Everything wrong with the Dell XPS 17 9730

Question

I had this computer for about 8 months now and I am hugely disappointed. I have been using XPS Notebooks for about 8 years now starting with the XPS 15 9500 and I was a big fan so far. But the XPS 17 9730 is really a terrible machine and I am done with Dell. By the way, I have no commercial interest in this. The only reason for me to make this video is to call out a seriously problematic product that I want to warn others about. So, if you think about buying a XPS 17 9730, let me tell you why it is probably not a good idea. First of all, Windows and Intel broke any type of functional standby. With the XPS 17 you either have have 'modern standby' which really never turns off anything except the screen and the Wifi, and therefore uses about 5-10 % of the battery per hour, while letting the computer get pretty hot in your backpack. Or you can use hibernate, which needs pretty long to wake up your computer or put it to sleep. Dell’s reply to having broken a functioning Standby for the XPS is to tell people to please not transport their notebook in a backpack when in Standby. Well, thanks for a notebook that you effectively have to turn off before you can transport it anywhere Dell. What makes matters worse is that when I did put my XPS into hibernate, it frequently crashed until a Dell representative found a faulty Realtek driver after 2 hours of searching. However, rather than fixing this driver, Dell update eventually reinstalled it automatically, so the computer started crashing again about 2 months later. And the worst thing is: When the computer crashes in hibernation, then it force-restarts, gets stuck in Bios and gets seriously hot, which, if you do have it in your backpack is pretty dangerous. And (you can’t make this up): the internal keyboard misses keystrokes when an external monitor or docking station is attached. Even replacing the physical motherboard, including the CPU and GPU plus a keyboard replacement did not change this. Month later Dell acknowledged that this is a problem on all XPS and promises to fix it. However, until then, you simply cannot type with this computer due to missing keystrokes. The i9 is also severely crippled due to wattage and heat limitations, and this problem is compounded because different from previous versions, you cannot undervolt the CPU anymore, so in benchmarks, this computer is slower than my XPS 9700 from two years ago. Similarly to the CPU, the RTX 4080 is severely limited by heat and wattage. Do not expect more than about 50 % of what a desktop RTX 4080 would be capable off. Dell thus used components that are great advertise, but do not deliver even close to the performance that they should. Also, Dell never managed to reliably turn off the dedicated GPU when on battery, so you manually have to disable the DGPU in the device manager, and then turn it on again, otherwise it keeps on getting pinged, which continually drains the battery, which brings me to my next point. The Battery runtime on the XPS 17 9730 is realistically 2-3 hours. If you manually deactivate and then manually reactivate the dedicated GPU, you can get 4-5 hours if you try very hard. But this is about as much as a notebook from almost 20 years ago could accomplish. The problem of the low battery runtime is compounded by the 4k Display, which is another feature that sounds cool, but you basically have to set windows scaling to 150 % percent to see anything. So, realistically, a 3 k 1440p display would have been a much better choice. But again, while this would have been much more usable, well, it just doesn’t sound as cool in the advertised specs. When I connected this computer to my Dell docking stations, and I have tried this on three different ones, you get intermittent screen blackouts when connecting a 4k 144hz monitor. Believe me, I have tried all cables, HDMI, Displayport, three types of docking stations with three types of monitors, I have tried it with two XPS 9730 motherboards, it seems to be a systemic problem, particularly as it has never occurred with any other computer I have connected to exactly the same setup. To top it all off, I compared the speed of the XPS 9730 to my friend’s Macbook Air M1 that is three years old by now. I use the statistical software Stata and the i9 is actually not faster than a Macbook that cost a fifth of its price, uses a quarter of its wattage, weights a third, and does not even have a cooler, while the i9 jumps to 100 degrees at the slightest occasion. Finally, there is the price. I paid close to 5000 for this computer for a machine that has an effective runtime of 2-3 hours on battery and gets outperformed by a three year old Mac without a cooler for a fifth of the price. So bottom line: This is a terrible computer, whose components seem perfect, but they simply do not work. This is why I have been a huge XPS fan, but this is it for me. To be fair, Dell customer service was great whenever I had a problem, but they cannot change the sheer amount of problems that I did and most likely you will have with this machine. So, if you want a machine that you can actually work with rather than having to work on, do not get the Dell XPS 17 9730. I honestly wish I never would have bought this computer and much less paid almost 5000 Euro for it. It’s frankly a disgrace for Dell. So, thank you and I hope that this review is helpful for everyone thinking about a buying a Dell XPS 17 9730.

