The 9380 is available with a glossy FHD display, although not in all regions. But even if you're in a region where the 9380 with a glossy FHD display is available, I greatly prefer matte displays. The reflections on glossy displays when you have lights above and/or behind you can become very distracting and in some cases can make it impossible to see content in certain areas of the display. Yes, if you're used to using glossy displays, most of the time you can mentally tune those reflections out, but when you go back to a matte display, it's quite nice not to have to do that and instead be able to see everything clearly and easily. Matte displays won't look as sleek since they don't come with edge-to-edge glass, but I'll take function over form when it comes to displays, especially because skipping the glass also reduces the laptop's weight and thickness a bit. That's especially the case if the glossy display comes with a touchscreen, which adds a bit more weight, thickness, and battery drain, and which I personally find practically useless on traditional form factor laptops as opposed to 2-in-1 systems. I have touchscreens on both my personal laptop (where I ordered it in late 2013 thinking it would be good futureproofing with Windows 8.1's arrival), and I also have it on my work system -- and I don't use the touchscreen on either of them. When I buy my next personal laptop as soon as Intel's Ice Lake platform arrives, it will have a matte display if at all possible.
The only other benefit to glossy displays with smooth glass is that some people like the way that they make things like photos and movies "pop", whereas the purposefully rough coating on matte displays to give them their anti-glare properties can make colors and such look a bit more drab. However, this has been getting better, and I'd much rather optimize my laptops for productivity than entertainment, since most of my entertainment media consumption occurs on a TV rather than my laptop.
Lastly, if you look at desktop displays, the overwhelming majority of them are matte and I don't see a bunch of requests for glossy variants -- and yet on laptops these days it's the other way around with glossy having become the premium offering, and in some cases the sole offering. I honestly don't understand how that happened, especially because this shift in laptops occurred even before tablets took off. But here we are.
Thanks for taking the time to answer. This was helpful.
Just one more question. Do you think it is worth waiting for the XPS with Ice Lake rather than buying 9380 model? Its a tough decision. I am using the laptop just for basics: no video editing, no coding, etc. Thanks a lot.
Well as the saying goes, if you always wait for something better in tech, you’ll never buy anything. That said, Ice Lake CPUs seem like they will be a big deal. Intel has basically been tweaking their 5th Gen architecture for the last several years rather than making any significant changes (that includes their new 9th Gen CPUs) because they’ve had trouble moving to 10nm CPUs. That will finally happen with Ice Lake, and that change is expected to bring fairly significant improvements to both performance and battery life, especially in the ultraportable segment where the XPS 13 lives. Intel is claiming 25 hours of battery life, although in fairness there’s no detail around the conditions of that test.
I actually want it primarily for the next-gen GPU that will come with that CPU generation because it will add DisplayPort 1.4 support so I’ll be able to run more and/or higher-resolution displays, including HDR displays. But it will also deliver a significant performance increase.
In my case, I’m an XPS 15 person so I’ll be waiting for the H Series CPUs that will probably arrive in early 2020, but in your case on the XPS 13, you’ll only be waiting for the U Series CPUs, which are expected in holiday season 2019. So if you can wait a bit, I definitely would. But if you can’t, then you can’t.
jphughan
9 Legend
•
14K Posts
0
April 24th, 2019 05:00
The 9380 is available with a glossy FHD display, although not in all regions. But even if you're in a region where the 9380 with a glossy FHD display is available, I greatly prefer matte displays. The reflections on glossy displays when you have lights above and/or behind you can become very distracting and in some cases can make it impossible to see content in certain areas of the display. Yes, if you're used to using glossy displays, most of the time you can mentally tune those reflections out, but when you go back to a matte display, it's quite nice not to have to do that and instead be able to see everything clearly and easily. Matte displays won't look as sleek since they don't come with edge-to-edge glass, but I'll take function over form when it comes to displays, especially because skipping the glass also reduces the laptop's weight and thickness a bit. That's especially the case if the glossy display comes with a touchscreen, which adds a bit more weight, thickness, and battery drain, and which I personally find practically useless on traditional form factor laptops as opposed to 2-in-1 systems. I have touchscreens on both my personal laptop (where I ordered it in late 2013 thinking it would be good futureproofing with Windows 8.1's arrival), and I also have it on my work system -- and I don't use the touchscreen on either of them. When I buy my next personal laptop as soon as Intel's Ice Lake platform arrives, it will have a matte display if at all possible.
The only other benefit to glossy displays with smooth glass is that some people like the way that they make things like photos and movies "pop", whereas the purposefully rough coating on matte displays to give them their anti-glare properties can make colors and such look a bit more drab. However, this has been getting better, and I'd much rather optimize my laptops for productivity than entertainment, since most of my entertainment media consumption occurs on a TV rather than my laptop.
Lastly, if you look at desktop displays, the overwhelming majority of them are matte and I don't see a bunch of requests for glossy variants -- and yet on laptops these days it's the other way around with glossy having become the premium offering, and in some cases the sole offering. I honestly don't understand how that happened, especially because this shift in laptops occurred even before tablets took off. But here we are.
DD_IB
12 Posts
0
April 24th, 2019 07:00
Thanks for taking the time to answer. This was helpful.
Just one more question. Do you think it is worth waiting for the XPS with Ice Lake rather than buying 9380 model? Its a tough decision. I am using the laptop just for basics: no video editing, no coding, etc. Thanks a lot.
jphughan
9 Legend
•
14K Posts
0
April 24th, 2019 07:00
Well as the saying goes, if you always wait for something better in tech, you’ll never buy anything. That said, Ice Lake CPUs seem like they will be a big deal. Intel has basically been tweaking their 5th Gen architecture for the last several years rather than making any significant changes (that includes their new 9th Gen CPUs) because they’ve had trouble moving to 10nm CPUs. That will finally happen with Ice Lake, and that change is expected to bring fairly significant improvements to both performance and battery life, especially in the ultraportable segment where the XPS 13 lives. Intel is claiming 25 hours of battery life, although in fairness there’s no detail around the conditions of that test.
I actually want it primarily for the next-gen GPU that will come with that CPU generation because it will add DisplayPort 1.4 support so I’ll be able to run more and/or higher-resolution displays, including HDR displays. But it will also deliver a significant performance increase.
In my case, I’m an XPS 15 person so I’ll be waiting for the H Series CPUs that will probably arrive in early 2020, but in your case on the XPS 13, you’ll only be waiting for the U Series CPUs, which are expected in holiday season 2019. So if you can wait a bit, I definitely would. But if you can’t, then you can’t.