Monitors, sure, but actual computers from Dell, ironically, were never really
my bag, baby. However, due to recent events, I've been forced to rethink this
strategy. For one thing, you guys seem to love the Dell content, and for
another, they've just done some really great stuff lately, like this easily
upgradeable Inspiron 7559 model with a
GTX 960M and a reasonable price tag. So,
by popular demand, here is my take on the XPS15 9550.
The Master Case 5 by Cooler Master gives you the freedom to truly make your
midtower PC case your own with a variety of modular parts and accessories. Check
out the link in the video description to learn more. Okay, so I don't pay much
attention to Dell. So I actually knew very little about the new Super Mario,
excuse me, new XPS15 when I pulled it
out of the box, making these initial impressions very raw. First, Dbrand, who
provided the unit to us, did a great job of the skin. Apparently, they do PCs now
in addition to Macs, so good work, robots. And second, while it feels
really sturdy, I was surprised by the
size and weight because compared to the Blade 14 2015 that I use as a daily
driver, it just didn't feel that slim
and sexy in spite of the carbon fiber construction. Though, there are reasons
for that. So, we'll get to that later, but let's do the physical tour. It
really starts with the screen on this bad boy. On the one side of the slim,
well- constructed panel, you'll find a Dell logo surrounded, in our case, by a
wood grain vinyl skin. And on the other side, the built to order Infinity Edge
display. Dell boasts about the practically non-existent bezels, the
viewing angles, and the color reproduction of this Exo panel. And I've
got to give it to them. It looks awesome. It gets bright enough for easy
use in broad daylight. And more importantly for me, it gets dim enough
without assistance from a third party app for use at night in the dark. I went
with a 1080p non-touch model because I was considering the 9550 as a Blade 14
replacement, and I was willing to trade display sharpness for battery life, but
it's also available with a touch-en 4K Exo display as well. My one complaint
here was that there was more backlight bleed than I would like to see in the
corners, but frankly, I stopped noticing it after the first day. So, there you
go. What I did notice day-to-day though was the speed of this thing. I went with
a pretty decked out model. So, packed inside the guts on the bottom is an
Intel Core i7 6700HQ 45W quad core with
hyperthreading, 16 gigs of DDR4 memory,
apparently upgradeable with 16 gig dims to 32 gigs total, a GTX 960M 2 gig video
card, and a 512 gig PCI Expressbased
SSD, a Samsung 951 to be precise.
Showing though Dell doesn't specify, so
your mileage may vary in the future. But while I think they've got a wide enough
range of specs to meet almost anyone's needs from mine all the way to someone
who wants something more basic, I continue to be disappointed by their
online configurator. Dell, the GPU
belongs in the summary at the top of the page. These two models, one of which has
onboard graphics and the other of which packs a GTX 960M, look like you're
paying $250 for a hard drive upgrade,
unless you scroll way down. Not only that, but while the 512 gig SSD models
say solidstate drive, the one terabyte
PCIe SSD models, you know, the ones where the storage drive costs about a
third of the entire machine, are labeled hard drive. Does anyone even proofread
these? Get your head in the game. And while we're at it, Dell, stop being
misleading. If the 4K option is the only one with Corning glass on the front,
then that shouldn't be mentioned in the chassis blurb on a model that doesn't
have a 4K display and doesn't offer it as an upgrade. Get your together,
marketing and product merchandising teams. All right, this is a good product, so get this stuff right because
for me actually, yeah, it is a good product. The XPS 159550 was mostly a
treat to use. The IO is a very solid mix
with SD USB 3, a battery indicator, and
a lock on the right, and a combo audio jack, USB typeC, Thunderbolt 3 port with
charging capability, HDMI, and another USB 3 port on the left. Thanks to the
sixth gen processor, and beefy battery, even my Core i7 model lasted me all day
with ease. the two fans that take in fresh air through the vents in the
bottom, then exhaust onto the lower bezel of the screen, keep the GPU
running at full speed, and take advantage of that extra size. I said I
would get to this versus the Blade 14 to stay reasonably quiet even under an
extended gaming load. And like that recently reviewed Inspiron, they turn
off entirely during light use. Great.
The backlit keyboard, which thankfully using function and escape allows you to
default to the F keys instead of the secondary functions, is quiet and
responsive with good tactile feedback and a really solid feeling palm rest.
And the touchpad was responsive with good palm rejection and solid
performance during two-handed use. Something that many laptops that have
click pads rather than separated buttons struggle with, which isn't to say that
it's perfect. As a communication device, the XPS15 falls flat for me. While I
would describe the recording quality of the 720p webcam as acceptable, there are
a couple of other issues that I have. Number one is that while I understand
that Dell had to move the webcam below
the screen in order to make room for the Infinity Edge display, what they didn't
have to do is stick it off to the side cuz it looks like I'm kind of staring
off into the distance somewhere when I'm actually looking dead center on my
screen. So, it could be closer to this experience if it weren't offset to make
room for the precious Dell logo. My other issue is that the included
microphone is awful. Why wasn't that put
along the bottom edge of the screen as well? Instead, it's on the leading edge
of the bottom of the laptop, giving an extraordinarily echoey sound, even
compared to other laptop microphones. This recording is from my Razer Blade
14. So, for those reasons, I can't recommend this device to anyone who
plans to use it extensively for video chatting over Skype or Hangouts. The
Wi-Fi is Broadcom rather than Intel-based. And while it delivered
actually awesome performance in my sustained file transfer tests, I have
seen reports online of flaky behavior on 2.4 GHz networks while using a Bluetooth
mouse. The keyboard gets a little warmer to the touch than I'd like during idle,
and I feel like Dell might want to at least give me the option to fine-tune
the fan curve a little bit so my hands don't get sweaty. And finally, most of
the accessories, including the USB Type-C dock, aren't available yet, dur
organizational criticism and less of a jab at the product itself. So, in the
grand scheme of things, these are some pretty minor complaints that I'm taking
into my conclusion here. And here it goes. In a vacuum, I probably wouldn't
be that impressed by the XPS5. I mean, sure, the slim bezel makes more of a
difference to the experience of using the device in practice than you'd
probably expect, but it doesn't do anything else that's really that
special, right? Well, it's more complicated than that because while it
doesn't seem that hard to do what Dell did here, deliver a solid product at a
fair price, it apparently is because most laptops are frankly kind of junky.
And when we consider the rest of the market as well, the XPS15 stands out
from the crowd by, despite my complaints, doing what it says it will
and doing it very, very well.
Speaking of doing what they say they will, and doing it well, Dbrand Skins
makes pretty freaking sick skins for all kinds of devices. They've got their
online configurator that lets you go, hey, look, this is my phone or this is
my game controller or my game console or
my MacBook or whoa, they've got PCs now,
including the XPS 15. And you can
actually use that configurator to mock up all kinds of different combinations
of skins, so you can personalize your device exactly the way you want to. And
there's a practical component to it, too. The vinyl skin that you apply will
also help protect your device from incidental scuffs and scrapes. Something
that is great for something like a laptop that you're constantly sliding in
and out of, say, for example, a backpack or briefcase. So, all you've got to do
is head to the link in the video description and check out Dbrand's
highquality vinyl skins. I mean, what are you waiting for? Go do it. I ran out
of gas there on my on my spot, but you guys get the point.
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