It's become a meme at this point that companies adopt the worst part of Apple's products instead of borrowing from the very few GOOD parts (modular USB-C, amazing hinges). I would love to know who ultimately makes these decisions.
Yeah, you're not wrong. I think their just trying out stuff that made Apple somewhat successful with their line of products, and just cheaping it out a whole bunch just in case if people don't like it, then they won't be wasting too much money. Great channel man, keep it up!
Dell is the definition of not learning from the mistakes of others. Why would you put controversial button layout (or lack thereof) in your laptops after the community has literally proven that its bad? I don't get them, also it weighs as much as a gaming laptop now without being able to game like one in the same price bracket.
Exactly, for example I always loved the extremely thin 4k screen, now they ruined everything else, literally getting a galaxy book 4 ultra is much cheaper and apart from the screen resolution it wins in everything, I really hope that in 2025 they solve it all these problems then maybe I'll finally buy one.
Yeah. If Dell is gonna give us a touch function row, make it a screen that we can customize or something like a Stream Deck's buttons instead of just static capacitive touch buttons to replace functions to cram in functions on the top row. What a shame. Also, USB-C/Thunderbolt and dedicating one for charging (plus a dongle) is insane in 2024 considering that Dell has a 90w barrel jack AC adapter small enough to fit that chassis.
honestly Dell are on a huge loss strike right now, Apple are fixing their mistakes and are using much more efficient chips, Asus is slimming down their G14 and G16 and making them very portable, Lenovo is starting to use top end components for their Yoga pro 9i 14" and 16", and even HP joined in with the Transcend 14, even Razer blades are better value and more usable than the XPS as this point
Lenovo tried a touch bar on the 2nd gen X1 Carbon and ditched it after 1 generation. You’d think that Dell would sacrifice some thermals for giving us a function row
The worst part is. They never implement touch bars as an addition, it always replaces something. The touch bar would be useful if it was in addition to a function row, but it replaces the function row which is much more useful.
The sad part about it is that Dell already went down the touchbar route with the Studio XPS 16 back in 2010. It was horrible! And they removed it on the replacement model. Obviously they didn't learn anything from that.
@@CricketEngland Apple now uses efficient arm chips in their laptops so spec-wise they're quite good. Dell uses Intel chips and has a significantly lower TDP compared to other comparable Windows laptops.
@@CricketEngland the ram on Macs feel like more than its is because of how efficient m2 is. Storage if you more, 200 bucks an upgrade is rape. luckily I don't need it.
As a programmer who prefers Linux, I went with the Lenovo Z16 gen 2 and have zero regrets. It's literally half the price after coupons and discounts and a lot less stupid.
@@kennyjoseph4875 I dunno if this is a hot take or not but all the Lenovo laptops I've used seem to have the best keyboards and they're a beauty to code on.
@@CortyCze I might agree with you if they had sensible configurations. A big requirement for me is 64 GB of RAM. The only options are the Precision 5680/90 with 1980x1200 res (!) and RTX Ada GPUs (which I don't want or need) and start at over $4k.
The amount of times he swore when he realized he didn’t hit the escape key should just tell anyone, especially programmers, to stay the hell away from this device. Especially with a $1,900 starting price holy crap…
OMG.. no function row and physical escape key was the reason to ditch macbooks for a long period. And when the 13plus came out everyone was like "why would you follow that" and they kept it ?!?
@@xpforevergaming8609 no they didnt''.. not on the macbook pro 13" models I used (2016, 2017). I had to kill the 'touchbar service' to disable the whole thing to keep it from doing weird things in terminals and editors if I accidentally touched it, and had to remap my capslock to be an escape key.
It looks like I'll be replacing my 2019 XPS 17 with a Zephyrus G16 this year. Seriously Dell needs to rehire those engineers who designed their 2019 - 2020 xps laptops
I have an odd solution for you which you'll probably feel "wtf is this guy saying MSI?" but then realize it's actually pretty sensible: the Z16HX and Z17HX are actually very good stuff for prosummers who still want dedicated graphics. And yeah, MSI sucks on their gaming laptops but they have seriously nailed it with the Z/Creator series. Their only real problem is inverting the motherboard. Even not having OLED isn't a problem because the display is pretty good too. And everything is replace/upgradeable, from wifi to ram to ssd. And it does have 2x m.2 slots
The new G16 is surprisingly light and portable for the screen size, not to mention much more powerful with the higher wattage, and it can run efficiently now with the new intel chips and Type C charging ports, oh and that reminds me of the much better port selection and higher refresh rate screen, absolutely no reason to get the XPS. If you care about the marginally better battery life go for the Macbooks, they beat everything in terms of battery anyways.
I don't see what's wrong with getting a 2023 Dell XPS 17, it's 1000 USD off on Dell's website and it still comes with an i9-13900H, an RTX 4080, 64GB of RAM, 2 4TB SSD's, and a 4K touchscreen
The new Zephyrus gave up some performance for form but they still retained enough performance to be a useable great laptop. No idea what Dell was doing with this
Or an XPS that costs more than a comparable Razer Blade 14 and is less upgradable and repairable? Seriously, Dell deserves to have these 2024 XPS laptops flop. Maybe they'll realize they made a true worst laptop ever?
So you're telling me, that you can get a (albeit slightly power limited) 2024 4090 Zephrys G16 with a 240hz oled panel, ultra 9 processor, and usable IO for give or take $100 dollars from this model? And before you say it isn't a gaming laptop, it is literally heavier than the G16. Dell, what in the actual hell are you thinking.
Okay, educate me here. It's a "touch bar"... where the buttons stay the same all the time? At least I can understand why Apple went with it for Mac books as they are actual screens that change depending on what the user is doing, but this does not look like it? Am I missing something or is this a colossally bad choice on Dell's part?
@@sungholee8791y’know the funny thing is Dell knows full well what professionals and most people want. Their professional laptops that adopts this new style of keyboard has ACTUAL F KEYS AND ESC. So they literally didn’t need this nonsense for the 14 and 16 and probably only did it for continuity with the 13 plus and for design purposes.
As a programmer the no Esc key is a deal breaker, it's one of the key that I use the most and I won't go with a laptop that's made for professional that somehow didn't think it was necessary for professionals to have an Esc key. Ridiculous
You haven't swapped esc and caps lock yet? Must not be a vim user. This laptop is not made for professionals go look at dells precision line for that they no longer copy the xps design for obvious reasons.
@@lejoshmont2093 I remap caps lock to ctrl, and I use C- to move in insert mode. I don't use a lot of vim, but Helix instead but yeah, for anyone addicted to modal editing no esc key is criminal anyway.
@@lejoshmont2093 I'm VI-ish user, and I have dash (-) at "standard" Caps Lock position... having `Esc` on the "home-row" feels strange ;) I hit escape to break current flow, and it should be easily located and identified, thus top-left corner is the best for `Esc` key.
I really hate that you have to pay more money for a worse screen than the xps 14 and to get the oled screen it’s like 2800. In 2024 you get 1080 screens at $2000+
@@devonward6784 yeah but for a lot of laptops these days it seems like you either get decent performance, a nice display, or an ergonomic/nice looking design, but never all three. in fact the only laptops i've considered buying recently under 2 grand are neither, just mid in all three.
Is anyone else tired of hearing how heavy a lap top is when it weighs less than a toddler? I mean it weighs 5lbs and he's complaining that your back is gonna hurt carrying it in your backpack all day like you're carrying around a ruck sack. FFS, everyone wants a laptop that gives them 36 hours of use, a massive screen, a stiff chassis and every other convenience but only weigh as much as a fairy fart.
18:05 "makes a macbook pro seem reasonably priced" That's how I've seen XPS since forever, lol. Besides the design, there's literally nothing good about this lineup. Any gaming laptop will get the same job done, at half the price and better performance.
Never thought I'd do this, but I was looking for a quality work laptop, and in the past I used to buy XPS... this time I bought a macbook pro because it was cheaper AND better ... what the hell is going on?
I mean even the design is kinda aging with the minimalist and boring look. If it retained the carbon fibre inside, that would've given it some points for looks.
At least in the past they were very well built, had great battery life (batteries were always pretty much as big as allowed on airplanes) and had good screens. A gaming laptop for half the price was built way cheaper (mostly from thin plastic), was thicker, had smaller battery, had a bad trackpad and an overall worse screen (maybe with higher refresh rate though). The few gaming laptops without (most) of these drawbacks, f.e. the Razer blade, were more expensive than the XPS. This new model doesn't make sense though, the keyboard decision was just really bad. But considering mechanical keyboards without function row are so popular it might find its customers.
