The Dell XPS line has been one of the better high-end laptop ranges for years, but had hardly changed apart from the annual hardware upgrades. Until this year Dell came up with a serious makeover that pushes the excellent laptop just one step further. Here you can read the Dell XPS 15 (2020) review.
Dell XPS 15
price € 2575, –
Processor Intel Core i7 10750H
Video card Nvidia GTX 1650 Ti
Memory 32GB DDR4
Screen 14 15.6-inch 3840×2400 touchscreen
Storage 1TB NVMe ssd
Weight 2.05kg
Connections 3x usb-c (of which 2x Thunderbolt 3), 3.5mm headset and an SD card reader
9 Score 90 
- Pros
- Build quality
- Display
- Sound quality
- Performance
- Negatives
- price
- Only usb-c
We received a pretty neatly dressed version from Dell with a 1TB NVMe SSD, 32 GB DDR4 and a smooth Intel i7. To display the pictures, the laptop is equipped with an Nvidia GTX 1650 Ti and a beautiful 4K + touchscreen. The price is a bit of a shock, because a thick 2500 euros is quite hefty for this hardware.
Design
As mentioned, the XPS series has not only received a hardware upgrade this year, but the appearance has also been given a facelift. Although Dell still uses a nice combination of carbon fiber and aluminum, the look is just a bit more modern this year. The aluminum parts are no longer simple plates, but now form the basis of the laptop. When the laptop is closed, you don’t see any of the carbon fiber and it looks like you are holding a beautifully milled block of aluminum.
On the inside, we find the carbon fiber material that Dell has used for their XPS laptops for years. This material keeps the laptop light (2.05kg), but still provides a premium look and is very durable. In addition, it insulates your hands from the heat produced by the processor and video card. Unfortunately you see clear greasy spots after a few weeks, but luckily you can wipe that off.
On the inside we also find the renewed keyboard and touchpad. Since this year, the keyboard has been given a different mechanism, allowing the XPS 15 to again compete with the best laptop keyboards on the market. Due to the lack of space, there is obviously not as much ‘travel’ as with a traditional keyboard, but text writers like us are very happy with this laptop. Unfortunately, the speakers (more on that later) have left no room for a number pad, so those who work a lot with numbers need a separate keyboard.
The touchpad has gotten even bigger this year and while many are thrilled with that, it can get in the way too. There is not much room left for your palms to rest while typing and you click the wrong mouse button more often. The response to your fingers is still excellent and multitouch gestures also work flawlessly.
Dell has clearly listened carefully to the feedback from users on the previous models, resulting in possibly the best laptop case of the moment. Yet there is one point that we simply cannot ignore: the connections. The new XPS 15 only has three USB-C ports (two of which with Thunderbolt 3), a 3.5mm headset port and an SD card reader. Although USB-C is indeed the future, there are still too many devices that do not use it. Whether it’s a mouse, USB stick, printer, television or monitor, chances are you need a dongle. Dell does deliver a usb-c to hdmi and usb-a dongle, but it is frustrating to have to grab them every time. This will remain the case for years, because although monitors increasingly support USB-C, this does not apply to new televisions, beamers and mice. Most new products still require an HDMI or USB-A port. A lack of space is no excuse with the XPS 15, because usb-a and hdmi could easily have been added.
Stunning sound
We usually do not discuss the sound quality with laptops because the conclusion is almost always the same: tinny sound without bass and a lot of distortion at volumes higher than 50%. However, the Dell XPS 15 does so much better that it deserves its own cup. The sound can of course still not be compared to a good headphones or expensive speaker set, but we have rarely encountered such powerful speakers in a laptop. We do not yet speak of a pounding bass with the XPS 15, but the volume is amazingly high without distortions. It is enough to provide a living room full of guests with music as soon as you can receive it at home again. The quality is also excellent with a very pleasant sound and no annoying resonances in the housing. When watching movies, it is also nice to know that the stereo reproduction is very clear, but then you have to sit right in front of the laptop.
Image quality
The Dell XPS has a 15.6-inch panel available in two flavors: UHD with touchscreen and 1080p without touchscreen. We have tested the UHD model and the results don’t lie: this is an astonishing panel. The first impression when you open the laptop is good. The screen is surrounded on all four sides by a very narrow border and the 16:10 ratio provides just a little more usable surface. The contrast of 1623: 1 also ensures a wonderful image to look at.
Those involved in color editing or other color-sensitive work will also be delighted with the support of 99% of the Adobe RGB color spectrum and 93% DCI-P3 color spectrum. That together with a low deltaE of up to 1.8 makes this the ideal laptop for photographers. This is true even if you work in the sun, because a brightness of 478 nits is well above average.
Performance
While the looks are all beautiful, that doesn’t guarantee a powerful laptop. Fortunately, you can go a long way with a tenth-generation Intel Core i7 processor and an Nvidia GTX 1650Ti, but don’t expect a math monster for large compute and rendering tasks. The model we tested is equipped with 32 GB of RAM, so multitasking and hundreds of Chrome tabs will not be a problem.
The XPS 15 scores very well in our benchmarks, with both the processor and the video card neatly reaching their boost clock. So there seems to be enough cooling and power to keep the two chips in check. The laptop shows that it is able to complete computing tasks quickly, making it a luxury option for those who work with a lot of data or edit photos. In addition, the laptop is also suitable for light gaming, but then the resolution must be lowered to 1080p.
Benchmark
Result
3DMark Time Spy
PCMark 10
Blender bmw27 (GPU – CUDA)
Blender bmw27 (CPU)
Cinebench R20
3572
4994
2m33s
6m8s
2782
In daily use, however, a large part of the speed of a laptop is not only determined by the processor and memory, but also by the SSD. In the case of the Dell XPS 15 we have a 1TB NVMe ssd that shows very excellent results in CrystalDiskMark. Programs start up in an instant and huge files don’t just slow them down.
It is striking that the fans in the laptop had to run considerably during all these benchmarks, but the sound pressure always remained at a very civilized level. Despite the thin dimensions and luxurious housing, Dell has managed to mount adequate cooling. In addition, there was no coilwhine to be seen in our test sample, a phenomenon that regularly bothered its predecessors.
Conclusion
It took a while, but the Dell XPS 15 has finally gotten a worthy update. It is a shame to see that the USB-A and HDMI ports have had to give way, but otherwise the laptop excels in almost all areas. Especially the build quality, the sound and the screen are among the absolute top. The price is also there, because for the basic model you already pay 1699 euros, which can go up to 3609 euros for the most luxurious example.
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