The exceptional XPS
> Dell takes its winning formula from the XPS 13 and uses it to create a larger and more impressive laptop
WITH many of us spending less time at home or in the office, and constantly running about, having a laptop with a large display that weighs more than 2kg is not exactly what the chiropractor would recommend.
Thankfully, for those who prefer larger displays, laptop manufacturers like Dell are now quite adept at making larger laptops thinner and lighter, much like the XPS 15.
At a glance, the XPS 15 looks quite similar to previous XPS laptops. But that’s not a bad thing, as I really liked the sturdy and minimalist, yet stylish, silver aluminium frame.
The soft carbon fibre palm rest that surrounds the keyboard also adds to the aesthetic, and makes typing for long periods quite comfortable as the palm rest would warm up, but not to the point of causing discomfort.
In terms of portability, the XPS 15 is definitely a laptop I wouldn’t mind carrying around, as despite its 15.6in display, it weighs 1.78kg and is just 17mm thick when closed.
Even with it being so thin, Dell have equipped the XPS 15 with most of the necessary ports and slots such as two USB
SPECIFICATIONS
CPU: 6th Generation Intel Core i76700HQ RAM: 16GB DDR4-2133MHz Storage: 512GB PCIe Solid State Drive
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M with 2GB GDDR5 OS: Windows 10 64-bit Display: 15.6in 4K InfinityEdge display
Ports/Slots: 1x HDMI, 2x USB 3.0, 1x Thunderbolt 3, SD Card Reader, Kensington Lock Slot
Camera: Widescreen HD webcam
Battery: Battery
Dimensions: 11-17 x 357 x 235mm (H x W x D), 1.78kg
RRP: RM8,299 84WHr Ultra HD (720p) Integrated 3.0 ports, one on the left and another on the right, an SD card reader, a HDMI, a Thunderbolt 3 port, and of course a headphone/mic jack.
However, this laptop doesn’t come with an RJ-45 LAN port, which isn’t a problem as most of us are connected to the net via WiFi anyway.
Much like the smaller XPS 13, the XPS 15 comes with Dell’s InfinityEdge display, which means it comes with extremely thin bezels that are only 5mm thin. Users will get plenty of screen real-estate, which is great for those who love watching videos and movies on their laptops, as well as for multi-taskers who constantly have multiple windows open. As for performance, Dell sent me the highest-end variant, which comes with Intel’s latest Core i7-6700HQ CPU, 16GB of DDR4 RAM, a 512GB PCIe Solid State Drive and NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX 960M GPU. With all these components together, you get quite a powerful device that breezes through just about any task you put before it. Multi-tasking was a breeze, and I easily jumped from Microsoft Word, to Google Chrome (with multiple tabs opened), to Spotify without any slowdown whatsoever. For those who like a little spot of gaming, this device was able to handle games like Fallout 4 and Middle-earth: Shadows of Mordor with the graphics set on High . The XPS 15 ran those games with an average of 30 to 40 frames per second. One issue I do have with the XPS 15 is its battery life. While it wasn’t exactly bad, it wasn’t exactly great either. Throughout my testing period, I used it mainly for typing articles while streaming music, and also browsing the web, with occasional video streaming via YouTube. And while doing all these, the battery only lasted about five to six hours before I had to plug in the charger. At the end of the day though, the Dell XPS 15 is quite an impressive device and would cater to most types of users. It doesn’t matter if you want a workhorse or entertainment machine, this laptop excels at both. The variant we reviewed comes with quite a steep retail price, so if you don’t need that amount of horsepower, it’ll be best to look at the mid-range or even the entry-level variant, which are still quite powerful and feature-packed in their own right.