The ugly, the bad and the good?
I haven't posted in a while and saw it fitting to post a review of a laptop I recently had, seeing as I seem to cover a range of things tech on this blog. This post is a review of the Dell XPS 15 9550.
The specs seem to fit the need of the type of machine I needed, which was great news as you'll often find this level of spec in business laptops (which are sometimes hard to obtain) and gaming laptops, (which is a bit overkill for my needs) so the spec sheet glows. A strong powerful i7 chip, with hyperthreading, 16GB of DDR4 RAM, ample storage space and of course that infinity edge display all paired with a promising battery life.
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| That nearly 'besseless' display looks amazing and it's a pretty cool USP. |
Dell offers several variants of this laptop my model included:
- Intel core i7 6700HQ - 2.6Ghz base with turbo-boost to 3.5Ghz
- 16GB DDR4 2133Mhz RAM
- 84Wh battery - up to 17hrs (according to Dell)
- 512GB Toshiba NVMe Solid state drive
- Nvidia GTX 960m with 2GB GDDR5 RAM
However, does this all come at a bit too much of a cost? Let's just get some issues out of the way first.
The ugly:
This machine has a lot going for it. It's good on paper, looks sleek and the battery life nearly lives up to a 15" MacBook pro. However, if you have a tad of OCD like me - there are some things that are seriously going to bother you and for a price point of £1000 plus, some of these issues aren't actually acceptable. I had did an RMA on my first machine, only for my second machine to have the same faults:
- The speakers crackle when changing brightness, plugging in the laptop and often output frequency that cause the sound to resonate off the casing. The crackle is believed to be caused by Dell's Maxx Audio setup, but even after uninstalling software and drivers - it was still there
- My first unit has black smears on the screen, only visible at some viewing angles and 100% brightness, but not satisfactory for the price. While the second machine was not as bad, but there were still slight defects on the screen.
- Putting the screen brightness below 25% causes pretty intense flickering of the screen. This is known to be an Intel issue, with their integrated graphic chips. Still, I'd rather have an older, less buggy chipset, then headaches while working at night
- Sleep/Resume issue. Both my units struggled after Windows 10 put the laptop in a hibernated state. Most commonly I'd get this issue in the morning, after leaving my laptop closed for the night. Upon waking it, you spend about 15 seconds looking at a blank screen and the only indication the system is actually on is the power light.
- My second machine had a column of back-light keys that were always darker than the rest. Something small, but noticeable when working at night.
So, I sent it back. this may sound like complaining, but this isn't something I want from a machine which is nearly at 15" base MacBook Pro pricing. It just seems like Dell have clumped a load of components into a shell and it all added up to a mediocre user exprience.
The bad:
Every laptop has its floors. I know no system is perfect and I've had experience with quite a few. However, with that XPS label and the price [*I know, I mentioned it... AGAIN*] you should be able to expect close as you'll ever get to a perfect system.
But for me personally, you just. Don't.
But for me personally, you just. Don't.
The battery indicator:
The right hand side I/O has a SD card slot, USB 3.0, Kensington Lock and a battery indicator. The battery indicator has 5 LED lights, each representing 20% of the battery. Now while this is cool, I just didn't use it and ultimately felt something else could have been put there. For example, it would have been great to see an extra USB Type C / Thunderbolt port instead. Even Apple did away with the battery indicator on their macbooks sometime ago.
The hinge:
My configuration came with a 1080p screen and also the stiffest hinges in the world. While I appreciate it helps reduce screen wobble when typing, this was just too stiff. You lift the lid with one finger and actually requires effort to open. Silly, I know, but it's just an issue I have when I need to get at the laptop quickly
Ventilation:
I care about my temperatures. I care about mine to protect longevity of the components. Firstly, it being a Dell, there's no simple fan control. While this isn't a problem, it is linked to my second issue with ventilation.
