Dell XPS 13 9350 (i7-6560U, QHD+) Ultrabook Review

[Redaktion]

Maxed out. Our latest XPS 13 is equipped to the brim with a 3200x1800 resolution touchscreen, Core i7-6560U CPU, Iris Graphics 540, and a 512 GB NVMe SSD. Is this higher cost SKU worth the extra horsepower?

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Dell-XPS-13-9350-i7-6560U-QHD-Ultrabook-Review.159487.0.html

[Koltri]

Thanks for the coil whine heads up. This is an absolute deal breaker, for me at least. On top of that, taking into account all the cons mentioned, I am amazed the machine scored 87%...

[Lizard]

This one with FULL HD screen or Asus UX303UA FULL HD?

[bob]

"Coil whining - was not audible. We only heard a quiet, consistent crackling. However, we had to place our ear on the vents of the base plate to hear that. Therefore, it would be possible to call it a noiseless device."

From the non-iris review. I expect this is the same here. Basically you can't hear it unless you're really putting your ear onto it or super sensitive it sounds like...

[Ajspik]

wow. this model took quite a 'beating' in this review and still scored 87% Is it maybe because of low the price tag of only 1300 USD  :p

Please correct the price because the model in question costs 2000 USD (dell.us) or 1900 Euro (dell.de)

[MaKla]

I'm a bit confused right now as well. Have been waiting for this test quite a while for an XPS with an IRIS GPU sounded really great. Now this model seems to be..."worse?" than the non-iris-models? (Bad keyboard? bad sound? those were not mentioned in the other models revue, were they?)

I'd actually like a short comparison on non-iris vs iris-versions of the xps 13 and ideally a bit more information on the IRIS itself (for there are only two 540 devices yet tested)  :-\

[MattM]

I think it's worth mentioning that the 512GB SSD is in parts much faster than the 256GB version. The way Dell designs its models you have to take the i7 if you want the bigger SSD (and 16GB RAM). This review came out just in time as I found it difficult to get any benchmarks of the 512GB SSD used here.
The new i7 seems to disappoint though, especially if compared to the also very compact Surface Pro 4. I still consider the i5, 8GB, 256GB, QHD and an SSD upgrade in 2 years to a Brazilian Byte.

What I don't understand is that you don't have the i5 version of the XPS13 (with 8GB, 256GB) in your comparison tables.

Oh, you've linked the wrong XPS13 in your price comparison.

[esit]

I am wondering if the thunderbolt3 controller uses PCIe 3.0 x2 (20Gbps) or PCIe 3.0 x4 (40Gbps).
I noticed that on XPS 15 9550, when I looked at the PCIe configuration with HWINFO64, its TB3 seems to have only x2 PCIe 3.0. And I am thinking if similar thing happens on XPS 13.

[Douglas]

I'd like to know if the throttling is due to thermal or TDP limits.

[Adrian]

For any purchasers, open it up, remove heat-sink, clean both CPU & heatsink and put some good paste like AS5 or better and you will see far better temps and thus much more consistent Turbo. Don't know what "paste" Dell uses but they cheapened out.

My own 9333 with 4650U used to hit over 90C all the time, now it barely hits 80C! Or push long-term Turbo to 20W (or 25 ;) and then it may hit 90C.

(Done the same to Lenovo Carbon X1 and that worked fantastic too!)

If you buy the 9350 then sell the cheap PM951 and buy either an SM951 or Pro 950 and then let it fly.

[Zepherex]

Thanks for the coil whine heads up. This is an absolute deal breaker, for me at least. On top of that, taking into account all the cons mentioned, I am amazed the machine scored 87%...

The previous model (9343) also had coil whine, but it was barely audible unless you were in a completely silent room or put you ear to the laptop. I assume it is the same here.

[Klaus88]

Hi there,

is it possible to know which Bios has been used? Is this the latest one or the latest would bring additional battery life (since this test uses the 256/512)?

[Haider]

thanks for review,

we are waiting HP ZBook 17 G3 with "17.3 inch LED FHD UWVA Anti-Glare flat (1920x1080) "

to see if it's could get the first place in Best Notebook Display in your website  8).

[Raphael]

I am also wondering if the BIOS update improved the battery life, as it was with  the i7-6500U version (see update in the respective test).

[TheH0g4n]

I'd like to know if the throttling is due to thermal or TDP limits.

While stressing both the CPU and GPU it will TDP throttle despite having thermal headroom (~20ºC to thermal limit). On top of that, unlike the i7-6500U which can TDP up to 25W the i7-6560U is locked at 15W. I've seen it turbo up to ~25W but it was only for about a second before forcing the CPU speed way down in order to allow more power to the GPU. Locking the TDP at 15W on this CPU makes no sense and I have no idea why Intel did so. If the system can provide the extra power (the XPS 13 can since all other models can TDP up to 25W) why would you not use to to full the thermal headroom and allow the CPU and GPU to run at their full potential. I would love to get an answer from Intel as to why they have artificially crippled this chip.

Notice no TDP up option, only down:
http://ark.intel.com/products/91163/Intel-Core-i7-6560U-Processor-4M-Cache-up-to-3_20-GHz

Notice the TDP up option to 25W:
http://ark.intel.com/products/88194/Intel-Core-i7-6500U-Processor-4M-Cache-up-to-3_10-GHz