Dell XPS 15 9550 (i7, 512GB, UHD) InfinityEdge Notebook Review

[Redaktion]

Bug fixes, workarounds und BIOS updates: Dell's XPS 15 does not have a good start. How is the bigger i7/UHD version handling the drawbacks that we experienced with the i5/FHD model? One reader speaks about a "completely different notebook". Do we share this opinion? Are we even inspired in the end? Update 12/23/2015: Recall BIOS 1.1.14!

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Dell-XPS-15-9550-i7-512GB-UHD-InfinityEdge-Notebook-Review.156462.0.html

[Stitchz]

Still waiting for the 17 inch version, Dell  ;D

[Paul Gardner]

Nice review, Question1: if no Display Port is there an adapter from TB3 to DP1.2 that supports a 3840 2160 external monitor. Question 2: why is DDR4 memory limited to 2133 when it is available up to 8700. Question 3: Will Dell replace the SM951 with the 950 Pro SSD.

[Ian Reardon]

RE: Paul Gardner

It does not appear to be a HDMI 2.0 port.  On my 3440x1440p screen I can only run 50hz refresh rate.  Kind of a shame given the horse power on this laptop. 

I do see some usb 3.1 (thunderbolt 3) to display port adapters.  I'll have to give one a try.

[ThomasJohnson]

I have a hard time believing that the 84 Wh battery gets less battery life than the 56 Wh battery- even factoring in the more powerful components.

[Maurice-NL]

Hi all, my XPS 9550 (i7, 512GB,UHD) did came with TPM (option in Bios) and I was able to successfully enable BitLocker in W10. So I guess it does come with a TPM chip or at least it's an option.

[Jonat]

BIOS 01.01.15 is here : http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/Drivers/DriversDetails?driverId=8800M&fileId=3506165298&osCode=WT64A&productCode=xps-15-9550-laptop&languageCode=EN&categoryId=BI

[Thierry]

Hi can you tell us if firmware 01.01.15 improve battery life ?

Thanks

[storybored]

I wasn't able to change the touchpad settings due to the lack of any tab in the mouse window. No updates as of 16 January 2016 could solve this.

[Bjorn]

Will you be doing an update to the review now that the new firmware has been released?

[bombadilio]

Have you considered why they are using the 960m 2gb not the 4gb?

Also, for this price you would think they would give more options or put in a 965m.

The fact the GPU has 2gb and not 4gb on a 4k screen is fairly weird.

[Tomas]

Hi everyone. I´m an architect student, and I`m considering buying a laptop. All I`ve read has come to a conclussion, and I would really thank your help. I have to decide between a MacBook Pro 15`6 ( with AMD 2GB graphics) or the Dell XPS 15 (i7, 512 GB ssd, 4k etc). Here are my questions:
Which one offers better color acuracy? I`m not talking in terms of Adobre RGB gamut, I print a lot of my renders, and I need the one that shows the colors more acurately.
Which one offers better performance with 3d modelling? Here`s the deal: I use a 3d program called Revit, which only is available for Windows OS. So my problem is that if I want the Mac, then I will have to partitionate the hard disk or whether use Parallels. Will this operations dicrease the performance of the Mac? Surely I will prefer using Paralles ( virtual Windows) so I dont know how the Mac will perform.
Are the Dell issues have been solved? The new BIOS covers all the problems? Taking this review as a reference, after updating Dell, the laptop should work fine. Is there any other hardware problem? Would you buy the Dell XPS 15, hoping that the bugs will be solved?
So, all in all, these are my points. The main question is, MacBook Pro, or Dell XPS 15 for Architecture?
Thanks a lot!

[Glenn]

Display color accuracy:
I'm a bit surprised of the archived color accuracy after calibration for the Dell XPS 15 UHD display in this review.
How can a max dE = 7,45 / avg dE = 3,7  give this conclusion: "excellent color accuracy after calibration"? To me these figures are below expectations for a display aimed for color sensitive work.

Other reviews gives this display very good score on color accuracy. For instance laptopmedia.com. In this review the display was calibrated with X-Rite i1Display Pro. Color accuracy was measured with X-Rite ColorCheckker giving a max dE = 0,92 / avg dE = 0.52 which is super accurate!
Quite a contrast to the result in this review. So one of the tests must be wrong. Can different versions of drivers or PremierColor impact the results ?

I've also noted that the FHD display version has a much better accuracy (post calibration), and improves significantly on calibration, which seems not to be the case for the UHD display.
Comments are very welcome

[MichaelRR]

I cant believe the low display score for UHD 85%? yet in your http://www.notebookcheck.net/The-Best-Notebook-Displays-As-Reviewed-By-Notebookcheck.120541.0.html you have absolute crap laptop displays as 90% and above lol.. stuff not even reaching near with maximum sRGB.. what the hell are you rating here? gaming display or photo editing display.. if it was photo editing this one would be in your top 3 with the zbook.  I also agree with Glenn.  I really want to know how you can rate the display as only 85% lol

[SoCloseYetSoFar]

I have been waiting for a machine spec'd like this for as long as I can remember.  On paper it is the perfect windows laptop.  Unfortunately, it has a major, deal killer of a problem that for some reason, reviewer after reviewer simply ignore.  The ghosting on the screen makes playing games and even watching movies a horrible experience. It blows my mind that sites like this give it such a positive review while glossing over the 58ms response time of the display.  Stay away from this laptop unless you like watching everything in "blur-a-vision".  Google "xps 9550 ghosting" for complaint after complaint to this effect.  I went through two of these before I gave up.  I'm disappointed in both Dell, and the review sites I trusted prior to seeing them all completely ignore the fact that everything that moves on the screen of this laptop turns into a messy blur.