Dell XPS 17 9720 review - The premium multimedia laptop starts to show its age

[Redaktion]

The current Dell XPS 17 9720 is receiving the new Intel Alder Lake processors with the continued ability to combine them with RTX GPUs from Nvidia. However, compared to the predecessor, the graphics performance was reduced and the cooling is slightly weak overall. It's about time for an extensive update.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Dell-XPS-17-9720-review-The-premium-multimedia-laptop-starts-to-show-its-age.629514.0.html

[Kom]

Looking forward to your Asus M7601 (VivoBook Pro 16X Ryzen 6000H) review!
Seems like Asus nailed everything the new XPS 17 was supposed to be.

[NikoB]

Pros:
1. 4k IPS. High ppi, it very good for eyes.
2. DDR5 mem - + for memory bandwidth
3. High speed car reader.

Cons:
1. IPS with average contrast (need 2000:1+ for glossy variant as minimum). Very huge panel response b2w/g2g (need 120-144Hz panel). Glossy (touch in 17" - for what?). Very low max brightness for outdoor use (need 800 nits+).  Not "premium" panel.
2. Very bad keyboard for 17" - no digital block. It is unrealistic to use in office work with an excel, for effective (high speed) complex coding/developing and for scientific applications. Also, the digital block is very convenient for navigation in the text (and in file managers for fast grouping operations) when numlock is off.
3. Very noise in average load. And sustained cpu performance to low for 12700H with this huge noise level. Bad cooling system. I would not set more than 87% for the level of performance in the final assessment.
3. No HDMI 2.1 port - this is definitely not a multimedia laptop. It is "premium"?
4. Bad wi-fi antennas?
5. Poor autonomy from the battery, despite the fact that the performance of the processor
and discrete card falls greatly when the power supply is turned off.
6. High DPC latency. No for work with sound. It is "premium"?

Again, I don't understand - for whom is this "miracle" made from Dell? 17" with 2.4kg+, weighing is definitely not for dragging along the street (and it does not matter in car transportation how much it weighs). Because of it weight, it is also unrealistic to use it as a tablet with touchscreen. And as the brightness for the street already wrote above is simply shameful, need 800+ nits.  Why is the 17" laptop has screen with a multi-touch and because of this is not matte? Tapping in the screen sitting in front of it with the mouse or using a touch panel on keyboard? Loiling the entire screen 17" with vile fingerprints? Why, for what?!

Why does he need such a trimmed keyboard from 14 "laptops on 17" coffin? For bloggers? For people working behind a laptop, really for many time, this are important (full keyboard with digital block) and they practically do not use the tap, but mouse, i.e. Its centering is meaningless for them.

After the tests, even with a sharp failure of the processor speed and a discrete video chip from the battery, a person cannot hope that he can sit without external power supply at 8 hours in an average load (even a typical real surf, when the time declared after testing needs to be divided at least 1.5 times).


From the point of view of sitting from the power supply in the office or at home. The notum is clearly not pulling on the premium. And such weight and dimensions still excludes its use as a mobile solution. Again, what is its meaning in comparison with a more compact Legion 5 Pro with the same weight and fast matte screen 165Hz+ 2560x1600 and a complete set of ports (with hdmi 2.1+rj45) located much more convenient and more capacity from the power supply and processor and discretting (despite the fact that Legion 5 Pro can be bought with top 3070/3080 discreet chip)?

It is NOT "The premium multimedia laptop" for 2022.

[T2000]

Displays with PWM suck. For that price we should demand a flicker-free screen.

[RobertJasiek]

Flickering is always bad regardless of the price. If a display is only used for frequently changing contents, such as 3D games with much action, flickering might not hurt. For all other uses, flickering should not be tolerated. Users not noticing it or not having immediate health problems should nevertheless avoid it because they might get health problems much later as a consequence. The flickering of CRT TVs produced a weak image quality, was the only widely available technology but I think it did not produce health problems (watching TV in dark rooms is another story) while PWM flickering can produce health problems and alternative technologies are available. I do not even know if PWM is a cost factor or manufacturers are just too lazy to act responsibly.

