Customer Ratings & Reviews

Laptop is great. Sleek. light. Strong. Build quality seems very good, fast, responsive, has handled everything I have thrown at it.

My last laptop was a 7 year old Dell Inspiron that got slow and finally wouldn't start anymore. Of course this is such a better experience that I love it. I don't like that it comes with only two ports and one is used for charging, so only one available. I use things with old USB connections a lot, so had to buy the plug in with four USB ports. I only use this laptop at my desk so it doesn't matter that this thing dangles from my XPS15. So far no problems at all with this laptop.

I was looking to update my desktop computer and an older Surface Laptop. After going back and forth for awhile, I decided to go with a laptop and docking station to free up some space. The laptop is extremely fast and handles Windows 11 effortlessly. I’m not a gamer so I can’t comment on how it handles those type of programs but it works with Office applications without missing a beat. It boots quickly and has plenty of memory for what I need. Overall, very pleased with my purchase.

Good choice, and good price... Just what I was looking for, I increased an additional 16GB of memory, and a 2TB WD black drive, improving performance

Product was amazing, I got a open box and it was in amazing condition. Runs well and get the job done! Super quick, great speakers, and sleek/portable.

This is a great laptop. Very fast and portable. I love this thing! Get it on sale for an even better deal’

Perfect professional laptop. Battery last a full day, screen is fine for on the go use, and the keyboard is phenomenal.

Works pretty great but two years in have had problems with battery. I use it for engineering classes and I think problems have come from updates not hardware

Amazing laptop! Been using it for school and it has been outstanding

It is still a work in progress setting and so far I’m extremely pleased with it. The performance and clarity and speed. Very happy

Great laptop, does everything you could want from it. Battery lasts for over a day of light use

Have had this laptop for a few years now and it still runs like it's brand new!

Excellent! I love it, i recommend and the price that I buy was the best

I really love this computer! It is Touchscreen and super-fast!!

back space button was squeaky and 2 of the lightning ports stopped working after a week for video out