VictorSky99 · Answer

Have you installed all recommended drivers from the Dell site for this laptop?
https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-uk?app=drivers
Just to give you an example, here is a screenshot of the 5 Dell apps installed on my G3 3500.
The first one definitely makes a difference about the power usage.

mulgul · Answer

Yeah, I do, I really think most of the problems are hardware related or Dell-inherent. I wish they could be fixed with software updates. I personally have finally switched to a Mac after being a Windows user since version 3.1.

Vassili_C · Answer

I have just purchased the XPS 17 9730 and can say that is is slower than my five year old XPS 15 and has the keyboard issues you mentioned. For example, openeing and closing Adobe pdf's takes forever and I have had to go back and correct the spelling in this post as the keyboard did not respond to my typing.

Not sure what one can do about it, but it is pretty disappointing.

R3MS · Answer

I also purchased this specific model (Dell XPS 17 9730) with the following components (Intel® Core™ i9-13900H, Windows 11 Pro, NVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 4080, 64 GB: 2 x 32 GB, DDR5, 4800 MT/s, dual-channel, 2 TB, M.2, PCIe NVMe, SSD, and 17' UHD+ 3840x2400 60Hz display) and I can attest that this device has given me nothing but problems. I haven't had this device not even two months and it already had to be send back for repairs due to the numerous issues experienced. Keep in mind that this device is not even two months old and Dell already had to replaced the motherboard and the UHD+ screen. After receiving it back, I still experience thermal heating and performance issues. This has been a disappointing and extremely frustrating experience, to say the least. I'm currently in the process of seeing if Dell can replace the device with a new one; however, the first response I've received is that they will not be replacing it at this time. I'm appealing this decision and hopefully Dell can reconsider and make this right. I will update this post once a final decision is made, but as of now I would not recommend purchasing this product.

cooperjc311 · Answer

I have the same model and specs but am past 30 days return period. Invoiced in November. I thought I was the problem by installing all the games and Microsoft Office suite programs. The laptop does not want to work. I get the Blue Screen Recovery once every two weeks. I have done clean installs and resets. Overheating is definitely an issue. My 2014 Macbook Pro certainly doesnt have these issues and the battery life is twice as long.

R3MS and mulgul paint the picture much better than me of course. I would be happy with trade-in credit to get a different device (XPS 15) and some accessories. It is laughable that if I go to trade-in now, I'm offered $500. Pound Sand.

mulgul · Answer

It is crazy how this computer creates problems both for the consumer and for Dell. I mean, with all the fixing Dell has to do, I cannot imagine that they are turning a profit either. Not that I have to much compassion with Dell after they sold me (and all of you) a basically non-functioning notebook for 5000 Euro.

(edited)

aanscharius · Answer

I used the computer 14 h a day, and nothing, not one point of what you claim to be though, is. Yes, if you want to tamper with it. Put is on a hot surface, don't use the battery management (try to achieve full performance on battery)
I paif 4300 euro for it with 32 GB and 2 TB disc drive, and not once in this complete 12 months has it disappointed me. IT IS A LAPTOP, IT IS NOT A DESKTOP. It is a beast, but not a dinosaure. It is the very best of the best of the around 20 laptops I ever had, and I don't work for Dell (would like a discount on the next one for my beautiful words though. It scores still a a good battleship in userbenchmarks (this is a pro laptop, not a gaming laptop)

philulrich · Answer

@aanscharius​ Found this thread because I've been having issues with the laptop since I bought it and starting to thermal throttle again after having the mobo/cpu/gpu swapped out last time this happened.  As I can't speak for you. Nor can you speak for these other people. But I will say that your claim of other peoples experiences.

cb750 · Answer

I was able to get my setup to stop repeating and missing key strokes and stop mouse stalls.
My setup is a 9730 laptop with the power in one USBC port, a docking hub with internet and HDMI plug in the next USBC slot, my KVM switch into the next USBC slot and my Thunderbolt drive unit with 4 M.2 drives in the final USBC slot. This was causing key misses, repeats, mouse stalls.

