The already superior Dell XPS 15 is improved by OLED. There’s nothing else you need to know, really. Over the past ten years, I’ve seen dozens of OLED screens, and each time, they’ve impressed me. They look bolder and capture deep blacks better than most LCD screens simply by virtue of their design. So when you combine that with the most recent Intel and NVIDIA hardware, you have an ultraportable powerhouse that is unstoppable. also you can check our article on Dell XPS 15 OLED review.
Design
The XPS 15 OLED, which arrives with a familiar design pioneered by the XPS models we saw years ago, is basically a larger XPS, with a carbon fiber interior and aluminum exterior. A combination of black and silver, it’s a sleek laptop with a sleek line, as it forms angles down the side, and a great looking machine, to boot. Although it’s a bit large, Dell has managed to keep this 15-inch computer as small as possible, thanks in part to the display, which has incredibly thin bezels that keep the gorgeous OLED screen in place. With a bezel that measures about 4mm on the left and right, Dell’s 15-inch OLED is nearly edge-to-edge, and the screen practically bleeds into the real world. It’s a lovely look, a perfect match for the professional styling exhibited by the carbon fiber and metal body, and more pleasing to the eye even than the 15-inch XPS 2-in-1 we saw in 2019.
Keyboard and Touchpad
Although those used to smaller laptops may find the keyboard and trackpad to be a little too broad, they are nevertheless excellent as usual. With just a little more resistance than scissor switches, the backlit keys are comfortable to type on, but not enough to compromise accuracy and quickness. The trackpad feels lovely to touch and just as responsive. Additionally, it’s enormous, giving you a tone of room to work with when you’re producing material. The only drawback is that it’s so big that some people can forget to remove their pinky and ring fingers from it. Otherwise, it might lead to unintentional presses. This laptop has powerful stereo speakers with two upward firing, 2.5W woofers and two 1.5W tweeters. When Midnight Mass is playing on the laptop in the living room, we can hear it clearly from the bedroom, which is very astounding for a laptop. The audio quality is excellent as well; it is crisp and clear, bright, and has a lot of bass. Songs by Twin Shadow sound fantastic on it; the midrange is a little thin, but the highs are strong. At higher volumes, it does become slightly distorted, but it’s not too bad.
Dell XPS 15 OLED review: Display
Our test model comes with the same 3.5K OLED touchscreen that was available on last year’s XPS 15 9510, meaning the visual experience hasn’t changed year over year. A lower resolution 1920 x 1200 IPS option and a higher resolution 3840 x 2400 IPS option are also available, but all panels are unfortunately limited to a 60 Hz refresh rate. Some Ultrabooks such as the Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 7i Pro or the Asus Vivobook Pro 14 are already shipping with faster 90 Hz panels for a noticeably smoother UI experience. It should be noted that pulse width modulation is present at all brightnesses at 238 Hz from 0 percent to 25 percent brightness and at 59 Hz from 26 percent to 100 percent brightness. If screen flickering is a problem, then we recommend configuring with IPS instead.
Audio
Please pardon the slang, but these speakers are rockin’. When the chorus of Slenderbodies’ “superpowerful” burst into a whirlwind of electric guitar twangs and drum rhythms interlacing smooth, strong vocals, we automatically bopped our heads to it. We could hear the finger snaps behind the electric guitar plucks and low falsettos in this intricate song’s sophisticated arrangement, which each instrument had its own spot in the soundstage. The Killers’ “Mr. Brightside,” a song that generally devolves into a cacophony of loud noises on most computers I test, was used to throw the speakers for a loop. On the XPS 15, though, the vocals took centre stage, and the overlapping guitar twangs were beautifully separated. Owners of prior XPS 15 models can find comfort in the fact that this new model’s sound quality is noticeably superior. We’ll venture a guess and say the XPS 15’s quad speakers are potent enough to blast clear, dynamic music through your dorm hall, even though we were never cool enough to host a college party. So, instead of following our usual advice, use your laptop to jam out instead of the computer speakers.
Graphics and gaming
The XPS 15 OLED comes with faster RAM than in the XPS 15 OLED (DDR5-4800 vs. DDR4-3200) which should lead to slightly faster graphics performance. Unfortunately, Dell has reduced the GPU clock frequency from 1530 MHz on the XPS 15 OLED to 1035 MHz on the 9520, so any potential performance gains from the faster RAM have been negated. GeForce RTX 3050 Ti 3DMark results between the XPS 15 OLED and 9520 are nearly identical. Graphics performance is still 20 to 30 percent faster than the GTX 1650 Ti in the older XPS 15 OLED. also you will learn our article on Dell XPS 15 OLED review. We utilize two DirectX 12 game simulations from UL’s 3DMark to assess graphics: Time Spy and Night Raid (the latter being more subdued and appropriate for laptops with integrated graphics) (more demanding, suitable for gaming rigs with discrete GPUs). Additionally, we run two tests from the cross-platform GFXBench 5, which puts a strain on both high-level, game-like image rendering and low-level tasks like texturing. Its tests for graphics and compute shaders in 1440p Aztec Ruins and 1080p Car Chase, produced offscreen to support various display resolutions, use hardware tessellation and OpenGL, respectively.
