Customer Ratings & Reviews

Bear in mind this is only a week of use (this review is for the XPS9530-7701SLV-PUS): TLDR I do recommend this laptop, but there is one major flaw so far --the touchpad is too large. Have not yet had the fan/heating issues mentioned in the other reviews with the load I've been putting on it. I have not yet attempted to connect multiple monitors to it. If you were to do so, I would recommend using a independently powered device should there be a heat bottleneck of some sort. Appears to be fully adequate for what I've been using it (heavy trading markets, browsing, videos, multiple business type software open). Have not tried it for gaming. Windows 11 is poor in my first impression. Microsoft is great at making their OS worse and worse (look & feel) with every generation. Overly simplified dumbed down icons, worse than Win10 (which was worse than Win 7). This could be overcome by swapping out the hard drive until Win10 support is discontinued (perhaps even Linux bootable or internal HD). Feel of the laptop overall is superior (keyboard & touchpad feel is great) Sound is excellent, so far, but I'm no audiophile. Body (outside) seems excellent. Perhaps on par with or better than current MacBooks Keyboard is pretty low profile, seems pleasant to use. The bad: Touchpad is too large, imo, and I'm almost tempted to return it for just this reason. Larger keyboard would have been preferable to this oversized touchpad. I'm on a separate MSI 17" laptop with a touchpad that's only 4.75" diagonal (some 15" laptops have a touchpad larger than this) and have 4.75" is adequate. This Dell XPS 9530 has a touchpad that is 6.875" diagonal. There are some discussions on this advantages/disadvantages online that might be worth a look (if you're keyboard heavy, using shortcuts like I do, this might be deal breaker or a hindrance). Did they do this to make room for what they wanted to accomplish on the internals? I have no gripes with the function & feel of the touchpad, just the size. If you're considering expanding the memory, the manual for this Dell 9530 (i7 13th gen) says the max it can utilize is 4800. Thus, the Crucial website recommendation is incorrect (if the manual is correct).

Great quality and performance, awesome speeds and graphics. Good for gaming or work.

This machine is beast. it handles all engineering and software task effortlessly. Although the design is very basic and doesn’t look like fancy gaming laptops but can out-beat them in most of the aspects. It also has the best built quality in segment especially with carbon Fiber element

Great laptop! Very fast and the colors are great. I highly recommend it and I’m using it for Lightroom photo editing as well!