I then plugged the KVM cord into the back of the Thunderbolt drive since it had a USBC port on the back and just had the drive plugged into the laptop - no more issues.

I think the Mouse/keyboard kvm and the thunderbolt were conflicting with each other plugged into separate USBC ports on the laptop. Chaining them by plugging the KVM into drive then that into the laptop cleared up the problem for me.

ToonV · Answer

Same problems here the XPS17 is the most terrible laptop I ever had. Continous problems with and allready send it twice to an IT partner for propper installation and problems with blue screens. As today the product stopped working... just opened a PDF and... boom. flashing screen and couldn't do enything anymore. Just the 3th huge problem in 8 months time! I'll send it back. This is a terrible product.

R-dog · Answer

Thankyou all for sharing your experience with this laptop. You've saved me from landing in the same situation as I was considering upgrading to it. It seems some things have gone particularly awry with the 9730, however I will share a few thoughts: I think part of the issue is dell selling the laptop with the i9 and the 4070/4080 graphics card. It has a thin chassis and only a 130w power supply so it simply doesn't have enough cooling capacity or power delivery to justify these parts. I have second quarter XPS 9700 with the i7 10875h and RTX 2060. While it will still thermal throttle a bit in sustained loads most of the time it runs pretty good and serves my needs as an architectural CAD and graphic editing machine. Even these mid tier parts can't get their maximum performance from 130w but the smaller size of this power brick and USB C power supply makes up for it for me. The case is good looking and durable. The back is easy to get into (after the first opening) to clean fans and repaste the cpu/gpu. The 4k screen looks great and has none of the burn-in or PWM flicker issues of new OLED laptops. While I never use the touch screen, just having the glass face makes it so much easier to clean. Single cable connection to a 4k 60hz monitor via the WD19TB thunderbolt dock has been a dream and I can leave my power adapter in my travel bag.
It is heavy and the battery life is pretty bad but I like the screen space for my work. So much so I bought my partner the 9720 with 12700h & RTX 3050 and the 1080p screen. This one is lighter, quieter basically never throttles for anything we do with it, and screen surprisingly adequate while not loading the GPU as much.
In summary for mid intensity graphics use where you want big generous portable screen (on windows), this thing still doesn't have a direct market competitor. Its a shame they couldn't iron the bugs out. The new XPS 16 looks like a POS with those top row keys.

cheerful_man · Answer

@mulgul , an excellent summary. A someone who used several XPS15/17 during the past 10 years I can reaffirm every point you stated.

tripwalks · Answer

Found this thread because I got annoyed with my current set up. What other windows laptop would you guys recommend then? or heat about running windows on MacBook then?

aanscharius · Answer

1. You don't leave a laptop with this power in your backpack.
2. The computer performs ultra good, but of course if you don't know how to set it to use the right gpu, then you are having a slow computer. This computer has 2 gpu's, you should know how to use the settings

3. It IS a laptop, not a desktop, however, I user it all the time laying down, because of my handicap.
4. never it missed a keystroke,
5. The usb-C charging is imposed by the new EU law which imposes all brands to use USB-C only. But the power is too much, so yes, this gives problems. they should stick with a normal 'old' plug for charging.
6. The touch and screen are simply fabulous
7. Heat: of course, with that power, I use a laptop cooler, not for the laptop, but for my lap.

And last of all: it was considered the best laptop you could buy in 2023, I have MacBook Pro, and this Dell one. both are good, considering Windows consumes a lot of resources, the Dell is more powerfull (needs to be since Windows is a worse system than OS, but I stick to it, since used to it, and using Autodesk full suite)
It is NOT for games, you can buy a 1000 Eur game computer which will perform better in gaming.

cheerful_man · Answer

@tripwalks​ , Macbook Pro for MacOS and Lenovo for Windows. These are my choices. Dell became a cheap low quality brand similar to HP. Their old reputation and few good products (mostly for business) keep them afloat but this won't last. Corporate bureaucracy and corruption already hit Intel hard, Dell is going the same direction.

XPS

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