[Des]

Tip #1 from bitter experience. Batteries die when they get charged and discharged all the time, especially when they are discharged to a few %. After the first year my laptop battery was at like 50% of the original capacity. Now I run the laptop completely without battery, because it would last perhaps a minute or two. I wasn't able to break the socket though... even though I dropped the laptop so bad once that the plug actually broke (it still works, but badly deformed and half open...). The socket however is perfectly fine.

Lucky you! Thanks for the tip about the battery. (I thought lithium batteries didn't suffer from this problem.) Anyway I still say be careful of the socket, however you do it.

---------- Post added 07-23-16 at 03:23 PM ----------

With Dell it's also the charger - it has a special pin in the socket and you can actually plug in a different one, an HP for example, but it will not charge it even though it will keep it working as long as it's plugged in.

Every brand seems to be different. It took a long while to standardise phone charges (Apple being the notable exception). Who knows, maybe one day ...

[kadajawi]

I will look for waterproof sleeve. And the sockets, grrrr, that's the price of having mobile gadgets

As for batteries, I've read in reviews that Dell XPS's battery lost some capacity during first half a year, or so of use, then it was ok. Will see. I don't plan to use laptop more than 3 hours straight.
Is not weird that gadgets intended for mobile use, or for travel are so fragile? And expensive!

---------- Post added 07-22-16 at 08:22 PM ----------

One more question.
With what program I will be able not only check, but delete images (different formats raws) directly from the connected memory card?
I used to use DPP (for Canon raw files) for it, then switched to LR.

Consider getting a sleeve that is made from memory foam instead. Those things will protect the laptop when you drop it, while the more common ones (like neoprene) don't have a lot of protection. Make sure the memory foam is not too soft, and not too thin. You can punch a wall when one of these is between your hand and the wall, and it won't hurt. They are great.

Not sure about these newer Dell's, but to scare the scare away, My wife's Dell (14", i-3) is now a good few years old and with proper use still has autonomy of some 7 hours when fully charged. The battery is regularly removed when used at home on charger. Someone told me that there is a software in a chip within the battery that does some sort of counting on charges and once you reach the certain amount/number of charges, it tells the battery it's not usable anymore, something similar like the (ink) cartridges on some printers - 200 pages and it's telling you it's empty, and even if you refill it and it's full and capable, it will still tell you to replace the empty cartridge. Couldn't find a workaround to reset the chip and make the older battery think it's all ok. So, the best way to keep the battery healthy is to always charge it fully and drain it all the way or remove it when used on charger (at home)

With Dell it's also the charger - it has a special pin in the socket and you can actually plug in a different one, an HP for example, but it will not charge it even though it will keep it working as long as it's plugged in. It happened to us last year on vacation so we used a borrower to power it but couldn't charge the battery until we came home and the replacement charger for Dell has arrived in the mail. So, as long as the charger has that pin (needle?) it will be okay. Replacement chargers don't cost a lot but usually you can't get one when you're away from home. Of course, they never die in the beginning, maybe not even for years, so no need to be worried. That's one of those RCF things... (Random Component Failure)
No special reason why I mentioned this, but can't hurt if you know.

It really is the way how you use the battery. If you don't need the battery for a longer time, and it can be removed, then charge it to maybe 50% or so, remove the battery, wrap it in plastic foil (what you use in the kitchen... no idea how it is named) and store it in the fridge. Once in a while charge the battery so that it never can fully discharge. That way you can extend the battery life as long as possible. Unless you let it fully discharge the battery, because that is a surefire way to kill it.

I think that chip that counts is a horror story, IIRC you can give batteries a new life by replacing the cells (at least on NiMH batteries). Do not let it drain it all the way. Seriously. I did that with my phone. My phone barely runs anymore without a power socket... I went down to 60% capacity within less than a year, now it is probably more around 40% (and I am careful these days...). Li-Ion batteries are affected too. Did that with my laptop... NiMH battery. Same thing. AFAIK the Toyota Prius only uses the battery from 30 to 70% or so... it never charges beyond that, never below that. That is how Toyota manages to have pretty much no loss of capacity even after hundreds of thousands of miles.

Lucky you! Thanks for the tip about the battery. (I thought lithium batteries didn't suffer from this problem.) Anyway I still say be careful of the socket, however you do it.

---------- Post added 07-23-16 at 03:23 PM ----------

Every brand seems to be different. It took a long while to standardise phone charges (Apple being the notable exception). Who knows, maybe one day ...

I ordered my Dell as a business laptop (they get better support, when you call them you are AFAIK prioritized etc.), though the XPS falls under their consumer line I think, so I don't know if that is possible. I also ordered 1 Year ProSupport with Next Business Day Onsite Service, which works internationally (it did back then at least). Absolutely brilliant... later I extended it by another 3 years IIRC. Wasn't too expensive, and was absolutely worth it. Though I did use my laptop a lot, and unfortunately I bought one where the graphics chip was faulty (all nvidia chips of this series were faulty and would die in any laptop), so I made good use of the warranty. I can only speak about the warranty service in Europe, but there it was brilliant. I claimed the display as (by my own abuse) I seem to have damaged the ribbon. Sometimes (but really very seldom) the screen would just go black. I bought the laptop in Germany, but was in Finland at that time. The day after I reported it a technician from Dell came to my place and replaced the screen. No questions asked. (AFAIK Dell refurbishes replaced spare parts if possible). Later I had to replace the motherboard a couple of times in Germany. The keyboard was replaced as the keys were worn off and it wasn't too responsive anymore (I suspect dirt underneath the keys...). Once they just sent me the spare part and I could replace it myself (which is a plus IMHO for trivial things), I mean they would also have sent me a technician, but it wasn't necessary in that case. The charger died at some point, they sent me a new one. If their service is anywhere close to that in the US, it is absolutely worth it.

