ISSUE 379|COMPUTERSHOPPER|SEPTEMBER (^201983)
ULTRAPORTABLESULTRAPORTABLES
THEREAREAfair fewWindowslaptops
that could challengethe MacBookPro for
sheer power,althoughmost of them won’t
be slimlineultraportables.Forthis you can
blame the need forathin chassis,which
favours smaller,lower-powerCPUs.
The XPS 15, however,crams in a
hexa-coreIntel Core i7-8750H,a
monster of aprocessorthat runs at a
base clock speed of 2.2GHzand can Turbo
Boost all the wayupto4.1GHz. Along with
16GB of RAM, a512GB SSD and aGeForce
GTX 1050 Ti Max-Q graphicschip,the XPS
13’s bigger bother is atrue powerhousein a
slim and light disguise.
Dell has always maintainedastrong
design ethos forthe XPS family,and the
new XPS 15 is no different.It has aCNC-
machinedaluminiumlid, ablack carbon-fibre
compositepalm rest, and the series’
signaturenarrowbezels aroundthe display.
It’s also very sleek fora15.6in laptop,
measuring17mm at its thickestedge and
weighingavery manageable2kg. It’s no LG
Gram, but by 15.6in standards,the XPS 15 is
surprisinglyeasy to lug around.
One slight disappointmentis the lack of
an infraredcamera(for face unlocking),
and the standardwebcamsits at the
bottom edge of the display, makingforan
unflattering angle in video chats.
GAUGE BEFOREBEAUTY
As forports, there’s afull-size USB3.1port
and an SD card reader on the right edge,
both of which sit under aconvenient
five-LEDbattery indicator.Here,you can
check the laptop’s battery level by clicking
the small physicalbu h h h d
edge,which is aneat l l k.
On the leftedge,th h
port, a3.5mm headp /
full-sizedHDMI 2.0 p d h d b l
3-capableUSB Type- h h b
used to deliver powe d l
or simply transfer da d
overall, especiallykno h h
smallerXPS 13 has d h d ll d
USB ports completel.
The backlit keybo dd
have anumber pad, lk
15.6in laptops, but th d
allow formore comfo bl -
sized keys. These als h
asatisfying,clickyfe l
them, and are perfec
fast typists.The track d
and fingerprintreade d
DELLXPS15(2018)
★★★★★
£1,949•From http://www.dell.com
VERDICT
It’snotalljuststyleandsleekness–the
Dell XPS15isoneofthemostpowerful
Windowslaptopsever
intothe power button, both work well, too,
with none of the reliabilityissues we faced
with the XPS 13.
Generally,this is an exceptionallywell-
designedlaptop,and the 4K, Gorilla Glass-
coated displayimpresses,too. As an input
tool, forinstance,the touchscreenis
incrediblyresponsive,and supportsup to
10-pointtouch gestures.
This IPS panel also looks fantastic.The
screen is capableof covering 95.5% of the
sRGB colour gamut, so coloursare vibrant
with plenty of pop,and we measuredits
contrastratio at avery high 1,638:1, on apar
with other quality IPS displays.
TOTHE MAX
Colour accuracycould be higher,however.
Average delta-Ecame in at 3.21, which is
just toohigh forustorecommendthe XPS
15 forcolour-sensitivework such as photo
and video editing.
That said, the XPS 15 is adecent laptop
forgaming, despitenot being agaming
machinespecifically.InDirt Showdown,
runningat High settingsand Full HD
resolution,the XPS 15’s GTX 1050 Ti Max-Q
pushedall the wayto104fps. Even at the full
4K resolution,we still got a68fps average ,so
while this won’t be competingwith the likes
of the Razer Blade 15 or Alienwarem15, it’s
miles ahead of any ultraportablethat only has
integrated graphics,as well as the less
powerfulMX150GPU.
It’s even better formore seriouspursuits.
In our 4K benchmarks,Dell’s laptop blasted to
141 in the image test, 183 in the video test, 188
in the multitaskingtest and 178 overall.
Besidesutterly thrashingthe 2017 XPS 15, the
new model is competitivewith the £6,200
MacBookPro 15in (Shopper 369) and
outpacesthe £3,599 MacBookPro 13in
(Shopper370) we tested last year.The XPS 13,
LG Gram, Surface Laptop 2and Razer Blade
Stealth are all soundlybeaten, too.
There don’t seem to be any temperature
issues, either,with none of the six CPU
cores passing91°C during the intensive
benchmarkingprocess.It might be worth
investingin acooling pad if you’re planningto
hammerboth the CPU and the GPU forhours
on end, but otherwiseit’s perfectly fine to
have on your lap withoutsingeingyour thighs.
Unsurprisingly,the 4K displayeats awayat
the laptop’s battery life. The XPS 15 still
managedto last for7h14m in our video
rundowntest, which is quiterespectable
consideringthe resolution,dedicated GPU and
p l b his is one area where the
l d d out so well.
S S
ll h h 2GB M.2 PCI-E SSD,
h h d l l quick. Using the AS SSD
b h k suredasequentialread
/and asequentialwrite
/ .We’ve seen some of
h l d suffer weirdlyslow write
d n the SATA-esque
/ hat hasn’t happenedhere.
P versionshave impressed,
b h reworktakes things up a
h bar forCPU performance
d l is designedmagnificently
( p cameraplacement)and,
across multiplespecs,
much less than asimilarly
p edMacBookPro.
ry by ng
button on the right-hand
eat little trick.
there’s anotherUSB3.1
phone/micjack combo,a
port and aThunderbolt
-C port, which can be
wer,connectadisplay
data. It’s agood mix
nowingthat the
ditched full-sized
ly.
board doesn’t
like some
his does
fortable-
also have
el to
ect for
ckpad
ader,integrated
n, got ps rage, ng
powerfulCPU, butthi
laptop doesn’t stand
FASTTIMES
Finally,there’s the 512
which is ridiculously
benchmark,we meas
speed of 2,292MB/s
speed of 1,009MB/s.
these laptop drives s
speeds,sometimesin
500MB/sarea, buttha
Previous XPS 15ve
but this most recent
notch. It sets anewbar
in Windowslaptops,i
(exceptforthatc
evena
costs
specce
c. jardin
(C. Jardin)
#1