XPS 17 9700

Arrived last week. Spent four days of my life making it "mine". You know, installing programs, transferring data, removing bloatware, tweaks and more tweaks, yada yada. Random thoughts, in no order...

* Blazing fast machine. My XPS 15, three years old, was no slouch, with an i7 and an SSD. But this is a monster (i9). One example: A Quicken search, from scratch and not in the cache, that took about four seconds on the 15, was instant on the 17. Less than a second.

* Answering my own question a few posts above, when you order the two SSD option, they configure it as two drives, C: and D:

* The touch screen is surprisingly useful. I don't use it much, but when I do, it's really handy.

* I slightly regret the UHD+ 3840 resolution. The high pixel count makes everything smaller. I've worked around it, learned all the tricks, made the tweaks, but would have preferred not doing it. Having said that, it's an incredibly beautiful display. Anything in hi-res and full-screen looks stunning.

* LOVE the facial recognition sign-on, in lieu of a password or PIN. It works in a variety of programs too! Login, Bitwarden, and a couple others. Sadly, not Quicken.

* This is more a Logitech complaint than Dell. There is no USB-A port, only C. And Logi doesn't make their Unified Receiver with a C plug. I tried using Bluetooth for the mouse connection. Terrible. Jerky, prone to wild swings on the screen, laggy. Switched to the receiver, and it works fine. But I had to plug it into an A>C adapter first, which makes it stick out over an inch. Come on Logi, make the C already.

* Love that power is thru a C port, and really love that I can use either side for it. Thumbs down to the speaker plug being on the right. That's right where the mouse action is.

* Not a fan of the Delete button being moved left of a Power button. With all the real estate available on the surface, you couldn't find a small area to stick a power button? Like on every XPS in the past? I'm getting used to it, but I shouldn't have to.

* The size is so close to my XPS 15 it's amazing. I use an Amazon Basic sleeve for the 15, and the 17 fits in it. Easily!


Boot times:
Once it was setup, and all updates applied, rebooted a few times, stable system, etc etc, I timed the start-up. Button press to Desktop, 18 seconds, consistently. Then I removed all the bloatware and programs I didn't want (including McAfee), and I got it down to 12 seconds. Huge difference!

Then I started adding my programs, including MS Office, and dozens more. Amazingly, the startup time remained 12 seconds. I checked several times, including immediately after installing Office, figuring that would be a hog. Nope. It's still 12 seconds.

Shutdown is instant. When I click on Shut Down it's off about 2 seconds later. Totally off.

Great machine. Very happy. Don't get the UHD+ unless you need it.

 

Have you tried integer scaling in nVIDIA Control Panel and then setting in Windows the display at 1920x1200? Those settings might be good for you day-to-day at least part-time. I am thinking of using those settings part-time on my next machine. I would keep scaling at 100%.

 

Integer scaling needs to be set within the Intel Graphics Command Center since that's how the display is wired. Here's how to do it:

What is Intel® Retro Scaling?

 

Thanks for the feedback on the display. For anyone who's done this (integer scaling), were you happy? Pros & cons?

I really hate screwing with settings like this unless the benefit is significant.

 

What I've been doing for some of my older programs, especially some games, is right-click on the link, then Properties|Compatibility|Change High DPI Setting. Then change Scaling Override to "System (Enhanced)". It's not perfect, there is a very slight fuzziness on some screens, but it's 98% of what I'm used to.

 

Thanks for the correction and clarification!

 

I tried this, and I don't have the drop-down for Scaling referred to in your link. I dbl checked, and my system meets all the requirements.

Any ideas where the drop-down menu went?

 

Any clues on where to find "Integer Scaling" on my unit? I have updated every driver, I have confirmed that I meet the requirements per the Intel web site (the page @saturnotaku kindly posted above), and yet I have no drop-down menu choice for this.

Here's what my Intel program looks like...

 

Regarding the Intel Integer scaling (aka Retro scaling) - wouldn't that only apply if you had Intel integrated graphics, and not the nVidia graphics?

 

Interesting that this is still an issue in 2022! I've been avoiding anything greater than FHD for decades now. And even with FHD (1920x1080), my Quicken is a mess ... it spends an awful amount of time re-sizing / re-rendering pages. Photoshop elements is a bit messy too.

