New Laptop for a part time gaming, most time student

[wormer]

Dear everyone,

i'm looking for a birthday present for my brother in a Dell Laptop section.
Uses: mostly number crunching, web/office, some programming and part time gaming.
Thoughts: I've always loved the XPS series, but lately I'm not sure the latest one (XPS 15 9560) represent the thing I'm looking for.
From the suggested laptops on the web, I see that Dell Inspiron 7000 series might be even better for the gaming part.

Thus: Which one is better XPS or Inspiron? And why on earth XPS cost so much ?

Thanks!

 

[jaguarskx]

XPS series is Dell's premium brand. It takes a lot of engineering to make a 15.6" laptop be the size of an average 14" laptop while maintaining a light weight and powerful internal components. As well as cooling those components effectively. Aluminum chassis are not cheap an neither is carbon fiber. Also the XPS use a high quality IPS screen that have very good color accuracy right out of the box that is geared towards professional photo editors or anyone else who are concerned with color accuracy.

The new 2017 Dell Inspiron 15 7000 series comes with a cheap TN panel screen. Based on videos displaying the screen, it is one of the worst TN panel screen I have ever seen on a laptop that costs over $600. It is a downgrade from the IPS screen in the 2016 version of the Inspiron 7000 series; which is a good "consumer oriented" IPS screen.

 

[Shishudo]

I actually have the Dell 7000 with the i5 processor. My situation is very similar to yours. Productivity with light/heavy gaming depending on how much free time I have. This system was under $800 and has performed exceptionally well in my opinion. I'm sure others have better options but they probably cost more and may be overkill for what you need. It's tricky buying a new laptop from personal experience. There's tons to choose from. I would give the 7000 series a good look.