Wait, what?? At the beginning you hinted at a far too expensive price, so ups and downs during the review, I figured at the end they'd be asking 1500-2000 for it. Which I thought would be grossly overpriced for that toy. I did not expect a 3k+ price! Man, what were they thinking?
At work all the developers have had XPS 15s for years because they were ‘the best’, and they really were. Maybe value wise you could get better, but in terms of an overall package, they were worth the money. Two ‘test’ XPS 13 pluses were bought. One user literally has to have a mouse because they can’t get on with the touchpad at all. Both had audio issues for months until an update. Then Dell drops these new models, with the price increase, and now we’re switching completely to Lenovo. It’s cheaper to replace all the laptops and the Dell Thunderbolt docks if they don’t work, than just buying new XPSes. It’s just crazy. As the resident Mac user, I was in disbelief when I saw the touch buttons - Apple literally reversed course on the Touch Bar because people didn’t like non-physical buttons, and at least they ‘gave’ us back the physical escape key, and then the rest of them. It was crazy that my M3 Max MBP looked ‘good value’ compared to the new XPS line!
FYI, Sensel (that's us) are one of the new haptic touchpad suppliers on the XPS 14 and 16. The supplier on the XPS 13 Plus was another company, and ours are much better and don't use piezos. That's why Dell added us in to the fold for their latest designs. So please don't let your bad experience on the 13 Plus sour your opinion of the 14 or 16. Give us a chance. =)
Can't believe they dropped the ball so hard, literally not one thing about this laptop appeals to me. I don't think it even looks that nice, its like a toy
I work at Best buy and I saw the new Dell XPS the day they came out on our displays, you should have seen me, I was devastated, One thing about the quality control, Best buy's displays models, one of them had a black screen the entire time and the other one had no force feedback on a trackpad, so they're messing something up
Huge Dell XPS 13 fan (circa 2016). Had to take a hard pass on this model when buying a new laptop, ended up with HP Spectre 14 x360 2024. Willing to pay a premium for Dell but not for an unforced regression. Keyboard was a non-starter. Nope.
@@tomimar2001 as an XPS 13 (2021) owner, I regret my purchase, I knew I was not getting the best hardware for the price, but I was not expecting driver issues, wake-up from sleep bugs, hard to open with one hand, and they even locked intel XTU so you can't even undervolt the cpu. On the bright side, build is great and feels amzing in your hands, screen looks really good and matte coating is of good quality, I love the keyboard and that carbon fibre feels nice and cosy on my hands/wrists, not that this fixes the other problems though... I should also note that since the bios update of 2 months ago my battery lasts 5-6h at best when before it was more like 6-7h
compared to this it isn't expensive. It is likely it will be my next laptop at the rate dell is going. I just hope they eventually get NVIDIA gpu modules for those cuda cores.
@@lejoshmont2093 Heck, it HAS RAM slots. Dell literally made CAMM2, and then of course didn't use it here. What a P.O.S. I literally have been using the Framework Laptop 16 since mine came, and I love it.
By the way: what's up with the proprietary 130w charger. Even Apple is using a normal usb pd 140w brick by now. I get that Dell engineered thier 130w proprietary brick when usb pd went up to 100w, but they went through the effort to redesign the entire laptop, why does it still have this old bs charging brick???
Proprietary? It's usb c... Yeah they have a big ugky brick with their name on it but it's just usb c, you can use any usb adapter you want with the laptop, nothing special or locked down about it?
@@Lonewolf_121 No. You cannot. If you want maximum performance, you need Dell's stupid 130w brick. Any other charger will work for charging, but the cpu and gpu be way slower. The same applies to docks by the way: unless it specifically supports the Dell 130w charger, it will not allow more than 100w. Even a 140w compatible dock will not work. The reason for this is fairly simple: usb pd 100w is 20v 5a. pd 140w is 28v at 5a. Dell engineered 130w as 20v and 6.5a, making sure that no dock, cable or brick made by anyone else will be able to power this laptop at full load.
@@b127_1 The fix is simple. Dell is very happy to sell you their own dock which you'll need if you plan on using the laptop for desktop like workloads. They're corporate first and consumer second. Have always been i feel.
They have a preference for lower voltages at higher current in their chargers, the laptop will charge at 100W from a standard USB-C charger, but it doesn't support PD 3.1 yet, sadly. My current work dell has a 165W charger, but will only charge at 140W from a standard charger. the proprietary charger is at least OK though, and 100W charging is at least usable most of the time.
I have worked with and researched carbon fiber for 15 years. I love it. I also love laptops but they do not belong together. Carbon fiber is a horrible heat conductor and you cannot exploit its specific stiffness in such small thicknesses.
Yeah when Alex said that I was like „what?! No it isn’t!“ but the problem isn’t just the heat it’s also receiving and transmitting data. Carbon fiber is really good at intercepting that.
My last 4 laptops over the las 10 years have been xps 15 , xps 15 , xps 17 and currently new xps 17. My next laptop will not be an xps 16 or for that matter a dell. Very disappointed with where they have taken this icon!
As someone who owned a Touch Bar Mac, I will never own another laptop without physical function keys and a lack of a physical escape key was one of the most infuriating experiences. How did Dell make this mistake‽
The one benefit (that the old XPS desperately needed) is a haptic trackpad. The old design was aging fine, add a haptic trackpad and boom Now it feels like the G16 is the XPS Dell should’ve made. I mean, you’re limited to 130W (and I bet it’s still Dell’s old 20V proprietary USB C instead of USB PD3.1. This is less of a big deal for me, but still…) from the charger alone, and I hope this isn’t like the 9700 XPS17 where the battery drains on the highest spec model when plugged in
@@FlyboyHelosim For me HDMI is a definite necessity as my laptop is hooked up to my TV for YT and gaming. I also connect an Xbox controller through USB A and I know I can connect to my TV using wireless or BT but the lag through HDMI is non existent unlike wireless or BT.
We are going to force Dell to change the design and be something like the XPS 16 but with physical function keys, USB A, HDMI, full SD card, 90W in the GPU and a lightweight 165W charger, it is simply an excellent purchase option , but for now only with a much lower price (2,500 max), it would be recommended
Least the base model starts with 16gb Ram. 8Gb ram would have been egregious at this price point. Saying that, above £1,500 I would expect a 32GB option rather than having to add the RTX 4050 bringing it to £2299 then another for 32GB its £2449. Something that needs to be pointed out that due to the option of bringing your own Ram, nothing can touch Framework in terms of value
I do not know any pro machines at 16-inch with 8GB base, so I am not sure why you bought this up? Apple, in fact, starts their 16-inch Pro models at 18GB
Just get a 9500 through 9530 generation xps 15 and put a new battery in it. Easy to fix, upgradable ram + storage and a keyboard that makes sense. What more does one need.
@@segiraldovi yeah the macbook pro 14 M1/M2 Pro is the best value laptop in the world right now, the Air M1 is amazing value too but the low non upgradable ram and storage it might be obsolete much sooner
I bought 2 latitude 9440s earlier this year. Both were defective, Dell's tech completely destroyed one, and I waited 2 months to get my return back. I am done with Dell, don't trust any of their new products
My latest XPS 15, several years ago, I got because it has not soldered RAM. Now Dell is making its entire line (even Precision) with soldered RAM. And no, the small difference in RAM speed will not help performance.
Why do you need modular RAM? Data suggests that RAM will now last longer than all components. Repairability is optional in 2024 with RAM; the benefits of soldered RAM outweigh the negatives. You have to buy what you need at launch. And yes, there is a speed and latency benefit of having the fastest RAM
@@andyH_England long term support. If it is soldered It should be illegal to sell anything other than the max amount for future e waste concerns. Then you have the criminal amounts they charge for ram upgrades. 1500 for 64gb is delusional.
@@andyH_England Why? The obvious answer: later upgrades. In my previous XPS, after 3 years, I've upgrade RAM and storage. Now you have to pick the top configuration, which RAM prices that are tied to the manufacturer. With unsoldered RAM, you can pick RAM from anyone, years later (i.e., lower prices). The latency difference is unnoticeable.
The XPS has been shit since its inception. I know Alex and a lot of reviewers love it, but I think they get the .1% of good ones. Everybody I know, and that's more than a dozen, say they are having nothing but issues, both from the hardware and the software site. Mine has been to Dell three times, and each time I get it back, it works for a week and something else breaks. Countless drive bugs, horrible battery life, random CPU and GPU spikes, is using 10Gb of RAM without having anything open or even installed.