[NikoB]

Flickering is always bad regardless of the price. If a display is only used for frequently changing contents, such as 3D games with much action, flickering might not hurt. For all other uses, flickering should not be tolerated. Users not noticing it or not having immediate health problems should nevertheless avoid it because they might get health problems much later as a consequence. The flickering of CRT TVs produced a weak image quality, was the only widely available technology but I think it did not produce health problems (watching TV in dark rooms is another story) while PWM flickering can produce health problems and alternative technologies are available. I do not even know if PWM is a cost factor or manufacturers are just too lazy to act responsibly.

17kHz PWM freq is not problem for the eyes. But 50-300Hz is a problem. And this is Achilles's heel of all AMOLED screens and some IPS that so tunge for some kind of mercantile reasons - for example, in order to increase the backlighting resource in time (for amoled, this is a key reason - if they can not stand there for 7000 hours there - they will burn even faster) or provide greater energy savings from the battery or better calibration and a larger range of brightness control.. And those where DC Dimming use are deceived consumers with a contrast of 10,000: 1 (really 3000: 1-15000: 1, that is, this black is not in complete darkness) and with a sharply narrowed dynamic range (and the problem of the impossibility of calibration the panel with an acceptable error of color imbalance)

[LL]

Top rated award for a laptop that is very expensive and curtails graphic capabilities despite the GPU type?

[the blitz]

Dell xps 15 9510 with 11800h have the exact same speaker setup but in that review its lower freqs are same as macbook pro 16 m1 but here its significantly worse. What gives? I've seen wrong speaker measurements in your mobile segment too like s10e or vivo looking like they have WAY more bass than iphone but thats clearly not the case.

You guys better up your speaker measurement game. Its not trustable

[AllenR]

I wish there were an evaluation of the sound card at the output jack, independent of the speakers. Most people will be plugging headphones or external amplifiers of some kind.  Is it a 16-bat DAC?  What bitrate?  Much more important than speakers on a laptop.  Thanks!

[antonio sesto]

Considering the color space coverage, how am I supposed to read the two columns "Dell XPS 17 9720" and "Dell XPS 17 9720 RTX 3060"? They have very different numbers: for example, the Adobe RGB coverage.

Does the first one refers to the integrated (Intel) graphics card? Does it mean that it is not possible to, e.g., cover the Adobe RGB color space using the nVidia card?

Not related to the question, a comment on the keyboard. The left and right arrow keys are terrible: being used to half-size arrow keys, for me it is impossible to hit them without looking at the keyboard.

[Aziz]

Thanks
Does this laptop have a cooling system Vapor Chambers or Liquid Metal?

[Jackson]

Cons:
1. [...] Glossy (touch in 17" - for what?). [...]
2. Very bad keyboard for 17" - no digital block. [...]
3. [...] Bad cooling system. [...]
[4]. No HDMI 2.1 port [...]
[5]. Bad wi-fi antennas?
[6]. Poor autonomy from the battery [...]
[7]. High DPC latency. No for work with sound. It is "premium"?

1) Because Apple. It looks pretty, therefore it sells.
2) Because Apple. Numpads make the keyboard look less symmetrical.
3) Because Apple. Clunky aluminum enclosures with poor cooling gives XPS leverage by letting Apple do the marketing.
4) Because Apple. No practical ports for you! (until the Great Reversal of 2021)
5) Because Apple. Aluminum is bad for wifi signal, even with plastic cutout workarounds.
6) Because TSA.
7) Because Dell.

[Joel]

Considering the color space coverage, how am I supposed to read the two columns "Dell XPS 17 9720" and "Dell XPS 17 9720 RTX 3060"?

The XPS 17 9720 is this review, which is spec'd with a 4k screen and RTX 3050.  The RTX 3060 is a different system.  Google it and you'll find it.