2022 Dell XPS 15 9520 3.5K OLED laptop review: Skip or buy?

[Redaktion]

Now in its third year, the XPS 15 9520 is another internal update to the already familiar 2020 XPS 15 9500 and 2021 XPS 15 9510. But is the fancy new Alder Lake-H CPU really enough to make a difference?

https://www.notebookcheck.net/2022-Dell-XPS-15-9520-3-5K-OLED-laptop-review-Skip-or-buy.621506.0.html

[Hunter2020]

Skip.  Apparently it is possible to dim an OLED screen without using PWM.  There is simply no excuse in this day and age to use PWM to dim any kind of screen!

[capnkimo]

who the heck writes these titles? title gives an 89% score and asks skip or buy

[TheDarb]

But does it support true s0 and s3 sleep modes?  If it won't, and requires that hybrid sleep from Microsoft, forget it.  Tired of my current dell waking up and baking itself inside my bag when it's suppose to be asleep.

[df]

So as we are on the brink of upgrades to Wifi 7, where the 6Ghz band is even more prevalent, this system won't support that band even in Wifi 6e?  Moreover, as if to punish the poor fool who pays Dell's prices, you can't change out that card because it's soldered?
It's just like the days of soldering memory chips or ssd's.  It's a primitive tactic designed to fill landfills and make it impossible for the end user to upgrade simple components and keep a device functioning as standards, capacities and needs change.  Vendors need to be downgraded for this slap in the face to sustainability.  Dell/AW do it across a huge range of their devices, with clear intent in mind, while the competition does not.

[Happy_Hubris]

The product summary section up top is omitting storage, and I don't see the usual "ports" pictures.

It's depressing that Dell insists on using Intel for these XPS 15s.  My 2021 Acer G14 offers similar performance on the CPU and much stronger GPU performance for half the price (albeit without an OLED).  These units also ship without USB A ports or HDMI.  And these PWM panels with slow refresh rates are also an outlier in 2022 at this price point.

It is nice to see an XPS 15 without awful throttling, but the laptop still feels like a very conservative proposition for its price.

[Davka]

I've changed my 9560 to 9520 and the major improvement for me is the faster iGPU, which can really keep up with 4k resolution when doing web-browsing, Youtube, etc.

[_MT_]

So as we are on the brink of upgrades to Wifi 7, where the 6Ghz band is even more prevalent, this system won't support that band even in Wifi 6e? 

I can only guess that it would require redesigning the case/ antennas. It's not something you can solve by swapping a card. Clearly, they don't think it's important enough.

[TomGe]

Hi,
I own the 9520 i9 version and just looked in my WiFi settings. The 6Ghz is active and working. Maybe some Dell reps are wrong...I installed the Intel driver instead of the Killersuite.

[Peter Agilé]

This configuration is bad, don't choose the OLED screen with PWM! It is the same one like in last years model and still as bad.

In my opinion the i5 is powerfull enough with 12 cores and 16 threads. Even with the integrated Intel GPU you can play some games and do light 3D works.
Unfortunately you are punished by Dell for choosing the cheapest option with the smallest battery without any (technical) reason. But you can still select the large battery for the Precision 5570!

[Dorby]

Skip.  Apparently it is possible to dim an OLED screen without using PWM.  There is simply no excuse in this day and age to use PWM to dim any kind of screen!

No. OLED in current state cannot be produced without PWM, especially not on mobile displays. Even $4000 professional and $30,000 reference monitors use it. And laptop OLED displays cost less than ~$100 per unit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZ9M_bjF6dE

[Disappointed]

Terrible PWM (59.52 Hz only  :o) and burn-in problems in the future. OLED technology sucks.

[NikoB]

A screen with monstrous glare, with a Pentile structure (resolution on the red and blue channels is 2 times lower than on IPS!), a resource (from 100% brightness level) of up to 50% brightness drop in just 7000-8000 hours (and Asus variants too), against 15000 hours for IPS, awful low-frequency PWM (your poor eyes!)

Much better if there was 16:10 4k 120Hz IPS! And minimum contrast from 1500:1.  This is the best display panel today for the eyes!

On top of that, as usual, Acer/Asus/MSI/Gigabyte has a  cutted digital block in keyboard for many years for 15"(!) models compared to the normal one in business models from HP/Dell/Lenovo, i.e. it is definitely not suitable for office work with digital data and for professionals. Only for content consumers and bloggers. Glamor keyboard misunderstanding, that's why I'll never buy the XPS series.

No HDMI 2.1@42Gbps with GTX3050 onboard!

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(Ryzen 7000 - the first series of processors with confirmed Display Port 2.0 certification! This means support for 8k monitors with 36-bit color at 60Hz without lossy signal compression (no DSC)!
I've been waiting for a 40" 21:9 8k monitor for almost 10 years now! It's finally possible in 2023... or 2024, or even (terrible) 2025!)
-----

The most shameful and funny thing about this part from Dell is that, with a clear focus on bloggers, content consumers and fans of doing something remotely, the most shameful 720p camera is again, instead of the normal one at 1440p !!! In 2022!!! What kind of weed are the marketers and engineers at Dell R&D smoking?

RAM too slow from typical for this RAM standart.

Wi-Fi is too slow. Especially in the up transfer part.

There is nothing to say about the shameful autonomy from the battery! And this despite the fact that the speed of the processor and videocard drops several times from the battery, turning the product into a pumpkin! Why pay so much money to get battery autonomy below 8 hours and the speed of operation at the level of  hardware 3 years ago from the battery?

ps,
Over the past 20 years, I have read in the press about 100500 promises to improve lithium-ion batteries at times. Where are the 160-200Wh batteries with the same weight as 70W, gentlemen? And with a minimum of 2000-3000 cycles before the capacity drops from the declared one to 75%? With fast charging in 1 hour?

The only plus is a fairly quiet cooling system...and no more..

[surplusEfect]

I don't understand why manufacturers are using OLED and MINILED for laptops, they are really bad for the eyes (and the brain because the collateral issues appear with people sensitive to that, most of the people are), for TV or cellphones are different where you watch for limited time, but for staying in from of the screen several hours a days harming yourself because of PWM is ridiculous.
I was considering to give a try to the MACs, but with MINILED there is no way I will use that screen because of PWM.

[RobertJasiek]

Does Mini-LED always have PWM?