Tag: Dell XPS 15

I’ve lived with the Dell XPS 15 laptop as my main computer for all my photo and video editing for the past year. Should you buy it for your photo editing? Here’s my full review of what it’s like as a creative content maker, warts and all.

As a creative professional that’s always on the go, I wanted to invest in a decent laptop in order to edit my content from wherever I am, whether taking shelter in the car from a snowstorm that blows over Iceland, in a coffee shop in downtown London, or simply sitting at home on the couch. I also wanted the biggest bang for my buck, so that’s why last year, I settled on the Dell XPS 15 9570 laptop.

Why didn’t I just go for a MacBook Pro? Well, mostly because I wanted to get the highest spec laptop for the least amount of money. And before you ask, it doesn’t really have anything to do with the operating system, because I know both intimately and am happy using them interchangeably. So, let’s start my review by looking at the specs I went with, and then I’ll detail how I feel about it now that I’ve lived with it as my main computer over the past year.

Full Specification

CPU: 8th Generation Intel Core i9-8950HK Processor (12 MB Cache, up to 4.8 GHz, 6 cores)

RAM: 32 GB 2x16GB DDR4-2666MHz

Graphics card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050Ti with 4 GB GDDR5

Storage: 1 TB M.2 2280 PCIe Solid State Drive

Screen: 15.6″ 4K Ultra HD (3,840 x 2,160) InfinityEdge Anti-Reflective Touch IPS 100% AdobeRGB 400 Nits display

Operating System: Windows 10 Pro, 64-bit

It’s Still Fast

After a few tweaks in Lightroom this past month, the laptop is still running faster than ever. Thanks to the powerful Intel i9 CPU and the speedy SSD, image buffering and recall are quick. It doesn’t slow down when editing big video projects in Adobe Premiere Pro, either. I run CCleaner every now and again to do a bit of cleanup here and there, tidying the registry as I install and uninstall software, but once you’ve swapped from an old HDD to an SSD, you’ll know that this doesn’t make a huge difference anyway.

Trackpad Repairs Were Needed

I had an issue with my trackpad, in which the cursor kept skipping and jumping all over the page. Occasionally, the cursor would grab onto something and drag it across the screen, which is a real pain in the neck. Luckily it was under warranty, and I had a Dell-approved service repair center fix it for me. There’s a small rubber notch that sits under the trackpad, and if installed incorrectly, the pad clicks and feels odd to the touch. But it took the engineers three separate visits before it was working properly again.

In the end, the service operator had to replace the whole trackpad and the keyboard as well. I was not impressed. I requested an extension of my warranty (which was due to end in just a couple of weeks’ time at that point), but Dell didn’t want to do that. It screamed “planned obsolescence” to me, something that I abhor, but has been okay in the few months since.

It’s Easy to Repair and Upgrade

After the service operator took it apart in my home right in front of me, (this was pre-COVID), I was impressed with how easy every component was to access. A few screws and a couple of clip-on cables looms and most things popped out of the case quite easily. It’s definitely something I’d be happy doing if parts needed repairing or upgrading in the future; there’s plenty of space inside, so it makes things easy to fiddle with. I can’t say the same for MacBook Pros I’ve repaired in the past; they’re a lot trickier in my experience.

Great Battery Life

The battery life in the Dell XPS 15 is great. Even with the larger 15.6″ 4K touchscreen, the battery (6-Cell 97 WHr integrated) lasts several hours happily when out on location editing. When I know I’ll be out shooting and editing all day, or running through airports, I’ll also take my Dell Power Companion (18,000 mAh)-PW7015L, which provides another big charge to see me through another few hours of editing.

The Fans Can Get Loud

If you want to edit big batches of files in peace, then get some music on the go or wear headphones. The Dell XPS 15 isn’t actually all that loud when compared with a new version of the MacBook Pro, but you can certainly tell it has fans when things get going. That’s actually pretty good, because you want a cool laptop so components don’t fry, but pair that with the placement of the vents (on the bottom, towards the back), and you can easily burn your legs if you don’t use a tray when not at a desk. 

Biometric Login Drivers Fail

I’ve repeatedly reinstalled the biometric fingerprint drivers on this laptop, and the issue persists, even after BIOS, OS, and other drivers were updated. I’m not sure why this is, and to be honest, it ruins the otherwise speedy boot time when it goes wrong. That said, there are two other options for signing in, including a PIN and password. But this is more of a Windows 10 feature than a Dell thing. The fingerprint reader feels sturdy though and also doubles as the power button. 

