XPS 13 Laptop Snapdragon vs Ultra which one to get?

Forums › Laptops and mobile computers › XPS 13 Laptop Snapdragon vs Ultra which one to get?

JayADee

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#318077 13-Dec-2024 11:20

Hi guys and gals,

I’ve been using my Surface Pro 4 since 2015.

It can’t do Windows 11 so I’m upgrading.

I’ve always admired the XPS 13 so I’m thinking of finally splurging on one. (open to other suggestions though too)

I’m trying to decide which chip model is the best one keeping in mind I’ll hang onto it as long as possible just like my Surface Pro 4.

I am also waffling between the screen options. I have a pro iPad 13 for touchy stuff, signing things etc but I do like a nice laptop screen to look at and in case I am doing anything with graphics. I think using a touch screen on a laptop with a keyboard seems like it would be pretty awkward but they’re also the nicer screens.

I’d also consider an XPS 14 but I’m guessing it would have reduced battery life because bigger screen and I like the high portability of the smaller screen. Plus bigger costs more.

Snapdragon (ARM) for now I am reading has incompatibility issues and I’m not sure what the future holds for it vs the Ultra 5 or 7.

Does anybody have any opinion either way between a Snapdragon vs Ultra and any of the 3 screen options?

I’m also not totally opposed to waiting until next year to see how everything shakes out chip wise but waiting for new tech always means you might be waiting forever lol.

Thanks for any thoughts on the options and if you have any user experience on an xps13 feel free to chime in with what you like or dislike about it.

edit to add: won’t be gaming. Possible light Python coding

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#3319891 13-Dec-2024 12:16

I would strongly recommend not going with with Snapdragon laptops now that Intel Lunar Lake chips are out. I have an laptop with lunar lake and battery life is amazing. It's on par with snapdragon and there are no compatbility issues with applications or games to worry about unlike with snapdragon where you may run into that issue.

Do whatever you want to do man.

networkn

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#3319901 13-Dec-2024 12:42

Do not go with the Snapdragons.

The ultra 200 Processors are pretty incredible. Quite frankly the biggest generational jump in quite a long time.

JayADee

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#3319952 13-Dec-2024 13:22

Ahh see you are echoing my thoughts as well. The XPS has the new Lunar Lake chips and that’s how I’m leaning. Probably Ultra 7, because cost.

Any thoughts screen wise?

edit: typo

networkn

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#3320017 13-Dec-2024 13:41

JayADee:

Ahh see you are echoing my thoughts as well. The XPS has the new Lunar Lake chips and that’s how I’m leaning. Probably Ultra 7, because cost.

Any thoughts screen wise?

edit: typo

You couldn't pay me to buy a Dell personally, however, these days, I'd only personally ever consider an OLED, and likely a touchscreen, though right now the leading contender for my dream Laptop is the MSI Prestige Evo 13 258v which unfortunately, whilst meeting my other requirements, doesn't have a touchscreen. I am trying to decide if touch or weight is more important to me.

mudguard

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#3320018 13-Dec-2024 13:42

If it helps, I have an XPS15 with a touchscreen I never use. It was the higher spec screen so I got it for that reason only.

deadlyllama

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#3320021 13-Dec-2024 13:56

I have an XPS 13 (two years old) with a touchscreen. It's too small for me, and I never use the touchscreen. Thankfully it spends 90% of its life docked.

Part of the reason I bought it was that the hardware is officially Ubuntu certified. Unfortunately it's got a wacky camera that it so much of a pain to get working with anything else that I use a USB webcam instead.

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#3320073 13-Dec-2024 14:23

I can't help with the CPU's but for the device itself, I bought an XPS13 7390 a few years back with i7-10510U, 16GB, 512MB and a 4k touchscreen.

I can't explain why but an XPS had been a holy grail device for as long as I could remember.

It's been all over the world with me the last two years and I absolutely love it. So much so I bought an HP Elitebook G10 to replace it a few months ago with i7-1355U, 32GB, 1TB which, after making sure it wasn't DOA, was put back in it's box and I haven't touched it since.

I never use the touchscreen when I'm at home as it's docked, but anywhere else I tend to use it far more than I expected.

[e] having seen the comment above, I must admit the reason for the HP was to have a bigger screen. The 13 is really small for "proper" work and I probably only use it for 3-4 hours at a time when overseas.

SpartanVXL

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#3320080 13-Dec-2024 14:56

It can’t do windows 11 because of Microsoft? Or another reason?

Because if it’s the former then MS are likely dropping the TPM requirement with a few caveats.

Edit: https://www.pcworld.com/article/2550265/microsoft-now-allowing-windows-11-on-older-incompatible-pcs.html

bender

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#3320085 13-Dec-2024 15:51

Chiming in because I keep seeing these Snapdragon hate posts that invariably say Lunar Lake is going to save Intel.

I've been using a Surface Laptop 7 (Snapdragon) as my primary device for a few months now and really couldn't be happier. It's constantly fast, battery life is excellent, and it runs cool. I use it for pretty heavy duty IT admin/cloud admin/networking/development/docker and have no issues. I mainly deal with Node.js, Python, Ruby and all work fine.

