I really liked last year's version of the Dell XPS 15
with its great build quality and strong performance in almost every category.
But has the 2017 model, the XPS 9560
been able to iterate on that and remain recommended a year later?
We'll let's find out, shall we?
We're opening up a new merch store. You can check out some of our new gear today at the link in the video description.
Physically the XPS 15 has hardly changed
from the previous version
Not that that's the worst thing ever. The thin bezel, infinity-edge screen is now bordered by glass
instead of plastic which is a nice touch, and overall I can't complain about the clean look and solid feel of the XPS,
Even if it's slightly thicker than some other professional laptops like Apple's latest Macbook Pro.
Booting up the Dell XPS 15, the first thing that really struck me was how darn good the screen is. There are two versions available -
1080p and 4K, and both have excellent viewing angles and brightness.
Our model sports a 4K screen capable of greater than the full Adobe RGB color space
and it's frankly amazing to look at. My usual complaints do stand; Windows and
third-party applications still scale poorly from time to time and
higher resolution displays do negatively impact battery life
So if you don't have eagle eyes, you may want to consider a 1080p model
But it sure is nice to have the option.
Text and icons are crazy sharp making everything from using word to reading articles to watching 4K video
super easy on the eyes.
Another nice touch
ha ha, touch yeah
is that it's touch enabled
I regret opting for a non-touch configuration of the XPS 15 when I reviewed it last year, so
Glad we got that fixed this time around
IO, for better or for worse is basically unchanged you get two USB 3.0 type A's,
a Thunderbolt 3 port which comes with all the wonderful capabilities that it does
including the ability to upgrade the XPS 15 with an external graphics card in spite of Dell's warnings to the contrary and
to adapt it to run a 4K 60 Hz display. You get a full-size SD card reader and an HDMI 1.4 port
So enough to cover day-to-day needs and the ability to add a dongle if it doesn't.
Leading us finally into something different
Specs
It starts at a thousand dollars with our config costing a
little bit more with the quad core core i7 processor that boosts up to 3.8 Gigahertz in our experience
a fast NVMe SSD and a GTX 1050 graphics card.
General performance of the aforementioned hardware brings us back to things that haven't changed very much
Intel's latest Kaby Lake processors are more about
power savings and battery life is pretty good in our standard test, than they are about faster
Excel spreadsheet processing. However gaming is a
different story if you're a casual gamer who wants a sexy
high-performance notebook. I mean
4k ain't happening
But when bumped down to 1080p, which still looks quite sharp despite downscaling,
the GTX 1050 handles AAA games pretty darn well. And even in our synthetic tests,
temperatures remained acceptable with the CPU leveling off around 82 and the GPU at 77 degrees.
The fans did get a little loud
But they don't have that high pitched noise that some other laptops do and I was able to tune it out after a while
Moving on, the keyboard feels actually really solid with no perceptible flex
The keystrokes have a nice travel and remain quiet
But not mushy sounding and overall the XPS 15 is great for typing and doing up this review on it was a pleasure.
The exclusion of a number pad will be
a turn-off for some
But I understand the trade-off here. Compared to most 15 inch class notebooks, the thin bezels cut down on the overall X dimension
size of the device a lot, giving Dell only a couple of inches of space on either side
Below we find the trackpad which is excellent as well. It's got a
surprisingly
soft feel that makes navigating Windows feel like you're
gently touching a lover's leg. You know it's like hmmm
Upgrades are easy-ish, 12 screws
and you pop the bottom cover allowing you to throw another drive into the two and a half inch bay, at least in the
57 watt-hour model. The one we have has that bay taken up by the
massive 97 watt-hour battery and you can also change out the memory if you're so inclined.
We do have some constructive criticism though.
The wireless solution and Windows don't seem to get along quite right at this time although,
this was easily fixed by disabling some power management settings and a Windows service and
given how impressed we've been by recent Dell audio solutions, the speakers are
surprisingly bad.
I'm still unsure why they continued with the webcam placement on the bottom of the screen. When I'm on a Skype call
It looks like I'm staring off into space and placing my hand on the home row blocks the view of my lovely face!
I mean is it really that important that the Dell logo remain centered?
This is a huge problem on an XPS branded device that straddles the line between
enthusiast and
business, where being able to engage in conference calls is actually a daily occurrence.
But, with all those complaints aside, I enjoyed my time with the XPS 15 and I think the excellent screen,
aluminium and carbon fiber construction, and great keyboard
easily make up for its lame qualities. With our model coming in at two grand, It isn't exactly a
budget laptop, but it does pack a mean punch for the money.
As laptops trend towards being thinner while sacrificing performance
and IO, the XPS stands out for its focus on
pragmatic performance and the inclusion of a proper GPU.
Bottom line though, the XPS 15 is a great option for
basic use, professional tasks like video or photo editing and even light gaming.
Do you love anime? Do you want 30 days of free anime?
Well, then you're in luck because Crunchyroll's the site created by anime fans for anime fans. They offer the most current episodes of new
shows straight from Japan like Dragon Ball Super and Twin Star Exorcists and all the content on their site is
professionally subtitled
and if you use our link which we will have below the video you get a whole month of free anime completely ad-free.
That's right. You get to try their premium service for a month.
So you get all the benefits of premium - 1080p streaming,
new shows straight from Japan within an hour of their premiere and being able to stream to a variety of devices like your phone,
tablet or game console and if you decide gee this is pretty cool. I like it
You can continue your premium membership to Crunchyroll for just
$6.95 a month. So head to crunchyroll.com/linus
and sign-up today.
So thanks for watching guys, if this video sucked you know what to do, but if it was awesome
get subscribed, hit that like button or check out the link to where to buy the stuff we featured in the video description.
Also down there is our merch store, which has cool shirts and our community forum which you should totally join.