Dell XPS 17 review: Leaving the MacBook Pro 16 in the dust 

..... It really does seem to be the case, Wilson and especially for a lot of emaciated digital nomads, spending most of their lifes creating unboxing videos, or sitting in the corners of cafe houses, always looking for power points to keep their rapidly draining laptops charged during those multi-hour gastronomical sessions, when not travelling the world in currently grounded aircraft. I occasionally suggest a few sheets of paper and a small IKEA pencil as alternatives for these muscle deprived individuals, who order their beverages pre-sweetened, as even the task of adding sugar cubes seems to be an arduous, muscle straining task. And as for MacBooks "still not having" SD card slots. A bit of research will reveal that even other, so called legacy ports, where once part of the MacBook range, before Apple outlined the collective future with all of these ports now apparently being obsolete. So everyone, and finally digest that message, throw away all of your USB-A drives, mice and whatever else was powered by this ancient technology, visit your nearest Apple store and ask for the 'dongle section' credit card or proof of AfterPay membership at hand 😉

It does feel different though - that one extra lb seems to cross the threshold of ultraportability. I have the new xps 15 and it just feels a tad heavy to lug around like you would a 13 inch. Great built quality though and the bezel-less display is gorgeous

I remember my 17 inch dell 9 years ago weighed 13 pounds. 5 is nothing.

60 beats woah nelly! Sounds like you need to cut back on the sugar.

It's one of those thing where you get used to light weight 2-3 lbs ultrabook then dread on the extra 1-2 pound increase with larger size. I used my 13 for 4 years and going back to 15 laptop feel different but not that substantial to me.

How much you paid on that setup?

@@fabrizio-6172 $3800

Just canceled my order, thanks for the information.

Damn dude that sucks. I'm having no issues with my 32 GB 8 core version. I'm running 3 live trading platforms , while streaming media on multi ultra-wide displays. I'm constantly unplugging and plugging back into my dell d6000 docking station. I used to see situations like this when I was a corporate cellphone store manager. Sometimes Apple/Samsung (whoever) just have bad units. I opted out of the 4k display since 8k is already breathing down our necks, and the battery life payoff is outstanding! It is still one of the most amazing displays ever! This also took the cost of my unit down to the $2600 range. Also 500 nits is extremely bright. This machine is on another level.

Ethan Eady thanks I was about to cancel order until I saw your comments 🙏

Oled screens suck for color grading etc. Not good.

hopefully next year we may have AMD chips. It will drastically reduce power and heat issues. Also, a vapor chamber in 15inch would be nice

Ok mr. detail

You can pretty much double it... :-)

Absolutely!! Pocket that money and enjoy being freed from the plug for like 10+ hours. This machine is boss!!

@@myrrhsee1 Thanks Ethan... while we have to offer 4K panels to be on par with competition (and for some customers, the resolution is relevant if not desired), I have never been a fan of the higher resolution displays in a notebook. On my 77" TV, of course, but on a 13-inch or even 17-inch NB, the price you pay in battery life (not to mention the dollars) is not worth it to me. Enjoy your day!

Felipe Suarez for any programmer or anyone else who looks at text a lot, 4K makes a massive difference. Day and night.

Felipe Suarez I've checked the business laptops can not find the $2100 one you speack did dell take it down.

Yeah I'm going to have to disagree with you. The difference between 4K and FHD+ is very noticeable.

Mine came with faulty battery, trackpad got loose after a week, speaker start random popping, 4k screen light bleed pretty serious end up returning it. how i would describe the carbon fiber rest pad is soft smooth rubber. People having power issue with the I7 8 core 4k top end so I can't imagine what the I9 issue gonna be.

There won't be an i9. The 8 core i7 replaces the i9.

John Doe how do you know if you have a faulty battery

Dude! What coil whine? I have no coil whine and have not heard of anyone having any on the new XPS models (9500/9700). The track pad issue has been addressed by Dell who admitted to the issue and confirmed all forward shipping units would have the issue fixed and previous units can be fixed under warranty or returned. As for gaming off charger - that’s the case with most laptops - even with actual gaming laptops.

@@AMGF815 I don't have the coil whine on my 9700 but it has popped up for some people (search Reddit). As for losing battery while gaming, that's certainly NOT the case with most gaming laptops. However most gaming laptops come with much bigger power bricks, so that's the trade off. This is a creation machine that can game, but is not made to game. It's made for short bursts of heavy load which the charger can handle. Sustained heavy loads like in gaming are just too much for the 130w charger. Now, if Dell would update the BIOS to allow undervolting we could probably solve that...here's hoping.

I seem post about people battery came with the laptop is less than the 97wHr, I think it was round 88 wHr is what some people are getting when it was rated for 95wHr from China BYD factory.

