XPS 15 9560 owners thread.

I too had the same feeling as you when I found out that I was getting the Toshiba SSD (My system is also the 32GB RAM / 1TB SSD/ 4k Panel) -When I spoke to Dell about this (saying that I wanted to cancel), they offered me an 10% partial refund.
I was able to get 20% off in total (10% on purchase then 10% on the partial refund). Give them a call and ask for it!

Btw: what was the battery wear on yours ?

 

https://m.imgur.com/a/dTtpi

Got this from reddit. It's a guide for stuttering/lag issue fix.

Thought this is relevant for everyone who keeps asking once in a while about the lag issue

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

 

Try removing old driver/s with DDU and then install the newest hot fix.

Also stop windows from installing old Nvidia driver once uninstalled.

 

Is there a noticeable real world performance difference between the Toshiba and Samsung NVME ssd?


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Very little if any but still.

 

Could you tell us what did you tell them exactly to get that 10% ?

 

I wasn't trying to make it awkward, it is now though!

No need to start calling me names, very childish of you (Are you a child?)

You never know, maybe you were not aware of the returns period, especially if still reeling from being forced to buy this laptop? I am not sure why someone would force anyone to buy a laptop, oh well if you were forced it's not a bad thing to be forced to buy. Normally the bank of Mum and Dad would step in with a laptop buy and make you get a PC world £399 special as it looked good on the advert over a £1700 XPS 15.

While the vents may not be ideal it is what it is and does a decent job getting the air out without big grills staring at you or making the chassis bigger. The engineers would have had access to flir equipment to test any computer designed vents so it must work as we have seen from reviews.

What were the engineers thinking? probably how the hell do we build all this into the dimensions given by the design team

And if you think Dell takes the slightest bit of notice of these forums then you are probably mistaken, want them to take notice, email them as they don't seem to give a toss about major hardware bugs nevermind where the vents are located. At least you would (may) get a response via email.

The sad thing is this is the next design of XPS 15, identical in every way to the previous 9550

Afraid the entire "hinge" is not a hinge, the hinge extends about 1 inch into the cover, what it actually hides is the wifi antenna and it takes up all the space under that black plastic cover

Page 88 if you want a look. http://topics-cdn.dell.com/pdf/xps-15-9560-laptop_setup guide_en-us.pdf

Yes it is almost twice as fast (in some cases)for me loading windows and apps as a test I had the XG3 next to the XG4 both with the same image and it took about 40% longer to get into windows and load BF1 with the xg4.

This was with 2 clean images when I was testing my new ISO. Day to day I doubt it will have any major impact as pointed out above.

 

Bios updated, clean installation of the drivers 378.77 after a DDU disinstallation.
Well, bsod while i'm watching a youtube clip.
The dump file said the same thing for all the events.
http://imgur.com/a/3TxO4
I'm honest, i think to have bought a bad product.

 

I said that I purchased this laptop based on several reviews stating how impressive/fast the SSD was -which was what I needed for the various I/O intensive work that I do. As the lower spec of SSD was in it, then it made sense to cancel the order/delivery before it arrived.

 

Did you get any discounts initially when you purchase the laptop? Like a 10% off or was it normal store price.

Asking since I am assuming they have a margin and since I already got discounts on purchase whether they wud further discount me if I complain on a non Samsung ssd

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Dude, if you honestly thought I was forced into buying this laptop, you are definitely making the conversation awkward, whether you intended it or not!

Reading this bit, actually showed me that you are capable of writing and communicating in a normal way without coming off as condescending. And thank you for enlightening me on the antenna thing, I was not aware that it was part of the hinge area. I am still confident that they can find a way to not block the vents tho, because as of right now, not only does the hinge part partly block the exhaust area, it also results in air blowing upwards along with the ventilation noise that comes with it, which the screen then picks up like an parabola, then bounces it back in the direction of the user.
It is just not ideal.

