@@brohanson and funnily makes mention of the notch with a side by side which clearly shows the apple display as taller than the dell's: apple increased the height of the display so you have a 16:10 below the notch, so it's not like you're actually losing any screen real estate. Essentially it's a free menu bar (which apple's own fullscreen takes in account). Not that apple's laptop cameras are not unacceptable garbage, but the fury over the notch won't ever not be nonsensical.
if y where in your place y would run away in your place, bad firmware. bad drivers, most of the time if you use the pc in domain, it won't turn off only if you force the power button. display driver crashing etc personally y won't get other than Asus or hp.
As a heads up, DON'T go with the 4070 model! It's a 100+ watt card, but in the xps it has a tdp of under 50W. If you need a good gpu, look elsewhere, or stick with the 4060 instead.
Yep definitely good advice and that explains why the gaming benchmarks are poor and lower than my MSI laptop that has a 130W 3070... More people need to check the maximum TDP of the card when buying gaming capable laptops that have an RTX card to avoid being disappointed
@@nooneinpart It does run worse. I watched a different review of the laptop and the 4070 performed even worse than some 3060 laptops. It's a complete waste of money if you're planning on gaming on the side with it.
@@nooneinpartit's a relative issue. The 4070 should draw 200w, whereas the 4060 should draw 115w. So if you're only giving them say 40w, that's 35% of the 4060 but only 20% of the 4070. So you wind up in a situation where, because of the thermal limitations of a laptop, the 4060 can and will outperform the 4070 because you are getting more of the available performance
XPS 15 has shitty io and thermal, but the real dealbreaker is the pricing. For the i7 4060 model in the UK, they charge £2,149. This is INSANE compared to the competition from Lenovo and Asus.
@@ArthropodSpidey They will smash it on battery life but be nowhere close performance-wise. Identical spec premium Windows laptops from Lenovo and Asus with a 4060 can be had for only 1500-1600 ish a whole 700 less.
@@Ec1ipse.. nowhere close? What absolute nonsense. Have you even used a M1 or M2 powered Mac? The M2 Ultra is a monster and doesn't require 250W to run like Intels chips do. They also run at the same wattage and speed when they're not plugged in. You have zero idea what you're talking about.
My old XPS 9560 is still going strong, and it's shocking to me because I normally upgrade electronics more frequently. However, there has been nothing that drives me to do so with this computer: the screen still looks great, the battery lasts long enough for my use, and the power is more than adequate for the basic tasks it performs. Also, there is no other company that I have found that matches the warranty of Dell for Windows computers. Every time I had an issue with mine it was fixed within three days. Sometimes even the next day.
Also in this camp. It kept going so I ended up putting 32GB of RAM, a 2TB SSD and a new battery in it over the last year. The thermals are definitely bad under heavy loads. Surprisingly the throttling wasn't caused by the CPU/GPU but the VRMs overheating. A thermal image was shared around back in the day which identified the problem areas. If you connected the VRMs with thermal pads to the bottom aluminium case and pointed a fan pad at it the throttling stopped. After doing it I could actually play BF4 for longer than 20-30 minutes which is when they would get heat saturated.
I've used a Dell Precision 5520, after more than 5 years of usage, to a Precision 5570 - not because of lack of power or functionality, but because the battery was beyond gone. These devices are brilliant and are even better than XPS. That being said, while the warranty service is great, a 1 year base warranty isn't so much. When we got my wife an XPS 9570, we paid extra for the 3 years extended warranty.
my XPS 9550 is still running strong too! The only "repair" I've had to do is replace the battery a few years back but besides that, it's been doing great. When this finally kicks the can, I'll definitely be going for another XPS!
Honestly, a must-do for these laptops is to open them up and repaste them with a high-quality thermal paste. You can also upgrade the thermal pads or use TG-PP10 for any chiplets for a little extra performance. Honeywell PTM7950 is also an option. The stock application of paste oftentimes sucks, so this should help with idle temps, fan ramping, and frequency drops at peak.
@@Hentjim this wont void your warranty in most parts of the world i imagine (certainly wont in EU), and it shouldn't void it in NA either but i know NA has some horrendous warranty laws so it wouldn't surprise me.
@@FlyingGuy123 The best life is to have 2 Thunderbolts (one on each side) AND the rest of the normal IO. When you use it at home, just use your dock, but when i'm, for example on the train, i'm not going to pull out a dongle for my usb a headset
I have the 2022 version. For those of you that are in university, don’t get this for the battery life. It’ll last about five hours. About three hours when the screen brightness is at 100%. And you’ll be doing that a lot if you find yourself in well lit classrooms or in places with outside lighting coming in from windows. Keyboard is great, trackpad is great, and it is quite a looker especially with a dbrand skin.
The battery life is the reason I went MacBook Pro rather than Dell. I really, really wish intel would invest in a truly power efficient architecture for high end laptops. Windows laptops just can’t compete with Apple. I routinely get 12 - 15 hours of screen on time from my 16” MacBook Pro with the display above half brightness.
Gotta say the notch on the Macbook Pro has never bothered me. I don't own one (I own an Air) but the space where the notch is at is taken up by the menu bar, so its not like you're losing screen real estate.
I remembered Linus said something along the line, where they (the reviwerer) kept asking for thinner bezel with webcam and facial recognition but at the same time complaint about the poor webcam performance. This is what they wished for when asking for thinner bezel accordingly to manufacture. At the same time, LTT usually are more forgiving with Windows laptop than Macbook anyway
I hope you'll also start talking about BIOS settings for upgradability: for example HP is well known to lock down everything, even fan profiles and RAM timing with the risk of messing everything up when trying to upgrade...
Yup! Love, love my 9530 (13th gen i9, rtx 4070, 32G Ram, 512 + 1TB SSD's). It is a powerhouse. I was worried at first since the qc on my earlier XPS's was tragically laughable. However, circumstances being what they were in my case, I took the plunge with this one, mostly because of specs. It has been working flawlessly since May and, even though, the FHD+ which I got can't compete with my 16" M1 Pro, it's still beautiful to look at; liking the matte! Anyway, thanks for the review, which is fairer than some on the TH-cam (I'm looking at you Josh! lol). UPDATE: Why FHD? Because this beast with (16G ram and 512G SSD) came in at a whopping $3200+ (CAD), which is exactly what I paid for my 16" M1 Pro (base) last year. My M1 Pro still smokes the XPS (battery, speakers, display, etc.) but it can't "seriously" game.
I think I would really like to see a yearly comparison between windows and mac laptops. Like, make them do the same stuff, like compiling an Android project, editing videos etc.
You are too optimistic about XPS. I bought XPS 15 after seeing all the great reviews, including from you guys, and it wasn't a good buy. 2 years after buying it, everything started failing. Motherboard, GPU (literally died!), battery (which happens, but it's really bad if at the same time charging from USB C stops working until you restart your machine), errors about SSD missing during booting. It's constantly hot, no matter if you work on it or just watch a movie. It's designed to look good during reviews but it's not a reliable working machine and the funny thing is, that all these issues are common for XPS 15. It's not like I had a bad luck with my unit. These laptops are just not a good business/working laptops.
hp's laptop *kept* the barrel jack, so they can still feed lots of power, but it also come with Thunderbolts for connectivity. That's how things should actually go.
The Dell USB-C charger is 130W out of the box and supports up to 180W (you can buy that charger separately), so there's no lack of power - it is not limited to the standard PD 100W, like other laptops are.
I bought one a week ago lol without seeing the review. Well, it's pretty great, I can tell you that. I really didn't need GPU power but it came with the 4050. I immediately erased Windows and installed Linux on it. Everything worked out of the box. No issues with the trackpad or Wifi. For the power consumption you want to install TLP which dramatically improves your battery life and usage. Apart from that, the speakers don't sound great at all but that is because Dell most likely installs something proprietary for Windows to make them sound good. Not something that bothers me, tbh although it would be nice to have a solution for that. My main criteria for buying it was: - good keyboard - good trackpad - good screen - linux support And I got what I wanted so I'm happy.
The thing is the XPS 15 over the years has never been able to sustain its performance over a lengthy period of time. Thermals/Cooling have always been bad on it and I don't see Dell ever changing that unless they do a serious redesign of the chassis. I had the XPS 15 with a 7th gen i5 quad core and a GTX 1050. That thing got as hot as the sun even playing 10 year old games and would throttle constantly.
@@breaddough-vk8gf Most of the upvoted comments here are about how poor the thermals are on this lol. I didn't buy it specifically for "Gaming", I was casually gaming on it a few hours on the weekend. I also wasn't playing modern AAA stuff on it. I was playing casual older titles 10+ years old that would easily run on that hardware. Dell had very strict throttle limits on my XPS where it would downclock the CPU when it was even in the 80s if the GPU was pushed at the same time. The ASUS G14 is smaller, lighter, and can actually sustain its performance because it's cooled better with more heat sinks and much louder fans. The Lenovo Slim isn't much heavier than an XPS and can also sustain its performance with decent temps. Dell prioritizes aesthetics/quietness over maximum performance. That's fine for people like you and your workflow, but it doesn't change the fact that it can't sustain its performance over a lengthy period of time and it struggles to cool the hardware inside it when pushed hard. I'm glad your happy with yours and maybe thermals have improved compared to my older model, but it doesn't change the fact that plenty of others have a differing opinion than yours on the XPS line thermals just by reading these comments..
Fact is there are laptops around the size of an XPS now that can perform much better when the CPU/GPU are being pushed to the maximum. The Asus G14 is smaller than the XPS, under 4 lbs, and can sustain its performance under load. Even Razer has had laptops the same size/form factor as the XPS that have better performance/thermals. I get why people love the XPS. Its build quality is top notch, good keyboard, great screen, small, compact, etc. That doesn't change the fact that the thermals are garbage on it and it struggles to sustain performance when pushed hard. Some people like you don't care about that, but plenty of others like me and others in this thread do care though.
@@breaddough-vk8gf All caps? Just chill man. I get your team XPS in every way and that's fine. It's ok if people have differing opinions about things but I'm also not going to keep arguing about it lol. Plenty on this comment section have stated pretty much the same thing I have said about the thermals. Either way, I hope you enjoy your XPS and glad it works for you.
@@breaddough-vk8gf Uh why are you even still replying to me? I said go enjoy your XPS and be happy with it and I'm not debating this anymore. Is it really worth having any form of resentment towards a stranger online who has a differing opinion of a laptop than you? You think the XPS performs well and doesn't throttle under your workflow. I think it throttles easily and is a poor choice for many people that need a laptop with a high end CPU/dedicated GPU for demanding tasks. Differing opinions that aren't going to change. The end.
@@fran2911 This current one (XPS 15 9500) hasn’t had any issues of note and has actually been pretty great, but the previous iteration of the XPS 15 from over 3 years ago (9550) had all sorts of issues. A hinge that broke after a couple years (current one has a much better designed hinge), there was BIOS issues that caused a flickering screen that only got fixed by downgrading the BIOS, touchpad issues, and more. The one before that from 8 years ago (XPS 14 L421X) had some issues too, so they’ve gotten better with each iteration fixing the major pain points
Not hearing Alex mention Windows modern standby felt weird, it had become such a mainstay in his laptop reviews aha. Also I don't remember hearing if it was ever fixed after those Windows devs started to look into it?
