Dell XPS 13 Ultrabook Arrives at CES Discussion

[Pseudorandom]

Originally Posted by SemiExpert

It doesn't really matter if the presence of bottom vents preclude the use of the notebook on your lap to begin with?

And personally, I can accept that a metal notebook case can either be warm or cool to the touch.

There no vents on the bottom of a Macbook, and that's the entire point. You can put one down on textile surface, as there are no bottom vents to be blocked. This is the sheer genius of Macbook packaging.

They preclude the use of the notebook on your lap as much as the unibody's MacBook usage of the bottom surface as a heatsink does. It's definitely not recommended for long periods of heavy activity, but it's okay most of the time. I use my X220 on my lap all the time and it has bottom vents.

I do know as a fact that Apple has smcFanControl in its own App Store and it seems to be unproblematic, free and universally applicable to modern Macbooks. It's almost a selling point for Macbooks.

I don't see TPFC as a selling point for Thinkpads despite its near universal compatibility with Thinkpads.

Having it in the App Store is a good first step. Ideally fan control should be with the other system options be default instead of a third party app. It's fairly useful if you don't like the default fan settings.

Nothing is wrong with plastic, at least not at lower price points. It's just that Dell pioneered superior cast magnesium case technology, and with the aluminum unibody Macbook Air leading the market, people expect a metal case.

Metal > Plastic is an illusion. In reality there are places where metal is superior and places where plastic is superior.

So back to the original point that started this. How is metal superior to CFRP in the base of a notebook? CFRP is lighter and doesn't shove the heat into your lap. Metal is heavier and does. Durability isn't significantly affected by either choice.

[MSGaldenzi]

So is anyone still talking about the xps 13?

At first I didn't really like it, but seeing it more and more makes me really do a double take.

[flatsix911]

Can' wait to see the new XPS 13 in person
What is the exact release date ... The Dell site only says coming February?
XPS 13 Ultrabook Coming Soon - Thin, Light and Ultraportable | Dell

[SemiExpert]

Originally Posted by flatsix911

Can' wait to see the new XPS 13 in person
What is the exact release date ... The Dell site only says coming February?
XPS 13 Ultrabook Coming Soon - Thin, Light and Ultraportable | Dell

Well, it might be coming to big box stores near you. Actually, I suspect that if model does have a B&M retail presence, it might eventually have a B&M retail clearance sale. Remember the Inspiron Duo and the Streak (the tablet, not the Ray Stevens song)? Both launched with a major retail presence and both flopped. Dell's recent track record for product launches has been mixed.

Of course, the fact that the XPS 13 supposedly has a TPM chip makes me wonder if its going to be rebranded as a Latitude? It doesn't make sense to use the XPS brand for sales to enterprise customers, but there again, what makes sense about launching Sandy Bridge/Windows 7 "ultrabooks" when they'll soon have to make way Ivy Bridge/Windows 8 "ultrabooks?"

Under the circumstances, a major retail launch just doesn't make a lot of sense, but it might just happen anyway?

[Dell-Bill_B]

Originally Posted by SemiExpert

Well, it might be coming to big box stores near you. Actually, I suspect that if model does have a B&M retail presence, it might eventually have a B&M retail clearance sale. Remember the Inspiron Duo and the Streak (the tablet, not the Ray Stevens song)? Both launched with a major retail presence and both flopped. Dell's recent track record for product launches has been mixed.

We have sold a lot of XPS 14z/15z, which are both fairly recent. I wouldn't count Duo and Streak as new product launches.

Originally Posted by SemiExpert

Of course, the fact that the XPS 13 supposedly has a TPM chip makes me wonder if its going to be rebranded as a Latitude? It doesn't make sense to use the XPS brand for sales to enterprise customers, but there again, what makes sense about launching Sandy Bridge/Windows 7 "ultrabooks" when they'll soon have to make way Ivy Bridge/Windows 8 "ultrabooks?"

Rebranding to Latitude won't happen. We're trying to get on the consumerization of I/T curve with this one. We'll see how it goes. If it works out, you might see more of the blending of business and consumer staples. It makes perfect sense to me- if I/T purchasers want to buy them, we'll do our best to work through their requirements. Ivy Bridge UBs won't start hitting until like May (I could look that up, but I'm going by memory), so it doesn't make much sense not to put out something in the category while we wait. I don't think Sandy Bridge is a slouch.