The fans on this kick in when the CPU starts getting into the 60s - 70 degrees; reasonable. However, when the fans kick in under load, the quad core i7 anywhere between the 50s and 60s .Using HWinfo, I was able to gain near enough manual control and ramp the fans up before they hit the tempreture threshold. As a result I got a few degrees lower core temp, then letting the BIOS cool the machine automatically. All of these temperatures are fine and respectable, but for a machine that's supposed to be able to handle high load, a manual fan control would be nice.
I also think temperatures might have been helped by better placed intakes. This thing only has one intake on the bottom, in the form of a long grill. It bothered me that I was always checking to make sure if they were covered when doing a bit of casual gaming in bed, as there is no side intake.
The fans on this kick in when the CPU starts getting into the 60s - 70 degrees; reasonable. However, when the fans kick in under load, the quad core i7 anywhere between the 50s and 60s .Using HWinfo, I was able to gain near enough manual control and ramp the fans up before they hit the tempreture threshold. As a result I got a few degrees lower core temp, then letting the BIOS cool the machine automatically. All of these temperatures are fine and respectable, but for a machine that's supposed to be able to handle high load, a manual fan control would be nice.
I also think temperatures might have been helped by better placed intakes. This thing only has one intake on the bottom, in the form of a long grill. It bothered me that I was always checking to make sure if they were covered when doing a bit of casual gaming in bed, as there is no side intake.
USB connectivity:
While I'm sure that 2 USB type A ports would be enough for some people, I constantly found myself pondering on if I should invest in a dock. I like to keep a USB dongle for my wireless mouse permanently plugged in, meaning I was really only left with one USB port. Either this means Bluetooth peripherals or a USB hub. Ugh, right?
GTX 960m
The graphics is this are reasonable, but I have an issue with Dell placing this card in this system. It's not a bad card and it played and rendered most of what I chucked at it fine. Nothing wrong there then. However, we are living in a world of GTX 970m's and 980's and it would have been nice for either of those cards to make an appearance here. I feel like the 960m was a bit under-powered. The geeky part in my mind felt like it was taking away the whole 'premium product, premium specs'.
The good:
Right.. that's it. Bad things out of the way. If you can't stomach the idea of the issues raised above, I wouldn't suggest reading further. However, if you are willing to make compromises, this machine has a lot to offer.
Battery life:
That huge 84Wh battery, combined with a 1080p display and a Skylake processor, which uses the new 14nm lithography adds up to about 8-9 hours on casual usage. For me that included: word processing, opening up a 3D model and working on it and some video watching. Although Dell's website says up to 17 hours, that figure does seem about as likely as Dwanye Johnson becoming obese. Yes, it's main competitor being a MacBook Pro, does squeeze a little more battery life, but will squeeze your money too.
A sort of niche market:
When I returned my first XPS, I loved it so much that I had to give it another go, mainly because there was nothing else to replace it with. This machine offers power with battery life, which is hard to come by. Asus offer similar specs in one of their machines, but the only option is 4k screen - which takes a huge hit on battery life. Other than the Asus, nothing really caught my eye as a replacement. Yes, something like an Aorus offers similar advantages, but is in a totally different price bracket. Dell have done a good job at making it affordable and powerful, while retaining a good form factor.
Build quality and design:
There is not an angle of this machine where it does not look beautiful. Whatever configuration you get, the infinity edge display and the thinness of the machine just catches you eye. The exterior is made from beautiful smooth aluminium, while the interior and the side of the machine is carbon fiber. Although a grease magnet, the carbon fiber looks stunning and is cool to the touch and I haven't seen any manufactures make carbon fiber look better then it does on this machine. If you opt for the 4k screen, you'll get a glossy finish and a matte on with the 1080p screen. If the design isn't enough for you, this machine felt pretty solid. In the short time I had it, I carried it around and it never once felt flimsy. I think that aluminium helped with that. I can see some inspiration from Apple here for the design, materials and build quality but Dell has put enough here to distinguish that it's not a MacBook.