@@8020Alive it’s absolutely an issue. The fact that I NEED TO boot into an unoptimized Linux distro on a laptop to get better sleep drain than Windows while traveling is a MASSIVE oversight. I got so fed up with losing 15%+ battery daily in sleep I went and bought an M2 MacBook. No regrets. I shouldn’t have to dualboot PopOS just so my laptop doesn’t murder itself connecting to rogue Wi-Fi APs while I travel from worksite to worksite for work. If you actually care about using your laptop’s battery windows is ABSOLUTELY a non-starter in 2023.
I'm frankly astonished that Microsoft hasn't quietly gone back to offering hibernation by default. It has all the upsides of "modern sleep" without these ridiculous problems...
@@PhysicsGamerit’s even stupider when you consider how fast modern NVME drives are now. (Sleep stores in RAM, hibernation stores in storage.) MS’s trend of trying to make laptops more like phones is incredibly asinine. I do not need background updates while my laptop is off Microsoft please politely get the F out of my space and stop using my computer for me.
I bought a used M2 Pro Macbook Pro with 16GB of RAM and the extra ports for about $1700. This was my first Apple product, and it was worth it imo. Definitely don't avoid used current gen laptops if you can find them.
@@breaddough-vk8gf all purchases require weighing pros and cons. I don't agree with apple's policies, but many major computer brands (dell, HP, Lenovo) have been moving toward the same model. Very few budget- mid range computers allow you to upgrade in any way that is significant. I'm not going to buy a plastic chassis gaming computer with a 12lb weight for a daily driver. I also don't need more than 16gb in a laptop, personally (I have a 128Gb desktop workstation and at my job I have access to a supercomputer) MacOS is fine. I'm not buying a laptop to game. I'm buying it for programming and productivity. It's not as good as Linux, although it doesn't have hardware compatibility issues like linux, but imo it is better than Windows. Battery life is impeccable and the screen is amazing. I like the keyboard and have gotten used to the functionality of the shortcuts such that it doesn't bother me anymore (other than a dedicated delete key) You have to weigh everything when you make a purchase. There wasn't a better option for me, and I personally don't think many people would feel differently. Apple is a sleezy company, but so are the other major manufacturers. Lenovo was my preferred brand previously, but their quality doesn't hold up unless you go for the highest end. If you aren't in the highest end there can be hardware compatibility issues with Linux. I need unix for my work. I wasn't going to bother wasting time trying to make Linux compatible and I've not had a single issue with compatibility on MacOS (for my use case)
I'm super happy with my 2022 model XPS 15. The only criticism I have at all is that the front edge is a bit sharp, so it can be difficult if your wrist is at the wrong angle. Other than that, the OLED is stunning, and the audio is pretty damned good for a thin little laptop.
@@w_21 I usually use mine plugged in, and I've also set the setting in the BIOS for that so that it tries not to kill the battery from always being plugged in. But Alex is right, the battery life isn't amazing. If I had to be on the go, away from an outlet all day, that would be an issue, but it's not a problem for my usage.
Same here, overall happy with my 2022 XPS 15. Don't use the headphone jack though, as it doesn't disable the audio changes (DSP) done for the speakers and makes it sound horrible. If it doesn't, let me know as that means I'm using the warranty to have a tech come out and check my laptop out. Drivers and windows reinstalls haven't fixed it for me and it makes the headphone jack completely unusable imo. Oh, and I'm not the only person with this issue.
All what a Touchscreen on a Laptop gets you are ugly fingerprints on the screen. I just never got the point of this on a Laptop. There's just no benefit to it except for the "uhh look what I can do. Does this make you Mac users feel jealous, yeah?" - no it doesn't.
@@Raja995mh33 Touchscreen is useful on thin and light 13"-14" laptops but 15" or bigger I don't see why you would need a touchscreen especially if the trackpad is big enough like on the MacBooks (the one benefit to getting a touchscreen on a Windows laptop is that they are glossy)
@@Raja995mh33 Navigation, scrolling, zooming, moving things around... there's many things. Sure everything can obviously be done with a touchpad, but if you learn to use the touchscreen effectively, it can be great addition to normal touchpad.
I own this laptop and I adore it. The webcam is trash versus the macbook, but no notch and Windows Hello is a pure win. I donøt care about battery life I have a dock at work and a dock at home for 3 display setup so I never use it on the go, and when i do I usually use it for 2-3 hours which it does not problem, lots more on powersaver. I wrapped mine in dbrand skin and it's so awesome in all black carbon look, super professional. The OLED is amazing, the speakers are superb and the microphone array is quite usable. I got it with the 4060, no need for 4070 G-pute for office use (webdev etc.) but the RTX technology for the eye-contact feature on Nvidia broadcast is sooo cool! I can sit and code while during meetings and people thing I'm super attentive because it looks like I'm making eye contact with the camera. WIN!
I had a terrible experience with the OLED XPS some years ago, when it was working, it was amazing. I switched to an m1 mac air and by far the most missed thing is the OLED display
Just got mine a week ago and they weren’t kidding when they said typing on it is amazing. Literally feels like a cloud…makes me want to be more productive Downsides: if ur doing hardcore multitasking or gaming (like having photoshop, TH-cam, downloads running all at once) (or steam gaming for hours) it gets REALLY hot at the bottom. Like an inferno. Hate how there’s no USB or HDMI on the laptop. Dongles are cool and all but ….not for me.
Why are we calling this the best laptop? how much does the diamond cut edge weigh into that? thermals appear to be a nightmare, bad IO, and a zephyrus would give far better performance for a wildly lower price, even with a similar quality display. And when you include the massive amount of bloatware on these devices as well as insane pricing, doesnt seem like a great buy
I have an XPS 15 at work. One thing that seems to be a widespread problem is they have garbage audio drivers. I can't use headphones directly plugged in. There's so many undiagnosable problems so I just have a external DAC plugged in to listen to music.
Headphone jack, audio drivers, modern sleep and DWM are just a circle jerk of weird behavior lol they try so hard to make the experience better with driver handling and all their software to the point i think it makes the experience worse.... i have waaaaaaaay less issues with the last 3 PCs i have built lol
Say what you want about the notch-mind you, all you can say is you don’t like the design choice bc the notch doesn’t affect the actual use of the laptop at all-comparing that dog shit webcam to the MacBook’s should be illegal. Especially if you use your laptop’s webcam for meetings.
After using M1 Pro 16" for a year there is no way I'm ever buying a Windows laptop until there is competition for M chip from either Intel or AMD. You can talk about screen or keyboard or speakers all you want (not that Apple is lacking in any of those areas), but actual meat and potatoes of Apple's M laptop is all day battery life, no fan noise and pretty much full 100% performance guaranteed without power cord. Apple's M laptops are the first "perfect" laptops and what I imagined laptop should be like when I was a kid.
In fact, 100% performance without power cord is a tradition in MacBook Pro since the early days (the performance is only limited by thermals), it was just never marketed
Honestly I still think it's crazy that the entire point of a laptop is portability, but most laptops have such bad battery life you basically *have* to take a charger with you... which drastically reduces its usability. While the Mac is $1K more (and a shitload more here in the UK) as an overall package it seems a better buy.
Eeesh, the black level on the MacBook actually looks significantly better, despite the non-oled display. I guess that is due to the antireflective coating that perhaps is lacking on the XPS? Maybe it looks better in person than in the video....
Give me Framework or give me nothing!! Or a vintage Dell, I own a few early 00s Inspiron models 1300 our first laptop (retired from regular use) 1501 my Jukebox And a pair of 6400s for retro LAN multiplayer fun
@@chandler2 the 1300's battery is long gone, it flat shorted and probably would've cought fire if I hadn't been there. The 1501 and both 6400's don't think they have batteries (guessing the control IC chips died in them)
I just bought a i9-13900H, 32GB Ram, RTX 4070, 1TB SSD, OLED touch, Win 11 Pro. It was on sale for $2,664.66 with tax and shipping. I thought that was a pretty good price.
It would be nice if all laptops came with options to swap between performance vs battery hardware options, for people who use theirs plugged in vs those who use theirs out
Just bought one a week ago, still waiting to have it shipped. A few notes: - The prices listed are from the “Black Friday in July” sale or the back to school sale (XPS had the same discount on both) - For upgradeable RAM, all configurations you can buy use both slots (16GB is 2x 8GB) so just know that going in - Other reviewers have serious concerns about thermals, I trust this guy more but was surprised to not hear anything about it
I got an XPS 15 four years ago and on paper the specs really did suit me just fine, but buyers beware that the quality control and customer service can be absolutely abysmal. I've had a service ticket open for longer than I haven't, it kept breaking so often that I've gotten 10+ replaced parts, and 3 system exchanges. All under warranty, none of those were accidental protection. On the most egregious example, it was sent to the repair center to replace the motherboard and when it arrived, out of the box the fan controller wasn't working so one of the fans was dead, this showed with a blaring alarm in the BIOS diagnostic. THEY DID NOT EVEN CHECK THE BIOS DIAGNOSTIC BEFORE SENDING IT BACK. Not to mention the process also sucked, it involved talking with someone who had no idea what they were doing, having them remote in to update/reinstall the same drivers that had already been done by another rep, having them say "it'll work now", then repeat once it crashes again a few hours later. Repeat several times until they finally admit its a hardware issue and their fault and send someone to replace whichever part. I've heard the quality control has gotten better over the last year or two, and my most recent system hasn't failed yet so I don't know, but I can attest that after trying to get them to fix a touchscreen issue recently that the tech support has not gotten any better. Not to mention the cooling is pretty terrible, thermal throttles immediately under almost any load.
would be great to see your review of laptops with ryzen 7840u/hs APU's. should really be much better in terms of battery life+igpu as powerful as full powered laptop 1650
I would honestly consider this if I could have two things: 1. Intel Arc graphics with the OLED screen 2. Buy RAM and storage separately (and no Windows license)
I’m still on my XPS 15 from 2018. All I’ve had to swap over the years is the battery and it’s still running great for my needs which include editing on premiere pro and photoshop. But I have been looking at possibly upgrading.
I'd love to see a zen 3+ APU laptop roundup, I recently got a thinkpad t14 gen 3 and the power/battery life combo has been a game changer, I hope by now it has more competition.
So, I just upgraded from 9510 11th gen w/3050ti to the 9530 w/ the Arc A370M. I was able to get this for under $1k USD at BB ($500) off. I did add 32gb of ram (shipped with 16) and a 1tb 990 samsung secondary ssd (around $150 for both the upgrades from microcenter). Couple of things. I love this laptop. My 9510 was (and is) a mess. It's just too damn hot. So much I added extra thermal pads and turned off 2 cores. The battery life was terrible, like 2-3 hours. The new 9530 is amazing in comparison. 8-9 hours battery and the heat management is great out of the box. I was hoping to run linux on it, but the power management isn't good enough yet (might have something to do with the arc drivers). In windows though, I do think that the lower power dgpu (and some intel foo between it and the igpu) helps with lower power consumption. And as a developer/productivity user, I really don't care about the graphics performance. Don't knock the arc for us casual gamers, I'll be able to run my NES roms no problem ;) I did cross shop (and buy) a couple other machines before landing on the 9530. I gave the LG Gram 17 a very good go. I picked up a 12th gen with 16gbs (1199 at BB), that I then returned for a 13th gen 32gb (1299 at Costco) I never even opened. The 17 Gram is an amazing machine, but it's just inferior. It's missing the premium feel of the XPS. I kept looking over at my old 9510 and wishing it would just do the Gram things. The biggest miss for me on the Gram was the keyboard. While at first, I really liked the feedback from it, it became fatiguing after a full day's work. I also tried out an acer edge 16 with the 7840u. Talk about run away fan ramping. Very powerful, but they really don't have it tuned yet, and I wasn't ready to wait. Also, I hate glossy screens. Oh, another thing with the Gram, it seemed to run linux (fedora/ubuntu) with no issues, reporting 10+ hours of battery. XPS 15 is still the king in this category. Even with the 4th iteration of basically the same machine just with new internals.
