Disclaimer: I have only used this laptop under windows for a very short amount of time. Although everything seemed to work great I dont have much experience with it under windows as I installed linux on it shortly after it arrived, and have only used it with linux since. I used one laptop with arch linux and one with gentoo.
Material: This laptop is very well constructed, the brushed aluminum body feels very sturdy/dense and I think I could probably give it a couple drops without worrying about much happening (assuming the laptop was completely closed at the time).
The keyboard is simple and has very short key-travel (distance from top to bottom of the key press), but works very well and I have never gotten tired of using it.
The touch pad is nothing special but hasnt gotten in the way at all, many may prefer using an external bluetooth/usb mouse instead.
The 2-in-1 feature works very well, the hinges are solid and don't wobble or move much on their own. Although this means that you can't really open the laptop or move the screen around with only one hand, as the hinges are too stiff for this.
The touchscreen works well, is a decent quality 1080p touchscreen, but the colors and brightness lack a bit. The only real issue is if you are trying to watch dark movies/games in direct sunlight, the screen is too dark and you will have difficulty seeing much.
The processor/ram/ssd are a great deal at this price point in my opinion. The processor will definitely get quite warm if playing modern games or doing a lot of compiling/number crunching/etc, but even under load is has performed well for me. I love having a quad-core/8-thread processor with 12 gigs of ram in such a small form factor. It makes compiling packages on gentoo a nice experience as I can still watch videos in background, etc. For such a small convenient laptop it can play even modern games surprisingly well. !!! If using under linux I would add idle=nomwait to the kernel cmdline, as this has solved all of the instability issues caused by processor errata and beta-quality BIOS/firmware !!!
The bottom is something I often see neglected in reviews. The bottom of this laptop has no real air intake other than the speaker slits near the front of the laptop, I believe the internal fan may get air through the keyboard as well but I am unsure of this. It has a bit of venting on the back under the screen, and on the bottom under the other vent. This means that there is very little to worry about blocking when the laptop is resting on your lap, so you don't have to worry quite so much about it over heating. Just try not to block the back too much and everything should be fine.
The battery isn't great, I probably get 3-6 hours depending on if I am just surfing the web or if I am playing games/watching videos. It doesn't bother me as I always have a charger around if I need it.
Software: For the most part I have only used linux on the laptop, so I can't comment too much about windows issues. I have heard many many people complain that the windows drivers dell gives out are outdated and dell hasn't done much to work on this. Dell also really needs to keep updating the BIOS because there are still issues with it, but so far they have fixed some of the most glaring issues. The linux drivers have been fantastic so far, I honestly haven't had any issues under linux other than some buggy firmware which can be worked around and updated.
Games I have gotten to work under linux are Metal Gear Solid V: Phantom Pain, CS:GO, Team Fortress, Deus Ex Human Revolution, Civilization 5, Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. With low-medium settings most will run around 60fps which really surprised me from something this compact at this pricepoint.
Overall: Despite some buggy firmware this laptop has been a fantastic purchase, I didn't expect this much power in such nice form factor. Overall it is quite high quality, but with no frills other than being a 2-in-1 and I would recommend it for anyone looking to install linux. I can't recommend it for windows users as I haven't used it and I have heard horrible things about the windows drivers and stability.
| Standing screen display size | 13.3 Inches |
|---|---|
| Screen Resolution | 1920 x 1080 pixels |
| Processor | 1.1 amd_ryzen_7 |
| RAM | 12 GB DDR4 |
| Memory Speed | 2400 MHz |
| Hard Drive | SSD |
| Graphics Coprocessor | AMD Radeon RX Vega 10 |
| Chipset Brand | AMD |
| Card Description | Integrated |
| Wireless Type | 802.11ac |
| Number of USB 2.0 Ports | 1 |