With that being said, there are loads of positive things that I like about the laptop that outweights the negatives that I have mentioned.
So I plan to keep the laptop ;-)

 

Do you get to know the SSD model the day they ship it and they send you that mail confirm ? I bought it 2 days ago and still waiting for them to send that mail about shipping

Is it "400-APWK" ?

 

I'm literally about to pull the trigger on getting this laptop but still torn on 4k and 1080p..
I'm kind of edging towards 1080p but worried that as I'm coming from a 13" retina MacBook pro ,i don't want the screen to be noticeably worse.
The GUI on the MacBook pro is scaled however, currently use at 1680x1050 which looks great.


I currently have the 4k version in my basket at £1,585.83 for 16gb/512GB with 2 year warranty and the AE2 headphones which seems a real good price.
The 1080p version would be £140 cheaper.

My primary use will be for photo editing with some gaming.

Does the 1080p version still have a glass front ,despite being matt?
Is the 4k glossy version worse than a MBP for glare? I haven't had an issue with my retina MBP with glass front.


My 3yr old 2013MBP still lasts a good 7-8 hours on battery, and thats enough for me if either of the above can handle that.

 

It's still throwing up a driver error, what did you clean install with, Dell official, mine or a vanilla install followed by various drivers?
Is that the only dump recorded as it is bugger all use isn't it

Afraid you only find out by getting your service tag from the shipping note that appears on the order tracking page once it has shipped, then you have to put that into the support page and go to drivers to see if it shows a firmware update.

I can nearly guarantee no one will see a Samsung as they pulled the same stunt on the 9550 then went to cheaper SSD's (apart from the Toshiba XG3 that turned out to be an outstanding drive being on part with the 950 pro)

400-APWK is just a code for a random SSD of whatever capacity you ordered.

 

Sorry I couldn't resist

 

Yes, I initially purchased online (rather than on the phone) and used a 10% coupon code (so for the "32GB, 1TB, 4K with Fingerprint" the price was £1,902 instead of £2,114, -then I got a partial refund of 10% (which they worked out to be £216) so in total I have paid £1,686. The money I have saved will go towards the cost of a either a 512GB or 1TB Samsuing 960 PRO (providing that the laptop is in relatively good shape -ie. battery wear, coil whine, dead pixels etc)

In fairness to GoNz0, if he hadn't explained where I could get the Service Tag (and therefore the SSD fimware download info) then I probably would not of got the refund.

 

For those that have recently got their laptops, have Dell addressed/improved the battery wear issue? -some have mentioned in previous posts that they had as much as 10%.

 

My review is up!

http://www.ultrabookreview.com/14529-dell-xps-15-9560-review/

 

The fans seem to run when the battery is connected to the mobo while charging. The point of connection between the battery and motherboard also gets hot (maybe about 40C on the surface of the keyboard, judging it based by touch alone; similar to a fever) on the keyboard side (left of the left ctrl and shift keys) while charging. Does anyone have the same problem? I was thinking about putting thermal pads on it to transfer the heat to the metal chassis, but don't know if there will be any adverse affects.

Edit: Also, whenever I press the hot area too hard my screen sometimes glitches out, meaning that my screen would have black bars running down the screen, or my screen would turn slightly pink with red bars running down the screen for a few seconds until pressure is removed. I'm unable to replicate this 100% of the time, but it happens maybe once every 4 hrs of use. Has anyone heard of this issue before?

 

Nice review.

Regarding the comparable laptops down the bottom I think some of them are no-go as they don't go up to 32GB memory. That's my blocker anyway.

What also gets me are all the reviews stating 100wpm on the keyboard. I'm 120-140wpm so I wonder if I'm going to take a hit or you're all just slow typers

 

Very well done article Eason!

 

Once you get used to the key spacing you'll be able to type very quickly. It's not a finger massage, though.

 

Please 4k users of dell xps 15 9560, could anyone take a screenshot of their laptop at night with pure black on its screen? I want to compare it to my. Please

 

Afraid it's a waste of time unless you can recreate the exact same lighting conditions and have calibrated screens to guarantee identical results. Also the cameras would have to have manual settings.

