Dell XPS 13 9360 Kaby Lake Owner's Thread

Here you go!

https://www.sfbags.com/collections/dell-laptop-collection/products/dell-laptop-sleevecase-1

Pricey but worth it for me.

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Been toying with my new 9360 for a few days now. So far I'm a happy customer. Sweet machine that meets my needs just fine. Two questions:
1) my laptop sits mostly on my home office desk, a few feet from the router. Can it be hard wired into it? (My old, but very reliable workhorse XPS15, did just that and it was good.)
2) my unit came with the 128GB SSD. Planning on upgrading to the Samsung 960 Pro 512GB. . .if they ever become available. I wanted to ask anyone who is using this SSD how the upgrade went and how it is performing.
Thank you.

 

I'd be interested in hearing about the storage upgrade too. Regarding your router, you'll need an Ethernet cable adapter.

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Yeah, just ordered a USB 3.0 - ethernet cable. Thanks.

 

I'm sure I'll get slated over on the Macrumours forums, but as a long time mac user, I am pleased with the XPS 13 Kaby Lake.

My full post at Macrumours is linked below , but in summary: I much prefer the XPS display, bit disapointed at the minor cosmetic things (and small coil whine I could hardly hear with my ear, but has gone away after disabling C-State), but the display plus price difference = I prefer the XPS. Here is the link and my full post: http://forums.macrumors.com/threads...the-dell-long-comparison-inc-display.2030053/

"I've used Mac laptops for 14 years, but I'm frustrated at the screen uniformity and price of the current touchbar models (tried two 13" and one 15"). Each one I tried had pinker screens on the left, yellow on the right, and IMHO something with the anti glare made them have relatively limited off axis viewing angles (on white it went purple/pink). Generally I understand the limitations of IPS, but even so I found the new Pro screens on the low end of IPS quality. it's annoying to scroll through websites like this and see coudly white/gray.

SO, I have for the last two days been using a new XPS 13 (Kaby Lake, 512gb ssd, 15gb ram). Here are my plusses and minues...

OS DIFFERENCES
- If you can live with Windows 10 it runs just as smooth to me as OSX. Usual windows plusses and minuses. I am a heavy onedrive user (I have a gaming PC) and I play a lot of music, so the onedrive integration and an application like Musicbee (iTunes is a mess on Mac and PC) balances out the loss of IOS integration (notifications, etc). There is stuff OSX does much better (Safari, notifications, messages, force touch / touchpad integration)...stuff windows does better (onedrive, file handling; photos being easier to find in the simple default photos browser, etc). I still prefer OSX...but I think it's stagnating a little. Also, dunno why, but I really like the windows 10 lock screen! :/

I should also add, it didn't take me any longer to get the XPS registered/ready for first use than a Mac. Took five minutes to get rid of McAfee, it takes just as long to change the obvious OSX settings, and new OSC updates are as annoying as new windows ones.

STUFF I MUCH PREFER ON THE MAC
- Oveall fit an finish / build is better on the MBP. My XPS 13 has a couple of niggles that would drive Mac users crazy; slightly larger hinge gap on the left than right, trackpad not perfectly level and my trackpad is one with a slight movement when you tap it (but my wife though I was mad to notice!).
-The fingerpirnt reader is a killer feature on the touchbar macs.
- MBP is quieter; fans come on less on the Mac, it's a bit cooler (though windows has been doing a lot of installing / synching). - The XPS 13 does supper from a slight coil whine, but disabling C-State has got rid of it. This is the main thing I wish the XPS didnt have, but it is not loud and not noticable before I disable C-State and not happening since I disabled C-State in the bios.
- It goes without saying that MBP trackpad is better. Thouhg the XPS 13 is not nearly as bad as people say in comparison.
- Intel Iris on the MBP 13, Kaby Lake i7 HD 620 on the XPS 13 (though I don't game on a laptop!).
- Better Apple support (but in the UK getting a Genius Bar appointment means about a two week wait).

