
What's with...
the apple keyboard in there?
Dell has taken the wraps of a 15in Sandy Bridge-based notebook that, it claims, is the "thinnest 15in PC on the planet". The metal-clad XPS 15z draws immediate parallels with Apple's aluminium-formed MacBook Pro. But by using "PC" rather than "notebook", Dell has tried to avoid the inevitable comparison. Dell XPS 15z It has …
Looks like a lovely laptop, but once again us brits get the shaft:
"...6GB (4GB in the UK) or 8GB of 1333MHz DDR 3 memory..." "£899 over here, or $1000 in the States."
so for the lower spec model (which somewhat arbitrarily has 2GB less RAM?) we are paying an extra £280 (at current exchange rate).
I should be used to it by now, but it's still infuriating
Seems to me the article wasn't saying they were trying to avoid being compared to a MacBook Pro aestetically (well, not seriously anyway), but that they are being very clever with their marketing.
For pretty much the entire world, PC means computer.
But then apple came along and went "oooh, aaah, but ours isn't a PC, it's a MAC! shiny shiny MAC, boring boring PC, spreadsheets, cord jacket, etc"
So when Dell pulls a 'worlds thinnest PC' marketing drive, although the MBP is thinner, they can't complain.. (What's that? yours is thinner? But I thought you said yours wasn't a PC? Look, it's all over the youtubes; not a PC.)
If they had called it the worlds slimmest laptop/notebook/computer then apple could come claim it was false. But it's the worlds slimmest PC, and as everyone knows, apple doesn't make PC's ;)
It's a clever way of hoisting apple by their own marketing petard :)
Tiny trackpad.
1366x768 display. Yes, seriously. There's an option for 1920x1080 though which is good - but you pay £100 more for it.
And it weighs over 6 lbs, which is a lot for a modern laptop with such weak graphics.
And head to head specification comparison? I guess it will win on price and by having a couple more ports (or not requiring an adaptor). What's the display type - IPS?
My T400s is 21.1mm and still has a tray-DVD/CD drive - why isn't that the thinnest PC? OK a 14 in screen - so what.
Marketing hype at its worst. Run around through 30 or 40 specs to try and find one where you are smaller, faster, lighter etc. and pretend it matters. If you are going to lug a 6lb 15 in PC around, who cares how thin it is!
Nvidia's Optimus technology is such a MS dedicated technology. With that chip-set you are going to be locked into a MS's OS with no other option because Nvidia isn't making that switching Optimus driver available for any other. Sorry Linux users. This is another one that Linux can't do proper graphics on despite the Nvidia brand on the graphics chip inside.
It's like a MacBook Pro, but cheaper and nastier.
What's with that hinge set part way into the laptop? What's with the nasty lettering on the keys? and a lid that doesn't seem to quite be big enough to fit the base?
Dell, grow some balls, shell out for a couple of designers and make your own damned products.
I just don't get the fuss over Blueray. Or more precisely, why not having it on a Mac is a Bad Thing. I've been IT'ing (sorry) with Macs for 20 years and folks I've worked with have seen floppy drives dropped (nary a whisper) CD drives introduced (yes please!), and then DVD drives (ditto, plus write capability).
But no one, and I mean no one, has yet asked me about when is Blueray coming to the Mac. Outside of that I haven't seen much sign either. Maybe I should get out more?
If you have a nice Full HD screen in your Mac or PC and you travel occasionally, surely it would be nice to be able to fling a blu-ray movie into it for some R&R? La Jobs argument is that everyone downloads their movies these days. Well, I don't know about you but I'd think twice about trying to download a 24GB film with extras on my 10Mb broadband, not to mention the disc space required to store the thing. Most download services will only give you 720p if you're lucky anyway.
No, I'm afraid the only real choice for a movie-watching geek is a laptop PC with a blu-ray drive built in. Unfortunately, that discounts this offering from Dell and every one from Apple.
Get with the programme Jobs and sort it aht!