Customer Ratings & Reviews

_____ *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.

_____ *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.

High build quality, good battery life, quick bootup times and reliable as I come to expect from the XPS brand

Amazing Machine. Seamlessly performs heavy tasks and gives a very good backup on battery power. It is simply a beast of a machine.

Well equipped laptop. Boots quickly and has plenty of storage space. Good battery life.

Great price for a lot of power in a lap top . Lots of battery life . Light weight .

This laptop is a big upgrade from the Microsoft surface I had been using before. It may be missing the touchscreen/tablet features of that device, but it lasts all day at the office with a bigger more vibrant screen. The touchpad is enormous and it can handle modern games with only occasional slowdowns. I'm very happy with my purchase

Amazing laptop. It feels very premium. The performance is great and battery lasts for the whole day.

Dell XPS laptops have always had a really nice fit and finish. This one is no exception. From the exterior, it looks almost exactly like my Dell Precision 15" that I use for work. Great to have this very similar XPS for personal use at home. The stock config of this model is great. Ample storage for a laptop (1 TB SSD stick) and able to upgrade in the future. The 16gb RAM is decent, but likely power users will want to upgrade to 32gb or 64gb (also relatively easy to upgrade). The latest i7 processor and fast NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 graphics make it so smooth for 3D renderings and CAD programs, and a little gaming :) Screen is large and image quality is good. Wish the pixel density was a little sharper just to get a but more on the screen, but really the 1920x1200 looks sharp for most use. Speakers and sound were good and for the size, battery life is good as well. The 130W power brick that comes with it charges it up in a fair amount of time. Overall, very happy with this solid and fast XPS!

I am unable to find something substantive that I did not find excellent about this Dell Laptop computer. The appearance is beautiful. The length, width, DEPTH dimensions excellent. The solidity, rigidity, and feel of the case excellent. The way the case is hinged and opens and shuts -- excellent. The interior design excellent in all respects with numerous function keys to control most everything a user could desire. The power on with face recognition functioned flawlessly in all light and angle settings. Everything loads rapidly, and the computer is ready to work in about 30 seconds. The battery life provided me with the ability to go through my 8-12 hour workday on a single charge. The resolution of the screen provides razor sharpness, brightness, contrast that are all excellent. The engine that drives this superb 15" laptop is up to fulfilling every task extremely rapidly and efficiently. Intel's latest generation i7 is quiet, and quick, combined with very fast mass storage via a silky smooth SSD of 512 gig and 16 gig of state of the art RAM. Everything just worked perfectly. BTW: keyboard feel and large trackpad feel superb! Anything left to be desired? I would have liked more ports, to include HDMI, and USB A and B. Dell did provide an adapter so that a USB A/B and HDMI device could connect via the USB C slots, but that is a small annoyance. A small adapter is just one more piece of equipment that may be easily forgotten or misplaced. I frequently use a projector for presentations and the HDMI adapter worked well ( but must always be handy). In short, what's not to love? I cannot think of anything!

This laptop feels premium from the way it comes boxed. There is a neat box within a sturdy outer box. The included accessories are the power block, power cord and a USB-C to USB / HDMI adapter. The adapter is handy being included because the only connections are three USB-C connections and one will be used by the power cord. Startup was fast and I was up and running in about 20 minutes, including installing all available updates. I really like the Dell Update application. It checks for windows, hardware and BIOS updates all at one time. The display looks great with the 1920 X 1200 FHD+ screen. I wish it had a higher refresh rate, but 60hz is fine for most applications. The 1TB SSD has plenty of room and I was able to play New World at the highest resolution and Call of Duty MW2 at the highest settings with descent framerates. It includes 16gb of RAM which is good at FHD+. If it ran at 4K, I would recommend 32gb. Battery life is really good as well and I was able to leave it unplugged for several hours during the evening under heavy use. The cooling is quite and charging automatically adjusts to maximize battery life. Overall it is an economic option for a good I7 processor, plenty of memory and the latest Nvidia series of graphic card. The 4050 GPU is not the most powerful laptop option but it has plenty of power to push FHD+ and has 6GB of memory.

