Dell XPS 15 Rivals MacBook Pro With Desktop Replacement-Like Performance, Killer Good Looks

Since Michael Dell took his company private in late 2013, the computing giant has been on a proverbial execution tear. Though some may have scoffed at the idea, there was clearly plenty of merit to the benefits of being free from the shackles of answering to Wall Street, and just going after what the company's management, marketing and engineering teams felt would bring the ROI. Around this time last year, Dell unveiled their flagship 13-inch XPS 13 notebook with its near bezel-less Infinity Edge display and hybrid carbon fiber construction. The new notebook was heaped with praise primarily for its industrial design chops, ergonomics and gorgeous styling. It was so well-received in fact that questions immediately started circulating whether or not Dell would bring the same sort of revamp to their 15-inch XPS 15 line as well.

While the XPS 13 was able to squeeze 13.3-inches of IPS (In-Plane Switching) screen real estate into essentially a 12-inch chassis design, consumers were buzzing on the prospects of a 15-inch IPS panel strapped in a carbon fiber-laced 14-inch form factor. Dell soon responded to speculation annoucing the new XPS 15 and I've been living with the machine for the past two plus weeks. And whoa nelly, this thing is beautiful...

I'll start with a disclaimer. We get to look at scads of notebooks at Hot Hardware, so many in fact that we get pretty jaded. While we tend to look at as many "halo" products as we can get our hands on, once you've seen so many machines, the "thrill is gone," so to speak. However, like sexy, Dell just brought the thrill back.

Let's start with some specs. We're currently working with a top-of-the-line model sporting a 4K Inifinity Edge display (3840X2160 resolution), an Intel Core i7-6700HQ (quad-core) Skylake processor, 16GB of DDR4-2133 RAM, an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M graphics engine and a 512GB PCI Express NVMe Solid State Drive. The total package weighs 4.4 pounds, just light enough to maintain that "clutchable" feel without too much exertion, if you follow. Cutting to the chase on performance: the XPS 15 is easily the fastest 4 pound-class notebook I've ever tested. It's processor eats the average 15 watt ultrabook processor for lunch (Cinebench), its SSD rips through file transfers at up to 2GB/sec (SANDRA Disk/ATTO) and its GeForce GPU offers solid performance competitive with machines well beyond the XPS 15's weight class, laying to waste any notebook with just integrated graphics (3DMark). In a nutshell, due to the intrinsic benefits of its compact chassis design and light carbon fiber construction, Dell squeezed desktop-replacement class performance into a machine that's well under 5 pounds.

Then there's the display; holy mother of pearl that thing is pretty. It's a 4K panel, so full disclaimer, you're not going to game at native resolution, even with the stout specs I detailed above. However, it scales lower really well to 1080p, though that's not its strongest suit. It's an IPS panel that absolutely pops with 350-nits brightness and gobs of saturation. To continue the gush-fest here, it's easily the nicest 15-inch panel I've ever seen in a notebook. I've heard rumblings that more manufacturers are hinting at OLED displays for notebooks in the not so distant future but until then, the panel on the XPS 15 is pretty darn close to OLED quality. And with its absolutely tiny bezel area on three sides of this panel, it's a real stunner. The only downside with its super-thin bezel is the web cam, like the XPS 13, had to be located in the bottom left of the display area beacause there's just not a enough meat up top to house it. As a result, web cam position isn't optimal. Other than that and the occasional scaling weirdness in Windows 10, this notebook's display is darn near perfect and touch response is excellent.

For IO options, you get a pair of USB 3.0 ports, an SD card slot, a full-size HDMI port and a Thunderbolt 3 port with USB-C connector. But what sets all that connectivity up so nicely with its spacious keyboard is the XPS 15 carbon fiber goodness. The carbon fiber filled high density polymer that Dell engineered is unique to the company's designs. It's finished with a soft touch, matte coating that just looks and feels fantastic. Key travel is decent, though key caps are chiclet style and are a touch small for my liking. However, in conjunction with its very large trackpad, the whole experience is just a premium feel from start to finish. Side note: I've got a video walk-around of the system here if you'd like to check it out in action.

Like I said, I get to see and demo a lot of really nice notebooks and the new Dell XPS 15 is probably the nicest machine I've ever tested. As configured, it's pricey at $2099 MSRP for the top-end setup I'm working with now, though base configs start at $999. However, compare this machine to Apple's 15-inch MacBook Pro and Dell's new XPS 15 is a no-brainer if you're not already aligned with one OS or another. A similar MacBook Pro config currently retails for $2499, translating to a $400 premium. Though IO options are slightly different, the MacBook Pro's Retina display tops out at a lower 2880X1800 resolution. Though Apple's panels are gorgeous as well, Dell's 15-inch Infinity Edge display steals the show, in my opinion.

Battery life for the XPS 15 is solid, though perhaps not as robust as a lower-powered ultralight machine with a dual core processor and a more pedestrian display. However, I managed to squeeze over 6.5 hours of connected web up-time out of the machine I tested, which gets the job done pretty well I think.

It's good to be "living on the Infinity Edge" and I like the Dell XPS 15 so much I'd recommend this machine hands-down to anyone looking for a premium notebook with very little compromise. The thrill was gone for me, but Dell just brought it back .