Dell XPS 15 9560 (i7-7700HQ, FHD)

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Reviews for the Dell XPS 15 9560 (i7-7700HQ, FHD)

77% Dell XPS 15 Review
Source: Think Digit Archive.org version
The Dell XPS 15 combines the performance of its Inspiron 7000 Gaming laptop and the elegance of its XPS 13 to form the best 15.6-inch mainstream laptop. It offers the best battery life we have tested on a 2017 laptop thus far and with an imminent processor update in the near future, it is likely to become an even better laptop.
Single Review, online available, Long, Date: 01/02/2018
Rating: Total score: 77%

Dell XPS 15 – Review
Source: Hardwareheaven Archive.org version
The rival Gigabyte machine offers more graphical power and connectivity, but at a higher price. The Dell XPS 15 is cheaper, prettier, and pairs its better screen with ample processing power. It’s an almost-perfect portable for work, home use and light gaming.
Single Review, online available, Short, Date: 10/20/2017

100% Review: Dell XPS 15 laptop (2017 model)
Source: PC Authority Archive.org version
Regardless, its keys aren’t as cramped as they look. As with the XPS 13, you’re treated to a perfect amount of feedback with every satisfying keystroke, and each press has the right amount of tactile movement to make writing lengthy screeds more bearable. The large touchpad, on the other hand, makes perfect use of the extra space. It’s noticeably deeper than its smaller counterpart, which helps with those multi-touch finger flourishes.
Single Review, online available, Very Short, Date: 09/13/2017
Rating: Total score: 100%

Dell XPS 15 (Kaby Lake 9560) review – geared up with new hardware, the new XPS 15 makes a compelling case
Source: Laptop Media Archive.org version
There’s nothing bad to say about the design – it suits the premium price tag of the laptop with an excellent choice of materials and robust construction. The touchpad and keyboard design is just outstanding while the nearly borderless screen makes the laptop one of the most portable, yet powerful 15-inch laptops on the market.
Single Review, online available, Very Long, Date: 03/14/2017

90% Dell XPS 15 review
Source: Trusted Reviews Archive.org version
No other laptop right now comes close to offering the all-round experience of the XPS 15. It’s expensive and has a few minor flaws, but it’s absolutely worth the money.
Single Review, online available, Very Long, Date: 02/16/2017
Rating: Total score: 90% price: 80% performance: 90% display: 90% mobility: 90% workmanship: 80%

Foreign Reviews

40% Dell XPS 15 9560 BNX95603
Source: Tweakers NL→EN Archive.org version
Single Review, online available, Very Short, Date: 10/13/2020
Rating: Total score: 40%

Обзор DELL XPS 15 9560. Ноутбук с 4К-дисплеем и тонким корпусом. Альтернатива Apple MacBook Pro (Late 2016)
Source: Mega Obzor RU→EN Archive.org version
Positive: Great built quality; good ergonomy; slim size; light weight; excellent display. Negative: Relatively high price.
Single Review, online available, Very Long, Date: 05/22/2017

Comment

Model: Coming with a powerful processor, an adequate graphics chipset, amazingly good battery life and an excellent screen, “The Dell XPS 15 is the larger version of the Dell XPS 13, one of our favourite laptops of the last two years” (quoted from page DigitalTrends). Upgraded from the successful XPS 13 model from Dell, page PCAdvisor also considered it as “one of the best laptops in the world if you want a computer that can do just about everything”, also since it is pretty smaller than other 15 inch laptops on the current market. Meanwhile, there are still contrary opinions for this new ultrabook. So let’s find out how it could appeal.

