Why You Can Trust CNET Dell XPS 15 review: A big screen that stands out in a crowd
This excellent high-end 15-inch laptop has powerful components, game-ready graphics and a nearly bezel-free 4K display.
- Author of the award-winning, NY Times-reviewed nonfiction book The Tetris Effect; Longtime consumer technology expert for CBS Mornings
Consider the bezel. That humble landing strip of plastic or metal that frames the screen in almost every high-tech device. Televisions have largely done away with the the wide bezels of old, at least in mid-price and better sets, extending the screen nearly all the way to the very edge for a seamless, floating look. Phones are getting closer as well, especially in forward-looking devices such as Samsung's Galaxy Edge line.
Dell XPS 15
The Good
The Bad
The Bottom Line
But laptops have lagged behind in shaving down the frame around the display, making mobile PCs look downright clunky compared to other electronic gadgets. Apple's MacBook Pro is a step in the right direction, with edge-to-edge glass over a reasonably thin black bezel, but the still popular MacBook Air is a poster child for overly wide screen bezels, a look that has not changed in several years.
That's why the Dell XPS 13 was such a breath of fresh air when first introduced in early 2015. That slim 13-inch laptop took its high-resolution display nearly all the way to the system edge. That eye-catching design won raves from reviewers, including me -- after all, people want to look at more screen, not more bezel.
The next step in the anti-bezel revolution is a bigger version of that system, the Dell XPS 15. Like the 13-inch model, it's available with a few different resolution and component options, but unlike the XPS 13, the display can go all the way up to 4K resolution. The least exciting versions have a standard 1,920x1,080-pixel display, Intel Core i5 CPU and lack a touchscreen, but start at a very appealing $999 in the US. (It starts at £1,149 in the UK and AU$2,099 in Australia, but for a more high-end starting configuration.)
Adding a faster Core i7 processor, big solid state hard drives, a touchscreen or an Nvidia GeForce 960M graphics card steadily drives the price up until it hits $2,129, £1,599 or AU$2,999 for the configuration reviewed here, which includes all the bells and whistles.
The end result is a machine that looks and feels much like a 15-inch
, but one that also outdoes the Apple version in many areas. The MacBook Pro doesn't offer 4K displays, nor touchscreen options. Configuring a 15-inch Retina-display MacBook Pro with a similarly large 512GB SSD and the AMD Radeon R9 M370 graphics card boosts that system's price to $2,499 in the US, although the Radeon is not as gamer-friendly as the Nvidia 960M found here (which may be a moot point, as Apple's OS X limits the games available in the first place).Dell XPS 15
| Price as reviewed | $2,129, £1,599 or AU$2,999 |
|---|---|
| Display size/resolution | 15.6-inch 3,840x2,160 touch display |
| PC CPU | 2.6GHz Intel Core i7-6700HQ |
| PC Memory | 16GB DDR4 SDRAM 2,133MHz |
| Graphics | 2GB Nvidia Geforce GTX 960M |
| Storage | 512GB SSD |
| Networking | 802.11ac wireless, Bluetooth 4.0 |
| Operating system | Windows 10 Home (64-bit) |
But specs aside, this is a laptop that will draw the eye of anyone who passes by while it sits open. The larger screen against the thin bezel feels even more impressive than in the 13-inch version, because there's an even greater screen-to-edge ratio at play here. Note that, like the 13-inch model, the lack of bezel real estate means the webcam has been moved to a spot below the screen, right above the hinge. It can make for some less-than-flattering up-the-nose shots if you're not careful.
The interior is matte black, with a backlit but otherwise featureless keyboard sitting above a large button-less touchpad. The keyboard feels small, considering how wide the XPS is. Function keys are helpfully reversed, with a single tap controlling volume and brightness, rather than a function-key-plus-FN-button combo as still required by many laptops. The touchpad has a pleasing matte surface, but also has some of the same floaty feeling as the 13-inch XPS 13 had last year. It's still very usable, but doesn't feel quite as tight as on the best Windows laptops or a MacBook.
