NotebookCHECK - Notebook Forum

:) This review is just about the touch version? In your test you mention you rereceived a non-touch version, will there be a additional review?

when will you review the Dell XPS 15 9550?

QuoteAs such, Dell's solution was to exchange the mini-DisplayPort for a Thunderbolt 3 port instead (up to 40 Mbps bi-directional transfer rate)—which also doubles as a USB 3.1 Gen 2 port (up to 10 Mbps bi-directional transfer rate).

You've meant probably Gbps for these values ?

@Su:
LOL, yes, Gbps.  This would be the slowest Thunderbolt 3 ever if not.  ;-)  Thanks.

@i:
Personally I am not sure, however it seems we do have one in the lab as the impressions have been posted.  Sorry I cannot provide more insight; stay tuned and thanks for reading!

@idoit (no offense... heh):
Actually this one is for the non-Touch version:

"Our XPS 13-9350 review unit includes, in fact, the exact same display panel as the previous XPS 13-9343: a 1920x1080 matte IPS display panel (non-touch) measuring 13.3-inch diagonally"

Steve

Is there any information about usb-c charging?

"Judging by these scores, new games ought to be playable on low settings (and possibly at lower resolutions) on the XPS 13-9350. We tested a few older titles for comparative purposes with the rest of the field; you can find the full table below."

Is it possible for you to test the new XPS 13 also with some more demanding game (something like DA Inquisition or AC Unity)? It is one of the first laptop sporting the new Intel integrated HD 520 GPU, it would be very interesting to see whether it can handle this kind of game or not.

Thx for the wonderful review anyway!

FYI, people have reported that the driver that Samsung released for the 950 Pro is working for the SM951.  That should help performance and the benchmark scores.

Always come back to your thorough reviews. Thanks again. I was excited about this updated version, but it seems to be a downgrade from last years model for me since I would need a much better gamut out of the screen. 60% sRGB is horrible for graphics/photography use unfortunately.

XPS 15 review skylake on its way?

"Always come back to your thorough reviews. Thanks again. I was excited about this updated version, but it seems to be a downgrade from last years model for me since I would need a much better gamut out of the screen. 60% sRGB is horrible for graphics/photography use unfortunately."

The book is not quite closed on this issue yet; we are scheduling a retest as we suspect that the automatic brightness adjustments may have affected our display readings in this review.  Nevertheless, I can tell you subjectively that the screen does still look quite good -- just not quite as good as the beautiful Surface Pro 4 screen I am currently staring at ;-)


"Is there any information about usb-c charging?"

I couldn't personally get it to work, but then again, I may not have the requisite provisions to do so.


"Is it possible for you to test the new XPS 13 also with some more demanding game (something like DA Inquisition or AC Unity)?"

Unfortunately, these are the newest titles I have with which to perform gaming benchmarks. :-(  I don't really do the gaming PC reviews so the focus is elsewhere in my articles.  Sorry!  And thanks for the kind words anyway.


"FYI, people have reported that the driver that Samsung released for the 950 Pro is working for the SM951.  That should help performance and the benchmark scores."

That's good to know.  I suspected it might be a driver issue at least partially.


"XPS 15 review skylake on its way?"

I think so -- but don't take my word for it as I am not doing it if so!


Steve

I do not mind how good this device can be (though let me question the quality of the last Dell keyboards). Only can tell that their service, in Spain, is not good according to my standards, and even if they sell this device at 800€ (they won't!!) I will not buy it. Also I got tired of failures in last Dell notebooks, especially with the Inspiron ones, or the poor keyboard of the cheaper Latitude. If I want a good computer I bought a ThinkPad T450s and forget about fashion devices that cannot even stand the smallest drop.

Really looking forward to the XPS 15 9550 review!

Great article, but please be careful when comparing temperatures. They are not absolute the way you show them. You must consider the temperature of the environment in which the device is operating.

For example, 2 laptops tested: Laptop A runs at 50 C, Laptop B runs at 100 C. By your math, Laptop A is "100%" better. But if the room is at 20 C, then the actual comparison to make is Laptop A runs at a 30 C delta-T, and Laptop B runs at an 80 C delta-T.

Thanks Jason,

But room temperature was indeed taken into account.  Which comparison in particular was misleading?

Steve

Oh -- was it the table that confused you?  Yes, that could be considered misleading.  I will remove it for sake of clarification.  I also added a note to indicate the room temperature differences in the write-up.

