Dell's 2015 XPS 13 - A Real MBA Challenger

[thejadedmonkey]

It Still has a crappy touch pad, keyboard, CPU, poor display color/color temperature accuracy, abysmal reliability like all windoze ultracrapbooks. It's not even in a league to be considered as a challenger

I probably shouldn't feed the trolls, but whatever...

Have you even looked at the computer? The trackpad is described as a "MacBook Air like trackpad", the keyboard is a "joy to type on". The CPU is the standard 5200 CPU found in every laptop. The display is 99% sRBG, and the only ding offered is that it's set for a 2.2 gamut instead of 2.0 (I may have them reversed). And considering it's not even shipping until the 27th at the earliest, I'm curious where you got your "abysmal reliability" information from.

 

[cbautis2]

I probably shouldn't feed the trolls, but whatever...

Have you even looked at the computer? The trackpad is described as a "MacBook Air like trackpad", the keyboard is a "joy to type on". The CPU is the standard 5200 CPU found in every laptop. The display is 99% sRBG, and the only ding offered is that it's set for a 2.2 gamut instead of 2.0 (I may have them reversed). And considering it's not even shipping until the 27th at the earliest, I'm curious where you got your "abysmal reliability" information from.

The reviewer is obviously got paid big money. No Windoze laptop will even hold a candle against a mac's trackpad ever because the drivers will always be crap. A 5200 CPU is just a middle of the road CPU (Even future sub 400 laptop will have this common CPU and it doesn't even sport the Intel HD 6000/Iris Broadwell). Display quality is still far from the rMBP's quality and color accuracy would still be unnatural compared to rMBP/Air. 99% sRBG doesn't mean anything if the display doesn't produce lifelike colors the way rMBP and MBA do. I already predict that reliability and driver/OS stability are abysmal because it has Windoze, preinstalled craps, extra crap services/tasks, crappy drivers and so on. It still looks like a cheap laptop and is considered disposable commodity to computer enthusiasts because it's a Windoze laptop after all. It would probably be worth more if it's preinstalled with Linux.

 

[iosuser]

I probably shouldn't feed the trolls, but whatever...

Have you even looked at the computer? The trackpad is described as a "MacBook Air like trackpad", the keyboard is a "joy to type on". The CPU is the standard 5200 CPU found in every laptop. The display is 99% sRBG, and the only ding offered is that it's set for a 2.2 gamut instead of 2.0 (I may have them reversed). And considering it's not even shipping until the 27th at the earliest, I'm curious where you got your "abysmal reliability" information from.

I won't.

I bought this XPS13 from the Microsoft store (standard config, i5/4GB/128GB/1080p matte). Absolutely no extra crapware. In fact I had to download the utility from Dell myself to save a copy of the factory image. I get 12hrs of use on a charge out of the box from the stock OS, exactly as I expected given that Windows laptop are typically 20% less than manufacturers' claims. I used to wipe all factory OSes on Windows laptops myself, but have no done so in the past couple of years now and they all performed fine.

Keyboard is better than the MBA13, with slightly deeper key travel - I can get 90+ WPM on the XPS, 75 on the MBA13 doing test on typingtest.com. Touchpad is very Macbook *like*, meaning very responsive and no more fighting it to perform the most basic tasks. Definitely the best one ever on a Windows laptop. But, expectedly, MacBooks (and the magic trackpad I use with my Mac Mini) is still better because of the many more gestures availalbe in the OS. There is no more mouse driver required, I suspect this is how this type of "precision touchpad" will work going forward - the OS takes complete control instead of relying on individual drivers. So in the future if Microsoft decides to add additional gestures support, it'll be done via a Windows update.

The screen as far as clarity and color goes is more pleasing than the MBA13. Far better viewing angle and color saturation. watching Netflix on the MBA looks plain dull in comparison. I got the basic 1080p matte screen version so no glare whatsoever.

Apart from the OS (I use OS X and Windows equally), the hardware Dell definitely has Apple beat at long last.

BTW the speakers are LOUD on this XPS13, not sure why that reviewer thinks it too low... My wife yelled at me, from upstairs, when I was watching Netflix with the thing on 50% volume.

PS I have to eat my words from my post on the first page of this thread regarding the touchpad. I bought it on the spot after trying it at the Microsoft store. Would not have bought it had they not have it on demo for me to try the touchpad.