Update. Power usage with Debian Trixie is much better! Kernel 6.4 I think helped alot. Only thing not working are the subwoofers. Almost fully functional in Linux now.
Depending on what you're actually displaying on it, the OLED will certainly be one factor for the lousy battery life. However - Dell should've just used AMD or at least waited for Meteor Lake. I'm a little tired of complaints about battery life when people still buy Intel CPUs as if there were no alternatives.
I've been buying the 17" XPS laptops for the past four years and I love them. I do think they are overpriced so if you can, find a base version on sale and just buy the RAM and SSD upgrades from 3rd parties. My 9730 spec is the 17" 4K i9 4080 - purchased with 16GB and 512 ($3,100) but upgraded after the purchase to 64GB and 4TB for an additional $270 thanks to prime day.
I am sad if this is one of the best windows laptops. I had one in the past and it was a pain to install graphics drivers and became more problematic the longer I had it. It became practically useless after the warranty ended. The worst thing was the boot-up glitch that posted a TPM error, that wasn't included with my model, that never resolved after multiple bios updates.
I have this issue with my XPS15 9550 for 6 years and I thought of giving the XPS 17 9730 with 4070 a try, it blue screened within the month of me not updating anything and it just had a motherboard change last week because of a BIOS flash fail…..
@@breaddough-vk8gf Not sure how having to decide between outdated official Dell Nvida drivers that crashed games when trying to play new-for-the-time games or New Nvidia-direct drivers to attempt to play games on release, which caused the XPS to BSOD during regular usage my fault, but go off king. Also, not sure how getting a BIOS error 3 years after purchase for not having something that was never included with my XPS my fault as well, but sure, blame me and not Dell. Shame on me for expecting a $2K PC from a multi-billion dollar company to work with minimal hassle! :P
The battery may be a problem for some, but in my experience this rarely matters in office environments. Most users have no problem with plugging in pretty much anywhere they use it. The battery is mostly used between them turning it on and plugging it in, and for two to three hours in meetings. My point is that for the laptop's main target audience, battery life is rarely an issue.
Maybe I am looking in the wrong [places, but the i7 13700H with 32GB RAM and 8GB 4070 is $3200 USD everywhere I look. So $300 less than the MBP, not $1000 less.
I have the xps 9300 w 4k & touch screen and it’s amazing. Can’t game but for work it’s an absolute dream, so thin and easy to carry around my only complaint is the battery life. Thing gets like 5-6 hours max on performance mode
I was surprised by your praise of the trackpad. Have they switched to haptic or is this still diving board style? What graphics card did your 2022 xps have?
Really happy with my XPS 15. Got the fully loaded one from work a couple years ago, and then a few months ago they let me keep it when they switched our company laptops out.
Just give up my old working Dell XPS 15 9570, hinge is broken. Memory module sometimes not recognizing. 5 years pass, still great laptop. Interesting what my company send me as new laptop.
I have such love hate relationship with my old Dell XPS 15... I bought my XPS 15 (9560) based on an old LTT review of it and I've had problem after problem with it, like the WiFi card being so slow i had to change it, Thermal paste dying after only 1 year of ownership, Dell's god awful pre-installed sound drivers damaging the inbuilt speakers... But the icing on top is the WORST thermals I've EVER seen its basically a hotbox if the GPU gets over 50% usage it will hit about 60c (pretty normal) but if it even gets close 65c it WILL unclock the CPU and GPU to about 300mhz... Basically making it useless since even opening file explore takes 5 to 10 seconds and games will run at about 2-4 FPS, Worst part is when its underclocked it wont boost back up to normal speed even after letting it sit and cool off, it has to fully reboot... But then every time I pick it up to watch a video, Photoshop or anything that involves the screen I'm amazed it looks stunning, the keyboard is so damn good i don't even want to bring a mechanical keyboard... And the build quality is Impeccable! its such a shame i LOVE absolutely everything about it on the outside... but the inside is more rotten then an apple with boated software, garbage thermals, and nowadays specs so outdated that playing games on my phone is smoother... TL:DR as much as i love the idea of the XPS (A Windows version of a Macbook) i don't trust dell to deliver due to how badly ive been burned (literally) by them before...
The driver for the built-in Intel graphics now installs the Arc Graphics controls by default, even though you don't really need them. You have to do a custom driver installation to install only the graphics driver and not the Arc Controls.
I almost bought this laptop so many times, but I didnt because of three things: size, thermals, and the webcam. I instead bought the Lenovo Pro 9i 14". Smaller battery, but MiniLED > OLED for power usage; 13905H has better thermal performance than the 13900H; it doesn't get super loud under load; and it has a 5mp webcam that does full HD without a hitch. Plus, at 14.5" with tiny bezels, it's significantly more comfortable to travel with than the 16" MBP I use for work.
I hope this level of speaker quality becomes the standard in Windows laptop world. At least the flagships should have this level of sound quality. Watch this, Lenovo, Asus, MSI and others. The webcam, though, HP's 5MP webcam is unbeatable.
The best upgrade Dell could make to the Dell XPS 15 is going AMD. They could keep the OLED and the maybe the same battery size and it would get at least 2 hours more life on battery. I have an Asus Zenbook Pro 15 with an OLED, Ryzen 7 5800H and 3050 Ti and I get well over 9 hours on battery. And it hasn't got the later, even more efficient AMD CPU.
The 4060 gpu also has 8gb vram. I'd go for that one instead, as it should also conserve a tiny bit more of battery life. Won't be as powerful, of course, but with throttling, I doubt you could tell the difference between the two in daily use and gaming. Only place you'd notice the difference is in gpu intensive loads and rendering.
Should it really help all that much? I mean ideally you’re not using the dGPU at all unless under load, at which point it’s a question of if it can get the work done faster than the battery life hit of the better part.
I can say with my personal experience with the FrameWork 13 coming from an XPS 13 that the FrameWork has way better thermal management. Also the XPS' hinges, fan bearing, display coating quality is super disappointing. All issues Dell seems to not care about fixing in newer generations of laptops. For the FrameWork I would say the touchpad is worse but then again everything that is improved over generations can be easily upgraded. Loving the FrameWork so far, can't wait to order the 16 inch model.
I'll also say I used an XPS 13 for Linux a while back buying the developer's edition thinking there might be better support. I was wrong. Not only was the battery drain awful due to the hardware trying to keep the network and Bluetooth on even when asleep, it also didn't come with the bios configured properly. This is just all the issues it had running Linux...
I have the current gen xps 15, and had most of the previous gens as well. I can wholeheartedly advice against getting an xps 15 if you will be daily driving linux. From intermittent touchpad delay, to terrible battery usage, to spotty wifi and bluetooth issues. And oh yeah, the subwoofers don't work either in Linux.
I still have a xps 15 9550 from like 2016.. the 4K touchscreen is still amazing to this day.. I’d recommend buying one for cheap to anyone that needs a quality laptop for everyday use.
I was told by ASUS support that the RAM wasn't user upgradable and I'd void my warranty when I asked for more specifics on the RAM it supported. I had to upload a screenshot of their own website that touted my model as having a "captive corner screw to make user upgrading of RAM and storage easier."
Sorry dude but I would always choose the notch on the MacBook instead of the thicker bezel at the top. Also, you get EXTRA screen on the MacBook, not a notch within the same screen. It gets even more ridiculous when you look at the webcam quality. It's just garbage BECAUSE they cramped it into the bezel there. You know what actually sucks? Paying this much for a Laptop, having 3 USB-C ports and then not even all of them having TB support. The MBP Also isn't a $1000 more for the same specs. You even said that you should not get the i9 version of the XPS but then you opt for the M2 Max on the MacBook. When you go with the M2 Pro and 32/1TB you end up with $3100. Sure that's still more but could easily be worth it for the imo better display, better port selection that is not compromised and like twice the battery life.
The configurations of this laptop make it a deal breaker. The OLED screen should be high refresh rate, and it should be available with the ARC GPU. Also, the cooling needs a complete overhaul and Dell needs to fix prevailing driver issues. I think the Samsung Galaxy Book3 Ultra and Lenovo Slim Pro 9i are better options over this. Still, all three of these laptops have basically unusable battery life.
@@profacecreator3810 Well no. 1) It's a productivity-based laptop, your argument would also apply to the gaming benchmarks which they did anyways. 2) It has a severely limited 4070 with a 50W cap. The laptop suffers under load and thermal throttles itself to death. 3) This whole video feels very sponsored. It might be a good productivity laptop compared to a 2015 chromebook, but it is not compared to others in its pricerange. a laptop with better performance could be had for 1k$ less from the likes of asus or lenovo.
The Dell XPS i have is 6 years old and still working. I hesitate to buy another just because it is much easier to update my current laptop than trust that a newer laptop is going to operate at the same quality level.
I'd be interested to see your thoughts on the new Zenbook 15 OLED (UM3504). I've been looking to get one before I start uni as both a portable work laptop, and docked with an eGPU for gaming, but have been slightly hesitant to pull the trigger
That notch Apple added to their new MacBooks, feels more like a differentiating feature, than a useful one. The webcam on the new MacBooks, slap hard, no cap. But no Face ID. Maybe that would come later. But I don’t foresee Apple removing that Notch anytime soon.
When you look at the terrible webcam quality of the XPS, this alone kinda justifies the notch already. Also the MacBook has a noticeably thinner bezel at the top AND the screen is taller than 16:10 so you don't lose any screen to it, you only gain screen left and right.
For many of us webcam quality is not a deal at all. If you need better you use external anyways to get positioning right and if you just need something it is enough that you are identifiable
I was thinking about getting this laptop for school, but the battery life was a complete dealbreaker for me. Instead I went with the Lenovo Slim Pro 7 (the 14 inch AMD version). I'm typing this comment on it now and I'm very happy with this laptop. The XPS is a beautiful machine but what good are looks when it has huge issues with thermals and battery life?
I have been a Dell customer for 20 years... Seriously i have bought so many Dell computers they should give me 1 for free... but I digress. The XPS 15 9500 i7, is the longest i have owned a Dell without upgrading to new one. I have had this for 3 years and ... it still works. Its only a tad more sluggish but still very much usable. My wife has a MacBook air purchased the same year, however, she does not use it extensively. Weirdly enough, if I do upgrade in the future, i may pay the extra grand and go Macbook pro. As much as I hate to say it, they seem to have a longer shelflife, and the battery makes a huge difference. It just sucks that one cannot upgrade so you got to max it out up front.
