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MagyarDell Precision 5550 Workstation Review: The XPS 15 For Professionals
Much like how the Precision 5540 is the workstation version of the consumer XPS 15 7590, the new Precision 5550 is the workstation version of the XPS 15 9500. The latest model is a full chassis update over the last generation Precision 5540 with essentially the same visual design and features as the XPS 15 9500. Thus, we recommend checking out our review on the XPS 15 9500 to learn more about the physical features of the Precision 5550.
The unique properties of the Precision 5550 are largely internal as it includes Core i9-10885H vPro, Xeon W-10855M, and Nvidia Quadro T1000 and T2000 Max-Q options not found on any XPS system. Our configured unit comes with the Core i7-10875H and Quadro T2000 Max-Q for approximately $3000 USD retail.
Competitors in this space include other ultra-thin workstations like the MSI WS series, Acer ConceptD 3 Pro, Razer Blade Studio, or the HP ZBook 15u series. Users in the market for more traditional workstations should look at the higher-end Precision 7000 series instead.
More Dell reviews:
Rating | Date | Model | Weight | Height | Size | Resolution | Best Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 86.3 % | 08/2020 | Dell Precision 5550 P91F i7-10875H, Quadro T2000 Max-Q | 2 kg | 18 mm | 15.60" | 3840x2400 | |
| 86.9 % | 11/2019 | Dell Precision 5540 i9-9980HK, Quadro T2000 Max-Q | 2 kg | 17 mm | 15.60" | 3840x2160 | |
| 87 % | 08/2020 | Razer Blade 15 Studio Edition 2020 i7-10875H, Quadro RTX 5000 Max-Q | 2.2 kg | 13.98 mm | 15.60" | 3840x2160 | |
| 82.1 % | 06/2020 | Acer ConceptD 3 Pro CN315-71P-73W1 i7-9750H, Quadro T1000 (Laptop) | 2.4 kg | 23.4 mm | 15.60" | 1920x1080 | |
| 89.8 % | 11/2019 | Lenovo ThinkPad P53-20QN000YGE i7-9850H, Quadro RTX 5000 Max-Q | 2.7 kg | 29.4 mm | 15.60" | 1920x1080 | |
| 76 % | 10/2019 | MSI WP65 i7-9750H, Quadro P620 | 1.9 kg | 21.7 mm | 15.60" | 1920x1080 |
Case
The chassis is identical to the XPS 15 9500 but in a darker matte gray tone instead of silver. It would have been nice to see this same color option for the regular XPS, too.
Connectivity
SD Card Reader
Transfer rates from the SD card reader are extremely fast much like on the XPS 15. Moving 1 GB of pictures from our UHS-II test card to desktop takes about 5 to 6 seconds only.
| SD Card Reader - average JPG Copy Test (av. of 3 runs) | |
| Dell Precision 5550 P91F (Toshiba Exceria Pro SDXC 64 GB UHS-II) | |
| Lenovo ThinkPad P53-20QN000YGE (Toshiba Exceria Pro SDXC 64 GB UHS-II) | |
| Dell Precision 5540 (Toshiba Exceria Pro SDXC 64 GB UHS-II) | |
| Razer Blade 15 Studio Edition (Toshiba Exceria Pro SDXC 64 GB UHS-II) | |
Communication
The Intel AX201 comes standard for Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.1 connectivity. We experienced no issues when paired to our Netgear RAX200 test router.
Webcam
Maintenance
The metal bottom panel is slightly more difficult to remove than on last year's Precision 5540 as it's sharper and tighter around the edges and corners. Users can no longer service the WLAN module as it is now soldered.
Accessories and Warranty
All SKUs ship with the same USB-C to USB-A and HDMI adapter that also comes with every XPS 15 9500 order. A three-year limited warranty comes standard.