STUFF I SLIGHTLY PREFER ON THE MAC
- The MBP keyboard is technically better, but in use it felt no better to me. MBP 'crisper' feel, XPS keyboard is quieter.
- 15" speakers blow away the XPS 13, but the 13" speakers are only a little better (but, it annoyed me that the 13 MBP sound quality was worse if typing; hands blocked the speakers!). Plus, problem with the MBP is friggin iTunes (I now think it's a real drag on having a Mac for music; browsing albums is so slow).
- Battery life MIGHT be better but hard to tell due to so many fluctuations. At least windows doesn't hide the run time . And, this is after disabling C-State (and even then I think it's equal between the two).


STUFF I SLIGHTLY PREFER ON THE XPS 13
- The Touchbar material, soft touch carbon fibre, is MUCH comfier than the Macbook Pro.
- I DO miss the fingerprint sensor, but I do not miss the touchbar. Within a day of having the XPS I can adjust the volume and brightness, etc, with a small glance / perepheral vision...the touchbar seemed slower to me, after ten days of use I still had to conciously look for the button to touch. My ideal would be ususal keys with a fingerprint sensor. I do think the touchbar is a solution looking for a problem (though it looks cool).
- The ports are overall, better for the next year or so. SD card, two USB 3, one thunderbolt/USB-C. Now, the USB-C IS only 2x which is annoying, but because I have my gaming PC the USB C is really just for transfering pics from my camera (it has USB-c) and connecting to a monitor or adaptors/charger in the future. Maybe three years down the line this will be a problem, but I don't see it being a problem so far.
- The USB-C can be used for charging, yet the laptop also has a charger with a seperate port (and now there is no magsafe I actually prefer the easier to use dell charger; it's cheaper to replace, better built and lighter than the mac one).
- Potential to upgrade the SSD. Also, whilst the Apple as much better support, the Dell seems easier to repair (hey, they let you download the service manual!).

STUFF I MUCH PREFER ON THE XPS 13
- Much better display resolution. People complain about Windows 10 scaling but a/ I have never had a real problem with it and b/ the deafult 2x 'hdpi' XPS 13 resolution gives you 1600x900, better than the lower '2x' resolutoin on the MBP's (I KNOW by default they are now set higher but proper 2x scaling looks so much clearer).
- The size difference, fitting the 13" in a smaller bezel is to me noticeable. The XPS is thicker but I prefer the smaller footprint.
- In the UK, a massive difference in price. If I used academic discount for a Mac, the 13" Macbook Pro with 16gb Ram and 512gb SSD and comparable processor is FIVE HUNDRED pounds / GBP more (!!) than this XPS 13 cost me (£600 without discount!). £500 is not justified by an Iris igp and touchbar (the dell IS touchscreen).

WHERE THE XPS 13 BLOWS THE MBP AWAY (to me).
The display. Oh my. I think I might be a bit lucky, but the display on the XPS 13 is incredible. No, the gamut is not as wide, but the uniformity is perfect; the best I have ever seen from IPS. Obviously if I tried too hard I'd find some blotchyness, but I haven't spotted anything; reading documents gtives a lovely even white/gray.

Everyone has different priorites, and nothing is perfect, but for £500 less I will take the XPS 13 screen over the MBP anyday.

(p.s. I never use a webcam...so no comment! And I don't like Siri/Cortana)."

 

Hey!

I've ordered an XPS 13 with 512GB PCIe SSD. I'm however worried if the disk has encryption or not? I'd like a Self Encrypting Drive (SED), but it's hard to find out what hardware is actually in the machine before I have it

What disks are in yours?

 

I have the 256GB and it's manufactured by Toshiba. Mine is not self-encrypting.

You should get an email with a build sheet a couple of days after ordering - you should be able to Google the Dell part number and find the actual part used.

 

Haha yeah I read it. They can get stuffed if it rustles their jimmies.

 

Ahh, thanks! I says 400-ANYF, and it doesn't give any relevant Google results

Sad to hear your drive isn't SED.

 

400-ANYF is an OCZ RD400 (made by Toshiba). I'm not aware of it being self-encrypting.

 

Thanks for the reply!

I'm considering getting a Samsung EVO 960, for the encryption. Will it work thru the BIOS?

Google tells me that on the 9350 I wont get top speed, since the HW is limited. How is the 9360 in this regard?