Absolutely no reason to get an XPS, unlike 5 years ago we have Apple fixing their design mistakes and using much more efficient chips, Asus slimming down their G14 and G16 and making them great looking and lighter, Lenovo starting to use top end components for their Yoga pro 9i 14" and 16", and even HP joined in with the Transcend 14.
It was either an XPS or a Macbook for me. The capacitive escape button, the glass touchpad, the PRICE... these all pushed me towards the Macbook. Yes, there will be a lot of growing pains moving to MacOS as I've been a Windows user since the 90s. However, the battery life and build quality of the Macbook is just too good to ignore and the XPS has priced itself out.
I bought an XPS 15 9510. Put in 64GB of ram as I do a lot of large graphics work (CAD), and while the machine was great - all three USB-C ports have failed. I'm tempted to go back to Apple, but then I remember that I left Apple because their quality started sucking. I honestly don't know at this point what machine I am going to go with, but I'm leaning towards an Apple M2/M3.
My hugest complaint is the touchpad - I love the design and how it works when it’s new - but those piezo buzzers fail super quick - I returned my XPS 13 Plus in less than 30 days because it had already stopped reliably clicking - and would even glitch
FYI, Sensel (that's us) are one of the new haptic touchpad suppliers on the XPS 14 and 16. The supplier on the XPS 13 Plus was another company, and ours are much better and don't use piezos. That's why Dell added us in to the fold for their latest designs. So please don't let your bad experience on the XPS 13 Plus sour your opinion of the 14 or 16. Give us a chance. =)
At this point, there is absolutely no reason to buy the XPS when the Precision and Latitude lines exist, unless you want an Alienware laptop that is crappier than an Alienware laptop.
i had the XPS13 Evo a while ago as an Testdevice from Dell at my Office, same look and I have to say I hate the Shiny Glass Thing. The Carbon Fiber did not only save a few pounds it also look nice, and you had keys that you can easily type on, not an "flush" keyboard where you do not feel where you currently are with your fingers.
The company I work for actually started issuing these to employees recently and I second most of these points. For one, the lack of a physical escape button drives me mad. Two, I didn’t feel the same “dirty screen” feeling you got so I’m not sure what’s happening there. Lastly, if you buy this directly from Dell, they give you Windows 11 Pro, but if you buy it from Best Buy, they give you Windows 11 Home. Granted, it was about $400 cheaper at Best Buy when we bought our last batch so it canceled out the price of buying Pro licenses, but if Pro matters to you, you may want to consider buying directly from Dell.
Who in their right mind buys full size SD cards?! For I don't know 10 years it's been a good idea to buy micro SD with an adapter so you can use the same card in the camera in the laptop in the tablet on the drone in the go pro in the 3d printer even for crying out loud! And you don't need a dongle ever... I mean there is one universal form factor everyone seems to be moving to and you find it bad?! It's like complaining your SIM card should come in full size 😅 We do deserve the form factor mess we are in then...
I assume there are nearly a billion full-size SD cards in the wild. So, e-waste if everyone has to convert to microSD. But I do get your point. We should have moved permanently to microSD by now, and it is the usual group that moans about no USBA that wants to keep a full-size SD card.
@@andyH_England fair point. But of that billion how many are 1-2-4-8-16gig basically ewaste anyway as in a modern camera or most other applications too small? My comment was also about him complaining he can't go from camera to pc. Which you can if you bought the smaller factor. As it's backwards compatible
I like that microSD cards are small but I also hate that they're small. I almost sent one flying across the room when I hit the eject button on a camera. I much rather have it in an adapter in a camera. Then was the other time when between walking from the front of the room to the back of the room to get the card I dropped it! And of course I needed to get the clip off because we had an issue with the stream so I was trying to re-upload it before the next session. And you also don't get the write protect switch!
Gave up on the XPS in 2020 when my first 17” over heated and wouldn’t stop blue screening, and the next three replacements were al broken in different ways, screen, constant bsod, power issues. Grabbed a MBP never looked back. Run parallels and moved on with my life.
I really really hated the touch control on the XPS 13 plus, to the point of returning it. I was forced to look down onto my keyboard all the time which was infuriating, especially when I have so many shortcuts configured using the F-keys.
sad to see what has happened to the xps lineup. was shopping for a laptop recently, and didn't even considered xps because of that ridiculous touch bar.
12:53 Mine came with blown out speakers too! I was floored when I figured that out! 😭 Very first time it booted and the "boop doop whoop" of the Windows OOBE and just sat with a WTF face for a full minute...
FYI, dell removed the my dell app. So if they repair it you cannot redownload it... at all. Dell support told me that they couldn't solve that and a dell rep told me via email that they disabled the download in the appstore (Windows) because they were 'replacing it'. I love my xps 9520, but I've had so many issues with my 9315 2 in 1 that's it's not even funny, including the SAME my dell removal issue.
Alex........... The critical stack of the laptop (meaning the area the drives Z-height/thickness) is in the CPU/GPU/heatsink area. Yes, there are not fins directly above the CPU/GPU, but the vapor chamber is there. If you move from capacitive to physical buttons, you will grow the overall laptop thickness by the difference. Probably 0.5-2mm. Side notes. Adding fins in the middle wouldn't be useful. You actually need that area for the vapor to more efficiently move to the fin stacks. Adding fin stacks on the side would be minimally useful because of the system ID (the chamfered edges limit fin stack size and open ratio). A boxier ID could potentially work, but curving the vapor chamber around would add a lot of cost to the system, impact board design (no tall components in those areas) and likely only increase system TDP by ~10%-ish. Not really worthwhile. Also, do a skin temp comparison between the Asus and Dell running cinibench+prime95. My best is the Dell machine will be 5C cooler at any given location while being as quiet or quieter.
Did anyone else notice in the shots of the motherboard that it looks like there's just a bunch of empty space in the case? It almost looks like while they increased the size of the case, they cut corners on the internals by basically re-using the motherboard of the XPS 15 and just making the vapour chamber fit. Because the previous XPS 15 had a second SSD slot that seems to have been removed in the re-design
I know I'm in the minority - but I couldn't care less about my laptop having no USB A or HDMI. But only 3 USB C ports for this price? Terrible. Ideally I'd like 6, but at least 4 should be minimum. The lack of a physical function row and ESC key is inexcusable though. Complete deal-breaker.
You don't miss the USBA until it's time to troubleshoot. Yes, USBA dongles exist but maybe they work outside the OS and maybe they don't. It's a gamble. And when they don't, then you're screwed if you need a manual BIOS update (yeah BIOS connect exists now but I've seen it work 1 out of 5 times) or if you need to do a clean OS install. Maybe you can take the SSD out and install Windows via an adapter but maybe the SSD is soldered down (: because that's something we do now (: As long as the thing is running, yeah, you may not need that I/O. But if anything goes wrong, tech support (and you) are going to cry.
I was really hoping that the XPS 16 would be really nice for the price. Turns out I was wrong. What are some alternatives of a good built quality between $2k - $3k ?
The XPS line was my favorite laptop series for a long time... I had one of the originals when they started including the carbon fiber palm rests and fell in love with it. But there's a reason why I requested a Thinkpad from my work. They've really lost it over the years... those final words of the review really stuck with me on exactly how I feel as a longtime fan of the XPS.
Can someone please explain to me the situation with the digitizer in front of the pixels?? I noticed this in the Best Buy demo unit and I HATED it. WHY WHY WHY does dell not know how to integrate the digitizer into the actual pixels like all phones and tablets from Samsung have?? How could it possibly be so hard when it is so commonly done?? It makes me so frustrated TBH
even half height function row keys, like the older macbook style, would have been so much better. the cooling nonsense is just an excuse to try to shoehorn the garbage touchbar in
Is it worth investing into an XPS 15 at this point in time? For video editing, photography, etc. Not for gaming. I've seen a lot of recommendations for apple products but not interested in those... Is the 15 still a great quality purchase, or will it be outdated quickly in the coming year or so? **Not needed for "professional" editing, as in it won't be a full-time job where I would probably be better off with a computer
I was at Best Buy, just sold my desktop since I am doing overseas stuff. I saw the new XPS, almost bought the thing, they brought it out. Then I saw the G16. Beautiful build, material, weight, screen, and specs for the same price point. I bought the G16, and do not regret it. I have been an XPS loyalist since the first ones came out, but they have murdered it while the rest of the laptop world take the title to the best windows laptops.
