Just got the new XPS 13. This thing is sweet. Roughly the size of the 11" Macbook Air with a 13" almost bezeless display.

2/18/2015 12:11:59 PM

For those of you who bought a Lenovo within the past few years:

http://arstechnica.com/security/2015/02/lenovo-pcs-ship-with-man-in-the-middle-adware-that-breaks-https-connections/

2/19/2015 11:28:00 AM

Sending the XPS 13 2015 back. DPI per monitor scaling still doesn't work in Windows 8.1. All my external monitors and projectors are blurry. Keeping the XPS 12 for now. Ideally I'd want the XPS 13 2015 with i7 and a FHD (1080p) touch display but Dell doesn't offer that. All the i7s have the 3200 by 1800 displays with the worse battery life.

2/19/2015 6:44:15 PM

wife's leaving her job in ~10 weeks so i'll probably ask again but wanted to check and see what the consensus is - she has used a macbook pro (with parallels but really just for work stuff like office / sql management studio) for the past 4 years

leaning towards a macbook air 11" right now but not against buying non-apple - she has extremely low requirements - email / web / looking at pictures

2/19/2015 8:29:56 PM

If you want an Apple I'd wait until June when Apple announces their new Macbook Airs.

Also maybe check out the 1080p FHD version of the new Dell XPS 13 2015 laptop. Don't get the high resolution version but the i5 version with 8GB of ram and the 1080p screen is only $999. It's 2.6 lbs which makes it lighter than the 13" Macbook air and the same size as the 11" Macbook air but with a 13" screen. Great laptop.

2/20/2015 10:38:39 AM

Will she be using the touchpad? If yes, buy an apple product.

2/20/2015 10:59:05 AM

I'd most certainly wait on the new MacBook Airs then. Although the last few new PC laptops I've used have had fantastic trackpads. I can barely tell the difference between the trackpad on my XPS 12 and a MacBook air. Both are the glass multitouch design. I can do all the same gestures on it as well.

2/20/2015 12:25:06 PM

i own an XPS 12, the trackpad is still terrible

[Edited on February 20, 2015 at 2:19 PM. Reason : the touchpad on the xps 12 is criticized in every review i've read]

2/20/2015 2:18:11 PM

On the contrary the trackpad on the XPS 12 is great. All the multitouch gestures work great. Sensitivity is great. Much better than the XPS 13 I had for a couple days and far better than other PC laptops I've used / owned. You tried updating drivers or messing with settings? Chrome works great by default. 2 finger scrolling, and three finger back/forth work awesomely.

2/21/2015 2:55:11 PM

45% off, expires Nov 23, probably end of day

http://slickdeals.net/f/7678434-dell-off-lease-business-laptops-desktops-monitors-etc-up-to-45-off-17-99-flat-shipping?v=1

2/21/2015 3:57:03 PM

The new XPS 13 is compelling. I might pull the trigger after eyeballing laptops for over a year

2/21/2015 9:06:31 PM

Had it for three days. Don't get the 3200 by 1800 version if you want to use external monitors (directly or through a docking port). Per monitor scaling does not work. All my external monitors were blurry on any scaling set above 100%. Also battery life is lacking with the 3200 by 1800 version. If you don't care about touchscreen or an i7 I'd get the 8GB i5 version with the 1080p display. Awesome battery life and no scaling issue. I returned mine.

2/22/2015 8:41:29 PM

Anyone use a bluetooth mouse they really like? I'm sick of having this Logitech unifying receiver coming out of my laptop. It's annoying taking my laptop in/out of my bag and I'd rather free up the USB slot. I'm currently using a Logitech Anywhere MX mouse but the left click is starting to die (ghost double clicks). My friend really likes the Microsoft Surface Arc mouse but I'm skeptical. Any other good bluetooth mice out there?

3/10/2015 8:38:18 PM

woops double post.

[Edited on March 10, 2015 at 8:55 PM. Reason : s]

3/10/2015 8:55:15 PM

^No, there aren't any. The Logitech unifying receiver is the worst thing ever... until you try anything else.

Bluetooth input devices are generally garbage (very poor range, battery drain is atrocious, connection issues, boot/lock screen issues, etc etc). The battery drain is what killed them for me, especially mice. I get at least a week out of my Performance MX mouse, and rarely got even two full days from a bluetooth one.

Maybe they have gotten better, but if they were really that good, you'd see them in the top of the line products (which you never, ever do).

I will never buy another MS input peripheral again. I've owned most everything that's been released (company store discounts are great), and have had nothing but shit experiences. First problem: The USB receivers with every Microsoft device are device specific. No unifying anything. Want a separate wireless keyboard and mouse? TWO DAMN USB PORTS USED UP. The last two keyboard/mouse combo sets I purchased both stopped working within 4 months, and the return process is a nightmare. The 5 different MS mice I've owned have all been terribly uncomfortable (I've owned every one of the Arc mice sense the beginning), had really harsh click pressure, and the touch mice have all been impossible to use on a daily basis.