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I'm not seeing where many folks with a 9360 have upgraded to the 960 yet. I do know some folks are running into BIOS issues installing replacement m.2 drives when running version 1.2.3 - an update to 1.3.2 seems to be resolving those issues.

My gut says the 9360 has the same limitation as the 9350. My gut also says that most consumer grade laptops in the market right now are going to have similar challenges - the 960 is very much cutting edge. No data to base either on those statements on though.

 

As far as I'm aware every hard disk on Windows 10 encrypts by default unless you turn it off

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Just received my XPS 13 (i5/8GB/256GB/fHD) today.

Do you guys recommand a clean install of Windows? Or just start with everything Dell provided on the machine? Wich programs can be uninstalled without having troubles?

Thanks and sorry für my English!

 

My 9550 ran much faster with a clean install removing all the Dell bloatware. This thread will get you started but it is for the 9550 so don't use the ISO, BIOS or drivers referenced as the 9560s may be a bit different

http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...ean-install-guide-custom-iso-download.789769/

 

Windows 10 natively has encryption turned off, and it's up to the user to turn it on. Some manufacturers configure their image with it turned on.

 

Hi, I am planning to buy a XPS13 (i5, 8GB, 256GB SSD, FHD non-touch) but I saw some posts on other websites that say the Killer 1535 NIC has wifi issues (freezes, disconnects, etc.). Have any of you encountered this?

Some users mention the problems are caused by Killer's Advanced Stream Detect and go away with an Intel 8260/8265 replacement.

 

The only issues with the Killer 1535 on the XPS13 that I've seen were the very early builds, and were corrected with software updates. That doesn't mean there isn't an issue, I just haven't seen any/many substantive complaints on the 9360.

 

Hi all!

I've just noticed that new models with Intel core i7-7560U and i7-7660U appeared on the European Dell sites. Let's see how Intel Iris Plus Graphics 640 work on XPS 13. I hope it does better than 540..

 

I left the club and i'm on the new XPS 13 2-in-1.. If anybody has questions about the two, I was able to compare both for a few days.

 

Diversion - could you summarize why you dumped the 9360?

 

Dumped sounds harsh.. I really love 2-in-1 laptops and I really love the XPS 13 so I sort of got the best of both worlds by moving into the 9365.. That really sums it up honestly. I gave up some CPU power obviously and some battery life but so far it's a good trade off for me because i'm really enjoying the convertible aspect of it and touchscreen with 1080p.

CABC is still an issue but since I was already used to it from the 9360, it's just something you get used to/expect.. The Sharp IGZO panel on the 2-in-1 is just as amazing, zero backlight bleed, etc.. It's a very solid machine. Gets a little warm on the bottom when it's on your lap though.

I have nothing but love for the regular XPS 13, but again, I love 2-in-1 machines and I love the XPS 13.. So it's basically pretty close to being the perfect tiny laptop for me.

 

Ordered XPS 13 9360 (base model, FHD, 8GB/256GB, via Dell Outlet UK with coupon code, came in at £776, pretty good deal), arriving this week, can't wait to get my hands on it (for real this time, I've played around with it a bunch of times, loved it each time).

The first thing I'm gonna do after getting it is to update BIOS then straight to installing Linux (probably Arch or Solus, but the latter seems to have few issues on this model based on what I've seen).

 

I also saw them this morning, but now they seem to be gone, at least on the Norwegian site. Can anyone confirm?

Also, doesn't the Iris 540 work well/better than the regular HD 520 in the 9350?

 

Hi all !

Just got my brand new 9360 yesterday, i7 512gb qhd+.

Had a bit of a rocky start where the touchscreen was continually touching the screen despite no input. It also meant that the touchpad wouldn't work at all. But managed to use a usb mouse and disabled the touchscreen in device manager. After updating the bios and windows etc and then disabling and re-enabling the touchscreen in the BIOS, it has finally stopped. It started again but disabling and re-enabling in device manager has seemed to stop it again. Only thing is I reckon it might only be temporary, will have to wait and see...

Apart from that, I have no coil whine (apart from when under high load, sounds like a cockroach inside), and haven't had any real wifi issues either, and absolutely loving that screen!! Just thought I would say hi, and also how i got the touchscreen to stop misbehaving incase it helps anyone else!