Review Summary (for those who lack patience), best Windows laptop you can buy in the price range. If you are comparing and shopping around - I’ll save you time - just buy it! Hardware configuration: Dell XPS 15 9520 Platinum silver 15.6” FHD+ display with webcam Intel Core i7-2700H Processor 12th generation 45 watt processor 16 GB memory 512 SSD NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti 4GB Graphics Dell makes a lot of laptops, and I’ve owned several over the years. I still have a Dell laptop from 10 years ago. I still use it, it works just fine. I had to replace the battery, but other than that - it’s been a champ.. As a bonus it has a built-in DVD/CD-ROM drive. I mention this only to convey that I’m a fan of Dell quality and longevity. The XPS 15 9520 is miles ahead of the old Latitude in every measurable way. Ten years of advances in computer technology are showcased on this model. The XPS 15 model isn’t a brand new model. This is more of a refresh of an existing model. But that’s not a bad thing, sometimes refreshing a model is better than completely replacing it. Which is the case here. This is NOT a gaming laptop. Dell doesn’t claim it is, it’s not marketed that way - but in a pinch it actually plays modern video games pretty well. But it just doesn’t have the components of a gaming laptop to pretend to be one. This is a business computer, meant for professional use and productivity. It’s been designed and fine-tuned to be a top performer in this category. First impression was very good - so much more than the last Dell laptop I reviewed. The packaging that the XPS came in was top quality. That may seem to be a minor thing, but when you spend a lot of money on a product, you want the whole experience to be top shelf. The last Dell came in a bare-bones eco-friendly brown box. The presentation of that gaming laptop was a huge letdown. It was a brand-new model, but because of the packaging it felt like it was a refurbished machine. The XPS 15 comes in a top notch box and inner-packaging. The whole unboxing experience is excellent. I give Dell kudos for nailing the details, it reminded me of the experience you get when you buy an Apple product. When you open the box and make your way in to pull out the XPS 15 you know you have something special. The CNC machined aluminum body with carbon fiber palm rest is just wonderful! The XPS comes partially charged (like all rechargeable devices), so for the first hour or two I didn’t open the XPS up; instead I let it get to a full charge. While it charged I got time to appreciate the build quality - which is first class (equal to Apple). The seams are tight and crisp, the ports are sharp and positioned well. The cast aluminum chassis feels great in my hands. It’s so well built that it feels like a solid chunk of aluminum, not a laptop. Dell equipped the XPS with one USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C™ (with DisplayPort and PowerDelivery), and two Thunderbolt™ 4 (USB Type-C™) ports, also with DisplayPort and PowerDelivery capability. In addition Dell includes a full-size SD Card Slot (which is very fast), a Kensington lock port, and a mini-plug headphone jack (YES!). The XPS 9520 is powered by an Intel Core i7-2700H Processor 12th generation 45 watt processor. The display is a 15.6” FHD+ thin bezel LCD being driven by an NVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 3050 TI, 4GB GDDR6 Graphics card pulling 40 watts. Internal storage is handled by a 512GB SSD, Ram is 16GB (which I will be expanding soon). The LCD screen on my model is not touch-capable but the enormous touchpad more than makes up for that. The backlit keyboard is superb! For such a thin laptop the keyboard is a joy to use, it has short key travel - but there’s enough and the feel is crisp and the clicks are solid. Possibly the best keyboard I’ve encountered on a laptop (even thick ones). After booting up and going through the usual Windows installation process, I was up and running and connected to WIFI. The Intel® Killer™ Wi-Fi 6 1675 (AX211) 2x2 connected quickly, and kept a solid connection. Bluetooth is at 5.2 and also connected quickly to external speakers and stayed solid. This beautiful laptop isn’t just a looker - it backs it up with performance! This is a fast, fast computer! Much faster than last year's model. Benchmark ratings showed how much faster this year's model is. The tests showed 1000 points faster on PCMark10, 3000 points faster on GeekBench and 5000 points faster on Cinebench. An impressive update from the prior year (which was a great laptop too). I do intend on upgrading the RAM to 32GB (up to 64GB is possible), and adding more