Dell XPS 15 2017 9560 (7300HQ, Full-HD) Notebook Review

[Redaktion]

Everything will be good?! Dell refreshes its XPS 15 with the latest Kaby Lake processors and a GeForce GTX 1050 graphics card, so the performance takes a big leap forwards. How does this affect the emissions and the battery runtime? And: Did Dell finally fix the numerous bugs from the predecessors? We have initial results and will finish the review over the next couple of days.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Dell-XPS-15-2017-9560-7300HQ-Full-HD-Notebook-Review.195668.0.html

[GoNz0]

Did you do the PWM test across the brightness range as this is the identical panel to the 9550 and that kicked in PWM below 30 or 20% and caused a lot of flicker issues.

[Nils Nilsson]

How come you list the Apple MacBook Pro 15 2016 (2.9 GHz, 460) as a brightness of just above 400 nits when your own review lists it as having a much higher brightness than 400?

[User01]

Please review this model thoroughly. I expirencied many serious hardware issues with my XPS 9550, including overheating (before I had to return it back to Dell, because they were unable to repair it). It seems that the previous model was buggy..

[James McMinn]

Please take a close look at the keyboard quality and responsiveness. I've found that many of the keys on my 9560 simply don't work if hit from an edge or corner, as demonstrated here: https://youtu.be/HAPq0vntpPk

[Zoro]

Please take a close look at the keyboard quality and responsiveness. I've found that many of the keys on my 9560 simply don't work if hit from an edge or corner, as demonstrated here: https://youtu.be/HAPq0vntpPk

Try the same trick on any laptop - the keyboard will show similar behaviour. Even on Thinkpad P50, so don't worry about that bug, it is nothing serious.

[Wim]

Try the same trick on any laptop - the keyboard will show similar behaviour. Even on Thinkpad P50, so don't worry about that bug, it is nothing serious.

I just tried this on my P50 at work, and I can't reproduce that issue at all. Pressing a key in the bottom right or left corner triggers a key press event every time here.

[StevieL]

Models without a conventional hard drive can therefore use the free space for a larger battery. Corresponding configurations are equipped with 97-Wh battery.

So if I order a SSD-only model, I automatically get the 97Wh battery?

PS: Will there be a review of the i7/4K model as well?

[Klaus Hinum]

Not sure if you get the 97Wh battery, but at least there would be space for it. Could be Dell is selling versions with the small battery and SSD only too.

[Camacho]

I think, it is time to add tag "shitbook" and mark all the notebooks that are missing dedicated pgup/pgdown buttons with it. This move will safe a lot of time for a lot of people.

[Paul Soh]

Would be great if the notebook came with a GTX 1050 Ti or a 3GB GTX 1060 (6GB even better) in it. Because I'm interested to see if a Quad Core will ever present a bottleneck to this kinda sweet spot of GPUs.

[PeterMelbs]

Is this review finished or still WIP? Can't find sections on battery and gaming performance. Would be interested how it runs Witcher 3 and others.

[AquaeAtrae]

There remains a great deal of confusion about Thunderbolt 3 which I hope NotebookCheck might someday help clarify.

It's been confirmed that these XPS 15 have TB3 ports wired with just x2 lanes (16GBps vs XPS 13 with x4 lanes at 32GBps) of PCIe but no one has yet measured the actual impact this has in actual use. Based on previous PCIe bandwidth tests, eGPU performance may not be impacted much at all or maybe just in particular situations. Other PCIe over Thunderbolt 3 applications may be affected much more.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Dell/comments/5ot8dn/dell_xps_15_9560_has_2x_on_the_tb3_port_confirmed/dclxzc5/


So with their HQ-series CPUs, these XPS 15 may still be well suited for eGPU use by college students and road warriors wanting serious gaming, etc while docked. [No one games without plugging in anyways,right?] If it can also be powered from the same Thunderbolt 3 cable, that would be good too.

I don't know if reviewers have access to eGPU enclosures like the Razer Core or Akitio Node, but I'd like to request as much insight into its x2 lane Thunderbolt 3 port and these use cases as possible.

PS: These same users would be most interested in battery life when Optimus has disabled the GTX 1050 GPU. Can NotebookCheck clarify which battery tests have the dGPU engaged given Optimus or other switching options (MShybrid)?

As always, thanks for the great reviews here!

[mad max]

@aquaeatrae

http://www.notebookcheck.net/updated-XPS-9350-9550-s-Thunderbolt-3-may-be-hardwired-at-TB2-speeds.189743.0.html

Of course there is some impact. Not that significant for external drives, but certainly significant for eGPUs.
---
Also, I'd like to express frustration with the fact that this is a LIVE review but not labeled as such.

[AquaeAtrae]

Thanks @mad max. I had read that and others who believe that half the lanes = 20GBps = 50% FPS in games. This is what appears to be so confusing.

But if you look at the PCIe scaling tests mentioned there (direct link below), it suggests that framerates in games actually aren't heavily affected by lower PCIe bandwidth. Also, the technical brief helps clarify how x2 or x4 lanes of PCIe bandwidth is actually passed bidirectionally through Thunderbolt 3, combined and prioritized with other signals.

Technical Brief
https://thunderbolttechnology.net/sites/default/files/HBD16235_Thunderbolt_TB_r05.pdf

PCIe Scaling Tests for Gaming
https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/NVIDIA/GeForce_GTX_1080_PCI_Express_Scaling/24.html

Note: x2 PCIe (gen 3) was not tested but has the same bandwidth as x4 PCIe (gen 2) which was tested. The later showed just a small loss (7%) in FPS compared to having double the bandwidth. This suggests that the actual impact in games is much less than the 50% so many fear. In other words, even today's most powerful GPUs (GTX 1080) doesn't fully utilize more than x2 PCIe lanes very often. It may occur occasionally as data is loaded, but overall gameplay is only slightly affected and more than made up for with the power of a desktop GPU.

To date, these are the only relevant tests I have found on the issue. I keep watching for someone to actually connect an eGPU to an XPS 15 to show real-world results of its x2 lane implementation.

Actually, I suspect the first place we'll actually see major impacts will be with external drives ...specifically the new NVMe external drives with fast SSDs.