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  • rhx123 - Friday, December 23, 2016 - link

    I wonder if this will again have a poorly implemented TB3 port that only runs at half the PCIe bandwith it should.
  • BillBear - Friday, December 23, 2016 - link

    It doesn't offer two Thunderbolt controllers yielding four Thunderbolt ports, so why would it run out of available PCI lanes from the CPU?
  • rhx123 - Friday, December 23, 2016 - link

    The TB3 controller is only connected to the chipset via 2 PCIe lanes. Either a BIOS issue or hardware.
  • ddriver - Friday, December 23, 2016 - link

    Intel's mobile chips often have a very limited number of pcie lanes. You can't connect to lanes you don't have. Also, for most of the TB devices it is a non-issue, still plenty of bandwidth for even the most demanding devices.
  • Pneumothorax - Friday, December 23, 2016 - link

    I think the biggest hindrance is the 1/2 PCIe lanes really hits the performance of a eGPU TB3 implementation.
  • ddriver - Friday, December 23, 2016 - link

    It will be probably like a 5% hit, most likely hidden by the cpu bottleneck. IIRC pci-e 2 x4 vs x16 had negligible difference. And th3 at 50% is pretty much pci-e 2 x4. Bandwidth is mostly important for asset loading, and this usually happens in between levels, not during gameplay.

    Besides the XPS is not really a gaming product. eGPU will be a corner case.
  • Samus - Friday, December 23, 2016 - link

    Exactly. You are unlikely to notice a performance hit unless you have a massive GPU. Besides, this already has an embedded GPU, all you need TB3 and USB-C for are accessories, data storage and monitors. TB3 on two lanes can easily drive a pair of 4K monitors.
  • johnp_ - Saturday, December 24, 2016 - link

    I'd rather have a version without the mobile GPU and then connect the now free PCIe lanes to 1 or more Thunderbolt ports + use the space for battery. The Intel HD Graphics is powerful enough for all my mobile usage and and anything more demanding (e.g. gaming) is usually contained to specific places, where one or more external and more powerful GPU(s) can easily be attached to the device anyway.
  • Nexing - Saturday, December 24, 2016 - link

    +1
    The Audio PRO world is also needing the XPS 15 mobility with a still large screen, together with a Thunderbolt port (because its extreme low latency), to be used with the now ubiquitous and not expensive Thunderbolt DACs (DigitalAnalogueConvertor).
    Those standards are nowadays a given, thus it would be welcomed if a second Thunderbolt port feeds either widescreens when at the studio, or translates into USB3, eSata or whatever good connector in order to hook up the Virtual Instruments and extensive Libraries from hopefully biggish SSDs.
    This way DELL's 2017 15 XPS may very well become the centerpiece of several mobile audio (and possibly video) professionals. It will indeed be the "up to this time" powerful Macbook, that was not released some weeks ago.
  • ddriver - Monday, December 26, 2016 - link

    Several audio interface makers have already been able to implement a walk-around for USB audio latency by using proprietary protocols supported at driver levels. That pretty much renders the latency advantage of TB obsolete. Plus TB audio interfaces are still at TB2 and adapters are costly. It is simply not worth it, as a TB audio interface comes with a hefty price jack already.

    TB still has a slight edge, but the difference is not as pronounced as compared to previous generation USB interfaces, so it is really not worth the price premium. Because at extremely low round trip latency, hardware becomes the bottleneck, so when you throw real time processing in the mix, the end difference is minuscule. For example, a TB interface may have as low as 2 msec round-trip latency, while a USB interface comes with an additional 1 msec penalty, so for unprocessed audio TB has a 50% advantage, but when you throw even some basic processing at it, that will add like 2 more msecs, making 4 for TB vs 5 for USB, advantage dwindles to 25%.

    For a practical real world scenario the advantage of TB vs "hacked" USB is negligible. At this point the price premium for TB is simply NOT worth it. For example, a scarlett 2i2 costs 150$ while a clarett 2 - the comparable TB product is 500$. That's 333% higher price for like 10% lower latency. Simply not worth it. All TB products are shamelessly overpriced, thanks a lot intel...
  • ddriver - Monday, December 26, 2016 - link

    Actually a small correction, scarlett 2i2 doesn't have the midi io and the digital in. So if we compare it to say the 6i6, which IMO has the edge in terms of functionality (you can't use the clarett extra digital in without additional hardware) it is still half the price.