What a perfect review! Thanks!
How is it with the adaptive brightness? Did Dell come up with some tool to turn it off
even with the old 9343 generation or is it going to be just for the new 9350?

I was surprised that the battery went down so much compared to 9343 Full HD model. Maybe not only caused by the browser but also Win10 and new drivers or the PCIe flash that is more power demanding?

Anyway this is amazing device in fact doesnt have any major flaws. Incredible how quiet it is during idle and load according to you measurements.

Thank you Michal, glad you enjoyed it!

"How is it with the adaptive brightness? Did Dell come up with some tool to turn it off
even with the old 9343 generation or is it going to be just for the new 9350?"

Actually, we are going to have a chance to test this tool prior to our re-measuring of the panel characteristics.  We will let you know whether it works as intended as well as whether it applies to the XPS 13-9343 as well.

As for the battery life -- not sure what's up with that.  I performed a couple of the tests twice to ensure some degree of consistently (where possible), but for the most part the biggest difference seems to be the choice of browser.  Possibly Win10/NVMe something related to that may be playing a part in the discrepancies as well, though it is odd, as anecdotally the hundreds of customers I've upgraded to Windows 10 locally have primarily experienced improved battery runtimes.

Steve

I think it was Anandtech that discovered that some (if not all) PCI-E NVMe SSDs have problems with reaching low power states meaning that idle/low work loads will use considerably more power than a regular SATA drive however I don't believe the load power consumption was any different. Simply the SSD being unable to power down and/or go to sleep properly. Don't recall that it was OS related but more like inconsistencies between the drives and chipset implementation of the specifications and protocols etc. resulting in drives that can't utilize their power saving mechanisms.

Quote from: Trix on November 06, 2015, 00:36:56
I think it was Anandtech that discovered that some (if not all) PCI-E NVMe SSDs have problems with reaching low power states...

You are correct:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/9702/samsung-950-pro-ssd-review-256gb-512gb/2

And this is also the reason why the notebook is not getting any significant power efficiency improvement compared to the 9343.This is a pity, because in theory Skylake would offer a decent (20%) improve in battery life.

Anyone knows whether this can/will be fixed by BIOS upgrades?

Hypothetically in the meantime, the user could always simply replace the drive with something that manages idle power consumption more efficiently. It is an unfortunate additional expense, but it is a solution nonetheless.

That could resolve both the battery life and write speed shortfalls if they matter enough to the user.

Steve

Can you confirm if the XPS 13 (9350) supports the latest version of Intel WiDi?

I wanted the MS Surface Pro 4 but lack of Intel WiDi and usb type c / 3.1 has made me look at the XPS 13.

Thank you Steve for another great review. BTW, the "vs. sRGB" gamut figure doesn't look quite right. It covers a lot more than 66% sRGB and seems the same figure as XPS 13-9343 QHD touch.

Hopefully a retest can works out. I almost decided to get this one with the thunderbolt adapter until I see this screen test;)

@Evan:

Unfortunately, I do not, as our test system came equipped with a Dell Wireless 1820A.


@JoePHX:

For what it's worth the screen looks the same to me as the previous XPS 13 FHD, and it makes sense that it ought to be also considering the panel model is also identical.  We will know sometime in the near future once our lab receives the unit back for remeasurement.  Also, though, it's worth mentioning that those ICC comparison images are a bit misleading in and of themselves at times: since you can't see them from every perspective and it is indeed a 3-D graph, some of the intersection (or lack thereof) is not fully obvious via the 2-D snapshots we provide.

Oh, and thank you for the kind words by the way!  I'm thrilled you enjoyed the review. :-)

Steve

I can see only one antenna cable for wifi.....maybe the reason for less performance ?
That's sad, but I think it depends on the card. I purchased a Latitude e7450 (after reading review from Till Schönborn here only), mainly because if the solid connectivity and dGPU(not that great, but still something better than 520 on XPS 13). If only they can make a Latitude with looks of XPS....

@Sid:

The other cable is indeed there, but it is black / camouflaged :-)

Steve

Is it possible to charge the laptop through the USB-C port?

So, surface books beats this machine in everything but emissions and price (which is understandable). But this machine gets 89% against 85% for the book. I'm starting to lose my faith in notebookcheck.

@atom:

Firstly, I want to preface this reply by saying that my views and opinions are not representative of Notebookcheck as a whole.  However I feel as though I need to reply to you regarding this conclusion.

