Dell XPS 15 9550 Review - You Should
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2016-05-06
·
1,744 words · ~8 min read
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Monitors, sure, but actual computers from Dell, ironically, were never really
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my bag, baby. However, due to recent events, I've been forced to rethink this
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strategy. For one thing, you guys seem to love the Dell content, and for
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another, they've just done some really great stuff lately, like this easily
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upgradeable Inspiron 7559 model with a
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GTX 960M and a reasonable price tag. So,
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by popular demand, here is my take on the XPS15 9550.
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The Master Case 5 by Cooler Master gives you the freedom to truly make your
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midtower PC case your own with a variety of modular parts and accessories. Check
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out the link in the video description to learn more. Okay, so I don't pay much
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attention to Dell. So I actually knew very little about the new Super Mario,
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excuse me, new XPS15 when I pulled it
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out of the box, making these initial impressions very raw. First, Dbrand, who
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provided the unit to us, did a great job of the skin. Apparently, they do PCs now
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in addition to Macs, so good work, robots. And second, while it feels
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really sturdy, I was surprised by the
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size and weight because compared to the Blade 14 2015 that I use as a daily
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driver, it just didn't feel that slim
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and sexy in spite of the carbon fiber construction. Though, there are reasons
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for that. So, we'll get to that later, but let's do the physical tour. It
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really starts with the screen on this bad boy. On the one side of the slim,
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well- constructed panel, you'll find a Dell logo surrounded, in our case, by a
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wood grain vinyl skin. And on the other side, the built to order Infinity Edge
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display. Dell boasts about the practically non-existent bezels, the
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viewing angles, and the color reproduction of this Exo panel. And I've
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got to give it to them. It looks awesome. It gets bright enough for easy
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use in broad daylight. And more importantly for me, it gets dim enough
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without assistance from a third party app for use at night in the dark. I went
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with a 1080p non-touch model because I was considering the 9550 as a Blade 14
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replacement, and I was willing to trade display sharpness for battery life, but
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it's also available with a touch-en 4K Exo display as well. My one complaint
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here was that there was more backlight bleed than I would like to see in the
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corners, but frankly, I stopped noticing it after the first day. So, there you
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go. What I did notice day-to-day though was the speed of this thing. I went with
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a pretty decked out model. So, packed inside the guts on the bottom is an
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Intel Core i7 6700HQ 45W quad core with
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hyperthreading, 16 gigs of DDR4 memory,
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apparently upgradeable with 16 gig dims to 32 gigs total, a GTX 960M 2 gig video
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card, and a 512 gig PCI Expressbased
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SSD, a Samsung 951 to be precise.
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Showing though Dell doesn't specify, so
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your mileage may vary in the future. But while I think they've got a wide enough
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range of specs to meet almost anyone's needs from mine all the way to someone
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who wants something more basic, I continue to be disappointed by their
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online configurator. Dell, the GPU
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belongs in the summary at the top of the page. These two models, one of which has
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onboard graphics and the other of which packs a GTX 960M, look like you're
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paying $250 for a hard drive upgrade,
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unless you scroll way down. Not only that, but while the 512 gig SSD models
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say solidstate drive, the one terabyte
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PCIe SSD models, you know, the ones where the storage drive costs about a
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third of the entire machine, are labeled hard drive. Does anyone even proofread
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these? Get your head in the game. And while we're at it, Dell, stop being
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misleading. If the 4K option is the only one with Corning glass on the front,
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then that shouldn't be mentioned in the chassis blurb on a model that doesn't
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have a 4K display and doesn't offer it as an upgrade. Get your together,
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marketing and product merchandising teams. All right, this is a good product, so get this stuff right because
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for me actually, yeah, it is a good product. The XPS 159550 was mostly a
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treat to use. The IO is a very solid mix
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with SD USB 3, a battery indicator, and
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a lock on the right, and a combo audio jack, USB typeC, Thunderbolt 3 port with
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charging capability, HDMI, and another USB 3 port on the left. Thanks to the
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sixth gen processor, and beefy battery, even my Core i7 model lasted me all day
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with ease. the two fans that take in fresh air through the vents in the
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bottom, then exhaust onto the lower bezel of the screen, keep the GPU
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running at full speed, and take advantage of that extra size. I said I
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would get to this versus the Blade 14 to stay reasonably quiet even under an
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extended gaming load. And like that recently reviewed Inspiron, they turn
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off entirely during light use. Great.
