Performance

The previous iteration of the XPS 13 DE was plenty fast, and the much-hyped Kaby Lake should give performance a roughly 10-percent boost overall. Some tasks, particularly things that involve hi-res video, may see an even bigger performance improvement. In terms of everyday tasks like compiling small programs, browsing the Web, etc., I did not notice a huge difference from the previous release. One thing I did notice, however, was that the Unity interface is considerably snappier, although that may well be a combination of hardware and software improvements. Even for more significant tasks, like, say, compiling the Linux kernel on a regular basis, the previous version seems to be good enough for Linus Torvalds.

Specs at a glance: Dell XPS 13 DE As reviewed SCREEN 3200x1800 IPS touch panel with QHD+ resolution OS Ubuntu Linux 16.04 CPU i7-7500U Kaby Lake chip RAM 16GB 1866MHz GPU Intel HD Graphics 520 HDD 512GB PCIe SSD PORTS 2 x USB 3.0 (one with PowerShare), one Thunderbolt port that supports charging, 3-in-1 Card Reader, Native DisplayPort 1.2 video output, VGA, HDMI, Ethernet and USB-A via Dell Adapter (sold separately) SIZE 11.98 × 7.88 × 0.33-0.6" WEIGHT 2.9 lbs BATTERY 4-cell 60Whr WARRANTY 1 year PRICE $1,799 OTHER PERKS Precision touchpad, 720p webcam, new Rose Gold color option, optional Killer 1535 Wireless-AC adapter

As with previous models, the RAM limit is 16GB, which is disappointing but makes sense given the space available inside the very compact chassis. There's only room for one RAM card, and, so far compatible, low-powered RAM chips at 32GB don't exist. Would it make sense to have a slightly larger profile and the ability to go up to 32 or even 64GB? Sure, but for that scenario there's the XPS 15.

After the Kaby Lake upgrade, the other major improvement is the move from a 56wHR 4-cell battery to a slightly greater capacity 60wHR model. That doesn't sound like much, but Dell now claims an astounding 21 hour battery life for the 1080p version of the XPS 13. That claim was largely borne out in Ars testing of that model, which managed to last for over 18 hours in Ars' standard Wi-Fi browsing test.

If Linux on laptops has an Achilles heel, it's power consumption. Straight out of the box running stock Ubuntu 16.04, I only managed to get 11 hours of battery life in Ars' standard Wi-Fi browsing test. The difference may well be largely attributable to the HiDPI screen, but the good news is that it's possible to get more life of the XPS 13 if you take a dive into the world of laptop-mode tools. To get started, install the package from the Ubuntu repositories. The project has some documentation on how to configure things, but I find the Arch Wiki entry to be more helpful.

After playing with customizations like disabling Bluetooth and tweaking some of the disk-related parts of laptop-mode-tools, I re-ran the Ars Wi-Fi browsing test and managed to get 13 hours. That's a score I can only beat with my Lenovo x240, which has a far inferior screen, a larger battery, and a second battery, making it a less than fair comparison. Suffice to say, the Dell XPS 13 is as good as battery life is going to get with such a hi-res screen in such a small package. It's good enough that in all my time with the XPS models I've tested, I have never really thought about battery life.

Another change worth noting is the move to "Killer Wireless." Killer is marketing-speak for Qualcomm Atheros cards. There are a bunch of technical upgrades compared to the older Broadcom chips, like much improved throughput and traffic prioritization, which are all good news, but for Linux users the move away from Broadcom more importantly means there are open source Linux drivers that don't suck.

Ubuntu 16.04

For a complete rundown of Ubuntu 16.04, see my earlier review. The short story is that I have found Ubuntu 16.04 fairly buggy. Dell does not officially support the just-released Ubuntu 16.10, and given that Dell sticks with LTS releases, it likely never will. Most of Dell's hardware support revolves around a half-dozen or so PPAs that come installed and which may or may not work with 16.10. But since this is a review laptop, I went for the upgrade to 16.10 and have had no problems in my week of testing. That said, I don't necessarily suggest doing it unless you're comfortable troubleshooting Linux.

