Dell XPS 15 9500 skips 7 nm Ryzen, doubles down on new 14 nm Core i9 options

Just when we finished our XPS 15 Core i7 review, Dell is now ready to make available the even faster XPS 15 9500 Core i9. Configurations with the Core i9-10885H will begin shipping on June 15 across North America, Europe, and Asia.

The Core i9 announcement isn't particularly surprising since the older XPS 15 7590 and XPS 15 9570 also came with the Core i9-9980HK and Core i9-8950HK, respectively. Nonetheless, it's relieving to see Dell go with the Core i9-10885H instead of the unlocked Core i9-10980HK as the latter would have likely provided just minimal performance advantages, if any, over the Core i9-10885H.

Based on our experiences with past Core i9 XPS 15 laptops, however, we don't expect the jump from the Core i7-10875H to the new Core i9-10885H option to be very significant either in terms of processor performance. The main difference between them is a mere +100 to +200 MHz advantage in both base and Turbo Boost clock rates in favor of the Core i9. Thus, it's tough to recommend the Core i9 for a chassis this small and performance-per-dollar will inevitably be worse than the Core i7 SKUs, but at least the option is there for interested users.