The new year brought a new tablet / laptop in the form of the Dell XPS 12. Given the amount of tv publicity lavished on this model recently it seems to be getting a lot of interest. Even the delivery guy who brought it said he wanted one (and he wasn’t sure what it was). Running windows 8 professional 64 bit and Office 2013 its got the basis of a desktop machine in a tiny package.
The device itself is compact and absolutely ideal for the travelling IT professional. The size of the screen is always going to be an issue if you are used to a 17″ laptop but for me the trade off is worth it. The mixture of the tools to magnify and the use of the the other windows 8 features make the compromise work.
The power of the unit (this is the i7 variant) whizzes through anything its been asked to do. The startup speed and battery life so far make me more than happy. The weight is also spot on – not too light to be flimsy and not quite the Adamo “knock someones head off with a metal slab” size.
The draw backs so far ?
The Belkin stylus bought with the unit is too fat for fine work and so far I have no found a suitable replacement. The other oddity is that wireless has dropped out on me several times – where only a reboot seems to correct.
So expect much more of the journey with the device and how well it performs as my main machine out if the field.