_____ *Pros: -Peppy performance from the latest Intel CPU, Intel chipset, and Nvidia GPU. -Fast NVME storage speeds. -High-quality IPS display with very minimal light bleed and edge-to-edge form factor. -Spacious and comfortable keyboard. -Large touchpad with great responsiveness and accuracy. -Comes with three Thunderbolt ports. -The four-speaker array sounds great. -Two M.2 2280 slots for hard drive upgrades and/or additions. -Two upgradeable RAM slots. -HDMI and USB-A dongle included. -Very good battery life with fast-charge option. _____ *Neutral: -No native HDMI or USB-A ports (have to use dongle). -At this price point, I expected at least a RTX 4060 GPU. -The display only supports up to 60Hz refresh rate. _____ *Cons: -Webcam is only 720P. -Have to pair my Bluetooth mouse daily. ** First Impressions. Build Quality and Design. ** As expected from a Dell laptop bearing the XPS moniker, my first impression of the 2023 XPS 15 was great. Even the box the laptop arrived in was good and memorable – the texture is smooth and dense-feeling, and the way the lid and internal dividers lift and fold away foreshadowed a well-built laptop with a great fit and finish. Once in-hand, the XPS 15’s looks and build materials did not disappoint. Although simple and kind of plain looking at first glance, a closer inspection revealed how premium it was – the metal lid with smooth chamfered edges that opens with just one hand, the carbon-fiber wrap around the keyboard deck that is smooth and easy to wipe clean, the perfectly-spaced keyboard keys with great travel, quick uptake, and low noise, the large glass Microsoft Precision touchpad with excellent tracking and responsiveness for easy gesture navigation, and the full-sounding audio speakers with a little bit of bass to make music playback more pleasant and immersive. The 15.6” display from Sharp is the best IPS laptop screen I’ve ever seen, and the edge-to-edge design on all four sides really maximizes your screen real estate. All of this could’ve been rendered inconsequential if the panel bled a lot but mine didn’t – it has the lowest amount of IPS glow I’ve ever seen and was almost undetectable to my naked eyes. The panel can get very bright as well, a good thing because I like to spend a lot of time on the front porch where there is abundant sunlight. With that said, it would’ve been nicer if Dell had put in a higher refresh rate panel for more comfort on the eyes when scrolling and reading on websites. My phone supports up to 120Hz refresh rate and the difference really is noticeable and a nice quality of life upgrade. On the topic of minor gripes, if I had executive control over the design of the XPS 15, I would’ve added at least one HDMI or mini-Displayport and at least one USB-A port. Dell does include a dongle with a full-size HDMI port and one USB-A port but, you know, dongle life is kind of inconvenient. I also don’t like that the webcam is only 720p for blurrier conference calls and video chats. My final gripe is with Dell’s choice of putting in the Nvidia RTX 4050 instead of the RTX 4060. At this price point, the RTX 4060 would’ve been a better fit and I think it would’ve attracted more people to the XPS 15 over the competition. I’ve owned 17 laptops during the past 20 years ranging from $600 budget laptops to $3,000 gaming ones, and the 2023 Dell XPS ranks at the top when it comes to build quality and comfort. I love the big bright screen, spacious keyboard layout, premium touchpad, good speakers, and the long battery life. ** Performance ** As expected from a laptop equip with Intel’s latest 13th-gen mobile processor and chipset, a Western Digital SN810 NVME drive, 16GB of SK Hynix DDR5-4800 memory, and the Nvidia RTX 4050 6GB GPU, the XPS 15 runs very fast and well. In other words, the performance keeps up with the premium looks of the machine. My usual productivity and work setup is having Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge open with ~30 tabs between them, music streaming in the background, and some remote-access and chat apps open in the background. I also do photo and video editing of my GoPro and drone footages, and the XPS 15 handled all of that just fine with no micro-stutters, jitters, or lagginess. Performance can be further improved if you’re willing and able to take off the bottom panel (eight T5 screws) – there are two user-accessible memory slots and two NVME drive slots. I’m currently fine with the 2x 8GB RAM setup but I’ve already added a second drive – a 2TB WD Black NVME. At this price level, a laptop should have excellent performance with great stability, and the XPS 15 definitely delivers. ** How is Windows 11 these days? ** The XPS 15 is my fourth PC that came preloaded with Windows 11, and I still prefer Windows 10 over it. I know I have to get used to Windows 11 with Windows 10 being sunset, but to make the transition easier and less jarring, I installed an app called ExplorerPatcher (author: Valinet) that restores the Windows 10 Start Menu and context menus among other things. I highly recommend it if Windows 11’s new Start Menu and navigation options irk you. I’m not exaggerating when I say that it has improved my quality of life greatly. To my pleasant surprise, the Dell XPS 15 wasn’t preloaded with lots of third-party apps, the usual suspects being Facebook/Meta Messenger, Instagram, Disney+, TikTok, Netflix, Candy Crush, etc. The only app I removed was McAfee security. There were, however, many Dell utilities preloaded, such as Dell Digital Delivery, Dell Digital Delivery Services, Dell Optimizer Service, Dell Pair, Dell SupportAssist, Dell Update, and MyDell. A few of them are important to keep, such as SupportAssist for handling warranty claims with Dell, and Dell Update for BIOS and driver updates. To sum it up, Windows 11 is okay but it still needs to improve the user UI and navigation experience in my opinion. I’m totally fine with its other aspects such as responsiveness, stability, and performance. ** Battery life and connectivity ** With its 86 Wh battery from manufacturer BYD, the XPS 15 is a stamina champ. I’m so used to 15”-16” laptops having so-so battery life, I was blown away by how long I could use the device. My BIOS settings (press F2 at bootup) for the battery charging mode is set to “Adaptive” and Thermal Management is on “Optimized.” The Windows 11 power option is set to its default “Balanced” mode, and with all my apps running in the background and the display brightness at 70%, I’m easily getting repeatable 6-7 hours of screen time. I LOVE it. Wi-Fi performance from the Intel Wi-Fi 6E AX211 adapter has been fast and stable. I’m experiencing issues, however, with Bluetooth connectivity with my Logitech MX Anywhere 3 mouse. After waking up the XPS 15 from hibernation, my mouse loses connection after a while and I have to remove the mouse from Settings and go through the pairing process again. This has been really getting on my nerves because I have to set up the mouse at least once daily. All of my other laptops work nicely with my MX Anywhere 3 mouse except for one other laptop which is the 2022 Dell XPS Plus 13. ** Is the Dell XPS 15 worth the coin? ** Mostly. On one hand, you’re getting your money’s worth from a laptop with excellent build materials and impeccable fit and finish, as well as fantastic performance from Intel’s best offering from 2023. The XPS 15 is fast, the display is bright and crisp with very minimal light bleed, and the ergonomics from the excellent keyboard and large touchpad are top of the class. On the other hand, it’s not really a good value due to some corners that Dell cut, mainly with the not-cool 720p webcam and the Nvidia RTX 4050 discrete GPU. If Dell had included a 1080P webcam and at least a RTX 4060 GPU at this price point, then I would’ve rated this 5 Stars. If you’re not a laptop gamer, which I’m not, then I would give the XPS 15 4.5 Stars. If you are a gamer, then I would say it’s only 4 Stars. With that said, I’m still very happy with my XPS 15, and it’s my favorite laptop and my go-to daily driver.

