Dell XPS 15: A Premium Laptop That¡¯s Built Well, And Offers Very Good Performance

When it comes to buying a laptop that combines great look and feel, top notch performance and features that actually make sense, very few can boast of offering the Dell XPS 15¡¯s near-complete package.

For those of you who don¡¯t know, the XPS series of laptops are Dell¡¯s premium notebook offerings, sitting just below the Alienware range, but still promising to offer ¡°the ultimate experience.¡± For the most part, the Dell XPS 15 (7590) delivers on this promise quite admirably.

Great design, built well

As you pull it out from the box and push back its screen lid, the Dell XPS 15 instantly reminds you of the Apple MacBook Pro. The Dell XPS 15 doesn¡¯t cut any corners in terms of looks and design, oozing class and comfort with its solid build and metal construction, its attractive two-toned silver-black colour and premium touch.

Its middle hinge holds the screen and keyboard with a vice-like grip, with zero screen vibration despite frenzied typing on the keyboard, which I must add is a joy to type on -- and definitely better than the previous MacBook Pro¡¯s. Not just a keyboard with very good typing experience, the Dell XPS 15 offers a sizeable touchpad for clicking and navigating the screen. The feedback and sensitivity is just right, and more-than-adequate palmrest on either side of the touchpad is great to park your wrist on.

Compared to the previous 2017 XPS laptop, this Dell XPS 15 does place the webcam correctly where it belongs -- on the top bezel (not down at the bottom bezel, like previously), which is a sensible return to normalcy. The XPS 15¡¯s webcam can do 720p video with no problems whatsoever.

The connectivity ports -- HDMI, USB Type-C, USB, SD Card slot, etc -- are generously distributed across both the left and right edges of the Dell XPS 15. The bottom panel of the chassis has two raised horizontal rubber indents to make sure the aluminium panel doesn¡¯t scratch by touching the ground, Control and Function keys are in their proper alignment -- little things like that makes you appreciate the Dell XPS 15¡¯s design even more. At 2 kg, the Dell XPS 15 does a good job of staying as light as it is despite offering a full 15-inch form factor to work with.

Very good screen, great performance

The internal hardware of the Dell XPS 15 is one of the best that money can buy you on a laptop -- it has a 9th Generation Intel Core i9-9980HK Processor, 32GB RAM, 1TB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD, and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 graphics with 4GB GDDR5 memory. It¡¯s all brought to life with Microsoft Windows 10 operating system and a gorgeous 15-inch 4K UHD (3840x2160) OLED InfinityEdge display.

The display on the Dell XPS 15 is easily its most captivating feature, one that you¡¯ll most admire by far. The screen has a brightness of 400 nits, supports a 100% DCI-P3 colour gamut to show every colour shade and hue the eye can possibly see, and a level of richness and contrast you don¡¯t get to see on most laptops.

The Dell XPS 15¡¯s OLED screen has an anti-glare coating that works very well both indoors and outdoors, it doesn¡¯t show any colour shift, and makes watching movies -- Netflix or otherwise -- nothing short of an exquisite experience. The fact that the Dell XPS 15¡¯s screen has possibly the most minimal bezel you¡¯ll find in a 15-inch form factor laptop, thereby heightening the immersiveness while watching 4K UHD video, an experience that¡¯s quite unique to this laptop.

The machine is packed to the gills with top-notch hardware firepower, and it¡¯s super fast in responding to almost anything you throw at it -- thanks to its premium combination of processor, RAM and SSD. Everyday tasks -- like multi-tabbed browsing, listening to music, watching a YouTube video, working on productivity software -- are handled with a wink and yawn by the Dell XPS 15.

Dell doesn¡¯t advertise it to be a gaming machine -- it has the new G Series and legendary Alienware series for that audience -- but the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 on the XPS 15 can let you dabble in gaming, provided you don¡¯t demand the best 4K gaming experience. For everything else, even certain heavy loads like graphics design or video edits, the Dell XPS 15 consistently does a great job. The down-firing speakers on the Dell XPS 15 aren¡¯t very loud to fill the room, but they¡¯re more than enough for personal entertainment, offering noise-free audio experience even at high volumes.

The six-cell 97 WHr battery on the Dell XPS 15 lasts about 5-6 hours, if you¡¯re using the screen at 50% brightness and browsing the web, watching videos or listening to music. If you turn on the 4K UHD OLED screen to its max brightness, obviously the battery drains faster. Also, we wish Dell would¡¯ve found a way to make the brick-sized power adapter a smidge tinier, but we¡¯re purely nitpicking here.

Contrary to what you can say about other laptops, Dell's pre-loaded software suite on the XPS 15 is actually very useful, especially Dell¡¯s smooth BIOS and firmware upgrades, and Dell Mobile Connect, which is an amazing interface that lets you control your smartphone through your laptop -- including making and receiving calls, sending and receiving messages, which is great for flexibility.

Overall, the Dell XPS 15 hardly puts a foot wrong. It¡¯s well built, looks attractive and premium, offers all the bells and whistles you¡¯d imagine a laptop to have, and packs in top-class performance that puts it in a class of its own. For Rs 224,690, it¡¯s not the cheapest laptop out there, but when you compare its premium hardware and build, not to mention its gorgeous 4K UHD OLED screen and super-fast performance, it definitely justifies most of that investment. A slightly more conservative (but by no means slow or less premium) offering of the Dell XPS 15 is also available at Rs 139,790 -- which is an extremely tempting deal.