    The 18i20 is 500$, so the highes end USB interface is the same price as the entry level TB interface. Not a good deal that TB...
  • Nexing - Tuesday, December 27, 2016 - link

    @ddriver
    Regarding your afirmation; "interface makers have already been able to implement a walk-around for USB audio latency by using proprietary protocols supported at driver levels".
    Until a bare couple of years ago, the only DAC manufacturer with a successful USB implementation was RME, still with as low as 5 to 6ms all round latency with very streamlined hardware/software configurations.
    Technicaly at 2016, we are witnessing DACs pivotal evolution in terms of latency; yes from 5 to 10 or more, going now into 2 to 3ms together with a very noticeable improvement of sound to noise ratios, usually from 95 dBs (on DACs like the ones you mention above) right up to 110 to 120 dBs in nowadays DACs like marvelous Focusrite Clarett line, costing from $500 to $799 for specs that only last year was attainable for no less than $1300 (with luck).

    That said USB Pro Audio related problems are inherent to the system processing interrupts proper of the low level access to memory that USB has. Even the phased out Firewire connector has DMA (Direct Memory Access), same as Thunderbolt, something that USB doesn't.
    Even an old connector as RJ-45 (via Dante) is way up better than USB in terms of latency, though DACs implementing are still very expensive.
    For me a mobile/center piece like DELL XPS 15, with (hopefully) two TB3s would be a deciding piece of gear to invest on.
  • ddriver - Tuesday, December 27, 2016 - link

    The lack of DMA is not all that detrimental because audio is fairly low bandwidth. This is evident from the fact that firewire interfaces show to tangible latency improvements to usb. Finally, usb 3.1 does have DMA and it is highly likely that we will see audio interfaces utilizing that in 2017.

    "RME only" is a rather snobbish attitude of a small subset of people who are into audio production. There has been a plethora of very high quality USB audio interface for many years. While RME was definitely top notch in terms of quality, when it comes to price performance ratio it was pretty much at the bottom due to inflated prices.

    DAC latency is unavoidable, and there isn't really any room for improvement, because of how DACs work, that is converting continuous to discrete simply has to do some buffering, therefore latency is unavoidable, and also fairly static.

    The DAC is not a pivoting point, as modern interfaces have numerous DACs, it is the microcontroller that receives the audio and interfaces it to the computer that matter. And the driver on the computer side. Using the default USB audio specification alone adds like 4-5 msec of latency, which dwarfs the 1 msec polling latency of USB. By working around that through implementing a proprietary driver to replace the latent default audio implementation you can put usb interfaces back on the table.

    I have a live setup around a second gen scarlett 18i8 with live DSP on like 20 channels, and I don't mean a plugin or two total, but a plugin or two on each of those 20 channels, and I get rock-solid operation at 10 msec total latency, which is good enough, below the threshold of perception, and identical to listening to your guitar amp from 3 meters. And this is a live, concert setup. For studio work and offline processing latency is even less of an issue.

    So I am not overly keen on spending 100% price premium on TB on account of its hype. Plus very few PCs come with TB, especially workstation mobos, because lets be real, nobody uses ultrabooks for serious audio production, what people use is high performance rackmount workstations.
  • Nexing - Wednesday, December 28, 2016 - link

    @ddriver,
    Unlike you, I need computers for live performance, something hundreds of thousands of people do most everyday around the planet. In these cases latency matters. Add then it is not just the musicans, the FOH technicians plus the lights and video projection people, so at least three teams per event will need such powerful and portable "ultrabook". And we don't want/risk carrying Precisions around, but light, upgradeable, well constructed, thin bezel 15 XPS are almost perfect.
    About latency perception; 5ms is common for percussionist and something not far from this number gets troubling for DJs, who compare the attack of beats. The 10 ms figure you cite is assumed for live musicians (using monitoring systems and for their ensemble work).
    Again, you may utilize USB (2.0 or 3.0) with very streamlined hardware/software sets -as your scarlett based one-, but 2016's live software requires the usage of plugins for the incredible sound effects common nowadays... and there is where the problem starts!! You need powerful CPUs when you are running 6 to 10 simultaneous Ableton live tracks each with several demanding plugins. And contrary to the usual numbers/arguments the hardware is barely there. For such scenarios 2017 DELL XPS with Thunderbolt 3, weighting less than 2 kilos and with a 15" screen theoretically will achieve smooth operation, audio glitch free performances up to a point, because -as a musician/performer- you want to add more effects live (try Zynaptic Pitchmap) and you reach a point when SUCH setup chokes very soon, and I am not even considering any Spectral audio software tool, because gear is still many years far from ready for live performance with that whole category of software.
    As you accept, musicians at studio work still have to wait seconds and even minutes that top notch computers require to complete normal audio tasks, this is a fact not many people at these tech sites seem to know.
  • Nexing - Wednesday, December 28, 2016 - link

