Android Century
  • Home
  • Android Zone
    • Android Apps
    • Android Games
    • Apps APk Files
    • Games Apk Files
    • Apps Hack Tricks
  • Reviews
  • Fantasy Zone
    • Entertainment
    • Quotes and Status
    • Life Style
    • Home Made Tips
    • Hair Care
    • Skin Care
    • Fantasy Tips
  • Tricks
    • Free Recharge
    • Free Internet
    • shopping Cashback
    • Recharge Cashback
  • Tech
  • Mobiles
  • Gadgets
  • News
  • How To's
  • Software
Breaking
Loading...

Featured post

How to Take Great Photos With Apple's iPhone X

Recent Posts

Labels

  • Android Apk Files
  • Android Apps
  • Android Games
  • Apps Apk Files
  • Entertainment
  • Fantasy Tips
  • Gadgets
  • Hair Care
  • HomeMade Tips
  • How To's
  • News
  • Quotes
  • Quotes & Status
  • Recharge Cashback
  • Recharge Promo Codes
  • Shopping Cashback
  • Technology
  • skin care
Home / Reviews / New Dell XPS 13 9360 2017 review

New Dell XPS 13 9360 2017 review

Latest Govt. Jobs 16:10:00 Reviews Edit
Dell

VERDICT

The best Linux Ultrabook in the world just got a tiny bit better. A new processor, an updated operating system, better battery life and that same sumptuous screen make this one hard to resist.

PROS:

  • Modern OS,Useful improvements across the board,Probably the best Ultrabook (still)

CONS:

  • OS update still required for optimal performance,QHD+ model is expensive,Not really worth it if you already have the 9350
Last October Dell quietly updated its suave XPS 13 range of ultraportables. Pretty much since their inception, these beasts have been the undisputed champions of the premium laptop plains. Dell has hit on a winning recipe, and wisely chosen to only update and tweak it on this, its fourth generation.
At the heart of the machine, there’s now a Core i5-7200U or i7-7500U processor. We tested the 2.7GHz i7 Developer Edition, which came with 16GB RAM, a 512GB SSD and the same not-of-this-world 3200 x 1800-resolution glossy touchscreen as the previous model, the 9350. This notebook also ships with Ubuntu Linux, and since we already reviewed the Windows version , this write-up will be fairly Linux-centric.
The main strong point in this outing is the migration to the Kaby Lake architecture. This promises around a 10% performance increase, improved battery life and, thanks to the new Intel HD 620 graphics, accelerated VP9 and 10-bit HEVC video playback.
Beyond that we have a larger battery and a newer ‘Killer’ Wi-Fi chip from Qualcomm. Getting Linux to play nice with new and shiny hardware could potentially be a struggle, but Dell has worked hard to ensure that, while some benchmarks lag behind Windows, everything works exactly as it should. 
While these things are just names, the Developer Edition moniker is something of a misnomer. Not all developers use Linux, and not all Linux users are developers. It’s heart-warming to see Dell supporting Linux, but maybe the firm should just call the proverbial spade a spade, and re-baptise this newest-born model as the Ubuntu/Linux/Penguin Edition (take your pick).
Ubuntu 14.04, which shipped with the previous Developer Edition, is getting a little long in the tooth, so the update to 16.04 this time around is most welcome. That said, Kaby Lake did not receive mainline kernel support until the 4.5 series, and 16.04 ships with 4.4. However, installing a 4.8 kernel is easy using the recently pushed 16.04.2 Hardware Enablement Stack.
Of course, one can always install a whole new flavour of Linux, and there are tales of success from users doing this with Ubuntu 16.10, Arch Linux, Fedora and many more. But it’s easier (and for many users preferable) to just install two packages (linux-image-generic-hwe-16.04 and xserver-xorg-hwe-16.04) and enjoy a modern kernel and video driver stack.
This update will actually be pushed out automatically to desktop users in the coming weeks, but some people just can’t wait. Intel is a generous contributor to FOSS so its hardware is well-supported – the main issue is that it takes time for new hardware support to make it into fixed release distros.

