marks the six year anniversary of the first Ubuntu-based version of the Dell XPS 13.</p>
<p>To see where Project Sputnik is at after six years, Dell sent Ars the latest model of the XPS 13, the 13in version, which received a serious overhaul earlier this year (see Ars' <a href="https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/02/review-improved-dell-xps-13-laptop-holds-its-own-against-other-ultrabooks/">earlier review</a> for more details). While Dell bumped the the hardware specs, revamped the thermal system and introduced a new rose and white version, the big news in the latest Developer Edition, which began shipping earlier this year, is the upgrade to Ubuntu 18.04.</p>
<p>It's true that Linux users did have a wait bit, but it was more Ubuntu's release schedule than Dell's that caused the delay. The Windows version of the XPS 13 (model 9370) arrived before the release of Ubuntu 18.04, the latest long term support release from Canonical. Since its debut in 2012, the XPS Developer Edition line has always tracked Canonical's LTS releases. That means that even the XPS DE released in February of this year still shipped Ubuntu 16.04. While I've never had a problem upgrading to the latest Ubuntu release on any of the three XPSes I've tested over the years, nothing beyond 16.04 has ever been supported by Dell.</p>
<p>The latest release of the XPS 13 Developer Edition model 9370 changes that. The latest and greatest hardware now features full support for Ubuntu 18.04, which is no small feat considering that the move from Ubuntu 16.04 to 18.04 means a completely new desktop, GNOME 3, a major revamp of underlying technologies (more modern GTK libraries), and a new very different user interface to contend with. On the hardware side there's quite a bit of newer tech in the XPS 13, including USB C and Thunderbolt, all of which now work under Ubuntu without a hitch.</p>
<p>After a few weeks living with the XPS 13, I'm happy to say that, with a few small exceptions, Dell has pulled off the transition to Ubuntu 18.04 with remarkable aplomb.</p>
<p>Some might argue that Linux has reached a stage where it tends to work out of the box on almost any hardware. But, while the situation is certainly better than it once was, my experience has been that it's rare to buy a brand new laptop and get everything working right away. Stick with last year's model and you'll likely be fine, but with new hardware there almost always seems to be an edge case, a trackpad that's missing drivers in all but the latest kernel (which might not be available immediately in your distro of choice, unless that happens to be Arch Linux), some application that lacks good support for HiDPI screens, or other small glitches. Nothing deal breaking, but always something annoying. </p>
<p>It's true that most of the hardware I've installed Linux on in the last few years has not had any show stopping problems, but there's typically some problems that require a bit of research to solve when they turn out to be solvable, or some patience when the solution turns out to be waiting for upstream updates to be released.</p>
<p>If you depend on Linux to get your work done every day, that's just not acceptable, which is where Dell's official Linux support becomes not just nice to have, but a necessity. You don't want to be tracking down hardware drivers or trying to figure out the best Xrandr settings for your display when you have work to get done and deadlines to meet.</p>
<p>If you want a Linux rig that "just works", weighs under 3lbs, and has the battery life you need to work most of the day power-cable free, the XPS 13 is the laptop you've been looking for. The upgrade to Ubuntu 18.04 means you'll also have the latest and greatest tools that Ubuntu has to offer, including much-improved support for Snap packages, which is a game changer for anyone sticking with the LTS base system.</p>
<h2>Hardware</h2>
<p>The Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition has always been an exceptionally well built, great-looking piece of hardware. The revamped version is no exception and the new new white and rose-gold version, while not my style exactly, looks pretty slick. On the rose-and-white model, the palm rest area and space around the keyboard are covered with a very nice fiberglass-like weave that gives it a bit of texture and makes for a little bit softer edge that's easier on my wrists than the last model I used.</p>

[image="dellxps-top.jpg" caption="The Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition"]

<p>I was hesitant to take a white laptop out and about for fear of sending Dell back a gray-brown laptop, but in the six weeks I've been using it, it hasn't picked up a single spot of dirt or a mark that didn't easily disappear with the quick swipe of a rag.</p>
<p>The Infinity Edge display on the XPS 13 comes in two flavors -- 3840 x 2160 touchscreen 4k or an FHD non-touch option. There's a roughly $200 difference between the two, but the big catch, as far as I could tell on the Dell website, is that the 16GB RAM model is only available with the HiDPI screen. Since most developers are going to want the max RAM possible, that pretty much means you're going to get the HiDPI display.</p>