@@JohnDoe-we4nb Hi John... we offer two battery capacities for the XPS 17. A 56Whr battery that is only coupled with the FHD+ resolution. The 97Whr battery can be had on the FHD+ and is the only option on the UHD+ configurations. The XPS 15 employs a 56Whr and an 86Whr battery.

@@AMGF815 Dude this is not just about gaming. I have to render 3d models and this fricking machine gets a huge battery drain, goes from 100% to 15% in 4 hours. I did finish my render but honestly over time battery gets worse and laptop will probably just shut down in the middle of work. This the most horrible design flaw.

Hi Wayne - If you're just looking for a larger screen, the LG Gram is a solid choice. The XPS 17 is designed for heavy workloads with Intel's "H" processors and NVIDIA's RTS2060 discrete graphics (90W design) whereas the LG Gram is a "U-based" architecture with integrated graphics (15W design). It's a slim and light product, but it wouldn't win a "fist fight" with the XPS 17.

​@@MayTheSchwartzBeWithYou Hi Matt.. thanks very much for your insightful comments. I really appreciate your insights. The light weight of the Gram is very attractive, but the power and style of the XPS is equally compelling. I'll have to really think through my expected use profile. Thanks again for sharing your thoughts. Thumbs up!!

@@dono700 Hi Donnie.. thanks very much for your insightful comments. I really appreciate your insights. The light weight of the Gram is very attractive, but the power and style of the XPS is equally compelling. I'll have to really think through my expected use profile. Thanks again for sharing your thoughts. Thumbs up!!

Yo what’s the name of it? Been looking for it

@@thewhitepug5531 me too.

yep it's Dave2D's outro music

It's the Dave2D intro music, but he doesn't have intros anymore :(

@@thewhitepug5531 ottom cherry blossom

From what I've read there's not going to be very much of a difference going with the i9 over the currently available 8 core i7 10875h. The i9 gets a slightly higher max clock speed, but you're probably not going to sustain that speed very long even with vapor chamber cooling. The 10th gen 10875h meets/beats the 9th gen i9

People are having power issue with the I7 when plug in, can't wait to see what the I9 going to do.

Because Apple is great at it. Your comment is like your trying to find a way to criticize Apple. They also win in trackpads and build quality and micropjones

@@atwtmvtvftwsgavralps and os

AzeRTy Block no, that’s debatable. What I mentioned is pretty much agreeed on

@@atwtmvtvftwsgavralps who want candy crush to be pre-installed? It is a joke OS

@@karis7539 OSX cant even install candy crush

Me too!!!!

@@bigterrapin5472 and not a huge fan that the new wifi chips are soldered on

I'd say if you're planning to shell out for an XPS17 as well as an external GPU, just go ahead and get yourself a dedicated gaming laptop.

Try one of our Commercial docking stations... there's a standard USB-C variant and a Thunderbolt variant as well. Single cable to plug in and with the TBT dock, you can drive two external 4K displays with ease.

It's the area top of the keyboard that gets super hot. The screen and most areas of keyboard and touchpad are actually very cool

Hi M.E. balbaa - While OLED panels are more sensitive to heat, the LCD panels we use have a higher temperature spec. The majority of the exhausted air will be distributed below the display, but some residual heat will be passed over the bottom of the display. This should not create any issues.

It's depend on the scaling and resolution, 16:10 do give you a few extra vertical lines for texts but should work just as well as any window laptop you get the extra large screen for viewing with the 17. If you consider buying this particular laptop, I would wait because there's seem to be a lot of issue with it for $2k+ laptop. I myself returned mine.

Matt Schwartz MacBooks have serious issues as well, but it’s Apple so they don’t say anything.

Nope... standard LED display with IGZO technology from Sharp. The UHD+ variant is 100% Adobe RGB minimum. Truly a beautiful display.

What are you talking about?

It's carbon fiber... it serves multiple purposes. It's very strong, yet very light. It's cooler to the touch than a metal palm-rest under load. It looks and feels cool, too! :-)

@@dono700 It's a bit sticky and harder to clean than aluminium palm rest, though. And why doesn't XPS 17 use the same carbon fibre material to cover the speaker grills as well?

I tried building that combination and wasn't able to do so. I'll stick with my XPS17r SE for a bit longer...

Robert Liptak the only way to get that configuration is through the business website

macbooks also have ghosting issues

@@yamito3809 I tried one at the apple store and guess what I don't even notice it. The video on YT I posted about mine is 10x worse in real life then it is on video. I dragged Spotify around the screen and the white letters had about 1inch drag behind them when moving it around on circles. Also Spotify and other applications lag when scrolling thru a list which is ridiculous.