Software and Linux support

After installing the HWE packages, we were met with very tiny text and icons in the Unity interface. It turns out that scaling is handled differently with the new drivers, but all it takes to remedy is adjusting the Scaling setting in the Displays applet. Setting it to 2 will make things comfortable again, but young ones who still have keen eyes may prefer something closer to 1.5.
The main desktop environments in Linux all have good support for scaling on HiDPI screens, so installing Gnome or KDE (or a whole new distro that uses one of these) won’t cause any problems. However, certain proprietary applications have hard-coded font sizes, which means they don’t respect the desktop environment’s scaling settings. The main culprits here are Steam and Spotify. Steam can be fixed using the HiDPI skin available on Github , and Spotify can be fed the ‘--force-device-scale-factor’ option.
In days of old, Linux users were at a disadvantage when it came to BIOS updates. Vendors used to supply DOS executables for updating the BIOS, which were meant to be run from the Windows ‘Boot to command prompt’ option. It is possible to use these with, for example, a bootable FreeDOS USB, if one wants an entirely libre solution, but these can be quite tricky to make.
Now we live in a UEFI world and would much rather have a cleaner way to freely freshen our firmwares. That way, dear readers, is the fwupd tool, and Dell has made enormous contributions to its development. Dell has also provided handy recovery tools in case things go south.
When Kaby Lake was introduced, there was some concern that laptops on Linux were not entering the deepest sleep C-states, C8-C10. However, our tests with powerstat showed that these states of near-hibernation were entered after a relatively short idle time, and that idle power consumption was a mere 6.5W.

Battery and benchmarks

During our Phoronix Test Suite (PTS) benchmarking, temperatures, as reported by lm_sensors anyway, did occasionally become worrying. In particular the FurMark benchmark (which scored a respectable 473 points at 1080p) saw core temps rise as high as 85 degrees. At this temperature you’d hope for some fan noise, and there is some, but even at full power the sound of the fan whirring doesn’t become obnoxious.
While the left-hand side of the keyboard did get warm, it was never uncomfortably so, suggesting that ventilation and heat dissipation worked well here. The CPU is only dual-core, but still managed to build a 4.9 kernel in just under four minutes. PTS’ sparse matrix multiplication test reported an impressive 1029.63 Mflops.
Given all the native caching it’s hard to get reliable numbers for the SSD (PTS’ IOZone test generated some impressive, though impossible readings), but using dd (with the conv=fdatasync,notrunc options) reported write speeds of 567MB/s and read speeds (after clearing the cache) of around 1.2GB/s.
Using mpv with all radios disabled and at 50% brightness, we managed to get 8 hours of full-screen playback with the 720p version of Sintel, and 5 hours with the 4K version. The taxing Unigine Heaven benchmark at 1080p managed 17 frames per second windowed and 8 fps full-screen, which tells you that this machine will struggle with triple-A games.

 Final verdict

The XPS 13 retains its crown as the undisputed champion of the Ultrabook market, and one can only admire Dell for its unwavering Linux support on a flagship machine. Don’t be misled by the name – it’s not just for developers, and can happily play less-demanding modern games at reasonable settings.
Of course, such treasure comes at a price and though the QHD+ screen is something to behold, some people will prefer to settle for the HD version. Those who do will get a consolation prize of improved battery life, but will never know the joy of the tiny pixels and vibrant colour reproduction which the fancier screen is capable of.
  • These are the 10 best business laptops of 2017
Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Google Plus

RELATED POSTS


Oppo A83 Review

Dyson Pure Cool Link Tower Air Puri...

Samsung Galaxy S9+ Review
New Dell XPS 13 9360 2017 review New Dell XPS 13 9360 2017 review Reviewed by Latest Govt. Jobs on 16:10:00 Rating: 5

0 comments:

Post a Comment

Newer Post Older Post Home
Subscribe to: Post Comments ( Atom )

Search This Blog

TEST BOOK FOR GOVT ENTRANCE TEST

TEST BOOK FOR GOVT ENTRANCE TEST
Find All Latest book for preparation of SSC,RAILWAYBANK PO,RBI,BANK CLERK,GATE ME,GATE CE are available here in less prices, to check out the books click here

Translate

  • Popular Post
  • Random posts
  • Category

Popular Posts

  • Teen Patti Offer 2018: Refer and Earn Flipkart Vouchers Free
    Teen Patti Offer 2018: Refer and Earn Flipkart Vouchers Free
    Teen Patti Refer & Earn Offer:  Hey Guys! Today I make an article about Teen Patti Referral ...
  • Hands-on with the home windows 10 Creators update for the Xbox One: Beam recreation streaming arrives
    The Windows 10 Creators Update is here, now—yes,  now —but not (officially) on the PC. The ...
  • Taotronics TT-BH22 Headphones Review
    We make it a addiction to now not look up pricing of a product sooner than reviewing and if ...
  • Jio effect: Telcos may have to cut data rates 2017
    India's big  telecom  companies,  Bharti Airtel ,  Vodafone India  and  Idea Cellular , will be ...
  • How To Install Xposed Framework On Bluestacks
    How To Install Xposed Framework On Bluestacks
    How To Install Xposed Framework On Bluestacks For Rooted Bluestacks Only Requirements: ...
  • WhatsApp now lets you search for GIFs from within its interface
    Spicing up your conversations with GIFs is easier than ever before. The latest update ...

