[Cynox]

On my Dell 13in XPS laptop from 2018 (9370), Bluetooth used to allmost work, but I had to manually pair my headset every time. Now, with the latest Ubuntu, it often connects automatically, but then looses connection immediately, or fails to see that the device can play audio. After some fiddling and turning the device on an off it will work if i start playing audio right away. It will then work for a long time. The amount of fiddling and rebooting of headphones seems to grow with every new Ubuntu release. It may also be a user space error, but in any case, Bluetooth is far from "just working", unfortunately.

[therealrootuser]

Are you using an Intel wireless chipset or the terrible Broadcom one that Dell used to use? Not sure what Dell was using in 2018, but I replaced the garbage Broadcom chip in my 2015-era XPS 13 with a much more reliable Intel model, and most of by bluetooth problems were immediately fixed.

That said, the replacement process is pretty fiddly...Dell likes using lots of very small screws made of very soft metal.

I've also found that Gnome's bluetooth handling varies from barely acceptable to confusingly horrible. KDE's bluetooth handling has been way more reliable for me across multiple machines and distros. So the problem may very well be in userspace.

[kelnos]

I have the XPS13 9380 (also 2018), and it came with an Atheros WiFi chipset (Killer, I believe). Looks like the Bluetooth is on separate hardware here; lsusb reports it as a "Foxconn / Hon Hai" chipset.

I don't really use BT for anything, so I can't comment on its quality. WiFi has been completely fine, though. Either way, I believe both the WiFi and BT hardware are soldered in on this model.