I have Logitech Performance MX mice at work and at home, and an Anywhere MX mouse in my travel bag for the laptop. They are hands down the non-gamer mice best you can get (unless you're a trackball person). I have a drawer full of the mice I've tried over the last 2-3 years and they are all in the drawer of doom for a reason.

3/12/2015 5:06:47 PM

I had two MX Anywhere mice and both had the dreaded "double click" issue that everyone is complaining about. I don't want to buy a third. Other than that and the unifying receiver it's a great mouse.

I picked up a $40 Logitech M557 bluetooth mouse. 12 month battery life. It's working great so far. I'll report back after a couple weeks.

3/12/2015 5:52:47 PM

I have this BT mouse. I haven't had it very long, but it seems to work fine as a mobile mouse.
http://www.microsoft.com/hardware/en-us/p/sculpt-comfort-mouse

3/12/2015 6:08:46 PM

Yeah I've had a few drops on this one in the last hour. Going to see how often this happens. Might be more related to the computer than the mouse. But yeah don't think my Logitech Unifying receiver EVER dropped. Not once.

3/12/2015 6:15:09 PM

I need a laptop. Had a work laptop that I used but since I left that job, I no longer have one. I'm really not lookin for anything too expensive. I really just need it for web browsing, streaming movies/tv occasionally, and Microsoft office stuff. Any recommendations? I'm not the most tech savvy person, so reading computer specs sometimes just goes over my head. I really just need something fairly basic, but reliable.

3/14/2015 7:45:23 PM

What's your budget? That's usually a good place to start.

3/14/2015 7:46:13 PM

^ In the neighborhood of $500...although thats a little flexible.

3/15/2015 8:53:31 AM

The $799 Dell XPS is a great deal! 1080p FHD screen! Smallest 13" laptop in the world!

So I think I figured out why my bluetooth mouse keeps dropping. Usually in each bluetooth device in device manager there's a power management tab where you can uncheck "let this computer turn this device off to save power" or something. There's no tab like that in Windows 8.1 in my bluetooth devices. I did however find it for my network adapter and the bluetooth is built into that.

I still get random bluetooth drops though. I have to bring up the bluetooth menu to get the mouse working every time it drops. This only happens on battery though. I'm thinking if I could somehow get those devices to have the power management tab then I could uncheck the box and get things working even on battery.

Frustrating. Seems like everyone is having problems with bluetooth and Windows 8.1

3/19/2015 3:53:30 PM

I found one additional setting:

"Intel Wireless Bluetooth(R) 4.0 + HS Adapter"

This did have a power management tab. I unchecked the box and it hasn't dropped yet. We'll see if that fixes it. Amazing there's still bluetooth bugs in Windows.

3/19/2015 5:03:18 PM

Apologies for the triple post. After finding that last bluetooth setting I haven't had a single bluetooth drop in 3 days. Finally rid of the Logitech unifying receiver that snags on everything!

Anyone have any experience with Computrace/LoJack? We've got it on our work computers and I think it's waking my XPS 12 up after 24 hours of sleep and then not putting it back to sleep. Every Sunday or Monday when I open my laptop back up the battery is dead and I can't for the life of me figure out what's waking it. I've searched the system logs and can't find a common trend. I don't care if the service is waking the laptop up to phone home but what it's not doing is putting the computer BACK to sleep. It just wakes up and drains the battery even though the power setting for all my profiles is go to sleep after 30 minutes on battery.

We've already reinstalled Computrace and I can't find anything online. Very frustrating.

3/22/2015 5:47:58 PM

^ Is your laptop sleeping or hibernating? If it's just sleep mode, I wouldn't expect it to last a weekend unless you have a pretty good battery.

3/23/2015 11:17:00 AM

It's Intel Rapid Start. Most newer laptops have this functionality. You should technically be able to sleep for 30+ days. It basically saves the computer state on the SSD then boots up from that. It's almost as fast as waking up from normal sleep. I have mine set to activate after 60 minutes.

After 24-25 hours it wakes up. We just re-installed Computrace and I disabled all updates. Going to start turning off things until I can identify the issue.

3/23/2015 11:21:57 AM

Reapplying the thermal paste on my Dell XPS 12. Anyone had experience with laptops? With my desktops chips I just drop a pea sized drop of thermal paste and call it a day. Because of the irregular shapes of the cpu and gpu chips in laptops I read you want to do a line then spread it out. Any thoughts?

4/15/2015 3:00:53 PM

as an update we ended up buying a macbook pro retina 13" - she's happy with it so far

4/29/2015 11:25:47 AM

^

Quote :

"she has extremely low requirements - email / web / looking at pictures"

Didn't want to go with the new Macbook? Sounds like she's the perfect candidate for it.

4/29/2015 11:45:16 AM

probably wasnt expensive enough for the wife

4/29/2015 7:18:33 PM

Think both the Macbook and Macbook Pro 13" start at $1299.

4/29/2015 7:21:54 PM

http://www.anandtech.com/show/9104/asus-zenbook-ux305-review

Even though it's a Core M processor 8gb of ram, a 256gb ssd, fanless design, and 1080p screen at only 2.6lbs is pretty nice for $699.