 

[NOTNlCE]

To be quite honest, I seriously considered an XPS 13 as an upgrade laptop for a little while. My best friend got a 2011 XPS 13 when it was first released, and I've always thought it was great. The lightweight design, thinness, and portability was a lot better than my 2009 MBP, but the build quality had me worried. I'd performed maintenance on the laptop a few times, and the plastic parts turned me off a bit. Although, this 2015 model seems to be of a different construction. I'm not as much of a fan of this design compared to the old one, but that's my personal opinion. Possibly better, though I don't think a challenger to the MBA for Mac users. Possibly a great laptop for Windows users. But, I don't think it's fair to make a comparison yet, since the 2015 MBA has not been officially revealed yet.

 

[avbbva]

Sold on the new Dell 13 XPS

I've been a mac fan for years and I still think they have the best windows laptops. A few days ago I got a hold of the new Dell 13 XPS and I must say, I am impressed. I sold my 11" air (but kept the 15" rMBP) and so far this Dell seems to be better. Even the trackpad is 95% as good as the Macs.
Screen is gorgeous even at the 1920x 1080 resolution. The small footprint and the longer battery are great as well. I got the Microsoft version which has no bloatware.

Still waiting for the new retina Air, but in the mean time this Dell rocks.

A

 

[venom600]

I didn't know the inside was actual carbon fiber. That's pretty cool, I guess. It still looked and felt like cheap plastic with a distracting pattern to me.

Just for reference... the material called "carbon fiber" is plastic. The actual carbon cloth is suspended in plastic, so it's not going to feel like anything but a super light piece of plastic. It's still a far more expensive and hard to manufacture material than the relatively simple unibody aluminum chassis Apple uses. Sounds like your expectations were just out of line.

 

[motrek]

... It's still a far more expensive and hard to manufacture material than the relatively simple unibody aluminum chassis Apple uses. ...

I'd be interested to see your data on that. There have been a bunch of laptops that use carbon fiber--if you do a web search for "carbon fiber laptop" you find hits for Lenovo, Gigabyte, Asus, Dell, Sony, etc. These laptops don't seem especially rare or expensive, or even necessarily desirable. The Engadget review of the Gigabyte X11 all-carbon-fiber laptop criticized it for being flimsy.

To my knowledge, only Apple and HP have invested enough in machining aluminum to make unibody aluminum laptops.

 

[rittchard]

FYI, although someone mentioned they weren't shipping until the 27th, there were a few in stock on Amazon (no idea how they were available before Dell was shipping), and I actually received my direct order from Dell yesterday.

I have both my MBA 13 and the XPS 13 side by side so as I transfer my work over to the new unit I can do some comparisons.

Initial impressions: The screen on first look definitely makes an impact. Yes it does have some matte effect but the increase in resolution is fantastic. The near bezel-less design is pretty cool, but for some reason makes the screen feel smaller to me. YMMV. The touchpad and keyboard are both good, but not quite as nice as the MBA. This isn't so much a quality issue as it is that the overall size is indeed smaller so everything is a bit more cramped and the pad is of course smaller.

The footprint is significantly smaller than the 13, as people have noted it's more like the 11's footprint. It's a tiny bit chunkier, which explains the weight over the 11. I thought the weight difference would be more noticeable but it's fairly slight. I'll have to do a comparison with the 11 when I get home. Of course this is the kind of thing that will be more of an impact over an extended period of time, such as for travel or walking from building to building. The build quality feels solid and I do like the black carbon fiber look. Just a matter of personal preference, I guess. I don't think either is better, just different.

General performance feels very fast (file transfers, reboots, wifi are all I've tested thus far) but I have noticed the fan does come on more than I'd expect it to even when copying files. Will have to keep an eye on that.

The big test will be of course battery life. I should be able to tell in a couple of days of normal work use if it is significantly better.

So short version: nothing mind blowing, but so far it feels like a decent tradeoff on keyboard/touchpad in exchange for smaller size, higher res screen, lighter weight and more battery life.

 

[venom600]

I'd be interested to see your data on that. There have been a bunch of laptops that use carbon fiber--if you do a web search for "carbon fiber laptop" you find hits for Lenovo, Gigabyte, Asus, Dell, Sony, etc. These laptops don't seem especially rare or expensive, or even necessarily desirable. The Engadget review of the Gigabyte X11 all-carbon-fiber laptop criticized it for being flimsy.

