Dell XPS 15 Review (2021): OLED Screen, Upgraded Processors

The Dell XPS laptops are among the most popular, thin, and light Windows computers for the cash. The 13-inch mannequin has lengthy been a WIRED favourite (8/10, WIRED Recommends), and the brand new 15-inch will get the identical improve that its smaller sibling obtained earlier this yr: an OLED show.

That new 3.5K OLED touchscreen helps make the Dell XPS 15 among the best 15-inch laptops available on the market. It additionally has loads of energy, due to the newest Intel processors and a terrific trackpad and keyboard. The solely draw back is the battery life.

XPS With OLED

The 2021 XPS 15 makes use of the identical Eleventh-generation Intel chips because the earlier mannequin. The huge information right here is the brand new OLED display screen, which, we must always word right here, is elective. As with the XPS 13, you need to go for the extra highly effective Intel i7 chips to get the OLED possibility. That means the display screen on the i5 base mannequin stays unchanged. That’s a 1920 x 1200-pixel FHD+ display screen.

If you go for the i7- or i9-based XPS 15, then you may select between the 4K UHD display screen and the brand new 3.5K OLED. If you need to know which is healthier … it relies upon. The decision is healthier on the 4K display screen. I additionally imagine the 4K mannequin has a slight edge by way of battery life, though I’m evaluating final yr’s 4K mannequin to this yr’s OLED right here. 

The OLED is dearer; the most cost effective possibility is $2,100. The mannequin I examined featured the OLED, the Eleventh-generation Intel Core i7, Nvidia RTX 3050 Ti laptop computer GPU, 16 gigabytes of RAM, and a 512-gigabyte SSD. This configuration lists for $2,200. From there, you may run it as much as $4,600 by deciding on the i9 Chip, as much as 64 gigabytes of RAM, and as much as a whooping 8 terabytes of SSD house, with some extra cheap configurations in between. 

While the bottom mode with the i5 chip is ok for fundamental computing wants, I might recommend the OLED display screen and quicker chip for those who can afford it. It’s a splendidly vivid display screen, and the razor-thin bezels give it an immersive high quality that is unmatched in the remainder of the 15-inch laptops I’ve examined. Editing pictures and video on this machine is an actual pleasure, to the purpose that I discovered myself out taking pictures simply so I may course of them in Darktable on the XPS 15. 

I’ve additionally discovered that shiny OLED screens appear to do higher in vivid mild than FHD screens. The 400-nit display screen right here was advantageous in all however direct daylight. The essential drawback with direct daylight is that the high-gloss floor picks up fingerprints like loopy. If you retain it good and clear, the daylight and glare will not be a difficulty.