Excellent Stuff
The system did an excellent task with less requiring work– certainly better than the XPS 15, which got quite warm under any sort of load in my testing. The 17 was never ever cold, but it also never ever got uncomfortably warm during any of my everyday multitasking. I also never heard the fans, which Dell refers to as “dual opposite outlet fans.”.
The glass touchpad is huge at 5.8 x 3.5 inches and clicks with an easy, quiet thunk. Both of my palms were constantly touching it while I typed, but thankfully there were no issues with palm rejection. The benefit of that size is that I never ever lacked area for scrolling or multi-finger gestures. For me, however, it was a bit too huge; the location where it was natural for my right-hand man to reach was still in right-click area, and I had to either stretch my fingers or lift and move my wrist to reach the left half. Fellow righties with small hands, bear in mind.
The more impressive aspect of this screen, however, is that Dell has managed to fit it into a chassis thats smaller sized than those of most 17-inch laptops and a decent variety of 15-inch models also. It has a 93.7 percent screen-to-body ratio, which Dell says is greater than any rivals. The bezels are tiny– especially the bottom piece, which sported a large Dell logo design on previous XPS designs. In blunt terms, theres just a substantial quantity of screen right in front of your eyes.
The $1,399 base design (currently $1,371) has a Core i5-10300H, 8GB of RAM, a 256GB SSD, and Intel UHD graphics. To keep all that from frying, Dell has actually introduced a brand-new cooling system, including a vapor chamber that covers the entire width of the laptop computer and vents hidden in the hinge.
Yes, it has a 17-inch screen. Yes, it has high-powered specifications consisting of an H-series processor and an RTX GPU. Compared to lots of other laptops available today, its really heavy– its about 5 and a half pounds. Some folks may take pleasure in hefting a five-and-a-half-pound laptop computer around the home or in their knapsack throughout the day. However thats not me, and I doubt its the majority of individuals.
Simply put, this isnt the very best laptop for anyone whos primarily working in Chrome around the house or in libraries or coffee stores. Its really for power users who might require to occasionally work on the go and who have actually discovered that smaller sized screens and lower-powered systems disappoint their needs. For that person, this is the best laptop computer to buy.
The 720p cam supports Windows Hello.
The XPS 17 is made from aluminum, carbon fiber, and Gorilla Glass 6.
Bad Stuff.
In a test that included exporting five minutes and 33 seconds of 4K video in Adobe Premiere Pro, the XPS 17 finished the job in 3 minutes and 58 seconds. Thats a lot much better than we got for the MacBook Pro 16 and a little ahead of the Dell XPS 15 (which completed the very same export in 4 minutes and 23 seconds) and Microsofts 15-inch Surface Book 3.
The XPS 17 isnt a video gaming laptop (no high refresh-rate screen options, for one) and given that, the gaming results were not astonishing but decent. Nvidias RTX GPUs are so called due to the fact that theyre able to deal with ray tracing, however the 2060 Max Q is the lowest tier of the line, and its not rather efficient in managing the mix of ray tracing and 4K resolution. The XPS 17 ran Shadow of the Tomb Raider (native resolution, medium settings) at approximately 24fps with ray tracing on and 32fps with ray tracing off. That should provide you a concept of this systems limitations– youll desire to tear down the resolution or the graphics detail to attain playable frame rates. If youre willing to do that and dont mind a 60fps cap, it can double as a portable gaming maker.
The Dell XPS 17 isnt for me.
XPS keyboards and touchpads are always among my favorite laptop inputs, and these keep up the pattern. The keyboard, in particular, is a pleasure, with 1.3 mm of travel in the secrets. Theyre a bit flatter than a few of my favorite keyboards, however they have such a nice texture and satisfying click that I didnt mind.
The drawback of the tiny leading bezel, as weve seen from other XPS designs, is that theres not a ton of room for a great webcam. The 2.25 mm, 720p camera supports Windows Hello facial recognition, which works just fine, but I was grainy and washed out on video calls. You can likewise check in with a fingerprint reader thats developed into the power button in the top right corner of the keyboard.
The concern is whether the extra screen area and the bump in efficiency are big enough to be worth the extra pounds. They are to some people– but probably just to the sort of individual whose work will make the most of both.