Since Alex’s review is based on complete opinion, here’s MY equally relevant review: Anybody who has actually used a MBP for more than a few hours will tell you that the notch is basically unnoticeable. I forget it’s even there. Alex’s opinion on the notch being ”stupid” just demonstrates his incredible bias to give Apple credit for anything. Sure, the XPS is a beautiful piece of tech; but until they get the thermal management and windows overhead figured out, it’s always going to be a 7/10 for me. If I have to take my charger with me to make it through a 4 hour seminar, it completely defeats the purpose of a laptop. I wonder if Apple sponsored some LTT projects if any opinions would change? I mean, does anybody actually know anyone that uses a Razer Blade laptop? Linus has had 2 die on him now, but yet that laptop is often listed behind the XPS as one of the best you can buy. Not to mention the multitude of WMS and trackpad issues Dell has had.🤔 Source: I have a ‘22 XPS and a 14” MacBook Pro. As a regular consumer I decided for myself, and so should you.
If it’s not broken, don’t fix it. I’ve heard the higher-end models have suffered in terms of thermals but almost no one needs the highest-end models. The model with the i7 CPU and RTX 4060 GPU is the sweet spot. I also wouldn’t mind seeing an Intel ARC A750/A770 or next-gen equivalent.
"but no one needs the higher end model" THEN WHY TF ARE THEY MAKING AND MARKETING THEM. And it's such an easy problem to fix. A vapor chamber like the XPS17 or literally any new powerful windows laptop would instantly fix the thermal issues but dell is too cheap/lazy to add it.
@@breaddough-vk8gf my dude I have the damn i5 model and it thermal throttles when editing video for a couple of hours, a task that is the very purpose of a creative laptop with decent specs like this.
@@breaddough-vk8gf and it does throttle by significant amounts compared not only to bulky gaming laptops, but also compared to similar creative laptops like the Lenevo pro 7i, 9i, Asus Zefrus line, Razer blade (this one throttles the same but with much more powerful components) Do you know why that is? Simply because most of these utilise vapor chambers, something that Dell could and DID implement in the XPS 17 with great success, but are too cheap and lazy to do it on the 15.
I dont know why Alex is shying to admit. The Mac's sound was far fuller than XPS 15's sound. Windows machine manufacturers will need to step up their game on the sound department, just as they did on the trackpad.
Hoping that Dell has learned their lesson and bringing back IO.... I just wish these come w/ AMD.... its such a tragedy that Dell avoids superior AMD Chips like the plague. Hell it might even fix their battery life issues.
@@breaddough-vk8gf Of being subpar battery that Intel is typically associated w/ most AMD equivalent mobile products can usually milk out between 2-4 more hours of battery vs their Intel versions.
@@breaddough-vk8gf Nope its the exact opposite, intel switched to P&E architecture which has higher and lower clocks, AMD has never needed to push more clock speed and stayed in their lane due to just using more advanced lithography. Keep in mind Intel is still on 10nm even if you cant actually calculate the true die shrink of TSMC's 4nm. But its always been an intel thing to clock higher for marketing reasons and letting manufactures tweak the performance down to match thermals. AMD even has models that effectively cant benefit from higher clocks like 3DVache models that need to keep thermals cooler to not mess w/ the 3dVCache, in exchange you get much higher raw performance. In comparable performance chips, Avg combined performance difference of +/- 2% for Intel equivalent chips at avg performance. But if you look at power draw Intel has both the highest and lowest power draws due to P&E architecture. The power draw will vary between scenarios but in nearly every case you'll see in efficiency metrics AMD can be anywhere from 0-30% more efficient in power draw and performance to watt when compared to intel's avgs. Intel will run on lower on draw if you need it to be more power efficient but knocks off over 25% performance but whereas AMD chips basically always on full blast but still doing so more efficiently than intel at its avg power draw. This was also why you dont see any mobile handhelds using Intel chips cause they arent going to be any different in avg power consumption and you can much higher avg performance per watt using AMD SOCs. www.notebookcheck.net/i9-13900H-vs-R9-7940HS-vs-i9-13905H_14717_14946_14983.247596.0.html In fact tech reviewers have been complaining about XPS Devices not having AMD chips for years because of Intel Thermals & Power Draw. www.theverge.com/22958468/dell-xps-15-2021-oled-review
My only thing with things like the XPS 15 is battery life. If something like this had comparable battery to a Mac it would be a serious competitor to a lot of people who needed good battery life and had minimal non Mac options
I'd love to see some productivity tests like the pugetbench for Davinci, Lightroom, and Photoshop. Especially compared to Macbooks. In addition, there are plenty of good deals out there for M1 Pros and M1 Maxs so it would be interesting to see how Dell's stock price compares to that price point (also performance-wise in those configs).
I havent seen an LTT Video in 2 years. Man they got bad. Just comparing to the whatever macbook this is and not even becnhmarks, just games. Thermals werent referred to. Its seems like somebody ordered it, they got a macbook and made a oneroll. What the heck. They comletely miss the sense of discovery.
I am still using my 4k skylake xps 15. No reason to upgrade. It still does the job for what I need to do. I only replaced the battery with a new one an manually upgraded to windows 11 Pro. That's about it. Those things just do not break. Edit: knock on wood lol
I'm keeping tab on this one for a potential buy in 2-3 months, but the thing that I'm concerned the most is the OLED burn-in, I would use mine primarily for software development, would the OLED be a potential issue ? Sad that this year they got rid of the 4k option.
Not to be rude but why would you want a 4k screen option? I use my computer for both gaming and productivity (from standard office applications to video editing, rendering and programming) and don’t really ever think the resolution of a screen is a limitation.
@@henryfield2153 For the XPS usually they come with 3.5 Oled or 4K IPS (for the 9500, 9510 and 9520), and I want the 4k option because it's IPS so I wouldn't have to worry about burn-in, and also a higher resolution gives you so much more screen real estate (i.e. more lines of codes, more content while web browsing,...), and compared to a 1080p screen it's night and day, also realistically 4k on a 15inch laptop is pretty overkill (I prefer 1440p) but those were the only options Dell has been providing for years, and I just don't want to deal with the hassles of having an Oled display so 4k is my preferred option.
@@henryfield21534K video playback, whether it’s your own videos for creator reasons, or 4K movie streaming from the likes of Netflix. Also, Dell likes to pretend that 1440p doesn’t exist when it comes to the XPS line (even though that’s probably the happy medium here) so your only two options are the 4K screen they try to upsell you on with better brightness and whatever, or the budget base spec minimum brightness 300 nits if that 1080p screen that Dell is certainly skimping on. That’s why.
I have bought a Ugreen 140W GaN charger but my XPS 15 (2022) shows a slow charger warning. I have seen some comments that Dell limits the power intake to 65W when it detects a non-proprietary charger. Not sure if you guys have experienced the same thing and have some workarounds.
I have a 3rd party dock detected as 90W, so it is better thank my old 2019 XPS 15, every 3rd party charger has been detected as 65W. Everything over 100W are non standard USB-C wattages, only dell ones will be accepted over 100W
The XPS 15 sounds more complete in the sound test vs the MacBook. The MacBook is missing some of the sound in the middle of the V-shaped sound profile.
are the atrocious bloat maxxaudio drivers still present? did dell address the trackpad double click issue that has been present since the 9500 (3 years ago)?? Will Microsoft ever fix modern standby??? since buying the 9500 for a buttload of $$$ and having a myriad of issues I can't recommend the xps lineup or trust any reviews praising it
The real issue with this computer is the thermal management but there was no mention of it.
100% The fan noise and cpu vrm temps are out of control year after year on this model. They need to vapor chamber the damn thing already
feels lazy. make fun of the silly apple notch, but not mention something like this? come on...
@@brohanson and funnily makes mention of the notch with a side by side which clearly shows the apple display as taller than the dell's: apple increased the height of the display so you have a 16:10 below the notch, so it's not like you're actually losing any screen real estate. Essentially it's a free menu bar (which apple's own fullscreen takes in account). Not that apple's laptop cameras are not unacceptable garbage, but the fury over the notch won't ever not be nonsensical.
they mentioned it for like a second
around 3:40 they mention you have the option for an I9 but the laptop doesn't have the thermals to support it
Better dont mention that noisy fan or else Dell will not ask them to review it next time (and get $$$)
I wish I had as much joy about something, like Alex has joy for Dell XPSs
Me too
if y where in your place y would run away in your place, bad firmware. bad drivers, most of the time if you use the pc in domain, it won't turn off only if you force the power button. display driver crashing etc personally y won't get other than Asus or hp.
Just like our sponser Dbrand.
@@adriancoanda9227tf did you say?
@@tahmidrahman5367 sponser
As a heads up, DON'T go with the 4070 model! It's a 100+ watt card, but in the xps it has a tdp of under 50W. If you need a good gpu, look elsewhere, or stick with the 4060 instead.
Yep definitely good advice and that explains why the gaming benchmarks are poor and lower than my MSI laptop that has a 130W 3070... More people need to check the maximum TDP of the card when buying gaming capable laptops that have an RTX card to avoid being disappointed
@@nooneinpartI think it does make a difference vs the 4060, but at such low tdp it isn't worth the money
@@nooneinpart It does run worse. I watched a different review of the laptop and the 4070 performed even worse than some 3060 laptops. It's a complete waste of money if you're planning on gaming on the side with it.
@@nooneinpartit's a relative issue. The 4070 should draw 200w, whereas the 4060 should draw 115w. So if you're only giving them say 40w, that's 35% of the 4060 but only 20% of the 4070.
So you wind up in a situation where, because of the thermal limitations of a laptop, the 4060 can and will outperform the 4070 because you are getting more of the available performance
40 series cards perform surprisingly well at lower power
XPS 15 has shitty io and thermal, but the real dealbreaker is the pricing. For the i7 4060 model in the UK, they charge £2,149. This is INSANE compared to the competition from Lenovo and Asus.
Yup, Dell laptops are pretty Expensive for the Specs they Offer.
Not to mention that the macbooks now probably smoke the Dell on both performance and battery life.
@@ArthropodSpidey They will smash it on battery life but be nowhere close performance-wise. Identical spec premium Windows laptops from Lenovo and Asus with a 4060 can be had for only 1500-1600 ish a whole 700 less.
@@Ec1ipse.. nowhere close? What absolute nonsense.
Have you even used a M1 or M2 powered Mac? The M2 Ultra is a monster and doesn't require 250W to run like Intels chips do. They also run at the same wattage and speed when they're not plugged in.
You have zero idea what you're talking about.
@@ArthropodSpideyAnd even the XPS 15 has a worse port selection than a MacBook Pro. Who would have thought!?
My old XPS 9560 is still going strong, and it's shocking to me because I normally upgrade electronics more frequently. However, there has been nothing that drives me to do so with this computer: the screen still looks great, the battery lasts long enough for my use, and the power is more than adequate for the basic tasks it performs.
Also, there is no other company that I have found that matches the warranty of Dell for Windows computers. Every time I had an issue with mine it was fixed within three days. Sometimes even the next day.