 

We've heard that before!

Ummm...indeed it sounds like you do have coil whine. But if it doesn't bother you not an issue...

 

Ah, I see... haha. To be honest I saw it coming up alot but never really looked at any videos or into it too much, as I thought I'll end up just looking for it in mine... haha.

It says this was manufactured on 20/12/16 just FYI, surprising it is still there then... haha.

I contacted John Lewis and they said that they would be happy to swap this for another one. Not sure if I want to though, tbh. Is the touchscreen issue a hardware or software one? I was convinced it was hardware and decided to swap it, until well it fixed itself for the last 20 hours or so. Also a bit worried what problems the next one would have... hahaha. Any advice??

Also how are you guys dealing with the slight blurry/fuzziness of some of the older apps and say for example device manager? This is the first high res screen I've got and it is a little annoying. Any success with that program that changed the DPI to windows 8.1 settings?

 

I edited my joke for clarity! I have seen very few posts with touchscreen problems on the similar 9550, 9560, 9350, 9360 so you just might need to update or reload some drivers. I think one guy had a loose or broken cable.

Our resident professional laptop engineer GoNz0 noted in other posts that with such a small form factor all laptops will have coil whine. The coil whine on my computer is barely audible when I put my head next to my 9550. Some users may have louder coil whine or be more sensitive to the noise. I have seen plenty of posts for at least 3 generations of XPS about a new motherboard revision or some driver that will fix this coming out around the corner; that is an unrealistic expectation. If the coil whine doesn't bother you...

 

Dell has released a "XPS 13 9365 2-in-1: CABC Disable Tool"

http://www.dell.com/support/home/us...5-2-in-1-laptop&languageCode=en&categoryId=AP

Someone on reddit is suggesting this might work with the xps 13 FHD, could someone try it?

https://www.reddit.com/r/Dell/comments/5spgdc/xps_13_9365_2in1_cabc_disable_tool_released/

 

Quoting myself here but Intel released some new drivers recently (Dell hasn't yet last time I checked) and it corrected this issue, so I guess it was a driver issue. There was this line in the release notes about what was fixed:

"GPU clock fixed at 349MHz may not boost after display timeout"

Which seems to have been my issue

 

Hello, I'm Vira from Indonesia. I have some problems with my Dell XPS 13 9360. I bought this laptop in Beijing on January 2017. I asked the staff to change the language from Chinese to English, but they said they can not do it because the windows 10 they provide only support Chinese . So they suggested me to install Windows 10 in Indonesia to get the version that will fit for me (English version). Back at Indonesia, I asked my friend who understand chinese to change the language by downloading Bahasa Indonesia version, but it said it didn't support. So, while I wait for 2weeks to reach the technical support (because the hotline always disconnect, i dont know why), i never turn on my laptop, and suddenly when i tried to turn it on, it wont start. I thought it was because of the battery. But when i tried to connect with charger, the adaptor light was on, but the laptop still wont start. Also it was the first time I charge my laptop since I bought it. Can you help me with the power problem, and also how can I change the Windows 10 language to English? Do i need to install the new Windows 10? I really need help if you know how to fix this. Thank you

 

The i7-7560 CPUs are back in the Norwegian and Danish webstores now Just ordered my cnx93618.

 

I just got the XPS 13. It's a great machine aside from the annoying adaptive dimming. There is an option to disable it under the power plan options but it doesnt do anything. I'm dealing with dell support currently so I dont know where this will go. Anyone came across this issue? Thanks.

 

Which screen do you have, the QHD+ or the FHD? The latter doesn't support disabling the Adaptive brightness. If you have the QHD+, there is a program which allows you to disable it on dell website.

 

Unfortunately the FHD. I got a response from a technical manager. Their engineering team is working on a fix. Thanks.

 

@hoagie16 Can you take a screenshot from your power plan options and upload it here please.

 

I previously had the skylake qhd+ and to be honest it didn't bother me, so with the kaby lake fhd it feels comfortable. Anyway , I hope they get the fix out so you can use it like you want it.