The Dell XPS 9530 offers a large screen, plenty of storage with a 1TB hard drive, and Excellent Graphics featuring the GeForce RTX 4050. However, some things make this laptop not as great as it can be. PROS: - Premium Chassis/Build - Fast Processor - Storage Capacity - Graphics - Battery Life - Sound CONS: - Overheats - Sleep mode is finicky - Lack of Touch-Screen and Camera - USB The Dell XPS 9530 features a premium aluminum build. The laptop is not too heavy, but not heavy enough that you cannot hold it in your lap to take notes or watch videos. The keyboard is comfortable to use, along with the D-pad; clicking and moving the cursor is comfortable and easy to use. Additionally, the chassis is easy to open, and surprisingly, I was happy to see that upon opening it up that you can expand the memory from 16 GB of memory to 32 GB of memory. Speaking of memory, the Dell XPS 9530 includes 16 GB of memory, along with a 13th generation Core i7 Evo Processor for multitasking without the lag. I specficially tested out the performance by running Spotify, along with Photoshop (editing photos I downloaded from my Microsoft OneDrive account). Additionally, I had multiple tabs opened in Firefox. I did not experience any lag while I switched back and forth between programs, browser tabs, and music. Also, the 1TB of included storage is plenty, especially if your photos, videos, and files are backed up in the cloud via Google or Microsoft. However, If you edit photos/videos or plays PC games, you will be happy with the storage capacity. More so, I installed various games (including Skyrim) to test the graphics and processing speeds. I tested the game Skyrim with the GeForce RXT 4050 graphics card, and I have mixed feelings. First, the graphics card is capable of performing with PC games. I felt the visuals were stunning, but I experienced a keyboard that heated up and the PC fans turning on (a bit noisy) about twenty minutes into my gaming session. However, when I watched YouTube videos and streamed Netflix, I did not experience the keyboard heating up or the PC fans trying to cool down the laptop. Again, I was not disappointed because this is a decent 40-watt capable graphics card, but there are better out there. Next, the battery life was exceptional with the XPS 9530. On a full charge, I used the laptop for eleven hours before I received a notification to plug-in the laptop. I did turn the brightness down on the XPS 9530 to sixty percent, and I still had exceptional performance from the battery and display. The display is bright and vivid with beautiful colors, including deep blacks and rich tones. Lastly, the integrated speakers were loud; bass and treble levels can be adjusted for a richer unique sound. Music sounded incredible through the speakers, whereas dialogue in the movies I streamed was clear and concise. However, there are some cons that I need to address. One of those is the overheating I experienced when playing PC games. Oddly, the keyboard was warm to the touch (not hot), and I experienced the cooling fans reacting and trying to cool down the XPS 9530. Additionally, I felt the performance suffered as well, as I experienced a bit of lag from the game I played. Again, if you multitask (at minimum), you may not experience any issues. Gaming, on the other hand, the XPS 9530 (over time) did not perform. Now, when I was listening to music through Spotify, I shut the laptop and walked away from it. When I walked up to use the XPS 9530 again, I could still hear music playing, and the screen was still active (or on). In my previous experience, shutting the laptop activates "sleep mode." I attempted to do the same thing again, and the music stopped playing/the monitor turned off. I am not sure if Dell will address this later on with an update, but it is a strange occurrence. Although not entirely a deal-breaker, I expect a laptop of this magnitude to include a touch-screen. Unfortunately, the XPS 9530 does not have a touch-screen functionality. Additionally, the web cam on the front is only 720p. I was a bit surprised because when I went in to change the settings, that was the maxium setting I could adjust. Again, I expect a laptop with these capabilities to include a better camera and touch-screen functionality. Lastly, the XPS 9530 includes an SD card slot and three USB-C (two thunder ports) for charging and plugging in external devices. However, a USB-A port is not integrated in the laptop; Dell did include an adapter with an HDMI and USB-A port. I would have rather have seen both integrated into the chassis and design. The Dell XPS 9530 is an excellent laptop with incredible storage capacities, excellent sound and graphics, a solid processor with quick response and enough memory to help with multitasking. The concerns with the laptop are the overheating issues I experienced and the odd sleep mode function when I close the lid on the laptop. I would have liked to see a better webcam and a touch screen included in the future of this laptop line. Overall, the XPS 9530 is an excellent laptop for work functionality, listening to music, streaming, and minimal gaming.