Design

Regarding page WindowsCentral, Dell XPS 15 9560 is the same built as last year’s 9550 model, “Dell uses machined aluminum on the outside with a combo of carbon fiber and soft-touch paint on the inside”. However, “With the small exception of oil and fingerprints being more visible than average on both the carbon fiber palmrest and the aluminum lid, there is little to complain about there”, said page UltrabookReview. For the PCAdvisor, they showed a positive viewpoint that Dell was still ahead of the competition here, though, thanks to the XPS 15’s InfinityEdge screen, and its tiny bezels make this laptop unusually small for one with a 15 inch display. This makes the Dell much easier to fit in a bag since its dimensions are similar to those of the 15-inch MacBook Pro from Apple. Also, as a comment from page DigitalTrends, this laptop in every corner, every facet makes us feel high quality and robust, “From the materials to the layout, there is not much to complain about. The XPS isn’t just well-designed. It’s well-engineered”. Unfortunately, the reviewer of page LaptopMedia didn’t like the hinge design so much because it feels way overly tightened. This page also added that this notebook required both hands during the whole travel, and their best guess was that this prevented serious wobbling on the touch version, “In our opinion, the non-touch version definitely needs a looser hinge but we do have to give credit to the smooth and reliable movement”. Remarked from page TrustedReviews, they supposed that despite its svelte form factor, there was still room for an impressive range of ports including two full-size USB 3.0 ports, a third USB 3.1 Type-C connector with Thunderbolt 3, a full-size HDMI 2.0 port, an SD card reader and a 3.5mm headset jack.

Display

Talking about the display, TrustedReviews advised, “If you are interested in buying the new XPS 15, the big decision you will have to make is whether you go for Full HD or 4K Touch display”. They added that the 4K panel is a glossy IGZO IPS touchscreen. On paper, it’s sharper, more vibrant and colour-accurate panel that photo and video editors will prefer. In contrast, the reviewer from WindowsCentral showed another viewpoint that he prefered the Dell’s Full HD (1920 x 1080) option, “In fact, I know quite a few Dell employees - even those who work on the XPS line - who also prefer Full HD”. According to his opinion, the reason is the Full HD display is matte and non-touch and offers a significantly different experience; and the anti-glare ability is important for those of us who read and write a lot on a laptop, and he adores it. Similarly, following a remark from UltrabookReview, “If you will be working outdoors very frequently and don’t use touch, then this is a no-brainer that you’ll want a matte screen (Full HD). If you work with photo, video or other color-important media, then the color accuracy will absolutely be worth the extra money for Ultra HD display”. As evaluated from PCAdvisor, the XPS 15 screen looks very vivid, making films and games look fantastic, although the tone is a little cool/blueish, and pros will want to calibrate it before doing serious work. Once you feast your eyes on its inky blacks and vivid, lively colors, as a comment of DigitalTrends, it’s very hard to go back to a run-of-the-mill 1080p display, “It certainly helps that XPS 15 features not only tack-sharp picture quality, but outstanding color accuracy and fidelity”. Below the display, and to the left of the Dell logo, the 720p webcam remains. “This is a victim of the near bezel-less InfinityEdge display, but that doesn’t help ease the pain felt by users who frequently rely upon on it. If you do fall into that group, you may want to consider a USB webcam”, stated page HotHardware.

Keyboard and trackpad

A description from WindowsCentral is that the XPS 15’s keyboard still maintains the same plastic keys with 1.3mm of travel, which is a bit on the shallow side, and keys are backlit and turn on automatically based on the surrounding environment. Moreover, the backlight brightens the letter and surrounds the key. The keys are black and the backlight is white, so contrast is good. Given the price and overall quality of the laptop, UltrabookReview left their evaluation that it was unfortunately that Dell has done the bare minimum here; the keys bottom out somewhat harshly and are a little on the light side for actuation force, which are exacerbated by the 1.3mm of travel. Nevertheless, a review from PCAdvisor about the keyboard is, “The quality of the keyboard is great too. While key travel is “normal” for a laptop rather than super-deep, the keys have a meaty feel provided by a decent less of resistance. There’s also a backlight that can be adjust to two different levels”.

The trackpad, regarding DigitalTrends’ comment, the trackpad is nice and matte, with just enough texture to differentiate it from the soft-touch material along the interior of the laptop, “It clicks nicely, and responds well to basic taps and multi-touch gestures”. Considered as a plus point from LaptopMedia, “The big touchpad is also centered and offers exceptional feel - light clicks, responsive, excellent gliding surface, registers all swipes and gestures accurately and it’s just a pleasure to use”. “Luckily, Dell redeems itself with its huge trackpad. Moreover, it’s Precision relying on Microsoft’s drivers and settings for performance versus Synaptics, which I only tolerate these days. The XPS 15’s trackpad is fantastic and just below the Surface Book’s, which is a massive compliment” (WindowsCentral).