    @ddriver
    Plus you have to state that most probably you had to disable your wifi, bluetooth, many windows services and what not? limiting configuration in order to achieve "second gen scarlett 18i8 with live DSP on like 20 channels,(...) rock-solid operation at 10 msec total latency.".
    Then you install most any common software for video, printer... a windows update and your "live set up" starts to produce glitches or worst. Thunderbolt is a way to spare that out from the live equation, and also from a problem free general usage. Most people is far from the care you had to apply to you system, for sure, and want to use the tools and effects at hand. Something that in the last decades, I have been helping/servicing people systems applying from minor to extreme measures in order to get to a functional point for Audio set ups, live or in studio. At 2017 this is finally ending. Musicians won't need to specialize in configuring a PC, These are good news. And the mature XPS line seems for such recommendation.
  • ddriver - Wednesday, December 28, 2016 - link

    Nope, there is no need to do that. Well, all those things are disabled, because that particular machine serves one specific purpose only, it sits in a rack and it doesn't even have a display connected, so everything that is not essential to its job is disabled.

    But I also have a smaller scarlett on my desktop workstation and latency is just as good with wifi and bluetooth and all services and whatnot enabled, and it is a system with a lot of hardware on it. It is only bad drivers that cause glitches, and such drivers will cause glitches with TB as well, just like they cause glitches with internal PCIe audio interfaces. Performance is rock solid, even considering some extreme cases, when I'd be tracking audio to video in real time, with the video processing happening at the same time, and video processing is immensely more taxing than audio processing. Still rock solid 10 msec round-trip latency, it could possibly go even lower than that, but there is no need to, I prefer to be a little extra generous with the buffering which is also softer on the CPU.

    And 10 msec is pretty darn good for any case, even if you are say a technical death metal drummer who blasts like crazy at 250 BPM. I've produced a few of those, no complains on latency. What really kills it is the flanging effect you get from phase fighting, which is evident even at as low as 1 msec latency, but the remedy for that is simple - just cut out the dry audio, use isolation headphones or whatever. You should not trust too much what arbitrary people say, I've heard people who say that vocals are even more sensitive to latency than drums, which is laughable, considering that voice doesn't have nowhere near the attack of percussion, and if you put those snobs to a blind test you'd realize they will epically fail to tell 5 msec latency from 15, much like every form of audiophile out there.

    As for people who buy cheap gear and expect it will work for everything - that's their own problem. Whether you or someone else - things always have to be tested. Do you know that the XPS will have good drivers? Do you know what its DPC latency will be in advance of any retail units? I've seen people buy crazy expensive workstation laptops, hook up an audio interface and get crazy dropouts. Because an "audio workstation" is not just about any workstation, there are specific requirements. I personally don't think it is in people's interest if they know nothing about nothing and get things just handed to them. The less you know the less you can do. And it is not like it is saving your mental capacity to use for other things, people are just lazy dummies who hate learning new things to their own detriment.
  • ddriver - Wednesday, December 28, 2016 - link

    Nice try, however, nobody in the world uses software plugins for high end setups. They don't use PC audio interfaces either, they use huge ass digital mixing consoles which have everything done in hardware and has pretty much zero latency. Their only latency is the ADCs and the DACs, resulting in about 1 msec of latency total, including all the processing. Concerts use truckloads of gear, entire racks with dedicated analog and digital sound processors, which are used as channel inserts. Nobody cares about lightweight ultrabooks whose performance is garbage compared to a decent workstation.