[image="dellxps-front.jpg" caption="Ubuntu on the XPS 13's HiDPI screen"]

<p>There's two things to note about the 4K display (which is what came with the model I tested). First, it's wonderfully bright and sharp. Ubuntu's GNOME interface works well at this resolution, but keep in mind there's there's no half scaling -- it's 2x or 1X. KDE supports arbitrary scaling, which might make Kubuntu a compelling option for some users. The downside to the HiDPI screen is that battery life isn't a good as the FHD non-touch version, and, if you're buying it with the idea of running some other distro, well, do your research, not every desktop/distro combo is going to work well with this display (I happen to really like LXQT these days, but even the Lubuntu version did not play well with the HiDPI screen out of the box). </p>
<p>The 16GB model comes equipped with a 8th Generation Intel Core i7-8550U Processor (8M Cache, up to 4.0 GHz, 4 cores) and has the onboard Intel UHD Graphics 620. There are two Thunderbolt 3 ports, and Dell has made it possible to use four-lane PCI connections, which means in theory you could add an external graphics card for a better gaming experience. At least that's possible with the Windows version, I did not test how well this works under Ubuntu because I am not a gamer and this is a serious <em>developer</em> laptop, no playing games here. I did throw some video rendering tasks at it, (using Blender) and the XPS 13 cranked through them with impressive ease. </p>
<p>Despite the new case color, not everything on XPS 13 comes up roses. There's still that webcam. Yes it's still at the bottom of the screen, aimed up your nose. At this point is seems safe to assume Dell isn't changing it. I found some nice white electrical tape at my local hardware store and stuck it over the camera and had no further problems with it. If you're going to do any teleconferencing or the like, the $20 you spend on an external USB webcam will not be wasted. </p>
<p>On the upside, some of the earlier models of the XPS 13 I tested had a tendency to produce a high pitched whine in some situations. If you read users' complaints around the web you'll get a mix of theories, the most likely being coil whine. Whatever it was, I have not noticed it with this model. </p>
<p>Aside from the aforementioned Thunderbolt ports, you'll find that, like a certain other laptop maker, the latest version of the XPS 13 ditches USB A in favor of a USB Type C port. Technically the XPS 13 has three USB type C ports, two of which are Thunderbolt 3 enabled, the other is USB 3.1. </p>
<p>While I understand this move somewhat -- USB C is the future and I want my laptop to last a few years, which means I want at least one USB C port; and you aren't getting that 4mm edge with USB A ports in there -- from a purely practical standpoint I find it irritating. The USB C future still feels a long way off. I have plenty of devices that are USB A and I'm not going to be replacing perfectly capable accessories just because hardware ports are disappearing. Dell does helpfully include a USB C to A dongle, but really, I did not need yet another dongle.</p>
<p>Other ports include a microSD card reader, headset jack, and Noble lock slot. The included power supply remains small enough that toting it around does not significantly alter the weight of your bag. Just remember to throw in that USB C to A dongle as well. And the USB A to Ethernet dongle if you're hoping to use the internet from a hotel room. It's not really criticism of Dell so much as the industry at large, but the potential daisy chain of dongles necessary to connect modern ultrabooks to any technology older than six months is quickly approaching the ridiculous.</p>
<h2>Ubuntu 18.04 on the XPS</h2>
<p>What's not approaching the ridiculous is Ubuntu 18.04, this is perhaps the best mainstream version of Linux ever released. Coupled with Dell's hardware and support, Ubuntu 18.04 makes for an outstanding desktop experience that will, for many developers, trump both Windows and macOS.</p>
<p>That said, it's worth noting that if you're coming from Ubuntu 16.04 or earlier, for example upgrading from a previous XPS model, you're in for something of a shock. The Ubuntu that ships with the latest XPS 13 is significantly different from the moment you first turn it on -- there’s a new desktop, a new lock screen, some new default apps and of course a new kernel under the hood. For a full review of everything that's new, see Ars' <a href="https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2018/05/ubuntu-18-04-the-return-of-a-familiar-interface-marks-the-best-ubuntu-in-years/">earlier review</a>.</p>