To my knowledge, only Apple and HP have invested enough in machining aluminum to make unibody aluminum laptops.

I can't speak to how the other have produced CF because I haven't seen their products (though I know Lenovo and Sony did it just as well as Dell does), but just like normal plastic it can be made poorly (like most plastic notebooks) or very well (like the old Macbook or iPhone 5c).

There's a lot more to producing a CF part than simply machining a block of aluminum like Apple does. As far as price, CF runs between $10-$17/lb for automotive grade cloth (not the finished plastic). Aluminum runs well under a dollar a pound.

This link is a horribly oversimplified version of what goes into the process.http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Carbon-Fiber It leaves off a lot of very important details. On top of that, a lot of this process has to be done by hand; no automation possible.

 

[motrek]

...
This link is a horribly oversimplified version of what goes into the process.http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Carbon-Fiber It leaves off a lot of very important details. On top of that, a lot of this process has to be done by hand; no automation possible.

I think your information about CF is likely out of date. I remember listening to an interview a few years ago with an engineer from McLaren and he was saying that when they made the F1, all the CF work had to be done by hand and it was incredibly time consuming and expensive, but now with their current cars it's all automated and costs a tiny fraction of what it used to.

I would hardly say the process to make a MacBook case is simple or cheap. It takes a CNC machine ~3 hours to make one out of a solid block of extruded aluminum:

http://9to5mac.com/2011/11/21/unibody-on-ultrabook-metal-on-the-outside-plastic-on-the-inside/

As of 2011, PC manufacturers didn't have the manufacturing capacity or inclination to make aluminum unibodies and had to settle for covering their plastic laptops with some aluminum surfaces, which still apparently cost $40 and up according to this article. Who knows what it costs Apple to make one of their cases.

 

[mortenandersen]

Fan or fanless - that is one of the important questions...

FYI, although someone mentioned they weren't shipping until the 27th, there were a few in stock on Amazon (no idea how they were available before Dell was shipping), and I actually received my direct order from Dell yesterday.

I have both my MBA 13 and the XPS 13 side by side so as I transfer my work over to the new unit I can do some comparisons.

Initial impressions: The screen on first look definitely makes an impact. Yes it does have some matte effect but the increase in resolution is fantastic. The near bezel-less design is pretty cool, but for some reason makes the screen feel smaller to me. YMMV. The touchpad and keyboard are both good, but not quite as nice as the MBA. This isn't so much a quality issue as it is that the overall size is indeed smaller so everything is a bit more cramped and the pad is of course smaller.

The footprint is significantly smaller than the 13, as people have noted it's more like the 11's footprint. It's a tiny bit chunkier, which explains the weight over the 11. I thought the weight difference would be more noticeable but it's fairly slight. I'll have to do a comparison with the 11 when I get home. Of course this is the kind of thing that will be more of an impact over an extended period of time, such as for travel or walking from building to building. The build quality feels solid and I do like the black carbon fiber look. Just a matter of personal preference, I guess. I don't think either is better, just different.

General performance feels very fast (file transfers, reboots, wifi are all I've tested thus far) but I have noticed the fan does come on more than I'd expect it to even when copying files. Will have to keep an eye on that.

The big test will be of course battery life. I should be able to tell in a couple of days of normal work use if it is significantly better.

So short version: nothing mind blowing, but so far it feels like a decent tradeoff on keyboard/touchpad in exchange for smaller size, higher res screen, lighter weight and more battery life.

Thanks so much for sharing these first experiences with the new Dell XPS 13. One (possible?) differenting feature from the expected new MBA 12 is that the new MBA 12 will be fanless, I believe.

I can mention that the main (almost only) reason that I didn't buy Sony Vaio Pro 11 was all the complaints about the noisy fan. After being high as a kite when reading the first news about the new XPS 13, where nobody mentioned that the machine has a fan, the fact about the fan (and therefore necessarily also some noise) along with perhaps another kind of noise also (see: http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/laptop/f/3518/t/19538215), and this was for me a major "down to earth" again-experience, after having imagined that now - at last! - the perfect portable PC 13.3 inches in a 11 footprint has come, also with a 16:9 screen aspect ratio, which I clearly prefer.

So, how bad is the fan noise (or any other noise) from the Dell XPS 13? This may be a deal breaker for more potential buyers than me.

