The
Dell XPS 15 2020 offers great performance and one of the most immersive color
displays of any 15-inch laptop. The Dell XPS 15 2020 offers excellent
performance and one of the most immersive color displays of any 15-inch laptop.
The
Dell XPS 15 (2020) review I wrote for you here gave me a surprising experience:
I was perfectly fine letting it collect dust on my desktop for a few days. The
truth is that Dell's latest 15-inch laptop packs 10th-gen Intel performance (we're
waiting for Tiger Lake) and Nvidia discrete graphics into a slim, attractive
package. And it delivers what many people want: workstation-like performance in
a decidedly non-workstation design, making it one of the best laptops for tech
students.
But the
real crown jewel of the Dell XPS 15 (2020) is the redesigned Infinity Edge
display. This iteration ditches the thick bottom bezel from the previous XPS 15s
and gives you a screen that's less in the way of a chunky bezel; it makes
movies and games look even more immersive.
This
major upgrade comes with some smart improvements to the keyboard, touchpad and
chassis that make Dell's portable workhorse even more comfortable to use.
The
battery life of the Dell XPS 15 2020 could be better (at least on the 4K model)
and it can be quite noisy under heavy workloads. But with great performance and
a gorgeous display wrapped in an attractive slim package, the new Dell XPS 15
is one of the best laptops you can buy if you're looking for a more
productive machine.
Dell XPS 15 Touch Screen: Price and Availability
The
Dell XPS 15 2020 launched in May 2020 with a $1,079 entry price. This
configuration includes a 10th generation Core i5-10300H processor, 8GB of RAM,
a 256GB SSD, Intel UHD graphics, and a 15.6-inch Infinity Edge display with a
resolution of 19200 x 1200.
Stepping
up to the $1,305 configuration (regularly $1,659) gets you a faster Core
i7-10750H processor as well as Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 Ti discrete graphics. You
can get 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD for an additional $180, doubling both the
memory and storage.
We reviewed
the top-of-the-line XPS 15 for $2,114 (MSRP: $2,408), which includes an Intel
Core i7-10750 GPU, 32GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 Ti
discrete graphics, and a 4K touchscreen display. If you need to, you can go
even more maxed out with the $2,456 (regularly $2,859) configuration that
includes a Core i9 CPU and 1TB of storage.
Those
who want cutting-edge processors should check out our top CES laptops. The
future of laptops is full of interesting secondary screens, new GPUs and more.
Like
the new Dell XPS 13 before it, the Dell XPS 15 2020 refines one of the best
laptop designs ever made to near perfection. Its slim chassis is as sleek as
ever, with a smooth silver aluminum lid and sharp 0.71-inch edges that contrast
nicely with the soft-touch keyboard pad inside.
The
latest XPS 15 makes better use of real estate than last year's model, with
larger keys, a much larger touchpad, and slim front-facing speakers neatly
spaced on board. But the biggest design change is the laptop's new 4-sided
Infinity Edge display, which ditches the thick bottom bezel from previous
iterations for the smoothest 15-inch screen on a Dell laptop yet (more on that
later).
The new
XPS 15 is similar in size to the 16-inch MacBook Pro (14.1 x 9.7 x 0.64 inches,
4.3 pounds) while having a bigger screen at 13.57 x 9 x 0.7 inches. It's also
about on par with the 15-inch Microsoft Surface Laptop 3 (13.4 x 9.6 x 0.6
inches), though Microsoft's laptop is significantly lighter at 3.4 pounds. It's
worth noting that the XPS 15 is slightly lighter by 4 pounds if you opt for the
non-touch screen and smaller 56Wh battery.
Dell XPS 15 Touch Screen: Ports
The
Dell XPS 15 2020 includes a total of three USB-C ports for charging and
connecting to external displays and peripherals – two of which are Thunderbolt
3 for extra-fast connectivity. Out of the box, you also get a full-size SD card
reader, a headphone jack, and a USB-C to USB-A adapter.
Apple's
16-inch MacBook Pro has more Thunderbolt 3 ports, with four in total, but lacks
the XPS 15's SD card reader. That, combined with the included USB-A adapter,
gives the XPS 15 a solid amount of connectivity, but you may still need a dock
or dongle if you're a power user, which depends on different peripherals at
once.
Dell XPS 15 Touch Screen:
Display
The Dell XPS 15 2020 borrows the best from the new
XPS 13: a true 4-sided Infinity Edge display without a massive bottom bezel to
distract you from whatever you're working on, watching, or playing. But the
effect is even more dramatic on the XPS 15's 15.6-inch display, which now has a
92.9% screen-to-body ratio for maximum immersion.