Input Devices
Keyboard and Touchpad
Display
The same 4K UHD Sharp LQ156R1 IPS touchscreen on the XPS 15 9500 can be found here on the Precision 5550. This is probably going to be the crispest glossy display on any mobile workstation you can find. Its unique 16:10 aspect ratio, however, precludes the Precision 5550 from carrying any OLED options at the moment. If such a feature is important to you, then you'll have to stick to the older Precision 5540.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Brightness Distribution: 85 %
Center on Battery: 469.8 cd/m²
Contrast: 1119:1 (Black: 0.42 cd/m²)
ΔE Color 5.16 | 0.55-29.43 Ø5.2, calibrated: 3.75
ΔE Greyscale 5.5 | 0.57-98 Ø5.4
100% sRGB (Argyll 1.6.3 3D)
89.2% AdobeRGB 1998 (Argyll 1.6.3 3D)
99.9% AdobeRGB 1998 (Argyll 2.2.0 3D)
100% sRGB (Argyll 2.2.0 3D)
89.9% Display P3 (Argyll 2.2.0 3D)
Gamma: 2
| Dell Precision 5550 P91F Sharp LQ156R1, IPS, 15.60, 3840x2400 | Dell Precision 5540 SDCA029, OLED, 15.60, 3840x2160 | Razer Blade 15 Studio Edition 2020 Samsung SDCA029, OLED, 15.60, 3840x2160 | Acer ConceptD 3 Pro CN315-71P-73W1 Chi Mei N156HCE-EN2, IPS, 15.60, 1920x1080 | Lenovo ThinkPad P53-20QN000YGE N156HCE-GN1, IPS, 15.60, 1920x1080 | MSI WP65 AU Optronics B156HAN02.1, IPS, 15.60, 1920x1080 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Display | 3% | 3% | -1% | -24% | -52% | |
| Display P3 Coverage | 89.9 | 99.9 11% | 99.9 11% | 97.9 9% | 63.2 -30% | 39.46 -56% |
| sRGB Coverage | 100 | 100 0% | 100 0% | 99.9 0% | 92.9 -7% | 58.8 -41% |
| AdobeRGB 1998 Coverage | 99.9 | 97.3 -3% | 97.3 -3% | 87.2 -13% | 64.3 -36% | 40.69 -59% |
| Response Times | 93% | 90% | 32% | 22% | 19% | |
| Response Time Grey 50% / Grey 80% * | 46 ? | 2.8 ? 94% | 4 ? 91% | 33 ? 28% | 38.4 ? 17% | 37.6 ? 18% |
| Response Time Black / White * | 34 ? | 3.2 ? 91% | 4 ? 88% | 22 ? 35% | 25.2 ? 26% | 27.6 ? 19% |
| PWM Frequency | 240.9 ? | 26040 ? | ||||
| Screen | 14% | 171% | 14% | 20% | -25% | |
| Brightness middle | 469.8 | 427 -9% | 380 -19% | 343 -27% | 510 9% | 267.4 -43% |
| Brightness | 464 | 411 -11% | 388 -16% | 309 -33% | 468 1% | 259 -44% |
| Brightness Distribution | 85 | 89 5% | 93 9% | 85 0% | 89 5% | 86 1% |
| Black Level * | 0.42 | 0.018 96% | 0.22 48% | 0.36 14% | 0.37 12% | |
| Contrast | 1119 | 21111 1787% | 1559 39% | 1417 27% | 723 -35% | |
| Colorchecker dE 2000 * | 5.16 | 3.2 38% | 5.47 -6% | 3.73 28% | 2.3 55% | 4.21 18% |
| Colorchecker dE 2000 max. * | 9.33 | 8.4 10% | 8.19 12% | 6.51 30% | 5.5 41% | 21.1 -126% |
| Colorchecker dE 2000 calibrated * | 3.75 | 2.8 25% | 3.04 19% | 1.43 62% | 1.2 68% | 4.27 -14% |
| Greyscale dE 2000 * | 5.5 | 1.8 67% | 5.3 4% | 4.24 23% | 3.2 42% | 2.3 58% |
| Gamma | 2 110% | 2.15 102% | 2.15 102% | 2.2 100% | 2.34 94% | 2.2 100% |
| CCT | 6198 105% | 6176 105% | 6128 106% | 6329 103% | 7036 92% | 6578 99% |
| Color Space (Percent of AdobeRGB 1998) | 89.2 | 86.8 -3% | 86 -4% | 78 -13% | 59.4 -33% | 37.2 -58% |
| Color Space (Percent of sRGB) | 100 | 100 0% | 100 0% | 100 0% | 93.1 -7% | 58.5 -41% |
| Total Average (Program / Settings) | 37% /
23% | 88% /
129% | 15% /
14% | 6% /
12% | -19% /
-24% |
* ... smaller is better
Color space encompasses all of sRGB and ~90 percent of AdobeRGB much like on most other high-end workstation or multimedia laptops.
Further measurements with an X-Rite colorimeter reveal an overly warm color temperature out of the box. Calibrating the panel ourselves would bring down the average grayscale DeltaE from 5.5 to just 0.7 while slightly improving color accuracy in process. Users can also use Dell PremierColor to manually adjust the colors or save different profiles.
