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Dell brings back XPS laptops — ditches the capacitive touch bar, adds 1Hz display option, and upgrades 14 and 16-inch models (www.tomshardware.com)
submitted 10 months ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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A new, thinner XPS 13 is also coming later this year.

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[–] 62 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (11 children)

Replacing the function keys with a capacitive bar was the stupidest thing they have ever done. So silly that even Apple walked back on that design choice.

Any serious laptop buyer would rule out a laptop just for that. And any casual buyer looking to spend XPS money on a laptop is going to buy a MacBook.

I'm glad the XPS line is back but unfortunately for Dell Windows is worse than ever.

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  • [–] 7 points 10 months ago

    My work gave me a Mac with this. I absolutely hated it - constantly triggering random things I didn't want or need and apparently something about the wiring caused the physical keyboard to fail prematurely.

    Fortunately we've moved on from those dark days. I still have to use a Mac, but at least there's no touch bar.

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  • [–] 6 points 10 months ago

    Also Lenovo, who were the first ones to give than nonsense a whirl (X1 Carbon Gen 2, 2014).

    Lenovo's was present for just that single generation. Apple kept it for 6 generations over 7 years. Dell 4 generations, 3 years.

    Can't say I'll miss any of them.

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  • [–] 3 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

    The touch bar worked well for me on a Macbook. Most of the hotkeys there use cmd+something instead of the f-keys, so I needed the f-keys with only a couple apps, namely Double Commander. But what's better, there are apps to put custom controls into the touch bar. The most useful one for me was the button to hand off the Bluetooth headphones from the laptop to the phone or vice versa (via a bash script of mine). Plus I could also have app-specific custom buttons.

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  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago*

    And the worst part is, Apple has a lot more influence over software on MacOS than Dell does over software on Windows. Meaning Apple was able to influence at least some (though not most by any measure) 3rd party developers to make the touchbar context aware. I somehow doubt Dell had any such luck, so it would've been even worse than the Apple touchbar which was already shit.

    In fact, had Apple included it in their whole lineup for a few years, it could've actually been useful. But Airs and 2 TBT3 13" Pros never got it, neither did the ubercrappy 12". A huge issue was the lack of adoption by developers (because to make it truly useful, they'd have to customize the touchbar for their application), but why would the developers have been motivated to do it if the thing wasn't even on every new device sold.

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  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    I'm a fan of unusual control surfaces and this thing has had me salivating for years. Sadly they're pretty difficult to procure so I haven't had the chance of owning one (and probably realizing they're not all that great irl)

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  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 child)

    The touch bar is pretty good if a) most everyday shortcuts you use are on the modifiers and the alphanumeric keyboard instead of the f-keys, and b) you can put custom controls in the touch bar. Both of these are true with Macbook: there's a third-party app for controlling the touch bar. E.g. I've put in it a button to handoff the Bluetooth headphones from the laptop to the phone or the other way around.

    Also helps if you're using an external keyboard, while the laptop is sitting on a stand. This way the touch bar is just an additional control surface.

    But, if you use laptop as a stationary machine, you can just buy an external touch control. Though they're probably pricey due to the small specialist market.

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  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    I feel like it doesn't have to be either or? I'd like a touch bar in addition to fn keys. Too bad nobody is making that option.

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  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago

    I don't see anything wrong with touch bar+proper control keys either. There isn't anything inherently bad about a touch bar in itself.

    But replacing your function keys with a touch bar is a bad idea. It's not standard.

    Sticking to standards plus giving other alternative control methods are fine. Kind of like how Asus implements a numpad into the toucpad. I think it's a gimmick but it doesn't hurt anyone.

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  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago

    When I last bought an XPS 13, there was an option for Ubuntu. I agree that many people will choose a Macbook, but the XPS line has been decent. Perhaps someday they will discover the third OS option.

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