Also in this camp. It kept going so I ended up putting 32GB of RAM, a 2TB SSD and a new battery in it over the last year.
The thermals are definitely bad under heavy loads. Surprisingly the throttling wasn't caused by the CPU/GPU but the VRMs overheating. A thermal image was shared around back in the day which identified the problem areas.
If you connected the VRMs with thermal pads to the bottom aluminium case and pointed a fan pad at it the throttling stopped.
After doing it I could actually play BF4 for longer than 20-30 minutes which is when they would get heat saturated.
Would definitely buy another. The warranty was great and it's easy to find parts and work on it yourself.
My 9570 exploded in a hot summer xD 1 year after warranty over so I’m done with them.
I've used a Dell Precision 5520, after more than 5 years of usage, to a Precision 5570 - not because of lack of power or functionality, but because the battery was beyond gone. These devices are brilliant and are even better than XPS.
That being said, while the warranty service is great, a 1 year base warranty isn't so much. When we got my wife an XPS 9570, we paid extra for the 3 years extended warranty.
my XPS 9550 is still running strong too! The only "repair" I've had to do is replace the battery a few years back but besides that, it's been doing great. When this finally kicks the can, I'll definitely be going for another XPS!
I would love to see a laptop shootout. XPS Vs HP Vs Lenovo Vs MacBook Vs Frmaework
Honestly, a must-do for these laptops is to open them up and repaste them with a high-quality thermal paste. You can also upgrade the thermal pads or use TG-PP10 for any chiplets for a little extra performance. Honeywell PTM7950 is also an option.
The stock application of paste oftentimes sucks, so this should help with idle temps, fan ramping, and frequency drops at peak.
You’re very confused about what the phrase “must-do” means
yeah, and void your warranty! A must do indeed
ah yes, just instantly void any warranty you have
@@Hentjim this wont void your warranty in most parts of the world i imagine (certainly wont in EU), and it shouldn't void it in NA either but i know NA has some horrendous warranty laws so it wouldn't surprise me.
Right the first thing that I should do after purchasing a high-end expensive laptop is to void the warranty.
I was considering getting an xps last week. But the lack of I/O was literally the one and only deal breaker for me.
The world of thunderbolt awaits you.
@@FlyingGuy123 we should still be living in the world of put the fucking IO on the laptop
I have like 7 wires sticking out of my laptop. It looks like it's on life support. I wish I had thunderbolt.
@@FlyingGuy123 The best life is to have 2 Thunderbolts (one on each side) AND the rest of the normal IO. When you use it at home, just use your dock, but when i'm, for example on the train, i'm not going to pull out a dongle for my usb a headset
@@alexanderbr8525 fantastic example. Made me think
I have the 2022 version. For those of you that are in university, don’t get this for the battery life. It’ll last about five hours. About three hours when the screen brightness is at 100%. And you’ll be doing that a lot if you find yourself in well lit classrooms or in places with outside lighting coming in from windows. Keyboard is great, trackpad is great, and it is quite a looker especially with a dbrand skin.
The battery life is the reason I went MacBook Pro rather than Dell. I really, really wish intel would invest in a truly power efficient architecture for high end laptops. Windows laptops just can’t compete with Apple. I routinely get 12 - 15 hours of screen on time from my 16” MacBook Pro with the display above half brightness.
11:02 I don't know if it is done on purpose but the XPS display and the screen behind it aligning perfectly is so soooo so satisfying !!
I would love to see this next to the Framework 16, as this is what I (and other viewers) are probably deciding between.
Gotta say the notch on the Macbook Pro has never bothered me. I don't own one (I own an Air) but the space where the notch is at is taken up by the menu bar, so its not like you're losing screen real estate.
The main problem with the notch is just that it doesn't support FaceID
I remembered Linus said something along the line, where they (the reviwerer) kept asking for thinner bezel with webcam and facial recognition but at the same time complaint about the poor webcam performance. This is what they wished for when asking for thinner bezel accordingly to manufacture. At the same time, LTT usually are more forgiving with Windows laptop than Macbook anyway
I kind of like how it looks.
It you spend 100% of your time on desktop, sure.
@@breaddough-vk8gf thinner bezel results in worse webcam performance which they complaint as well..
Would be great to see a comparison of Lenovo Slim Pro 9i ( MINI LED) and ASUS zenbook Pro OLED.
PLEASE, throw in a G14 while you're at it
I hope you'll also start talking about BIOS settings for upgradability: for example HP is well known to lock down everything, even fan profiles and RAM timing with the risk of messing everything up when trying to upgrade...
Yup! Love, love my 9530 (13th gen i9, rtx 4070, 32G Ram, 512 + 1TB SSD's). It is a powerhouse. I was worried at first since the qc on my earlier XPS's was tragically laughable. However, circumstances being what they were in my case, I took the plunge with this one, mostly because of specs. It has been working flawlessly since May and, even though, the FHD+ which I got can't compete with my 16" M1 Pro, it's still beautiful to look at; liking the matte! Anyway, thanks for the review, which is fairer than some on the TH-cam (I'm looking at you Josh! lol).
UPDATE: Why FHD? Because this beast with (16G ram and 512G SSD) came in at a whopping $3200+ (CAD), which is exactly what I paid for my 16" M1 Pro (base) last year. My M1 Pro still smokes the XPS (battery, speakers, display, etc.) but it can't "seriously" game.
I think I would really like to see a yearly comparison between windows and mac laptops. Like, make them do the same stuff, like compiling an Android project, editing videos etc.
You are too optimistic about XPS. I bought XPS 15 after seeing all the great reviews, including from you guys, and it wasn't a good buy. 2 years after buying it, everything started failing. Motherboard, GPU (literally died!), battery (which happens, but it's really bad if at the same time charging from USB C stops working until you restart your machine), errors about SSD missing during booting. It's constantly hot, no matter if you work on it or just watch a movie.
It's designed to look good during reviews but it's not a reliable working machine and the funny thing is, that all these issues are common for XPS 15. It's not like I had a bad luck with my unit. These laptops are just not a good business/working laptops.
Dell quality control is horrible please do not buy Dell, extremely disrespectful company to knowingly deliver so many lemons.
Sounds like a hatchet job of a review. Almost all components failing is not very realistic
hp's laptop *kept* the barrel jack, so they can still feed lots of power, but it also come with Thunderbolts for connectivity. That's how things should actually go.
I assume Dell dropped the barrel for thinness as well. I know they have a micro-barrel but still.
The Dell USB-C charger is 130W out of the box and supports up to 180W (you can buy that charger separately), so there's no lack of power - it is not limited to the standard PD 100W, like other laptops are.
I bought one a week ago lol without seeing the review. Well, it's pretty great, I can tell you that. I really didn't need GPU power but it came with the 4050. I immediately erased Windows and installed Linux on it. Everything worked out of the box. No issues with the trackpad or Wifi. For the power consumption you want to install TLP which dramatically improves your battery life and usage. Apart from that, the speakers don't sound great at all but that is because Dell most likely installs something proprietary for Windows to make them sound good. Not something that bothers me, tbh although it would be nice to have a solution for that.
My main criteria for buying it was:
- good keyboard
- good trackpad
- good screen
- linux support
And I got what I wanted so I'm happy.
Purchased this 3 years ago because of you and and it may be one of the better buys I have ever made, thanks!
The thing is the XPS 15 over the years has never been able to sustain its performance over a lengthy period of time. Thermals/Cooling have always been bad on it and I don't see Dell ever changing that unless they do a serious redesign of the chassis.
I had the XPS 15 with a 7th gen i5 quad core and a GTX 1050. That thing got as hot as the sun even playing 10 year old games and would throttle constantly.
@@breaddough-vk8gf Most of the upvoted comments here are about how poor the thermals are on this lol. I didn't buy it specifically for "Gaming", I was casually gaming on it a few hours on the weekend.
I also wasn't playing modern AAA stuff on it. I was playing casual older titles 10+ years old that would easily run on that hardware. Dell had very strict throttle limits on my XPS where it would downclock the CPU when it was even in the 80s if the GPU was pushed at the same time.
The ASUS G14 is smaller, lighter, and can actually sustain its performance because it's cooled better with more heat sinks and much louder fans. The Lenovo Slim isn't much heavier than an XPS and can also sustain its performance with decent temps.
Dell prioritizes aesthetics/quietness over maximum performance. That's fine for people like you and your workflow, but it doesn't change the fact that it can't sustain its performance over a lengthy period of time and it struggles to cool the hardware inside it when pushed hard.
I'm glad your happy with yours and maybe thermals have improved compared to my older model, but it doesn't change the fact that plenty of others have a differing opinion than yours on the XPS line thermals just by reading these comments..
Fact is there are laptops around the size of an XPS now that can perform much better when the CPU/GPU are being pushed to the maximum.
The Asus G14 is smaller than the XPS, under 4 lbs, and can sustain its performance under load.
Even Razer has had laptops the same size/form factor as the XPS that have better performance/thermals.
I get why people love the XPS. Its build quality is top notch, good keyboard, great screen, small, compact, etc.
That doesn't change the fact that the thermals are garbage on it and it struggles to sustain performance when pushed hard.
Some people like you don't care about that, but plenty of others like me and others in this thread do care though.
@@breaddough-vk8gf All caps? Just chill man. I get your team XPS in every way and that's fine.
It's ok if people have differing opinions about things but I'm also not going to keep arguing about it lol.
Plenty on this comment section have stated pretty much the same thing I have said about the thermals.
Either way, I hope you enjoy your XPS and glad it works for you.
@@breaddough-vk8gf Uh why are you even still replying to me? I said go enjoy your XPS and be happy with it and I'm not debating this anymore.
Is it really worth having any form of resentment towards a stranger online who has a differing opinion of a laptop than you?
You think the XPS performs well and doesn't throttle under your workflow.
I think it throttles easily and is a poor choice for many people that need a laptop with a high end CPU/dedicated GPU for demanding tasks.
Differing opinions that aren't going to change. The end.
Been using XPS laptops for 11 years now. XPS laptops get a redesign every 4 years, so I'd expect something next year (usually in the summer)
How many issues have you had with them? I always hear QC problems
@@fran2911 This current one (XPS 15 9500) hasn’t had any issues of note and has actually been pretty great, but the previous iteration of the XPS 15 from over 3 years ago (9550) had all sorts of issues. A hinge that broke after a couple years (current one has a much better designed hinge), there was BIOS issues that caused a flickering screen that only got fixed by downgrading the BIOS, touchpad issues, and more. The one before that from 8 years ago (XPS 14 L421X) had some issues too, so they’ve gotten better with each iteration fixing the major pain points
@@BlindMango thanks for the detailed reply!
@@fran2911where's the reply?
@@wilsonbotlero2363lol
Not hearing Alex mention Windows modern standby felt weird, it had become such a mainstay in his laptop reviews aha.
Also I don't remember hearing if it was ever fixed after those Windows devs started to look into it?
Non issue
@@8020Alive it’s absolutely an issue. The fact that I NEED TO boot into an unoptimized Linux distro on a laptop to get better sleep drain than Windows while traveling is a MASSIVE oversight. I got so fed up with losing 15%+ battery daily in sleep I went and bought an M2 MacBook. No regrets.