Originally Posted by SemiExpert

Under the circumstances, a major retail launch just doesn't make a lot of sense, but it might just happen anyway?

Don't know if it meets the "major retail launch" criteria or not, but we're pretty proud of this platform for many good reasons. We want it on all the retail shelves we can get. Streak was not a major launch by any stretch of the imagination if you go by marketing spend, BTW.

[Mitlov]

I agree with Bill on not waiting for Ivy Bridge. It'll be months until Ivy Bridge is out; better to get something on the market now and have an update after Ivy Bridge is out. And that way, if there are hiccups with Ivy Bridge at launch, you've got a Sandy Bridge product on the market to keep around for another month or so while Intel sorts Ivy Bridge out.

[SemiExpert]

Originally Posted by Dell-Bill_B

We have sold a lot of XPS 14z/15z, which are both fairly recent.

Yes, the XPS brand has a surprising amount of equity left and combining the nomenclature of two sub-brands was clever. As far as the XPS 14z/15z, I'm not sure the product itself was entirely compelling.

Originally Posted by Dell-Bill_B

I wouldn't count Duo and Streak as new product launches.

Not exactly new, and in all fairness, I can't think of a single convertible touchscreen netbook that was a sales success, or a single early Android tablet that was a major success in the same timescale as the Streak.

Originally Posted by Dell-Bill_B

Rebranding to Latitude won't happen. We're trying to get on the consumerization of I/T curve with this one.

Consumerization of IT is pretty much an Apple story. Their products might not fit the immediate requirements of IT departments, but corporate IT departments can be outright hostile to the real world requirements of end users.

For Dell, there is an apparent phenomenon of consumers shifting to the Dell Small & Medium Business line and away from Dell Consumer. Why? Let's just say that the sales and support experience from Dell Small Business is a revelation compared to Dell Consumer. The same can be said for perceived product quality and the ability to perform hardware replacements and upgrades - and Dell does apparently ask owners to perform their own hardware replacements on under-warranty systems. Dell sends you the part, you send the defective part back. DIY isn't all that difficult on something like a Latitude E-series but would be very challenging on a number of Dell's consumer systems.

I can't imagine Apple expecting customers to do DIY hardware replacements on under-warranty systems.

Originally Posted by Dell-Bill_B

We'll see how it goes. If it works out, you might see more of the blending of business and consumer staples. It makes perfect sense to me- if I/T purchasers want to buy them, we'll do our best to work through their requirements.

It makes sense to combine overlapping product lines. Dell has a huge product range, even though it's far more coherent than some competitors.

Originally Posted by Dell-Bill_B

Ivy Bridge UBs won't start hitting until like May (I could look that up, but I'm going by memory), so it doesn't make much sense not to put out something in the category while we wait. I don't think Sandy Bridge is a slouch.

I'm sure there are many industrial and marketing considerations when it comes to a late hardware, late OS cycle product launch. OEMs can't just sit around and wait for Wintel.

In contrast, Apple can actually skip the occasional Intel hardware cycle, without any negative concequences, and has its own OS cycle.

Originally Posted by Dell-Bill_B

Don't know if it meets the "major retail launch" criteria or not, but we're pretty proud of this platform for many good reasons. We want it on all the retail shelves we can get. Streak was not a major launch by any stretch of the imagination if you go by marketing spend, BTW.

It's a lot harder to manage inventories when products are on retail shelves.

In some ways, Dell's original direct sales business model would be more relevant today than stocking the shelves in big box stores.

Originally Posted by Dell-Bill_B

Streak was not a major launch by any stretch of the imagination if you go by marketing spend, BTW.

I don't think that any amount of marketing could have sold early Android tablets, a situation that currently exists for Windows 7 Phones. Microsoft could have sponsored the halftime show and purchased every advertising slot for the last Super Bowl and it probably wouldn't have moved the needle on W7P sales.

Incidentally, how are you enjoying your Dell Venue Pro?

[Mitlov]

tl;dr version: SemiExpert thinks that Apple does everything right and Dell does everything wrong.

[kevhuynh]

Originally Posted by SemiExpert

Like I said, the standard 900P screen is reputed to be crap, although I wouldn't know because I have been to a Sony Style Store (the Sony equivalent of an Apple Store, only without the crowds of customers) in years. In any case, the pricepoint for 1080P Vaio Z i7 is around $3,000, but you can get the price up to $4,500-5,000.