Touchpad:
Hand down, this is the best Windows touch-pad I've ever used. It's responsive, registers taps and the palm detection is excellent. It's big and the glass finish means your fingers just glide over it with ease. The two finger scrolling is spot on and it comes with lots more gestures that you can change in Windows. If I had one complaint, I found the right click and left click buttons had a lot of travel and made a very loud 'thunk' when pressing them.
The keyboard:
Battery life:
That huge 84Wh battery, combined with a 1080p display and a Skylake processor, which uses the new 14nm lithography adds up to about 8-9 hours on casual usage. For me that included: word processing, opening up a 3D model and working on it and some video watching. Although Dell's website says up to 17 hours, that figure does seem about as likely as Dwanye Johnson becoming obese. Yes, it's main competitor being a MacBook Pro, does squeeze a little more battery life, but will squeeze your money too.
A sort of niche market:
When I returned my first XPS, I loved it so much that I had to give it another go, mainly because there was nothing else to replace it with. This machine offers power with battery life, which is hard to come by. Asus offer similar specs in one of their machines, but the only option is 4k screen - which takes a huge hit on battery life. Other than the Asus, nothing really caught my eye as a replacement. Yes, something like an Aorus offers similar advantages, but is in a totally different price bracket. Dell have done a good job at making it affordable and powerful, while retaining a good form factor.
Build quality and design:
There is not an angle of this machine where it does not look beautiful. Whatever configuration you get, the infinity edge display and the thinness of the machine just catches you eye. The exterior is made from beautiful smooth aluminium, while the interior and the side of the machine is carbon fiber. Although a grease magnet, the carbon fiber looks stunning and is cool to the touch and I haven't seen any manufactures make carbon fiber look better then it does on this machine. If you opt for the 4k screen, you'll get a glossy finish and a matte on with the 1080p screen. If the design isn't enough for you, this machine felt pretty solid. In the short time I had it, I carried it around and it never once felt flimsy. I think that aluminium helped with that. I can see some inspiration from Apple here for the design, materials and build quality but Dell has put enough here to distinguish that it's not a MacBook.
Touchpad:
Hand down, this is the best Windows touch-pad I've ever used. It's responsive, registers taps and the palm detection is excellent. It's big and the glass finish means your fingers just glide over it with ease. The two finger scrolling is spot on and it comes with lots more gestures that you can change in Windows. If I had one complaint, I found the right click and left click buttons had a lot of travel and made a very loud 'thunk' when pressing them.
The keyboard:
The keyboard is not the best laptop keyboard, but it's good enough for a mention. The layout matches the one we see in the 13" XPS. I love that the F can be locked on, allowing you to use the media buttons, without pressing the Fn key. I don't really have that much use for the normal function keys, except alt+F4 for closing an occasional window. The travel of the keys is a little shallow, but was responsive enough for me and the keys are a comfortable distance. I could type pretty fast while coding; all in all, a nice experience.
A Pyrrhic laptop:
I loved this machine when I first unboxed it. It looked beautiful and had a lot of promise. If you've made it this far, then you know it's actually got some pretty good things going for it. Some of these good things (like the trackpad) you'll struggle to find elsewhere; all at a cost though.
Herein lies the problem: the bad outweighs the good. That's why I returned my second machine. A machine targeted at a high end market shouldn't have these demons and shouldn't be full of comprises for you to actually enjoy it.. As for the ugly, these machines should never have left the factory with the level of faultiness they have. Dell have let us down here.
What to get instead of a Dell XPS? Tough one and I honestly would have to say a base MacBook Pro 15" if it a no-compromise machine is your thing.
Herein lies the problem: the bad outweighs the good. That's why I returned my second machine. A machine targeted at a high end market shouldn't have these demons and shouldn't be full of comprises for you to actually enjoy it.. As for the ugly, these machines should never have left the factory with the level of faultiness they have. Dell have let us down here.
What to get instead of a Dell XPS? Tough one and I honestly would have to say a base MacBook Pro 15" if it a no-compromise machine is your thing.
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