    Nobody who matters in the live sound industry uses computers or plugins or any of that nonsense. Also, live sound is about something different than quality entirely, even the world's best live sound guys' setups sound like crap compared to a modestly produced studio recording, because live sound is shit, it is not about sound quality, it is about the show, at those arbitrary venues with acoustics that would vary throughout the show, at those levels of power "quality" is the least concern. What people care the most is make instruments as audible as possible and make everything as loud as possible without producing feedback loops. A lot of the big ass concert grade digital mixing consoles are still 16bit/48khz because that's just cheaper and easier and nobody on the show will ever be able to tell the difference between that and 24/192 audio.
  • drajitshnew - Monday, December 26, 2016 - link

    I think almost any eGPU implementation will be at least 1070-- anything else does not make sense.
    Further, as I have already said a lack of PCIe lanes is a DESIGN DECISION rather than a CPU restriction. Probably to protect alien ware
  • qap - Saturday, December 24, 2016 - link

    Difference between x4 and x16 of PCIe 2.0 is NOT negligible. For GTX 1080 it is around 15% on average in FullHD (i wount be giving link for competing site, but you can find the test). That would be acceptable. Unfortunately it is extremely variable between games and for example in Far Cry, Just Cause or Warhammer it is around 30%. And most of the difference is between x4 and x8.
  • Rampart - Sunday, December 25, 2016 - link

    The main problem is less about the hit to the GPU and more about any kind of CPU bottleneck from a mobile chip.
  • Flying Aardvark - Friday, December 30, 2016 - link

    @qap yes it is negligible. Peak FPS rates drop but that doesn't matter. Minimums aren't effected. 1080P GF1080 FPS drops don't matter at all. Once you get to 4K, you'll see barely any drop at all.
  • WorldWithoutMadness - Friday, December 23, 2016 - link

    It is an issue for flagship. If you can buy this, most likely you can buy a egpu TB box as well in near future for extra GPU ommmph
  • drajitshnew - Monday, December 26, 2016 - link

    Since the dGPU is 1050 I don't think that 8 PCI lanes would hobble it. And quad core chips, even mobile have the usual 20 lanes.
  • danwat1234 - Friday, December 23, 2016 - link

    The 7700HQ is 2.8GHZ/3.8GHZ is anyone wanted to know! Vs 6700HQ of 2.6GHZ/3.5GHZ. via laptopmedia article.
  • lianthus - Friday, December 23, 2016 - link

    I own the 9550, it's the only system in my home using an intel chipset and one of two that uses an nvidia card. It's also the only system in my home that BSOD's. And it doesn't just BSOD every once in a while, it does it all the time. I have 11 computer systems that are running 24/7, not one BSOD in literally years. The only other computer that has an nvidia gpu is also the only other computer that crashes, because of overheating. If dell releases an xps model with a ryzen chip and radeon gpu then I'll consider buying one again. I cannot believe that for a computer that cost so much it is so incredibly unreliable. This is the only time I've regretted purchasing a computer.
  • Lolimaster - Friday, December 23, 2016 - link

    Skylake was kind of bugged for mobile devices, specially tablets, not only Kabylake is a rename but a hotfix. There have been less issues with systems running the Phenom I with the TLB bug than Skylake in mobile.
  • enealDC - Friday, December 23, 2016 - link

    I had a similar experience when I first got my XPS 9550. I narrowed it down to the driver for the Intel embedded gfx. I downgraded to like the initial release and after that, I've never had a problem again. And I'm talking about this thing would crash at least once per day.
  • Morawka - Friday, December 23, 2016 - link

    Download this and report back.. It gives more information on whats causing the BSOD's.. see what .dll file is hanging, and pay close attention to any reported items in Red

    http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/blue_screen_view.html
  • Meteor2 - Saturday, December 24, 2016 - link

    Obvious your device is faulty. Why haven't you returned it?

    And, _11_ systems? Why?
  • Michael Bay - Saturday, December 24, 2016 - link

    Because it`s a shill.
  • lianthus - Saturday, December 24, 2016 - link

    My brother owns the same device and it reacts the same way. I have read other reviews that also talk about having driver issues. These issues are known to Intel and Nvidia with no fix available.
  • Flying Aardvark - Friday, December 30, 2016 - link

    Yeah it's off my list for this reason. There's a long list of issues with the XPS lineup. BSODs are a common complaint. https://www.reddit.com/r/Dell/comments/5jmijp/chan...
  • vladx - Friday, December 23, 2016 - link

    No Ethernet port, pass.
  • dark4181 - Friday, December 23, 2016 - link

    Thunderbolt to ethernet adapter.
  • vladx - Friday, December 23, 2016 - link

    Fuck that, I don't like wasting other ports or having cables stick out of my laptop when they could've just made it a few mm ticker.
  • secretanchitman - Friday, December 23, 2016 - link

    I mean, it's been more than 3 years since the XPS 15 was announced and it never came with a gigabit ethernet port to begin with, so no idea why you are expecting one now on this refreshed model.
  • vladx - Friday, December 23, 2016 - link

    Hey man if you like being suckered in having less functionality, that's your problem.
  • chipped - Saturday, December 24, 2016 - link

    No one is being sucked in, ports are dropped slowly over the years. You seem to be completely ignorant of how computers evolve, you musty be like 12 and your ports you gew up with are leaving you haha...

