I've been using my new Dell XPS13 ultrabook now for several hours in about four days.
First impression: I love it. Not like I love my wife, but you know what I mean, I love it like a man can love a machine without being crazy :-).
For me, the size of this computer is just perfect. 13.3 inch QHD+ screen is naturally small, but the picture quality is just incredible. I have in my old HP laptop 15" non-touch full HD display, and when I'm now editing pictures on Dell using Lightroom, I can see a huge difference in sharpness. Even if the screen is smaller, I like to use Dell more for editing. I'm not a professional, so I will just give you my own real life feelings and experiences comparing to my old computer.
In a high resolution displays, there might be a few problems with using some software. I also bumped into some problems first. In my old version of Photoshop (CS5) and Lightroom (5) were just impossible to use in my new Dell, because all the texts and thumbnails of the menu options were so small, that you could barely read those without a magnifying glass. In Windows 10 you can adjust text, apps and other items all the way up to +300%, and you can also change only font size, but because those are effecting also to some other programs which doesn't need to be fixed, you really can't use that setting. I'm using now +175% and I like it that way, but still for old Photoshop it's too less. And there's no easy solution for that problem with Photoshop, or maybe there is. Some guy named Dan Antonielli in his website will offer "a solution", but for a normal users it's maybe not so easy to do. I didn't try it. But many people online says that it's an easy solution and it's working and many are wondering why Abode is not doing an update. Adobe doesn't help at this moment, their solution is to buy a new version of Photoshop and Lightroom. I'm using the latest version of Lightroom CC without size problems. Except with latest version of Adobe Bridge (CC) this size problem still exist.
Comparing to my old laptop, Dell is silent. Even if sometimes those fans are blowing in full power, it's very quiet. And in normal basic use, like right now when I'm writing, no sound at all. That's something that I like very much. It means that I can use Dell also in the bed when my wife is sleeping next to me, without being worried that a noise of loud fans will wake her up and blow her hairs to the wall.
Battery life is not that good, and I knew it when I was choosing my model. But still I think it's OK for a small, high performance computer with these specs. Dell says up to 18 hours of battery life, but I don't know how they did that, naturally with first basic model and maybe in a sleep mode :-) I did a real life test, twice. From full battery till the end, Lightroom CC, 50% screen brightness, which is enough for me at home for editing, wifi on, and bluetooth connection for my mouse. I managed to do picture editing about 3.5 hours in both times. It's about double comparing to my old laptop. At the first time I was also charging my Logitech MX Master Bluetooth mouse at the same time through USB port, and I didn't see much difference in battery life because of that. Nice feature is also a backlit keyboard. You can choose two different brightness, and lights are automatically shutting down after about ten seconds if you are not writing anything and coming back, when you touch something in the keyboard. Charging the battery is quite fast, under two hours, said the screen, when I plugged in the charger, I wasn't timing if it's true or not.
What else ? Dell XPS13 is faster than my HP. Both are running Windows 10 and inside my HP is also Intel i7 processor, but older 4th gen. version and 16GB RAM like in my Dell. For example starting Windows is so much faster with Dell. One big reason why my Dell is faster is SSD hard drive. SD-card reader i'm using all the time because my camera is saving pictures to SD-card. Thanks to Matt Granger I bought an external SSD hard drive Samsung T1, and it really is fast through USB3.
But after all and after these four days, I 'm very happy about my new computer. Four days is not a long time, but sometimes first impressions are the most important. I will use my Dell almost everyday, and soon I'll have some outside of the house experiences, because I started to write a blog of our two weeks in Hong Kong in 2014. I'll write it mostly in the trains. And I won't use picture editing, only writing, so I will get also some info of a battery life in different situations. And I will get to know how it's working on my lap or on the table of a restaurant or on a very small table in the train. And if my previous 2008 HK story was long, 2014 will be crazy long, over 900 pictures and (lots of) writing, is that a blog anymore or something else ? :-) It's not coming out tomorrow or even next week, but i'm working on it.
Tschüss !
Update 5.12.2015
I thought that I made an update to my graphic card after the first blue screen problem, but apparently I didn't, for some reason it didn't update. Last night I checked again, that would there be a new update to my graphic card, and there was. I installed it and now I just hope that there will be no more blue screens.. Fingers crossed...
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