Spending more on the optional 4K display is more for bragging rights at this point. The most notable purveyors of 4K video content, Netflix and Amazon, only offer their UHD (another term that means 4K) streams to their own respective apps built into select smart TVs and smart TV devices. YouTube and a few other streaming video services have some 4K content, but much of it is poorly shot nature or action sports videos, with a few moments of ultra-high-definition brilliance to be found if you search long enough.
The other big reason to want a 4K display is PC gaming, which looks awesome at UHD resolutions. But the Nvidia 960M graphics card here really isn't going to push newer games at 4K, although it will work for older or simpler games. I've been playing The Witness, a lush but graphically unchallenging puzzle game, at 4K and medium detail settings with great results.
The combination of a high-end processor and decent graphics card, plus 16GB of RAM made for an impressive performer, as one should expect for the price. In some tests, only dedicated high-end gaming laptops beat the XPS 15. In one, the XPS beat even those specialized gaming systems.
While Dell isn't pushing this as a gaming machine, it performs well enough that it can stand in for any of the army of "mainstream" gaming systems released over the past year or so, including the HP Omen, Lenovo Y series and others, each of which uses similar Nvidia 860M or 960M graphics cards.
In our video streaming battery test, the system ran for 4 hours 1 minute, which is passable for a powerful 15-inch laptop, but less than we'd like to see from something so slim and portable. Samsung's very similar Ativ Book 9 Pro ran for about 20 minutes less, but the most recent 15-inch
ran for 9 hours 17 minutes in the same test, keeping Apple firmly in the lead when it comes to laptop battery life.Conclusion
High-end midsize laptops frequently suffer from comparisons to the elephant in the room, Apple's much-loved MacBook Pro. In many cases the Pro is better designed, runs faster or longer, has better specs and is easier to use.
But Dell makes a very compelling case for being the superior 15-inch premium laptop in several categories -- it offers a higher-res 4K touch display, better gaming graphics, and a slim bezel that just looks much cooler than the Apple version. But it's not a slam dunk, as the MacBook Pro still earns points for far better battery life and an unmatched touchpad. As close as it is, the final choice will likely come down to which operating system, Windows 10 or Os X, is a better fit for you.
Multimedia Multitasking test 3.0
Geekbench 3 (Multi-Core)
Streaming video playback battery drain test
3DMark Fire Strike Ultra
Metro: Last Light gaming test
System Configurations
| Dell XPS 15 (Late 2015) | Microsoft Windows 10 Home (64-bit); 2.6GHz Intel Core i7-6700HQ; 16GB DDR4 SDRAM 2133MHz; 2GB Nvidia Geforce GTX 960M; 512GB SSD |
|---|---|
| Samsung Ativ Book 9 Pro | Microsoft Windows 10 Home (64-bit); 2.6GHz Intel Core i7-6700HQ; 8GB DDR4 SDRAM 2133MHz; 2GB Nvidia Geforce GTX 950M; 256GB SSD |
| MSI GS60 Ghost Pro | Microsoft Windows 10 Home (64-bit); 2.6GHz Intel Core i7-6700HQ; 16GB DDR4 SDRAM 2133MHz; 3GB Nvidia Geforce GTX 970M; 128GB SSD + 1TB 7200rpm HDD |
| Lenovo Ideapad Y700 | Microsoft Windows 10 Home (64-bit); 2.6GHz Intel Core i7-6700HQ; 16GB DDR4 SDRAM 2133MHz; 4GB Nvidia Geforce GTX 960M; 128GB SSD + 1TB 5,400rpm HDD |
| Microsoft Surface Book (dGPU) | Microsoft Windows 10 Pro; 2.6GHz Intel Core i7-6600U; 16GB DDR3 SDRAM 1600MHz; 1GB Nvidia GPU; 512GB SSD |