It would be understandable if your examples were actually telling the full story -- but they are not. Firstly, you have to understand that the vast majority of our scores are almost directly determined by the mathematics of our measurements.  Just take one look at the categorical breakdown: it alone should speak volumes as to the editor's qualitative judgment of each item, as well as to how the math affects the final score.  It is crucial to recognize that *a machine does not have to have explicit flaws to be less than perfect*.  In other words, a machine that has no significant cons can still wind up with a 70-80% in a category where another machine receives a 90% in that same category, because while the first machine is good in that category, the second machine is simply better.

So enumerating explicit items where you feel, based on reviews you have read, that one device easily tops another, and comparing the number and magnitude of those items (as judged subjectively of course) is not an accurate way of judging the scores each machine should have received by way of our metrics.  Our reviews take us literally dozens of hours to produce; the condensed version of our opinion that we deliver -- in as detailed fashion as possible, nonetheless -- is still not wholly representative of our total judgment of each of these categories.  We certainly do our best, of course, but that is why the categorical breakdown exists: to more explicitly summarize the particulars of our findings during our time with a product.

But even if you wish to compare specifics, there are indeed other shortfalls of the Surface Book as compared with the XPS 13.  Even reading the final paragraph of Allen's (excellent) review should shed some light on this:

"Do we recommend the Surface Book over a traditional notebook? Anyone who is already set on a detachable-type notebook should consider the Microsoft solution as it is a serious contender for replacing an aging Ultrabook. However, users who have little interest in the dGPU or mostly use their computers for browsing, word processing, and multimedia playback will find lighter, thinner, and less expensive solutions in the form of newer Ultrabooks with potentially more features."

The XPS picks up the slack in these explicit categories.  To quickly traverse:

- USB Type-C / Thunderbolt; 3 total USB versus 2 on Surface Book
- Very significant price difference
- Maintenance is far easier on the XPS
- The XPS 13 is far quieter while hardly any warmer at all under operation
- Better battery life
- Weight-to-screen ratio is greatly in favor of the XPS
- Somewhat better audio on the XPS

Of course, ultimately, it is up to the consumer to make the decision based on their own unique set of needs, intended use, budget, and so on.  Our reviews are merely meant as an impartial guide, as scientific as possible and yet as insightful and practical as we can muster -- so if the 4% difference the two editors of these reviews perceive to exist is not what you would judge to be case based on your own impressions of our findings, you are, of course, more than welcome to act on your own judgment and purchase whichever you choose.

They are both good machines, as indicated by our final scores of each.  It would be hard to truly go wrong with either choice.  But for many people, the XPS may be a better option.

I hope this helps.

Steve

Also, back on topic, to answer another question:

Reportedly a significantly powerful charger *will indeed* power the XPS via the USB Type-C port.  So that's a nice bonus as well.

Steve

"Hypothetically in the meantime, the user could always simply replace the drive with something that manages idle power consumption more efficiently. It is an unfortunate additional expense, but it is a solution nonetheless."

Do you think you will be able to replace the PCIe NVM SM951 drive with regular M.2 drive (without PCIe)? I am asking in case Samsung will not improve the drivers with their 951 drive... and other PCIe drives are very expensive (in my country about twice as much as regular M.2 drives). Thanks for your kind reply Steve.

Yes; the machine is specified to work both with conventional M.2 SSDs and PCIe NVMe SSDs.

Steve

Quote from: Steve Schardein on November 06, 2015, 12:51:58
Hypothetically in the meantime, the user could always simply replace the drive with something that manages idle power consumption more efficiently. It is an unfortunate additional expense, but it is a solution nonetheless.

That could resolve both the battery life and write speed shortfalls if they matter enough to the user.

Steve

I would not be so sure. As far as I know, it is not known whether the problem is caused by the Samsung SSD, or maybe in a bug in the NVMe implementation used by manufacturers. If this is the case, a BIOS upgrade sooner or later could fix it. If instead the problem lays in the SSD, then a firmware fix may be on its way. I'm pretty sure it must be a bug - I find it impossible to believe that Samsung approved such a high-power SSD, after all their SSD have always been betweehn the most frugal in terms of power demands.