I've only run into a couple of snags, those being:

Printing if the printer isn't Mopria certified is a no go.
Older .NET stuff doesn't work e.g. old PowerShell 5 modules are mostly x86 only. It hasn't caused me a problem, just had to edit a few scripts that were using old modules. Anything that matters should have PowerShell 7 support by now which is multi-platform.
I had to replace my USB serial cable with one that has an FTDI chip, the PL2303 cable I had doesn't have ARM drivers. FTDI cable is working great.

Positives:

Windows actually wakes from sleep instantly like was always promised but never reliably worked.
Super fast JavaScript performance. Web portals like the Azure Portal that are really heavy on JavaScript used to set my Intel 13th gen laptop on fire - Snapdragon barely blinks.
I really don't notice when emulation is occurring.

I did spend a lot of time researching all the critical tools I use to ensure they had ARM support or would work under emulation and went into it prepared to change my workflow as needed.

Technofreak

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#3320107 13-Dec-2024 16:45

Shiny screens look great but I prefer a matte screen on a laptop to get rid of reflections. This may preclude it being touchscreen but for me touchscreen functionality is less important than not having reflections.

Also finger marks on a touchscreen screen can be a pain in some lights.

It's pretty easy to reposition a tablet or phone screen to avoid the reflections or finger marks but not so easy or practical on a laptop.

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JayADee

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#3320111 13-Dec-2024 16:49

SpartanVXL: It can’t do windows 11 because of Microsoft? Or another reason?

Because if it’s the former then MS are likely dropping the TPM requirement with a few caveats.

Edit: https://www.pcworld.com/article/2550265/microsoft-now-allowing-windows-11-on-older-incompatible-pcs.html

Yeah I’ve been reading various articles about running Win 11 on Surface Pro 4 because I did consider it but I’m past the stage of working on stuff like that for fun. I just want a machine that works (and preferably for a good long while) no headaches. I also have a 2019 Office install on there I’m still using. I want to run 365 separately on a different account on the new one. Can’t run them both at once. :)

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JayADee

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#3320174 13-Dec-2024 17:12

Technofreak:

Shiny screens look great but I prefer a matte screen on a laptop to get rid of reflections. Thus may preclude it being touchscreen but for me touchscreen functionality is less important than not having reflections.

Also finger marks on a touchscreen screen can be a pain in some lights.

It's pretty easy to reposition a tablet or phone screen to avoid the reflections or finger marks but not so easy or practical on a laptop.

The anti-glare’s supposed to be pretty good on the XPS according to a YouTube vid I watched. I’m with you on finger marks. I have a little spay bottle of cleaner and a lint free cloth for my iPad and SP4. I also have an inexpensive Logitech Pebble Bluetooth keyboard that I like a lot that I bought when my SP 4 type cover died. We bought a Pebble 2 Bluetooth keyboard for the lounge NUC just the other day for doing crossword puzzles.

I got some annoyed on Tuesday working on a PowerPoint because there was quite a bit of glare hitting me even though I was indoors and not near a window. A bit of screen tilting and chair shuffling solved it, hah.

With a touch screen laptop you’d more likely be using a pencil than a finger. The Apple Pencil on an iPad 13 is amazing. I just wrote this sentence with it.

Technofreak

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#3320182 13-Dec-2024 17:29

JayADee:

Technofreak:

Shiny screens look great but I prefer a matte screen on a laptop to get rid of reflections. Thus may preclude it being touchscreen but for me touchscreen functionality is less important than not having reflections.

Also finger marks on a touchscreen screen can be a pain in some lights.

It's pretty easy to reposition a tablet or phone screen to avoid the reflections or finger marks but not so easy or practical on a laptop.

The anti-glare’s supposed to be pretty good on the XPS according to a YouTube vid I watched. I’m with you on finger marks. I have a little spay bottle of cleaner and a lint free cloth for my iPad and SP4. I also have an inexpensive Logitech Pebble Bluetooth keyboard that I like a lot that I bought when my SP 4 type cover died. We bought a Pebble 2 Bluetooth keyboard for the lounge NUC just the other day for doing crossword puzzles.

I got some annoyed on Tuesday working on a PowerPoint because there was quite a bit of glare hitting me even though I was indoors and not near a window. A bit of screen tilting and chair shuffling solved it, hah.

With a touch screen laptop you’d more likely be using a pencil than a finger. The Apple Pencil on an iPad 13 is amazing. I just wrote this sentence with it.

I use my Galaxy Tab S6 with a keyboard much of the time. I rarely used the touchscreen when I'm working like this but when I do I find the SPen is best. Even for the fact it's easier to reach the screen with the pen.

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JayADee

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#3320239 13-Dec-2024 17:46

bender:

Chiming in because I keep seeing these Snapdragon hate posts that invariably say Lunar Lake is going to save Intel.

I've been using a Surface Laptop 7 (Snapdragon) as my primary device for a few months now and really couldn't be happier. It's constantly fast, battery life is excellent, and it runs cool. I use it for pretty heavy duty IT admin/cloud admin/networking/development/docker and have no issues. I mainly deal with Node.js, Python, Ruby and all work fine.

(snip)

I did spend a lot of time researching all the critical tools I use to ensure they had ARM support or would work under emulation and went into it prepared to change my workflow as needed.

That’s very helpful, thanks.

sqishy

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#3320254 13-Dec-2024 19:00

Many apps don't run on SnapDragon

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