storage using the available M.2 slot on the motherboard. Yes, you would need to open up the case if you intend on doing it yourself. If you aren’t comfortable with doing this, I recommend bringing it to the GeekSquad and let them handle it. It’s worth it. The 15.6” IPS screen is stunning, and runs edge to edge on the bezel giving it a floating effect. It’s quick and responsive, but it is a 60 hz model - fine for business but not heavy gamers. The 1920x1200 IPS FHD+ looks great even at steep angles, it is non-touch which is good and bad.I personally didn’t want a touch panel. Internal audio provides 8 watts of power going through two woofers and two tweeters. I found the sound quality to be excellent, much better (and louder), than last year’s model. Not quite as good as the new MacBooks from Apple, but darn good nonetheless. Older Dell models had problems with their audio driver crashing. I haven’t had that happen on this new model, hopefully Dell has sorted that all out. BTW, Dell offers this model with an OLED screen. It adds a significant amount to the purchase price, but if you have the funds - go for it because it is stunning! I really enjoy everything about this new XPS from Dell, from the moment it boots up and Windows Hello flashes two small red leds at me, identifies me without a password and continues to the desktop. There is also a fingerprint reader integral to the touchpad which you can set up for the same identification and security purpose. But I like the faceID route, it’s fast, it’s accurate. While in that same area let me mention the built-in webcam. I’ll say it’s better than last year’s model, but still falls short of what this model deserves. The 720p webcam is just OK, however Dell really needs to do this platform justice and put in a modern sensor. I’d also like to have a shutter for the camera lens. Since a lot of us are working remotely a webcam is very important, as is a microphone. I’m sorry to say that the mic also falls short of expectations. It’s not terrible, but definitely not up to par with the rest of this machine. Come on Dell - you can put in better components for not much more $. But again I’ll say both the webcam and audio are better than last year’s model. Because of the solid aluminum build construction and the amount of components built-in, the XPS15 can seem heavy. It weighs just 4 pounds, so it is deceiving. I personally think the weight is just right, and adds to the overall quality impression. Dell engineers did an outstanding job upgrading an already excellent laptop computer. They nailed almost all the things needing an update (except for the webcam). Everything else is much improved, including things like the silky feel of the display hinge. In its closed position the screen can be tricky to open, because of the tight tolerances. But once opened you appreciate the smooth feel of the hinge, and the screen doesn’t shake once you leave it in place. Dell even thought well enough to include an adapter for HDMI and USB 2.0 (for the USB-C ports). The 86 watt hour battery provided me a full day of use without plugging in (8 hours). Your mileage may vary… The power supply is rated at 130 Watts, recharging time is very acceptable. Battery life is so subjective. There’s a My Dell App included that lets you easily profile performance vs. battery life. The settings are: Cool, Quiet, Optimized, and Ultra Performance. These settings impact performance/battery life/temperature/and fan noise. I keep mine set on Cool (and screen brightness to 200 nits), and that has been perfect for my use. I use business apps primarily for work, Office 365, Blender, Adobe Premiere, Davinci, etc. The XPS renders and processes video quickly, better than even my desktop computer. If things start to bog down I simply turn up the performance and the machine responds fast! This is the best business / productivity laptop I’ve yet owned. It’s “Apple Quality”, fit and finish. The CPU and GPU are fast, very fast, and Dell manages to keep thermals down and ported out the back (rather than on your lap). The velvet smooth hinge, the carbon fiber deck, that large touchpad, the outstanding LCD panel and great sound. There are very few things to gripe about. It’s almost a pity that it runs Windows 11, which isn’t Dell’s fault. But there aren't any other choices (well unless you want to install Linux). Also why oh why must they pre-install McAfee software? I immediately uninstalled it when it started throwing messages at me to extend the subscription. The hardware is top-grade, and will be a solid performer for me for years to come. It is very impressive. Good job Dell! Great (best in class), Windows laptop!