It makes the Macbook Pro line look like a spectacular value.



The very fact that you're still referring to OpenOffice, instead of LibreOffice, indicates that you probably have tried it since at least late 2010.

As far as document sharing, you should pay more attention to file formats. You seem to indicate that you are a lawyer, but I can assure you that even in this age of electronic court filings, there's no court system (that I've ever heard of) that requires filings in a proprietary file format that can only be satisfied by MS Office. You don't need MS Word to use PACER (Public Access to Court Electronic Records), for instance.




Again, that's not a problem with Ubuntu. The fact that Microsoft doesn't develop Microsoft Office for Linux, simply means that Microsoft doesn't develop Office for Linux. So what? Apple doesn't develop iWork for Windows? So what?





No, not at all. With Ubuntu, if there's an application that isn't in the truly mammoth Ubuntu repositories, you can still install from a .deb package, since the package manager does all the work. You never leave the GUI. It's worth remembering that it's probably a lot safer for casual users to use single software repository or an "app store," instead of chasing around the internet for .exe. This is one, or many, reasons why OS X and Linux are much "safer" for the average user than even Windows 7. If you stick with signed packages from the repository, it's hard to get into trouble. If Microsoft had adopted this concept, we never would have seen the great malware boom and botnet explosion of the last decade.




I might suggest that you should broaden your horizons. There are a lot of cross-platform FOSS applications available on Windows, OS X and Linux/BSD. Actually, for my main connectivity and productivity programs, I could use pretty much any OS. There's very little that ties me as a user to Windows, since I'm using very few Microsoft applications on Windows 7. If you're using using Chrome/Chromium as your browser, for instance, it really doesn't matter which OS you're using.






Actually, in the $1,000 consumer category, the vast majority of notebooks are currently sold with OS X. Apple owns the $1,000+ category with over 90% marketshare, which is precisely why Intel is stepping in with $300 million in support to the Windows PC OEMs. The "ultrabook" is an attempt to recreate a foothold in a market segment that is largely controlled by Apple. Apple is probably Intel's high volume customer for ULV Sandy Bridge mobile CPUs, but Apple also would have given all of that business to AMD for the current generation Macbook Air if AMD hadn't lacked the production capacity.

So what you fail to grasp is that while "vast [the majority of] people are not that comfortable with the "inner workings" of their OS," the OS in question is OS X when it comes to $1,000+ notebooks. Windows doesn't dominate in the category that Dell is entering, or reentering, with the XPS 13 Ultrabook, OS X dominates.







Well, Dell reduced its line of Ubuntu offering at just the wrong time. Linux hardware support dramatically improved and Linux's share of the desktop market skyrocketed by 40% at just the time Dell was pulling back from its Linux offerings.

I'm not about to suggest that Dell should offer any mainstream product exclusively with Ubuntu, but I am suggest that offering the XPS 13 Ultrabook with Ubuntu would have differentiated it from all of the other "ultrabook" offerings. Right now, we are at the bottom of the Windows product cycle, awaiting Windows 8, at the bottom of the Intel product cycle, awaiting Ivy Bridge, and Dell is offering just another windows notebook, albeit in a thinner, Macbook Air-like form factor being supported by Intel.

Windows notebooks have been commoditized and it remains to be seen if thinner, less powerful, but more expensive Windows notebooks can break the cycle of decline.

It's not crap. It's nothing like the 13.3" in the SA. It's the same panel used in the Z1. I've not once heard it being described as anything less than stellar. Not sure where you've read that.

It's a unique 13.1" panel so I'm truly mystified who would even suggest it's the same panel when nothing could be further from the truth (this is coming from a guy who has relentlessly bashed the 1600x900 in the SA and before that in the Sony CW). Little odd that you keep repeating it as a fact when even by your own admission you've never even seen it.

If you've read my post history, I've gone through 10+ laptops including everyone mentioned here sans the XPS 13 for obvious reasons in the last year alone much less the last decade (what can I say it's a sick hobby). The Z's panel is by far one of the best non-ips' screens on the market.

[SemiExpert]

Originally Posted by Mitlov

tl;dr version: SemiExpert thinks that Apple does everything right and Dell does everything wrong.

Not at all. I was merely reflecting on Dell, without judgement.