Dell XPS 15 Vs New Dell XPS 15?

Hey all. So I been using an old dell xps 15 9550 laptop for a long time now. Its about 5 years or so.


Specs were

i5-6300hq
8gb ram
250gb ssd
32gb nvme ssd
56whr battery



Last year when deciding on buying a new dell laptop or just upgrading it... I decided to upgrade the parts. I bought 32gb ram, 1tb nvme samsung ssd and 84whr battery. Previously I had bought a new 56whr battery few years before this. So this is my 3rd dell laptop battery.


Also when I put in the 1tb nvme samsung ssd, I cloned from the old 250gb ssd using samsung magician. I removed that 32gb nvme ssd since that is needed to put in the new 84whr battery.


After upgrading the parts... it cost around $450. I noticed my computer was a bit faster but not that much really. But main thing was my old samsung 250ssd had maybe 30gb of space max. So with a 1tb ssd, now i still have like 650gb of space so plenty.


The thing is recently I noticed a few times when I turn on my old dell xps 15 9550 laptop, sometimes it doesn't turn on. But later on, it would. Now the cosmetic of my laptop is really dirty/dusty. Its also pretty sticky as well in many areas... i have zero idea how that happened.


Like its really dirty around the power button. But someone said cleaning it with alcohol would fix this issue? But i need to remove the internal battery first? I didn't like doing this because i had tons of issues putting in the new battery when i got it last year. But the other thing is few times I recalled when i turned on my laptop, it had that message of scanning drive for errors. It had that issue few times when i was using the 250gb ssd... but since i been using the 1tb ssd... i don't think it has happened. If it did... maybe once. But my concern is if it suddenly stops working or doesn't power on.

 

I took a look at dell's site. There seem to be the dell xps 15 and the new dell xps 15.. What model number is the current dell xps 15? I remember after my 9550, there was the 9560 and 9570 and 7950?


The thing is I was looking at the customizing and it seem like when you go from their standard processor to the next level.... its hundreds of dollars more. Is that even worth it? But even the default one is much faster than my i5-6300hq? I bought this laptop specifically because I needed a quad core processor. So all the dell xps laptops now are at least quad core processors? Also remember back then if laptop is quad core, you sacrifice battery. Is that the same now?


Also the thing that stuck out to me was many of the machines are either 8gb ram or 16gb ram. When you go from 8gb to 16gb to 32gb ram... it literally cost hundreds dollars more. Is that the same cost if you just get the standard 8gb ram and then buy the 32gb ram and install it yourself? Also if you want 1tb ssd... its hundreds of dollars more if you go from 250gb or 512gb to 1tb. That seem ridiculous when buying a top of the line samsung 1tb ssd is probably 200 dollars or so? I bought one last year for under 200 dollars.


So if I were to buy a new laptop and thus the dell xps 15... i do not want the new dell xps 15.... would it make sense for me to buy it at the lowest possible cost... such as 8gb ram, 250gb ssd... then just buy 32gb ram myself and 1tb ssd and install it in myself? But the thing is I already bought 32gb ram last year and a 1tb nvme samsung ssd... and put both of these in my old dell xps 15 9550 laptop. Obviously my 1tb nvme samsung ssd would be compatible with the new laptop.... but would this 32gb ram be not compatible? Also I remember people mention the ssd that dell puts in your xps... its generally the cheaper kind and not like a samsung ssd?


Another important thing is I have 2 dell pw7015L powerbanks that i bought for this old xps 15 9550 laptop. I would obviously want to use it for a new dell laptop if i choose to buy it. But I read the new dell xps 15 laptop... this would not be compatible since it uses usb-c only? So in order to use 2 of my powerbanks... I need to buy the dell xps 15 laptop on the site and not the new dell xps 15 right?


Again, I don't really want to buy a new laptop but sometimes the issue with the power button and things like that has me concerned. Again my current xps 15 9550 is like 5 years old and very dusty. Not only that... its really sticky in certain areas.


Also the screen... my 9550 is the 1920x1080 resolution. I'm fine with that. I do not want 4k resolution as I know that uses a ton of battery which is what I do not want. But checking online, it seems like the standard screen for dell xps 15 is now 1920x1200 and not 1920x1080?


Do you recommend me buy a new laptop in my situation? Again last year I was deciding to or not and decided against and upgraded my parts for $450. My concern now is if it suddenly wouldn't turn on one day with the power button. And the main issue is I am outside the US majority of the time so I can only buy it when I go back to the US. So if I buy a new dell laptop, it would be when I'm in the US.


I do hear people say you should buy a new laptop every 3 years? Now if there were no issues like with the power button and cosmetics, I probably wouldn't buy it as I upgraded it last year. But would the current dell xps 15 model be so much better than the one I currently have? I mean the only difference is going to be the processor right? Since it would also have the same specs of 32gb ram a 1tb ssd?

