> "more tuning will be necessary between PremierColor settings and Windows color profiles"

Did you try removing PremierColor altogether? It is known to mess with other calibration software.

We brought in three of these laptops to test...13 and 15" versions with FHD and UHD screens and they all had a major flaw...the top edge of the screen is dark, like there's a shadow across the top edge. All of them have it...i assume because the edge light is probably on the bottom edge and doesn't reach the top edge uniformly. I find it unusable. Has anyone seen this?

After this discovery of little performance gain between the 8305G and the 8705G, expect one of the following from dell, other manufacturers or intel/AMD:
1) phase out one of the two offerings. If 8705G - marginal performance gain, higher cost than 8305G, can't sustain performance advantage. If 8305G - cost the same to produce as 8705G
2) Manufacturers offerings/pricing greatly change to: 8305G only offered with 8Gb ram with higher price, 8705G with 16Gb with not much price difference, or only offering one of the other with the higher price point.
3) Intel selling their 8305G much higher or cutting back substantially on its production, while trying to balance the sales of it with the 8705G.

Whatever the outcome, I don't see it as a win for the consumer. It's probably best if anyone wants the 8305G, to take advantage of the cheaper price now.

Very helpful and detailed article.

I see in your stress tests the CPU is hitting "power limit" flags.

The 9550 & 9560 "power limit" was actually related to thermals (usually the ambient sensor #1 next to vrm hitting ~77*C). When thr vrm was modded for better cooling, the "power limit" flag disappeared and CPU maintained max turbo clocks.

I don't think this is the same trigger based on your HWiNFO64 snapshots but it is tough to tell without being there real time. A repaste and undervolt might improve scores, particularly for the i7. . .

Once again, great review.