I shouldn’t have to dualboot PopOS just so my laptop doesn’t murder itself connecting to rogue Wi-Fi APs while I travel from worksite to worksite for work. If you actually care about using your laptop’s battery windows is ABSOLUTELY a non-starter in 2023.
I'm frankly astonished that Microsoft hasn't quietly gone back to offering hibernation by default. It has all the upsides of "modern sleep" without these ridiculous problems...
@@PhysicsGamerit’s even stupider when you consider how fast modern NVME drives are now. (Sleep stores in RAM, hibernation stores in storage.)
MS’s trend of trying to make laptops more like phones is incredibly asinine. I do not need background updates while my laptop is off Microsoft please politely get the F out of my space and stop using my computer for me.
@@firstwolfplus You can easily enable Hibernate though and Hibernate isn't that slow off of an SSD.
I bought a used M2 Pro Macbook Pro with 16GB of RAM and the extra ports for about $1700. This was my first Apple product, and it was worth it imo. Definitely don't avoid used current gen laptops if you can find them.
@@breaddough-vk8gf they aren't great, but neither are most tech companies
@@breaddough-vk8gf all purchases require weighing pros and cons. I don't agree with apple's policies, but many major computer brands (dell, HP, Lenovo) have been moving toward the same model. Very few budget- mid range computers allow you to upgrade in any way that is significant. I'm not going to buy a plastic chassis gaming computer with a 12lb weight for a daily driver. I also don't need more than 16gb in a laptop, personally (I have a 128Gb desktop workstation and at my job I have access to a supercomputer)
MacOS is fine. I'm not buying a laptop to game. I'm buying it for programming and productivity. It's not as good as Linux, although it doesn't have hardware compatibility issues like linux, but imo it is better than Windows. Battery life is impeccable and the screen is amazing. I like the keyboard and have gotten used to the functionality of the shortcuts such that it doesn't bother me anymore (other than a dedicated delete key)
You have to weigh everything when you make a purchase. There wasn't a better option for me, and I personally don't think many people would feel differently.
Apple is a sleezy company, but so are the other major manufacturers. Lenovo was my preferred brand previously, but their quality doesn't hold up unless you go for the highest end. If you aren't in the highest end there can be hardware compatibility issues with Linux. I need unix for my work. I wasn't going to bother wasting time trying to make Linux compatible and I've not had a single issue with compatibility on MacOS (for my use case)
Something to note as I recently bought an XPS with a 4070, it is actually cheaper to get it with a 13900H than the 13700H for some reason.
Would love to see a comparison between the new XPS 15 and the new Framework 16
I'm super happy with my 2022 model XPS 15. The only criticism I have at all is that the front edge is a bit sharp, so it can be difficult if your wrist is at the wrong angle. Other than that, the OLED is stunning, and the audio is pretty damned good for a thin little laptop.
How’s the battery life and does the laptop heat up quickly?
@@w_21 I usually use mine plugged in, and I've also set the setting in the BIOS for that so that it tries not to kill the battery from always being plugged in. But Alex is right, the battery life isn't amazing. If I had to be on the go, away from an outlet all day, that would be an issue, but it's not a problem for my usage.
@@RobBulmahn what about the heating problem?
@@jemsjayswal7458 I've never noticed a heating problem, but I usually don't push my laptop super hard (got my desktop for heavy workloads/games).
Same here, overall happy with my 2022 XPS 15. Don't use the headphone jack though, as it doesn't disable the audio changes (DSP) done for the speakers and makes it sound horrible. If it doesn't, let me know as that means I'm using the warranty to have a tech come out and check my laptop out. Drivers and windows reinstalls haven't fixed it for me and it makes the headphone jack completely unusable imo. Oh, and I'm not the only person with this issue.
The touchscreen is one of the rare times I agree with Apple. I have a 2022 XPS 15 and I disabled the touchscreen 6 months ago, haven't missed it once.
All what a Touchscreen on a Laptop gets you are ugly fingerprints on the screen.
I just never got the point of this on a Laptop. There's just no benefit to it except for the "uhh look what I can do. Does this make you Mac users feel jealous, yeah?" - no it doesn't.
@@Raja995mh33 Touchscreen is useful on thin and light 13"-14" laptops but 15" or bigger I don't see why you would need a touchscreen especially if the trackpad is big enough like on the MacBooks (the one benefit to getting a touchscreen on a Windows laptop is that they are glossy)
@@Raja995mh33depends, I use mine on my old xps 2in1 all the time. Though 2 in 1s are a different category really.
@@Raja995mh33 Navigation, scrolling, zooming, moving things around... there's many things. Sure everything can obviously be done with a touchpad, but if you learn to use the touchscreen effectively, it can be great addition to normal touchpad.
I own this laptop and I adore it. The webcam is trash versus the macbook, but no notch and Windows Hello is a pure win. I donøt care about battery life I have a dock at work and a dock at home for 3 display setup so I never use it on the go, and when i do I usually use it for 2-3 hours which it does not problem, lots more on powersaver.
I wrapped mine in dbrand skin and it's so awesome in all black carbon look, super professional. The OLED is amazing, the speakers are superb and the microphone array is quite usable. I got it with the 4060, no need for 4070 G-pute for office use (webdev etc.) but the RTX technology for the eye-contact feature on Nvidia broadcast is sooo cool! I can sit and code while during meetings and people thing I'm super attentive because it looks like I'm making eye contact with the camera. WIN!
I had a terrible experience with the OLED XPS some years ago, when it was working, it was amazing. I switched to an m1 mac air and by far the most missed thing is the OLED display
Just got mine a week ago and they weren’t kidding when they said typing on it is amazing. Literally feels like a cloud…makes me want to be more productive
Downsides: if ur doing hardcore multitasking or gaming (like having photoshop, TH-cam, downloads running all at once) (or steam gaming for hours) it gets REALLY hot at the bottom. Like an inferno.
Hate how there’s no USB or HDMI on the laptop. Dongles are cool and all but ….not for me.
Why are we calling this the best laptop? how much does the diamond cut edge weigh into that? thermals appear to be a nightmare, bad IO, and a zephyrus would give far better performance for a wildly lower price, even with a similar quality display. And when you include the massive amount of bloatware on these devices as well as insane pricing, doesnt seem like a great buy
I have an XPS 15 at work. One thing that seems to be a widespread problem is they have garbage audio drivers. I can't use headphones directly plugged in. There's so many undiagnosable problems so I just have a external DAC plugged in to listen to music.
Headphone jack, audio drivers, modern sleep and DWM are just a circle jerk of weird behavior lol they try so hard to make the experience better with driver handling and all their software to the point i think it makes the experience worse.... i have waaaaaaaay less issues with the last 3 PCs i have built lol
Say what you want about the notch-mind you, all you can say is you don’t like the design choice bc the notch doesn’t affect the actual use of the laptop at all-comparing that dog shit webcam to the MacBook’s should be illegal. Especially if you use your laptop’s webcam for meetings.
After using M1 Pro 16" for a year there is no way I'm ever buying a Windows laptop until there is competition for M chip from either Intel or AMD. You can talk about screen or keyboard or speakers all you want (not that Apple is lacking in any of those areas), but actual meat and potatoes of Apple's M laptop is all day battery life, no fan noise and pretty much full 100% performance guaranteed without power cord. Apple's M laptops are the first "perfect" laptops and what I imagined laptop should be like when I was a kid.
In fact, 100% performance without power cord is a tradition in MacBook Pro since the early days (the performance is only limited by thermals), it was just never marketed
Honestly I still think it's crazy that the entire point of a laptop is portability, but most laptops have such bad battery life you basically *have* to take a charger with you... which drastically reduces its usability. While the Mac is $1K more (and a shitload more here in the UK) as an overall package it seems a better buy.
Eeesh, the black level on the MacBook actually looks significantly better, despite the non-oled display. I guess that is due to the antireflective coating that perhaps is lacking on the XPS? Maybe it looks better in person than in the video....
Thanks for the awesome review as always. Would love to see you review the Lenovo Slim/Yoga pro 9i with miniLED and how it stacks up against the XPS.
Give me Framework or give me nothing!!
Or a vintage Dell, I own a few early 00s Inspiron models
1300 our first laptop (retired from regular use)
1501 my Jukebox
And a pair of 6400s for retro LAN multiplayer fun
@@chandler2 the 1300's battery is long gone, it flat shorted and probably would've cought fire if I hadn't been there. The 1501 and both 6400's don't think they have batteries (guessing the control IC chips died in them)
14:27 So bad webcam quality is perfectly acceptable just because it doesn't have a notch???
I just bought a i9-13900H, 32GB Ram, RTX 4070, 1TB SSD, OLED touch, Win 11 Pro. It was on sale for $2,664.66 with tax and shipping. I thought that was a pretty good price.
It should come with an amd cpu option instead of a bigger battery
Dell doesn’t really do AMD cpus. They have contracts with Intel and nvidia.
It would be nice if all laptops came with options to swap between performance vs battery hardware options, for people who use theirs plugged in vs those who use theirs out
Just bought one a week ago, still waiting to have it shipped. A few notes:
- The prices listed are from the “Black Friday in July” sale or the back to school sale (XPS had the same discount on both)
- For upgradeable RAM, all configurations you can buy use both slots (16GB is 2x 8GB) so just know that going in
- Other reviewers have serious concerns about thermals, I trust this guy more but was surprised to not hear anything about it
You put your trust on a wrong guy
@@jcfawerd haha maybe I just wanted to, family discount so I was locked into Dell
Funny how the webcam never got a proper comparison
I got an XPS 15 four years ago and on paper the specs really did suit me just fine, but buyers beware that the quality control and customer service can be absolutely abysmal. I've had a service ticket open for longer than I haven't, it kept breaking so often that I've gotten 10+ replaced parts, and 3 system exchanges. All under warranty, none of those were accidental protection. On the most egregious example, it was sent to the repair center to replace the motherboard and when it arrived, out of the box the fan controller wasn't working so one of the fans was dead, this showed with a blaring alarm in the BIOS diagnostic. THEY DID NOT EVEN CHECK THE BIOS DIAGNOSTIC BEFORE SENDING IT BACK. Not to mention the process also sucked, it involved talking with someone who had no idea what they were doing, having them remote in to update/reinstall the same drivers that had already been done by another rep, having them say "it'll work now", then repeat once it crashes again a few hours later. Repeat several times until they finally admit its a hardware issue and their fault and send someone to replace whichever part.
I've heard the quality control has gotten better over the last year or two, and my most recent system hasn't failed yet so I don't know, but I can attest that after trying to get them to fix a touchscreen issue recently that the tech support has not gotten any better.
Not to mention the cooling is pretty terrible, thermal throttles immediately under almost any load.
would be great to see your review of laptops with ryzen 7840u/hs APU's. should really be much better in terms of battery life+igpu as powerful as full powered laptop 1650
Hp already does hp 845 g10 with that cpu
I would honestly consider this if I could have two things:
1. Intel Arc graphics with the OLED screen
2. Buy RAM and storage separately (and no Windows license)
Would love to see Alex’s take on new Alienware lineup of m16/x16
Recently moved to the MBP 16” and I can’t use anything with less battery life as a laptop anymore, it’s truly portable computing
I’m still on my XPS 15 from 2018. All I’ve had to swap over the years is the battery and it’s still running great for my needs which include editing on premiere pro and photoshop. But I have been looking at possibly upgrading.