Display Response Times
| ↔ Response Time Black to White | ||
|---|---|---|
| 34 ms ... rise ↗ and fall ↘ combined | ↗ 17.6 ms rise |  |
| ↘ 16.4 ms fall | ||
| The screen shows slow response rates in our tests and will be unsatisfactory for gamers. In comparison, all tested devices range from 0.1 (minimum) to 240 (maximum) ms. » 89 % of all devices are better. This means that the measured response time is worse than the average of all tested devices (22.3 ms). | ||
| ↔ Response Time 50% Grey to 80% Grey | ||
| 46 ms ... rise ↗ and fall ↘ combined | ↗ 24 ms rise |  |
| ↘ 22 ms fall | ||
| The screen shows slow response rates in our tests and will be unsatisfactory for gamers. In comparison, all tested devices range from 0.25 (minimum) to 636 (maximum) ms. » 74 % of all devices are better. This means that the measured response time is worse than the average of all tested devices (35.2 ms). | ||
Screen Flickering / PWM (Pulse-Width Modulation)
| Screen flickering / PWM not detected |  | ||
In comparison: 53 % of all tested devices do not use PWM to dim the display. If PWM was detected, an average of 18889 (minimum: 5 - maximum: 3846000) Hz was measured. | |||
Though the display is brighter than most other mobile workstations, the glossy overlay contributes to more glare than usual. You'll want to crank up the brightness and remain under shade whenever possible to maximize viewability.
Performance
Our configuration uses the Quadro T2000 Max-Q derived from the GeForce GTX 1650 Ti Max-Q on the original XPS 15 9500. A Quadro T1000 option is also available, but we cannot say for certain if it is the standard T1000 or T1000 Max-Q. Faster GPUs like the Quadro T3000 Max-Q and up are reserved for Dell's thicker and higher-end Precision 7550 series.
RAM is upgradeable up to 64 GB with ECC support if configured with a Xeon CPU. Nvidia Optimus comes standard on the Quadro SKUs for automatic graphics switching.
Processor
Perhaps unsurprisingly, CPU performance is most similar to what we recorded on the XPS 15 9500 down to even their throttling behavior. The exact same CPU as found on the Razer Blade 15 Studio Edition runs almost 20 percent slower than on our Dell Precision. Users upgrading from the quad-core Core i5-10400H or hexa-core Core i7-10750H to our octa-core Core i7-10875H will see about 60 percent and 20 percent faster processor performance, respectively.
Cinebench R15: CPU Multi 64Bit | CPU Single 64Bit
Blender: v2.79 BMW27 CPU
7-Zip 18.03: 7z b 4 -mmt1 | 7z b 4
Geekbench 5.4: Single-Core | Multi-Core
HWBOT x265 Benchmark v2.2: 4k Preset
LibreOffice : 20 Documents To PDF
R Benchmark 2.5: Overall mean
| Geekbench 5.4 / Single-Core | |
| Asus ROG Zephyrus Duo 15 GX550LXS | |
| Dell Precision 5550 P91F | |
| Average Intel Core i7-10875H (1233 - 1371, n=29) | |
| Razer Blade 15 Studio Edition 2020 | |
| Eluktronics RP-15 | |
| MSI GS66 Stealth 10SE-045 | |
| Dell XPS 15 9500 Core i5 | |
| LibreOffice / 20 Documents To PDF | |
| Dell XPS 15 9500 Core i5 | |
| Eluktronics RP-15 | |
| MSI GS66 Stealth 10SE-045 | |
| Asus ROG Zephyrus Duo 15 GX550LXS | |
| Average Intel Core i7-10875H (30.2 - 84.3, n=30) | |
| Razer Blade 15 Studio Edition 2020 | |
| Dell Precision 5550 P91F | |
| R Benchmark 2.5 / Overall mean | |
| Dell XPS 15 9500 Core i5 | |
| MSI GS66 Stealth 10SE-045 | |
| Dell Precision 5550 P91F | |
| Razer Blade 15 Studio Edition 2020 | |
| Asus ROG Zephyrus Duo 15 GX550LXS | |
| Average Intel Core i7-10875H (0.546 - 0.662, n=29) | |
| Eluktronics RP-15 | |
* ... smaller is better
System Performance
PCMark benchmarks are within just a few percentage points of last year's Precision 5540 to suggest that they perform similarly in day-to-day loads.
| PCMark 8 | |
| Home Score Accelerated v2 | |
| MSI WP65 | |
| Acer ConceptD 3 Pro CN315-71P-73W1 | |
| Dell Precision 5550 P91F | |
| Dell Precision 5540 | |
| Razer Blade 15 Studio Edition 2020 | |
| Work Score Accelerated v2 | |
| Acer ConceptD 3 Pro CN315-71P-73W1 | |
| MSI WP65 | |
| Razer Blade 15 Studio Edition 2020 | |
| Dell Precision 5540 | |
| Dell Precision 5550 P91F | |
| PCMark 8 Home Score Accelerated v2 | 3729 points | |
| PCMark 8 Work Score Accelerated v2 | 4515 points | |
| PCMark 10 Score | 5442 points | |
Help | ||
DPC Latency
LatencyMon reveals no DPC latency issues on our test unit and 4K UHD video playback on YouTube is smooth with no dropped frames during testing.
