- So, Dell is up to their old tricks again
with the XPS 15 9570.
It's been on the market for a couple of weeks now
and we finally got our hands on one.
This is the Core i5 version
and I'll tell you why this is really
the only one you should consider when buying this device.
Despite the lack of significant changes,
it's still a killer laptop to have.
Stay tuned.
(upbeat tech music)
Alright, so for 2018, Dell hasn't really changed the XPS 15
and while upset about this, we went through this
with the XPS 13 until that was revised thankfully this year
but this is still the same old chassis from last year.
Not entirely, though.
The silver here is a little bit nicer,
it's a little bit lighter
and they also changed that logo up a bit
but you get the point.
Taking a look at the exterior here
we can see we have a lighter, silver,
less gray version chassis than last year.
It's very subtle but trust me, it's definitely there.
I actually like this, I think it looks a lot better lighter.
We also have the Dell logo which is now a mirror finish.
It used to black.
I like the mirror finish.
And when it comes to ports and IO,
well, the XPS 15 has always excelled
and it hasn't changed at all this year.
This is the exact same setup as we had before.
We still have a barrel plug adapter which is 130 watts.
That's really interesting
because on the XPS 15 2-in-1, the 9575,
it does ship with a type-C 130-watt charger
but for some reason they kept the barrel one here.
I think they didn't just wanna redesign it.
I'll explain a little bit more in a second.
You also have your USB port here, full HDMI.
There is your type-C port so this is now
full fundable three with four PCIe lanes,
that's a big change actually.
So yeah, you can use this with an external GPU,
pretty solid, and a headphone jack.
As to why they kept the barrel charger?
Well, there's actually a kind of a good reason here,
well, it's a lazy reason really.
They have a single type-C port
and if you use that for charging,
well, you wouldn't have anymore type-C ports.
So, you can use the barrel charger
and use the type-C for data, peripherals,
and external display, whatever you want.
Now, the real solution here as you probably imagined
would be just including two type-C ports
and what's they didn't change.
On the right-hand side, we do have our Kensington lock
and I still appreciate Dell's little battery meter here.
You press the button and it lights up,
gives you a quick visual indicator
how much juice you have left.
You have another USB type-A port.
And finally, we have the SD card slot.
Getting rare these days on laptops
and still what sets the XPS 15 apart
from a lot of other 15-inch devices out there.
Now looking at the bottom, we do have our speakers
which sit towards the front.
Pretty good audio, I haven't had any issues with them.
Dell speakers have always been hit or miss.
I've either had problems with their speakers in the past
with one blowing out but
I still wish they would move these to the top
but that would imply that they do a redesign
and they haven't done that yet so nothing moves.
Looking here at the full grill
at the bottom here for the intake,
there are two fans below there.
Now, they haven't really changed
a thermal solution on this device
but the fans have been updated and improved.
They are pretty quiet,
I'll talk a little bit about that more later though.
I probably should mention there are 12 screws
on the bottom including two underneath the cover here.
These aren't actually the original screws,
I've replaced these.
They are normally silver
and they blend in with the chassis a lot better.
I'll explain more about that though later.
The display, the hallmark feature of the XPS 15
or at least one of them.
This is a 4K panel.
There is a full HD version,
it's a little bit harder to find
but this screen actually has changed this year.
Let's go through those changes.
First of all, the bezels.
Well, they're kinda basically the same,
a little bit thinner maybe
but this panel has been updated
so it's still a sharp EXO display
but as a next generation model.
That means the brightness now goes past 400 nits.
I actually measured 420, it's a very, very bright panel,
I really love it.
It also now has an anti-glare coating on it
which oh, I'm so happy about that.
I've always liked the 4K panel on the Dell XPS 15
but with that glare, it's always a big trade-off.
But as you notice now,
you're not really seeing the lights reflect on it.
It's a really good combination.
Still technically a glossy panel, it's not matte.
It just has anti-glare on it, it's a really good solution.
In terms of color, accuracy, and performance.
Well, you can get 100% sRGB color accuracy on this
with 97% Adobe so this is a very good panel.
And it's also touch screen.
We should also mention there is the web camera.
Now, they did move it from the side to the center here
but it is still below the screen.
Still gonna be a kind of terrible experience.
It's actually a pretty good camera,
it's just the angle is not very flattering.
There's also no Windows Hello facial recognition
for that camera which is a little weird.
The 9575 2-in-1 does have a really nice
Windows Hello system there.
I think to keep this panel thin,
they didn't add it to this device.
So, though we don't get IR camera here
for facial recognition, we do get a fingerprint reader
built into the power button and it works very well.
It's very fast, I really don't have any complaints about it.
I do have to push that power button
a little bit harder than I would like
but overall, it's a really good experience.
Turning to the keyboard, not much has changed.
Although, they did tweak it up a little bit
and it feels nicer to me than last year's model.
Specifically, the spacebar, I'm having less issues with.
Now, this doesn't use a new maglev system
found in a 2-in-1 which I actually really liked
and had very shallow travel but it was very clicky too.
This one is still the more traditional travel one
and it's a good keyboard.
Really don't have any complaints about it.
Looking at the trackpad, nothing has changed this year.
It's still large, it's still glass, uses partition drivers,
really smooth, good clicking too.