I'd love to see a zen 3+ APU laptop roundup, I recently got a thinkpad t14 gen 3 and the power/battery life combo has been a game changer, I hope by now it has more competition.
So, I just upgraded from 9510 11th gen w/3050ti to the 9530 w/ the Arc A370M. I was able to get this for under $1k USD at BB ($500) off. I did add 32gb of ram (shipped with 16) and a 1tb 990 samsung secondary ssd (around $150 for both the upgrades from microcenter).
Couple of things. I love this laptop. My 9510 was (and is) a mess. It's just too damn hot. So much I added extra thermal pads and turned off 2 cores. The battery life was terrible, like 2-3 hours. The new 9530 is amazing in comparison. 8-9 hours battery and the heat management is great out of the box. I was hoping to run linux on it, but the power management isn't good enough yet (might have something to do with the arc drivers). In windows though, I do think that the lower power dgpu (and some intel foo between it and the igpu) helps with lower power consumption. And as a developer/productivity user, I really don't care about the graphics performance. Don't knock the arc for us casual gamers, I'll be able to run my NES roms no problem ;)
I did cross shop (and buy) a couple other machines before landing on the 9530. I gave the LG Gram 17 a very good go. I picked up a 12th gen with 16gbs (1199 at BB), that I then returned for a 13th gen 32gb (1299 at Costco) I never even opened. The 17 Gram is an amazing machine, but it's just inferior. It's missing the premium feel of the XPS. I kept looking over at my old 9510 and wishing it would just do the Gram things. The biggest miss for me on the Gram was the keyboard. While at first, I really liked the feedback from it, it became fatiguing after a full day's work. I also tried out an acer edge 16 with the 7840u. Talk about run away fan ramping. Very powerful, but they really don't have it tuned yet, and I wasn't ready to wait. Also, I hate glossy screens. Oh, another thing with the Gram, it seemed to run linux (fedora/ubuntu) with no issues, reporting 10+ hours of battery.
XPS 15 is still the king in this category. Even with the 4th iteration of basically the same machine just with new internals.
Update. Power usage with Debian Trixie is much better! Kernel 6.4 I think helped alot. Only thing not working are the subwoofers. Almost fully functional in Linux now.
@@petrolfeverwhich hardware does ur 9530 have?
Depending on what you're actually displaying on it, the OLED will certainly be one factor for the lousy battery life.
However - Dell should've just used AMD or at least waited for Meteor Lake. I'm a little tired of complaints about battery life when people still buy Intel CPUs as if there were no alternatives.
A lower resolution screen with an AMD chip would likely improve the battery life a good bit.
Personally, I wanna see Dell make a Windows on ARM XPS 15/17.
@@levygaming3133 Probably a bad idea given that Windows just isn't that good on ARM.
@@breaddough-vk8gf Chromium and Office are great on ARM? How's the battery life on WinARM?
@@breaddough-vk8gf I don't think the battery life is so much about the Intel, it's the 4K OLED screen that's the bad idea.
I've been buying the 17" XPS laptops for the past four years and I love them. I do think they are overpriced so if you can, find a base version on sale and just buy the RAM and SSD upgrades from 3rd parties.
My 9730 spec is the 17" 4K i9 4080 - purchased with 16GB and 512 ($3,100) but upgraded after the purchase to 64GB and 4TB for an additional $270 thanks to prime day.
I am sad if this is one of the best windows laptops. I had one in the past and it was a pain to install graphics drivers and became more problematic the longer I had it. It became practically useless after the warranty ended. The worst thing was the boot-up glitch that posted a TPM error, that wasn't included with my model, that never resolved after multiple bios updates.
I have this issue with my XPS15 9550 for 6 years and I thought of giving the XPS 17 9730 with 4070 a try, it blue screened within the month of me not updating anything and it just had a motherboard change last week because of a BIOS flash fail…..
@@breaddough-vk8gf Not sure how having to decide between outdated official Dell Nvida drivers that crashed games when trying to play new-for-the-time games or New Nvidia-direct drivers to attempt to play games on release, which caused the XPS to BSOD during regular usage my fault, but go off king. Also, not sure how getting a BIOS error 3 years after purchase for not having something that was never included with my XPS my fault as well, but sure, blame me and not Dell. Shame on me for expecting a $2K PC from a multi-billion dollar company to work with minimal hassle! :P
The battery may be a problem for some, but in my experience this rarely matters in office environments. Most users have no problem with plugging in pretty much anywhere they use it. The battery is mostly used between them turning it on and plugging it in, and for two to three hours in meetings.
My point is that for the laptop's main target audience, battery life is rarely an issue.
Maybe I am looking in the wrong [places, but the i7 13700H with 32GB RAM and 8GB 4070 is $3200 USD everywhere I look. So $300 less than the MBP, not $1000 less.
I have the xps 9300 w 4k & touch screen and it’s amazing. Can’t game but for work it’s an absolute dream, so thin and easy to carry around my only complaint is the battery life. Thing gets like 5-6 hours max on performance mode
I was surprised by your praise of the trackpad. Have they switched to haptic or is this still diving board style? What graphics card did your 2022 xps have?
The gpu for the 2022 version was a 3050 I think he said?
I love XPS series its literally the best productivity laptop from dell
Really happy with my XPS 15. Got the fully loaded one from work a couple years ago, and then a few months ago they let me keep it when they switched our company laptops out.
Just give up my old working Dell XPS 15 9570, hinge is broken. Memory module sometimes not recognizing. 5 years pass, still great laptop. Interesting what my company send me as new laptop.
I have such love hate relationship with my old Dell XPS 15... I bought my XPS 15 (9560) based on an old LTT review of it and I've had problem after problem with it, like the WiFi card being so slow i had to change it, Thermal paste dying after only 1 year of ownership, Dell's god awful pre-installed sound drivers damaging the inbuilt speakers... But the icing on top is the WORST thermals I've EVER seen its basically a hotbox if the GPU gets over 50% usage it will hit about 60c (pretty normal) but if it even gets close 65c it WILL unclock the CPU and GPU to about 300mhz... Basically making it useless since even opening file explore takes 5 to 10 seconds and games will run at about 2-4 FPS, Worst part is when its underclocked it wont boost back up to normal speed even after letting it sit and cool off, it has to fully reboot... But then every time I pick it up to watch a video, Photoshop or anything that involves the screen I'm amazed it looks stunning, the keyboard is so damn good i don't even want to bring a mechanical keyboard... And the build quality is Impeccable! its such a shame i LOVE absolutely everything about it on the outside... but the inside is more rotten then an apple with boated software, garbage thermals, and nowadays specs so outdated that playing games on my phone is smoother...
TL:DR as much as i love the idea of the XPS (A Windows version of a Macbook) i don't trust dell to deliver due to how badly ive been burned (literally) by them before...
The driver for the built-in Intel graphics now installs the Arc Graphics controls by default, even though you don't really need them. You have to do a custom driver installation to install only the graphics driver and not the Arc Controls.
It was on my shortlist.
But I went for the Zephyrus M16 instead.
Same but blade 16. 1000 nits miniLED trumped ~400-500 nits OLED. Also wanted a USB a port for my mouse.
I almost bought this laptop so many times, but I didnt because of three things: size, thermals, and the webcam. I instead bought the Lenovo Pro 9i 14". Smaller battery, but MiniLED > OLED for power usage; 13905H has better thermal performance than the 13900H; it doesn't get super loud under load; and it has a 5mp webcam that does full HD without a hitch. Plus, at 14.5" with tiny bezels, it's significantly more comfortable to travel with than the 16" MBP I use for work.
I would really like to see a comparison with the Zenbook Pro OLEDs
I hope this level of speaker quality becomes the standard in Windows laptop world. At least the flagships should have this level of sound quality. Watch this, Lenovo, Asus, MSI and others. The webcam, though, HP's 5MP webcam is unbeatable.
The best upgrade Dell could make to the Dell XPS 15 is going AMD.
They could keep the OLED and the maybe the same battery size and it would get at least 2 hours more life on battery.
I have an Asus Zenbook Pro 15 with an OLED, Ryzen 7 5800H and 3050 Ti and I get well over 9 hours on battery. And it hasn't got the later, even more efficient AMD CPU.
What is the battery life like for the arc GPU?
The 4060 gpu also has 8gb vram. I'd go for that one instead, as it should also conserve a tiny bit more of battery life. Won't be as powerful, of course, but with throttling, I doubt you could tell the difference between the two in daily use and gaming. Only place you'd notice the difference is in gpu intensive loads and rendering.
Should it really help all that much? I mean ideally you’re not using the dGPU at all unless under load, at which point it’s a question of if it can get the work done faster than the battery life hit of the better part.
Purchased this same Spec XPS15, literally dying while waiting for delivery! Can't wait!
Would be cool for a comparison between the framework 16 or xps 15. Currently undecided (will use it for Linux)
I can say with my personal experience with the FrameWork 13 coming from an XPS 13 that the FrameWork has way better thermal management.
Also the XPS' hinges, fan bearing, display coating quality is super disappointing. All issues Dell seems to not care about fixing in newer generations of laptops.
For the FrameWork I would say the touchpad is worse but then again everything that is improved over generations can be easily upgraded.
Loving the FrameWork so far, can't wait to order the 16 inch model.
I'll also say I used an XPS 13 for Linux a while back buying the developer's edition thinking there might be better support. I was wrong. Not only was the battery drain awful due to the hardware trying to keep the network and Bluetooth on even when asleep, it also didn't come with the bios configured properly. This is just all the issues it had running Linux...
I have the current gen xps 15, and had most of the previous gens as well. I can wholeheartedly advice against getting an xps 15 if you will be daily driving linux. From intermittent touchpad delay, to terrible battery usage, to spotty wifi and bluetooth issues. And oh yeah, the subwoofers don't work either in Linux.
I still have a xps 15 9550 from like 2016.. the 4K touchscreen is still amazing to this day.. I’d recommend buying one for cheap to anyone that needs a quality laptop for everyday use.
Haha, framework computer go brrr
Lol
My wallet does not go brrr :(
@@mattgriffin0231if your wallet does not go brr for a framework laptop then it might probably not go brr for a regular laptop with same specs.
If you're cool waiting 3-6 months for it 😅
Until you wait almost a year for the release and then find out they're not supporting Nvidia video cards...
I was told by ASUS support that the RAM wasn't user upgradable and I'd void my warranty when I asked for more specifics on the RAM it supported. I had to upload a screenshot of their own website that touted my model as having a "captive corner screw to make user upgrading of RAM and storage easier."
Sorry dude but I would always choose the notch on the MacBook instead of the thicker bezel at the top. Also, you get EXTRA screen on the MacBook, not a notch within the same screen.
It gets even more ridiculous when you look at the webcam quality. It's just garbage BECAUSE they cramped it into the bezel there.
You know what actually sucks?
Paying this much for a Laptop, having 3 USB-C ports and then not even all of them having TB support.
The MBP
Also isn't a $1000 more for the same specs. You even said that you should not get the i9 version of the XPS but then you opt for the M2 Max on the MacBook. When you go with the M2 Pro and 32/1TB you end up with $3100.
