Dell XPS Laptop Questions

Hey all got few questions. I have a dell xps 15 9550 laptop that i bought over 2.5 years ago. I bought it on ebay back then. It was labeled as new. As of now, im pretty certain it was new though small percentage it might been refurbished. As of now, the laptop is still working good and i like it.


The laptop had these specs when i first bought it


i5-6300hq quad core processor
8gb ram
1tb 5400rpm hard drive
32gb m.2 ssd
8gb ram
56whr battery 3 cell


But i had an old 256gb ssd put in and took out the 5400 rpm hard drive.



First requirement when getting this laptop was make sure it is quad core. So i had that. Thus i was told to avoid any U processors as that isn't quad core. I knew that quad core mean not great battery.



So after this, my laptop has been working fine. After about 1.5 years, i had to buy a new battery as this battery basically was no good. Battery didn't have more than say 10 minute charge. I bought battery on ebay as they didn't sell it on dell site. I bought it... first mistake was when i got the battery and went to repair shop, the guy opened my computer and said this is wrong battery. I thought how can this be possible. So it was then i apparently found out... the xps 15 9550 came with 2 different battery options... 56wh or 84wh. I had no idea about this. I thought all xps 15 9550 laptops came with whatever default battery. I then found that my laptop came with that 2nd hard drive 32g m.2 ssd, so because of that, i could only use a 56wh battery. So i had to return it on ebay and buy the 56wh one.



Right now, if i want to keep this laptop, i will most likely have to replace the battery again as its sort of wearing out but not that bad. But i also want to upgrade ram to 16gb. I would also like to have more storage... 512gb ssd instead. But most importantly, i want a larger battery. I want to have the 97wh battery so i can get a lot of battery on it. Right now I think i will most likely keep this laptop for now. The thing is if this laptop had the 84wh and 97wh battery option, i would never think about upgrading it.

But i have questions about buying a new xps as it seems there are many xps that came out after the 9550 like the 9560, 9570, 9580 and now 7950?



1. How often do these models come? Is it once every year or something? Now here is the thing. When i got my xps 15 9550 on ebay, i'm pretty certain on the dell site they had the 9550 right? This was around late 2016. I check wikipedia and it seems the 9560 came out in early 2017.



2. When a new model comes out such as the 9560 or 9570, does that mean you can only get the current model on the dell site? Thus say the 9570 came out, you can't buy the 9550 or 9560 new anymore on the dell site right? I assume the only thing you could buy that is 9550 or 9560 on the dell site is if its used or refurbished? I check ebay and it seems like any 9550 or 9560 is pretty much used. There are some that are supposed new but rare and expensive. But i do see lot of new 9570 though on ebay. But on dell site, only see the 7590 available.



3. I just notice the 7590 came out. But from the old models such as 9550, 9560, 9570, which is the best one? Again i have the 9550 and i like this laptop a lot. If i had the 97wh battery option, i wouldn't think about ever upgrading this laptop ever. I mean if i upgrade my ram to 16gb and ssd to 512gb... and had the 97wh battery option, i wouldn't probably ever get a new computer if it still works. Also im curious but does the 9560 or 9570 have that same issue of it having a 2nd hard drive where you are limited to the 56wh battery only? Or is that option only available with the 9550?



4. Which xps is best for me based on what i want if i were to get a new xps?


So my importance are

1. Quad core laptop
2. 97wh battery
3. 512gb ssd
4. 16gb ram
5. Non 4k Screen. I don't want any screen where it compromises battery



5. I took a look at the dell site right now for the xps 15 7590. Are all those processors available such as


i5-8300h
i7-8750h
i7-9300h
i7-9750h



They are all quad core right? So these are much faster than my i5-6300HQ? Now here is what im very curious. I read that now, all quad core processors are not only fast... but they are power efficient? Can someone tell me if this is true and what that means? I know back a few years ago, I was told if you get quad core processor for laptop, you give up battery life. But if you get a U processor, you get more battery but give up power. But does this mean all these processors i listed above... are not only quad core... but energy efficient? Does that mean if i get a 97wh battery with one of these laptops, then if i do intensive things... i will get at least 2h30m on it on battery? For example my 56wh battery laptop, i play online poker on it and i get 1h15m on battery on it. When i got battery new, i could probably get 1h45m on it max doing what i do. So does that mean i might even get close to 3h on battery with it? Or is that not possible if you are doing intensive things. I know these laptops advertise ridiculous 10 hour or 20 hour battery which we know are all knot true.



6. I see there are so many customize for these xps 7590 on the dell site. Do you recommend having Dell set up everything as oppose to getting like only 8gb ram and 256gb ssd and then buying it yourself on amazon and going to repair shop or you replacing it yourself? I know the processor you cannot upgrade later on with a laptop. So what is the minimum processor to get? I mean is there a big difference between i5-8300h and i7-8750? What about that and the i7-9750h? I mean the i5-6300hq is already more than enough for me that i'm currently using.



7. I have a dell powerbank plus 18000 mah PW7015L. I currently use it with my dell xps 15 9550 as backup battery if i have power outage and need backup battery. I read that its compatible with the 9560. Does anyone know or can confirm it works with the 9570? What about the 7590? I ask this because if i were to get a 9570 or 7590 in the future, i would want to know if my PW7015L power bank would be compatible with it.

https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/del...18000-mah-pw7015l/apd/451-bbkv/pc-accessories

 

You've asked MANY of these questions already in MANY different threads. The only reason I'm not going to delete this entire post is because you do have some additional questions that I haven't seen you post. I am still halfway tempted to remove this post though. Please refrain from posting the same thing over and over in multiple threads.

You've posted so much here that I can't even come close to addressing it but here is a quick shot in total random order.

