XPS 13 9310 2-in-1 Quality Control Issues?

Hi everyone,

I will preface this by saying I am absolutely not trying to be toxic: I am legitimately trying to figure out if I’m too difficult or extremely unlucky, or alternatively bring some attention to what I think is an issue.

Ok so I’ve gotten an XPS 9310 2/1 last summer. At first I was enthralled with it, but from the start some keyboard keys were clearly not working properly. There were a few other general issues like sluggish réponse time and laggy mouse, but I’ve been on Mac for many years so I figured I was just not used to Windows anymore. I contacted Dell and got the keyboard replaced.

It came back fixed, but now the trackpad would randomly stop working (and literally disappear from devices) after sleep. Lag issues still present. After some back and forth, got it repaired but they replaced the mobo. Not only would the trackpad still glitch out but now the other lag was getting quite stupid (I’m skipping a lot of other minor issues).

Here I started getting aggravated at Dell because the only answer I’d get from support was « reinstall Windows » and aside from I can’t be bothered because I need to work, that’s not an actual solution to fix hardware... So they finally replaced the trackpad.

Came back, and the touchscreen stopped al together! I’m not even kidding. So here I got mad and got Dell to replace the whole thing, convinced it was possessed with the soul of my 1999 Gateway laptop.

They sent me a brand new XPS, with an 11th Gen i7 since it had been refreshed by now. All was good to start with, but recently things have started going sideways again: I had to downgrade audio drivers to get anything out of the audio jack, I’m investigating an issue where if it goes to sleep for a few hours, the screen goes blank, fans at 100% and thermals high enough to bake cookies on the lid, and wait for it... laggy mouse on BT.

So, other than getting this off my chest, is it me or is quality control completely garbage on this machine? Although mostly a Mac guy for the last decade, I do use a Latitude for work, owned two other 2-in-1 and my wife has a 2006 laptop still running, so it’s not like I throw shade on Dell in any way. This experience made me seriously reconsider ever getting another one though if this is indicative of the direction the company is going.

Am I just out left field? I see a few threads, but what’s everyone’s experience? Am I being too difficult, is this to be expected in 2021?

Keep smiling

Edit: really? is a bad word? Really? Oh well...