 

[iosuser]

but I have noticed the fan does come on more than I'd expect it to even when copying files. Will have to keep an eye on that.

The big test will be of course battery life. I should be able to tell in a couple of days of normal work use if it is significantly better.

So short version: nothing mind blowing, but so far it feels like a decent tradeoff on keyboard/touchpad in exchange for smaller size, higher res screen, lighter weight and more battery life.

I've been really impressed by the lack of fan noise. The only time I heard the fan come on was the initial round of Windows updates, and testing out how well Minecraft runs. Out of the box, there are about 50 Windows updates. Perhaps it's running the updates in the background? Other than that, the fan basically stayed off, including playing Netflix and streamed 1080p MKV from my Plex server.

Can't agree with you on the keyboard. The XPS13 has a tiny bit of extra key travel, but makes a big difference in feel and my ability to go all out. I can get 90+ on the XPS13, on my MBA13 no better than 75. On a ThinkPad or Latitude with deep key travel, I can reach >100WPM.

Battery life cannot top the 2014 MBA13 which gets me very close to 15hrs. The XPS13 12hrs is about max, which is what I expected.

Edit: OMG that carbon fiber finish palmrest and the keyboard absorbs greasy like crazy. It looks all greasy and nasty even on clean hands. Don't touch it with any hand lotion on 😛 I have to wipe it clean daily.

 

[cbautis2]

Hmm. From your screenshot, looks like Intel got rid of the programmable TDP for the Broadwell U series processor that was implemented on Ivy Bridge and Haswell U chips since Windows 8.1 now shows that the nominal frequency is the actual nominal frequency (i.e. @ 2.2 GHz CPU label is shown as 2.19 GHz nominal frequency on the screenshot).

Windows 8.1 mistakes the actual nominal frequency of the chip with the "cTDP up" nominal frequency of the Ivy Bridge U/Haswell U chip. That's why when you look at the frequency of an Ivy Bridge/Haswell ultrabook, the GHz shown is far higher than the nominal frequency, but less than the highest Turbo speed.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4378/ivy-bridge-a-tick-with-configurable-tdp


For example. Core i5 4210U has nominal clock of 1.7 GHz yet Windows reports 2.4 GHz is the nominal clock rate. Max turbo is actually 2.7 GHz. That 2.4 GHz "cTDP up" nominal frequency will guarantee that if you run CPU stresser programs such as Prime95 and you have power and thermal headroom, your CPU will stay no less than that until either power time limit is over or the predetermined upper core temperature limit for the "cTDP up" state is exceeded. Then it'll drop down to 1.7 GHz and stay there unless cooling still can't keep up then you start throttling.

Sorry for digressing but I like this kind of stuff about the changes between CPU microarchitectures.

 

[dan1eln1el5en]

the most disappointing part is that the laptop maxes out at 8gb ram and 256gb ssd

almost like an Air 😱

 

[FrozenDarkness]

almost like an Air 😱

macbook air can have 512gb. I think the storage is the biggest downer. I currently sport a 8gb/512gb myself

 

[venom600]

I think your information about CF is likely out of date. I remember listening to an interview a few years ago with an engineer from McLaren and he was saying that when they made the F1, all the CF work had to be done by hand and it was incredibly time consuming and expensive, but now with their current cars it's all automated and costs a tiny fraction of what it used to.

Now that I think about it, I bet you're right. There's been a spike in the use of CF recently and more automation and advanced processes would explain it.

 

[rittchard]

I've been really impressed by the lack of fan noise. The only time I heard the fan come on was the initial round of Windows updates, and testing out how well Minecraft runs. Out of the box, there are about 50 Windows updates. Perhaps it's running the updates in the background? Other than that, the fan basically stayed off, including playing Netflix and streamed 1080p MKV from my Plex server.

Can't agree with you on the keyboard. The XPS13 has a tiny bit of extra key travel, but makes a big difference in feel and my ability to go all out. I can get 90+ on the XPS13, on my MBA13 no better than 75. On a ThinkPad or Latitude with deep key travel, I can reach >100WPM.

Battery life cannot top the 2014 MBA13 which gets me very close to 15hrs. The XPS13 12hrs is about max, which is what I expected.

Edit: OMG that carbon fiber finish palmrest and the keyboard absorbs greasy like crazy. It looks all greasy and nasty even on clean hands. Don't touch it with any hand lotion on 😛 I have to wipe it clean daily.