TBH, I have used XPS 15 for years, the carbon fibre body is a pain. It becomes oily and if it's closed for sometime it get's all weird with bacteria growth / fungus. I used to clean the body with isopropyl alcohol quite often aswell. I am happy with the material updates actually.
I dont see anyone on youtube reviewing the Asus N6506 (2024)! Im going to order one tonight, but the website makes so many wonderful promises that it seems to me to be one of the best laptops on the market. I'd love to see a LLT mediagroup review!!
I had been looking for a replacement laptop for my old XPS 9560 starting towards the end of last year. Decided to wait until Dell refreshed the XPS lineup to see if those would be what I want. Was really disappointed with the choices Dell made with the new XPS series both with removing upgradability (no second NVMe slot like last year's, and soldered RAM) and how ridiculously expensive they are for their performance. I ended up getting the 2024 Zephyrus G16 with a 4080 and really been enjoying that laptop
Wow XPS has gone backwards more and more every year. My XPS 15 9560 from 2017 was a nice machine albeit the cooling was atrocious. I'd never consider an XPS today though with these terrible compromises made just for aesthetic reasons.
I feel like this video displays some of the issues with Labs atm, lots of data. But the data translation to a comparable viewer focused format is missing! Good review btw!
the one pro of Dell and HP is their driver support. They both have good drivers that work and they both have programs that can easily update your drivers. I had an Asus g16 and the Asus software and drivers were so flaky that when the machine died within a month of owning it I was kind of relieved to replace it with a Dell gaming laptop. The Alienware software on dell gaming PCs is much more robust than the Asus software.
@@sethmensah4486 you mean it turned off mid youtuve video never to turn on again, yes. I didn't kill it. You sound the idiots at geek squad who had to return it saying it wasnt meant for gaming when they asked if I played any games on it.
@@joeyf504327 "the machine died within a month of owning it" you said it yourself bruh. A bit immature to insult somebody for that. Just wanted to know if It actually died cos it's definitely unusual. Buh I guess, what do you expect when you buy a toddler a pc.
The quality control on the channel's videos is far superior than any form of quality control at Dell. Seriously, you guys had to reshoot the video thrice already.
I upgraded my Dell XPS 15 9510 OLED to the Dell XPS 16 9640 OLED. Intel Core Ultra 9 Processor 185H 1TB PCIe M.2 NVMe Gen 4 Class 40 Solid State Drive 32GB LPDDR5x Dual Channel at 7467 MT/s NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 8GB GDDR6 Vapor Chamber Cooling 16.3 inch 4K+ OLED UHD+ (3840 x 2400) Quite frankly, I love the XPS 16 and would do the upgrade again in a heartbeat. Battery life of 12+ hours is everything I could ask for. I haven't used a mouse in years and much prefer using the superb touchpad. The capacitive touch function row works and feels like the touchpad, so there is absolutely no problem for me there. In fact, I find it much preferable to the old physical keys as I can make the row display just F1-F12 where I like to keep it for the kind of work I do, Lightroom/Photoshop, programming, and Interactive Brokers Trader Workstation.
You should review the new Precision 5480. I know you did the one a few years ago, but the new one is really great, it truly is the "missing 14-inch XPS", my boss bought me one for work.
I don't like it either, at least for the price. You like to see eWaste Dongles rather that buying your own dongle that has a complete complement of ports? How about better (more consistently high bandwidth) ports? The carbonfiber was the cause of many RMA. Many of which I saw first hand. Decomposing composite because someone didn't just use soap and water. Even the sanitiser from your hand can cause endless peeling. Saw one where the chassis had literally splintered. I have so many gripes with this device & review... but whatever.
I have one XPS at work and I hate it for the lack of ports. One dongle hanging on the left with ethernet cable port, second dongle hanging on the right with USB-A port.
The fact that they soldered the XPS 16's RAM just seals the deal for me. I have an XPS 17, and it will be the last XPS I own - at least for a very long time. I've gone through SO many hardware "repairs" and full system replacements for my Dell XPS, and it sounds like Dell's quality control leaves much to be desired even on the XPS 16. That's a hard pass for me.
This is why I was relieved that I received my email from Framework the other day saying that my Framebook 16 is scheduled for manufacturing this month.
It's worth pointing out in the review that the 130W USB-C charger is proprietary trash. It exceeds the 5A specification of USB-PD which means you're forced to use their charger if you want 130W charging. Otherwise I believe you're limited to 90W
It's become a meme at this point that companies adopt the worst part of Apple's products instead of borrowing from the very few GOOD parts (modular USB-C, amazing hinges). I would love to know who ultimately makes these decisions.
These decisions weren't made by the greatest technician that's ever lived.
cheers bro! awesome channel!
Yeah, you're not wrong. I think their just trying out stuff that made Apple somewhat successful with their line of products, and just cheaping it out a whole bunch just in case if people don't like it, then they won't be wasting too much money. Great channel man, keep it up!
To be fair, something like hinges would be a patented design nobody else can use.
The greatest technician that's ever lived
Dell is the definition of not learning from the mistakes of others. Why would you put controversial button layout (or lack thereof) in your laptops after the community has literally proven that its bad? I don't get them, also it weighs as much as a gaming laptop now without being able to game like one in the same price bracket.
Yeah the G16 is such an obviously superior choice for the same price.
Exactly, for example I always loved the extremely thin 4k screen, now they ruined everything else, literally getting a galaxy book 4 ultra is much cheaper and apart from the screen resolution it wins in everything, I really hope that in 2025 they solve it all these problems then maybe I'll finally buy one.
The keyboard layout seems fine to me. Idk what you on about saying it was proven bad. Layout is a preference.
Yeah. If Dell is gonna give us a touch function row, make it a screen that we can customize or something like a Stream Deck's buttons instead of just static capacitive touch buttons to replace functions to cram in functions on the top row. What a shame. Also, USB-C/Thunderbolt and dedicating one for charging (plus a dongle) is insane in 2024 considering that Dell has a 90w barrel jack AC adapter small enough to fit that chassis.
@@vxer It sucks. You're likely the only one in addition to designer of that who likes it
Literally the XPS are trying to hard to be like a macbook before 2021. Design over functionality comes at a huge cost.
honestly Dell are on a huge loss strike right now, Apple are fixing their mistakes and are using much more efficient chips, Asus is slimming down their G14 and G16 and making them very portable, Lenovo is starting to use top end components for their Yoga pro 9i 14" and 16", and even HP joined in with the Transcend 14, even Razer blades are better value and more usable than the XPS as this point
The MacBooks still put design over functionality. My M1 MacBook Air throttles whenever it has to do anything with the performance cores
That doesn’t really describe the Apple Silicon Macbooks though. They’re the best all around laptops right now
@@bigbubba0439 thats a macbook air, what do you expect from a super slim nice looking machine, but not functionally good?
I owned a MacBook Pro and it was junk
7:57 if Apple realized how bad the touch bar was and rolled it back. You would think Dell would think twice before making a knock off of it?
Not just a knockoff, but a knockoff that keeps all the worst aspects while removing every positive feature of the Touch Bar, as well.
They've been using touch bar stuff for so long lol
Lenovo tried a touch bar on the 2nd gen X1 Carbon and ditched it after 1 generation. You’d think that Dell would sacrifice some thermals for giving us a function row
The worst part is. They never implement touch bars as an addition, it always replaces something. The touch bar would be useful if it was in addition to a function row, but it replaces the function row which is much more useful.
The sad part about it is that Dell already went down the touchbar route with the Studio XPS 16 back in 2010. It was horrible! And they removed it on the replacement model. Obviously they didn't learn anything from that.
Dell: We make Apples bad decisions but 10 years after.
That's some insane latency
At lease it comes with decent specs as basic unlike Apple
@@CricketEngland Apple now uses efficient arm chips in their laptops so spec-wise they're quite good. Dell uses Intel chips and has a significantly lower TDP compared to other comparable Windows laptops.
@@amitkulkarni3922 still only comes with 8GB ram and in most cases 256 SSD as standard and the charge you £200/$200 to upgrade each to decent levels
@@CricketEngland the ram on Macs feel like more than its is because of how efficient m2 is. Storage if you more, 200 bucks an upgrade is rape. luckily I don't need it.
Dell absolutely lost their mind with that keyboard layout. As a programmer reliant on consistent touch-typing, there's zero chance I could buy this.
Not only will I not buy it, I will actively ignore any opinion of a programmer if I see them using it.
