I am considering buying a TensorBook (with max options) but there is not a lot on the net as far as user experience with this laptop.
I am interested in using the laptop to run personal deep learning experiments, write code, play games, and for general purpose (mail, youtube, etc).
Performance-wise I have no doubts about the TensorBook.
Can anyone comment on their overall experience including keyboard (is it mechanical?), touchpad responsiveness, fan noise, heat dissipation/throttling, battery life (for non-GPU intensive applications), display brightness/colour/quality, build quality, warranty/RMA experiences.
It’s a large investment but looks like a high quality product and I hope it is something I could enjoy for years to come. Thanks in advance for any additional data points you can share.
Hi John, I’m biased because I work at Lambda but I also use a TensorBook as my daily driver.
To answer your questions:
Can anyone comment on their overall experience including keyboard (is it mechanical?)
The keyboard is mechanical typical butterfly keyboard but ‘chiclet’ style.
touchpad responsiveness
It’s an OK touchpad, sometimes I will accidentally activate it when I type but that’s because I’m used to an Apple touchpad and eventually that stopped happening too frequently. I would give the touchpad a 65% rating with Dells having a 85% and with Apple having a 100%.
fan noise, heat dissipation/throttling
If you’re running a GPU training job the fan will go at max speed and the machine will be hot. This is the life and cost of having a GTX 2070 with 8 GB of memory on board. It does run hot and when it’s being used to full capacity keep it on a desk otherwise it’s uncomfortable.
battery life (for non-GPU intensive applications)
If you have Windows it’s not bad, a couple of hours, but with Linux we still haven’t figured out how to disable NVIDIA graphics when it’s non GPU intensive so the GPU still runs the 4K display. This causes the battery life to be pretty pathetic, around 1 hour if you’re not doing GPU intensive work.
I don’t know what the numbers are for Windows because I only use Ubuntu 18.04.
display brightness/colour/quality
The display is really nice. It has a 16.1 inch matte (to reduce glare) display with 1920x1080 resolution. This resolution provides an optimal balance between battery-life and image quality. Higher resolution screens negatively impact battery-life without noticeably improving image quality.
build quality
It’s not a MacBook but it has build quality on par with a Razer, HP, or ASUS. Dell has slightly higher build quality on the XPS but (of course) the major selling point of the TensorBook is that it has a 2070 GTX GPU with working Linux and deep learning framework, which no Dell has.
warranty/RMA experiences
We repair and replace any issues you have. I’m happy to introduce you to one or two customers who have had issues that needed to be RMAd. We shipped them a brand new laptop immediately and then accepted their first one as an RMA. (This is called advanced parts replacement because we ship the new one to you before you ship the old one back.)
is the NVIDIA graphics issue on Ubuntu that causes the battery life to be short even without GPU intensive work still an issue? Or were you able to resolve it?