After few weeks of use and careful consideration, I am giving this laptop a 5. I had been considering giving it a 4.5, it is not perfect by any means, but overall this is a very solid, light, high performant, vibrant 4k display laptop. We have other two laptops at home, a Surface Book (i7, 14") and an HP Envy (2-1, i5, 15.6"), and it seems this one is claiming the top spot.
Screen: First 4k laptop I own, and I must say the 4k content looks amazing, there is no doubt about it. I just wished there was more of my favorite content available in 4k. Comparing to the Surface Book and HP Envy, it has a higher resolution and colors look more vivid than both, even HD and regular content is more enjoyable on this laptop. Surface Book has a nice screen, and this one outs a fight. And not even a fair comparison with the HP Envy as the latter looks more rustic. Except for one time that I had to restart the machine to have the touch-mode to work normally again, the sensitivity and feel is decent and not much different than other similar devices.
Tablet mode: I was skeptical about placing it on the table and watch Netflix while having some coffee, but it just worked. I seem to prefer this mode than the one where the screen is detached. It is not as heavy as the 2-1 HP Envy, so it feels easier to handle the different modes. In summary, it's been a delight watching videos in tablet mode on this device.
Pen: I haven't used the pen extensively, but I'd figure the best use for it is for taking notes in lectures and meetings. In fact, back then when I was in college in the early 2000's, my most important college tool was my tabletPC (a Gateway twist-and-fold one), OneNote and live recording made for my notebooks for all the subjects. I am not sure how well I would get used to taking notes with the tablet completed folded, as the keyboard ends up at the bottom. Anyways, I think this one should entice any college student as a tool and entertainment device.
Battery: I am a little disappointed, I get less than 5 hours of battery on just regular use, browsing the net, connected remotely to my work computers, etc. On heavy video or debugging in WinDBG (I am a software developer) the battery drains much faster.
Keyboard: For the dimensions of the laptop, I was thinking a numeric pad would make sense, but after some extensive use I got used to not having one. Nevertheless, it makes it difficult to type foreign language special characters, without relying on autocorrect (if it is available where you need it). I am used to typing the Alt+NumValue to get the special characters which is not possible on this keyboard configuration (there are other forms are available to achieve this anyways a little more convoluted). Keyboard feels very soft to touch, which I like after years and years of programming. In contrast, the HP Envy has the numeric pad which I like very much.
Performance: I am very surprised about the performance as this machine is very fast. Perhaps not an apples to apples comparison, since my Surface Book has Windows10Pro and this one Windows10Home, and the Surface Book is a >2Ghz 4core machine and this one is a <2Ghz 8 core machine, but this one seems overall faster. I was debugging Outlook in both and in this Dell, everything was just faster. I may eventually move to Windows10Pro. Against the HP Envy, is not a fair comparison, HP Envy lags behind (well the price difference is double as well though).
Other observations/thoughts:
- Remote desktop to non-4k machines results in screens way too small, well, this seems more of a flaw in Windows than the machines themselves.
- I like the fact that the keyboard can be lighted up when needed.
- The Fn key should have a light that states whether it is on (locked) or not, it just annoying to relying to “try if it works” approach. I definitely like the approach the Surface Book and HP Envy have on that regard. Of course, it can be observed whether the key is on-off in the hidden portion of the notification area (but who goes there all the time?).
- The touch screen stopped working a couple of times after upgrading to the latest Windows10 version, might be a driver issue. Rebooting the machine fixed it.
- Audio is just ok. With the speakers located at the bottom, expect some resonance when placed on a flat surface.
- No face recognition (perhaps I didn't dig deeper and it is hidden somewhere). I find it handy to get into your computer.
- I've seen some apps freezing from time to time, e.g. the photo app when loading big images. I am not sure if it just the app or the driver. I haven't yet tried with any other major graphic applications, such as photoshop, but I will.
- As usual, there is plenty of bloatware, with MacAffee trial even adding itself to Outlook as an addin (very annoying). Soon I will convert it to a Windows10Pro and get rid of all the extra stuff.