High-end without high-end performance. We review the new XPS 15 from Dell and have a look at the performance of the 45-Watt Core i5. Can the latter use its full potential in the flat chassis? Throttling is fortunately not the answer – at least not on mains.
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Dell-XPS-15-2016-9550-InfinityEdge-Notebook-Review.156354.0.html
Nice review! Thanks for pointing out some flaws of this device. I will think twice before I buy it.
Any chance you will review the new Latitude e5470 (or e5570) any soon?
You guys clearly didn't realize the 1.6GHz is NOT throttling, but rather a bug right? I know it's not useful to the average consumer, but Dell admitted that the XPS15 experiences a bug where as when switching on and off mains will cap the CPU to 1.6Ghz. To rectify you simply put the XPS to sleep and then re-awake. BAM, no more 1.6Ghz cap. They are said to be fixing this with the next BIOS.
A couple other observations - I think I can confirm the 2.8Ghz cap for the i5, I haven't seen mine flex above this value either. However, the heat you describe is weird, there is no way my device gets as hot as you describe in the middle of the keyboard. Additionally, I'm not sure what you mean about some lip on the front catching dirt, there is absolutely no place between the chassis and aluminum case cover on the bottom where dirt could accumulate!!
I think I saw some of these details coming up in your review of the i7 QHD model, but I'm a little rusty on my German translation.
can someone test the USB type-c charging?
i read that someone tried the 60W chromebook type-c charger with XPS 13's USB type-c port, and i worked for powering and charging the laptop.
i am wondering what happens if that is plugged to XPS 15. does it power it on while charging? or does it only charger it when it is standby/poweroff ?
The response time is too slow to accept, why Dell put on this screen with GTX960m? Unable to gaming at all.
I have this model and replace once with Dell, same issue! I thought i was unlucky to get defective display twice, but now I understand it is can not be sloved unless Dell change this Sharp panel completely with another manufacture!
The United States configuration I ordered the skylake i7 non touch not the i5 maybe the i7 configuration is not available in Europe? I think the results in this article would be quite different with the i7 variant
Waited 3 month for it and called the assistance too many times that i don't even remember and every time got different answers !!! Will never buy a Dell anymore.
Hello,
Is it possible to replace later the ssd by a nvme model or will be limited to the ssd model with 4K ?
Awesome article- thanks so much for doing this.
Looking to calibrate my FHD; was there an attached link to your color-profile? It was mentioned, but didn't see the link anywhere.
They've not made it very clear in this review but the adjusted colour profile is linked as the ICC file under the information box next to the screen brightness distribution graphic. Here it is linked in case you don't find it still:
http://www.notebookcheck.net/uploads/tx_nbc2/Dell_XPS_15_2016_FHD_matt__1203M_LQ156M1_.icm
really informative article, appreciate the thoroughness
Stay away from this. I bought an XPS 15, the screen started developing some vertical lines a few weeks ago. I got the screen replaced. A week after that the right side of the screen went really dark and I have to send it off to be repaired again. They refuse to swap my laptop for a new one. Stay away from this unreliable piece of equipment.
Stay away from this. I bought an XPS 15, the screen started developing some vertical lines a few weeks ago. I got the screen replaced. A week after that the right side of the screen went really dark and I have to send it off to be repaired again. They refuse to swap my laptop for a new one. Stay away from this unreliable piece of equipment.
DO NOT BUY
This laptop has some serious quality control issues. I've had mine about two months. Out of the box, it had sound problems and the Blue Screen of Death. It's been sent to tech support once already, along with many hours on the phone. I burned up my 30 days trying to do the right thing and let them fix it, so now I'm stuck with an unreliable $1700 door stop.
This is really frustrating and and disappointing. I've owned Dells for many years, but I doubt I'll even buy from them again.
There is a new firmware that fixes all the reported issues this model had.
Can you please update your review with your findings after applying to the latest firmware? Especially the points regarding battery life, power usage and throttling, all should be fixed now.
How many screws to swap out the battery? Really? Oh well, at least they didn't glue it in like Apple.
Mine just arrived, trackpad completely unresponsive, can't even enter windows details. Returned for refund
How can you rate this in your top ten multimedia laptops when it only scored 63% on audio. I am tired of reviews skimming over sound quality as if its a nice-to-have when its surely as important as video quality for watching movies etc.
This seems to be a common theme on notebookcheck.
I have had mine for about two and a half months. I was very wary as well after reading the very many comments about quality control.
I would recommend to anyone seriously interested to purchase it from the Microsoft Store as opposed to the Dell website. I believe they quality control the units themselves as they do fresh re-installs of the OS and strip them from all the bloatware from Dell. I expressed my concerns to the Microsoft representative and he said that in two months of selling it they had no returns (obviously he could have been making it up, but still)... Whereas the Dell website is full of complaints. Also, the MS units ship from Germany as opposed to China, so they arrive very quickly (mine arrived in 3 days).
I must say that after installing all the driver updates I can't think of any major issues that would make me want to return it. The machine is fast, powerful and I can play 2016 games on it (Rise of the Tomb Raider at 1080p). It runs a lot quieter and cooler than every other laptop I have had. I don't recall having any blue screen of death, it probably just froze once. The audio is not terrible after installing the new drivers, it's quite powerful, the annoying thing is that the speakers point downward and therefore the sound is often muffled by your lap. The main nuisance I found was the webcam, the positioning of it makes it very very weird to video call people as they are seeing up your nose, and you need to be looking on the bottom left corner of the screen to feel like you are making eye contact. Terrible. Otherwise I really love the machine and I do believe that at the moment it is one of the very few light and portable powerhouses that are sleek looking while also being extra powerful.
Hi everybody!
I'm correct understand that HDD+SSD will be shown only as one storage? And upgrade of ssd may increase only cache? This is not controls by BIOS?
Thanks.
I bought the last XPS. Battery sucks.
I returned my XPS15 9550 today after fighting it for 2 weeks. I expected a $1700 laptop to perform essentially flawlessly out of the box. The XPS 15 was the worst PC I have purchased and I have been purchasing PCs since 1983! It is a great concept but simply poorly executed. I don't have time to spend weeks updating every driver just to make the thing work. Perhaps in another 6 months they will have the bugs worked out. I would wait a while and keep checking the internet before purchasing one.
I just bought one of these without doing enough research it seems.
The response time on the FHD LCD is intolerable for gaming.
I am looking for reasons not to send it back but the ghosting is so extreme it's hard not to be disgusted constantly.
I have to set the Distance to 80+ at this motion test: http://testufo.com/#test=chase
Great review.
I'm choosing between Dell Latitude 7480 and XPS 15.
I'm after a very good display for outdoor use as I often work on a south-oriented terrace (although with a marquise).
Based on this review and comparing the figures for brightness and contrast, XPS 15 FHD matt would be a clear choice over Latitude 7480 FHD matt.
However, looking at best notebook displays table, Latitude 7480 is the only Dell's representant: https://www.notebookcheck.net/The-Best-Notebook-Displays-As-Reviewed-By-Notebookcheck.120541.0.html
Am I missing something?
My second line of thought is that I've been told that I can't get a built-in WWAN
port with the XPS as it has a metal body. Is it true?
I'm reluctant to imagine a 3G/4G stick attached to the XPS :-\.
Many thanks.
Petr