Best Dell XPS 15 Laptop?

I got a dell xps 15 9550 laptop. I bought this off ebay a few years ago brand new. Its hq 6300 quad core processor with a 256 gb ssd and comes with 8gb of ram. I have owned a few laptops throughout the years and to me, this is the best laptop i ever had.


Few issues i have with this laptop are... the battery is not that good. I bought a battery replacement and its working fine but it seems to get 2.5 hour max battery. That is because its a quad core right? Thus any quad core laptop, you are giving up battery for power? What laptop similar to the dell xps 15 9550 has better battery? The thing is i know there is dell xps 13 and the screen is smaller and is thinner. But i found that size laptop to be way too small.


I read there has been many new dell xps 15 laptops that are coming out. First off, how many total different versions of dell xps 15 are there? Fine is the 9550 but i found out theres actually like 2 of these versions right? So the version i got is the older version because of the hq6300? But the ones that came out after this one or recently... what big advantage does it have? Example its a quad core laptop almost all of them right? But how is the battery? As for ram, is it pretty similar? I ask this because i want to know what is the best dell xps laptop on the market right now. Can someone tell me what other models of the xps 15 is the best... say top 5 etc? And do most ppl agree the dell xps 15 laptop is probably the best or one of the best 15 inch laptops out there?

 

I've got a Precision 5510 which is basically the same as the XPS15 9550 and have been very impressed by the time I can run on battery (the big option) with up to 10 hours of light usage running a quad core i7-6820HQ. One hardware factor which makes a big difference to the battery time is the display, with the QHD panel using a lot more power than the FHD panel. I was aware of that before buying my 5510 and specifically bought one with an FHD panel. Also, high display brightness substantially increases the power drain.

Aside from the panel, it's not so much hardware but usage which eats the battery power and you are likely to encounter the same problem with your next purchase. Run batteryinfoview, disconnect the PSU and see how your various activities affect the power drain. Also use the Balanced power plan and I recommend the tweak of 99% maximum CPU state when on battery (which disables the power-inefficient turbo mode).

John

 

Hi there. When did that laptop came out? I never heard of it. You could buy it now new?

10 hours of battery? First off, what are you even using that you get 10 hours of battery? My dell xps 15 9550, i get 2.5 hours at the very max i say. I really don't know how you guys get this ridiculous battery hours. Because i bought a chromebook... that supposedly says 8 hours... i get max 3 hours.

How does your quad core get even 5 hours? So which laptop similar to the dell xps 15 9550 would get that much of battery?

 

Mainly:
1. Different CPU versions, i5 (4 cores), i7 (6 cores) , i9 (6 cores). If you want the best battery, go with the i5. The performance difference is not so big, because the heating is not optimal and the CPU gets throttled back.

2. Screen: FHD and 4K. The 4K is said to be gorgeous, but also eats more battery, some people say it's significant, others say it's not.

3. Battery size: if you order the XPS15 with a SATA HDD, it will come with a six cell battery, instead of the 9 cell battery.

You can improve the thermal behaviour with undervolting, a good repaste, and also putting thermal conductive stickers on certain chips inside, and the lower temperature will help with the battery, too.

However, if you want excellent battery, go for a laptop with a U series CPU, and with an integrated graphics card, and 13 inch screen.
These 45W CPUs, and dedicated GPUs will always burn through the battery, these are high power consumption chips. Maybe try a Lenovo Carbon X1 with an i3 series chip, and a battery optimised screen great for office and web use, but not optimal for professional photo and video editing. Also the T series has such business laptops which are optimised for 10-14h battery life:
Lenovo T470 and T480
Dell XPS 9360 (has less power hungry CPU) and T 9370

As for best 15 inch laptop - depends what you want. The Lenovo X1 Extreme is similar, and I find it has better build quality, normally placed webcam, two M2 ssd slots, and a much-much better keyboard. But the prices is also higher.
The Dell XPS 15 4K screen is probably better looking, though.

 

The Lenovo build quality may not be what it's reputation from it's T series. If you look at the Carbon X1 owners thread on this forum, there seems to be all sorts of QC issues as well as it overheating which I bet would also be present in the X1 Carbon Extreme (going by their motherboard/cooling design). To add, the Extreme has a battery size of ~80Wh vs 97Wh of the Dell. Oh and the Ctrl + Fn key is swapped , you can change it via settings but the button sizes being weird can't be. Oh, it also strangely doesn't have any media control keys...

 

Could remember wrong here but I heard that the X1E would have the normal left ctrl compared to most thinkpads which have their own solution (like MacBooks Pro, at leat a few years ago) where the Fn key was to the far left. Could be wrong though.

 

Unfortunately not.