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by mhluongo 2960 days ago
XPS 13 user here, big fan
1 comments

Counterpoint here, XPS 13 user, hate it. Worst coil whine I've heard on anything, fan sounds like it's catching, WiFi on Ubuntu very unreliable. Trackpad is atrocious.

I think it varies a lot between models.

Same. XPS 13 with Ubuntu. It's not the worst laptop experience I've had but it's close.

The trackpad is a nightmare. The bluetooth adapter randomly dies and I'm forced to restart. About 10% of the time when I close the lid the laptop doesn't actually go to sleep, but instead gets extremely hot, which is worrying when I take it out of my bag only to realize the thing has run down the battery and nearly melted. The list of issues goes on and on.

I can't help with the coil whine, but replacing the Wifi card is cheap and easy. I bought this on, albeit for the 9550: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B0167N9R8E/ref=oh_aui_se... which is currently showing as $25.

Yeah, we can blame Dell a bit for this, but Wifi drivers are a problem for a lot of systems.

Replacing the fan may be worth a try, too. Google for the service manual for your system which will give you a step-by-step instruction guide with pictures, and the parts are easy to come by.

Still can't help with the coil whine or the trackpad, though. (Though generally I've heard people say it's the best trackpad outside of Apple. I can't speak to that, my standards for trackpads seem to be relatively low compared to a lot of people's, because I've been content with a lot of trackpads that the consensus says are bad.)

XPS 13 owner. Had none of those issues, but the keyboard was 100% unusable for me (no hyperbole). Caused so much pain in my fingers I could only use it with an external keyboard attached, defeating the point of it being a laptop.
Do you get coil whine when you plug in a wired mouse and move it around? My office just got a few Latitude ultrabooks and they all make weird sounds when we use an external mouse.
It's down to the graphics I think. Video playing, some pictures and any scrolling are pretty bad.
Have he new 9370 with NixOS, no cool whine. Although I had it on the one I had 2 models ago. WiFi and Bluetooth work fine for me. So maybe they’ve worked the kinks out?
Seconding how horrible the trackpad is.
The noise complaints is why I'm not getting it.