I never wanted to set the XPS 15 down thanks to all
of this space and the detailed 3840 x 2400 resolution on our test model. When I
watched Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker on a Dell laptop, the colorful red and
green laser beams shone nicely on the blue ice cave as the TIE Fighters chased
the Millennium Falcon. The screen also did a great job of preserving fine
details like the stubble on Poe Dameron's face and the orange and white
patterns on BB-8's outer body.
With that much screen real estate, I could
comfortably work in split-screen mode for hours, bouncing between documents,
videos, and Slack chats without having to zoom in on anything. The rich, deep
blacks on the XPS 15's display made reading and editing a breeze, and my Dell
S2417DG gaming monitor looked dull by comparison.
The XPS 15 is bright enough for work and play,
recording an average brightness of 434.2 nits on our light meter. That's
slightly brighter than the 16-inch MacBook Pro's 429 nits and better than the
Surface Laptop 3's 380 nits.
The real-world color performance of the XPS 15 was
supported by our lab tests, as the laptop replicated an impressive 132.2% of
the sRGB color gamut. The Dell laptop outperforms the MacBook Pro with 113.9%,
as well as the Surface Laptop 3 with a 101% rating.
The touchscreen on our Dell XPS 15 2020 proved to be
smooth and responsive, and I had no problems browsing web pages or pulling my
fingers down to zoom in on images and documents.
Dell XPS 15 Touch Screen: Sound
The Dell XPS 15's top-of-the-line stereo speakers
are some of the best I've heard on any laptop, filling my living room with
vivid, loud sound that was especially heavy on the low-end.
The moody, bouncy bass of Hayley Williams'
"Simmer" came out loud and clear from the XPS 15's speakers,
instantly making me shake my head. I noticed that the track would get a bit
distorted at maximum volume, but just a few notches below maximum it sounded
impressively full and clean.
The bass was again the highlight as I cut into the
aggressive alternative rock of Dance Gavin Dance's "Prisoner". The
massive wall of distorted guitars sat nicely against the high vocals of the
songs chorus, while the cleaner, funkier guitar riffs in the verse sounded
bright and sharp.
When I blasted Phoebe Bridgers' dark acoustic rock
"Garden Song" on the XPS 15, the singer-songwriter's voice was so
clear it sounded like she was in the room with me. And while the Bridgers
sounded present, the XPS did an equally great job of preserving the lingering
guitar sounds beneath her sounds.
The audio performance of the Dell XPS 15 is further
enhanced by Waves Maxx Audio Pro technology and professional Waves tuning, as
well as a range of EQ presets enabled by the included companion app. The XPS
speakers sounded significantly louder and fuller with the Waves app activated,
and I found presets like Rock and Pop to be useful for highlighting their
respective genres.
Dell XPS 15 Touch Screen:
Performance
Dell XPS 15 2020 with 10th Gen Intel Core i7-10750
processor with 32 GB RAM and 512 GB SSD is a real multitasking monster. The
powerful Dell allowed me to jump between dozens of Chrome tabs in split-screen
mode while making video calls, sending Slack messages, and switching to
Spotify, all without a single stutter.
In the Geekbench 5 overall performance test, the XPS
15 scored 6,174, slightly behind the 16-inch Core i9 MacBook Pro (7,250). The
Dell laptop scored 25,934 on the older Geekbench 4 test, more than double the
AMD Ryzen 5 3580U Surface Laptop 3 (11,612).
The XPS 15 took 10 minutes and 6 seconds to
transcode 4K video to 1080p in our HandBrake test. It's not quite as fast as
the 8 minutes we saw on the 16-inch MacBook Pro, but a long way from the nearly
25 minutes the Surface Laptop 3 took to complete the task.
The 512GB SSD in the Dell laptop transferred roughly
5GB of files in 7 seconds in our own file transfer test, with a transfer rate
of 708.9MB/s. That blows past the 256GB SSD (282.7MB/s) of the Surface Laptop
3. But while it's not an apples-to-apples comparison, the 512GB SSD in the
16-inch MacBook Pro was predictably thunderous, achieving write speeds of
2,805MB/s and read speeds of 2,540v Blackmagic disk speed test.
Dell XPS 15 Touch Screen:
Graphics
Our XPS 15 unit was equipped with an Nvidia GeForce
GTX 1650 Ti discrete GPU, which gives Dell's slim workhorse decent gaming and
graphics performance.
