Opinion: What on earth is going on with Dell's XPS lineup?

[Redaktion]

Veteran editor Douglas Black returns with his opinion on the current state of Dell's XPS lineup: Complacency in fixing the XPS 15's issues and the sudden change of a soldered-on SSD for the XPS 13 2-in-1 are cause for his concern.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Opinion-What-on-earth-is-going-on-with-Dell-s-XPS-lineup.422865.0.html

[mulu]

Non-swappable SSD? And how about XPS keyboards? My daughter's toy laptop has a better one.

[dell13]

They have let the accountants do their job. The XPS line is supposed to be the flagship line, with little to no compromise in portability and performance. It's supposed to go head-to-head with the Thinkpads. Now, having been quite popular, Dell has become complacent, thinking that doing the barest of minimum will be sufficient to continue their streak. In fact, they have not even done the minimum. They have gone back and made a good product actively worse, all the while ignoring the issues plaguing the current XPS models. Time would have been spent better if they fixed the current issues instead of looking for ways to penny-pinch their flagship models.

Lenovo, on the other hand, have managed to successfully build good machines, without focusing solely on the bottom line. There were many concerns when Thinkpad was sold to Lenovo from IBM, as people expected that a Chinese company will not be able to maintain the prestige and reputation of Thinkpads of the past. Well, we were disappointed in a good way. Yet, having seen the recent T490s model, the initial fears may indeed prove to be correct as Lenovo seems to be looking to skimp features from their once flagship line. We must remain vigilant.

[Not_anton]

Apple can pull a soldered SSD because user data is mirrored to iCloud by default - if I get a new macbook my data is already there.
Dell has nothing like that. Really poor choice to solder an SSD fir them, expect a lot of angry customers with lost data.

[sticky]

"RAM and Wi-Fi soldered-on (to be expected for a 9th Gen ultrabook these days)"

I'm certainly still not onboard with that.

[Fiddlesticks]

Agreed. As much as I like the look of the XPS 15, I don't feel that Dell deserves my money at this point. They were already pushing it with no chassis update on last year's model.

The Aero 15 OLED with a 1660ti seems like a better machine all around, except for the nose cam, which is the one time Dell finally fixed. At least Gigabyte has been listening to and acting on feedback and improved by 30% with the new chassis.

To Dell's credit they do this with many of their products, but really seem to have given up on the XPS 15 for the last few years. My worry is that next year rather than improve the cooling or thermals, they'll push for a thinner design with more soldered parts like the new m15.

[daviddocub]

I agree with every single word written here. You are absolutely right.

[seiho]

Soldered SSD and Wifi? Retarded. Destined for landfill use only.

[123]

Do you change your WiFi card every season?

[Douglas Black]

I agree with every single word written here. You are absolutely right.

Thank you.  :)

[dellRIP]

I agree with all above said!
I used to be fan of Dell products for few simple reasons: upgradable products, 3year on site standard warranty - all gone now. In all fairness like you said dell is now just making odd MAC like devices which don't even work properly. Soldered ram, ssd, wifi card and no other slots just means that no room for upgrade and more likely throw away item.
As mentioned soldering data is worst you can have as not only you wont be able to resurrect laptop with spare drive, but also all your data might be destroyed during drive removal!!! Dell is not offering cloud back up either so big NO NO. DELL needs to sack those clueless R&D team and start asking what customer needs!  Let me into their office I will make it right there :)
XPS these days is Xtreme POO System!
Everyone knows that xtreme today is mid range performance tomorrow... Imagine performance car which you can't upgrade? There is no fun in it if you cant push it to new limits!!! It becomes daily boring commuting car...

I am actually well disappointed with this year  computex none of big names brought 13 or 14 inch convertible with dedicated GPU. Top end laptops with so many performance add-ons and screen pads but none convertible with  dedi GPU!!!! seems like all fallen asleep!
So many years and all we see 15inch in different shapes, who the hell uses 15inch, they are big clumps and no matter how thin you make them! Work on 13 or 14 inch as its more portable and easier to handle in tablet mode! Most of us anyways connect laptop to desk rig with decent monitors! Pure example huawei mate x pro, what a beauty with mx150 in it, if only it was convertible 8) Now they know how to make slick product and give some power to it, even so it got few thermal issues but they are working in right direction. I know mx150 is old and thunderbolt is halved  but still good attempt on such slim ultrabook.

Even lenovo did not bring anything worth to look at... Their new x380 looked promising till saw no GPU..
Lenovo P40 workstation what a workhorse that was and they discontinued line....

Who else would buy convertible with decent dedicated GPU with upgradable parts, thunderbolt, usbc charging, 400nits+ 4k ips multi touch, mil spec, nvme ssd, infrared camera with shutter, top end cpu shout below maybe we will be loud enough to make attention of these clueless manufacturers!!

[BJ Levine]

Don't forget that pathetic excuse for a keyboard. Yep; copying the worst of Apple in every conceivable way. Crossing Dell off my list; Apple's notebooks are disasters, as well.

This wouldn't happen if Michael Dell were alive.

[danielee0707]

I feel this year even Inspiron 7590 is a more compelling option than the new XPS 15. It's lighter and cheaper. You pretty much get everything and more, one more m.2, full magnesium alloy body, and a numpad. You may argue the XPS has better build quality, but really? There is no audio or coil whine issue reported yet on Inspiron it seems.

[John IL]

I like my XPS 9360 but after that they seemed to have gone downhill. The later models have loads of issues and questions of quality keep coming up. I bought mine as a refurbished for less money. Can't say I would have paid full price for a XPS model. If they start soldering memory and storage I won't buy another one.

[9370 owner]

I don't know if new Dell models are downgrading in quality, but I can tell for sure, my 9370 is the best laptop I've ever had.