Sure that's still more but could easily be worth it for the imo better display, better port selection that is not compromised and like twice the battery life.
The configurations of this laptop make it a deal breaker. The OLED screen should be high refresh rate, and it should be available with the ARC GPU. Also, the cooling needs a complete overhaul and Dell needs to fix prevailing driver issues. I think the Samsung Galaxy Book3 Ultra and Lenovo Slim Pro 9i are better options over this. Still, all three of these laptops have basically unusable battery life.
Slightly confused as to why you ran no productivity/CAD benchmarks on a work-focused laptop. Blender ain't enough
Because it smashes all productivity purposes with a 13700h and a 4070
@@profacecreator3810 Well no.
1) It's a productivity-based laptop, your argument would also apply to the gaming benchmarks which they did anyways.
2) It has a severely limited 4070 with a 50W cap. The laptop suffers under load and thermal throttles itself to death.
3) This whole video feels very sponsored. It might be a good productivity laptop compared to a 2015 chromebook, but it is not compared to others in its pricerange. a laptop with better performance could be had for 1k$ less from the likes of asus or lenovo.
I adore Alex's "dump it on the table as fast as possible" style of unboxing.
I found him a little slow this time around 🤣
The Dell XPS i have is 6 years old and still working. I hesitate to buy another just because it is much easier to update my current laptop than trust that a newer laptop is going to operate at the same quality level.
I'd be interested to see your thoughts on the new Zenbook 15 OLED (UM3504). I've been looking to get one before I start uni as both a portable work laptop, and docked with an eGPU for gaming, but have been slightly hesitant to pull the trigger
Remember kids. This isn't a gaming computer, this is a productivity laptop
That notch Apple added to their new MacBooks, feels more like a differentiating feature, than a useful one. The webcam on the new MacBooks, slap hard, no cap. But no Face ID. Maybe that would come later. But I don’t foresee Apple removing that Notch anytime soon.
When you look at the terrible webcam quality of the XPS, this alone kinda justifies the notch already. Also the MacBook has a noticeably thinner bezel at the top AND the screen is taller than 16:10 so you don't lose any screen to it, you only gain screen left and right.
For many of us webcam quality is not a deal at all. If you need better you use external anyways to get positioning right and if you just need something it is enough that you are identifiable
while i don't mind the dig at the notch, it would have been nice to compare the webcams to show if it was totally pointless or not.
I was thinking about getting this laptop for school, but the battery life was a complete dealbreaker for me. Instead I went with the Lenovo Slim Pro 7 (the 14 inch AMD version). I'm typing this comment on it now and I'm very happy with this laptop. The XPS is a beautiful machine but what good are looks when it has huge issues with thermals and battery life?
was is battery life doing office tasks with a mix of video watching?
I have been a Dell customer for 20 years... Seriously i have bought so many Dell computers they should give me 1 for free... but I digress.
The XPS 15 9500 i7, is the longest i have owned a Dell without upgrading to new one. I have had this for 3 years and ... it still works. Its only a tad more sluggish but still very much usable. My wife has a MacBook air purchased the same year, however, she does not use it extensively. Weirdly enough, if I do upgrade in the future, i may pay the extra grand and go Macbook pro. As much as I hate to say it, they seem to have a longer shelflife, and the battery makes a huge difference. It just sucks that one cannot upgrade so you got to max it out up front.
Since Alex’s review is based on complete opinion, here’s MY equally relevant review:
Anybody who has actually used a MBP for more than a few hours will tell you that the notch is basically unnoticeable. I forget it’s even there. Alex’s opinion on the notch being ”stupid” just demonstrates his incredible bias to give Apple credit for anything.
Sure, the XPS is a beautiful piece of tech; but until they get the thermal management and windows overhead figured out, it’s always going to be a 7/10 for me. If I have to take my charger with me to make it through a 4 hour seminar, it completely defeats the purpose of a laptop.
I wonder if Apple sponsored some LTT projects if any opinions would change? I mean, does anybody actually know anyone that uses a Razer Blade laptop? Linus has had 2 die on him now, but yet that laptop is often listed behind the XPS as one of the best you can buy. Not to mention the multitude of WMS and trackpad issues Dell has had.🤔
Source: I have a ‘22 XPS and a 14” MacBook Pro. As a regular consumer I decided for myself, and so should you.
I certainly know someone that actually uses a Razor Blade, or at least I’d like to think I know myself anyways.
If it’s not broken, don’t fix it.
I’ve heard the higher-end models have suffered in terms of thermals but almost no one needs the highest-end models. The model with the i7 CPU and RTX 4060 GPU is the sweet spot. I also wouldn’t mind seeing an Intel ARC A750/A770 or next-gen equivalent.
"but no one needs the higher end model" THEN WHY TF ARE THEY MAKING AND MARKETING THEM.
And it's such an easy problem to fix. A vapor chamber like the XPS17 or literally any new powerful windows laptop would instantly fix the thermal issues but dell is too cheap/lazy to add it.
@@houssamalucad753 why do the make they lower end model no one should buy either... In both cases it's marketing.
@@breaddough-vk8gf my dude I have the damn i5 model and it thermal throttles when editing video for a couple of hours, a task that is the very purpose of a creative laptop with decent specs like this.
@@breaddough-vk8gf and it does throttle by significant amounts compared not only to bulky gaming laptops, but also compared to similar creative laptops like the Lenevo pro 7i, 9i, Asus Zefrus line, Razer blade (this one throttles the same but with much more powerful components)
Do you know why that is? Simply because most of these utilise vapor chambers, something that Dell could and DID implement in the XPS 17 with great success, but are too cheap and lazy to do it on the 15.
I dont know why Alex is shying to admit. The Mac's sound was far fuller than XPS 15's sound.
Windows machine manufacturers will need to step up their game on the sound department, just as they did on the trackpad.
Hoping that Dell has learned their lesson and bringing back IO.... I just wish these come w/ AMD.... its such a tragedy that Dell avoids superior AMD Chips like the plague. Hell it might even fix their battery life issues.
@@breaddough-vk8gf Of being subpar battery that Intel is typically associated w/ most AMD equivalent mobile products can usually milk out between 2-4 more hours of battery vs their Intel versions.
@@breaddough-vk8gf
Nope its the exact opposite, intel switched to P&E architecture which has higher and lower clocks, AMD has never needed to push more clock speed and stayed in their lane due to just using more advanced lithography. Keep in mind Intel is still on 10nm even if you cant actually calculate the true die shrink of TSMC's 4nm. But its always been an intel thing to clock higher for marketing reasons and letting manufactures tweak the performance down to match thermals. AMD even has models that effectively cant benefit from higher clocks like 3DVache models that need to keep thermals cooler to not mess w/ the 3dVCache, in exchange you get much higher raw performance.
In comparable performance chips, Avg combined performance difference of +/- 2% for Intel equivalent chips at avg performance. But if you look at power draw Intel has both the highest and lowest power draws due to P&E architecture. The power draw will vary between scenarios but in nearly every case you'll see in efficiency metrics AMD can be anywhere from 0-30% more efficient in power draw and performance to watt when compared to intel's avgs. Intel will run on lower on draw if you need it to be more power efficient but knocks off over 25% performance but whereas AMD chips basically always on full blast but still doing so more efficiently than intel at its avg power draw. This was also why you dont see any mobile handhelds using Intel chips cause they arent going to be any different in avg power consumption and you can much higher avg performance per watt using AMD SOCs.
www.notebookcheck.net/i9-13900H-vs-R9-7940HS-vs-i9-13905H_14717_14946_14983.247596.0.html
In fact tech reviewers have been complaining about XPS Devices not having AMD chips for years because of Intel Thermals & Power Draw.
www.theverge.com/22958468/dell-xps-15-2021-oled-review
My only thing with things like the XPS 15 is battery life.
If something like this had comparable battery to a Mac it would be a serious competitor to a lot of people who needed good battery life and had minimal non Mac options
I'd love to see some productivity tests like the pugetbench for Davinci, Lightroom, and Photoshop. Especially compared to Macbooks. In addition, there are plenty of good deals out there for M1 Pros and M1 Maxs so it would be interesting to see how Dell's stock price compares to that price point (also performance-wise in those configs).
Agreed, doesnt have to be gaming all the time
This would be great! I don't plan on gaming at all on the xps lol
I havent seen an LTT Video in 2 years.
Man they got bad.
Just comparing to the whatever macbook this is and not even becnhmarks, just games.
Thermals werent referred to.
Its seems like somebody ordered it, they got a macbook and made a oneroll. What the heck.
They comletely miss the sense of discovery.
I am still using my 4k skylake xps 15. No reason to upgrade. It still does the job for what I need to do. I only replaced the battery with a new one an manually upgraded to windows 11 Pro. That's about it. Those things just do not break.
Edit: knock on wood lol
I'm keeping tab on this one for a potential buy in 2-3 months, but the thing that I'm concerned the most is the OLED burn-in, I would use mine primarily for software development, would the OLED be a potential issue ? Sad that this year they got rid of the 4k option.
Not to be rude but why would you want a 4k screen option? I use my computer for both gaming and productivity (from standard office applications to video editing, rendering and programming) and don’t really ever think the resolution of a screen is a limitation.
@@henryfield2153 For the XPS usually they come with 3.5 Oled or 4K IPS (for the 9500, 9510 and 9520), and I want the 4k option because it's IPS so I wouldn't have to worry about burn-in, and also a higher resolution gives you so much more screen real estate (i.e. more lines of codes, more content while web browsing,...), and compared to a 1080p screen it's night and day, also realistically 4k on a 15inch laptop is pretty overkill (I prefer 1440p) but those were the only options Dell has been providing for years, and I just don't want to deal with the hassles of having an Oled display so 4k is my preferred option.
@@henryfield21534K video playback, whether it’s your own videos for creator reasons, or 4K movie streaming from the likes of Netflix.
Also, Dell likes to pretend that 1440p doesn’t exist when it comes to the XPS line (even though that’s probably the happy medium here) so your only two options are the 4K screen they try to upsell you on with better brightness and whatever, or the budget base spec minimum brightness 300 nits if that 1080p screen that Dell is certainly skimping on. That’s why.
I have bought a Ugreen 140W GaN charger but my XPS 15 (2022) shows a slow charger warning. I have seen some comments that Dell limits the power intake to 65W when it detects a non-proprietary charger. Not sure if you guys have experienced the same thing and have some workarounds.
I have a 3rd party dock detected as 90W, so it is better thank my old 2019 XPS 15, every 3rd party charger has been detected as 65W. Everything over 100W are non standard USB-C wattages, only dell ones will be accepted over 100W
I am very glad with my 2023 model, just wish that this review came out sooner so I was more sure when I paid up
The XPS 15 sounds more complete in the sound test vs the MacBook. The MacBook is missing some of the sound in the middle of the V-shaped sound profile.
are the atrocious bloat maxxaudio drivers still present? did dell address the trackpad double click issue that has been present since the 9500 (3 years ago)?? Will Microsoft ever fix modern standby??? since buying the 9500 for a buttload of $$$ and having a myriad of issues I can't recommend the xps lineup or trust any reviews praising it
You're the one to blame, why are you still using windows??? Bill gates watching everything you do....
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