Love this computer. Super fast. Miss the touch screen but very good product.

Its a power house. Best dell laptop ever made. Good discount on open box.

Very fast and reliable, you can do anything, play games, design

It’s only been a couple of years since I got my Microsoft Surface Book 3. It’s been a great machine for my purposes, and I’m still using it, but I decided to get a more traditional laptop, so I picked up the new XPS 15 9520 laptop from Dell. I’ll share my thoughts on this laptop and how it compares to others that I use. Most laptops have moved toward an ever thinner profile, and the new XPS 15 is no chunky laptop. It sports an all-aluminum construction with carbon fiber on the keyboard deck. This has been Dell’s standard recipe for the last few years, but it’s still great. The carbon fiber on the deck provides a “soft touch” feel that is so much better than cold aluminum. It’s not completely impervious to fingerprints, but it’s not bad either. Resting my wrists on the carbon fiber felt very comfortable. Build quality is super solid, with no screen wobble at all. This is not a 2-in-1, so the screen does not flip around to the back. The XPS 15 weighs in at a little more than 4 pounds, making it lighter than many laptops in this class, but not a featherweight. The keyboard is a joy to use and has just the right amount of key travel. It’s not quite as nice as the Surface Book 3 (which is thicker), but it’s considerably better than Samsung’s latest line of Galaxy Books. The keys are well-spaced on the full-sized keyboard, which also has an excellent adjustable backlight. The trackpad is very large and responsive. Overall, the typing and mousing experience is excellent. This model includes the FHD non-OLED screen. At this price point, I was a bit disappointed not to get a higher resolution screen and/or an OLED screen, but the screen looks great and, with 500 nits of brightness, is VERY bright. The model I got is an interesting mix of components. It features the 12th-generation of Intel’s i7 CPU, as well as an Nvidia GeForce 3050 Ti discreet GPU, 16 GBs of RAM and a 512 GB SSD. With enough horsepower for a high-resolution screen, it’s interesting that Dell paired this one with a 1920 x 1200 non-touch Infinity Edge screen. However, it may be that they wanted to provide an option that wouldn’t have to waste most of its power rendering screens, and this one certainly benefits from not having to work too hard on the graphics side of things. More on that later. Windows Hello works well, both with face recognition and fingerprint recognition. That’s a nice convenience, since you could be in a situation where you’re wearing a mask and your face isn’t recognized. I thought the camera was a little slow in recognizing my face, but it worked well enough. The port selection is adequate, but I’m not a fan of manufacturers removing the HDMI port, which I think could have been included here. It is arguable that an HDMI port is more useful than a full-sized SD slot (which I’m also glad is still there), but you’ll need an adapter to plug in an external monitor. Thankfully, Dell has included an adapter with an HDMI port and a USB-A port. It’s nice that of the 3 USB-C ports, 2 of them are Thunderbolt. The XPS 15 uses the same “trick” that many computer makers use to make the laptop look thinner. The side is chamfered, angling down from the small flat side edge to the actual bottom. This gives the illusion that only the shiny flat part represents its thickness, but in reality, you have to include the distance between the keyboard deck and the desk it’s sitting on. Dell could have done away with the sleight of hand and easily included an HDMI port and a USB-A port. I’ve never owned a Mac Book, so I can’t compare the speakers to those, but I am pretty impressed with the speakers featured in the XPS 15. They’re discreetly placed on each side of the keyboard, and they put out more sound than I’ve heard from a laptop in a long time. My Surface Book has front-facing speakers, but the volume level can’t compete with the XPS. The sound is fairly balanced, not too heavy on either treble or bass, but not outstanding either. While I wouldn’t rely on the XPS 15 for listening to an evening of music, these speakers are plenty loud for filling a hotel room with music when you’re on the road. In my opinion, the sound on this laptop is well above average, and blows away both the Surface Book as well as the Samsung Galaxy Book 360 Pro, which has speakers on the bottom of the machine, limiting their effectiveness. What about performance? Out of the box, the XPS 15 feels snappy. It’s got a wifi 6 card, so downloads are very fast. It had no problem with tools such as Visual Studio, Adobe Photoshop Elements 2022, Office 365 or Logos Bible study software. One of the tests I typically run when I get a new machine is to measure how fast Logos can build a passage study guide. This involves scanning hundreds (or thousands in my case) of resources for content related to your search term, and then presenting the results in a coherent fashion. I was blown away that this only took a few seconds on the XPS 15, instead of a few minutes on other machines. It felt like I didn’t have to wait at all. Photoshop Elements enjoyed a similar boost as well. I’m not a huge gamer, but I do have a number of games that I like to be able to play. Civ VI, Caesar IV, Europa Universalis IV and older games such as Zeus loaded up faster than I’ve ever seen them load before, and the GeForce graphics card had no problem handling the highest graphics settings. That said, I’m not a hard-core gamer, so I’m not sure you want to buy this for playing a game at high frame rates. The 60 Hz screen is probably not up to that, but it was great for playing the kinds of games I’ve mentioned here. For a more objective performance analysis, I ran the Geek Bench CPU test. My 2 year-old Surface Book logged a 944 single-core score and a 3255 multi-core score. The new Dell XPS 9520 clocked in at 1536 for single-core and a whopping 10330 for multi-core! That’s a 63% improvement for single-core and more than a 300% improvement for multi-core! We knew that Microsoft had to make some compromises to fit in their design for the Surface Book, but that was made very evident by this comparison. The Dell XPS is ready to handle anything you can throw at it! Battery life is great, but I’m not sure I can get the 13 hours that Dell estimates. Nonetheless, 8 hours of solid use seems to be reasonable. So, should you buy the XPS 15 9520? If your use cases line up with mine, I think you’d be hard-pressed to find a better laptop. Quality like this doesn’t come cheap, so keep that in mind as you compare to cheaper alternatives. The XPS 15 works and feels like a premium laptop. For doing real work with some gaming and entertainment thrown in, you’ll be very happy with this laptop.