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The backlit keyboard, which thankfully using function and escape allows you to
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default to the F keys instead of the secondary functions, is quiet and
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responsive with good tactile feedback and a really solid feeling palm rest.
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And the touchpad was responsive with good palm rejection and solid
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performance during two-handed use. Something that many laptops that have
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click pads rather than separated buttons struggle with, which isn't to say that
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it's perfect. As a communication device, the XPS15 falls flat for me. While I
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would describe the recording quality of the 720p webcam as acceptable, there are
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a couple of other issues that I have. Number one is that while I understand
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that Dell had to move the webcam below
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the screen in order to make room for the Infinity Edge display, what they didn't
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have to do is stick it off to the side cuz it looks like I'm kind of staring
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off into the distance somewhere when I'm actually looking dead center on my
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screen. So, it could be closer to this experience if it weren't offset to make
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room for the precious Dell logo. My other issue is that the included
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microphone is awful. Why wasn't that put
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along the bottom edge of the screen as well? Instead, it's on the leading edge
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of the bottom of the laptop, giving an extraordinarily echoey sound, even
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compared to other laptop microphones. This recording is from my Razer Blade
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14. So, for those reasons, I can't recommend this device to anyone who
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plans to use it extensively for video chatting over Skype or Hangouts. The
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Wi-Fi is Broadcom rather than Intel-based. And while it delivered
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actually awesome performance in my sustained file transfer tests, I have
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seen reports online of flaky behavior on 2.4 GHz networks while using a Bluetooth
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mouse. The keyboard gets a little warmer to the touch than I'd like during idle,
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and I feel like Dell might want to at least give me the option to fine-tune
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the fan curve a little bit so my hands don't get sweaty. And finally, most of
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the accessories, including the USB Type-C dock, aren't available yet, dur
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organizational criticism and less of a jab at the product itself. So, in the
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grand scheme of things, these are some pretty minor complaints that I'm taking
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into my conclusion here. And here it goes. In a vacuum, I probably wouldn't
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be that impressed by the XPS5. I mean, sure, the slim bezel makes more of a
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difference to the experience of using the device in practice than you'd
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probably expect, but it doesn't do anything else that's really that
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special, right? Well, it's more complicated than that because while it
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doesn't seem that hard to do what Dell did here, deliver a solid product at a
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fair price, it apparently is because most laptops are frankly kind of junky.
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And when we consider the rest of the market as well, the XPS15 stands out
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from the crowd by, despite my complaints, doing what it says it will
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and doing it very, very well.
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Speaking of doing what they say they will, and doing it well, Dbrand Skins
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makes pretty freaking sick skins for all kinds of devices. They've got their
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online configurator that lets you go, hey, look, this is my phone or this is
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my game controller or my game console or
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my MacBook or whoa, they've got PCs now,
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including the XPS 15. And you can
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actually use that configurator to mock up all kinds of different combinations
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of skins, so you can personalize your device exactly the way you want to. And
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there's a practical component to it, too. The vinyl skin that you apply will
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also help protect your device from incidental scuffs and scrapes. Something
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that is great for something like a laptop that you're constantly sliding in
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and out of, say, for example, a backpack or briefcase. So, all you've got to do
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is head to the link in the video description and check out Dbrand's
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highquality vinyl skins. I mean, what are you waiting for? Go do it. I ran out
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of gas there on my on my spot, but you guys get the point.
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All right, so thanks for watching, guys. If you disliked this video, hey, you
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