New Late 2015 XPS 15 - What do you think ?

So the new XPS 15 is now on sale takes its design from the 13? A worthy upgrade?


http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/xps-15-9550-laptop/pd

 

Absolutely, yes. The hardware itself is an upgrade over the previous XPS 15 (Skylake CPU, nVidia GeForce 960M GPU). The fact that they upgraded the form factor with the thin-bezel design they used in the XPS 13 is icing on the cake.

I expect this laptop to review incredibly well, sell incredibly well, and be a candidate for the best 15-inch mid-range laptop for 2015.

 

For those of you that know the XPS line, would you say that it's on par with the MBP as far as build quality and features?

I'm a current SP3 owner looking to get a big screen windows laptop. I'm thinking about getting the XPS 15 but don't want to spend $1700 on a laptop that will not last me a couple years. I see people all the time that are still using their 2013 MBPs.

Also does the aspect ratio of 16:9 bother you guys or do you get used to it? I prefer 16:10 or 4:3 but can live with 16:9.

 

The early 2015 XPS 13 with Intel Broadwell received stellar reviews and quite widely became known as the top Windows laptop of the year so far. It is comparable to the Macbook Pro 13 in basically every regard. Better in some ways and worse in others. It was a significant improvement over the old XPS 13. Build quality is every bit as good as the MBPs too and the thin bezel display makes most other laptops look so dated in comparison. I'm writing this on my work 2013 MBP 15 so I am quite familiar with the excellent quality of these macs.

I believe the new XPS 15 will do to its line what the XPS 13 did for its line earlier this year, I think the new XPS 15 will take the series up another notch to the level of the macbook pro 15. Of course this is mostly all speculation and we will have to wait for actual reviews. Dell has been making much nicer products since they went private.

I am in a similar position to you, I have a surface 3 and the HP Spectre 13. Love the surface 3 as a light weight web surfing machine but the Spectre simply isn't powerful enough for me anymore. I hope the XPS 15 will fulfill the role of a high end workstation laptop for me. I have pre-ordered the i7 6700HQ, 16GB DDR4, 512 GB SSD, 4K model. I will cancel the preorder if the reviews are bad but I doubt that will happen.

 

There are two ways to look at this.

One way is that the most comparable model (early 2015 XPS 13) has reviewed well. And you don't hear about people having terrible luck, and returning that laptop in droves. So an educated guess would be that the XPS 15 will be just fine in terms of build quality.

But past performance isn't a guarantee of future results. The new Dell XPS 15 might be a terrible unit. Even if the build quality is flawless on the laptops, you personally might get the one lemon out of 10,000 units. Reputation for reliability is in no way a guarantee of your personal experience. Search on the internet, and you'll find stories of any tech product owner that haven't had problems at all; and owners that have had nothing but problems since Day 1; including MacBook Pro 2013 owners.

The only way to guarantee that you won't have problems through the time you own a laptop is to buy a warranty for that. So if it's really that important for you to have a working laptop over the next several years of ownership that you don't need to personally troubleshoot or repair, then you need to buy a warranty to protect your investment for that time.

As for 16:9... that's an easy one! Whether you like it or not, you better get used to it. Because you won't find laptops out there that AREN'T 16:9.

 

Don't we already have a thread about the new XPS 15?

Edit: I goofed the link.

 

Nope, that's the Broadwell 13" laptop - this is the Skylake refresh of the 15" model, now with an Infinity style display.

There is this thread, however: http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/dell-xps-15-with-infinity-display-2015.776840/

 

I'm not talking about getting a lemon but the overall reputation for build quality (across many users). Yes the early 2015 XPS 13 has reviewed well but it's been out less than a year. I remember buying a Dell Latitude laptop years ago and after a year the screen started to have problems and eventually died (a friend of mine also developed an issue with his Dell back then). Anyway it sound like the XPS line is built to a higher standard and was just wondering if it was on par with the MBP.

Regarding non 16:9 ratio laptops, the MBPs (16:10) and Surface Book (4:3) come to mind.

 

I have been a Dell customer for over a decade. Do their Laptops develop issues over time? Sure.. but that is what warranties are for. Personally I use their NBD coverage and have not had issues. A few years ago I did not buy the accidental coverage and paid the price when I spilt coffee over a three week old laptop.
I currently have the 2013 iteration of the XPS 15, and have had no issues what so ever.
I do plan on getting the new one once the 32GB RAM model becomes available. And will get the warranties as well.

 

That's the kind of response I was hoping to hear!