Dell XPS 15 (9510) | 2022 | 1 month (non techie) user review. Do I regret my purchase?
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- čas přidán 16. 04. 2022
- Disclaimer: I am not particularly technically competent - this is a non techie user experience. I bought the Dell XPS 15 for video editing as well as normal Office duties. In many ways it is a great machine, but I have had a few issues which I find disappointing and surprising:
1. Microsoft Teams would not load
2. The headphone jack didn't work
3. One of the Thunderbolt ports is unreliable
4. Dell's hub monitor does not supply enough power to the XPS 15
5. External sound cuts out and reverts to laptop speakers
6. Constant crashing of some applications
Obviously some of these are software related and some may be hardware. I have done my best with updates and reinstalls. (I'm getting by - I made this video for instance!) But is that to be expected in the first week when you pay top dollar for a new laptop?
I have not contacted Dell directly yet, and am working around most issues. Although I did describe all of the above responding to the generic "We hope you are enjoying your new purchase and would love to hear how you are getting on" email they send you (no response - does anyone at Dell read them?) - Věda a technologie
Any other XPS15 users out there facing similar problems?
Apps crashing randomly as you describe is indicative of hardware failure. I would suggest running the dell integrated test suite at startup and also run a thorough ram test. I had a laptop a few years ago where one ram stick went bad, and it manifested by apps crashing randomly.
Ya no issues here. Then again I am a techie... You might have save your self time and money to get so info from a mom and pop computer repair shop.
I work for an 80-person engineering firm that uses the Dell XPS 15 for all of our production staff with a multi-monitor setup. We also supply everyone with the Dell WD19TBS thunderbolt dock. While useful at times, many USB hubs just don't supply either the power needed to charge the XPS or the ability to drive external 4k monitors at 60hz. Using a full featured dock solves many of the issues with ports and power and works by simply plugging in one cable. It's unfortunate that yours was backordered since I suspect this would have fixed your power and sound issues. A few of our XPS 15s have had the screen flickering issue when attached to an external monitor. An immediate update to the Thunderbolt driver and making sure you have good ventilation for the laptop have solved most of those issues. Our first experiences with Dell's Thunderbolt implementation were hit or miss a few years ago but this seems to have improved immensely. We have found that the pre-loaded MS Office version from the MS Store should be avoided if you already have a subscription to Office 365. A clean install from the MS website usually results in no issues with Office and Teams. With our 3-year rotation policy, we have purchased about 180 of the XPS 15s with three year warrantlies. We have found them to fairly reliable and result in a powerful mobile office setup. Dell's problems are well known and you shouldn't have to constantly consult user forums to find fixes. It undermines the XPS 15's excellent hardware specs which command a premium price. Fortunately for us, our setup protocols have taught us many things along the way and we find them to be a great choice for us.
Thank you so much for this honest review. I recently bought the XPS 15 9500 and had to do all sorts of stuff to get the microphone to work. I'm shocked that this issue is not mentioned by tech reviewers.
Thanks for watching!
I gave up on Dell years ago because it forced me to be a techie. I've found that the perfect and most trouble free computer to take on the road with me is my Surface Pro 8. It's small, lightweight, and powerful. Plus it flawlessly runs Windows 11. It's got a great keyboard and runs all Office applications without issue. It might be a bit more expensive than the XPS with a similar spec, but that's a small price to pay for trouble free.
Wow this video gives me a whole new perspective on the port problem. I thought it would be annoying remembering what ports were able to do what as a techi who knows this stuff, but it must be extremely frustrating to get a laptop and suddenly find out a port is essentially useless for how you want to use it
Seems like you have chosen by the algorithm 🗿🧐. I’m really happy you did cause all you said was precious in my opinion + knowing a lot issues on the XPS lineup such as the thermal throttling ( a Dell Speciality ) + TouchPad wobble ( also a Dell Speciality )
An indeed a very honest opinion and review about a laptop. Not like a regular laptop reviewer just sake of reviewing and benchmarking.
Great review can't wait to see more of your content
Nice review! I enjoyed the non-techie and straightforward review
Thanks for watching.
Wow you've had a really tough time with your XPS! I think owning an XPS is a little bit like owning a sportscar - you have to assume there will be times where you have to get the hood up. I've got the XPS 9510 and have had a few issues myself, including having a Dell engineer out twice, first to replace the battery and second to replace the heatsink and fans. But I have to say that it's running pretty much perfectly now, and even though I have a 2022 MacBook Pro as well, I much prefer using the XPS.
I hope you get everything sorted and actually get to enjoy the XPS for what it is: a premium and powerful laptop.
Thanks you for your review, I was looking to purchase this model, but after your honest review I have decided against it. I will probably go for the Macbook pro 14"
Regarding your MS Teams issue, I had the same problem out of the box, after running updates and reinstalling... After banging my head several times, my fix was simple.