As a programmer who prefers Linux, I went with the Lenovo Z16 gen 2 and have zero regrets. It's literally half the price after coupons and discounts and a lot less stupid.
@@kennyjoseph4875 I dunno if this is a hot take or not but all the Lenovo laptops I've used seem to have the best keyboards and they're a beauty to code on.
As a programmer XPS line isn't for you. Latitude/Precision is more suitable
@@CortyCze I might agree with you if they had sensible configurations. A big requirement for me is 64 GB of RAM. The only options are the Precision 5680/90 with 1980x1200 res (!) and RTX Ada GPUs (which I don't want or need) and start at over $4k.
The amount of times he swore when he realized he didn’t hit the escape key should just tell anyone, especially programmers, to stay the hell away from this device. Especially with a $1,900 starting price holy crap…
A programmer should be mapping caps to esc though... far more ergonomic
@@utkarshraj145why tho
OMG.. no function row and physical escape key was the reason to ditch macbooks for a long period. And when the 13plus came out everyone was like "why would you follow that" and they kept it ?!?
This even worse than what apple had. Apple at least had some shiny pretty dumb useless bauble, dell's one not even looks interesting, just pure dumb
It's also the reason to not get a chromebook for anything (even if you can run other OS on it)
At least Apple kept the esc key physical.
@@xpforevergaming8609 na, at first gen esc was inside the touch bar, then on second gen they separated esc out of it
@@xpforevergaming8609 no they didnt''.. not on the macbook pro 13" models I used (2016, 2017). I had to kill the 'touchbar service' to disable the whole thing to keep it from doing weird things in terminals and editors if I accidentally touched it, and had to remap my capslock to be an escape key.
It looks like I'll be replacing my 2019 XPS 17 with a Zephyrus G16 this year. Seriously Dell needs to rehire those engineers who designed their 2019 - 2020 xps laptops
I have an odd solution for you which you'll probably feel "wtf is this guy saying MSI?" but then realize it's actually pretty sensible: the Z16HX and Z17HX are actually very good stuff for prosummers who still want dedicated graphics. And yeah, MSI sucks on their gaming laptops but they have seriously nailed it with the Z/Creator series. Their only real problem is inverting the motherboard. Even not having OLED isn't a problem because the display is pretty good too. And everything is replace/upgradeable, from wifi to ram to ssd. And it does have 2x m.2 slots
The new G16 is surprisingly light and portable for the screen size, not to mention much more powerful with the higher wattage, and it can run efficiently now with the new intel chips and Type C charging ports, oh and that reminds me of the much better port selection and higher refresh rate screen, absolutely no reason to get the XPS. If you care about the marginally better battery life go for the Macbooks, they beat everything in terms of battery anyways.
@@cldpt I didn't even know the MSI existed, none of the big reviewers tried it
I don't see what's wrong with getting a 2023 Dell XPS 17, it's 1000 USD off on Dell's website and it still comes with an i9-13900H, an RTX 4080, 64GB of RAM, 2 4TB SSD's, and a 4K touchscreen
The new Zephyrus gave up some performance for form but they still retained enough performance to be a useable great laptop. No idea what Dell was doing with this
Ah yes an xps in this economy
Or an XPS that costs more than a comparable Razer Blade 14 and is less upgradable and repairable? Seriously, Dell deserves to have these 2024 XPS laptops flop. Maybe they'll realize they made a true worst laptop ever?
@@cameronbosch1213 the high-end XPS's easily trumps Apple in unrepairability, and that's something.
Poor
talk for urself my bags heavy and I be getting xps' on the monthly
XPS is having so good for the last few years you can easily get one from 2020 for under 700
So you're telling me, that you can get a (albeit slightly power limited) 2024 4090 Zephrys G16 with a 240hz oled panel, ultra 9 processor, and usable IO for give or take $100 dollars from this model? And before you say it isn't a gaming laptop, it is literally heavier than the G16.
Dell, what in the actual hell are you thinking.
The only good laptop companies are apple, (niche) lenovo and (more niche) asus
Okay, educate me here. It's a "touch bar"... where the buttons stay the same all the time? At least I can understand why Apple went with it for Mac books as they are actual screens that change depending on what the user is doing, but this does not look like it? Am I missing something or is this a colossally bad choice on Dell's part?
colossally bad choice
It’s so funny to me that we’ve all seen how Apple had to bring physical escape key back yet Dell still hasn’t gotten the message from that
well, static touch multimedia buttons were "fancy" on laptops like 20/15 years ago...
@@sungholee8791y’know the funny thing is Dell knows full well what professionals and most people want. Their professional laptops that adopts this new style of keyboard has ACTUAL F KEYS AND ESC. So they literally didn’t need this nonsense for the 14 and 16 and probably only did it for continuity with the 13 plus and for design purposes.
As a programmer the no Esc key is a deal breaker, it's one of the key that I use the most and I won't go with a laptop that's made for professional that somehow didn't think it was necessary for professionals to have an Esc key. Ridiculous
You haven't swapped esc and caps lock yet? Must not be a vim user. This laptop is not made for professionals go look at dells precision line for that they no longer copy the xps design for obvious reasons.
@@lejoshmont2093 I remap caps lock to ctrl, and I use C- to move in insert mode. I don't use a lot of vim, but Helix instead but yeah, for anyone addicted to modal editing no esc key is criminal anyway.
@@lejoshmont2093 I'm VI-ish user, and I have dash (-) at "standard" Caps Lock position... having `Esc` on the "home-row" feels strange ;) I hit escape to break current flow, and it should be easily located and identified, thus top-left corner is the best for `Esc` key.
@@DominikJaniec nah, caps lock for escape key is top tier
I wish you guys included Alex's reaction when he heard the blown speakers for the first time after saying 10watts. I bet it was priceless😂
hope there is on floatplane
I really hate that you have to pay more money for a worse screen than the xps 14 and to get the oled screen it’s like 2800. In 2024 you get 1080 screens at $2000+
you mean the $650 MBA M1 has better screen? 🥶
@@TheYearOfJerome I mean a lot of things have a better screen lol bar is kinda low
@@devonward6784 yeah but for a lot of laptops these days it seems like you either get decent performance, a nice display, or an ergonomic/nice looking design, but never all three. in fact the only laptops i've considered buying recently under 2 grand are neither, just mid in all three.
14:51 I thought he said 85 screws instead of 8 t5 screws and my jaw dropped😂
Don't give Dell any ideas.
I believed 85 after changing keyboards on their latitude 2 in 1s
SAME
i thought it was a joke and that's why he was enunciating it so strangely lol
hem....
Im always watching, hem...
KEHAHAHAEHEHA
Is anyone else tired of hearing how heavy a lap top is when it weighs less than a toddler? I mean it weighs 5lbs and he's complaining that your back is gonna hurt carrying it in your backpack all day like you're carrying around a ruck sack. FFS, everyone wants a laptop that gives them 36 hours of use, a massive screen, a stiff chassis and every other convenience but only weigh as much as a fairy fart.
18:05 "makes a macbook pro seem reasonably priced" That's how I've seen XPS since forever, lol. Besides the design, there's literally nothing good about this lineup. Any gaming laptop will get the same job done, at half the price and better performance.
Never thought I'd do this, but I was looking for a quality work laptop, and in the past I used to buy XPS... this time I bought a macbook pro because it was cheaper AND better ... what the hell is going on?
I mean even the design is kinda aging with the minimalist and boring look. If it retained the carbon fibre inside, that would've given it some points for looks.
@@kombatres Apple Silicon and Jony Ive pissing off is what’s going on.
@@rishi0299 I like the design but it has to be functional, and this sacrifices functionality for looks at every corner.
At least in the past they were very well built, had great battery life (batteries were always pretty much as big as allowed on airplanes) and had good screens. A gaming laptop for half the price was built way cheaper (mostly from thin plastic), was thicker, had smaller battery, had a bad trackpad and an overall worse screen (maybe with higher refresh rate though). The few gaming laptops without (most) of these drawbacks, f.e. the Razer blade, were more expensive than the XPS.
This new model doesn't make sense though, the keyboard decision was just really bad. But considering mechanical keyboards without function row are so popular it might find its customers.
Wait, what?? At the beginning you hinted at a far too expensive price, so ups and downs during the review, I figured at the end they'd be asking 1500-2000 for it. Which I thought would be grossly overpriced for that toy. I did not expect a 3k+ price! Man, what were they thinking?
At work all the developers have had XPS 15s for years because they were ‘the best’, and they really were. Maybe value wise you could get better, but in terms of an overall package, they were worth the money.