Solid power for the price. The screen is little dim. But my last labtop had an oled screen so thats probably why. I am pleasantly surprised how cool.The laptop runs with the graphics card and processor running at full

A lot of us rely on our laptops daily, and some people need more than the basics. The Dell XPS 15 (XPS9530 series) is several steps above, and gives you some room for more advanced tasks. Like most people, I do normal things like email and web browsing, but sometimes I will edit short videos, do motion screen shots of things I want to save, and more that can slow down lower-end laptops. You need something like this XPS 15 for these, and with only one exception, it does it. Specs out of the way, it has the latest i7 Intel processor (13th generation), 16 gigs of DDR5 RAM, a 1 terabyte SSD fast storage drive, and a NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 video card with a dedicated 6 gigs of RAM for video – this helps quite a bit with video editing/rendering over systems that have built-in (integrated) graphics. The 15.6” screen has a resolution of 1920 x 1200 pixels, and while I would have liked to see a 2k or 4k screen at this price point, it’s still very bright, colorful, and has lots of detail. Air cooling vents are on the bottom, and two really nice speakers are on each side of the keyboard (which is void of having a dedicated numeric keypad, though). There are two USB-C “thunderbolt” ports on one side, and one USB-C port on the other; due to how thin the body is, there are no traditional USB-A ports or even a HDMI port on this machine, but, Dell does include a dongle you can plug in that gives you one of each port if you need it. Not idea, but given the thinness, all they could do I guess. You get a year of McAfee Antivirus with it should you want it. Make sure you take the time to run all Windows and firmware updates when you set the XPS 15 up initially – there are several to be installed. Once that was out of the way, I’ve so far used it for large multi-megapixel photo files, as well as rendering short videos using an old Microsoft rendering program that I use to tax systems because it’s pretty resource heavy. While the XPS’s fan definitely kicked on when rendering video, it wasn’t obnoxiously loud, and not long after done quieted down again. Photo and video editing looks good on the screen. Playing video back at high resolutions didn’t skip or blip at all and also looked good on the screen. The XPS hasn’t overheated or gotten noisy so far regardless of what I’ve done on it. Battery life is going to depend on what you’re doing with the machine and I haven’t used it enough for a specific hour rating. But I would say that while I’ve seen better, I’ve seen worse. A few hours is what you’ll get with mixed use, but if you’re going to go out all day with this laptop, I would suggest taking the charger with you. Now, for the Elephant in the room – the web cam. Ohhhhhh and it’s a BAD web cam, too. It’s only 720p in resolution and in a slightly dim but not “dark” room, I literally look like a sloppy watercolor painting when using it. If the pandemic taught us anything, it’s that laptop makers need to up their game and include higher-res and higher quality web cams on their machines, and at this prince point, it’s completely inexcusable to have such a bad one on this machine. So points off for that. If you video conference, you will need to invest in an external web cam for this model. Overall I do like this XPS 15 model. Good screen, and enough power with the processor, RAM, and good video card. The screen is good enough, keyboard has a decent feel when typing, the trackpad the right amount of glide and clicking, etc. I enjoy using it, and if not for (I have to say it again)… the HORRIBLE web cam, this would have been a 5 star rating, but I have to knock it down for that cam – sorry. Get an external one, and you’ll be fine with this machine. Still recommended.