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Is your comment that "But…. if you can wait until May, the Lenovo 720 15” looks like it will eat the 9560’s lunch" generally agreed on by others here?

I'm at a total loss on what to do. I was pretty sure I wanted the XPS 15. The problem is, I'm not overly hardware knowledgeable and not used to getting my metaphorical hands dirty fixing various hardware and driver issues. So when I read page after page of discussions of various drivers, BSOD, hardware problems, etc, I feel overwhelmed. I can't quite gauge how severe the problem will be for me for a laptop that arrives in 'average' condition whatever that means.

How unlikely it will be that I end up with a normal working laptop? How difficult will it be for me to rectify issues that I've never dealt with before? I would greatly appreciate some comment on how this laptop experience would be for someone in my position. Most people in this thread seem to be in the top 10%+ of laptop users in terms of experience dealing with these kinds of problems but I'm sure I'm not alone in being intimidated by what I read here. Maybe the issues are easily fixable by me despite having no clue yet how to do it. Maybe it will come naturally. Or maybe I will be staring aimlessly at a extremely buggy laptop with no clue what I'm doing. I really like the design and specs of the XPS 15. It is far and away my top choice but if I am going to end up with a $2000 headache, that would be rough.

I just can't quite tell from this thread if I should hold out for another laptop as a user who isn't the most tech savvy on this forum. Especially one that will eat the 9560's lunch

 

How can i know if my black levels on my dell xps 15 are ok? Still its not that black when i turned my brightness all the way down.

 

I was considering waiting for Lenovo 720 15" but after reading a few reviews of Lenovo laptops I decided that there is a big chance it will have it's own problems.
So I decided to buy 9560 for now. I also considered Gigabyte's Aero 14 but it's not available in my country so I couldn't test it before buying from UK.
Razer Blade was also a choice but it has big bezels, it is loud, hot and expensive.

If the Lenovo 720 will be a perfect machine, I will sell Dell and buy Lenovo

 

My order has also been shipped and I can see the packing slip (which they also emailed me) but I can't find a service tag anywhere.

 

A lot of the current drivers are a mess... especially the Nvidia ones. The 378.77 works for some but not for others. Try an older driver maybe.

If you not happy with the 9560 then return it. That's what I done.

 

Yes you're paying for top of the range but receive mid range. I'd complain... complain and give out too Dell directly.
The more people complain then the more this cheap tactic will be made aware of and rectified ( hopefully).

 

I think the yoga generally have few issues in comparison to the XPS, but they also had simpler hardware until now. Like I said, you'll have to wait for the release

 

Great review @Eason

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Hi,

How do you know how thick a thermal pad has to be? I want to add some around where the number keys 5-7 are.
Has anybody replaced the thermal pad on the PM961 and is it worth it?

 

Bought it friday 3rd, received mail confirm today, says it'll arrive at the latest on 15th, you ?

 

I want to ask again, does any of you XPS 15 experts have a sense what percentage of users are receiving a fully functioning laptop without any of the significant issues mentioned in this thread? Is it 10%, 50%, 90%?

Also, can you elaborate on how difficult the fixes are for a hardware newbie who isn't that used to troubleshooting on his own? It sounds like Dell's support is slow and often worthless. Is that correct?

 

I ordered on Tuesday 28 February 2017 with a chat sales agent.
I received all the confirmation emails on the same day.

The product was dispatched on 05 March 2017. Config: XPS 15 9560, FHD, 512GB SSD, 16GB RAM (with request over chat to have 1x16GB chip, which was confirmed in writing), UK keyboard with fingerprint reader, Windows 10 Pro.

Estimate is 16/03/2017.

 

No way to know m8. Most people without problems are not here or Reddit saying their system works without problems.

I would assume there are a few hundred people MAX who have posted here and that Dell must have sold thousands of 9560 globally to justify R&D and scale production. Perhaps most people have no issues or are not bothered by issues.

I would also assume the original release of the 9550 in 2015 had a much higher defect rate based on the postings here. And that most but not all of the issues have been ironed out.