5/5/2015 12:07:58 PM

Just started my own business. Will be working from home, and wondering what you guys suggest for me? Also, how exactly does one write this off at the end of the year?

Thanks in advance

5/6/2015 2:03:15 AM

Quote :

"Didn't want to go with the new Macbook? Sounds like she's the perfect candidate for it."

just because she's the primary user doesn't mean i won't use it as well for video editing / lightroom - this will last much longer for her as well

5/6/2015 9:35:55 AM

my laptop still works fine but is falling apart and the power connector is failing

i pretty much use it for internet and occasional light gaming

i've had this for about 4.5 years
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002XZLURC?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_search_detailpage

i'd like something somewhat light but with a 13" screen. I think i've about had it with ASUS, there stuff seems to fall apart, and Lenovo worries me with their spyware issues. My upper budget is prob $800.

any recommendations?

6/12/2015 5:44:45 PM

Dell XPS 13 or Asus UX305. Two of my friends just purchased the Asus UX305 and love it. The Asus is only $699 and has a 256GB SSD, 8GB of ram, 1080p screen, fanless design, and only 2.6 lbs. It does have a Core M processor so it'll work fine for browsing and stuff but I wouldn't try gaming on it.

For $700-800 you can either get a decent ultrabook (like the two above) or invest in a heavier laptop with a worse battery life but potentially better for gaming. Which matters more to you?

6/12/2015 5:53:15 PM

prob more portable, last game i really played was civ 5 i think (which taxed this asus), i may never use it for games so ill err on the side of cheaper/portable.

thanks for the recommendation

[Edited on June 12, 2015 at 6:10 PM. Reason : a]

6/12/2015 5:55:04 PM

Looking to buy a laptop for my dad.

I'm debating between this -

http://www.amazon.com/Lenovo-Flex-Touchscreen-MultiTouch-Bluetooth%C2%AE/dp/B00XKDIGSC/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1434072307&sr=1-1&keywords=lenovo+yoga+1080p

and this -

http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/en_US/pdp/ASUS-Zenbook-UX305FA-USM1-Signature-Edition-Laptop/productID.313303100


What do you guys think? He just needs it for browsing and checking email. He prefers a desktop setup so I will connect it to his existing monitor, keyboard etc. and he can unplug it for use on the move. My main concern with the Zenbook is the fanless design. My dad lives in Southern India where it can get pretty hot, also the room where he keeps his computer is not air conditioned. I might have to buy a notebook cooler as if I got the Zenbook.

6/13/2015 11:13:24 AM

Played with the Asus UX305 last weekend. Very solid laptop for $699. None of the reviews report any over heating issues or massive throttling due to the fanless design.

7/6/2015 3:48:37 PM

^^ Out of those two I'd opt for the latter because it has an SSD

7/6/2015 4:33:10 PM

Also 4.2 versus 2.6 lbs.

7/6/2015 5:03:52 PM

I'm looking for a cheap laptop just to learn Python on, mainly for analytics/data science/machine learning. Any recommendations? Would like to stay sub $350

8/1/2015 1:59:30 PM

^Raspberry Pi 2?

8/3/2015 6:38:03 PM

http://www.engadget.com/2015/08/04/acer-aspire-one-cloudbook/

8/5/2015 12:10:41 PM

Lenovo Intel Core 2 Duo 2GB DDR2 Memory 160GB HDD 12.1" Tablet PC Windows 7 Home Premium X61
$189.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834317906&nm_mc=KNC-GoogleAdwords-PC&cm_mmc=KNC-GoogleAdwords-PC-_-pla-_-Tablet+Computers-_-N82E16834317906&gclid=CK_nqOi1kscCFVY9gQodNUMCBw&gclsrc=aw.ds

8/5/2015 1:04:14 PM

Thanks for the suggestions. Ended up getting a killer deal on a 15" 2011 MacBook Pro (i7, 8gb ram) for $450. More than I wanted to spend but hard to turn it down.

8/6/2015 10:41:09 PM

That's a great deal. Make sure there's an SSD in there and it'll be quite zippy.

8/7/2015 10:40:30 AM

I tried the chromebook route and for the most part I'm happy, especially with crouton. The shitty trackpad is killing the experience though. I think I'm going to get a surface pro 3 or 4. Surprisingly the the trackpad and keyboard in the $129 accessory are really good

8/8/2015 3:28:15 AM

Had been working with a Core 2 Duo since October when my first gen i5 laptop shit the bed.

Ended up getting a great deal on a Lenovo y40-80 - i7-5500u, 8gb, 1080p, and even though i only occassionally game it was good to have an R9 M275 if needed

It's been on sale for $649 for months but I got it at $560 with ebates cash back

8/9/2015 10:15:23 AM

This looks promising:

http://techcrunch.com/2015/10/06/microsoft-launches-the-surface-book-a-convertible-laptop-done-right/

Quote :

"It has the latest generation of Intel Core processor and an Nvidia GPU with GDDR5 memory. According to Microsoft, it is the fastest 13-inch laptop ever made. In addition to that, it has a 12 hours of battery life. The keyboard is said to be very quiet, and the display has a good pixel density of 267 ppi."

10/6/2015 12:34:13 PM