Since I only want an FHD (or FHD+, as configured on the XPS - 1920x1200), I would prefer to get the Intel Integrated graphics (assuming better battery / cooling performance) but I just tried configuring an XPS 17 on Dell's site; they won't let me pick 16 Gig RAM with the Intel UHD graphics, nor the 1TB or 2TB SSDs. So if I go Intel graphics I'm stuck with 8 GB Ram and 512 GB SSD! Sometimes calling Dell will reveal more options but their website is enforcing these constrains - Dell XPS 17 Laptop | Dell USA

Do you know if there is a second SSD slot inside the case, and is RAM upgradeable?

Do you guys have any idea where you are going to continue this and similar discussions, once this notebookreview forum shuts down at the end of the month? It's always been my go-to place for laptop questions!

 

As I understand it (and I could be very wrong), the Intel graphics are used as the default, unless the graphics requirement kicks up and requires the nVidia. Since I don't play games, I'm assuming the Intel graphics are probably running 100% of the time.

Is there a way to tell which of the two graphics are running at any specific time?

What really has me confused, is that image I posted is the Intel command center, and yet it doesn't have anything related to Integer Scaling on it.

 

I just did some more searching and it seems the RAM and SSD are totally upgradeable (two RAM slots, two SSD slots). So I think I'll buy the minimum RAM/SSD combination from Dell and upgrade myself. This YT video shows exactly how to do it - 2021 Dell XPS 17 9710 Upgrade! And How YOU Can Too! - YouTube

Regarding the graphics 'card' ... As I mentioned above, I don't do any graphics intensive stuff or play games, so I've always chosen the Intel Integrated graphics because that consumes less power and typically generates less heat (and therefore, less fan noise). Does anyone have any specific observations about the intel integrated graphics? Specifically in regards to fan noise - if you don't 'stress' the display, is the fan typically off? I go to great lengths to keep my laptop as quiet as possible!

Also worth noting, if you go with the FHD+ display, it's non-touch, which means less weight (touch-screens have to have a more durable layer on the surface, which adds considerable weight).

 

Just wondering, do you need the new laptop now? If not, why not wait a few months? The new models of XPS 17 may be released in May, based on what Dell did in past years. That guy's video with the 9710 is from June of last year. If you wait a few months, you may be able to get new model XPS 17 with Alder Lake.

 

May not be a bad idea. I'm in no hurry, as my trusty Samsung NP930X5J is still performing wonderfully!

The only risk is that they mess something up in the 9720, or force touch-screen on us, or similar. But I guess, I can always get the 9710 for a while after the announcement. I've stopped following intel chip releases; is there anything special about Alder Lake? All I really care about is battery life and fan noise, so any power saving improvements should be welcomed. Well, I also care about weight; I'm desperately keen to buy the LG Gram, but the numeric keypad and the glossy screen are two big no-no's for me. If they can do anything to reduce the weight of the XPS 17, that would be welcomed!

 

I'll again call your attention to the Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen 4 and X1 Extreme Gen 4. There's no touchpad, the standard 1440p screen is non-glossy, the RAM is fully upgradable, there are two SSD slots if you get a model with the GeForce RTX 3050 Ti or lower GPU (which would be fine in your case), it's lighter than the XPS 17, and the fans are impressively quiet.

That being said, the battery life isn't spectacular. In that regard you may want to wait until a revised model with Intel 12th-gen processors becomes available as they are supposed to be markedly better in this regard.

 

Lenovo's website ( ThinkPad P1 Gen 4 Intel (16") - Mobile Workstation | Lenovo US ) reveals that they've got 'Fn' in the lower corner where every other laptop brand puts 'Ctrl'. That's enough to kill it for me right there - I'm a fast touch-typist and use 'ctrl-c'/'ctrl-v' all the time without looking. Also, display seems to be only available as 2560x1600 (I prefer 1920x1080 or 1920x1200, as some apps still don't scale well and I really don't need the higher resolution). Also seems to be only 16"?

Also - you said "There's no touchpad" - I presume you mean there's no numeric keypad?

There's a 17.3" model -"ThinkPad P17 Gen 2 (17" Intel)"- ThinkPad P17 Gen 2 | High-performance 17" Mobile Workstation Laptop | Lenovo US - and that is available with 'FHD' (1920x1080). But it seems like it has a numeric keypad which I don't want.

My requirements are:
FHD - 1920x1080, or 1920x1200
17" display, non-glossy
No Numeric Keypad
No touch screen (improves weight)
No dedicated graphics (improves battery and fan noise)
2nd SSD slot, replaceable memory (actually, 16 GB Ram is all I need)
Light weight.

 

Exactly. If the new 2022 models of XPS don't appeal to you, you'll be able to buy last year's models for much less once the new ones come out.