You don't need to open your laptop. Repasting the CPU & GPU give you a bit more thermal performance for 10$ but is not necessary. There are youtube videos of disassembly and a PDF service manual showing you difficulty. It is not that difficult if you DIY repairs on your car or home.

If hardware fails just have Dell fix it on warranty. Dell service depends on warranty plan and country. Some items are not reliably fixable at this time (e.g. coil whine or minor blinking of 4k screen). Depending on country you may have up to 30 days for refund on purchase.

 

Thanks so much for the reply. How difficult is troubleshooting these various driver issues if you aren't used to doing anything like that? Straightforward or could be daunting?

 

buy a calibration device.

Click order details and look at the actions section on the right, click view packing slip

Feel free to read the 9550 9560 threads for the answers, no simple one just a lot of problems and a lot of answers so you will have to collate the info.

 

Yes, I am right there. There is a list with items (that also came with an email) but there is no service tag in the list. Nor on the side where they have information order information and the shipping address.

 

I spent well over 100 hours researching and tweaking my 9550. That included repaste trial and error. And optimizing latency. I used that as a learning experience so didn't mind researching posts, researching the internet, and learning some new stuff.

I think the 9560 is more refined than the 9550 so requires less tweaking. And if you ignore repasting that will save you more time. If you want an optimally running XPS, you will still need to keep on top of driver and BIOS updates and installation procedures.

If you don't care enough about bugs and suboptimal performance to bother learning about this, you could just ignore any new drivers or BIOS updates. Or you could move to a Mac (but in my experience the defects, bugs and troubleshooting is not that much different).

 

Are BIOS/driver issues permanent? By that I mean do you have to constantly be fixing them and manually updating them? I've owned an xps l702x and basically never had to fix any driver or bios after some initial updates. I have no idea if that means they are updating themselves automatically or if they never need updating at all but I am curious if this is a constant battle where you have to keep staying on top of things or if you're mostly in the clear once you get the 9560 operating in a satisfactory way.

 

No answer here.

Sometimes newer BIOS/drivers provide improved performance, features, security resolutions, fixes. Sometimes they create new problems.

Dell has an autoupdate program but I don't understand how it works (or if it works) so prefer to manually update after people here have beta tested updates!

 

See here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/xps-15-9550-4k-black-level-clipping.789471/
The main obvious annoyance of the black levels issue is the blocky dark areas in videos. The lowest blacks are totally black, while at one point there is an abrupt and disturbing change towards too bright.
This display is not some AMOLED so black is not totally black.
From your post it appears that you have a different problem, that the lowest brightness is not low enough for you. I recall some wrote for the 9550 that the minimum brightness level has been increased with a certain BIOS version, presumably due to the brightness flicker issue which was most annoying at the lowest brightness levels.

 

I have made a fresh installation using an usb drive made with mediacreation tools.
After all goes well but, still i have had the 630 problem, and then i have changed the drivers for the intel as well as for the nVidia. I think that all this changes has made the laptop unstable and now i need to format all

 

I'll install the so again in order to hope that all goes well. I can't sent back to the Dell because the time is expiring

 

There is a poll here asking for peoples experience with the XPS KabyLake...

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1...Fg/viewform?c=0&w=1&fbzx=-4823083549117882000


here are the responses...

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1...zO3ps9humDS4c_u7XcoIZHxN6or6BFg/viewanalytics

 

Is there some easy to way periodically check for updates on all of your drivers or do you need to be paying an eagles eye attention to a forum? The latter sounds really stressful to me but can't tell if that's what you mean.

 

Check out this laptop sleeve guys...

If you're interested... the 13.3 laptop sleeve is an absolute perfect fit for the XPS 15...
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01ACZFO1M/ref=twister_B01KSJNWFC?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

Got mine yesterday...laptop fits snug, corners zip just fine...there's really no wiggle room for the laptop in the sleeve. Best sleeve for the laptop whatsoever... I highly recommend it!

 

Can anyone say to me if there is a way to recharge the laptop with type c?
A type c cable connected to a pc or... an smartphone charger?