Dell XPS 15 4K - Many Issues - Help!

So I decided to jump the gun and I returned the FHD model and got the full-tier 4K model as per the suggestions of all the "professionals" on this forum. But I am having a lot of trouble with it. If anyone could help that would be greatly appreciated or I might have to go back to FHD model.

1. All my retouch work is oversaturated in Photoshop CS6 with sRGB color profile assigned to the images, regardless of the monitor profile I chose in Dell Premier Colour compared to my Asus PB278Q monitor at home and even my phone (Microsoft 950XL). The retouch work on my phone and my monitor at home match perfectly in color, even the FHD model I received from Dell when I had it. I tried uninstalling Dell Premier color and downloading the ICC profile under NotebookReview for the UHD model and the Reds/Oranges are still off in Photoshop with the correct profile. I never had to calibrate the FHD model when I got it because sRGB is properly displayed properly on the screen and matched my phone and monitor. I cannot afford a hardware calibrator right now as I just dropped this much on a laptop! lol.

Any solutions for this?

2. The glare - its soooooo bad. I do a lot of dark/horror artwork, the reflections against the black background are unbearable for me. Any solutions?

3. Some of the LED lights on the laptop are not lighting up properly. Might have to send to Dell for repair.

4. I am getting only four hours of battery life of WiFi browsing on maximum brightness (power saver off), do I need to have battery saver on to increase battery life? I do need maximum brightness as I work near a lot of windows and very bright rooms.

 

Color management under Windows is never ending story. Until you'll get an X-Rite calibrator (and you will if you take it seriously) copy srgb profiles from DPC, uninstall it, make sure that intel driver don't affect color saturation, reset Windows color management, install icc profiles, set the one you need as default and that's it. Forget about downloading profiles from Internet. Every screen is different.

 

X-Rite is like over $300 Canadian, won't the Spyder5 Pro do? Or does have to be the X-Rite?

And how do I know if intel driver is affecting color saturation?

What you mentioned sounds like a huge headache just to keep a 4K screen....

 

X-rite is much more accurate. Some intel drivers have a satutarion slider, make sure it's set to 0. If color accuracy is important to you, you will have to calibrate your screen every 4 or 5 weeks but remember that your display has no direct hardware control. You will never get close to what you get with Eizo or Nec displays.

 

Wouldn't it make sense to just go back to a 1080p Screen with 78% AdobeRGB/100% sRGB, instead of using a 4K 100% AdobeRGB/160% sRGB screen?

I just want to match my 4K display with my matte Asus monitor color at home, is that possible???

There is no real-world professional that actually uses AdobeRGB. It just looks like a marketing gimmick from Dell at this point. All the retouchers I know, including myself, contracted for big companies never touch AdobeRGB... Dell what are you doing??

 

Here's a good article about AdobeRGB ans sRGB http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/adobe-rgb.htm

 

Thanks M Kubicki ! I actually already know this about AdobeRGB, my main reason getting the 4K was because of the resolution, but was hoping I can calibrate back down to sRGB. I sent you a message.

 

You must be doing something seriously wrong.
If your picture has an included sRGB profile and color management is setup up correctly in Adobe PS CC the XPS 4K shows correct colors.

p.s. Actually I don't know any real-world professional which does not use an advanced color space during editing. Only the export of the finished result is in the color space of the target device (printer, sRGB, ...)

 

I do know some professional artists who don't have enough clue about colour management although they'd be better off using it, artistic talents don't always come paired with proficiency in computing stuff CM support is unfortunately pretty messy and involved. In addition, on the 9550 certain BIOS-Intel video driver version combinations produced not only flicker but also a bad black-levels issue that was most likely beyond calibration.

For me, DPC did work for toning down the colours. I've removed it because it was buggy after windows version upgrade, but I can still use the colour profiles which I've installed in Windows CM. I'm not sure about non-CM programs, I guess a LUT loader would be required - but I found CM programs for most things (MPC-HC for video).

I think the best option is to buy/borrow a calibrator or have the laptop calibrated by someone competent. The panels are not all the same and DPC profiles can't be perfect for all. I tried the profile from Notebookcheck but it wasn't good for my panel.

Regarding glare, anti-reflective filters exist and were discussed on this forum. Attaching is PITA because of dust, supposedly a steamed bathroom is reasonably dust-free. But if the LEDs are bad, get the panel replaced firstly.

I think 4 hours is not weird with max brightness. Running programs that use the GPU will also drain the battery faster. Try plugging in, using the Dell power companion 18000? Mind the battery is rated for about 300-500 full cycles, and the worst thing is that the cells are prone to inflating lifting up the trackpad...

 

Right now, my only concern are the colors.

I have uninstalled DPC and removed ALL the profile that came installed with DPC.

My only question is, if there is no monitor profile, will Photoshop CS6 still be able to map the correct colors in sRGB?

Does the monitor have to be calibrated in order for Photoshop to show correct colors?

 

Of course it needs calibrating, they only throw on a generic profile, they don't calibrate every panel before it leaves, if they did that they would see just how bad the quality control is and they don't want that!

 

If colors are of your mild concern, try installing (and updating) DPC.

If colors are of your serious concern, forget DPC and go for hardware calibration.

 

I just got my XPS on saturday and was pleased with how DPC worked. I updated to windows 10 creators edition and DPC stopped working. I had to install the latest drivers from nvidia and intel (from the zip not the exe) and then reinstalled DPC and it now works again and does an awesome job. When working in Lightroom/Photoshop/Premiere Pro, I switch to Internet (sRGB) mode which tames the over saturation and looks flatter and more like it does on my other screens. I find color accuracy on in this mode to be very good as stuff looks very similar when I view them on other screens after editing in this mode.

 

I will look into hardware calibration, this is gonna be a different question though. If I opted to get a Macbook Pro 2017 and return the Dell XPS 15, is that better for photo editing work? (The education discounts I will receive makes the top-tier Mac more affordable)

I have never used a MacOS in my life, I don't like operating system, and I do some light gaming (Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines, Outlast, Resident Evil, etc...), but I am reading that the new Macbooks outbeat the XPS in brightness (500 nits), battery life, durability, sound, trackpad, weight, and there are no issues with scaling and I can still boot Windows on a Mac and play older games...

 

Mac is a very stable operating system and the screen is quite accurate even without calibration. From the specs and reviews it is brighter, has better sound, a better trackpad and weighs less, just like you have said. It is however overpriced for the specs and nothing is user upgradable so you will have to buy based on the specs you need and not a buy low and upgrade high type of situation.

Truth be told, if you can afford the MacBook, I'd say you won't be disappointed with it's performance but you may feel disappointment in spending so much and getting a machine that's just marginally better than the XPS. Dell also offers education discounts btw. But for now, I'd recommend updating to creators edition, updating the graphics drivers and reinstalling DPC and see how well it works for you in the sRGB color space. After doing that you can take your XPS to a mac store and do a side by side comparison with the new macs and satisfy your curiosity before committing yourself financially. That's what I did with the Yoga 720 15 4k I had and ended up ordering the XPS from Amazon (best price I could find).