Make sure though the screws are tight at the bottom.
They do loosen up, it will make the trackpad loose too
so make sure that isn't an issue.
Alright, let's talk about CPUs, performance,
and what you get with this device.
So, I have here the Core i5 version, it's the 8300H.
It came out this year.
It's a really good processor.
It's 45 watts, it's Quad Core
and it goes up to four gigahertz.
Now, I'm actually gonna tell you.
This is the device you should probably looking at buying.
The reason is, compared to last year's model
with the Core i7 7700 processor, this beats it.
So, unless you really need much more power,
I don't see why you need the Core i7.
And I really don't advise getting that Core i9.
It's just as not at a thermal capacity
to handle that processor.
Meaning that it'll actually underperform.
All that's ever been seen about the Macbook Pro,
well, that applies here too.
This is not the kind of device
that can handle the Core i9, which at this point,
I think it's more of a gimmick.
But just on raw Geekbench scores,
this thing beats last year's model with the GTX 1050.
Even the GTX 1050 performs a little bit better here.
So, this is a really solid device.
You're getting last year's premium model
for this year's mid-tier.
And you can get that for like $1,500
and that's with the 4K display
which is one of the best on the market.
You're also gonna get faster RAM this year.
It's 2,666 so that's a big upgrade over last year's model.
And the SSD is pretty good on here.
We're getting around 2,700 for read sequential speeds.
The write speeds aren't very good, it's around 400.
It's a Toshiba SSD, I don't know why that is.
The XPS 15 line has always been known
for upgrades and you can still replace the SSD,
you can still replace the RAM, there are two slots,
and you can replace the wifi card.
And that's all cool if it was easy to get to.
Now, once you remove the bottom panel,
they are easy to get to but that bottom panel?
Those screws, Dell, please, change your design here.
It's just really not good.
No other company has this problem but you guys do.
The screws are too soft so they're gonna strip very easy.
And it's not helped by the fact
that there's a thread lock on all of those screws.
So, I had to strip out all 10 of my screws here
just to get to this bottom.
And then, that's why I replaced them with black screws
which are just normal screws now
and it's a lot easier to replace.
But, this could be a stressful upgrade
if you're not familiar with doing these devices.
It's not the end of the world if you strip the screws
but you gotta be able to know how to fix that.
Once you open it though, this is what you can do.
You get up to 32 gigs of RAM in this
which is actually what I've done
and that's really fast RAM, DDR4, 2600.
The downside to this is you can't throw in any old RAM.
There's actually a good Reddit thread here
going through the types of RAM
that are compatible with this device.
You have to find very specific one.
Basically anything with a CAS latency below 17 doesn't work
and it's really kind of nuance of just be careful
but once you do it, it's pretty awesome.
To also mention, the Core i7 and i9 model
theoretically can handle 64 gigs but there are no chips yet
on the market so we can't actually test that
but it's just something to keep in mind.
Same with the SSD.
This device ships with a Toshiba one.
You get around 2800 megabytes per second
which is pretty good for sequential reads.
The writes though are around 400,
I was not that impressed with it.
I did throw a 970 EVO on this
and it performs much better so that's kinda cool.
Now if you want, the Microsoft store
is selling the Core i7 version with up to 60 gigs of RAM
and one terabyte SSD so that's pretty awesome.
You can also upgrade that RAM later on.
Okay, let's bring in this all in.
The XPS 15 didn't change this year a whole lot.
I'm really kind of disappointed by that.
I said this last year with the XPS 13
and then they did revise with the 9370
and that was a really nice change.
I would love to see this in white and gold
and have other colors besides silver.
I think the exterior needs to change a little bit.
I would love to see Windows Hello facial recognition
instead of a fingerprint reader.
I'd like to see an improved keyboard,
maybe that maglev stuff would be kinda neat.
And Dell has to really choose
what they want this device to be.
If they wanna put a Core i9 in this, by all means,
but design a device that can handle a Core i9.
Just don't slap it in the current one like what Apple does.
Otherwise, just stick to the Core i7 or even the Core i5.
I'm telling you, just getting this with the Core i5,
90% of you I think will be really happy.
The other 10%, you guys know you need the Core i7
and what you need it for so by all means, go get it.
So besides the fact that Dell
has not revised this device significantly,
I really enjoy some of the internal upgrades
they've done with this.
Don't forget, there's no other real other device like this
on the market right now that does all this
with its 4K display, really fast RAM,
really good storage solutions,
and really good processor options.
Plus, having all of those ports.
I should mention the Core i5 and now 32 gigs of RAM,
I'm still getting between eight and 10 hours of battery life
with that 4K touch display which also now supports pen.
That's a really good combination to have.
Only riled by the Surface Book 2,
it is a heck of a lot cheaper than that option.
So, if you really need a killer laptop out there
that's super powerful and can yeah, do some gaming as well,
well there's nothing else like the XPS 15 on the market.
And I can still recommend it,
especially if you can get it on sale.
Alright, so that's my quick review, the Dell XPS 15 9570.
Now, if you want more information about this device,
make sure you go to the description below.
We'll have a few links for you.
If you like this review, give us a thumbs up
and don't forget to subscribe.
Thanks for watching, take care everyone.