@Adriano:

Yes, it is true that waiting on a BIOS update or firmware update for the drive could also correct this problem.  However to immediately correct it it is likely that choosing a different SSD would suffice.  According to Anandtech's article referenced earlier by another reader, this very well could be the SSD's fault, or it could be a motherboard firmware incompatibility.  Samsung makes great drives, but don't put it past them to overlook this sort of thing: after all, they've released drives that were laggards in terms of Idle Power Consumption in the past (large-capacity 840 EVOs anyone?), not to mention the problems with the read degradation of those same drives that prompted the release of multiple conciliatory firmware band-aids thereafter.

I use a Samsung SSD in my personal machine, but they certainly are not exempt from oversights.  Having said that, it's true that it could be just as likely the board/BIOS which is to blame.

The safest solution ironically might be to simply defer to an M.2 SSD for the time being if the extra battery runtime is really worth it to the user.  On the other hand, this machine still has great battery life regardless...

-Steve

RE: Intel WiDi - The Dell - (xps-13-9350-laptop_Reference Guide_en-us) states under:

Specifications:

M.2 card
•
One M.2-card slot for solid-state drive (SSD)
•
One M.2-card slot for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and Intel WiDi combo card

Communications:

Wireless
•
Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n
•
Wi-Fi 802.11ac
•
Intel WiDi (optional)
•
Bluetooth 4.1
•
Miracast

This seems to suggest that WiDi will at leat be optional on the XPS 13 (9350).
Can anyone confirm this as I would really like to be able to use WiDi on a new laptop with a 2015/2016 LG OLED TV for 4k streaming.

Evan

Really great review. I'm in need of a new laptop (for college), and I love the XPS. I was right about to pull the trigger on the QHD model when I saw your review on battery life. Given that I will use Chrome (or Edge when add-on support comes out), I'm sticking with your 7 hour estimate for battery life. If QHD reduces that figure by 2 hours...5 hours! That's ridiculous. That cannot last me a day!

When do you think your review for the touch version will come out?

Quote from: Steve Schardein on November 06, 2015, 20:54:51

@JoePHX:

For what it's worth the screen looks the same to me as the previous XPS 13 FHD, and it makes sense that it ought to be also considering the panel model is also identical.  We will know sometime in the near future once our lab receives the unit back for remeasurement.  Also, though, it's worth mentioning that those ICC comparison images are a bit misleading in and of themselves at times: since you can't see them from every perspective and it is indeed a 3-D graph, some of the intersection (or lack thereof) is not fully obvious via the 2-D snapshots we provide.

Thank you for the clarification:-) But let me explain my point in this way. I downloaded the .icm file you attached and plot it vs. sRGB. I think this is closer to what it should look like for 66% sRGB gamut.
(http://s11.postimg.org/watyt6q9d/2015_11_08_16_52_04_ICCView_3_D.jpg)

The figure in the review covers almost full sRGB even though it is only a 2D projection. A wrong icm file must be selected when making the figure.
Original review figure:
(http://www.notebookcheck.net/fileadmin/Notebooks/Dell/XPS_13-9350/vs_sRGB.jpg)

This is a great review.  Can't wait to see your Surface Pro 4 review!

I've been on the fence between the latest XPS 13 and the SP4.

One thing that surprises me more than anything is how little folks are talking about that maximum fan noise recording.  30.4 dBa at maximum load?  This is some impressive engineering by Dell if true. 

I love the SP4 and the Surface Book but when that fan kicks in full "whine" when you actually push these thin-and-light machines, it gives off a feeling that it simply won't be able to last (over the course of a year or two).

Another thing folks don't get, is for every 3dB it's actually a "doubling of power" to create that noise.  So even the difference between 34 and 30 from the 9343 to the 9350.  That delta between a Surface Book at max load is atrocious.  What a loud machine!

Great review, most likely my next.

Does anyone know if the USB-C port can be used for charging the machine?

(with USB-C becoming quickly the standard across all kind of devices, would be great if 1 charger could cover my phone, tablet and laptop - another hundred grams shaved off my luggage)

Thank you to all for the continued comments and feedback; I can assure you that I am reading all of them.  I wanted to reach out and say I apologize for not continuing to individually reply to all of you; I am currently very busy preparing my next review (the Surface Pro 4).  Thank you for your gracious support and we at Notebookcheck truly appreciate your readership.  You are the reason for our success and growth.