How did you manage to damage the socket? Dropping the laptop? What should we be careful of?

Actually a standard for laptop charging is slowly coming... or at least it is planned. USB Type C will be it. Apple already implemented it on one of their laptops (but way too extreme, you can either connect a monitor, or charge it, or use a USB device... thankfully there are hubs so you can actually charge while doing something else). It is also coming to smartphones and is designed to survive better than micro USB (which is pretty fragile...). USB Type C is designed to transfer data (including Ethernet), transfer images and sound (think HDMI), connect devices, charge devices and power them. i.e. you can have a monitor that is only plugged in via one cable. Audio and video is transferred via USB (IIRC the next gen DisplayPort makes use of the USB Type C plug), electricity comes through that cable too (up to 100W). And the monitor can have USB ports of course.

The late 2015 variant of the XPS 13 has one of these USB Type C ports, though it isn't used to charge the laptop...

Oh yeah, and I would recommend copying your photos to the internal SSD (as long as there is enough space) before attempting to manage them. The SSD is significantly faster than the SD card, and harder to lose. Plus you can manage them. I'd still recommend having Lightroom on there, if that is what you are using at home. Perhaps an old version that you can get cheap somewhere. That way you can a) organize them properly, i.e. tag them, use colors and flags, and you can already try some edits if you aren't sure if the photo is a keeper (say you messed up the exposure... you can quickly adjust that to see if the photo is still usable). Later you just save everything to the files or save the photos to a new catalog that you can import on your desktop, including all the things you've done on the go.

[micromacro]

I'd still recommend having Lightroom on there, if that is what you are using at home.

I opted LR out buying 4GB. All I need is to review raw files from memory card (with, or without jpegs, it depends), and delete unwanted pictures from the memory card using laptop screen instead of camera screen. External drive is useful to back up wanted files just in case.
I need laptop mostly for the bigger screen because I'm tired to review and delete pictures from memory card in camera using magnifier.

[kadajawi]

I opted LR out buying 4GB. All I need is to review raw files from memory card (with, or without jpegs, it depends), and delete unwanted pictures from the memory card using laptop screen instead of camera screen. External drive is useful to back up wanted files just in case.
I need laptop mostly for the bigger screen because I'm tired to review and delete pictures from memory card in camera using magnifier.

LR runs fine on my old laptop with 4 GB though... more RAM helps, obviously. But even though I have 32 GB, Lightroom usually stays around or below 3 GB... as long as you don't want to multitask a lot (especially browsers use a ton of RAM) it should be fine.

The problem with viewing straight from memory card without using something like Lightroom is that you'll probably have to resort to reviewing the low quality JPEGs that get saved in the raw file. IrfanView would do that, and very fast, however image size depends on the JPEG in the raw file... tried a few K-1 files, seems like those preview files are really low res. 1024x683. I'm trying FastStone now, it doesn't look good, but the UI seems rather intuitive and makes sense. It's fast as long as you use the built in JPEGs, if you want to see the original files it's relatively fast for raw files (and there is a half res setting), but it's not a rocket. Lightroom on my lowly tablet (after importing it) is about as fast... despite having like 1/5th the CPU performance. Even though Lightroom for Android also needs to render the files (there are previews which are shown instantly, and they are taken from the edited files, but after that it takes a few seconds to load the actual image and apply the edits). That's quite shocking to me. Also, every time FastStone loads an image, it has to render it. Even if you switch forward and back between photos, so it has rendered them previously.

Lightroom after having rendered the preview files on import is significantly faster, and the previews are good enough to judge the image. Plus going back and forth doesn't mean it needs to render again. Going through those will be a more pleasant experience.

How about https://photographylife.com/reviews/fastrawviewer though? Looks like that might be a nice alternative, and according to the reviewer it is really fast. Haven't tried it though... I'm happy with Lightroom, but perhaps it's a decent choice? Or perhaps Adobe Bridge, since it seems to be free... I have no idea about Bridge, except that it's a DAM solution.

[Des]

Make sure the memory foam is not too soft, and not too thin. You can punch a wall when one of these is between your hand and the wall, and it won't hurt.

I'm trying to imagine the ones you practised on, that did turn out to be too soft or too thin.

How did you manage to damage the socket? Dropping the laptop? What should we be careful of?

One slipped from a footstool about 30cm (1 foot) to a carpeted floor. It landed on the corner where the charger was plugged in. The other instance was just the socket working loose from repeated use.

I haven't had this problem on the HP, or two old Dells that I had years ago. Their plugs seem to be built more sturdily and click into the socket in a reassuring way. (Touch wood.)

It's a while ago now, but I also had good experience with Dell support. (I can't even rememer what the problem was.)

[micromacro]

My Dell arrived tonight. Looks good, well made, and lightweight.
Did not turn it on yet, I read everything about Windows10 first.

P.S. Faststone viewer is great and easy: really fast to review and delete unwanted files.
Seems like the battery goes faster than advertised, but still plenty of charge. Laptop got warm while I've been checking flickr. Speed is good, screen is great, my pictures look better and sharper
I got exactly what I've been looking for, thank you, guys!