Maxed out xps 2 in 1, or surface book 2?

I am going back and forth on two of these devices. I love my dell 2 in 1 now, but I do not have active pen support. So, i figure both of these devices spec'ed out are amazing. I am probably not going to use the screen of the book 2 off the device much so, that is not a MAJOR selling point. One cool thing with the dell is that you can perfrom a very minor software hack and use a razer external GPU unit and boost gaming power if needed.

SO MANY AWESOME DEVICES, which to choose....I know I don't want a 15" device as I travel a lot and like the compactness of the 13" form factor.

 

The 15" XPS is the size of a small 14"
That may be a compromise, have you had a look to compare?

 

Dell XPS 13.

It's a laptop from a much larger company*. It's sold more units, for a longer period of time.

This means that if you have a problem with your laptop, there will be more field service technicians that have experience repairing your laptop (increasing the chance your laptop can be repaired on-site, instead of requiring you mail it in).

And it will be a LOT easier to find replacement parts, if you need to do any repairs on your own (keyboards, motherboards, little delicate ribbon cables, etc).

Definitely go with the XPS 13, unless you have an overwhelmingly strong incentive to buy the Surface Book (like a huge discount).


* - purely in terms of their laptop hardware divisions.

 

I'd say design wise they won't be able to efficiently cool a 8th gen CPU ULV. So, Surface Book 2 or XPS 2 in 1 with i5 7200u or i5 7500u sounds good. One more thing is, Dell is good at making hardware and MSFT is a software company. From a first party we'd more likely to see stable driver releases through WU but majority of time this doesn't hold true.
Grab whichever is cheaper.

 

I think I knew what I wanted, but I was lured by the flashy new surfacebook. That being said, I have always been eyeballing the xps 2 in 1. I love my dell 2 in 1 but I do not have pen support which I want, so the xps is the "no brainer". Plus, maxed for maxed it's cheaper too. So, I think i know what I am getting. give my inspiron 2 in 1 to my son to start doing basic graphics and animation on, and get the xps for my photo/video/music creation.

 

Agree unless you have access to a Microsoft store, and are cool with device swaps instead of repairs. MS is pretty well known for being extremely supportive of their products and often either fix your device same day or send you home with a new unit. Better in my opinion than waiting for a Dell tech and hoping they're competent, which is often a coin flip.
Ignore this if you prefer to work on it yourself, as the surface book is not great for DIY repairs.
Sounds like you've decided but FYI I'm in a similar debate and am probably going Surface Book myself.

 

I think the closest MS store to me is like a 6hr Flight. Dell, I call them and someone shows up at my door. Good point Mlev1777. Yet another point for the Dell. The only negative is I cannot remove the screen. But that's ok. I have my ipad for full tablety duites ha ha. I really enjoy my cheap ole dell inspiron 13 5000 2 in 1. I think the xps 2 in 1 will be an awesome device, pen support, TB3 port for a sweet dock to be connected, a small software hack and I can use an external GPU unit from Razer to have powerful gaming, Even smaller footprint than my current device. I hope they release the xps 2 in 1 in that awesome white for my wifey too.

 

Well if you do want something cheaper than the SB2 and sexier than the XPS13 2in1 have a look at the Porsche Design Book 1. It looks like a viable alternative to the two and is one sexy looking laptop, with a detachable screen as well.
Personally I am leaning towards the 15inch SB2 myself.

 

As for not being able to cool an 8th gen CPU, that is FUD the cpu's have the same TDP meaning manufacturers will have to design their cooling systems for the TDP as stated by intel. But by all means don't buy an 8th gen CPU based on that information others will benefit from the great new performance

 

I don't take any heed in the "thermal cowboys" here. Don't worry. I have seen first hand an xps 15 for example blow the doors off a MacBook pro and other devices doing video conversions. Throttling or not WHO CARES....it's way faster.

 

The Porsche designs book is NOT cheaper than the SB2. I can get the 1tb sb2 cheaper than the 512gb pdb.

 

In the UK the PB is cheaper than the i7 SB2 if you buy it from Microsoft.

 

Just remember that the XPS 13 2-in-1 has a 4.5W processor (it used to be be called the Core m or Core Y CPUs), so it will not be nearly as fast as the Surface Book 2. It will not provide the performance of even a 15W Core U processor, let alone the 45W HQ CPUs that are used in gaming laptops. So, any eGPU will be processor bottlenecked very fast.

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