Dell Latitude XT2 and Windows 10 Tech-Preview
Since Microsoft released a Tech-Preview for Windows 10 I started to test all my devices with it. So far I have a good experience with it and I’m quite happy since most of those run far smoother and better with Windows 10 than they did with 8.1 or 7. I’m also kinda surprised by this and I really hope they’ll improve the experience even further.
Anyways, since my Dell Latitude XT2 is one of the laptops that makes the biggest troubles yet I want to share my thoughts and solutions for this device.
First of all, one of the biggest features is the touchscreen and stylus. They work really well but there are no working N-Trig drivers to it yet. There aren’t even Windows 8.1 drivers (which Win 10 is basically built on) which makes the whole thing a bit harder. As said, both things (stylus and touchscreen) are working without a problem, a thing I miss tho is the features the N-Trig driver added.
Another big feature is the “tablet mode” where you can rotate the screen and put it into a tablet-like orientation for better stylus and touchscreen operation. There are no full drivers yet for the Dell buttons and Windows 10 won’t automatically detect to rotate the screen. You can however do that manually via the Windows options so that’s not one of the biggest problems so far. And to be honest you won’t use that feature this often anyways.
Next one would be the graphics drivers. Intel does not provide a Windows 8.1 driver for the built in “Intel 4 Series Express Chipset Family” GPU and/or chipset so you’re kinda forced to use outdated, old but working Windows drivers. They, as mentioned, work but they are compared to newer versions slower and really old. I’m not sure if you’d be able to really work with Photoshop because I haven’t tried it yet.
I hope this will help you a bit to decide if Windows 10 is going to be a good decision to put onto this laptop or not. I’d say yes for people who know what they’re doing and no for those who want more usability and need all features this laptop offers.
I’m contemplating upgrading my XT2 soon and was wondering if you had any updates in the last year.
Brian
Oh yeah, I should update this a little. There’s a nasty graphics bug which, randomly, makes everything look completely scrambled up, fixes itself tho when you open or move programs off-screen.
Pen and touchscreen are both working fine, auto-rotation tho is not. Also the buttons on the screen act a bit weird and can’t be configured, maybe with a 3rd party app but this would also screw with other button combinations.
Besides that: Give it a try, nothing’s lost :)
Thanks for the reply! I mostly use mine in laptop mode so the auto-rotation and screen buttons shouldn’t bother me too much. Hopefully the graphics bug will get fixed – that sounds like a pain.
Brian