Dell XPS 12,a good choice?

hoftwi

hoftwi

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Hi everyone, I would like to get some advice regarding buying a laptop /tablet to my husband. Basically he wants to buy a laptop which can handle office,light Photoshop usage,email etc,but also have the advantage for having a tablet at the same time.he has been looking at the dell xps 12. Since I am not a computer person, I think it is a bit pricey but if it is good for his usage,I don't mind to buy it for him.

Is this one good or any better/similar choices? Thanks in advance guys /gals
 
Is that the transforming one? Leave it alone.

Poor performance and limited connectivity.

There is a taichi laptop (Asus I think) and yoga if we wants a convertible.
 
Review here - http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Dell-XPS-12-Convertible.83325.0.html

And another, with video review - http://www.mobiletechreview.com/notebooks/Dell-XPS-12.htm

I expect you'll find reviews for competing products on these sites too. From what I've read the XPS 12 is right up there. Biggest negative I've seen is that it is heavy for "tablet" type usage (and possibly on the expensive side), but what is a negative for one person may be of little consequence for another. The same will be true of the pros as well. At the end of the day you have to make your own choice regarding what really matters.
 
That is the one, I looked at it at the beginning of last year. Check out connections etc, I do t think you can use an external monitor. It was also designed for Windows 7, not 8 so not sure if it has the windows button in tablet mode.

The yoga is Lenovo. Seems a little odd, but there is a sleeve to protect the keyboard when in tablet mode.

I've got a Samsung series 5 ultrabook which has touchscreen, works great. But a little pricier at £750, but has lots of power and 500Gb hard disk.
 
I have a Lenovo Yoga and would highly recommend it if you want a convertible.
 
I've got usage of a Spec'd Up XPS12 for the past few weeks.

Its the only computer that would make me switch from my MacbookPro currently. It is absolutely fantastic, few USB ports and MiniDisplay out. Brilliantly powerful as well.

Highly recommend it. It truly is a awesome bit of kit.
 
hoftwi said:
Hi,Simon,can u use a stylus to write or draw on the xps 12?Thanks
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You can but it probably doesn't know anything about pressure sensitivities, so its on or off.

hoftwi said:
Hi everyone, I would like to get some advice regarding buying a laptop /tablet to my husband. Basically he wants to buy a laptop which can handle office,light Photoshop usage,email etc,but also have the advantage for having a tablet at the same time.he has been looking at the dell xps 12. Since I am not a computer person, I think it is a bit pricey but if it is good for his usage,I don't mind to buy it for him.

Is this one good or any better/similar choices? Thanks in advance guys /gals
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It is not bad spec but for that money I'd pay very slightly more and get retina macbook pro 13". No touchscreen but I doubt you'll use it that much, and resale value will be a lot higher

waiting for anti-mac force unit to march in :love:
 
Unfortunately, husband wants the touch screen!!that's the annoying part,I can get a very powerful laptop with less money!

I want that MacBook pro but way too pricey for myself,lol
 
Tried the stylus from a Fujitsu Q550 and Q570, neither worked :/ But there may be other stylus's that work.

Seriously, i've had my hands on nearly all of the touchscreen laptops/ultrabooks due to my Fathers work. The XPS is the only one that makes using one a real charm, it is a seriously good bit of kit.
 
hoftwi said:
Hi mid_gen, have you upgraded the ram?
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Mine's an 8GB model anyway so I didn't need to, but the memory slot is just under the keyboard, really easy to upgrade from 4GB to 8GB.

Worth noting that the yoga, despite it's size, has a spare mSata 1.8" slot hiding inside....so you can add an additional SSD later down the line.
 
SimonUK said:
Tried the stylus from a Fujitsu Q550 and Q570, neither worked :/ But there may be other stylus's that work.

Seriously, i've had my hands on nearly all of the touchscreen laptops/ultrabooks due to my Fathers work. The XPS is the only one that makes using one a real charm, it is a seriously good bit of kit.
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I find that hard to believe. The Lenovo helix is amazing. HP have a pretty good one.

The problem with most convertible laptops is the weight. If you get one that detaches, then you are limited in storage and ports, night not performance. The helix has an ivybridge i7 with 8gb which is immense in an 11 inch tablet.

I would skip convertible laptops and get a laptop with touch, a lot lighter and half the price!
 