1. Uninstalled from my XPS 9510
2. Reinstalled from the web browser, not from my laptop which came from the MS Office suite
3. Logged in and worked perfectly.
4. No more error codes.
*I also logged out of Teams on my older laptop before logging into the new laptop. Not convinced it made a difference but did it anyway.
Other than the MS Teams issue during the initial setup, I have had no problems with web browsers but I have not used the included dongle for an external monitor. Dell's CS is pretty good and since you just bought it, if you continue to experience problems and there are no crazy backorders, I would keep complaining until Dell replaced it with the 12th Gen 👍🏽
Overall my 9510 (i9 OLED) has been awesome for work and casual use. The battery life could be better, as I am always in Battery Saver mode trying to get more than 6.5 hours.
I would like to thank you very much for taking the time to post this video and with the concerns clearly stated. I was just thinking of buying the XPS 17 with i12, 64Gb RAM & 3060 GPU. Personally, if I had the same issues, it would be going back within the week, labelled...'Not fit for purpose'. I certainly would expect most of it to work, and although the installation of windows is relatively easy on a Dell, why would you need to do this on a brand new machine? I do wish you all the best, as a trainer myself, I know how much we rely on this technology. I will now wait until I hear some other Dell reviews before making a final decision.
Thanks for the feedback Graham. According to some of the comments the 12th gen performs better - apparently I only have myself to blame for buying the 11th gen and not waiting another month for the 12th!
I know I'm not talking about the latest model, but I'm an owner of a XPS 7590 (for reference, the model with Intel 9th gen) and I had a lot of issues with this computer, after some months of use I found what appears to be the solution: a clean install of Windows WITHOUT (this is important) reinstalling all Dell software.
I know this is a lot of trouble because some drivers needs to be installed manually, but after that all problems like blue screens, drivers issues and other stuff like battery life too short and temperatures too high, disappeared completely. Now it never goes into thermal throttling and battery lasts at least 10 hours.
This procedure solved a lot of problems not only in my XPS, but also in another Dell I have at home (g3 series).
My Alienware 13 r3 from 2017 still works great. It had one hiccup with the ram , since I purchased it used off EBAY , it had miss matched ram. Once I replaced that with some fresh ram and a new SSD with a new OS install. Runs great.
Typing this comment on it now.
Thanks for this video
Great review! Keep an eye on the new Apple Silicon macbooks. I have only used Dell XPS over the last 10 years, mostly 13s but a 15 as well. I found all of them had massive issues with thermals and battery has been a very common issue more recently. I replaced my latest XPS 13 with a MacBook Air M1 and was very impressed, 3 times as fast with 3 times better battery life, and still cheaper. Since you were pondering a desktop, a Mac Mini may be a great one to go for.
Really great review, cheers. Just curious, did you get this via Dell AU directly or their Ebay store?
via Dell AU directly. Things seem to have settled down after a couple of months. I still have the dodgy port, but you get used to things that were annoying in the first instance, or learn how to work around them, or eventually resolve them with updates/reinstalls.
Just do a clean install of windows 11 + get rid of ALL dell apps
I have a xps 17, its battery life has gone from 1.5 hr to 9 hr in one charge after doing this. Crashing problems were resolved as well
Learnt this from reddit
Great video mate
could you write me the reddit link? i am also interested in improving the battery
Thanks Philippe
Hmmm, that sucks, was just thinking of buying one of these laptops haha
Wow! I was disappointed with the last Dell Business notebook I use as well. Maybe the RAM is bad, may try to boot a memtest86 and let it run overnight.
I have issues with some softwares too. I think most software crash because they don't support the resolution on my laptop. However if chrome keeps crashing, try brave. That's never given me issues in my xps15
The headphone issue is super irritating and it's a thing with all DELL laptops, I have a Precision 5560 (the business version of the XPS) for work and it needed this as well.. I don't quite understand why a headphone jack requires drivers, it should just work without any additional drivers but for some reason only DELL laptops require this. I have other laptops that required zero configuration for sound - I just plugged in a headphone and got sound right away.
Does it generate much noise when working with light load? Thanks ahead for your response!
No. It's usually pretty quiet. Fans only revs up when I am rendering videos.
i hear you mate, my company switched from Dell to Lenovo across the entire business as since haven’t missed Dell. If it was me I would return it and get a Lenovo machine (I’m personally a big fan of our new thinkpads) they might not look as snazzy but across a big team of 50 I yet to see someone has an issue
I have 4 boys and have been building PCs since the late 80s. We have generally enjoyed Dell and Alienware laptops. However we have seem a number of similar issues on everything but the XPS series the past few years. Someone below commented about using the thunderbolt dock. My wife switches between her 2019 XPS and her work laptop without a hitch. We do have two models like yours one with the i7 and one with the i9. The i9 we got just before Win 11 so it was upgraded and hasn't had any issues. The i7 we got in Jan and it required multiple updates from Microsoft and Dell's site to get everything working. If you haven't updated all the drivers from the Dell site, that might help as well.