These reviews are seriously bad. While I really like my Dell 7590 and have had very little issues with it, it's in no way shape or form superior to a MacBook. The whole anti Apple hive mentality has been a strong marketing exploit for Dell and this review clearly illustrates that.

Well can be upgradeable. I mean it is a bummer but let’s not act like we can’t change the ram in this laptop

Lmao I feel you, I have one and lucky mine came with none of the problems

Mine Fk up after a week, return it. It seem a lot of problem is from the 4k model.

The 17 is actually 17.3 inches.

@@uchechukwuajalam Im not sure where your data is coming from. But lit pixel to lit pixel corner to corner my XPS 17 9700 UHD+ measures exactly 17.0 inches. My build sheet says 17 inches as well. So you are incorrect it is exactly 17 inches.

Thanks for calling this out P. Wingert... I've asked our online team to get this fixed. We should have all configurations on the Consumer (for Home) page.

XPS 13 and 15 are having major battery problems. The battery is under the track pad and swells pushing the track pad up causing it to be unusable. I can't find anything on that happening with the XPS 17. But is seems to use the same battery. This swelling is happening about the one year mark. Only solution I can see is get a new battery every 10 months. But Dell is having so many battery issues they are sending out refurbished batteries. Look at the Asus and Lenovo.

@@NewOrleansSeptember Hi David... while we did have a battery swelling issue on the first generation of XPS 15, that issue was limited to a single battery supplier and we honored battery replacements (out of warranty) for anyone who experienced it. It was not a safety issue, but was disconcerting. We do not have battery swelling issues on XPS 13. And lastly, we don't use "the same" battery on any new products (15 or 17). Feel free to reach out if you have information that says otherwise. Thanks

@@NewOrleansSeptember "major" isn't the right word for it. And your point becomes irrelevant since you are talking about the older model xps laptops, which use different batteries than the new ones.

@@vivek_v Then why don't you point this out since you are touting yourself as an expert. And the 2020 models haven't been out long enough to know if there is a problem. It took a year for the original battery problem to become known. So what is the difference in the "new" battery?

@@dono700 What is the difference in the batteries? I own a Dell laptop. My second one. Before buying I looked at over 300 Dell reviews. Never saw a bad Dell review on any Dell until this battery problem. And the comments from a lot of people said they didn't get repairs for this problem. I hope you are right and the problem is fixed but I can't buy an XPS and I was looking at them as I can't run the risk having a serious problem with a laptop that I would spend 2k on. And since I am talking to an expert let me ask you about the motherboard replacements I have seen some XPS users talk about. What is the issue with the motherboard? These people did say they had no problem getting Dell to replace those defective motherboards.

My understanding is Asus under clock the CPU and GPU to control thermals on that laptop, it means it runs cooler than others but has a performance hit because of it.

Wrong.

We employ Intel's 10th generation "Comet Lake" H processor (45W) in Ci5, Ci7 and soon Ci9 variants. We support Intel integrated graphics on the base model, NVIDIA's GTX1650Ti dGPU with 4GB GDDR6 VRAM or NVIDIA's RTX2060 dGPU with 6GB GDDR6 VRAM. That latter delivers VR level performance - a first in an XPS notebook.

Which one did you buy after the return

Martin have you found anything out...I can’t find a single decent review re daw use!...Please let me know if you do. I will do the same....but at the moment................nothing!

@@tonyodoherty6241 I've been trying and nothing so far. Reddit is your best bet, keep checking DAW forums, audio producers that kind of thing -- I'm keeping an eye out. I really can't commit to buying one of these until I know it won't stutter like hell with a few VSTs in Reaper :)

Hi David... I've been managing the XPS product line for Dell since 2010...while we did have a battery swelling issue on the first generation of XPS 15, that issue was limited to a single battery supplier and we honored battery replacements (out of warranty) for anyone who experienced it. It was not a safety issue, but was disconcerting. We do not have battery swelling issues on XPS 13 products. And lastly, we don't use "the same" battery on any new products (15 or 17). Feel free to reach out if you have information that says otherwise. Thanks

@@dono700 What is the difference in the batteries? I own a Dell laptop. My second one. Before buying I looked at over 300 Dell reviews. Never saw a bad Dell review on any Dell until this battery problem. And the comments from a lot of people said they didn't get repairs for this problem. I hope you are right and the problem is fixed but I can't buy an XPS and I was looking at them as I can't run the risk having a serious problem with a laptop that I would spend 2k on.

@@dono700 Since I am talking to an expert let me ask you about the motherboard replacements I have seen some XPS users talk about. What is the issue with the motherboard? These people did say they had no problem getting Dell to replace those defective motherboards.