I'm not really sold on convertible Ultrabooks (or tablets), but I have most of them at work and the XPS 12 is my favourite of the bunch. I like the way the screen flips, it's fairly well priced, and the screen is pretty good. Make sure you order it with 8GB DDR3 as it's soldered down and can't be upgraded.

The Yoga 13 I don't feel works well in tablet mode, holding it by the keyboard feels a bit crap, and the screen can't match the XPS 12 in terms of resolution or viewing angles. Don't be tempted by the Yoga 11 which runs Windows RT on an ARM chip, Yoga 11S is coming soon which is Intel Core based and runs Windows 8, but only has a 1366x768 panel.

Taichi out of the box was my favourite, but with longer use I went off it. You essentially have 11.6" screens in a 13.3" laptop chassis so it's got quite large bezels and having two screens is rarely that useful in practice, so it just adds weight. Battery life is poor, the only memory configuration is 4GB (non-expandable) and pricing in the UK is extortionate.

Personally though I wouldn't get any of them, I'd probably look get the Dell XPS 13 now that it has a 1080p panel with the i5, 128GB SSD, 8GB DDR3 model coming in at £829. That doesn't have a touchscreen and isn't convertible though.
 
Dale_tem said:
I find that hard to believe. The Lenovo helix is amazing. HP have a pretty good one.

The problem with most convertible laptops is the weight. If you get one that detaches, then you are limited in storage and ports, night not performance. The helix has an ivybridge i7 with 8gb which is immense in an 11 inch tablet.

I would skip convertible laptops and get a laptop with touch, a lot lighter and half the price!
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Ports is such a silly thing for people to argue. Few USBs and Mini Display port out. And Audio out, what else do you use regularly?

And XPS blows Lenovos and the HPs out the water. This is coming from Lenovo fanboy, the X series laptops are amazing. I use an older one for school, and its brillant.

the XPS12 was the first device that made me think that Windows 8 might actually work for day to day use. The others are good dont get me wrong, but they just don't work or feel as good.
 
My laptop I am typing on is an XPS Z, I replaced it after a year due to build quality issues and moved to the Samsung above

I also have a lenovo T500 and an old X series lenovo. Great laptops, hard to tell how Lenovo has progressed on these apart from new processors.

Lenovo = tanks, but sadly have the design of tanks and the performance of tanks

Dell = XPS are shiny and have had severe quality issues (especially on the Z), the XPS range has reeled the shiny back, redesigned the look and appear to have better build quality/durability.

Ports are not a silly think to argue. I need 3 USB. I need HDMI with audio, I need gigabit LAN and I need to connect VGA in somehow (via mini display port is fine). I also need from experience an always on USB port for charging. I travel with work and connect my laptop into various display systems so need the flexibility.

We were at a show with all the big IT manufacturers and they had all their latest laptops and it is amazing how we had to strike so many off the list due to lack of required features.

The OP needs to look at what the user wants, does he really want a tablet or just touchscreen, what will it gets used for and how durable does it need to be.
 
Thanks all for your comments and recommendations!

Basically my husband wants to use office,Photoshop,AutoCAD and internet for work.he saw the dell xps 12 has a touch screen and can convert to be a tablet that interests him.but the touch screen and tablet mode are just something nice,not essential. As I want to get the best one that suits his work needs and also something fancy for him.

I think I have to search for more information over convertible and laptop more before I set my mind which one to buy to surprise him.

Thanks again!
 
Some of the apps you mention will benefit from a powerful machine, but these convertible type machines are limited in the power they can house due to their small size and desire for long battery life and low weight. Also, for any given budget, if some of it is spent on convertible tablet/laptop mechanisms and miniaturisation it's not going to be spent on performance.

I don't know whether this is intended to be a surprise gift or something which he fully knows about, but if he is supposed to be doing useful work with this machine rather than treating it as a fun device for entertainment he might have different priorities. I would suggest you see what he really wants/needs rather than trying to do the right thing (in your mind) and maybe missing the mark. Either way it's going to be a fair bit of cash, so better to spend it on the right thing rather than the wrong. I know I would be mortified if my other half bought me some beautiful, and expensive machine and it simply failed to meet my needs. Luckily she knows me well and would never buy me any piece of technology unless I specified it to the nth degree.
 
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