Is the current XPS 15 9550 FHD usable out of the box

So i am need of a new work machine, i need 15" FHD and the guts to run multiple VMs, in a well built and portable frame.

The xps 15 16gb 512gb FHD looks to tick every box, but the threads on here and early reviews are worrying.

I have read through a great deal of the owners lounge and hardware issues thread, but cant work out if the issues mentioned apply to the current version or earlier revisions.

I am also aware that most of the posts on here will be people with issues, so i dont really know whether they are really common, or just that this laptop is very popular so even the small percentage of issues result in lots of posts.

I had been resigned to waiting for the new MBP, but my current machine is dying and apple have yet to set a release date (and even then it will likely have issues for a while like all new tech released now days :-( ).

So my question is are there many people here who just bought one of these, and uses it without issues?
Perhaps someone who bought a batch for their office and can give an insight into the percentage with issues?

Finally, if i pick one up and have problems, is it easy enough to just get a full refund - i dont wont to waste ages with on site repairs and replacements, only to miss the returns window and be stuck with perpetual fixes and frustration!

 

I think you will find 90% never need to come here.

 

tl;dr - You're fine. Just buy the laptop, and move on. You most likely won't run into manufacturing defect problems.


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Here's why:

1) The posts you see on here are a very vocal minority.

2) A lot of the problems you see are just inconveniences (e.g. I can't reconfigure the 3-finger swipe motion on my touchpad); rather than actual problems that would be considered "broken" or "defective" related to not-working-hardware.

3) Most "broken" or "defective" problems show up in the first 30 days. And you have 30 days to return.

4) There's nothing you can do about Dell sending you a defective laptop (versus a normally-working laptop). Your agency doesn't begin until you receive the laptop. And at that point, you have a 30-day return policy and 1-year warranty as the tools given to you to act.

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Regarding the "vocal minority" effect:

You can't determine reliability of a laptop by looking at complaints in internet forums. First, if you look at any sub-forum on NotebookReview, you're going to have threads of people complaining about a particular laptop model. If you're looking for a laptop model where nobody complains, and everyone's happy, you're not going to find that by looking on internet forums. You could literally do a search on the entire internet, for any product ever made, laptop or not, and find people complaining.

Second, you can't determine the incidence rate of defects by looking at post-count on a thread either. Laptop Model A could have a "talk about defects here" thread with 1,500 posts. Laptop Model B could have a similar thread with 3,000 posts. Does that mean that laptop Model B is twice as likely to be defective?

No, of course not. Model B could have sold twice as many units as Model A. Or, the owners of Model B could be more active, and post twice as many times as your average Model A owner. Since we don't know how many units of the Dell XPS 15 (9550) were sold; and we don't know the average number of posts per thread by each unique forum member; we have no idea if Model B is more or less reliable than Model A.




tl;dr - You're fine. Just buy the laptop, and move on. You most likely won't run into manufacturing defect problems.

 

I had one (changed jobs) and it worked like a charm out of the box. Youll be fine.

 

Ok, thanks for that.

I bit the bullet and ordered one. Hopefully i am not back trying to fix a bunch of issues next week!

@GoNz0 in your opinion, is it worthwhile doing a clean install if the machine more or less works OK - i have always done clean installs in the past but it seems i might be tempting fate with the various driver issues reported on here.

Perhaps there are just a few key bits of bloatware that should be removed?

Thanks again all

 

You can uninstall anything and Dell are reasonably up to date with the images they use. Should it be pre anniversary windows 10 then a clean installs a must tbh

 

Ok great. I will have a preemptive read of your Bloatware free ISO thread in case it comes with the older windows version.

 

I have a FHD and it runs great. Love the big screen, small form factor and light weight. I think the keyboard and trackpad are fantastic (although some don't like the short key travel). You are going to face quirks and issues with any machine, especially relatively high tech built at popular prices.

I don't consider Apple to have a better quality machine or operating system. And 9550 specs are generally superior (well Apple have better battery life, better internal speakers, that tough chassis, and the best touchpad in the world).

Dell probably released the 9550 before completing beta testing and there are plenty of defect threads here at NBR from last winter. Most of those issues have been resolved via BIOS and driver updates.

This summer I ran a new (well it was refurbished but new to me) 9550 out of the box for a few weeks with no performance issues. However, there are a few "optional" projects if you want a big boost in performance for "free." For example:

1. A clean install of Windows 10 (GonZ0 wrote a thread there and posted an ISO for your convenience)
2. Undervolt CPU with ThrottleStop
3. Repaste the CPU and GPU
4. Replace defective VRAM thermal pad

I think everyone should do #1 for any Windows system but frankly it is not required. #2 is software for which Eason has written a nice guide; if you are running several VMs, that might give you some additional performance for free and just a few hours of work. #3 addresses sloppy assembly that plagues lots (most?) laptops.

In the US, Dell offered 30 day money back guarantee so that might give you a good opportunity to try relatively risk free.

 

Well it just arrived. Wont have time to play with it until tomorrow, but fingers crossed its a good one.

 

So far im very happy.

The machine is very well built. No backlight bleed, and the battery seems a lot better than some reports. Spent 3 hours browsing in chrome on minimum brightness which is more than enough in the evening and the battery only dropped to 76%!

Spent 2 hours at 30% brightness, installed cs6 and vmware workstation, and spent about half the time writting code in an ubuntu 14.04 desktop vm, and the battery was still at 49%.

Really pleased so far.

 

Glad you like it. I use mine for 6+ hours at school every day and still have a decent amount of charge left. You should undervolt it with throttle stop to help keep it cool.