Glad someone else here actually has a real unit to give impressions on!

Ditto on the grease pickup, it's really kind of distracting lol. Also on your previous post, I thought I was imagining it, but this thing is freaking loud, all things considered. The "speakers" don't look like much but they really produce.

Battery life: I'm kind of disappointed seeing your results and from what I've seen thus far. I was expecting a marked improvement over the MBA13 (Bootcamp - was your 15 hours in Mac OS or Windows?) but it seems like it may be a wash. I had some odd experiences yesterday where the predicted time left dropped significantly, perhaps it was due to Windoze updating in the background and using the wifi? Will have to see how it fairs in real life use.

Weight: now that I've walked a few blocks with it I can definitely feel the difference, very nice to have dropped some weight but still feel like a very solid machine.

Keyboard: I think it's just preference. I do find I'm typing pretty fast on this one, but I still feel like the keys are a tiny bit cramped for my taste. Maybe just needs some getting used to.

WiFi: still TBD, but thus far it's felt more reliable than what I experienced on my MBA. My work wifi is a bit wonky and I constantly had to turn wifi on and off to get it to work properly on the MBA. I had the same problem with an older Dell XPS 12. Fingers crossed, the new unit hasn't had this issue yet

Fan Noise: the fan hasn't come on at all today. I suspect the Windows background downloads and updates were generating the higher load. It's not a terribly loud fan for my taste, particularly at work where there's more ambient noise. I think I was just a bit surprised because I was imagining/hoping for a fanless design.

 

[newellj]

Glad someone else here actually has a real unit to give impressions on!

Ditto on the grease pickup, it's really kind of distracting lol. Also on your previous post, I thought I was imagining it, but this thing is freaking loud, all things considered. The "speakers" don't look like much but they really produce.

Battery life: I'm kind of disappointed seeing your results and from what I've seen thus far. I was expecting a marked improvement over the MBA13 (Bootcamp - was your 15 hours in Mac OS or Windows?) but it seems like it may be a wash. I had some odd experiences yesterday where the predicted time left dropped significantly, perhaps it was due to Windoze updating in the background and using the wifi? Will have to see how it fairs in real life use.

Weight: now that I've walked a few blocks with it I can definitely feel the difference, very nice to have dropped some weight but still feel like a very solid machine.

Keyboard: I think it's just preference. I do find I'm typing pretty fast on this one, but I still feel like the keys are a tiny bit cramped for my taste. Maybe just needs some getting used to.

WiFi: still TBD, but thus far it's felt more reliable than what I experienced on my MBA. My work wifi is a bit wonky and I constantly had to turn wifi on and off to get it to work properly on the MBA. I had the same problem with an older Dell XPS 12. Fingers crossed, the new unit hasn't had this issue yet

Fan Noise: the fan hasn't come on at all today. I suspect the Windows background downloads and updates were generating the higher load. It's not a terribly loud fan for my taste, particularly at work where there's more ambient noise. I think I was just a bit surprised because I was imagining/hoping for a fanless design.

One suggestion for you (assuming you keep it), based on years and years of Dell laptops. If the machine isn't overheating and the fan isn't driving you crazy, be very cautious about BIOS updates. Dell has a long history of going back and forth on fan controls in BIOS updates - check places like Notebookforums and the Dell forums for user reports before you update.

 

[cbautis2]

Glad someone else here actually has a real unit to give impressions on!

Ditto on the grease pickup, it's really kind of distracting lol. Also on your previous post, I thought I was imagining it, but this thing is freaking loud, all things considered. The "speakers" don't look like much but they really produce.

Battery life: I'm kind of disappointed seeing your results and from what I've seen thus far. I was expecting a marked improvement over the MBA13 (Bootcamp - was your 15 hours in Mac OS or Windows?) but it seems like it may be a wash. I had some odd experiences yesterday where the predicted time left dropped significantly, perhaps it was due to Windoze updating in the background and using the wifi? Will have to see how it fairs in real life use.

Weight: now that I've walked a few blocks with it I can definitely feel the difference, very nice to have dropped some weight but still feel like a very solid machine.

Keyboard: I think it's just preference. I do find I'm typing pretty fast on this one, but I still feel like the keys are a tiny bit cramped for my taste. Maybe just needs some getting used to.