Two ‘test’ XPS 13 pluses were bought. One user literally has to have a mouse because they can’t get on with the touchpad at all. Both had audio issues for months until an update. Then Dell drops these new models, with the price increase, and now we’re switching completely to Lenovo. It’s cheaper to replace all the laptops and the Dell Thunderbolt docks if they don’t work, than just buying new XPSes. It’s just crazy.
As the resident Mac user, I was in disbelief when I saw the touch buttons - Apple literally reversed course on the Touch Bar because people didn’t like non-physical buttons, and at least they ‘gave’ us back the physical escape key, and then the rest of them. It was crazy that my M3 Max MBP looked ‘good value’ compared to the new XPS line!
FYI, Sensel (that's us) are one of the new haptic touchpad suppliers on the XPS 14 and 16. The supplier on the XPS 13 Plus was another company, and ours are much better and don't use piezos. That's why Dell added us in to the fold for their latest designs. So please don't let your bad experience on the 13 Plus sour your opinion of the 14 or 16. Give us a chance. =)
If you don't need x64 architecture or an NVIDIA gpu I think you made a good decision with mpb and I'm not particularity an apple fan.
Can't believe they dropped the ball so hard, literally not one thing about this laptop appeals to me. I don't think it even looks that nice, its like a toy
I work at Best buy and I saw the new Dell XPS the day they came out on our displays, you should have seen me, I was devastated, One thing about the quality control, Best buy's displays models, one of them had a black screen the entire time and the other one had no force feedback on a trackpad, so they're messing something up
Was the one with no force feedback a XPS 13, 14 or 16? Also, did you check to see if the haptics were on in the Windows touchpad settings?
I will never buy a laptop without dedicated FKey buttons. It's non-negotiable standing point for anyone actually doing work.
Huge Dell XPS 13 fan (circa 2016). Had to take a hard pass on this model when buying a new laptop, ended up with HP Spectre 14 x360 2024. Willing to pay a premium for Dell but not for an unforced regression. Keyboard was a non-starter. Nope.
also looking at Spectre right now, was going to get a new XPS but they can forget that now
how is the spectre 14? I am seriously considering it but not sure how good HP is
Not first, not last, but Dell made three laptops this year that I wouldnt even take for free: The XPS lineup.
I'd definitely take it for free and sell it, even at half the price, lol.
Ya but what if someone gave it to u and said you can't sell it, your not allowed to.. then what? Lol
@@dannynation8461 they are fantastic machines even with the stupid capacitive buttons, don't be dense
@@tomimar2001 as an XPS 13 (2021) owner, I regret my purchase, I knew I was not getting the best hardware for the price, but I was not expecting driver issues, wake-up from sleep bugs, hard to open with one hand, and they even locked intel XTU so you can't even undervolt the cpu.
On the bright side, build is great and feels amzing in your hands, screen looks really good and matte coating is of good quality, I love the keyboard and that carbon fibre feels nice and cosy on my hands/wrists, not that this fixes the other problems though...
I should also note that since the bios update of 2 months ago my battery lasts 5-6h at best when before it was more like 6-7h
I have the XPS 13 pro from 2018 and for what I do (I don’t game) it’s still as good in 2024 as it was out of the box when I got it
Framework 16" is expensive, but for a reason. This thing is more expensive than said Framework laptop, for no reason at all.
compared to this it isn't expensive. It is likely it will be my next laptop at the rate dell is going. I just hope they eventually get NVIDIA gpu modules for those cuda cores.
@@lejoshmont2093 Heck, it HAS RAM slots. Dell literally made CAMM2, and then of course didn't use it here. What a P.O.S.
I literally have been using the Framework Laptop 16 since mine came, and I love it.
@@cameronbosch1213 I am glad to hear another good review.
By the way: what's up with the proprietary 130w charger. Even Apple is using a normal usb pd 140w brick by now. I get that Dell engineered thier 130w proprietary brick when usb pd went up to 100w, but they went through the effort to redesign the entire laptop, why does it still have this old bs charging brick???
Proprietary? It's usb c... Yeah they have a big ugky brick with their name on it but it's just usb c, you can use any usb adapter you want with the laptop, nothing special or locked down about it?
@@Lonewolf_121 No. You cannot. If you want maximum performance, you need Dell's stupid 130w brick. Any other charger will work for charging, but the cpu and gpu be way slower.
The same applies to docks by the way: unless it specifically supports the Dell 130w charger, it will not allow more than 100w. Even a 140w compatible dock will not work.
The reason for this is fairly simple: usb pd 100w is 20v 5a. pd 140w is 28v at 5a. Dell engineered 130w as 20v and 6.5a, making sure that no dock, cable or brick made by anyone else will be able to power this laptop at full load.
@@b127_1 The fix is simple. Dell is very happy to sell you their own dock which you'll need if you plan on using the laptop for desktop like workloads. They're corporate first and consumer second. Have always been i feel.
Simple fix, dont buy dell
They have a preference for lower voltages at higher current in their chargers, the laptop will charge at 100W from a standard USB-C charger, but it doesn't support PD 3.1 yet, sadly. My current work dell has a 165W charger, but will only charge at 140W from a standard charger. the proprietary charger is at least OK though, and 100W charging is at least usable most of the time.
I have worked with and researched carbon fiber for 15 years. I love it. I also love laptops but they do not belong together. Carbon fiber is a horrible heat conductor and you cannot exploit its specific stiffness in such small thicknesses.
Yeah when Alex said that I was like „what?! No it isn’t!“ but the problem isn’t just the heat it’s also receiving and transmitting data. Carbon fiber is really good at intercepting that.
My last 4 laptops over the las 10 years have been xps 15 , xps 15 , xps 17 and currently new xps 17. My next laptop will not be an xps 16 or for that matter a dell. Very disappointed with where they have taken this icon!
4 laptops in 10 years, that’s crazy
Same here, so sad.
The delete key being in the touch bar is even worse than the escape key!
As someone who owned a Touch Bar Mac, I will never own another laptop without physical function keys and a lack of a physical escape key was one of the most infuriating experiences. How did Dell make this mistake‽
Cause of the escape key,its completly unusable for me.
The one benefit (that the old XPS desperately needed) is a haptic trackpad. The old design was aging fine, add a haptic trackpad and boom
Now it feels like the G16 is the XPS Dell should’ve made. I mean, you’re limited to 130W (and I bet it’s still Dell’s old 20V proprietary USB C instead of USB PD3.1. This is less of a big deal for me, but still…) from the charger alone, and I hope this isn’t like the 9700 XPS17 where the battery drains on the highest spec model when plugged in
Fast refresh rate also.
No HDMI, no USB type A, no thank you...
HDMI is hardly a necessity. USB-A, on the other hand...
@@FlyboyHelosim depends where you live i'm sure
There’s a thing called a dongle you can get for super cheap
How old are your things you’re plugging in?
@@FlyboyHelosim For me HDMI is a definite necessity as my laptop is hooked up to my TV for YT and gaming. I also connect an Xbox controller through USB A and I know I can connect to my TV using wireless or BT but the lag through HDMI is non existent unlike wireless or BT.
We are going to force Dell to change the design and be something like the XPS 16 but with physical function keys, USB A, HDMI, full SD card, 90W in the GPU and a lightweight 165W charger, it is simply an excellent purchase option , but for now only with a much lower price (2,500 max), it would be recommended
Least the base model starts with 16gb Ram. 8Gb ram would have been egregious at this price point.
Saying that, above £1,500 I would expect a 32GB option rather than having to add the RTX 4050 bringing it to £2299 then another for 32GB its £2449.
Something that needs to be pointed out that due to the option of bringing your own Ram, nothing can touch Framework in terms of value
I do not know any pro machines at 16-inch with 8GB base, so I am not sure why you bought this up? Apple, in fact, starts their 16-inch Pro models at 18GB
Toshiba used to have a flush trackpad but they used a different texture and a light bar to guide you to it, it was really nice.