Hardware and performance

Overall, as a remark of DigitalTrends, the XPS 15’s quad-core processor is fast and capable, edging out 6th generation i7 chips and blowing past 6th generation i5 chips with ease. Particularly, UltrabookReview said that the XPS 15 9560 improved upon the 9550 in two key areas, the Kaby Lake processor (i7-7700HQ CPU) and Pascal NVIDIA GTX 1050 graphics card. Compared to the previous generation’s Skylake CPU, we are looking at about 10-15% and 17% increase in single core and multi-core performance, respectively. Also, PCAdvisor evaluated that this system was far more powerful than almost any other style-leaning laptop out there, because it uses a quad-core HQ CPU rather than the dual-core U-series one seen in slim and light laptops, “This is one of the smallest laptops ready to become a real workstation, if you upgrade RAM to your requirements”. Besides, it can game, too. As a result of page TrustedReviews for the performance tests, in Rise of the Tomb Raider at 1080p and with the High settings preset, the new XPS 15 scored an average of 43 fps in the build-in benchmark. That’s a solid, playable frame rate from quite a demanding game at 1080p, but the reviewer of this page would still lower a couple of settings to boost the frame rate up to 50 to 60 fps.

“While the GTX 1050 in the XPS 15 may not compete with dedicated gaming notebook sporting the significantly more powerful 6GB GTX 1060 - such as the Razer Blade and Gigabyte Aero 14 - I was still very impressed by the gaming performance on the XPS 15”, stated TrustedReviews. On the contrary, the reviewer of WindowsCentral gave his perspective that he had found gaming on the XPS 15 to be fantastic and much better than he had anticipated, “The XPS 15 (9560) is perfect for those who game at home, on a full PC but want something to use for work and occasionally game on the go”. Also, from this page, there is a remark that the XPS 15 was a productivity laptop that could game, and not a gaming laptop that could be productive. There was a big difference. However, “The GTX 1050 is nowhere near the power of a GTX 1060 chip to be sure, but it’s all the power that you can possibly cram into the XPS 15’s slim and tapered chassis at this point of time” (UltrabookReview’s evaluation).

Audio

According to WindowsCentral, audio is overall very good, and there is the included Waves MaxxAudio Pro software for fine tuning, “I didn’t see any presets, which was annoying, but you do get a full equalizer, and that helps. The speakers work, are loud enough and sound okay, but there are nothing revolutionary in 2017”. With the same idea, UltrabookReview supposed that the speakers were the same diagonally - firing speakers as before, and just as before, his suggestion was still to put them facing upward by the keyboard. “They sound alright, but lack the clarity and bass of some other laptops such as Macbook Pro or Razer Blade”, added this page. Also, PCAdvisor remarked that the Dell XPS 15’s speakers are decent too, although do not have much greater volume than some 13 inch laptops, “Their tone is warmer than a Macbook, but with less pronounced treble”.

Emissions

About emissions, like other laptops with Kaby Lake processors, the XPS 15 stays very cool when used for casual purposes, such as web browsing, Skype, or Windows Store apps, “The fans do not kick on in idle, and even underload, they will not embarrass you in public”. The UltrabookReview also showed their positive opinion that under heavy load such as benchmarks or gaming the 9560’s, fans kick up to a very audible 47db. While playing games or benchmarking, the keyboard does get warm, but never uncomfortable like his painfully hot Razer Blade did. Notwithstanding, “The laptop remains impressively cool - even when I was running benchmarks, the laptop never heated beyond 44 degrees externally. Inside, the CPU maxed out at 70 degrees, which is well within safe limits”. The reviewer of WindowsCentral said that when using the laptop for productivity or in Photoshop, the XPS 15 (9560) is quite cool and is never hot. Because it’s a 15 inch laptop, Dell has more room for cooling, and overall, it did a great job here, even with the NVIDIA GTX 1050.