Steve

To everyone:

I just received direct word from Dell (literally just this moment) that the tool they will be releasing does not, in fact, work on FHD models; apparently it will only work on the QHD+ panels. That's a real bummer for anyone who is bothered by this feature and the lack of control over it which the machine provides. I will be updating the review with the pertinent information later tonight.

Just wanted to let you guys know.  So this issue remains unchanged from the last model.

Steve

I thought about buying this FullHD Ultrabook, all the specs are incredible, but the "low" batterylife in comparison with the previous model really makes me think. It's still pretty good but also still quite a distance away from what dell is claiming. Do you think putting another SSD in it will help increasing batterylife, or when time continues Dell may publishes a fix for it?

I'm also confused about the bad display test results, because I thought it was the same display as in the early 2015 version. Do u think Dell will react on the issues and fix them anyway afterwards?

I know own the XPS13 AND Surface Pro 4

The Surface Pro 4 is going back.

One thing to confirm from this review, is the "quiet" operation, even under load.  I can report happily that, even within a game, the Dell XPS13 stays very quiet.  You can't game with it on your lap without feeling that heat, but on a desktop, it is very quiet.  This fan/noise tuning is pretty awesome, and I'd be curious to see a teardown that compares the thermal system to last year's model (9343).  Perhaps it's just the old system, but with the Skylake CPU it can run at much lower speeds?

I think it's essential for an ultrabook to give off the impression it can handle maximum load without "sweating it".  The Surface Pro 4 has a neat hybrid system, and stays dead quiet for most light tasks, but once you need to stress the internals to do normal computer things, it sounds like a miniature vacuum cleaner.  The Dell XPS acts calm and cool under pressure.  That's a must have and the main reason I'll be sending the SP4 back.

I will miss Windows Hello dreadfully though!

To those wondering - you CAN charge the Dell XPS 13 through it's USB-C port.  To meet the standard for USB-C/Thunderbolt, you HAVE to support all parts of the standard, not just pick and choose.  The only chargers available on the market are the one for the Macbook and the Google Pixel 2's charger.  I currently have the Pixel 2 charger on order, but I've read user reports from trustworthy sources that it works just fine to charge the Dell.

In the previous version of the XPS 13, the SD card only inserted about halfway. Did that change with the new version?

I have an old HP Spectre laptop and the SD card does not stick out, which makes it useful to expand storage.

Quick question: has Dell changed the power port? My local Dell reports the Dell Power Companion is not compatible with this generation of XPS products. It looks impossible to me!

Hi,

Will there be a 9350 QHD review? I'm really wanting to see the battery life comparison...

Will there be an XPS 15 review coming soon? I have seen very few professional reviews for this laptop

Hey Steve Schardein,

Dell has apparently sent reviewers at laptop LaptopMag.com an updated bios which fix the issue of NVMe SSD (256GB and up) draining more power than expected. The battery performance by their benchmark has improved around 20%.

Before bios update: https://web.archive.org/web/20151...touch-2015 - 9:37

After bios update: http://www.laptopmag.com/reviews/...touch-2015 - 11:54

Can you by any chance get this updated bios and test the laptop again and post any differences in battery life? Much thanks.

Hey guys,

Thanks again for all the comments / questions.  Sorry I couldn't get to every single one of you -- I hope the review has been informative enough anyway!

To quickly address anyone requesting further testing of the machine, I've already shipped it back to our labs actually.  They may still have it on hand there and if so, they may be able to perform additional tests (such as of this new BIOS for lower NVMe power consumption), however I won't be able to do it personally.

Thanks again for reading, really appreciate it! :-)

Steve

You said "users who are bothered by the CBAC auto-brightness may well consider this a significant reason to purchase the QHD+ model instead".

That's a totally useless statement. Without actually buying the FHD model, how would I know if I'm bothered by the CBAC? That's what I'm reading your review to find out!  You're the reviewer - did it bother you?  None, a little, a lot?  An XPS13 is a stretch purchase for me BUT I can justify it if there are no significant drawbacks.  So this could be a deal-breaker.  But, maybe not!  No way to find out here...

This is a great test and it made me buy this beautiful laptop. So thank you very much. I don't know if you heard, but battery life being not as good as the early-2015 version is mostly because of the SSD consuming too much in light usage. However Dell is going to give a fix through a BIOS update. Are you going to update the review because of that ? Maybe it'll reach 90% haha.