Phenomenal Screen

To be fair, I have the highest spec XPS 15 you can get with the 4K Ultra HQ screen. The full-screen spec is 15.6″ 4K Ultra HD (3840 x 2160) InfinityEdge Anti-Reflective Touch IPS 100% AdobeRGB 400-Nits display, and I can tell you from using it the past year that the touchscreen still works great, and it makes editing images accurately a doddle. It’s the best editing screen I’ve ever used, and I’m so glad it’s in something portable. It’s definitely the best laptop screen I’ve ever seen.

The touchscreen isn’t just a gimmick either. It’s gotten me out of tight spaces when the trackpad wasn’t working and makes certain operations much quicker, as I don’t have to search for the cursor and waggle my finger around on the trackpad or an external mouse.

Should You Buy It?

If you’re happy working on Windows 10 and aren’t bothered with the label on the front, then yes. It outperforms the MacBook Pro at the same price range, and it’s easier to upgrade or repair when needed. It looks great with its metal exterior, has a brilliant screen (we’re photographers/videographers after all), and does it all in a small, neat package.

Also, it plays games well too if you’re into that kinda thing. I’ve got Forza Horizon 4 up on high settings quite comfortably. I would probably say it’s worth dropping to the i7 version if you want to save a boatload of cash or if it’s not your main computer, as you likely won’t need the extra power or a touchscreen. 

For the past few years, it’s seemed like Dell just forgot about the XPS 15. While the XPS 13 and XPS 13 2-in-1 have evolved into some of the most polished ultrabooks we’ve ever seen, their larger sibling was cursed with a boring and chunky look. That all changes this year. The latest XPS 15 features all of the modern design tweaks we’ve loved in the 13-inch models: a larger screen with incredibly thin bezels and Dolby Vision support; a slimmer and lighter case; and an improved keyboard and trackpad. All of those upgrades add up to one of the best 15-inch laptops we’ve ever seen.

And no, I’m not being hyperbolic — I gasped the first time I opened up the XPS 15. Its huge display feels like you’re staring at the towering monolith from 2001: A Space Odyssey. (And yes, I know the XPS 17 is also getting the same design, and I’m sure it’ll floor me all over again.) Just like the XPS 13, the display reaches all the way down to the keyboard. There’s no more bottom border getting in the way. The XPS 15 features a screen-to-body ratio of 93.9 percent, which means that its bezels are so thin they’re practically invisible. In fact, that’s even a higher ratio than the XPS 13. I’m still dreaming of the day when bezels disappear completely, but the XPS 15 feels close enough for now.

The laptop’s 15.6-inch screen is 5 percent larger than before and has a taller 16×10 aspect ratio. That gives the XPS 15 a bit more breathing room for juggling multiple windows and scrolling through large documents. Larger aspect ratios, like the 3×2 screens that Microsoft’s Surface notebooks feature, are simply better for getting work done. These days, I have a hard time using 16×9 laptop screens for anything more than Netflix binges — they’re just too cramped to be genuinely productive.

The XPS 15’s screen comes in 1080p+ and 4K+ variants (the “plus” just means they’ve got a few more pixels to deal with that larger aspect ratio). Both displays support HDR and Dolby Vision, but the 4K+ model gets you better color accuracy with support for 100 percent of the Adobe RGB gamut and 94 percent of the DCI-P3 standard. That’s also what our review unit came with, and it looks spectacular. Dell has been delivering some tremendous displays for years, but the inclusion of HDR and Dolby Vision support gives its screens a leg up over most laptops. Colors leap off the screen, bright elements shine even more, and darker scenes get added depth. The 4K+ display is perfect for streaming movies, but it’s also well equipped for video editors who may need to craft content for 4K HDR TVs.

And even if you’re just writing most of the time, you’ll appreciate the XPS 15’s improved keyboard. The key caps are nearly 10 percent larger than before, and they spread out more widely, which makes it feel like you’re typing on a full-sized desktop keyboard. The trackpad is also 62 percent bigger, and it worked just as well handling precise photo edits as it did with multi-touch gestures. It’s easy to feel spoiled with the plethora of great PC touchpads these days, but using this one is a reminder of how far we’ve come.

That sense of progress echoes throughout the XPS. It has the same sleek aluminum case as the XPS 13, as well as sturdy carbon fiber along the wrist rest and keyboard area. It’s a far better machine for working on the go too, with an 18 millimeter thin case and a starting weight of four pounds. That’s what you’ll get with the non-touch screen and 56 WHr battery — it bumps up to 4.5 pounds with a touchscreen and the larger battery. Sure that’s a bit unfortunate, but it’s necessary to have a decent running time with dedicated graphics. Our review unit had the larger battery, and we clocked 10 hours and 10 minutes of battery life during our benchmark.