Battery

Like a review on page WindowsCentral, regular usage of the Full HD version easily gardened nine to ten hours of real-world use, and for the 4K variant feel free to knock three hours off that as a performance tax. “Whereas I struggled to hit 6 hours on the UHD/84Wh 9550, I regularly hit 8 hours on the 9560 (Balanced power mode running on Chrome with multiple tabs, YouTube, Google Docs, etc.). If you use Edge and tweak your settings, I am sure you’ll be able to get even better battery life”, said UltrabookReview. Yet, for the PCAdvisor, given the processor power underneath aluminum lid, they would expect the Dell XPS 15 to last 4 to 5 hours. That’s the standard for a very powerful performance laptop. Otherwise, “On a more sensible power plan, with brightness calibrated to around 100 lux - which is a little under 50 percent brightness - battery life improved significantly. Using browser macro loop, which essentially loads up the same web page over and over, the XPS 15 managed to six hours of life (UHD display)” (from DigitalTrends).

Verdict

In general, “No other laptop right now comes close to offering the all-round experience of the XPS 15. It’s expensive and has a few minor flaws, but it’s absolutely worth the money”, said TrustedReviews. There is a lot to like about the XPS 15, “Almost everything is better or faster”, as a verdict from WindowsCentral, “Whether it’s the SSD, RAM, CPU or GPU, they are all upgrades in a meaningful sense. The battery is bigger, and there is now an optional - if somewhat hacky - fast fingerprint reader”. I totally agree with that page. Regardless of some unexpected flaws like the oddly webcam position, or the unimpressive speakers, there are quite numerous pros of this ultrabook, for instance, high quality machined aluminum and carbon fiber, the best display in its class (matte FHD and glossy 4K), the outstanding battery life especially in Full HD, and great performance for moderate gaming. Last but not least, UltrabookReview concluded, “The XPS 9560 is not perfect, but it is the best Windows laptop around, in my opinion. If you are looking for a powerful laptop that looks great while fitting in your bag and is mostly future proof, this is it”.

Press Review by Capuchino Saber

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Mobile: Mainstream graphics card based on Nvidia's Pascal architecture and successor to the GeForce GTX 960M. Is manufactured in a 14nm process at Samsung and the technical specifications are very similar to the desktop version.

Modern games should be playable with these graphics cards at low settings and resolutions. Casual gamers may be happy with these cards.

» Further information can be found in our Comparison of Mobile Graphics Cards and the corresponding Benchmark List.

i7-7700HQ: Quad-core notebook processor based on the Kaby Lake architecture. Besides four CPU cores (including Hyper Threading), the chips also integrates the HD Graphics 630 GPU and is manufactured in an improved 14 nm process.» Further information can be found in our Comparison of Mobile Processsors.

15.60":

15-inch display variants are the standard and are used for more than half of all laptops.

The reason for the popularity of mid-sized displays is that this size is reasonably easy on the eyes, often allows high resolutions and thus offers rich details on the screen, yet does not consume too much power and the devices can still be reasonably compact - simply the standard compromise.

Dell: Dell is a U.S. manufacturer (based in Texas) of computer hardware founded in 1984 and is one of the largest international manufacturers in terms of both market share and notebook models. Its product line includes desktops, notebooks, storage systems, monitors, servers, printers, consumer electronics and peripherals. Dell offers laptops that are suitable for various applications, such as business laptops, gaming laptops, ultra portables and workstations. Dell's business laptops from the Latitude and Precision series are an option for professional users and businesses.

In 2023, Dell had an approximate 17% market share of global PC sales, ranking #3 after Lenovo and HP.

For gaming enthusiasts, Dell's Alienware brand is for gaming notebooks.

76.75%: This rating is not earth-shattering. This rating must actually be seen as average, since there are about as many devices with worse ratings as better ones. A purchase recommendation can only be seen with a lot of goodwill, unless it is about websites that generally rate strictly.

» Further information can be found in our Notebook Purchase Guide.

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