    Some ports I've lost over the years but I'm quite happy without.

    Printer ports
    Serial
    DVD/CD drives
    PS2 ports
    Floppy
    Ethernet ( 50/50 availability )
    USB-A will be next
  • HomeworldFound - Sunday, December 25, 2016 - link

    Don't forget the game/joystick port on the sound card.
  • close - Saturday, December 24, 2016 - link

    @vladx, Nobody's being suckered into anything. You're here to act all superior asking for an ethernet port only to complain later that 'you don't want cables sticking out'. Even you don't know what you want besides to sound interesting. It's an ultrabook, it's meant to be portable. If you want to use it on the desk get a docking station, if you want to move than an ethernet cable isn't really the best idea, is it?

    This is clearly not for you so why don't you go to McD and complain about theit non-vegetarian Big Mac?
  • vladx - Saturday, December 24, 2016 - link

    Unfortunately the 15" laptops that have an Ethernet port and are also light don't offer all the options a XPS does. So I'm sorry to tell you but your analogy doesn't work in this case.
  • forgot2yield28 - Saturday, December 24, 2016 - link

    The whole point of the XPS 15 is to pack in major performance into an almost-ultrabook like body. If you want more functionality, get an Inspiron 7000 series. You get similar internals plus the ethernet port, in a comparatively chunky (but still nice looking) plastic body. No one's being suckered, the company is giving you options and XPS buyers prioritize thin-and-light. I need to run AutoCAD on 4 hour coast to coast flights but I have almost 0 need for gigabit ethernet. This thing sounds fantastic.
  • vladx - Saturday, December 24, 2016 - link

    That's my point, they could make it a few mm thicker to pack an Ethernet port and still call it an ultrabook as the upper limit oir the class is around 0.8 inches. There's no such ultrabook only because suckers like you are willing to spend on additional adapters and hubs.
  • lazarpandar - Saturday, December 24, 2016 - link

    Man you're being unnecessarily aggressive right now. Stop calling people suckers please. Just go out and find a notebook that matches your needs. I personally am, and many others are 100% fine using an adapter in the rare situations that I need ethernet.
    Lenovo has an ultrabook with ethernet iirc, by the way.
  • vladx - Saturday, December 24, 2016 - link

    Like I already said, there's no 15" laptop that offers as many options as an XPS and is also light and well built like it. You can call me a troll or whatever, but facts are facts.
  • lazarpandar - Saturday, December 24, 2016 - link

    Facts aren't what I'm disputing here, it's your delivery. Stop being adversarial and calling people names please.
  • Manch - Monday, December 26, 2016 - link

    ASUS Zenbook Pro has the same exact specs as the XPS. Just as thin. It is larger over all bc bezel, but it has a full KB to include # pad which I like. Also the SSD doesn't throttle like the XPS. Comes with a USB/Ethernet port adapter. It's well built and has similar reviews to the XPS.
  • Manch - Monday, December 26, 2016 - link

    You don't like wasting other ports or having cables stick out of your laptop? So why would you care about a Ethernet port? An adapter isn't that bulky. Plugs the cable into the adapter and then into the usb. When done, put the adapter away. Yeah they could sacrifice a USB port for an Ethernet port but why? More USB is better. USB is more versatile than an Ethernet port. You don't suffer from less functionality, you have more.
  • Flying Aardvark - Thursday, December 29, 2016 - link

    That's what a dock is for.
  • Meteor2 - Saturday, December 24, 2016 - link

    How would an adapter work if you wanted to use a second USB-C device? Use a hub too?

    The main thing wrong with this design is having just one port of the new standard. Apple did it right with four on the new MacBook Pros.
  • perseid - Saturday, December 24, 2016 - link

    I have both a USB3 and USBC to ethernet adapters, bought them from Amazon Basics and work perfectly, and arenot bulky at all, easy to travel with. I also use a mouse and external wireless keyboard. I do this both with the 9550 and windows tablets that I've used, nothing replaces the comfort of a desktop experience with mobile devices.
  • Spunjji - Wednesday, December 28, 2016 - link

    They took out all the other ports, though, so I wouldn't call their approach "doing it right".
  • ddriver - Friday, December 23, 2016 - link

    Yeah because the lack of wired network for an ultra portable device is such a hindrance LOL. But let's be honest, you'd never buy it even if it had an ethernet port.