The XPS 15 ran Shadow of the Tomb Raider at a
playable 29 fps at 1080p at max settings, just barely beating the Radeon Pro
5300M in our 16-inch MacBook Pro (27.2 fps). The Dell laptop breezed through
the less demanding Dirt 3 racing game at 134fps at 1080p and 69fps at 4K,
beating the Surface Laptop 3's integrated AMD Vega 9 (56fps at 1080p).
Dell XPS 15 Touch Screen:
Heat & noise
With so much power and a discrete GPU
packed into a slim design, fans of the XPS 15 can get quite loud. Although it
didn't happen often, I occasionally noticed that the laptop would start to
sound like a miniature jet when I launched many applications at once. It can
also get a bit warm, with the keyboard and underside reaching temperatures
close to 100 degrees Fahrenheit on our heat gun (we consider anything below 95
degrees comfortable).
Dell XPS 15 Touch Screen:
Keyboard and touchpad
Between their soft surface, 9.7%
larger keys, and sleek 1.3mm travel, the Dell XPS 15 keys are an absolute joy
to type on. My hand never got tired when I spent hours coming up with articles
and writing e-mails and at a regular pace on the 10FastFingers typing test at
90 words per minute with 96% accuracy. I usually hate ditching the mechanical
keyboard in a desktop setup, but I was happy to use the XPS 15 as my primary
work machine for a few days.
The XPS 15's touchpad has received an
even bigger upgrade, now 62% larger than the previous version at 5.9 x 3.5
inches. I was able to easily navigate and zoom in on websites with my fingers,
and the three-finger gesture controls for switching apps and entering
multitasking mode registered instantly.
Dell XPS 15 Touch Screen:
Webcam
Now that video conferencing has become
the norm, I'd really like to see mainstream laptops step up their webcam quality.
Unfortunately, that's not the case with the Dell XPS 15 2020's camera, which
made my face look pixelated and mottled despite accurately capturing the colors
of the Spider-Man poster behind me.
I give credit to Dell for putting the
webcam on the incredibly thin top bezel since last year (no more nose cam!) and
the camera is still usable for everyday calls. But if you want your colleagues
to see you as clearly as possible, you'll want to use one of the best webcams
as an accessory.
Dell XPS 15 Touch Screen:
Battery Life
The Dell XPS 15 2020 will last most of
a typical workday on a charge, but you'll want to keep a plug close at hand.
The Dell laptop lasted 8 hours and 1 minute on our battery test (continuous web
surfing over Wi-Fi), which is decent for a 4K laptop, but still behind some key
competitors.
The 16-inch MacBook Pro lasted nearly
three hours longer at 10 hours and 55 minutes with the 2072 x 1920 display,
while the Surface Laptop 3 lasted the same 8 hours as the XPS with the 2496 x
1664 screen.
The XPS 15 2020's battery life is in
line with the 4K version of its smaller XPS 13 sibling, lasting 8 hours and 14
minutes in our test. The 1080p Dell XPS 13 lasted a fantastic 12:39, so we're
looking forward to seeing how the lower-resolution XPS 15 holds up once we get
our hands on it.
Dell XPS 15 Touch Screen:
conclusion
The Dell XPS 15 2020 follows in the
footsteps of the new XPS 13 by bringing small but welcome improvements to one
of the best laptops you can buy. The improved, truly bezel-less Infinity Edge
display is one of the most impressive and stunning screens you'll find on a
laptop, with brilliant colors and plenty of room to work.
The XPS 15's larger keys and touchpad
make the Dell laptop comfortable to use for long periods of time, and its
impressively loud speakers can fill small rooms with rich sound. Pair that with
10th Gen Intel processors and an optional Nvidia GTX 1650 Ti GPU, and the XPS
15 2020 has more than enough muscle for everyday multitasking as well as video
editing and gaming.
The 4K version of the XPS 15 won't
last as long as the 16-inch MacBook Pro (though we expect a better battery from
the 1080p version), and the system's fans can get a little noisy at full speed.
Power users can also consider the new Dell XPS 17, which offers a larger screen
and optional RTX graphics for superior content creation. Yet, the XPS 15 is
among the finest in its class if you're seeking for a compact workhorse that's
as gorgeous as it is powerful.
Pros
+ Beautiful,
immersive display
+ Great
overall performance
+ Loud,
rich speakers
+ Comfortable
keyboard and touchpad
Disadvantages
- So
and so battery life
- He's
loud under pressure
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