The "developer edition" in the XPS 13 line isn't just a code word for "ships with Linux installed;" you actually get some tools pre-installed. For example, Virtualbox is pre-installed, which means you can get your Vagrant-based development environment set up quickly. Ubuntu isn't always completely up to date with every programming language, but with 16.04 things are reasonable: gcc is at 5.3.1 and most languages are current. Python is at 2.7, with version 3.5 available via the python3 command. Ruby is not installed by default.

Other little touches include the more popular-with-developers Chromium browser (and Chrome if you want the bundled Flash player) instead of the Ubuntu default, Firefox. Dell's own devops tools, like "Cloud Launcher" and "Profile Tool," are available on Project Sputnik's Github page as well, although none of them have seen updates in several years.

But what's more impressive about Dell's developer tools is that they don't ship with any massive IDEs or any monolithic tools. If you want those they're in the repos, but out of the box there's nothing to get in your way, just a few nice little additions that save you a few apt-get commands.

Finally, there's some good news on the horizon for those of us who like the HiDPI screens. For now, my criticisms of Ubuntu in HiDPI environments still stand. Things have improved a bit in the move to 16.04 (versus 14.04 in the last model), but most of the improvement comes from Ubuntu moving to newer versions of GNOME and GTK+ elements. The problems specific to LightDM and Ubuntu's own interface customizations remain in this release, as do problems with any third-party software (for example GIMP).

All that said, a recent partnership between System76 and Canonical may provide some improvements to the HiDPI situation in Ubuntu (specifically Unity 7, not the great white whale that is Unity 8). Canonical recently released a statement about the improvements, noting that "some patches that improve HiDPI support are in review and they are expected to land in Ubuntu soon." It seems safe to assume—judging by the new emphasis on HiDPI bugs in Ubuntu's Launchpad bug tracker—that many of these fixes will land in 17.04.

There is one bug in particular that you'll see if you buy the XPS 13 DE: during the setup process, there will be two header bars across the screen. It doesn't affect anything, and it goes away once you get done with the setup, but it's a disconcerting way to start out with a brand-new machine that supposedly supports Ubuntu.

While these are welcome improvements, they don't help outside applications like GIMP or Virtualbox. The latter will work with HiDPI screens, but it sometimes takes considerable work to get the guest OS looking good. There are, in other words, workarounds for most of the HiDPI problems you're likely to encounter. Just be aware that HiDPI on Ubuntu, even with Dell tweaking things for you, is far from a "just works" experience right now.

As a final note, I did install and test both Fedora 25 and Arch on the new hardware and had no problems in either case. For Fedora, I went with the default GNOME 3.22 desktop, which, frankly, is what I think Dell should ship out of the box. It's got far better HiDPI support than Ubuntu, and the developer tools available through Fedora are considerably more robust than most of what you'll find in Ubuntu's repos.

Conclusion

The XPS Developer Edition has developed a strong following over the years, so the big question for many fans will be, is this worth the upgrade? If you've got the summer 2016 release, I would say probably not. If you do a lot of video editing (what kind of developer are you?) or want it to do double duty as a gaming machine, then you might see some benefit to the upgrade. However, that's a lot of money for not much gain.

If you've got an XPS 13 from further back (say the first InfinityEdge version with a Haswell chip), then the upgrade becomes more appealing. The gains in battery life coupled with performance improvements make a much more convincing case for the upgrade.

If you're new to the idea of buying hardware specifically tailored to Linux and you're wondering why you should, the answer becomes more complicated. The XPS 13 DE is a fantastic machine (webcam aside) regardless of what OS it's running. But it's an especially fantastic machine for anyone who's tired of wrestling with their hardware just to get their OS of choice set up. If you want a machine that's stylish, reasonably powerful, light in your bag, and runs Linux without a hitch, the Dell XPS 13 DE continues to be a great choice.