This is my experience with dell xps 15 after one month of day by day use.
Specification
- Intel Core i7-6700HQ 6th gen Skylake at 2.6 ghz, up to a 3.5 ghz with 6 mb cache
- 16 GB ram (2x8GB) 2133MHz DDR4
- 512 GB SSD PCie NVME m.2 by way of toshiba
- Nvidia GeForce 960m 2 GB DDR5
- 6″ 1080p (1920×1080 aka full hd/fhd) matte (anti-glare) Display, non touch
- 84w 6-cellular lithium-ion battery, lasts6-8 hours
- Backlit united kingdom keyboard, 1.3mm journey, no numpad,no home/end/pgup/pgdown keys
- Weight: 2 kg (4.4 lbs)
- Usb 3.0 (2x), thunderbolt (1x), sd card reader (sd, sdhc, sdxc), lock slot, hdmi mini, headphone 3.5mm jack
You can additionally pay a piece more and get a model with 32 gb ram and 1 tb ssd.
Requirements
I’m a software developer and use virtual machines significantly. That is why i desired an i7, that greater ram and an ssd into a must.
I do not play games however i have gotten into video enhancing and this is the purpose i wanted a devoted graphic card. I additionally want to teach some neural networks for academic purposes, so i was looking for Nvidia graphic cards with cuda guide.
Paying extra and getting a laptop with a 1080p three years ago become a superb selection. I nonetheless consider having an excellent display with a excessive resolution is even more important than the selection of the cpu.
None of my laptops have ever lasted more than 3 hours on battery power, so i in the end desired one with a great battery existence.
Eventually, my last pc had a terrific design and that is what i wanted this time as nicely. It had to look somewhat professional in a enterprise setting and hopefully no longer like a gaming laptop.
Design & build
Dell XPS infinity edge seems very, excellent. No complaints there.
It is also light-weight approximately 2 kg. It is outstanding how plenty electricity you can squeeze into one of these small form of device. Believe me describing this pc and what it can do to someone 30 years in the past.
This computer has a 15.6″ display but thanks to the very skinny bezels, its size is greater like that of a 14″ pc.
The pc is likewise quiet (enthusiasts aren’t spinning) maximum of the time whilst i’m browsing the net, looking movies and doing web programming or even light compiling.
One thing that i did not count on and am very aggravated about is coil whine. It is there and i’m able to hear it while the enthusiasts aren’t spinning and it is quiet in the room. Disabling intel skylake strength saving states in bios appeared to lessen it rather but it became nevertheless there.
This pc attracts your oily fingerprints like crazy. The lid is suitable but the carbon fiber palm relaxation and the touchpad can look ridiculous in day mild. The display additionally draws dirt but not more than other laptops that i’ve had.
Display
Dell XPS 15 gives a preference between a 1080p and 4k display.
I were given a model with a 1080p display for 2 primary & one less crucial motive:
- The display become matte (anti-glare)
- Battery lasts longer
- No problems with scaling
Whilst the 4k screen appears to be great (splendid color accuracy, contact display, 4k resolution), i am very glad with my preference.
Even as the better coloration accuracy could have been beneficial, it isn’t always that essential to me but. The touch display is excellent however i can stay without it. I also don’t have a use for the 4k resolution and am glad to keep away from troubles that include scaling in windows.
The biggest win for me, however, changed into the longer battery life over 4k (reportedly extra 2-3 hours) and the anti-glare display screen which i am used to.
There are a few problems with the screen, however.
First, the display screen will fantastically flicker on white history while the brightness is much less than 30%. I wager this changed into predicted (i noticed it cited in an internet assessment once I noticed it).
What was not anticipated was electric powered humming sounds as a result of intel portraits drivers whilst the screen is redrawn e.g. When scrolling websites. Seemingly, when you uninstall the drivers the buzzing goes away.
Intel has released a new edition in their drivers which makes the buzzing slightly less important however it’s far still there.
If you are in a room all by yourself and there is no noise and the fanatics are not spinning, you may pay attention this buzzing, aside from that it isn’t too apparent however it’s nonetheless there.
Battery
It feels fantastic now not having to take a charger with me once I go to work (10 am – 6 pm with a lunch break inbetween) and nonetheless having some juice left (except i’m doing some thing very cpu heavy).
I’d say that i get about 6-8 hours of battery lifestyles. It would be eight hours if i simply surf the internet, a few light document processing and not plenty more.
Charging is fast and you can even configure it within the bios to have quicker charging (it receives to some thing like 60% short after which it is slower) but sacrifice battery toughness or just have a realistic tradeoff that’s the default.
The charger is very slim. It is got a nice layout and it’s also light. There may be a light at the strength cable when it’s plugged in which is kind of excellent which saves time while searching out it.
Every other minor quirk is that if you are charging the computer at the same time as it is on, the fans will now not be quiet even supposing there’s no load on the laptop.
What i don’t like about this pc is that there may be no indicator light that it’s turned on when the lid is closed. Usually you’ll never want any such light, however the problem is this computer can awaken randomly and if it’s in your bag it is able to overheat. And there is no way to inform if it’s on.
Keyboard & touchpad
The keyboard isn’t precise. It is no longer awful however it’s no longer right. Plenty of humans in their evaluations have said that they might not write a book in this keyboard.
Even though there may be space, there are no home/end keys and the arrow keys are tiny. I have remapped the prtscr key to domestic and the insert key to delete.
However these keys are very far from the arrow keys which isn’t properly for writing and modifying code.
One month in and i, like many others, have a squeaky spacebar key. Very demanding on the grounds that i press it all the time. I have gotten some dirty appears due to it inside the silent room on the library.
The touch pad is very fine. Seemingly, it’s one of the nicest other humans have used but to me it appears exact much like many different music pads.
Summary
There have been many problems that i observed with this pc to start with, troubles that have to no longer exist whilst you pay this a lot for a laptop.
As a result, even as the computer is first rate, it does not sense reliable in any respect.
I am worried it will not last long. I do desire i am wrong although.
Conclusion
I can not in my good conscience endorse this computer due to the coil whine, humming and spacebar squeak. The laptop also does now not feel reliable. In case you do determine to get one, i endorse having a backup computer equipped just in case.
Whilst those kinks are fixed and that they use the subsequent technology NVIDIA graphic card, then i might suggest it and not using a hesitation.