[image="dellxps-default1804desk.jpg" caption="The new Welcome to Ubuntu guide in 18.04"]

<p>To help users transition from previous releases to this one, Canonical has a little "first-run" app called "Welcome to Ubuntu", which Dell includes as well. The app does a good job of highlighting some of the most used new features and points out where things are in GNOME.</p>
<p>The Developer slant to the XPS 13 DE starts to show as soon as you configure Ubuntu and book to the desktop for the first time. Regular Ubuntu users will note that Dell has included quite a few things out of the box that Ubuntu does not such as both the Chrome and Chromium web browsers and the very nice Dellrecovery tool that allows you to create an image of your XPS as it arrived. If you plan to do any distro experimenting, I strongly suggest you create a backup image with Dell's extra repos and tools before you do anything else.</p>
<p>One bit of hardware support I immediately noticed is missing out of the box is support for two-finger clicks for right-click. From what I can tell this is a shortcoming of GNOME, not Dell. Still, it would be nice for Dell to include the GNOME Tweaks tool by default since it allows for customization options that the GNOME devs have seen fit to remove from GNOME proper. You could of course also enable two-finger right clicks and some other tweaks using included tools like <code>xinput</code>.</p>
<p>One of the big things you get with Ubuntu 18.04 is much-improved support for Snap applications. It's a little bit of an oversimplification, but a Snap application is an app packaged in a container, which ships separately from Ubuntu itself. That doesn't sound all that great, but what it allows you to do is stay up to date with releases of the Snap application, without needing to worry about updating Ubuntu itself. </p>
<p>Snaps are useful as a way to keep up to date with desktop apps that may be developing faster than Ubuntu's package maintainers can package them. For example, I used both Darktable and Gimp as Snaps to be able to have the latest releases of both, which are sometimes a bit of head of what's in Ubuntu's repositories.</p>

[image="dell-snaps-inappcenter.png" caption="Install Skype as a Snap package in Ubuntu 18.04"]

<p>Snaps are also useful for developers because Snaps contain all their own dependencies. This means it's easy, for instance, to run a Snap app that requires a specific version of Python, without worrying about that conflicting with the system-wide version of Python. Developers wanting the latest version of any number of tools would do well to look at Canonical's <a href="https://snapcraft.io/">Snapcraft store</a>, where you'll find Snaps for developer necessities like Docker, LXD and PostgreSQL, as well as the latest version of nearly every language you can think of, from Go to Javascript, even .NET if you've got one of "those" jobs. </p>
<h2>Conclusion</h2>
<p>While the update to 18.04 is a welcome one, and there are a couple of bones thrown to developers, it feels a little bit like Dell is moving away from the developer angle to a more mainstream Linux laptop. I think that's a good thing.</p>
<p>Previous releases shipped with a quite a few developer tools pre-installed, Virtualbox, some extra programming languages, and there were a couple of Dell-developed devops tools called Cloud Launcher and Profile Tool, which could be easily installed, but neither seemed to get much traction with developers. </p>
<p>Aside from the extra web browsers though, there's nothing particularly developer-oriented about the Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition. Aside from the marketing. And I think that's a good thing. I appreciate that Dell chooses to err on the side of not enough rather than throwing in a bunch of IDEs or tools that not every developer is going to want. Part of the reason Linux is so popular with developers is that it allows everyone to work in their own way using whatever toolset they happen to like out the vast array of tools available in the open source world.</p>
<p>Rather than worrying about some custom tools developers aren't going to use anyway, Dell's efforts have instead gone where it should: into getting Linux working with the hardware. In other words Dell gets out of your way. That's not to belittle the effort Dell has made here, which is considerable, rather I think at this point Dell should drop the developer pretense and call this the XPS 13 Linux Edition.</p>
<p>And that is probably the best thing about the XPS 13 Developer Edition. It provides a solid platform from which you can build up your workflow and tools to suit your tastes, whether you're a developer or just want a solid laptop with an operating system that stays out of your way and lets you do what you want to do.</p>
<p>The Good
<em> Light weight hardware with a brilliant screen
</em> Solid performance
<em> Ubuntu 18.04
</em> No bloatware
The Bad
<em> No USB Type A ports. 
</em> Max 16GB of RAM feels limited for a "Developer" machine
The Ugly
* The webcam. Still.</p>