2 laptop reviews less than 24 hours is quite remarkable to see :)
You know its bad when the man who love the xps 15 more than his wife is disappointed with the xps 16 😂
Oooh no ... My XPS 9570 is beginning to fall apart and I was waiting for the 16. Hopefully my beauty will do another year 😅
Just move on to framework~
Just get a 9500 through 9530 generation xps 15 and put a new battery in it. Easy to fix, upgradable ram + storage and a keyboard that makes sense. What more does one need.
just switch to the 2024 Asus G16, better in every way (or a macbook if you don't game, those have gotten really good too)
@@houssamalucad753 better if you pick an old M1, you can save a lot of money
@@segiraldovi yeah the macbook pro 14 M1/M2 Pro is the best value laptop in the world right now, the Air M1 is amazing value too but the low non upgradable ram and storage it might be obsolete much sooner
Yeah the function row is a cost-cutting/design decision that makes the laptop unusable for most professional work
Cost cutting ? For a 3k lappy thats insane
I bought 2 latitude 9440s earlier this year. Both were defective, Dell's tech completely destroyed one, and I waited 2 months to get my return back. I am done with Dell, don't trust any of their new products
My latest XPS 15, several years ago, I got because it has not soldered RAM. Now Dell is making its entire line (even Precision) with soldered RAM. And no, the small difference in RAM speed will not help performance.
Why do you need modular RAM? Data suggests that RAM will now last longer than all components. Repairability is optional in 2024 with RAM; the benefits of soldered RAM outweigh the negatives. You have to buy what you need at launch. And yes, there is a speed and latency benefit of having the fastest RAM
@@andyH_England long term support. If it is soldered It should be illegal to sell anything other than the max amount for future e waste concerns. Then you have the criminal amounts they charge for ram upgrades. 1500 for 64gb is delusional.
@@andyH_England Why? The obvious answer: later upgrades. In my previous XPS, after 3 years, I've upgrade RAM and storage. Now you have to pick the top configuration, which RAM prices that are tied to the manufacturer. With unsoldered RAM, you can pick RAM from anyone, years later (i.e., lower prices). The latency difference is unnoticeable.
The XPS has been shit since its inception. I know Alex and a lot of reviewers love it, but I think they get the .1% of good ones. Everybody I know, and that's more than a dozen, say they are having nothing but issues, both from the hardware and the software site. Mine has been to Dell three times, and each time I get it back, it works for a week and something else breaks. Countless drive bugs, horrible battery life, random CPU and GPU spikes, is using 10Gb of RAM without having anything open or even installed.
11:42 Ah yes finally, Dell made a laptop without the Escape key! 🤦♂️
Absolutely no reason to get an XPS, unlike 5 years ago we have Apple fixing their design mistakes and using much more efficient chips, Asus slimming down their G14 and G16 and making them great looking and lighter, Lenovo starting to use top end components for their Yoga pro 9i 14" and 16", and even HP joined in with the Transcend 14.
No function row? Immediate fail
It was either an XPS or a Macbook for me. The capacitive escape button, the glass touchpad, the PRICE... these all pushed me towards the Macbook. Yes, there will be a lot of growing pains moving to MacOS as I've been a Windows user since the 90s. However, the battery life and build quality of the Macbook is just too good to ignore and the XPS has priced itself out.
We want a LTT daily drivers video of phones and laptops!
I bought an XPS 15 9510. Put in 64GB of ram as I do a lot of large graphics work (CAD), and while the machine was great - all three USB-C ports have failed. I'm tempted to go back to Apple, but then I remember that I left Apple because their quality started sucking.
I honestly don't know at this point what machine I am going to go with, but I'm leaning towards an Apple M2/M3.
The XPS 16 is a massive massive downgrade from the XPS 17, especially with the specs.
My hugest complaint is the touchpad - I love the design and how it works when it’s new - but those piezo buzzers fail super quick - I returned my XPS 13 Plus in less than 30 days because it had already stopped reliably clicking - and would even glitch
FYI, Sensel (that's us) are one of the new haptic touchpad suppliers on the XPS 14 and 16. The supplier on the XPS 13 Plus was another company, and ours are much better and don't use piezos. That's why Dell added us in to the fold for their latest designs. So please don't let your bad experience on the XPS 13 Plus sour your opinion of the 14 or 16. Give us a chance. =)
At this point, there is absolutely no reason to buy the XPS when the Precision and Latitude lines exist, unless you want an Alienware laptop that is crappier than an Alienware laptop.
I wished the precision and latitude lines got more attention.
i had the XPS13 Evo a while ago as an Testdevice from Dell at my Office, same look and I have to say I hate the Shiny Glass Thing. The Carbon Fiber did not only save a few pounds it also look nice, and you had keys that you can easily type on, not an "flush" keyboard where you do not feel where you currently are with your fingers.
Dell has destroyed XPS....
But will Kendrick destroy Drake?
Kendrick alienware'd Drake.
A legion with a pressure sensitive touchscreen and stylus support would be the dream laptop for me. Imagine the possibilities. Zbrush with a stylus😭
Crying about a 5lb laptop is crazy
Honestly
The company I work for actually started issuing these to employees recently and I second most of these points. For one, the lack of a physical escape button drives me mad. Two, I didn’t feel the same “dirty screen” feeling you got so I’m not sure what’s happening there. Lastly, if you buy this directly from Dell, they give you Windows 11 Pro, but if you buy it from Best Buy, they give you Windows 11 Home. Granted, it was about $400 cheaper at Best Buy when we bought our last batch so it canceled out the price of buying Pro licenses, but if Pro matters to you, you may want to consider buying directly from Dell.
Who in their right mind buys full size SD cards?! For I don't know 10 years it's been a good idea to buy micro SD with an adapter so you can use the same card in the camera in the laptop in the tablet on the drone in the go pro in the 3d printer even for crying out loud! And you don't need a dongle ever...
I mean there is one universal form factor everyone seems to be moving to and you find it bad?!
It's like complaining your SIM card should come in full size 😅
We do deserve the form factor mess we are in then...
I assume there are nearly a billion full-size SD cards in the wild. So, e-waste if everyone has to convert to microSD. But I do get your point. We should have moved permanently to microSD by now, and it is the usual group that moans about no USBA that wants to keep a full-size SD card.
you say that like there's no benefits to full size SD cards at all
@@andyH_England fair point. But of that billion how many are 1-2-4-8-16gig basically ewaste anyway as in a modern camera or most other applications too small?
My comment was also about him complaining he can't go from camera to pc. Which you can if you bought the smaller factor. As it's backwards compatible
They dont make v90 microsd cards
@@ktfjulien Delkin makes V90 microSD cards, but they are expensive. 64GB costs £100.
I like that microSD cards are small but I also hate that they're small. I almost sent one flying across the room when I hit the eject button on a camera. I much rather have it in an adapter in a camera. Then was the other time when between walking from the front of the room to the back of the room to get the card I dropped it! And of course I needed to get the clip off because we had an issue with the stream so I was trying to re-upload it before the next session. And you also don't get the write protect switch!
Gave up on the XPS in 2020 when my first 17” over heated and wouldn’t stop blue screening, and the next three replacements were al broken in different ways, screen, constant bsod, power issues. Grabbed a MBP never looked back. Run parallels and moved on with my life.
I really really hated the touch control on the XPS 13 plus, to the point of returning it. I was forced to look down onto my keyboard all the time which was infuriating, especially when I have so many shortcuts configured using the F-keys.
sad to see what has happened to the xps lineup. was shopping for a laptop recently, and didn't even considered xps because of that ridiculous touch bar.
12:53 Mine came with blown out speakers too! I was floored when I figured that out! 😭
Very first time it booted and the "boop doop whoop" of the Windows OOBE and just sat with a WTF face for a full minute...
Looks like I'll be switching from the XPS to the Precision 5690 for the function keys.
It's what Disney did to Star Wars
FYI, dell removed the my dell app. So if they repair it you cannot redownload it... at all. Dell support told me that they couldn't solve that and a dell rep told me via email that they disabled the download in the appstore (Windows) because they were 'replacing it'.
I love my xps 9520, but I've had so many issues with my 9315 2 in 1 that's it's not even funny, including the SAME my dell removal issue.
I honestly don't get the complaints abt laptop weight. 5lbs is nothing, it that hurts your back maybe try, idk, standing up every once in a while.
Alex...........
The critical stack of the laptop (meaning the area the drives Z-height/thickness) is in the CPU/GPU/heatsink area. Yes, there are not fins directly above the CPU/GPU, but the vapor chamber is there. If you move from capacitive to physical buttons, you will grow the overall laptop thickness by the difference. Probably 0.5-2mm.
Side notes. Adding fins in the middle wouldn't be useful. You actually need that area for the vapor to more efficiently move to the fin stacks.
Adding fin stacks on the side would be minimally useful because of the system ID (the chamfered edges limit fin stack size and open ratio). A boxier ID could potentially work, but curving the vapor chamber around would add a lot of cost to the system, impact board design (no tall components in those areas) and likely only increase system TDP by ~10%-ish. Not really worthwhile.