@@NewOrleansSeptember Thanks David... there are always going to be negative reviews. That's simply a reality for all products and when customers have a bad experience, we welcome that feedback. It enables us to continually improve our products and the customer experience. We stand behind out products and when customers have issues, our goal is to resolve those issues to the customer's satisfaction. I can confirm that Dell's policy on the battery swelling issue we saw on our first-generation XPS 15 was to resolve it regardless of warranty coverage.

@@NewOrleansSeptember That's a pretty general question, David. Every OEM replaces motherboards everyday. There are literally thousands of components and functions on each motherboard, so replacing a motherboard is a pretty common thing (for any OEM). Dell ships millions of products every month, so while you can find instances where products fail, there are millions of products that don't. What I can assure you is this - we stand behind our products and our warranty is there for our customer's peace of mind. If someone has an issue, we are obligated and compelled to address that issue to the customer's satisfaction. Things will inevitably break, it's our commitment to fix them.

Try out our Alienware products or the 7000 series Precision mobile workstations...

Then dont take a laptop!

If you want a gaming laptop, get a gaming laptop. Compared to the MBP16 - this screen is king.

@@AMGF815 hahaha that's funny, you mean a movable desktop?

Hi trinin967... Admittedly, we do not design XPS products for gaming... our sister brand (Alienware) is the right tool for that job. We focus on content creation and consumption with XPS. Features like color gamut, brightness and contrast ratio are the focus areas for these panels. Thanks for your business!

Ming Yang Lu I’ve owned both. Have you even used both?

@@dono700 That's interesting, you work for dell? I have so many questions, you probably can't answer. Maybe you can answer this, why don't you release a white model of the 15 or 17, similar to the 13 inch xps?

Because they have it in the Dell Precision laptops which is the business version of the XPS 17. I think they even go up to a rtx 8000 but Ik they definitely have a 5000.

Price a comparably configured MacBook Pro 16 :-)

Lightest, not smallest.

@@MayTheSchwartzBeWithYou miniLED im still not convinced of. oled oled oled

@@aaronao1 Check out MSI, they had a creator laptop with miniled that thing hit 1000 nits.

ye but what about the price?

Windows10's resolution is a mess

Resolution smarter? Lol you sound like a butt hurt apple gan boy. Take the Loss

XPS 17 is better then mackrook 16

@@LinuxAndroid86 More like XPS has a higher resolution display that Windows sucks at handling compared to MacOS, which gives it an edge in terms of image quality but the opposite for the usability.

Which laptop

None other 17 inch laptops are as attractive and compact.

@@TheThingKing the razer pro, plus it has a stronger graphics card and a little cheaper when maxed out.

did you try them side by side? I have macbook pro 16 and thinking about XPS 17. But there is nowhere near shop where I could see live XPS 17.

Sorry don’t know anything re mac books.....but am thinking it’s the only safe way to go......

You realize that they have a contract with intel right. Plus they are not giving up on thunderbolt until usb-4 becomes an option.

@@emperorcyber509 That's a myth... Dell works with Intel and AMD.

Lmfao

I noticed that also.

1080p on a 17 inch is terrible. Very pixelated. Besides, battery life on a 6 pound + laptop? I would rather have a good screen than 2 hours of battery

I wish they made a 1440p display. That would be a perfect balance between battery, resolution, and price.

@@stacia6678 it's actually 4.7 lbs for the non touch and 5.5 for the touch.

Completely wrong. You can definitely notice and it's a huge difference on a 17inch screen.

Nick H y’all are tripping. No there’s not a huge difference but there is a difference. Quality wise, the 4K panel is better in color and res but not enough to justify the cost. The FHD panel is well calibrated and is actually brighter. Not to mention the igpu can barely handle the resolution. Let’s not even mention window scaling. How do I know? I had the 4K model. People are getting 9-12 hours on the fhd while I’m getting 6 hours doing nothing but light task and RU-vid. If y’all want some empirical numbers, the pixel density on the 17 16:10 is 133ppi vs 15.6 16:9 139ppi. You’re not gonna see pixel unless u slam ur face on the screen. For perspective a 1440p 27” monitor have 108ppi and a 4K 27” is 166ppi. I can say both monitor look just as sharp as the other. The HDR on the 4K panel is useless for standard use and due to the week igpu it’ll lag due to high respond time. And the brightness is not enough for a major different vs sdr. I actually prefer SDR on the panel because it retain small detail with the same 550 nits that hdr would wash it out. Only professional going to be able to use that panel to the extend it design for. For ur average person, the different is minimal at best the only thing different u going to see is resolution if u have eagle eyes. I think Mac book pro resolution is a good compromise between best of both world.

Really small chassis

99.9% of customers don't use a num pad and prefer a centered keyboard.

@@MayTheSchwartzBeWithYou Interesting option on the number pad I never thought of.