_____ *Pros: -Peppy performance from the latest Intel CPU, Intel chipset, and Nvidia GPU. -Fast NVME storage speeds. -High-quality IPS display with very minimal light bleed and edge-to-edge form factor. -Spacious and comfortable keyboard. -Large touchpad with great responsiveness and accuracy. -Comes with three Thunderbolt ports. -The four-speaker array sounds great. -Two M.2 2280 slots for hard drive upgrades and/or additions. -Two upgradeable RAM slots. -HDMI and USB-A dongle included. -Very good battery life with fast-charge option. _____ *Neutral: -No native HDMI or USB-A ports (have to use dongle). -At this price point, I expected at least a RTX 4060 GPU. -The display only supports up to 60Hz refresh rate. _____ *Cons: -Webcam is only 720P. -Have to pair my Bluetooth mouse daily. ** First Impressions. Build Quality and Design. ** As expected from a Dell laptop bearing the XPS moniker, my first impression of the 2023 XPS 15 was great. Even the box the laptop arrived in was good and memorable – the texture is smooth and dense-feeling, and the way the lid and internal dividers lift and fold away foreshadowed a well-built laptop with a great fit and finish. Once in-hand, the XPS 15’s looks and build materials did not disappoint. Although simple and kind of plain looking at first glance, a closer inspection revealed how premium it was – the metal lid with smooth chamfered edges that opens with just one hand, the carbon-fiber wrap around the keyboard deck that is smooth and easy to wipe clean, the perfectly-spaced keyboard keys with great travel, quick uptake, and low noise, the large glass Microsoft Precision touchpad with excellent tracking and responsiveness for easy gesture navigation, and the full-sounding audio speakers with a little bit of bass to make music playback more pleasant and immersive. The 15.6” display from Sharp is the best IPS laptop screen I’ve ever seen, and the edge-to-edge design on all four sides really maximizes your screen real estate. All of this could’ve been rendered inconsequential if the panel bled a lot but mine didn’t – it has the lowest amount of IPS glow I’ve ever seen and was almost undetectable to my naked eyes. The panel can get very bright as well, a good thing because I like to spend a lot of time on the front porch where there is abundant sunlight. With that said, it would’ve been nicer if Dell had put in a higher refresh rate panel for more comfort on the eyes when scrolling and reading on websites. My phone supports up to 120Hz refresh rate and the difference really is noticeable and a nice quality of life upgrade. On the topic of minor gripes, if I had executive control over the design of the XPS 15, I would’ve added at least one HDMI or mini-Displayport and at least one USB-A port. Dell does include a dongle with a full-size HDMI port and one USB-A port but, you know, dongle life is kind of inconvenient. I also don’t like that the webcam is only 720p for blurrier conference calls and video chats. My final gripe is with Dell’s choice of putting in the Nvidia RTX 4050 instead of the RTX 4060. At this price point, the RTX 4060 would’ve been a better fit and I think it would’ve attracted more people to the XPS 15 over the competition. I’ve owned 17 laptops during the past 20 years ranging from $600 budget laptops to $3,000 gaming ones, and the 2023 Dell XPS ranks at the top when it comes to build quality and comfort. I love the big bright screen, spacious keyboard layout, premium touchpad, good speakers, and the long battery life. ** Performance ** As expected from a laptop equip with Intel’s latest 13th-gen mobile processor and chipset, a Western Digital SN810 NVME drive, 16GB of SK Hynix DDR5-4800 memory, and the Nvidia RTX 4050 6GB GPU, the XPS 15 runs very fast and well. In other words, the performance keeps up with the premium looks of the machine. My usual productivity and work setup is having Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge open with ~30 tabs between them, music streaming in the background, and some remote-access and chat apps open in the background. I also do photo and video editing of my GoPro and drone footages, and the XPS 15 handled all of that just fine with no micro-stutters, jitters, or lagginess. Performance can be further improved if you’re willing and able to take off the bottom panel (eight T5 screws) – there are two user-accessible memory slots and two NVME drive slots. I’m currently fine with the 2x 8GB RAM setup but I’ve already added a second drive – a 2TB WD Black NVME. At this price level, a laptop should have excellent performance with great stability, and the XPS 15 definitely delivers. ** How is Windows 11 these days? ** The XPS 15 is my fourth PC that came preloaded with Windows 11, and I still prefer Windows 10 over it. I know I have to get used to Windows 11 with Windows 10 being sunset, but to make the transition easier and less jarring, I installed an app called ExplorerPatcher (author: Valinet) that restores the Windows 10 Start Menu and context menus among other things. I highly recommend it if Windows 11’s new Start Menu and navigation options irk you. I’m not exaggerating when I say that it has improved my quality of life greatly. To my pleasant surprise, the Dell XPS 15 wasn’t preloaded with lots of third-party apps, the usual suspects being Facebook/Meta Messenger, Instagram, Disney+, TikTok, Netflix, Candy Crush, etc. The only app I removed was McAfee security. There were, however, many Dell utilities preloaded, such as Dell Digital Delivery, Dell Digital Delivery Services, Dell Optimizer Service, Dell Pair, Dell SupportAssist, Dell Update, and MyDell. A few of them are important to keep, such as SupportAssist for handling warranty claims with Dell, and Dell Update for BIOS and driver updates. To sum it up, Windows 11 is okay but it still needs to improve the user UI and navigation experience in my opinion. I’m totally fine with its other aspects such as responsiveness, stability, and performance. ** Battery life and connectivity ** With its 86 Wh battery from manufacturer BYD, the XPS 15 is a stamina champ. I’m so used to 15”-16” laptops having so-so battery life, I was blown away by how long I could use the device. My BIOS settings (press F2 at bootup) for the battery charging mode is set to “Adaptive” and Thermal Management is on “Optimized.” The Windows 11 power option is set to its default “Balanced” mode, and with all my apps running in the background and the display brightness at 70%, I’m easily getting repeatable 6-7 hours of screen time. I LOVE it. Wi-Fi performance from the Intel Wi-Fi 6E AX211 adapter has been fast and stable. I’m experiencing issues, however, with Bluetooth connectivity with my Logitech MX Anywhere 3 mouse. After waking up the XPS 15 from hibernation, my mouse loses connection after a while and I have to remove the mouse from Settings and go through the pairing process again. This has been really getting on my nerves because I have to set up the mouse at least once daily. All of my other laptops work nicely with my MX Anywhere 3 mouse except for one other laptop which is the 2022 Dell XPS Plus 13. ** Is the Dell XPS 15 worth the coin? ** Mostly. On one hand, you’re getting your money’s worth from a laptop with excellent build materials and impeccable fit and finish, as well as fantastic performance from Intel’s best offering from 2023. The XPS 15 is fast, the display is bright and crisp with very minimal light bleed, and the ergonomics from the excellent keyboard and large touchpad are top of the class. On the other hand, it’s not really a good value due to some corners that Dell cut, mainly with the not-cool 720p webcam and the Nvidia RTX 4050 discrete GPU. If Dell had included a 1080P webcam and at least a RTX 4060 GPU at this price point, then I would’ve rated this 5 Stars. If you’re not a laptop gamer, which I’m not, then I would give the XPS 15 4.5 Stars. If you are a gamer, then I would say it’s only 4 Stars. With that said, I’m still very happy with my XPS 15, and it’s my favorite laptop and my go-to daily driver.