    "I don't like wasting other ports or having cables stick out of my laptop" - thus you want an ethernet port to have an ethernet cable sticking out.

    Nice try LOL, now move along.
  • vladx - Friday, December 23, 2016 - link

    Lol stfu everyone knows you're the biggest troll around here.
  • ddriver - Friday, December 23, 2016 - link

    The difference is I never get caught with my pants down, making illogical, pointless or contradictory statements. It is only clueless trolls that could consider me a troll, but that has only got to do with their own issues. Pretty much the default and only response an idiot has to being proven to be an idiot - "You are an idiot!". Like that ever worked LOL.
  • lazarpandar - Saturday, December 24, 2016 - link

    You're the biggest troll in this thread tho, vladx
  • ajp_anton - Saturday, December 24, 2016 - link

    At some point, when USB-C chargers become more wirely used, I hope the charger blocks start to include extra USB ports (to charge phones while being connected to the computer) as well as ethernet, which then connect to the laptop via USB 3.1 while charging.
  • Michael Bay - Monday, December 26, 2016 - link

    Charger as a dock station of sot could be nice, but it would also go against the trend of chargers getting smaller and that unification thing already happening on phones.
  • Flying Aardvark - Friday, December 30, 2016 - link

    Your reason for passing is definitely different from mine. I'm passing because it has a lot of useless ports. I want all USB-C that support DisplayPort/HDMI/TB3/USB3.1 with no adapters, just straight through cables like the new MBPs support. Rather than ports I won't use like HDMI, I'd rather have 4+ USB-C that support most protocols.
  • Magichands8 - Friday, December 23, 2016 - link

    I have absolutely no interest in this as they haven't done anything to improve the key travel. The fact that this matches the same dimensions of the prior model tells me they don't even know what the problem is.
  • Pneumothorax - Friday, December 23, 2016 - link

    The XPS 15 keyboard is godly compared to the 2016 Macbook Pro with it's POC keyboard.
  • mtalinm - Friday, December 23, 2016 - link

    ugh, I absolutely hate the keyboard on my XPS15. my son has an XPS13 and its keyboard is not as bad. I hope but don't expect they will fix it
  • Spunjji - Wednesday, December 28, 2016 - link

    Word. That thing sucks ass.
  • ddriver - Friday, December 23, 2016 - link

    Because it is not a problem. Typing experience is great for a device in that form factor.
  • Benbush - Friday, December 23, 2016 - link

    1. Its 9650, not 9560.
    2. You're very late on the news; it's obvious you copied from another news site.
    3. When you copy, please give credit, not just "sources" right at the bottom of the article.
    4. When you copy, get the details right.
    I'm so disappointed to find these kind of pages. I won't be returning to anandtech.
  • negusp - Friday, December 23, 2016 - link

    1. What makes you think it's a 9650? Straight from the site: http://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/productdetails/xps-...
    2. Makes you think it's that late/copied? I don't see explicitly copied text.
    3/4. Next time you troll, get your details right.
  • Meteor2 - Saturday, December 24, 2016 - link

    Lol
  • cheinonen - Friday, December 23, 2016 - link

    I'm going to assume that should be 2x USB 3.0 headers and not USB 2.0 headers in the text.
  • taisingera - Friday, December 23, 2016 - link

    So there is no USB3.0 type A port, but 2 USB2.0 ports? I can't stand when Dell only puts 1 USB3.0 on their laptops, and 2 USB2.0 ports. Also, is that i3-7100hq a typo? How does the dual core i3 have a Q in the model number?
  • sharath.naik - Saturday, December 24, 2016 - link

    4k on a 15 inch display for windows is a terrible mistake. I am saying this becuase i have a thinkpad p50 4k. So, for the summary before the long rant. 4k makes for a blurry experience, that eats battery life, plays games really slow, and makes external monitor a bad experience. 1440p would solve every one of these issues and be the sharpest screen you will get.
    1. Native 4k is unusable/unreadable, even 125% DPI is unreadable.
    2. It only becomes readable at 150% DPI. Though does strain when used for longer duration. 150% DPI is essentialy 1440p screen equivalent.
    3. AND HERE IS THE WORST PART DPI SCALING IS BLURRY IN WINDOWS,EXCEPT FOR SELECT APPLICATIONS LIKE THE BROWSER. Even some of the windows right click menus are blurry. Sad part is there is no fix for this. Changing the native resolution to 1440p. Makes everything evenly blurry and helps with some of the glarring changes in sharpness.
    4. Some applications does not follow DPI settings and show in tiny unreadable text. Wish windows has option to override as and force scaling per app, but they dont have that option.
    5. Lastly, if you want to use an external monitor together with this the DPI scaling difference between the screens makes windows even more blurry when moving between them. I think this is pure windows issue
  • ngrandma - Saturday, December 24, 2016 - link