Unfortunately, you’ll lose out on port flexibility due to the XPS 15’s thinner case. Now you’ll get three USB-C ports, two of which support Thunderbolt 3, while the last is just a slower USB 3.1 connection. There’s no more HDMI, Ethernet, or USB Type A (though Dell includes a USB C to A cable in the box). You’ll have to go the USB-C hub route like the MacBook Pro and many other premium notebooks. While it would have been nice to get at least one more USB-C slot, or a flexible USB A port like we’ve seen on the HP Spectre x360, at least Dell kept the full-sized SD card reader.

I’d wager you won’t feel so bad about losing ports when you see just how fast the XPS 15 is. Our review unit featured Intel’s eight-core i7-10875H CPU, NVIDIA’s GTX 1650 Ti, 16GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD. You can configure it all the way up to the super-speedy Core i9 with 64GB of RAM. It easily trounced the Surface Book 3 in the PCMark 10 benchmark, especially when it came to multi-core testing (though the Surface’s faster GPU gave it a leg up in 3DMark). And it kept up with the ASUS Zephyrus G14 and the Intel NUC 9 Extreme, some of the fastest PCs we’ve seen this year.

The true test for a machine like this is real-world work, and it didn’t have any trouble there either. The XPS 15 converted a one-minute 4K video clip into 1080p in 43 seconds with its CPU and 33 seconds with the NVIDIA GPU, which is on par with the powerful NUC 9 Extreme. Needless to say, it didn’t have any trouble with my usual workflow, which involves juggling dozens of browser tabs, Slack, Evernote, Spotify and Audacity recordings. And while this isn’t a machine you’d really get to play games, the GTX 1650 Ti is more than enough to play most modern titles like Overwatch in 1080p.

To get that performance, though, You’d have to go beyond the $1,300 base model, which only comes with 8GB of RAM and integrated graphics. We’d recommend jumping up to the $1,850 configuration for twice as much RAM, a six-core i7 processor and that NVIDIA GPU. That’s a huge price jump, I know, but it’ll make the XPS 15 last you a lot longer. Even then, it’s still less than the MacBook Pro 16-inch, which starts at $2,400 but is admittedly more powerful. That XPS 15 configuration is also much cheaper than an upgraded Surface Book 3, which also has a lesser quad-core CPU.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, the XPS 15 is in many ways the ideal workhorse PC — assuming you can live without legacy ports, and you don’t need the graphics rendering power from more advanced GPUs. It’s tough to find an ultraportable 15-inch that’s this polished from top to bottom. If you’re a photo or video editor or just someone who demands a bit more power than what you’d get from smaller ultraportables, you’ll find a lot to love with the XPS 15’s glorious big screen.

When it comes to Windows laptops, Dell’s XPS 13 is the laptop to beat. But the XPS 15 and XPS 17 are exciting upcoming releases as well, and I wouldn’t be surprised if we see them officially announced in the coming weeks. That’s because — if a new leak from a Reddit user is to be believed — Dell has accidentally leaked an image of the upcoming XPS 15 and XPS 17 on the Precision laptops section of its website.

We expected Dell to refresh the XPS 15 alongside its 13-inch counterpart, but this is also our first look at the larger XPS 17, which we’ve been hearing rumors about for almost a year.

The image appears to have been removed, but thankfully the eagle-eyed u/WesolyKubeczek took a screenshot. Take a look.

The laptops on the right side appear to be the 2020 XPS 15 and XPS 17, while the bottom two appear to be upcoming additions to Dell’s Precision line. Look closely at the picture and you’ll see why: the laptop on the left (which is half open) has a numpad, which XPS models haven’t had in the past. The Precisions’ ports are also closer to the front of their chassis, while the 15’s and 17’s ports are at the rear (the XPS’s logic board is closer to the back of the device to accommodate its sizable battery). Plus, the Precisions are much thicker.

Regarding specific specs, the image doesn’t provide any shocking information, but it does confirm some things we already suspected. The most notable thing that’s missing is a single USB-A port on either of the XPS configurations in this picture, a choice that’s growing more common among high-end compact models (Dell already removed USB-A from the 2020 model of the 13). I also don’t see anything that looks like a Dell-proprietary power port, meaning these will likely charge exclusively by USB-C.

The photo does, however, show a full-size SD card slot on the 17, and what appear to be upward-firing speakers on both sides of the keyboards. The 15’s trackpad looks bigger than that of its predecessor, as do the arrow keys. And they both look pretty nice, with a (nearly) bezel-free design reminiscent of the powerhouse 13.

But what’s mostly exciting about this leak is that it indicates Dell is gearing up to officially announce these devices — so keep an eye out for that.