Had the laptop for 3-4 months before starting to get occasional BSOD's when going to sleep. Eventually computer crashed so often it was unusable. Two rebuilds, one from GeekSquad propoer, still getting BSOD. Premium support from Dell is like a first grader trying to tutor an assumed Kindergartener. They require "screenshots" of the BSOD, even when provided with minidump files, showing they do not know how to actually troubleshoot. They then ask to depot for up to 10 business days and reset OS a third time because they can't honor on-site service repairs if they don't know what part they are replacing.

Before going any further, I want to make a statement that I've never once said about a laptop. The Dell XPS 15 has great internal speakers, and hands down beats any other laptop speaker I've encountered. The Dell XPS 15 is a fantastic all around laptop build in a quality housing. Starting with the specs, this Dell comes with Windows 11 and boasts a full high definition 15.6" display, 13th gen Intel i7, GeForce RTX 4050 GPU, 16 GB RAM, and 1 TB SSD. This means that the laptop is well equipped to do it all, stream movies, power through graphics rendering, make light work of your heaviest macro file, and wrap it all up with some decent gaming performance. In the box is the laptop, power cord, USB-C to USB A / HDMI 2.0 adaptor, and paperwork. The laptop weighs 4 lbs, and feels sturdy yet lightweight on its aluminum chassis. The casing has sleek lines, scratch resistant diamond cut sidewalls, inlayed logos, one hand opening, and a carbon fiber look palm rest. The speakers run the length of the keyboard on both sides, and the precision touchpad is a generous 3.5" wide by 6" long. The perimeter contains a media card reader, headphone jack, and 3 USB-C ports (note you lose one when charging). To offset Dell has included a dongle to give you a HDMI and USB-A port. This is minor for me, as I typically work off a docking hub, but may be a point to consider if you run heavy peripherals on the go. The screen is a 15.6", 1920 x 1200 (16:10 aspect ratio) resolution, 60 Hz refresh rate LED. The display is an InfinityEdge design, this means the sides are only 1/8" wide, so the screen gets almost the full real estate of the casing. I use my sunroom as a home office, and with 500-nit brightness and anti-reflective screen, I can use this laptop, even with full sun behind me (see photo for example). Performance wise, the SSD delivers super fast start up and load times in comparison to many stock laptops. Software wise, I ran normal Office suite exercises, opened multiple browser tabs, streamed videos, took a video conference and the laptop didn't hang, didn't stutter, processed tasks quickly, and overall powered through everything I threw at it that I do in a normal day at the office. I also ran 3DMark Fire Strike Ultra benchmarking (typically used to check gaming builds) and the results were decent. This laptop will power most games without stutter, but you'll experience some heat and fan noise as you start to push the capabilities of the GeForce RTX 4050 GPU. Overall, this is my favorite all purpose laptop to date, it works well, plays well, is light weight, and has a fantastic screen and speakers. Minor nitpicks are that I'd prefer more ports built in to improve portability, I'd like a crisper internal webcam, and I wish the GPU was a bit stronger. That being said, for an off the shelf build that I can do a lot of everything with, I don't think that's worth taking off a star. I think this is a rockstar laptop to take to college, those that need one machine for both work and gaming, and for anyone who is forced to use laptop speakers (because they are that impressive).

This Dell XPS laptop comes very simply packaged in a beautiful box that can be used for storage or for other things such as paperwork and adapters. The instructions were definitely the easiest to interpret - since they use pictures of the actual laptop to show where the power button and ports are located. The laptop comes with the power cord and an adapter that plugs into one of the USB-C ports to provide a USB and an HDMI port, since the laptop is too thin to have them built in. This is slightly inconvenient to have plugged in all the time, but I worry about losing the adapter if I don't. The Dell XPS is a power-horse of a laptop with a large (1TB) drive, fast processor, lighted keyboard, and above all - a thin bezel with a stunning, high color, 1920 x 1200 resolution display. There are numerous ways to adjust the display including brightness, warmer night-time adjustments that can be set on a timer, multiple color profiles and HDR capabilities (high dynamic range) for external displays. Overall, this laptop is as solid as it gets. It's great for everyday use and superb for graphic heavy video editing, gaming, and videos.

