16 PCWorld JULY 2020NEWS DELL DEBUTS XPS 17
The XPS 17 is about an inch narrower than many
other 17-inch powerhouse laptops.standard for reducing blue emissions from the
screen—without that horrible brown tint that
makes it look like you’re wearing As Seen On
TV Blue Blocker sunglasses (go.pcworld.
com/blbk). Eyesafe screens essentially look
“normal,” but without the blue emissions that
disturb your sleep and hurt your eyes.SIZE AND WEIGHT
Dell likes to say the XPS 17 9700 is smaller
than “half the 15-inch” laptops available.
Measuring 14.7 x 9.8 x 0.77 inches. It’s
definitely smaller than Gigabyte’s Aero 17
HDR at 15.6 x 10.6 x 0.84 inches, or Razer’s
Blade Pro 17 at 16.7 x 11 x 0.88 inches, or
MSI’s GS75 at 15.6 x 10.2 x 0.7 inches. All
three of those laptops are gaming laptops or
feature fairly beefy GPUs, but the XPS 17 has a
hefty spec list too (see below). The weight of
the laptop is good, starting at 4.65 pounds
but increasing to 5.53 pounds depending on
the options.SPECS
Dell spares little expense
with its top-tier XPS line. The
XPS 17 9700’s specs are
predictably premium:
CPU: The new XPS 17 is based on
Intel’s latest 10th-gen Comet Lake H CPUs
(go.pcworld.com/cmlh). Options include the
quad-core Core i5-10300H, six-core Core
i7-10750H, or the eight-core Core i7-10875H
or Core i9-10885H.A Ryzen CPU option would have been
nice, but our initial advice is to recommend
the Core i7-10750H or Core i7-10875 in thin
laptops. While the Core i9-10885H offers
higher boost performance, it’s better suited
for much larger and heavier designs.
RAM: All configurations are based on
standard DDR4/2933 modules in dual-
channel mode with capacities of 8GB, 16GB,
32GB or 64GB. All designs use standard
SO-DIMM modules so you can increase
capacity at a later point. Obviously choose
the RAM based on your needs, but we’d
recommend 16GB unless you’re on a tight
budget. Choose 32GB or 64GB only if you
know they need that much RAM, or because
you’re locked into it by a build.