Review Dell XPS 15 (2020) review

[admin]

The Dell XPS 15 2020 offers great performance and one of the most immersive, colorful displays of any 15-inch laptop.

Dell XPS 15 (2020) review : Read more

 

[grullone]

Did you get a chance to open it up? Can we still upgrade RAM, SSD, etc.?

 

[tspurs]

Anyone who writes "the new XPS 15 is roughly the same size as the 16-inch MacBook Pro despite the latter’s bigger screen" is diminshing the XPS 15's major feature - its compactness, made available by going virtually bezelless.

 

[muckz]

Did you get a chance to open it up? Can we still upgrade RAM, SSD, etc.?

for sure not the RAM - if you googled you’d find out it is soldered.

The SSD appears to be upgradeable.

 

[muckz]

Anyone who writes "the new XPS 15 is roughly the same size as the 16-inch MacBook Pro despite the latter’s bigger screen" is diminshing the XPS 15's major feature - its compactness, made available by going virtually bezelless.

Indeed!! It is half an inch narrower and 0.7” shallower. That is significant. The MacBook would’ve done better to shrink its bezels around the 15.4” screen instead of going to the weird 16”

 

[muckz]

Also, the NVidia 1660 in the XPS blows the Radeon card in the MacBook right out of the water. I’m honestly surprised that other video benchmarks and other video games were not included in this review.

And I’m saying this as someone who is choosing the 16” MBP for other reasons.

 

[grullone]

for sure not the RAM - if you googled you’d find out it is soldered.

The SSD appears to be upgradeable.

The RAM is only soldered on the XPS 13. I googled and saw other videos of people opening up their new XPS 15's. You can for sure upgrade both the RAM and the SSD easily. There are 2 SSD slots. Dell ships with one SSD slot open. The wifi card is soldered on but both the RAM and SSD are easily upgradeable. I upgraded my RAM to 32GB a few days ago. Runs so smooth now.

 

[muckz]

The RAM is only soldered on the XPS 13. I googled and saw other videos of people opening up their new XPS 15's. You can for sure upgrade both the RAM and the SSD easily. There are 2 SSD slots. Dell ships with one SSD slot open. The wifi card is soldered on but both the RAM and SSD are easily upgradeable. I upgraded my RAM to 32GB a few days ago. Runs so smooth now.

I stand corrected! you are right, after I googled myself (taking my own advice), i will eat humble pie.

The XPS models (15/17) can have both the RAM and the SDD upgraded.

 

[Panda1159]

Hi,
I'm hesitating between buying the new XPS 15 (9500) or the old one XPS 15 (7590) mainly because of the price. To sum up I've seen the big differences are:

1. the CPU in old XPS 15 seems better than the new one's (https://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Processors-Benchmark-List.2436.0.html? ), even though the new one is a 10th generation and the old one a 9th generation. Can you comment that please? (Is it really better the 9th generation's one?)
2. the connectivity which has more thunderbolt in the new XPS
3. some minor improvements in display technology.

Otherwise, the GPU and the rest of the characteristics seem to be the same.
So is it worth the price to get the new XPS over the old one just for the CPU and connectivity?

Thanks for your help.

 

[Udflyers]

Hi,
I'm hesitating between buying the new XPS 15 (9500) or the old one XPS 15 (7590) mainly because of the price. To sum up I've seen the big differences are:

1. the CPU in old XPS 15 seems better than the new one's (https://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Processors-Benchmark-List.2436.0.html? ), even though the new one is a 10th generation and the old one a 9th generation. Can you comment that please? (Is it really better the 9th generation's one?)
2. the connectivity which has more thunderbolt in the new XPS
3. some minor improvements in display technology.

Otherwise, the GPU and the rest of the characteristics seem to be the same.
So is it worth the price to get the new XPS over the old one just for the CPU and connectivity?

Thanks for your help.

If you are looking at the Dell XPS (9570) I would look into the sleep state issues revolving around the removal of the S3 sleep state.
I had to return mine because I could not deal with the sleep issue. I spent 6-12 weeks with support before they wanted to replace my unit with a refurbished unit.
I did manage to get my ticket “escalated to the engineering team” (seemed to be the magic words) and was able to force a return after the official return date.
I am hoping that any of these reviews would mention if this was resolved but they seem to skip right over the heat/throttling issues so I can’t imagine this will be addressed in the reviews either.

 

[FenelonPaul]

I am impressed with this laptop, however I have a question about the ports... there seems to be only 3 USB-C ports. I have a lot of USB 2 and 3 devices and external hard drives. Also, I have a Logitec wireless mouse that connects via a USB dongle. and I would like to connect an external monitor via HDMI. What are my options for these legacy devices?

 

[Panda1159]

If you are looking at the Dell XPS (9570) I would look into the sleep state issues revolving around the removal of the S3 sleep state.
I had to return mine because I could not deal with the sleep issue. I spent 6-12 weeks with support before they wanted to replace my unit with a refurbished unit.
I did manage to get my ticket “escalated to the engineering team” (seemed to be the magic words) and was able to force a return after the official return date.
I am hoping that any of these reviews would mention if this was resolved but they seem to skip right over the heat/throttling issues so I can’t imagine this will be addressed in the reviews either.

Thanks for your feedback, I will definitely check that. That can be annoying.

 

[rgd1101]

I am impressed with this laptop, however I have a question about the ports... there seems to be only 3 USB-C ports. I have a lot of USB 2 and 3 devices and external hard drives. Also, I have a Logitec wireless mouse that connects via a USB dongle. and I would like to connect an external monitor via HDMI. What are my options for these legacy devices?

https://www.laptopmag.com/articles/best-usb-type-c-hubs

 

[mutedhue]

If you are looking at the Dell XPS (9570) I would look into the sleep state issues revolving around the removal of the S3 sleep state.
I had to return mine because I could not deal with the sleep issue. I spent 6-12 weeks with support before they wanted to replace my unit with a refurbished unit.
I did manage to get my ticket “escalated to the engineering team” (seemed to be the magic words) and was able to force a return after the official return date.
I am hoping that any of these reviews would mention if this was resolved but they seem to skip right over the heat/throttling issues so I can’t imagine this will be addressed in the reviews either.

Out of curiosity, what laptop have you purchased now instead of the XPS? I've read too many reviews around the overheating / loud fan to put me off.