This Dell XPS 15, 9350, is great for work and gaming. The overall form factor is small and lightweight. It looks like any other Dell laptop, but packs a good punch. It has an Intel 13th Gen i7-13000H CPU, NVidia RTX4050, 1 TB M.2, and 16GB of RAM. The screen is sharp and 1920x1200, which looks nice on a 15.6" screen. Large enough to see what you're doing. It has a plastic shell, and has 3x USB-C ports on the body along with a 3.5mm audio jack, and full SD card reader. It has Wi-Fi 6, ax, and Bluetooth. All of the latest versions of the major components. The initial opening brings the computer up to you and is easy to take out from the outer box. From there, it’s takeout the laptop and charge it up. The laptop only has USB-C ports. It states any can be used for charging. It comes with a USB-C to HDMI/USB-A adapter. You can run more monitors by USB-C or HDMI, the CPU onboard Intel Iris Xe GPU can run these. I had no issues with the Intel GPU working on monitors through HDMI or USB-C connections. For web surfing and Office the laptop runs through everything easily. The CPU is quick, and the laptop is responsive. The only bloatware was some McAffee programs, but they are easy to remove through add and remove programs in Windows settings. I plugged in a USB-C to Ethernet adapter and had full download speeds. The ethernet was at 112-115MB/s and the AX averaged 85-90MB/s on the same file download. Great for a wireless connection if available, or it connects at the fastest protocol available. The M.2 is fast and getting a 1TB module included leaves lots of room for programs and files. You can also add another one. Movies and streams render fine on the screen. The speakers are really good for a laptop. They are on the side of the keyboard and are good at stereo sound. The camera and microphone do a solid job for audio or video conferencing. The keyboard is a full sized TKL. Spacing and backlighting are good. Due to the limited amount of ports I connected mice and keyboard by BT and everything worked fine. For gaming, I played on the main screen in full screen to fully take advantage of the discrete 4050 GPU, and could setup a second screen for Discord or other secondary tasks. Make sure to set the Discrete 4050 GPU as the default video card. One of the manuals said secondary screens use the CPU GPU. I found that in windowed mode the games still used the 4050 discrete GPU even on a secondary screen whether USB-C or HDMI connected. But in full screen they come back to the laptop screen. The 4050 GPU does well with games. Use the determined default settings and getting a smooth 60 FPS is not an issue. It did not benchmark as well as dedicated gaming laptop, but the 4050 does fine at the monitor’s resolution. One advantage this laptop has over a more powerful gaming laptop is it only needs a USB-C adapter. It needs 130w, but even without a full 130w, you can charge it. Not having to lug around a huge and heavy power brick with a proprietary barrel connector to charge greatly adds to the portability of the laptop. It also does not get as loud or hot as a dedicated gaming laptop. It never got so hot I had to take my hands off the keyboard. Upgrading the laptop is easy. Just flip the laptop over and unscrew 8 screws, you’ll need a T5H bit, and starting on the middle of the sides use a plastic tool to get the shell off the base. Once you work your way around, the shell pops off. Inside is simple, two DDR5 slots and two M.2 slots. Both memory slots and one M.2 slot will be occupied. I removed the default 2x8GB modules and put in 2x16GB modules, and added another 1TB M.2. You’ll want 262-Pin DDR5 SO-DIMM DDR5 4800 (PC4 38400) Laptop Memory if you want to upgrade. The M.2 slot is a size 2280 and does not come with a screw to secure the 2nd M.2, you’ll need your own. The paper over the Memory modules is a map of the component locations and can be slipped on and off the memory. Upgrading to Win11 Pro is as simple as getting the upgrade through the Microsoft store or buying it elsewhere. After changing the hardware, a reboot and the laptop was ready to go. Overall, this laptop blends in gaming and working in a small package. With only needing a standard USB-C connection for power, it’s easy to take with you for whatever you want to do. The screen is a good size, and the 4050 GPU does a great job. You will need an adapter for HDMI, but one is included and very small, so it’s easy to carry around with you. At $2K it is a more expensive laptop, but you get a lot for it, and you can expand the memory and storage. It’s compact and the battery life is pretty standard, up to a few hours, depending on what you are doing. Work or play, this laptop has you covered.