Random Posts

  • Apparently a Way of Hacking ATMs Called 'Jackpotting' Has Spread to the US
    Apparently a Way of Hacking ATMs Called 'Jackpotting' Has Spread to the US
    29.01.2018 - 0 Comments
    ATM manufacturers are warning that criminals are hacking into their devices using a method called…
  • Akyumen's Hawk smartphone packs a projector
    Akyumen's Hawk smartphone packs a projector
    28.02.2017 - 0 Comments
    Over the past decade there have been several attempts to cram video projectors into smartphones. All…
  • how to restrict OneDrive uploads in Windows 10
    how to restrict OneDrive uploads in Windows 10
    21.02.2017 - 0 Comments
    Sometimes you just don’t want OneDrive to do its job and start uploading and syncing files at…
  • PS5: what's going to the Sony ps 5 be like and when will we see it?
    PS5: what's going to the Sony ps 5 be like and when will we see it?
    26.03.2017 - 0 Comments
    It's hard to say when we'll see the PS5, or PlayStation 5 if we're being formal. It…
  • Razer’s modern brainwave offers computer gamers loose stuff for the use of its Cortex app
    Razer’s modern brainwave offers computer gamers loose stuff for the use of its Cortex app
    26.03.2017 - 0 Comments
    Want to get free peripherals simply by playing games on your PC? Of course you do – and to that…

Labels

Android Apk Files Android Apps Android Games Apps Apk Files Apps Hack Tricks Entertainment Free Internet Freecharge Gadgets Games Apk Files How To's Laptops Guide Mobiles Reviews Technology Viral's android zone free recharge

Entertainment

Tricks

Popular Posts

  • WhatsApp now lets you search for GIFs from within its interface
    Spicing up your ...
  • How to Test Your Internet Speed from the Command Line
    How to Test Your Internet Speed from the Command Line
  • (no title)
    I’m thinking of ...
  • Sony Xperia XZs first impressions: At Rs 49,990 every other ‘top rate’ supplying
    Sony Xperia XZs is ...
  • How To Install Xposed Framework On Bluestacks
    How To Install Xposed Framework On Bluestacks
    How To ...
  • How to Take Great Photos With Apple's iPhone X
    How to Take Great Photos With Apple's iPhone X
  • Alone Time Is Good For Us, Research Says
    Our world is more ...

Random Posts

  • LeEco Le 2 hands-on review
    LeEco Le 2 hands-on review
    15.02.2017 - 0 Comments
    PROS: Great display 'Revolutionary' CDLA audio technology Snapdragon 652 SoC Stellar build…
  • Moto E5, Moto E5 Plus spotted on FCC
    Moto E5, Moto E5 Plus spotted on FCC
    28.01.2018 - 0 Comments
    Moto E5 could launch alongside Moto E5 Plus and Moto E5 Play. (Source: MySmartPrice) Two new…
  • HTC Bolt specifications and brief review
    HTC Bolt specifications and brief review
    13.11.2016 - 0 Comments
    HTC Bolt smartphone was launched in November 2016. The phone comes with a 5.50-inch touchscreen display…
  • Fujifilm X-H1 Review
    Fujifilm X-H1 Review
    16.02.2018 - 1 Comments
    Key Features Review Price: £1699 (body only) £1949 (battery grip kit) 24.3-million-pixel X-Trans CMOS III…
  • iOS 10's Messages app will be a huge update, gets its own app store
    iOS 10's Messages app will be a huge update, gets its own app store
    14.06.2016 - 0 Comments
    Today, Apple announced iOS 10, and with it – a Messaging app that's been renovated from the ground up.…

Most Popular

  • Teen Patti Offer 2018: Refer and Earn Flipkart Vouchers Free
    Teen Patti Offer 2018: Refer and Earn Flipkart Vouchers Free
    Teen Patti Refer & ...
  • SAMSUNG GALAXY J7 (2016) REVIEWS
    SAMSUNG GALAXY J7 (2016) REVIEWS
    SAMSUNG GALAXY J ...
  • Top 5 Best SmartPhones under 7000 Rs (March 2017)
    Looking for the ...
  • Apple, IBM, Cisco are huge because of Indians, do not deny them H-1B visa: RBI Governor Urjit Patel
    ...
  • SAMSUNG GALAXY J7 (2016) Specifications
    SAMSUNG GALAXY J ...
  • BlackBerry Teases Marshmallow Beta Testing for Priv by Next Week
    Blackberry ...
  • LG Q6 Review
    LG Q6 Review
    2017 is ...

Contact Form

Name

Email *

Message *

Offers Zone

Created By Android Century Distributed by Android Century
  • Home
  • About us
  • Contact us
  • Privacy policy
  • Terms of use
  • Advertise here
Subscribe Via Email Subscribe To Android Century By Email And Get Free Updates. ;-)


Your email address is safe with us!