 

I was wondering if anyone else is having the problem that I have with my 9360. When I go away from my computer for an hour and come back, sometimes it is completely rebooted. I'd say about half the time. I enter my 4 digit code, and instead of the desktop where I left it, it comes up with nothing open like it completely rebooted itself. When I leave the machine sometimes I just leave it, sometimes I Ctl-Alt-Del and select Lock. This happens always when it is plugged in, sleep is set to go after 1 hour. So something with sleep mode is causing it to reboot. Any ideas? THanks.

 

I asked basically the same question in the 9350 forum http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...y-owners-thread.782674/page-224#post-10462121 I tried the registry mod suggested, but lo and behold it had also rebooted overnight after doing that My problems are when I close the lid to put it to sleep for the night, the next day it has rebooted, sometimes applied updates, and my browsers and other apps are no longer where I left them. If I close the lid to put it to sleep, I just want it to sleep. It shouldn't be that hard...

 

I have same problem on 9550 a few times a month. Sometimes even when sleep is set to "never," the problem occurs...

 

@ Kikuri I wasnt sure how to upload the image of the power options. However, the setting for Enable Adaptive Brightness is set to "Off" in both battery and plugged in.

 

Bought this thing with Ubuntu. Cleaned the disk to NTFS and intalled Windows 10 on the 512 ssd. The computer won´t automatically boot into windows. It just say there is no bootable device. I have to press F12 and then under legacy boot I can choose the M.2 disk and then boot into Windows. Does anybody know how I can fix this?

edit: Fixed it in BIOS.

P.S This machine got some INSANE coilwhine.

 

I seem to be having an issue with a 960 evo 1tb ssd upgrade, I max out at 1850 mb/s read when it should be closer to 3300 mb/s. I am using the latest 1.3.2 bios. A german youtube vid shows a similar upgrade on a 9350 and he is reaching the full speed (3000mb/s+). I am completely stumped on this, did clean install under AHCI mode, and tried both with standard Microsoft NVME drivers and SAmsung 2.1. I also tried a clean install under raid and the speeds were even slower! There is no info on the net, it seems unbelievable that more people have not performed this upgrade..

 

I have the same issue. Have tried AHCI and RAID modes in BIOS to the same effect. Both Microsoft NVME and Samsung 2.1 as well. Any clues?

 

I have the same issue and it's driving me insane (960evo as well with 9360). The issue is that nobody seems to be speaking about it , so it's difficult to find a solution

 

Just got my XPS 9360 from Amazon Warehouse on an absolute steal. Everything seems great, and the undervolting information from the beginning of this thread were incredibly helpful. However, it seems to me like the keys "wiggle" a bit too much. It could be I'm just not used to the keyboard: Coming from a MacBook 12" where those mothers are basically bolted in.

https://goo.gl/photos/eL8gK4CitNLjeb3g6

There's a video of how it's looking on my end. They feel relatively fine typing, but taking a single finger and just kind of gently prodding, they rock a bit.

This normal for the model? Or is this something I get for ordering an Amazon Warehouse Deals computer?

 

Have to say this is pretty normal with every laptop I have owned. Across 2 different genreation XPS13 ofcourse (9343 and 9360). Nothing to worry about

 

I purchased one to go along side my xps 15 9550. It arrived three weeks ago though didn't get around to setting it up until yesterday/today. I found out that the keyboard back-lighting doesn't work and it fails a diagnostic test. Waiting to hear back from dell what my options are for a possible return. I'm not sure I want a tech to come out, with the possible use of refurb parts or causing careless damage.

Somewhat disappointing as I've had good luck with my last four laptops. Suppose it was bound to happen eventually tho.

 

Quick update: called customer support, explained the back-lighting was DOA and failed diagnostics. They are sending a replacement, no questions asked. I'm glad the process went smoothly, fingers crossed the second is a keeper.

 

While I am not an owner could I please get some owners to speak on the battery life of the 9360 QHD screen model?

I'm interested in buying one of these and I am so frustrated that the 1080p model does not have a 16gb RAM option. Just do not understand. I'm just curious as to how the real world battery life is on the QHD model for "normal" things like web browsing, video viewing/streaming, things like that. thanks.