When I first received this Dell XPS 15 laptop to review, I was a bit confused as to whom this laptop was gear towards. It has the power and dedicated graphics to be a pretty darn good gaming rig, but then it has just an FHD+ screen, and quite frankly no gaming laptop should ship with anything less than 2K/QHD, especially at this price point. That being said, since it does only have the FHD+ screen and can not be a converted to a tablet nor does it have a touch screen, I didn't see the power as a particular benefit to a creative (photo, video, audio, or animation). All of this was exacerbated early on in my testing by some VERY poor performance and a swamped cooling set-up. I have since changed my mind and consider this XPS 15 to be a solid 'all-arounder' of a laptop. It does nothing exceptionally (except perhaps Office apps), but everything it does, it does pretty darn well. On top of that, I'm impressed with how Dell has now gone all in on allowing consumers to upgrade/repair their own computers and makes access easy and they even put out a repair manual online. That is a nice consumer-friendly approach that a lot more manufacturers need to adopt. The biggest thing that changed my mind was how much the laptop improved with just a few rounds of updates. I always try out a computer pre and post updating just because I want to know what is delivered raw vs. tweaked. The performance of the XPS 15 on games and video encoding was mid at best. Now I like to task computers with the game Star Trek Online, not because it is a AAA title, but because it is so poorly optimized and has such cruddy spaghetti code running behind the scenes, that modern computers and graphics cards actually have a harder time running it. Prior to updates I was getting 17-18 fps regularly throughout the game and it sounded like a jet engine was going in my office with the fans in this thing. After all the updates and some tweaking of settings, to include actually upping the resolution and graphics settings, I was regularly getting 40-45 fps. Still not spectacular but actually pretty good for STO! So that told me that the guts of the XPS 15 are actually pretty darn good as a solid all-around laptop once things are tweaked and updated. The FHD+ screen is also much better than I initially gave it credit for, though I still think that a QHD screen is the bare minimum for this laptop. Here are some other things I like and don't like about the Dell XPS 15: Like: Classic styling: I had a Dell XPS way back in the day when they first started this current design and carbon fiber deck. It was an instant classic then and it is still classic now. Some may actually call this a drawback since they have not really innovated in this area in quite some time, but classic is classic. Keyboard: The Dell XPS keyboard is tied for my second favorite laptop keyboard with Macs. My number one is still the IBM/Lenovo keyboard but this keyboard is right up there with the best. Types well with minimal mistakes and a great feel. Trackpad: Huge and responsive. Love this thing. Normally I would pair a mouse with a laptop just for ease of use but I don't need it with such a great trackpad. SD Card Slot: I appreciate the inclusion of the SD Card slot, though this should be standard on any laptop larger than 13", it is still nice that they actually did it. Don't Like: Filthy Out of the Box: This is the second laptop I've received (the other one was not Dell), that was absolutely filthy with dust and debris INSIDE the plastic sleeve the laptop comes in. I had to use some canned air to clear out all the junk. Absolutely weird. Needs a Dongle: While great that they put the SD Card slot in, I'd rather actually have either an HDMI or USB-A port. Granted, they provide you with a dongle for those two ports, but one or both should just be standard. Final notes: I read another review on here where the reviewer said that the RTX 4050 in this laptop can not drive an external display. They are wrong. I was able to use my own hub to plug the XPS 15 into my 32" BenQ 4K HDMI 2.1 monitor and was able to crank STO up to the max AND it was utilizing the GPU. I was limited to a refresh rate of 60hz but that was because of my own dongle being limited to than and not the card. All-in-all the Dell XPS 15 is a solid laptop and if I could give half stars, I would seriously consider giving it 4.5 stars instead of 4. It is not cheap by any standard but it is built well, performs well, and is easily upgradable. If you need a solid computer that handle pretty much anything you throw at it, you could do far worse than the XPS 15 but not much better without spending much more or giving up something else in the trade.

So to start, the presentation is very nice. The company I work for uses the Dell Precisions and the packaging is exactly the same and the packaging they and these XPS systems come in is top notch. There's plenty of consideration taken with the packaging that the box the Laptop comes inside and even the box it ships inside of as well. That out of the way. The laptop itself is very nice. It looks identical to my work laptop and the only difference there is screen and the chassis color. Spec wise it's pretty nice. For the entry price though, I'd expect more. The retail on these is $2000. That's a good chunk of change to drop on a laptop. We've got a 1TB NVME drive of the Gen 4 variety. I tested with CrystalDiskMark and Atto and saw reads as high as nearly 7000MB/s. Writes were around 5500MB/s. We've got good i7-13700H with plenty of cores for chewing up anything needing to utilize them. We've 16GB of DDR5. The low point i find is the GPU. As I mentioned with the price, a 4050, notably only a 6GB variant feels a very poor choice. I've tested and used other laptops with significantly stronger GPU's for a much lower or identical price point. The only game I did get time to test was Diablo IV. With the settings on med/high, at 1080p with DLSS on, I was averaging 60ish FPS locked nearly the entire time. I'd imagine the card is a bit more capable. I wanted to test something like Cyberpunk as it's significantly more demanding but just didn't have the time. The other con here is going to be the Display. It's rated at 500 Nits, lacks HDR surprisingly which is a very odd choice but most importantly, it is only a 60hz panel. I find this to be a very disappointing aspect of the system. High hertz panels are a dime a dozen now it's getting more and more common to see systems with at least 120hz or greater. That would make this machine a real champ. If you've ever experienced gaming or productivity on something higher than 60hz, you'll understand the significance of having the greater refresh rate. Battery life I'll have to take Dell's word. I know with my work laptop it lasts several hours and that has an i9, 32gb RAM and 8GB A2000 GPU. The batteries I imagine are identical given the laptops are the exact same dimensions. I appreciate that dell includes and adapter with these like they include with the Precisions that allow you to connect up a standard USB Type A device and an external display or projector. There is a limitation here and that is the same issue I ran in to with the Precision. For some reason unbeknownst to me, Dell has opted to have external displays controlled by the integrated GPU, thus limiting the output to only 60hz at any resolution if using HDMI. If you have a Dock that supports HDMI 2.1 or has DP it may be possible to get a higher refresh rate. I however was unable to do this on my Precision. To me it's absolutely astonishing that this is something some System Integrators are still doing. If the ports were controlled by the dedicated Graphics Card, permitting they are so equipped, this would be a non-issue. I did test this with my Dell Dock from work over HDMI and it wouldn't even go higher than 60hz regardless the resolution I chose. Time will tell if this ever changes. Overall, it's really great laptop with an excellent form factor, but it's really hampered by the price and the rather limited GPU. The XPS still has that quality feel and build that has been a notable thing with the line for forever. I just don't think that a starting of nearly $2k is something I'd recommend over countless other options.