Dell XPS 15 OLED review: Performance
With an Intel Core i7-11800H CPU and Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 Ti GPU, along with 16GB of memory, the Dell XPS 15 OLED (2021) is designed with the most demanding users in mind. It’s certainly a nice upgrade over the GTX 1650 Ti in the Dell XPS 15 (2020), but is it enough for creative professionals? The Dell XPS 15 OLED (2021) handles some demanding tasks with ease, such as when you have more than 20 browser tabs open at the same time, a couple of them with streaming programs, Spotify and Microsoft Outlook. It’s nimble and stays cool under pressure. Next to the more powerful Dell XPS 17 (2021), it holds its own and is no slouch in the dust, achieving 1,541 single-core points in GeekBench 5 and 9,642 points in Cinebench R23 alongside the 17-incher’s scores of 1,574 and 9,923, respectively. However, even the RTX 3050 Ti is no match for the RTX 3060 in the XPS 17. It scored much better than its predecessors, but far below its larger counterpart. This shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise, however. It performs smoothly in Adobe Photoshop, but it’s not as snappy (or quiet) handling 10 or more high-resolution images in Adobe Lightroom. In fact, it feels slightly sluggish, almost on par with our 2019 13-inch MacBook Pro, which only has Intel Iris Plus graphics inside. If you’re looking for a laptop for graphics-intensive workloads, you’ll be better off with the larger model. However, if you just want something for general productivity, multitasking, and a lot of media consumption, this is the laptop to get, especially with the gorgeous OLED display.
Battery life
We weren’t thrilled with the Dell XPS 15 2021’s 7-hour battery life. Luckily, this year’s model lasts much longer. While the latest XPS 15 doesn’t boast the longest-lasting battery like the MacBook Pro M2, it should be enough to last a full workday. In our battery test, which involves continuous web browsing at 150 nits of screen brightness, the XPS 15 lasted 10 hours and 5 minutes. That’s a significant improvement over last year’s Dell XPS 15 OLED 2021, which lasted less than 8 hours in the same test. Now that the 2022 model lasts more than 10 hours in our battery test, it beats the Lenovo Yoga 9i Gen 7 (8:06) and blows away the Alienware x14 (5:35). However, the 16-inch MacBook Pro beats it with 15 hours and 31 minutes of battery life.
Dell XPS 15 OLED review: Heat
With the heat dispersed by its large metal chassis, the XPS 15 never caught a fever. In fact, it only warmed up to the average human body temperature of 98 degrees Fahrenheit after playing a 15-minute video at 1080p. That’s slightly above our comfort threshold of 95 degrees, but nothing to worry too much about. Better yet, the keyboard and touchpad reached only 92 and 75 degrees, respectively.
Configuration options
On Dell’s website, the Dell XPS 15 OLED 2022 is currently offered with a $1,449 starting price. This set-up has a 15.6-inch FHD (1920 x 1200) 60Hz monitor, a 12th generation Intel Core i5-12500H processor, 16GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, and Intel UHD graphics. The most expensive model includes a Core i9-12900HK CPU, an Nvidia RTX 3050 Ti mobile GPU, 64GB of RAM, 2TB of storage, and a 15.6-inch 4K (3840 x 2400) 60Hz touch screen. Our review unit has a 15.6-inch 3.5K (3456 x 2160) OLED 60Hz touch display, a Core i7-12700H CPU, an Nvidia 3050 Ti GPU, 16GB of RAM, and a 512GB SSD. The 3.5K display is the only OLED option, and it looks fantastic in person. This model costs $3,579. you can read our article on Dell XPS 15 OLED review.
Conclusion
The Dell XPS 15 OLED provides the goods for content makers with its durable and elegant shell, gorgeous OLED display, and competitive performance with the latest Intel chips and GeForce RTX graphics. The XPS 15 OLED may be a little bit heavy for everyday commuting, but office workers seeking a productivity device with a premium appearance and spacious display will also find a lot to appreciate about it. But er hope Dell would upgrade the display to a 16-inch 16:10 panel as it probably won’t be used for everyday commuting.