Also, do a skin temp comparison between the Asus and Dell running cinibench+prime95. My best is the Dell machine will be 5C cooler at any given location while being as quiet or quieter.
Did anyone else notice in the shots of the motherboard that it looks like there's just a bunch of empty space in the case? It almost looks like while they increased the size of the case, they cut corners on the internals by basically re-using the motherboard of the XPS 15 and just making the vapour chamber fit. Because the previous XPS 15 had a second SSD slot that seems to have been removed in the re-design
I know I'm in the minority - but I couldn't care less about my laptop having no USB A or HDMI.
But only 3 USB C ports for this price? Terrible. Ideally I'd like 6, but at least 4 should be minimum.
The lack of a physical function row and ESC key is inexcusable though. Complete deal-breaker.
You don't miss the USBA until it's time to troubleshoot. Yes, USBA dongles exist but maybe they work outside the OS and maybe they don't. It's a gamble. And when they don't, then you're screwed if you need a manual BIOS update (yeah BIOS connect exists now but I've seen it work 1 out of 5 times) or if you need to do a clean OS install. Maybe you can take the SSD out and install Windows via an adapter but maybe the SSD is soldered down (: because that's something we do now (:
As long as the thing is running, yeah, you may not need that I/O. But if anything goes wrong, tech support (and you) are going to cry.
I was really hoping that the XPS 16 would be really nice for the price. Turns out I was wrong.
What are some alternatives of a good built quality between $2k - $3k ?
The XPS line was my favorite laptop series for a long time... I had one of the originals when they started including the carbon fiber palm rests and fell in love with it. But there's a reason why I requested a Thinkpad from my work. They've really lost it over the years... those final words of the review really stuck with me on exactly how I feel as a longtime fan of the XPS.
Can someone please explain to me the situation with the digitizer in front of the pixels?? I noticed this in the Best Buy demo unit and I HATED it. WHY WHY WHY does dell not know how to integrate the digitizer into the actual pixels like all phones and tablets from Samsung have?? How could it possibly be so hard when it is so commonly done??
It makes me so frustrated TBH
even half height function row keys, like the older macbook style, would have been so much better. the cooling nonsense is just an excuse to try to shoehorn the garbage touchbar in
My XPS 13 from 2018 came from the factory with blown speakers too, so it's not a recent QC issue
One of the first things I do when setting up a new computer is switch caps lock to escape. I never use and it's a waste of space.
Is it worth investing into an XPS 15 at this point in time? For video editing, photography, etc. Not for gaming. I've seen a lot of recommendations for apple products but not interested in those... Is the 15 still a great quality purchase, or will it be outdated quickly in the coming year or so?
**Not needed for "professional" editing, as in it won't be a full-time job where I would probably be better off with a computer
I was at Best Buy, just sold my desktop since I am doing overseas stuff. I saw the new XPS, almost bought the thing, they brought it out. Then I saw the G16. Beautiful build, material, weight, screen, and specs for the same price point. I bought the G16, and do not regret it. I have been an XPS loyalist since the first ones came out, but they have murdered it while the rest of the laptop world take the title to the best windows laptops.
TBH, I have used XPS 15 for years, the carbon fibre body is a pain. It becomes oily and if it's closed for sometime it get's all weird with bacteria growth / fungus. I used to clean the body with isopropyl alcohol quite often aswell. I am happy with the material updates actually.
I dont see anyone on youtube reviewing the Asus N6506 (2024)! Im going to order one tonight, but the website makes so many wonderful promises that it seems to me to be one of the best laptops on the market. I'd love to see a LLT mediagroup review!!
I had been looking for a replacement laptop for my old XPS 9560 starting towards the end of last year. Decided to wait until Dell refreshed the XPS lineup to see if those would be what I want. Was really disappointed with the choices Dell made with the new XPS series both with removing upgradability (no second NVMe slot like last year's, and soldered RAM) and how ridiculously expensive they are for their performance.
I ended up getting the 2024 Zephyrus G16 with a 4080 and really been enjoying that laptop
Wow XPS has gone backwards more and more every year. My XPS 15 9560 from 2017 was a nice machine albeit the cooling was atrocious. I'd never consider an XPS today though with these terrible compromises made just for aesthetic reasons.
As someone who uses legacy systems for work, I would give up having a trackpad before giving up my function keys.
I feel like this video displays some of the issues with Labs atm, lots of data. But the data translation to a comparable viewer focused format is missing!
Good review btw!
the one pro of Dell and HP is their driver support. They both have good drivers that work and they both have programs that can easily update your drivers. I had an Asus g16 and the Asus software and drivers were so flaky that when the machine died within a month of owning it I was kind of relieved to replace it with a Dell gaming laptop. The Alienware software on dell gaming PCs is much more robust than the Asus software.
You killed it in a month?
@@sethmensah4486 you mean it turned off mid youtuve video never to turn on again, yes. I didn't kill it. You sound the idiots at geek squad who had to return it saying it wasnt meant for gaming when they asked if I played any games on it.
@@joeyf504327 "the machine died within a month of owning it" you said it yourself bruh. A bit immature to insult somebody for that. Just wanted to know if It actually died cos it's definitely unusual. Buh I guess, what do you expect when you buy a toddler a pc.
@@sethmensah4486 you've obviously never heard of manufacturing defects before or warranty claims
That keyboard and touchbar immediately disqualifies that laptop for me
Dell, please stop, I loved the XPS but these suck. Give them 4 years to reverse course.... sigh
The quality control on the channel's videos is far superior than any form of quality control at Dell. Seriously, you guys had to reshoot the video thrice already.
I upgraded my Dell XPS 15 9510 OLED to the Dell XPS 16 9640 OLED.
Intel Core Ultra 9 Processor 185H
1TB PCIe M.2 NVMe Gen 4 Class 40 Solid State Drive
32GB LPDDR5x Dual Channel at 7467 MT/s
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 8GB GDDR6
Vapor Chamber Cooling
16.3 inch 4K+ OLED UHD+ (3840 x 2400)
Quite frankly, I love the XPS 16 and would do the upgrade again in a heartbeat. Battery life of 12+ hours is everything I could ask for.
I haven't used a mouse in years and much prefer using the superb touchpad. The capacitive touch function row works and feels like the touchpad, so there is absolutely no problem for me there. In fact, I find it much preferable to the old physical keys as I can make the row display just F1-F12 where I like to keep it for the kind of work I do, Lightroom/Photoshop, programming, and Interactive Brokers Trader Workstation.
14:52 85 SCREWS....???? Bro are you opening laptop's back cover or every parts inside it....??
He means 8 T5 screws.
You should review the new Precision 5480. I know you did the one a few years ago, but the new one is really great, it truly is the "missing 14-inch XPS", my boss bought me one for work.
The old XPS line had such a fantastic keyboard. Everything about the new version is worse. MUCH worse. My last two laptops were an XPS, but no longer.
I don't like it either, at least for the price.
You like to see eWaste Dongles rather that buying your own dongle that has a complete complement of ports? How about better (more consistently high bandwidth) ports?
The carbonfiber was the cause of many RMA. Many of which I saw first hand. Decomposing composite because someone didn't just use soap and water. Even the sanitiser from your hand can cause endless peeling. Saw one where the chassis had literally splintered.
I have so many gripes with this device & review... but whatever.
If you absolutely have to get a Dell I'd get the 16" Precision 7680 Mobile Workstation. It isn't for gaming, but for productivity work it is fine.
I have one XPS at work and I hate it for the lack of ports. One dongle hanging on the left with ethernet cable port, second dongle hanging on the right with USB-A port.
The fact that they soldered the XPS 16's RAM just seals the deal for me.
I have an XPS 17, and it will be the last XPS I own - at least for a very long time. I've gone through SO many hardware "repairs" and full system replacements for my Dell XPS, and it sounds like Dell's quality control leaves much to be desired even on the XPS 16.
That's a hard pass for me.
This is why I was relieved that I received my email from Framework the other day saying that my Framebook 16 is scheduled for manufacturing this month.
My 2008 Dell XPS was so damn sleek. That hinge was wild. Turned it into a Hackbook.
It's worth pointing out in the review that the 130W USB-C charger is proprietary trash. It exceeds the 5A specification of USB-PD which means you're forced to use their charger if you want 130W charging. Otherwise I believe you're limited to 90W
Yooo that's wild, that really should be highlighted in the video...