Thats slightly greater than standard 4K screens, which are 3840 x 2160. Going back to smaller sized screens– even extremely good ones like that of the MacBook Pro 13– made whatever look miniature. The XPS covers 100 percent of the Adobe RGB gamut, and its brilliant enough to utilize both inside your home and outdoors (with a bit of glare).
On the sides, there are 4 Thunderbolt 3 USB-C ports (which support charging and DisplayPort) in addition to a full-sized SD card reader, an earphone jack, and a wedge-shaped lock slot. Dell throws a USB-C to USB-A 3.0 dongle and HDMI 2.0 adapter in the box. It would be nice to see a USB-A or Ethernet jack on a laptop of this size, but its a slightly much better selection than the MacBook Pro 16, which lacks the SD slot.
Which begs the question: why utilize this rather of a desktop? Its got good chips and a huge screen, however a desktop has much better chips and a bigger screen. On the flip side: if you want something portable thats developed like an Ultrabook, why not buy a 15- or 16-inch machine thats really useful to bring around?
If youve been staying up to date with this years XPS line, the 17s general ambiance must recognize. Dell majorly upgraded the XPS 13 and 15 this year, with visible upgrades to their chassis and develops. There wasnt an XPS 17 last year (Dell hasnt launched one for practically a years), however the 2020 model has the same recognizable characteristics as its current counterparts. The laptop has a sleek aluminum chassis, carbon-fiber palm rests, and a Gorilla Glass screen. Its compact (14.74 x 9.76 x 0.77 inches) and exceptionally strong; it feels and looks like an extremely great laptop.
It looks like a very great laptop.
Big, outstanding screen
Good keyboard and touchpad
Compact (for a 17-incher).
Excellent power.
The XPS 17s thinness can be deceiving, though; its much heavier than it looks. The exact weight varies by configuration: the non-touch model with a 56Wh battery begins at 4.65 pounds. I have the touchscreen design with a 97Wh battery, which is 5.53 pounds. Thats over a pound heavier than the XPS 15, so, again, thats the rate of the extra screen.
Under heavier loads, the cooling had more trouble. Efficiency looks to be thermally limited: through 4 loops of Cinebench R20, the CPU remained consistently in the mid 90s (Celsius) and could not keep increase clocks. It fell to 89-90 degrees Celsius throughout the 5th run.
The touchpad is huge– sometimes, too huge.
Heavy.
No USB-A ports.
Bad webcam.
At 14.74 x 9.76 x 0.77 inches, the XPS 17 is smaller sized than numerous laptops in its class.
I put the XPS through my everyday load of workplace work (including multitasking in between eight to 12 Chrome tabs and apps like Slack and Spotify, with the screen around 200 nits of brightness) and generally got between 7 and eight hours. Thats much better than I got running the very same test on the XPS 15 (which has a smaller battery), and its similar to results we saw from the MacBook Pro 16.
Bigger is better for some people– but not for everybody.
Much of the other “laptop computer things” is likewise basic XPS fare. Like the XPS 15, there are upward-firing speakers on each side of the keyboard (there are 2 1.5 W tweeters and 2 2.5 W woofers).
Is the XPS 17 larger and more powerful than the XPS 15? Yes. Is it better than other 17-inch rigs, like the LG Gram 17? Yes, by a mile. However those laptop computers are still respectable, and theyre much lighter than 5 and a half pounds. If youre frequently doing tasks that take complete benefit of the powerful chips, youre just likely to see life-changing improvements.
If you dont often do this sort of multitasking, its possible the screen is too big for you. Its not practical, for instance, to utilize a Chrome window fullscreen due to the fact that youll have frustrating quantities of white space on either side.
XPS keyboards and touchpads are always among my favorite laptop computer inputs, and these keep up the pattern. In a test that included exporting five minutes and 33 seconds of 4K video in Adobe Premiere Pro, the XPS 17 finished the job in 3 minutes and 58 seconds. The XPS 17 isnt a video gaming laptop computer (no high refresh-rate screen options, for one) and given that, the gaming outcomes were good however not astonishing. Is the XPS 17 larger and more powerful than the XPS 15?
Thats over a pound much heavier than the XPS 15, so, again, thats the price of the extra screen.
The most exciting feature is, of course, the screen. I doubt youre thinking about purchasing a 17-inch laptop computer unless you have some concept of how big that is. I constantly divided the screen between 2 or three open windows, whether I was working in Chrome, editing several images, or Slacking while streaming video, and I was quite comfortable.
Photography by Monica Chin/ The Verge.