 

Hi @Drew1

I'm not sure what your power-button issue is. That could be dirty contacts in the button, a bad button, a broken or water-damaged soldier joint on the button, or some other issue. Sometimes holding the button down could work. You can run Dell's hardware diagnostics and maybe something will pop up. If that continues to be a problem either you need to fix it, have a tech fix it, or retire the laptop.

The concept of a new laptop every 3 years is just some marketing wonkery. The 9550 was sold 2016-2017 so is 4 or 5 years old now. But there is a point where laptops die or become obsolete.

Laptop evolution has slowed in recent years to be honest. But if you have tasks that require multi-cores and/or GPU performance, newer laptops might be better, but real-world performance is capped by cooling constraints. Power sipping AMD CPUs are not being sold in many laptops and might be worth waiting for (but I would not assume the XPS will use AMD in the future and Intel will need to catch up...eventually).

A periodic clean install of Windows can boost performance too. But that takes a bit of time and effort.

The deck on my 9550 still looks essentially new. I am shocked how well Dell engineered this part. The 9550 carbon deck cleans really well with a microfibre cloth (like the ones sold by opticians) slightly damped with just water. That takes care of any grime and stickiness for me. You need to be careful with any chemicals on this material, although some mild soaps might not be terrible, you still can't get any water into the keys, buttons or holes.

 

Well my laptop cosmetically is very dirty and not good condition. But i mean in the inside of it though like when you open it up. Lot of dust and sticky in certain areas.


But I wanted to know... what about the dell xps 15 that dell is currently selling. Such as would i be able to use my pw7015l powerbanks with it or not? Because i heard some new xps laptop you could only use usb-c charger for the power bank and the ones i have wouldn't work. So would the dell xps 15 that dell sell now work? But the new dell xps 15 wouldn't be compatible with my powerbank?

 

I used a Dell PW7015L powerbank with my Dell XPS 15 9550. My 9550 broke about 2 years ago so I did not use the powerbank anymore.When I bought my new XPS 15 9500, I bought an adapter USB-C to barrel connector to charge the PW7015L. Trying to charge the powerbank brought up an carging error and failed.

In my opinion, there are three options:

The powerbank is defect.
The adaptor does not work.
The powerbank is incompatible with XPS 9500 charger.

Hope my findings help you, Drew1

 

Wait so that means any dell xps 15 I buy now from Dell website, I would not be able to use my PW7015L power banks?


Because i don't want to buy a new laptop and then have to buy another 2 new powerbanks.

 

You may ask your question to Dell. Maybe they have some newer cabels for the old powerbank with the barrel plug. You gonna need a USB-C plug for charging a new Dell XPS.

 

I buy a 4-5 year old laptop in mint shape all the time for years. For what I use it for, online with 10-15 pages open and Photoshop CS6, everyday for -4-6 hours, they work just fine... if your not playing games, you can't really tell any differences. I take my XPS to Best Buy every now and then to compare my laptop to their high end XPS and really can't notice the difference. This saves me at least $800-$500 than buying new. The new prices for high end laptops at $1,500 plus is just ridiculous! I just got a laptop last month doing just what I said and I'm very happy with it.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/got-a-dell-xps-13-9360-in-mint-new-condition.836709/

 

Someone told me i could buy a power adapter which would make my old powerbank work with the new dell xps to connect via usb -c. Do you know if that is true?

 

Okay now my old laptop seems to lag a lot.


Do you guys suggest I


Reformat my ssd and continue to use my old laptop?


Or


Buy a new dell xps laptop... then install my ram and ssd into it?

 

Try a reinstall before you buy a new laptop, you may be happy with the performance of your old laptop. If that doesn't work then you can buy a new laptop.

 

Last year, I reinstalled Windows 10 on my 9550. It is as peppy as ever. I've done a few upgrades and repairs over the years. The keyboard has a few sticky number keys, so maybe I will replace that or the laptop. Or just keep going.

One caveat, keeping hundreds of tabs open in the internet browser will slow things down a bit, but that is the case with new laptops also. Just close the tabs.

 

I will post a picture of how my dell xps 15 9550 looks so you can see how it is like cosmetically.


But to clean it... and im talking about physically... would it be better to go to a computer repair shop and have them do it? I remember those places always have those cans they use to spray the laptop etc. Is that what they would use to clean it? Again its very sticky in certain areas and dusty etc. I am talking about the keyboard area and the side of it. The screen and the back of the screen there isn't any of this dirty/dust though.


I took a look at dell site and it seems like it will cost at least 1800 dollars or 2000 dollars if i get the dell xps 15 9500 laptop. Thing i notice is the ram they offer... its 2933 mhz dual channel. The 32gb ram i bought last year on amazon to put in my dell xps 15 9550 is 2400mt/s dual rank. So basically the ram dell is putting in their 9500 is the same as the one i bought off amazon except its a bit faster? 2933 vs 2400?