Quote from: Tomatot on December 04, 2015, 22:02:23
This is a great test and it made me buy this beautiful laptop. So thank you very much. I don't know if you heard, but battery life being not as good as the early-2015 version is mostly because of the SSD consuming too much in light usage. However Dell is going to give a fix through a BIOS update. Are you going to update the review because of that ? Maybe it'll reach 90% haha.

Oops I'm sorry, you already answered that.

Gold touch version reviewed
https://youtu.be/JSztFtveyOg

QuoteTo quickly address anyone requesting further testing of the machine, I've already shipped it back to our labs actually.  They may still have it on hand there and if so, they may be able to perform additional tests (such as of this new BIOS for lower NVMe power consumption), however I won't be able to do it personally.

When will update come?

in the video review you say that idle runtime is about 30 hours for the FHD..  in fact 56 watt divided by1,8 watt per hour is about 30 hours.

in the written review you say only 13 hours


why?

There is something i don't understand...
Why all these laptops are coming with only ONE ram slot.. and SOLDERED!?

Where is the dual channel optimisation ?

I am choosing between the xps 13 (skylake) and the new asus ux303ub.  It seems the asus has the better value with higher specs and the same price as the xps 13.  But the asus is graded at 85 while the xps13 is graded 89.  Is the xps 13 the better laptop?  Does the better value of the asus still lag behind the xps?  Thx.

I have the i7/16GB/1TB 9350 version and it is a great laptop.  There are however a couple of issues that you need to be aware of.

The battery life is about 5-6 hours with light use. Dell's advertising talks about 14+ hours and this is simply a lie.

I only got the QHD Touch version as this was the only way to get the 1TB drive.  I would seriously recommend getting the normal nin touch version.  The battery life is around 50% higher and the screen almost as good.  Touch is tortally pointless on this machine as you have a touch pad. Once the novelty wears off you will never touch the screen again.

The HD Intel graphic chip/driver has some big issues which mean that the driver crashes several times per day.  It seems to happen more often when connecting to an external monitor.  As of Feb 10, 2015 there is no solution and I am working with Dell to resolve.  You may be better off gettting the newer Iris chip - although it still has to be proven.

A great laptop.  You will love it.

Advise; i bought this computer. Its screen fails.

The Precision touchpad is also once again excellent, and yet again unchanged from the previous model. To quickly summarize our previous impressions, it's accurate, smooth, sufficiently large, and it features very good integrated buttons. Gestures are once again flawlessly interpreted.

Whoever is wondering about this statement, try just to google Dell XPS 9343 touchpad to see the "excellence" reported by the users across the Globe. 

..and here we are...again. Usual garbage:

http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/laptop/f/3518/t/19662779

This is a horrible laptop. I bought Dell XPS 13 9345 and had horrible time with it. The keyboard has bizarre problem of double typing and unwanted random sequence of characters being typed. I got my keyboard, motherboard replaced 3 times without any solution to my problem. After a lot of back and forth, DELL replaced my old machine with DELL XPS 13 9350.
This machine too has the same keyboard problem but although it is manageable. The machine gets hot quickly and the trackpad is just erratic and unusable. Will never advise anyone to get this.

The QHD+ version review with an i7 shows only an 19 min difference for wifi battery runtimes (http://www.notebookcheck.net/Dell-XPS-13-2016-i7-256-GB-QHD-Notebook-Review.155081.0.html). Does this mean the battery life between the two are very similar? Am I missing something? I'm looking at getting on of these so any comments on battery life between the two would be helpful.

Even the 9350 has a long battery life but years passed, I am now seeking the replacement battery 90V7W for your XPS13 9350[/url].
Not cost so much but works well is ok.Who need it please email me to discuss.

Dell has unveiled the brand-new 2018 XPS 13, and while it might not look particularly different from previous models – the sleek design and infinity display are still present and correct – there's plenty going on that makes this a major upgrade. i like it..

This is hands down the best laptop ever made. This version specifically with the 1080p display, non-touchscreen version. I bought it brand new from Dell in 2016 and it's still going strong. My one and only complaint is that Dell never got the Thunderbolt (USB-C) port working quite right, so I can't use USB-C display out or some docking stations. Other than that, this laptop truly embodies every desirable trait: Light weight, long battery life, good performance, good screen, backlit keyboard, USB-C port, regular USB ports, full size SD card reader, and no thermal throttling. I've looked at laptops more recently, but can't find anything as good at any cost, let alone for the low $899 I paid for this one!