Power Overwhelming: Dell XPS 15 7590 Core i9 and GeForce GTX 1650 OLED Laptop Review

All current SKUs come standard with a Killer AX1650x WLAN module to be Wi-Fi 6 ready. Intel will be pushing Wi-Fi 6 more heavily onto Ultrabooks soon and so this is simply Dell's way of future-proofing its XPS lineup. The Killer AX1650x is the gaming variant of the Intel AX200 similar to how the Killer 1550 is the gaming variant of the Intel 9560. More details on Killer-specific WLAN features can be found on our review of the Killer 1535 here.

Note that performance can be faster than what we've recorded below since our current server setup is limited by a 1 Gbps line. Unless if you have a compatible router, don't expect to be fully exploiting Wi-Fi 6 speeds anytime soon. We didn't experience any issues related to connectivity during our time with the test unit.

Keyboard and Trackpad

The input devices have not changed since the early XPS 15 9550 days meaning that our 2015 comments still apply here. Since then, however, newer Ultrabooks have come to market with crisper and firmer keys for a less spongy feel. We personally prefer the keyboard on the Spectre x360 15 over the XPS 15 as its keys have stronger and "clickier" feedback when pressed in addition to an integrated NumPad. Meanwhile, the glass clickpad continues to be reliable without any major issues even though it's not as accurate as touchpads with dedicated mouse keys.

The Samsung panel promises 100 percent DCI-P3 coverage to offer similar color reproduction as many OLED smartphones including the iPhone 8 and Google Pixel 3. Our own independent calculations show 81 percent 3D coverage of the AdobeRGB standard to be wider than on the 4K UHD IPS XPS 15 9570. In other words, it's capable of displaying deeper colors than most other IPS Ultrabooks where ~60 percent AdobeRGB coverage is more common.

X-Rite colorimeter measurements show color temperature to be slightly warmer than expected. Thus, deltaE of colors and grayscale will trend higher when at higher saturation levels. An end-user calibration would address this, but it's not necessary for most users.

After checking out a handful of OLED laptops, we've noticed that they all exhibit unique PWM behaviors not found on standard IPS laptops and the XPS 15 OLED is no different. Our results below show a pulse-width modulation frequency of 59.52 Hz even when at the maximum brightness setting. This frequency changes to 240.4 Hz when the brightness is set to 51 percent or lower not unlike what we discovered on the Razer Blade 15 OLED. Unless if your eyes are super-sensitive to onscreen flickering, however, then you're likely not going to notice.

Outdoor visibility seems better than a typical IPS panel. The bright backlight and very high contrast of OLED help to alleviate washed out colors and text when outside. Viewing from slight angles will introduce a blue hue to impact visibility and colors that would otherwise not occur on an IPS display. This will impact the viewing experience of peripheral users if sharing the laptop outdoors.

Viewing angles are better than IPS in that contrast and grayscale remain almost the same from extreme angles whereas an IPS panel will have slight but noticeable shifting. Unique to OLED, however, is that extreme angles (~150 degrees or more) will introduce a rainbow banding effect that impacts colors as shown by a screenshot below. This thankfully does not occur when looking directly at the screen from a normal angle.

The XPS 15 series has always been about offering high performance Ultrabooks with Intel Core H-series CPUs and dedicated GPU options. However, Dell may be packing in *too* much performance for the higher-end SKUs as our results below will show. With that said, very few ultra-thin alternatives exist with the same unlocked Core i9 CPU and GTX 1650 graphics options as found on our specific configuration.

LatencyMon shows poor interrupt times yet again despite what Dell may have suggested in the past. The issue occurs more frequently when the wireless is enabled and so we recommend disabling the wireless if low latency is priority.

CPU performance is not very consistent. Scores will look excellent if you're only running benchmarks once and then call it a day, but weaknesses become apparent when running CPU heavy tasks for extended periods. As shown by our CineBench R15 Multi-Thread loop graph below, the Dell system is unable to maintain high Turbo Boost clock rates for very long at all with noticeable performance drops of about 15 percent to 20 percent almost immediately. After accounting for throttling, raw multi-thread performance is only about 15 percent faster than the older Core i9-8950HK in the XPS 15 9570. Our thicker Schenker gaming laptop equipped with the same unlocked i9-9980HK as our XPS 15 7590 is able to maintain higher Turbo Boost clock rates over time for roughly 12 percent faster performance.

The tendency for the Core i9 CPU in the XPS to throttle sooner also means that it is the slowest iteration of the i9-9980HK we've seen thus far. Results are about 15 percent slower than the average i9-9980HK in our database. If you want the best that the 9th gen Core i9 has to offer, then you would be better off with the much larger MSI GE75 or Schenker.

Undervolting by 0.115 V will produce better scores on average much like what we discovered on the last generation XPS 15 9570. We're able to record a stable performance boost of about 8 to 15 percent when undervolted. Pushing our luck even further to -0.125 V would result in a system crash.

Since the high Turbo Boost clock rate is so short-lived on the XPS 15, the Core i9 SKU will most benefit users who want that short burst of CPU power instead of performance sustainability.

See our dedicated page on the Core i9-9980HK for more technical information and benchmarks.

PCMark results are consistently higher than what the last generation XPS 15 9570 was able to offer and even many gaming laptops with GeForce RTX graphics. The only exception is in the Digital Creation benchmark which favors systems with higher-end GPUs.

We didn't experience any wake-sleep fan issues that some last generation models suffered from including on our last XPS 15 9570. We will say, however, that power consumption when in Sleep mode would sometimes be as high as 9 W to 19 W likely due to Microsoft's Modern Standby mode. Even the bottom of the notebook would grow warm just by being in Sleep mode. When most other laptops are in Sleep mode, consumption would be just under 2 W.