Dell’s Carbon Fiber Convertible - XPS 13 2-in-1 (2017)
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2017-05-06
·
1,300 words · ~6 min read
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I liked my original delx ps12 2in1 a lot
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so much in fact that I made this video that never got released because my hair
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looked awful other than some screen burning
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issues it's been a fantastic machine and it's still in service today partly
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because since then there hasn't been anything quite like it more recent XPS
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12 two in ones have been ASUS transformer style tablets with
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detachable keyboard well no more a proper super compact
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twoin one is back the Dell XPS 13
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9365 2in1 2017 or as I'm christening it the folden
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atrick 9000 because Dell's name for it
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is terrible
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anker's power core 5000 is a two-in-one portable charger and wall charger
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featuring 5,000 milliamp hours of capacity check it and their Valentine's
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promotion out at the link below the folden Atrix 9000 comes out ahead of its
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predecessor in most ways build quality
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is a step up with an aluminum and carbon fiber shell that manages to get lighter
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and thinner without losing any of that
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quality feel so the razor blade stealth
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no longer stands out from other Ultra Portables at the starting at $9.99 price
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point the screen is far from color accurate out of the box but it's bright
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with great contrast and Dell's trademark
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Infinity Edge that gives this 13-in
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device a much smaller footprint than
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even modern competitors like the HP Spectre X360 2017 a 13in 2in1 that I
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covered here here it's very very totable
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and the performance compromise is much less than I expected Dell claims that by
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dynamically boosting the power delivery to the processor they have overcome the
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disappointing performance of last generation super low power Intel y
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series devices while still achieving a
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fanless cooling solution and I'm
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impressed it won't hold up to sustained
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gaming loads with an ex Thunderbolt 3 video card as well due to its lower
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clock speeds and inferior cooling but on
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battery the XPS comes within spitting distance of the X360 which sports a much
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faster on paper core i7 7500 U though
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Nothing in life is free and it should also be noted that the battery life for
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both machines ended up being very similar as well and on top of that
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neither of of them is capable of smooth 4K YouTube video playback without
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running into CPU bottlenecking from time to time let's talk hinge the satisfying
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but probably fragile and expensive to manufacture Ferris wheel is dead and the
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industry seems to have collectively decided a 360° yoga style hinge is the
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way to make a single device operate in laptop tablet mode or somewhere in
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between so it comes down then to who makes the best one and Dell's is good if
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a little underwhelming next to the X360 they both have wonderfully smooth action
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but HP managed to achieve a one-finger
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lift while the XPS is actually kind of challenging to pry openen IO is another
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trade-off prospective XPS buyers will need to consider I've accepted that I'll
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need to carry type-c dongles for the rest of my life but I do wish that like
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the X360 it had at least one full-size
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type a port in case I forget the
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speakers are loud and sound quality good
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for an ultra portable and the webcam is
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mostly decent with a very good array mic
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but if you use yours a lot you might not
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like its position at the bottom of the screen you end up with that creepy
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looking down at you expression that uh
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isn't present on competing models like the X360 2017 more good news though the
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onboard 2x2 Wi-Fi knocked my freaking
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socks off this is the first time I've
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seen consistent 50 megabyte pers second
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transfers on a laptop it's using a year
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old chipset from Intel so it must just be a very excellent antenna design which
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brings us finally to the bad news I'm not a huge fan of the bottom half of the
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clam shell the fingerprint sensor is
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fast and accurate but it really needs to be back lit so I can find it in the dark
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and an IR camera here instead would be a
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welcome Improvement next time around the touchpad has a consistent click feel
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below the top quarter and is much better with the speed turned down a notch and
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the Palm rejection delay adjusted to quick but it still Jitters too much when
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operated two-handed I give it a B+ as for the keyboard it's not
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terrible or anything the layout is mostly pretty good especially
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considering how little space they had to work with but there's also not much that
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I like about it the soft touch finish
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combined with the very spongy tactile feel of the switches gives it a feeling
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kind of like typing on a sofa number row
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inputs register incorrectly when you press keys too quickly and I hate hate
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hate eight the arrow key layout page up
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page down home and end should be handled
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with function plus arrows and don't need
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dedicated keys this was really frustrating just about every other time
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I wanted to move the cursor one spot I ended up scrolling the whole
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page with that said the folden Atrix
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9000 is a pretty cool little twoin one
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it's fanless delivered top-notch battery life comes equipped with Thunderbolt 3
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is reasonably priced and does all of this with a 360° hinge something you
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might not end up using that much because it's still pretty heavy to use as a
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tablet but with how little now that you're giving up compared to previous
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convertibles for that hinge hey it might
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be time for traditional notebook users to consider converting
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