    When the 4K monitor is set to 1080p is the battery life equivalent to a 1080p model?
  • sharath.naik - Saturday, December 24, 2016 - link

    No, the battery life does not improve. The reason is the panel is always functioning in 4k. There is a 1080P to 4k conversion that happens at the driver level or below before it is rendered on to the screen. And this is why forcing to a lower resolution makes things blurry, it really depends on the driver to perform a good scaling back to 4K. and intel drivers are terrible at this.
  • lazarpandar - Saturday, December 24, 2016 - link

    Additionally, to achieve the same brightness a higher resolution display requires more power, regardless of what is being rendered.
  • fanofanand - Monday, December 26, 2016 - link

    If the intel driver is the culprit wouldn't running the 1050 solve that?
  • tipoo - Tuesday, December 27, 2016 - link

    It would be switching to the Intel GPU when applicable to save power.
  • archon810 - Monday, December 26, 2016 - link

    I had a P50 too, which I returned, and I shared all of your same issues https://plus.google.com/u/0/+ArtemRussakovskii/pos... plus I thought the display they used was abysmal.

    However, this was a year ago, and the fact that even 1080 resolution on a 4K display was blurry makes me think that it was Lenovo doing something wrong. I tried the same on an HP laptop with a 4K display recently, and it was perfectly crisp. So my plan going forward is to try this again with a 4K display and run it in 1080p.
  • archon810 - Monday, December 26, 2016 - link

    P.S. What I tried recently wasn't Intel graphics, but then again, P50 wasn't Intel either.
  • Spunjji - Wednesday, December 28, 2016 - link

    /is writing this on a 5k system at 200% scaling
    Cimpliant apps look fantastic. Non-compliant apps look exactly the same as if they were running at 2.5k. Run the 4K screen at 200% and get the same desktop area as 1080p with greater sharpness in compatible apps and exactly the same sharpness in ones that don't fully comply. Problem solved.
  • rev3rsor - Saturday, December 24, 2016 - link

    Something possibly minor to be disappointed in, but will moving to Killer's 1535 2x2 prove worthwhile over Dell's own previous 3x3 solution?

    An i3-7100HQ, if it's a quad core, is interesting though, and (in any laptop) would make a good entry level quad core editing/etc. laptop.
  • perseid - Saturday, December 24, 2016 - link

    I bought two XPS 9550's and sold them at almost twice the price. WIll keep doing biz with the 9650, but this time I think I will keep one for myself. Spexs finally are tempting.
  • fanofanand - Monday, December 26, 2016 - link

    I believe the article mentioned the i3 being a dual-core. I'm not aware of any quad core i3s having ever existed.
  • SpetsnazAntiVIP - Saturday, December 24, 2016 - link

    It's a shame that Dell would use Killer wifi in this thing. I was thinking about selling my XPS 13 9350 and getting one of these, but not with garbage Killer wifi onboard. I suppose I can swap the wifi card tho...
  • Flunk - Sunday, December 25, 2016 - link

    I have the last gen version, changing the Wi-Fi card is fairly easy.
  • perseid - Sunday, December 25, 2016 - link

    What is the best wi-fi card for use with the Dell XPS 15?
  • Zan Lynx - Tuesday, December 27, 2016 - link

    I've got a 2016 Razor Blade Pro with the Killer WiFi and it seems very solid. I don't understand where all the hate comes from.

