Dell XPS 15 9570 Review: Every Laptop Wants To Be That Way

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Most do not need a laptop thatcosts $ 1500 (102 500 p.). The average person in a month spends much less money than the cost of this laptop. And even if the budget allowed, most simply do not need a discrete video card, a 6-core processor, 16 GB of RAM and a 15-inch screen. On the Dell XPS 15 9570 review.

But, what if you are a video editor,programmer, designer, architect or avid gamer? You need a laptop that can easily handle heavy work information and at the same time run any games. That is the new XPS 15 from Dell, a laptop that many have been waiting for.

Keyboard, touchpad and camera

Display to choose from

Laptop performance

SSD Drive

XPS 15 in games

Battery autonomy

Are there alternatives?

Should I buy?

The design of the XPS 15 remains unchanged. His body is almost the same as last year’s model. Silver aluminum trim makes the laptop even more elegant and stylish. The ultra-thin frames around the screen still look great and maintain the smooth profile of the series, but they are not as unique as they used to be.

Instead of making the Dell XPS 15 the mostthin or light notebook, Dell continues to focus on strength and durability. Its weight is 1.8 kg. The thickness of the case in the thinnest place (at the touchpad) - 11 mm, and in the thickest (at the back) - 17 mm.

Despite its slim body, the XPS 15 has a goodset of ports. There are two USB 3.0 Type-A ports, a Thunderbolt 3 connected to four PCIe bus lines, an HDMI 2.0 video output and a full-size SD card slot.

Keyboard, touchpad and webcam

The Dell XPS 15 9570 laptop is usedKeyboard island with an increased distance between the keys. The keys have a standard size of 15 × 15 mm, and the depth of depression is 1.3 mm. Thanks to the excellent tactile response, the text is typed quickly and conveniently.

The touchpad is also very responsive and responds well to gestures. Clicking the buttons a little louder than we would like, but you quickly get used to it.

The XPS 15 9570 webcam is a problemlocated under the display. Such a decision would be excusable on a cheaper device. But for a laptop that needs to be used regularly for business, this is more of a compromise. For some, this will not be a problem, but most, I am sure, will simply not want to use this camera.

Display to choose from

The Dell XPS 15 9570 comes with a 4K display either- 1080p. The last one was equipped with a sample I tested. Unlike the XPS 13, where the quality of the 1080p and 4K panels is very impressive, the quality of the XPS 15 screen is a bit disappointing. Yes, the display has a maximum brightness level of 397 nit, a high contrast ratio and even a decent color gamut. However, he has several problems.

The 1080p screen here has an average color speederrors 3.32, which is not exactly like professional photographers and videographers. Of course, the indicator can be reduced with the help of calibration, but this is not the best solution for a new laptop worth $ 1500 (102 500 p.).

I advise video editors to choose a 4K model withhigher resolution, which offers a wider color gamut and better color reproduction. But for gamers, and most other users, it’s better to save $ 400 ($ 27,350) and buy a 1080p version.

Laptop performance

The Dell XPS 15 2018 laptop is equipped with an 8th processorGeneration Core i7-8750H, which can be found in gaming laptops like the Razer Blade or Digital Storm Equinox. The 45-watt chip proved to be excellent both in tests and in everyday use, especially in combination with 16 GB of RAM, which the model I tested was equipped with. Even in the most intense tests, the XPS 15 never became too noisy or hot.

Core i7-8750H processor, allows you to runheavy software like Photoshop, Pro Tools or CAD at the same time as other software and browser. In the Handbrake test, it took only 2.5 minutes to encode a short 4K video, the XPS 15 9570, which is the best indicator among notebooks.

SSD Drive

Despite excellent performanceprocessor, solid state drive Toshiba XG5 NVMe with a capacity of 256 GB has a rather slow data writing speed. In the CrystalDisk Mark test, this drive recorded data at 154 MB / s. After installing the update for Windows 10 from April 2018, the write speed worsened and decreased on average to 46 MB / s. In fact, this is equal to the speed of the hard disk of the old format.

But this may be a bug in Windows 10 and, according to messages on the forums, this problem has affected other machines with the same SSD. I turned to Dell about this, but my question has remained unanswered.

XPS 15 in games

The new Dell XPS 15 9570 is not positioned asgaming laptop, but surprisingly, this is quite a capable machine. The use of a discrete GTX 1050 Ti video card makes games on the XPS 15 smoother and more responsive. Compared to last year’s model, the XPS 15 9570 showed an 18 percent increase in the 3DMark test.

Game performance has also increased markedly. In lighter ones like the Rocket League or Fortnite, the speed reaches 60 fps with graphical settings set to Ultra. Even in more demanding games like Civilization VI or Battlefield 1, I noticed a significant increase in the frame rate compared to last year’s model. On Ultra graphics settings, the average speed reaches 49 fps in the Civilization VI and 52 fps in Battlefield 1. These figures do not compare with the best gaming laptops, like the Razer Blade, but the abilities of the XPS 15 2018 are impressive.

Battery autonomy

Dell has managed to increase the battery life of the XPS15, due to the installation of a large 97-watt battery. This is one of the best batteries I've seen on a 15-inch laptop. For comparison, the Razer Blade is equipped with a battery at 80 W / h, and the Surface Book 2 - 90 W / h.

When playing looped video, the laptop worked for a little over 14.5 hours. In general, with standard laptop use, the battery charge is enough for the whole day.

Alternatives to the new Dell XPS 15

The obvious alternative is a 15-inch MacBook Pro, which does not have such graphic capabilities, it has the worst battery life and costs a bit more expensive.

Razer Blade, of course, is a more capable gaming device, but again - the battery life is worse, and it costs more.

The laptop that is really neededConsider before buying the new XPS 15 - this is one of the Dell G series. They are not so thin, light or premium, but offer the best performance at almost half the price of the XPS 15 9570. The main trade-offs are screen quality, battery life and touch panel quality . But, if you're on a budget, this would be a great option.

Total

The Dell XPS 15 2018 is better than its predecessor inevery relationship. Although its appearance has not changed, it remains a star in all areas. Dell even updated the graphics card without increasing the cost. Although there are a couple of shortcomings, like the placement of the webcam and the speed of the drive, but despite this, the XPS 15 Dell 9570 is an excellent 15-inch laptop.

Should I buy?

Yes. Maybe not everyone needs such a high performance, but having bought an XPS 15 once, you will not want to change it for something else.