Nov 03 2020
Dell XPS 17
I recently bought a new Dell XPS 17 laptop. It has been years since I last blogged, so I thought that this would be a good time to post something new!
Unboxing
My unboxing experience with Dell has been very positive in recent years, and this was no exception. Having said that, I am not too fussed about the unboxing experience!
A courier delivered my laptop in a normal brown cardboard box. I opened this, and I took out the XPS 17 box.
I assume that the clear plastic wrap was to protect the black box from scruff marks, but I thought that it was an unnecessary use of plastic. Also, the black box looked much better without the plastic wrap.
The box itself is very nice. It is kept closed by a magnet in the flap. I have keep the box for some other (as yet unknown) purpose! The laptop is within this box.
The laptop is also wrapped in clear plastic, but this is probably more worthwhile then the outer plastic wrap on the box.
The charger and supplied adapter (Thunderbolt to USB and HDMI) are underneath the laptop.
I was actually surprised that so little of the box is used. I think that it probably could be less than half of its height.
Perhaps the best thing about the unboxing experience is that the plastic is 100% recycled, and some of it has been salvaged from the sea! Well done Dell!
Accessories
I also bought a new mouse and a wired network adapter.
The mouse is a Microsoft Surface Mobile Mouse. The most confusing thing about buying this mouse was its name, and the difference between it and the Microsoft Surface Mouse!
I generally like Microsoft mice, but this one was a bit a gamble because it is so slim in the vertical direction. Luckily I find that it is very comfortable, and I love that I do not need to use a dongle in my laptop because it is a Bluetooth mouse!
The wired network adaptor is from a brand that was not previously known to me. I use a wireless connection most of the time, but there are occasions when I need to upload/download gigabytes from my local network (e.g., raw photos for post-processing). I will use this adaptor on these occasions.
The only difficulty that I had when buying this adaptor was trying to understand the differences between a Thunderbolt adaptor and a USB-C adaptor.
I bought both the mouse and the wired network adaptor from Amazon Germany.