I spend a lot of time on a macOS computer. That said, I do switch back and forth between operating systems — especially for work. So, it’s really advantageous for me to have a solid Windows laptop handy. This Dell laptop was incredibly surprising to me. It was easy to set up and a pleasure to use. It has plenty of power for standard tasks and the only thing that I feel it wouldn’t work well with is heavy photo or video editing. Set-up If you have been through one Windows laptop setup, you have been through them all. I got it out, tapped the power button and walked through the setup screens. I had to enter my Windows account information during this process and connect it to my WiFi. Once I got through the initial setup, I visited the Windows Update Center (located in System Settings) and walked through all of the updates that were needed. There were quite a few and it took about an hour to get through them all. Display I found the display to be adequate for my needs. It has a clear resolution — even if it’s not 4K. Text was clean and easy to read and videos looked great. Since it’s a 15-inch screen, it’s suitable for any type of productivity task and is even good for entertainment purposes. Physical Appearance This is one area where I felt that the Dell really shined. The laptop looks amazing. It’s got a very sleek outer case and when you open it up, there is a carbon fiber covering that really looks classy. There is a nice contrast between the light silver outside and the darked interior. If I were buying a laptop on looks alone, this one would be at the top of the list. Keyboard The keyboard feels like a standard laptop keyboard. The keys are easy to press and I really enjoyed typing on the soft rebounding keyboard. The keys are well spaced and I didn’t feel that my typing style was hindered in any way. Speakers The speakers are quite loud on the laptop. I tested them out with a number of audio tracks and found that they held their own. Some laptops really need a good external set of speakers, but the built-in ones on this laptop are pretty great. Speed/Performance I ran a couple of performance tests on the Dell — Geekbench and Novabench — to see how it would measure up. The overall Novabench score was 3360 which looks to be in line with other computers with a similar processor. The Geekbench score was 2551 Single Core / 12808 Multi-Core. This also seemed to be an average score among machines using the same/similar processor. I never had any issues with the laptop’s performance. I thought it did a great job with most tasks and aside from the bloatware that was pre-installed on it, the laptop is a great option for most users. Final Thoughts While the price tag might spook some potential users away from this laptop, you really get a lot for the value. First of all, the laptop has 2 Thunderbolt 4 ports. Those aren’t cheap. Second, it does come with an external hub for connecting to HDMI or USB-A peripherals/devices. Finally, it has one of the newest processors available and it can tear through a large variety of tasks. It’s a great computer that can provide a lot of value to any type of user.

I did a fair amount of research on the best PC/Linux laptop for software development and light gaming. Although macOS and the Mac's have somewhat superior hardware, and amazngly low power requirements, I have numerous issues with macOS itself, and lack of configurability. When the inability to updgrade RAM and SSD storage, a PC that can run Windows and Fedora/Debian Linux out of the box, at native speeds, a PC is a better option. There is still a large amount of x86 centric development tools, and macOS cannot address this. The discreet graphics card on the XPS was the clincher. In terms of hardware comparisons to the 14" MacbookPro, the Dell has a comparaible keyboard, and a trackpad that is almost as good as the Mac's. A full complement of keys on the XPS's keyboard, for software development, is a pretty big deal. The clincher was the availability of an Open Box XPS for about 1/2 the cost of a comparable Macbook, prior to my upgrading the XPS. I put in 32 GB RAM, and an addtional 1 TB SSD. The costs for that on a Macbook are crazy high, and have to be made at the time of purchase.

This Dell XPS 15 is the perfect portable laptop to replace a desktop computer—a tremendous multi-use laptop for students, businesses, and professionals. The sleek, thin, and aluminum design makes it pleasant to carry around. It is not lightweight but not too heavy either; it weighs 4 lbs. and is 3.25 oz (1.9kg), like the average for this type of laptop. The charging brick is thin, the cable is 9 feet long, and the connection to the laptop is USB type C. The display is matte and non-touch, with excellent color accuracy, anti-reflective and lovely resolution. I have an issue seeing the display for both indoor and outdoor use. The trackpad is large and responsive. The speakers are excellent. The heat is well managed and disbursed underneath the bottom and rear vents. It has three (3) USB-C ports, which are full function for (1)data, (2)charge, (3) display out, and (4) Thunderbolt 4. The box includes a hub adapter to make one of these ports into a USB Type A and HDMI. A full-size SD card slot and a 3.5 mm microphone/ headphone jack exist on the right side of the XPS. On the left is a Kensington Security Slot to secure the laptop to a desk with a cable lock (not included). It has a sleek and durable design, fast response and performance, and features make this a premium Windows.

I did a lot of research for this laptop. For the price, it had a lot features I was looking for. I did have to compromise on some things, but I can work around them. I wanted a laptop that can handle photo and video editing, so I needed a computer with a graphic card storage that can handle the task. The display is easy on the eyes and the processor is fast. I highly recommend this laptop for someone who is looking for a great value.

Great screen resolution. Responsive keyboard. Fast with excellent storage capacity.

Great laptop, it's pretty power efficient and has good battery. I can game, edit photos, and use Unity for my 3D models. RAM, SSD, and WiFi are all upgradable, and FHD screen is pretty nice even if it's not the OLED. One thing I do wish was that the laptop would be allowed to use 3rd party chargers, it sucks that I'm stuck with dells OEM chargers.