Choosing a laptop with programming and photography in mind (reloaded)

@aadm have you physically come into contact with a Dell XPS15?

I ask because I have a Clevo W860CU, which gets rebranded and sold for a higher price as a Dell Alienware M15X, marketed in 2010 as the best gaming laptop one could buy. In retrospect, that was a bad purchase. I thought it would be nice to have a ferrari of a laptop which I could use to process photographs fast and yet be portable. It’s not portable. It weighs a lot and is not the kind of thing you would take anywhere with you because of its weight, because the battery lasts under 45m when new and dies within 3 months (I’ve been through a few, then gave up), because it’s too expensive to take with you anywhere, and it’s too noisy (CPU + GPU fans + disks) to use at night when others are trying to sleep, and even if you’re alone the noise can get too much without headphones. A desktop would have been way cheaper, far more upgradeable, quieter, and just as not-portable.

I’ve been using the ASUS ZenBook UX305 for something like 2 years now, it’s not fast for crunching numbers but its faster than my Clevo at anything else, the deskop manager (KDE) flies and using it is pure joy. Battery life is ~10 hours. I work on it (programming) and I process all of my photos on it. Processing a 24MP photo in RT takes on average 3-12 seconds. More info here: Choosing a laptop with photography in mind - #15 by Morgan_Hardwood

Consider this before investing in one of these ferrari (tractor?) laptops, you might be better off with a desktop.
The owls are not what they seem.