WiFi: still TBD, but thus far it's felt more reliable than what I experienced on my MBA. My work wifi is a bit wonky and I constantly had to turn wifi on and off to get it to work properly on the MBA. I had the same problem with an older Dell XPS 12. Fingers crossed, the new unit hasn't had this issue yet

Fan Noise: the fan hasn't come on at all today. I suspect the Windows background downloads and updates were generating the higher load. It's not a terribly loud fan for my taste, particularly at work where there's more ambient noise. I think I was just a bit surprised because I was imagining/hoping for a fanless design.

Battery life is due to the 1080p screen which will definitely consume more power and GPU. You will roast the dell if it's fanless since it won't cope up with 15 watts of heat under full load.

 

[Hankster]

I'm 38 years old. I have a $125k IT degree. I worked as a graphic designer/developer for a Fortune 500 company for eight years. For most of my life I hated Apple and all things Mac. PC was the way to go and I used to have 3-4 Dell desktop and laptops at once.

Then eight years ago I bought a white plastic MacBook. I soon realized it was the best computer I've ever used. Now I own two iMacs and two MacBook Airs. Three years ago I bought a top of a line Dell to try and use...guess what? It would blue screen of death every single day!!! For three weeks I was on tech support trying to fix this problem. It could not be fixed. I returned it to Dell.

The bottom line is it's not the hardware that makes a computer, it's the software. The reason Macs are so popular these days is because of the software. Anyone can build hardware but that's nothing, you're not using hardware...you're using software. The issue is even if Dell (or any company) comes out with a great computer and it has Microsoft as the operating system...well it's still going to have issues. I never had a PC last more than 2-3 years (at best) because of the software.

This is why hardware and specs don't really matter for 99% of computer users.

 

[Tucom]

Epic review - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHFeK_FFRoE

Nothing but rave about it. No wonder the anti-Windows trolls are getting riled about it.

 

[cbautis2]

I'm 38 years old. I have a $125k IT degree. I worked as a graphic designer/developer for a Fortune 500 company for eight years. For most of my life I hated Apple and all things Mac. PC was the way to go and I used to have 3-4 Dell desktop and laptops at once.

Then eight years ago I bought a white plastic MacBook. I soon realized it was the best computer I've ever used. Now I own two iMacs and two MacBook Airs. Three years ago I bought a top of a line Dell to try and use...guess what? It would blue screen of death every single day!!! For three weeks I was on tech support trying to fix this problem. It could not be fixed. I returned it to Dell.

The bottom line is it's not the hardware that makes a computer, it's the software. The reason Macs are so popular these days is because of the software. Anyone can build hardware but that's nothing, you're not using hardware...you're using software. The issue is even if Dell (or any company) comes out with a great computer and it has Microsoft as the operating system...well it's still going to have issues. I never had a PC last more than 2-3 years (at best) because of the software.

This is why hardware and specs don't really matter for 99% of computer users.

That's 100% correct. Windoze will always feel slower even if they have 3 times the processing power of a 3 year old mac. They're so inefficient that they need to get at least 1.5 times or more of the battery capacity just to get the same battery life as macs. Take my 2011 4 GB RAM MBA for example where it's faster than any current 4th gen and 5th gen core CPU Windoze ultrabook in terms of everyday tasks such as loading programs, loading websites and browser UI smoothness even with 50 tabs, playing 10 simultaneous 1080p videos without the fan spinning. Windoze would just BSOD or crash explorer etc. if it attempts to do all that work.

 

[~~Hello~~]

So when Dell say it has an integrated built in battery does this mean it is glued in? Just wondering how replaceable it is.

 

[mtneer]

I just watched Lisa Gade's review. This looks like a great machine, especially with some key design wins like the thin bezel. I think Apple employees have gotten too comfortable swimming around in their billions and without Steve Jobs, the mice are playing when the cat is gone. I hope someone gives them all a kick in the shorts to get them moving again design wise.

 

[cbautis2]

I just watched Lisa Gade's review. This looks like a great machine, especially with some key design wins like the thin bezel. I think Apple employees have gotten too comfortable swimming around in their billions and without Steve Jobs, the mice are playing when the cat is gone. I hope someone gives them all a kick in the shorts to get them moving again design wise.

Design is almost perfect already. Just reduce the bezel to at least 1/8 of inch and it'll be the best machine again. Wait until rMBA comes and it'll blow this ultracrapbook out of the water.