New XPS 15 Laptop, 4k OLED, i9, GTX 1650

[Larvas]

I just randomly surfed the web and saw that DELL introduced their new XPS 15 Laptop. As with most of these I just ignore them, but this time the specs and price caught my eye.

New XPS 15 Laptop

• 15.6" OLED 4K UHD (3840 x 2160) Anti-Reflective Non-Touch 100% DCI-P3 400-Nits display
• 8-Core Intel i9-9980HK (16MB Cache, up to 5.0 GHz)
• NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1650 4GB GDDR5
• 32GB DDR4-2666MHz, 2x16G
• 1TB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD

Price: $2,649.99

Although the design of the machine is pretty ugly (IMHO), it still looks like a bargain when compared with the rest of the PC crew on the market, especially the OLED + GTX 1650 paired together.

If you're a current XPS user, how does the machine feel? Are you happy with it?

Source: https://www.theverge.com/2019/6/27/18761401/dell-xps-15-laptop-4k-oled-screen-camera-available-now

 

[GoldfishRT]

I think the best value is the OLED model for $1949 - comparably positioned to the MacBook Pro that's well over $2500.

In any case, my experiences with the XPS line have been universally poor. My 9560 was okay other than a bad fan bearing (this is a chronic problem across all of them). I went through 5 9570s before giving up for a miriad of problems between a disappearing wifi card, huge back light uniformity problems, and only one of those five had a fan that sounded normal - the others all had that dumb card in the bicycle spokes sound.

It's a shame because it has comparable battery life to the MacBook, I think the aesthetics are nice, the keyboard and trackpad are good, and it's almost always available far cheaper than the competition.

Microcenter for instance has the 2018 models with 4k and 512/16 starting at $1399.

 

[Waltagon]

Another contender! I forgot this was coming out now. I am after something that can actually be used as laptop rather than a portable computer. Thinking this might be on the weighty side.... been looking at its little bro the XPS 13

 

[lcseds]

I'm using a 9570. Latest model until now. Runs great, not much to complain about. Only weirdness is it just started not connecting the wifi coming out of sleep. I have to disconnect and reconnect. Only a few seconds but it's like "why did this start?".

 

[Jetcat3]

Laptopmag’s review. They measured 626 nits of brightness! https://www.laptopmag.com/reviews/laptops/dell-xps-15-2019

I think the best OLED 15” laptop is the new Gigabyte Aero 15 OLED with an X Rite color calibrated screen. You can pick one up as low as $1699 with a 1660 Ti, although the $1899 version it what I would choose.

 

[MimicBunion972]

I ordered one with OLED panel. Core i7 / 16GB / 512GB, the $1949 model. With coupon I received a few days ago, the price comes to $1624 before tax.
I am cautiously optimistic. My previous XPS came with backlight bleeding. Hopefully that is no more since OLED has no backlight. Arriving on 7/18. I will let you guys know how it works.

 

[GoldfishRT]

I ordered one with OLED panel. Core i7 / 16GB / 512GB, the $1949 model. With coupon I received a few days ago, the price comes to $1624 before tax.
I am cautiously optimistic. My previous XPS came with backlight bleeding. Hopefully that is no more since OLED has no backlight. Arriving on 7/18. I will let you guys know how it works.

Good luck!

 

[TSE]

I have a 9570 and like it enough. Odd Dell driver issues and quirks. Like said previously in this thread, I just recently started having weird wifi hiccups that are solved with an occasional restart.

That being said, I love the 1080p screen - I honestly couldn't tell the difference between this and the 4k, and the 9 - 10 hours of honest battery life is worth it.

 

[MimicBunion972]

I have a 9570 and like it enough. Odd Dell driver issues and quirks. Like said previously in this thread, I just recently started having weird wifi hiccups that are solved with an occasional restart.

That being said, I love the 1080p screen - I honestly couldn't tell the difference between this and the 4k, and the 9 - 10 hours of honest battery life is worth it.

The Killer wifi card in 9570 is known for dropping connections. Many people replace it with Intel card. The one in 7590 is Killer's new wifi 6 card, let's see if that fixes the issues.

 

[TSE]

The Killer wifi card in 9570 is known for dropping connections. Many people replace it with Intel card. The one in 7590 is Killer's new wifi 6 card, let's see if that fixes the issues.

True, but I put in the Intel one right when I got my notebook. So that's not the problem. I didn't have issues until very recently.

 

[MimicBunion972]

True, but I put in the Intel one right when I got my notebook. So that's not the problem. I didn't have issues until very recently.

I see, sorry to hear that. It could be a number of other things from hardware to software.
XPS is not something that just works. It requires some problem-solving. I kind of expect that when pay $1000 less than MBP...

 

[TSE]

I see, sorry to hear that. It could be a number of other things from hardware to software.
XPS is not something that just works. It requires some problem-solving. I kind of expect that when pay $1000 less than MBP...

That’s the right way to describe the XPS 15. It’s $1000 cheaper... great specs for the price... solid design... but doesn’t “just work”. Requires tweaking.

 

[maflynn]

but doesn’t “just work”. Requires tweaking.

I'd say that's probably the case with many (most?) PC laptops. My thinkpad incurred a number of tweaks, each made the operation and user experience better.

 

[762999]

I'm using a 9570. Latest model until now. Runs great, not much to complain about. Only weirdness is it just started not connecting the wifi coming out of sleep. I have to disconnect and reconnect. Only a few seconds but it's like "why did this start?".

Maybe it reverted an older driver in the latest cumulative update. Would be worth manually downloading the latest driver from the manufacturer's web site.

You could also try disabling the option in device manager that let Windows turn off the device to save power.

 

[MimicBunion972]

I am back to report that I have returned my XPS 7590 with OLED screen.
The problem is with the OLED screen:
1. Color is inaccurate. It appears to have a gamma of 2.6, couldn't get to accurate color with many rounds of Spyder calibration.
2. Color banding in any shade of gray, two wide vertical bands of greenish gray.
3. Micro flickering, after disabling the Intel power saving options and screen self refresh.
There is only one Samsung OLED panel, installed on all 15 inch OLED laptops at this time. It doesn't work for me unfortunately. Back to my MBP 2013.

 

[Victoria802]

I am back to report that I have returned my XPS 7590 with OLED screen.
The problem is with the OLED screen:
1. Color is inaccurate. It appears to have a gamma of 2.6, couldn't get to accurate color with many rounds of Spyder calibration.
2. Color banding in any shade of gray, two wide vertical bands of greenish gray.
3. Micro flickering, after disabling the Intel power saving options and screen self refresh.
There is only one Samsung OLED panel, installed on all 15 inch OLED laptops at this time. It doesn't work for me unfortunately. Back to my MBP 2013.

Yes, I have heard the color inaccuracy problems happened very often, I don't know is it because of the intensive HDR effect there or else. I also heard that the most common concern will be the burn-in mark issue on the OLED screen. I would go for the Mini-LED instead thou, seems it would be the ultra-high brightness above 1000 nits and also the longer battery consumption. The more important thing is it is more reasonable than OLED.