    With the bandwidth management turned off it gets a very solid 400 Mbps to a LAN server through my Netgear R7000. And with the management turned on it seems to do very well for gaming and web browsing.
  • Spunjji - Wednesday, December 28, 2016 - link

    It's fine. People are weird.
  • BrokenCrayons - Thursday, December 29, 2016 - link

    Killer NICs are just as capable as any other wireless network adapters. However, the marketing speak used to sell them is questionable. They're advertised as being able to work magic with data packets that offer a better experience when the reality of networking makes it pretty clear the marketing is bogus. Another minor problem is Linux driver support or the lack thereof which, in a few (admittedly VERY few cases) requires a wifi adapter swap. So basically the grief about them is a somewhat over-inflated reaction to the features the company uses in advertising to differentiate their products from less expensive alternatives.
  • nerd1 - Sunday, December 25, 2016 - link

    So much better than new macbook *pro* LOL
  • TEAMSWITCHER - Monday, December 26, 2016 - link

    Let's hop Dell can find it in themselves to spec at least one of the better Intel Multi-IO chips so that this expensive laptop can have more than one Thunderbolt port. The MacBook Pro has FOUR!!! Once you learn the Dell tricks you realize your paying Apple Prices for shitty products.
  • Spunjji - Wednesday, December 28, 2016 - link

    Woohoo, four. For all four thunderbolt 3 peripherals on the market.
  • Ro_Ja - Monday, December 26, 2016 - link

    I have been trying to find a laptop powered by an i3 Skylake in our country but all I see are laptops with
    920M
    920MX
    930MX
    940M
    940MX

    I can deal with 940MX but not 930MX and below, I wouldn't see much difference in performance when the HD 520 or HD 530 is closely par on those and they are killing my choice list! So I stuck with AMD this time.
  • archon810 - Monday, December 26, 2016 - link

    So the keyboard layout on this refreshed XPS 15 is exactly the same? Meaning it's missing PgUp/PgDn/Home/End dedicated keys? I can't believe they keep screwing it up with all that real estate. Developers and power users need these keys.
  • Zhongrui - Monday, December 26, 2016 - link

    Dell XPS laptops have horrible quality. I had a couple of XPS laptops before, all had various problems, for example, wifi died within the 1st month, and died again after DELL replaced the wifi card a couple of times. Go with Macbook Pro. You deserve a good laptop!
  • Xajel - Tuesday, December 27, 2016 - link

    I hope to see a hybrid between XPS 15 and Alienware 15, or to be exact a bumped up version of XPS 15, with 1060 instead of 1050(ti), with the same quality thin bezel 15" display and a little bit thicker to handle the 1060 and a little bit larger battery... the main competitor will be Razer blade 14" it will have almost the same spec. but the display will be larger at 15.4" and the design will be much better than Razer's one... basically the smallest possible 1060 laptop with 15" display. not sacrificing battery life..

    My main usage is productivity including Adobe software and starting to learn Maya also that's why a no smaller than 15" display is a must and the better GPU is good ( for better 3d viewport performance and GPU accelerated video rendering speed )... but I would love to have some casual gaming also... having such system will make it a true desktop replacement for me as it will be strong enough to replace my desktop PC and also portable enough to carry it anywhere... at home I'll keep my old PC as 24/7 + Plex server and get some sort of docking solution to use the laptop instead on the big screen...
  • Lolimaster - Tuesday, December 27, 2016 - link

    The Raven Ridge APU for mobile will pretty much kill gaming machines with dedicated gpu's except the highest end.

    1024SP Vega class gpu 4c/8t,
  • TheinsanegamerN - Tuesday, December 27, 2016 - link

    only if

    A) AMD actually gets this chip out. The kaveri mobile APUs were nearly 10 months late to market. AMD had serious issues getting their low power parts out.

    B) OEMs dont screw AMD again. AMD needs to ensure we are getting quality parts, IE no cheap plastics, RMA wired for single channel even with two sticks, 768p screens, 5200RPM hard drives, cheap plastics, ece.
  • Spunjji - Wednesday, December 28, 2016 - link

    Word to this. I WANT Raven Ridge to succeed, but Intel and NVIDIA don't. Historically AMD don't execute so well even on their great products, either.
  • SharpEars - Tuesday, December 27, 2016 - link

    High glare touch panel if your want 4k. I'll pass on this junk.
  • Lolimaster - Tuesday, December 27, 2016 - link

    It would be better if they ditch the horrible 16:9 in favor of 16:10 or 3:2 displays.
  • Spunjji - Wednesday, December 28, 2016 - link

    Dell: Making Apple's notebook division look useless since 2015.
  • James5mith - Tuesday, January 10, 2017 - link

    Why Dell? Why do you do this?

    The laptop is now available for sale, sans any support for Windows Hello, and no fingerprint reader.
  • Syed_Listening - Wednesday, January 25, 2017 - link

    Great to see PC OEM's Dell , HP , Lenovo offering notebooks with Kabylake so early.. Kabylake i7-7700K - quad-core hyper-threaded CPU is rated the best processor ever from Intel.

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