1. You likely killed your battery based on your usage. Think of batteries as having a finite amount of times they can be charged/discharged. This is why your 56whr battery lasts 10 minutes but I had no issues getting 6-7 hours with my old 9550.

2. New XPS laptops typically come out when there is new technology (CPU/GPU) so every 1-2 years.

3. You can buy the "old" XPS for a limited amount of time, while they have stock.

4. Dell still offers some configurations with 56whr batteries. If you want two drives, this is the only way to do it. Models with a single PCIe SSD typically come with the larger battery.

5. No one can answer your question on which XPS is best for you without knowing your usage. I know you run online poker and it "runs full tilt" and that's about all I know about.

6. No those listed CPUs are not all quad core, some are 6 cores like the 8750h and 9750h.

7. I have no issues getting 8-10 hours on my 9570 with the 6-core 8750h but I don't use 100% of the CPU 100% of the time.

8. If you know what you are doing then upgrading the RAM and SSD is no issue so you can get what is cheap. If you have to pay a repair shop then just have Dell do it and avoid warranty hassles.

9. If your 6300HQ is good enough than the 8300h will be good enough, but that doesn't leave much future proofing.

10. No one can answer your question about the power packs, you've asked that question in 3 different posts.

 

HI there thanks for the responses.


Well the 56whr battery lasted only 10 minutes but this was using it over 1.5 years. Also my computer is on at least 15 hours a day... and i keep it fully charged and plugged in. So that mean for you, you rarely have it on that many hours then? But you have the 97whr battery right? When you get 6 hours, what exactly are you doing on your laptop? I mean you are not using the computer most of the time right? Like imagine you watch youtube the entire time with a full 100 percent battery. How much hours would you get out of it if you were doing that? You can't get 6 hours that way right even if brightness is down? Well my cpu usage is like 50 percent or so... i mean it does not hit anywhere close to 100%.


Okay so the 6 cores like the 8450h and 9570h is not as powerful as my 6300hq right? Or its faster since you say if my 6300hq is good enough to do what i want, then 8300h should be good enough.


But those quad core laptops right now on dell's site that are not 6 core, those are all going to be faster than my 6300hq. But most importantly, is the battery going to be very good since i read that even if its quad core, it is energy efficient? Thus it could get as much hours as those dual core processors the U one where you get long battery? So these laptops, you get both power... and battery... in a quad core? Which is basically unheard of few years ago?


I notice on the dell site some laptops does not come with windows 10 pro. Some don't even offer the 97whr option. Thus there is no option to upgrade that. So that has to mean those xps laptop has two hard drives right? Because if it didn't, it always give you option to upgrade battery? Also... isn't it foolish not to upgrade battery from 56whr to 97whr if you have the option? I can't imagine a reason not to.

 

When I had my 9550 with the 56whr battery I could easily get 6-7 hour while using it the whole time (taking notes in class, browsing the internet, youtube, etc). The CPU doesn't run at 100% doing any of those tasks though.

The 9750H and 8750H 6-core cpus are more powerful than your 6300HQ, I'm not sure why you think they wouldn't be as powerful. The newer quad cores should be faster and even a little more power efficient than your 6300HQ. They are not that much different than your 6300HQ in terms of architecture, which I got decent battery life in the past.

If you need two drives then you're stuck with the 56whr battery. It's not foolish to go that route if you need lots of space. I need battery life so I went with the 97whr battery and added a 1TB SSD to mine.

 

Hi there. Well if you got that many hours, how many of those hours were you using it the entire time? Such as typing or browsing etc? I would half? Also when watching youtube and everything else, what was your brightness level? What about what power mode were you on, battery saver, balanced?


Okay so those H processors are going to be at least as fast minimum as the 6300hq. Well i thought quad cores had to start with HQ... that was how it was back then.


Well if you need 2 drives, wouldn't it make sense to just get one big 1tb instead? I mean i would say for most ppl getting the battery higher one is much better option than most right? I mean even if you use the laptop at home always.. seems better to get the bigger battery.

 

As I mentioned, I was using it the WHOLE time and got 6-7 hours. Brightness was around 50% and it was on balanced power settings. HQ was how Intel labeled the quad cores, but that has changed. You can always google the model number and easily find out the information.

Everyone is different, what I need isn't what everyone else needs. Someone may need 4-5TB of space, no way to do that with a single 80mm NVMe drive AFAIK.

 

So your processor was an 8750h. So not only was it quad core but it was power efficient. But do you believe that is another reason why you got that long hours? Example if you had my
i5-6300hq and used it same exact was as you did, most likely you get a bit less battery then right?


Also does that mean pretty much any new dell xps computer series now whether its the 9570 or 7590 etc... even the lowest price laptop will come with a quad core series? Back then when i got it, many were U series which is obviously not quad core. And when i got this xps 15 9550 with the i5-6300hq, well it was quad core but you give up battery.


But now pretty much all these quad core laptops use very little battery right? Because back then i recall it was... get a U series and give up power but more battery... or get a quad core and give up battery. There was like no in between. But now you get the best of both worlds?

 

What has a bigger impact than how many cores your processor is whether you get a single SSD or you get a second drive for for data storage because getting a second drive will limit you to having the smaller 56W battery.

 

Hey. Well yea if you have 2 drives, you are stuck with the 56whr battery that i have now. Again back then i had zero idea this laptop coming with 2 hard drives meant that it would mean you would get the smaller battery. If i did, i would never gotten the 2 hard drives. I had no idea what 32gb m.2 was etc but i figure it didn't matter.


But are there any laptops that does this besides dell? I never heard of any laptop brand that does this.


Yea if you remove the 2.5 inch hard drive, you now will be using the bigger battery. I mean i have to assume like 90% at least of people would prefer this. I mean even if you get a 1tb ssd... if you need more space, just get an external hard drive.