Quote:My laptop (Dell XPS 15 9550) arrived in the meanwhile but I am not sure whether I will keep it.
It took me hours to find out how to fix the touchpad (very poor responsiveness out of the box). However, I can't fix the battery life.
The 3840×2160px infinity screen is exceedingly awesome but it seems to suck an enormous amount of energy.
3h of playing movies (which isn't stressing the system really) are sufficient to drain all life out of the battery.
And the battery is really big (84 Wh).
Seems as if only Apple can play the game unfortunately.
I have the older m3800 version of this XPS with 3840x2160 screen and it is serious garbage so I would suggest to avoid Dell if possible. Their QC is appalling. First brand new model had a DOA tochpad shipped. The screen also had serious defects with some strange white hot spots. The next 3 (!) replacement screens had the same issue, after which I gave up on calling the tech to replace them. A week after that the 1TB SSD completely died after shutdown and I lost a few days worth of work. After complaining i was provided with a complete replacement laptop. This one had the same white hot spots plus serious banding in grey areas. The screen has since been replaced another 3(!!) times to finally get one that does not have serious flaws. If this was not a work issued computer I would have dumped it a long time ago. It is a joke that they call this thing a business laptop considering the QC and that you cannot really use a dock so everything has to be plugged in and out individually. Ridiculous waste of $4000AUD for my employer.
Some other issue on a factory configured Windows 8.1 model:
- Bluetooth doesn't work after resume from sleep
- Hibernate does not work
- There is static noise in the headphone line
- Fan once ramps up to full throttle can stay there well after any cpu activity
- Sam issues with battery life as you so now i just use it in 2048x1115 mode
I could go on..
Seriously, dump the dell and get a Mac or wait until the new HP Zbook Skylake models are announced. I have used Hp workstation laptops before this one and never really had any issues aside from crappy colour depth screens (which was why I tried the 4k dell). however I heard the new ones will have some nice screens. There is a portable Zbook15U which is similiar size to the XPS/m3800 with quadro type graphics which is probably a good option. Otherwise 14" model looks good too. And they both have trackpoints so you dont have to put up with the stupid trackpads, which even on Apple are inferior once you know how to use a trackpoint - never have to take your hands of the keyboard again!