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New Dell XPS 15 - rubbish laptop or bad luck?
So i've had a Dell XPS 15 laptop for a couple of months now and I must say I am quite underwhelmed. After deciding to spend twice the budget I would normally spend on a laptop after reading rave reviews I decided to purchase the XPS 15.
The first problem I had was with the WIFI. The speed of the WIFI was and continues to be poor, even after changing the network adapter from Killer to Intel. I am continually having to move around my room to get enough signal to load a page. I decided that I would grin and bare it for now and eventually plan to purchase a WIFI booster, even though my mid range laptop from 8 years ago works just fine in all locations in my house.
Now I have just sat down to go on my laptop and have found the touchpad is loose and rattles when i touch it. I have premium warranty so it should be repaired, but i'm not too sure I even want the laptop anymore which is disheartening because I bought it as a top of the range laptop and wish it would perform as all the reviews mentioned it would.
I don't really know where to go from here, possibly a full replacement if thats possible with premium warranty?... I'm hoping these issues are solely with my laptop. Opinions would be helpful.
Anonymous
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274.2K Posts
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October 12th, 2018 15:00
Anonymous
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October 12th, 2018 15:00
JordJ
4 Posts
2
October 14th, 2018 07:00
Yeah, there does appear to be quite a lot of people having problems with their laptops!
BroBot92
68 Posts
1
October 14th, 2018 08:00
Callie de Jager
2 Posts
2
October 16th, 2018 02:00
JordJ
4 Posts
1
October 18th, 2018 11:00
Its crazy because most of the reviews for this laptop are positive. I looked at so many tech websites and youtube reviews before selecting this laptop, and even though I was unsure about "Dell" as a company (last time I bought a laptop they had a reputation for exploding) I decided to go for it anyway... Disappointing
BogdanBBO
24 Posts
0
October 18th, 2018 22:00
Go to a shop and try a HP Spectre x360 15 UHD. It's amazing and the price is a little bit lower than XPS. I had one (i7-8550U, 16GB, NVMe 1Tb) in my hands for almost 24 hours. By far is faster than my XPS 9560 (better write - read NVMe speeds, better bootup times, faster compilation of my Visual Studio Projects, faster compilation of my Android Studio Projects,.....); it's simple amazing! This will be my next choice for a premium laptop that will fit my needs.
BroBot92
68 Posts
0
October 19th, 2018 08:00
Clevor
68 Posts
0
October 29th, 2018 00:00
I have a Lenovo Yoga 920 in addition to my Dell XPS, and although it's been 6 months since the purchase, that Lenovo is still a killer machine. Nothing can match it at this moment. At the time, I was finally going to pull the trigger on a MacBook Pro, but feature-wise, it couldn't match the Lenovo.
The Yoga 920 has an UHD, ultra-thin bezel screen, and a touchscreen is standard, not a hard to find option like it was earlier this year on the Dell. Moreover the laptop is 2-in-1 and comes with a WACOM stylus. It has two TB3 ports running in 4 lanes. Other nice touches are ultra thin profile (it's a 14-15" laptop that's thinner than the XPS 13) and the CPU has twin fans like a gaming laptop. The 8th gen Intel i8570 CPU, touchscreen, UHD resolution, and 2-in-1 design put the MacBook Pro Retina to shame, although the latter does has two more TB3 ports. And it's also $1000 cheaper than the Apple.
In addition to the XPS 13 and Yoga 920, I have an MSI Aegis 3 Plus desktop (i7-8700 and Geforce 1080) and an Alienware Aurora R7 (i7-8700K, Geforce 1080 Ti, 32 GB 2933 DDR4), and the Lenovo is the quickest machine by far, booting in 4 seconds. However the Aurora R7 still has a SATA HDD boot drive in it so it's not fair to compare, but even with a soon-to-be installed 970 EVO Pro, no way it will book faster than a laptop anyway.
HOWEVER, the Lenovo Yoga 920 is a finickly machine, like a Ferrari or Lamborghini, and many owners have issues with it, and I would say it's more unreliable than the Dell. Where the Dell XPS series excel is the plethora of Dell app software and feature-rich BIOS. BIOS and firmware updates are frequent compared to Lenovo, which has a barebones BIOS in comparison. Lenovo is all about high tech, speed, and latest state-of-the-art, but there is no free lunch. They break down a lot and some owners complain of QC issues like warped frames, because they build the laptops too thin and lightweight.
To anybody shopping for a good laptop, I would wait for the next platform Dell XPS, but expect it to be beset by the usual bugs and teething pains. The XPS is in bad need of an updated PCIE controller that can take advantage of the latest Samsung SSDs, and a TB3 port that is not neutered to 2-lanes. It also has a relatively bulky and thick frame.