The Dell XPS 15 with a RTX 4050. When is a gaming laptop not a gaming laptop? When it's an XPS. This 15.6" laptop weighs in just over 4lbs with a blistering Core i7, 16 gigs of RAM, the aforementioned RTX 4050 with 6GB of it's own RAM, and a 1TB SSD. The specs scream gaming laptop but the looks. . . the same gray as many other Dell laptops you'd see round a business conference table. Is this meant to be a workhorse or a playhorse? Well, let's get some things out of the way, the display is gorgeous. 1080p, beautiful, and bright. And despite it's size and weight, pretty generous battery life. Going through a normal day of work for me, this lasted 6 hours on the battery. Yes, this is lower than the rating, but to be fair, my workloads can be pretty CPU and GPU intensive. It's best to look at this relatively speaking. My normal work laptop of similar size and weight with an RTX 3070, it barely squeezes out 4 hours. And the fourth hour usually requires me to change it to a battery optimized power mode and turn down screen brightness. On the Dell, I just ran normally until it died. So kudos to Dell for something where I can likely squeeze out a full day actually untethered to a power cable without needing to compromise or what inevitably happens, retreat to my office to either grab the power adapter or remote desktop from my desktop computer to finish out the day. The Core i7 did it's job. Seemed par for the course. I didn't notice any difference from my other i7 machines. 16GB of RAM is pretty much standard fare, gamer or not, so again preforming as expected / keeping up with the joneses. Given the short timeframe, I didn't actually do much with the SSD besides installing a couple games and EDA software then bring up my work environment over git. It seemed snappy and benchmarking showed it was plenty fast - no weird read or write speed abnormalities or places where it seemed bottlenecked. Graphics performance is where this starts to disappoint a bit (beyond the looks). Again, this is relative, but the RTX 4050 seems hampered in the Dell chassis. Looking it up, it's limited to 40W TDP. Technically, this should be able to match or outclass the 3070 in my other laptop but sadly the Dell was not up to the task. To be fair, as a work machine, it felt equivalent. The 4050 was certainly up to the task for my design software and handled rendering 3D views and moving objects around with ease. I never saw any hiccups when routing a project or moving around across different project windows. Jump into a game, and you start to notice about a 20% difference in sustained framerate. Unfortunately, this seems to be the tradeoff for the great battery life. Usability wise, the laptop was mostly good. But there were a couple strange omissions which I'll get to in a moment. Yes, my lap did get a bit warm at times but what was nice is that my wrist did not have some moments where the palm rest was almost too hot to the touch. The screen feels well balanced, no worries of the laptop tipping over away from you when seated on your lap at the edge of a chair. The speakers were decent. Good, so I'm happy listening to game audio over them or watching YouTube videos. You can still tell a decent pair of earbuds are better, but happy on the sound front. So, the strange omissions. So, for something that seemed to straddle the work/play realm, apparently, a fingerprint reader is not standard. You can build these into the power button so I'm not sure why it needs to be a separate option on the XPS 15. Second, there's an appalling lack of ports. So, it looks like you have three USB-C ports (two are thunderbolt 4 so yay) but plug in the power adapter and that's down to two. And yes, you can output 4k+ video out thunderbolt but not having at least HDMI built in or USB-A is annoying. The USB-C nirvana isn't fully here yet and while I'm pleased with it as a work laptop on the go, looking at the way I use things in the office, I'd need to multiply USB-C hubs and a docking station just to get the same functionality I have currently with one docking station and my current laptop itself. So, while there are several things this XPS 15 gets well, I'm not seeing a good fit for it. It disappoints a bit as a gaming laptop. And while it gives with one hand as a work laptop it takes away with the other. While it's tradeoffs give it a thinner profile and longer battery life, given it weighs the same as another 15.6" laptop with a bit smaller battery and more power hungry components, I don't think you really notice the slimness of the XPS 15. So where that's normally an advantage, here it seems like an unnecessary optimization that perhaps robs the XPS 15 of being something better.

Great laptop. Amazing build quality and screen, even if it's not the OLED. Pretty good battery for the power you get, the face and finger scanner are fast and log you in quickly. I got the open box version "excellent condition", it came a little dirty which wasn't too big of a deal but it'd be nice if best buy at least whiped it down lol. Also don't bother with the i9, it's basically the same as the i7 version, plus the i7 runs cooler anyway. The 4050 is more than enough for the work I do (PSD, Unity in which the i7 is crazy fast in) plus some casual gaming. RAM and SSD are upgradable, great for future proofing. Overall good buy, try to get it on sale though, and I recommend open box if available.

I have been a fan of the XPS series for some time now, but I haven't used one in a while as my work provides me with a laptop, so I didn't realize what I was missing or how much had changed. First off, this laptop is gorgeous. While it is an expensive laptop, it definitely looks the part. I was using it at a coffee shop yesterday and had several people ask me what this gorgeous piece of technology I had was. On top of that, the screen has one of the tiniest bezels I have ever seen. I cannot believe it can fit a webcam in there. Anyway, in a darkened room, the bezel totally disappears and it just looks like an Infinity screen. Speaking of the screen, colors and sharpness just look amazing. The one thing that many may find frustrating is the lack of a full size USB port or HDMI port. That said, with the XPS series, Dell has always provided an adapter, and that hasn't changed. It comes with a dongle that fits into a USB-C port and gives you a full size USB port and a full size HDMI port. Now, my favorite element of this laptop is the battery life. It has blown me away. My work computer gets, at best, 3 to 5 hours of consistent use. I was able to hit more than 12 hours with the XPS, and I am so happy. Additionally, it charges incredibly fast. In the time it took me to make coffee, shower, and get dressed, I went from 50 to 100%. If you are looking for a budget system, this is definitely not for you, but otherwise, this is a fantastic laptop that will last for a very long time technology-wise, it is beautiful, yet rugged, and should stand up to fairly rough use. I can't recommend this laptop enough.