| DPC Latencies / LatencyMon - interrupt to process latency (max), Web, Youtube, Prime95 | |
| Dell XPS 15 9500 Core i7 4K UHD | |
| Asus ROG Zephyrus Duo 15 GX550LXS | |
| Dell XPS 15 9500 Core i5 | |
| Acer ConceptD 3 Pro CN315-71P-73W1 | |
| Razer Blade 15 Studio Edition 2020 | |
| Eluktronics RP-15 | |
| Dell Precision 5550 P91F | |
* ... smaller is better
Storage Devices
Our unit comes with a 1 TB SK Hynix PC601A NVMe SSD as opposed to the more common PC601. CrystalDiskMark results are otherwise close to what we recorded on the 512 GB PC601 in RAID 0 as found on last year's Alienware m15 R2. We're able to reach a maximum disk read of 3400 MB/s when under optimal conditions.
| Dell Precision 5550 P91F SK Hynix PC601A NVMe 1TB | Dell Precision 5540 SK hynix PC400 512 GB | Razer Blade 15 Studio Edition 2020 Samsung PM981a MZVLB1T0HBLR | Acer ConceptD 3 Pro CN315-71P-73W1 WDC PC SN720 SDAPNTW-512G | MSI WP65 Samsung SSD PM981 MZVLB512HAJQ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AS SSD | -14% | 10% | 4% | 8% | |
| Seq Read | 2039 | 1743 -15% | 1982 -3% | 2973 46% | 1097 -46% |
| Seq Write | 1376 | 930 -32% | 2252 64% | 2429 77% | 1838 34% |
| 4K Read | 44.11 | 39.1 -11% | 47.13 7% | 24.7 -44% | 52.9 20% |
| 4K Write | 113.3 | 92.1 -19% | 88.2 -22% | 115.3 2% | 108.4 -4% |
| 4K-64 Read | 1094 | 956 -13% | 1481 35% | 1243 14% | 1509 38% |
| 4K-64 Write | 1630 | 863 -47% | 1842 13% | 835 -49% | 1695 4% |
| Access Time Read * | 0.059 | 0.074 -25% | 0.087 -47% | 0.067 -14% | |
| Access Time Write * | 0.99 | 0.053 95% | 0.04 96% | 0.034 97% | 0.103 90% |
| Score Read | 1342 | 1170 -13% | 1726 29% | 1565 17% | 1671 25% |
| Score Write | 1881 | 1048 -44% | 2155 15% | 1193 -37% | 1988 6% |
| Score Total | 3883 | 2781 -28% | 4781 23% | 3525 -9% | 4558 17% |
| Copy ISO MB/s | 2489 | 1982 -20% | 2136 -14% | 1800 -28% | |
| Copy Program MB/s | 682 | 501 -27% | 489.6 -28% | 569 -17% | |
| Copy Game MB/s | 1515 | 1140 -25% | 1163 -23% | 1409 -7% | |
| CrystalDiskMark 5.2 / 6 | -18% | 14% | -3% | 5% | |
| Write 4K | 122.6 | 98 -20% | 132.9 8% | 113.2 -8% | 126.9 4% |
| Read 4K | 42.4 | 41.25 -3% | 46.73 10% | 31.1 -27% | 44.91 6% |
| Write Seq | 2167 | 1295 -40% | 2214 2% | 2540 17% | 1944 -10% |
| Read Seq | 1747 | 1441 -18% | 2018 16% | 2005 15% | 1449 -17% |
| Write 4K Q32T1 | 388.8 | 429.2 10% | 478.9 23% | 331.4 -15% | 531 37% |
| Read 4K Q32T1 | 367.3 | 400.1 9% | 540 47% | 368.3 0% | 579 58% |
| Write Seq Q32T1 | 2629 | 1366 -48% | 2975 13% | 2535 -4% | 1970 -25% |
| Read Seq Q32T1 | 3460 | 2201 -36% | 3195 -8% | 3427 -1% | 2990 -14% |
| Total Average (Program / Settings) | -16% /
-16% | 12% /
11% | 1% /
1% | 7% /
7% |
* ... smaller is better
Disk Throttling: DiskSpd Read Loop, Queue Depth 8
GPU Performance
The Quadro T2000 Max-Q performs almost identically to the regular Quadro T1000 on almost all benchmarks ranging from 3DMark to SpecViewPerf. Interestingly, performance will be faster or slower than the older Quadro P2000 depending on the workload in question.
| 3DMark 11 Performance | 12119 points | |
| 3DMark Cloud Gate Standard Score | 21582 points | |
| 3DMark Fire Strike Score | 7767 points | |
| 3DMark Time Spy Score | 3348 points | |
Help | ||