On another note, until about 18 months ago I hadn't owned a Mac since 1997. I picked up an M1 Air and it was the best laptop I had ever owned. I traded it in on the 16" MacBook pro with the M1 Pro processor, I rarely charge it, it has built in media decoders for video and Resolve is blazingly fast, it's now the best laptop I've ever owned (I have 3 right now, my personal MBP, a Dell for work and a Lenovo for my work's primary customer and this has been the norm since the mid 90s). At first the rest of my house hold took little notice but over the last 8 months or so almost everyone wants a MacBook now except for my youngest who has the XPS 15 with the i9.
It's probably too late to return the Dell, unless it's multiple hardware issue. Regrettably it sounds like you are just having multiple different driver issues with Windows 11. Make sure you have the latest version of Win 11 and that you update all drivers from Dell as well. It may be a rocky few more months but my guess is most of those issues will get resolved. As noted, we have had really good luck with the XPS 15, it's not a MacBook but it's probably the closest thing out there from a PC perspective. If was still using a PC laptop for personal use, that's what I would have purchased as well.
Thanks for this honest commentary. You have reminded me why I swore I’d never buy another XPS again. I have owned several, all will niggling issues that should not happen on a premium product. I don’t have the time to faff about fixing issues. I also think the cooling on xps15 is not sufficient for such performance, needs more air movement. I have a Gigabyte aero 15 now which is not perfect but it’s been pretty solid. And handles thermal load much better. I’m still yet see another Lappy as cool as an XPS though. If only my engineering software would run on a Mac…
thanks just saved 3500 dollars-- with those problems i might as well stay with with 2013 m4800 precision and get a desktop mini- lenovo ultra fits in a brief case and runs 8 monuitors
I wonder, why did you buy the 11th gen xps when the 12th gen JUST came out and it's significantly improved compared to last gen?
i have the same question to!
The 12th Gen had not been released in Australia when I purchased in late Feb. The spec sheet in the video is a screen shot of the current Dell webpage (it refers to the New XPS15, but that was not available when I purchased.) Note, Dell are still selling the 11th Gen (for more than I paid for it). I guess that is just for suckers?
@@cruisingandsnoozing1479 It’s because of the chip shortage crisis. I’m lucky enough to get the 12th chip here in Germany but i have been waiting for the delivery for over a month now.
that's why people go for MacBook because it's years of software and hardware refinement to achieve common goal, which is just not possible with what currently Laptop manufactures like dell Lenovo hp are doing with windows intel and amd.
Don't update through dell drivers only windows update. By dell had problem when I use to use the dell software driver update, and why buy the 11 gen we are on the 12 gen is more powerful then the m1 pro or any other Intel . Even the new 13 inch plus is more powerful the last year 2021 15 inches model
Have you considered switching to a MacBook? I've never had even a tiny fraction of the problems you've had. (Have MacBook Pro and MacBook Air and older iMacs)
Might do so in future. Thanks for watching.
@@cruisingandsnoozing1479 MS is releasing Teams for Mac VERY soon too.
Most error are fixed: Dell Update App > Update BIOS/Drivers
I would go with Asus M16 or G15 instead
Hello i have ordered the 2022 xps 15 9520 and dell ultrasharp U3223QE. I called the dell support and they told me xps 15 is certified also for 90W charging and it should work fine. There should be an option in bios to turn off those messages.
I will make some bechmarks for comparisons 90W vs 130W. Cos iam curious about this issue.
Are you sure your battery actually discharges? Not just charges more slowly?
No I am not sure Jan. I just accepted that if the laptop gives you a message saying it is not receiving adequate power, then that is what is actually happening. I haven't tested it though.
I don't think you'll be constantly using maximum power. According to notebookcheck 12700H load average is around 90W. It idles at 7W.
Why you did not get the latest 12th gen ?
12th Gen was only released after I purchased. Also XPS15 with 12th Gen is currently priced by Dell at A$1,200 more than what I paid for 11th Gen with same spec.
What's that got to do with ports, sockets, charging not working?
Regardless, if they are selling it, it should work. And a premium system should be flawless
A lot of these sound like driver issues. One thing I always do with any new machine is to completely wipe the storage and freshly reinstall windows, then install the latest drivers direct from dell.
Thanks, yes you are probably right. Some problems were addressed by driver updates. I will need to have a look at doing a complete Windows reinstall. A bit intimidating for the layman, but I'm sure there is a good CZcams video to show me how. Thank you Glorious Leader.
If you see in his thumbnail video that he’s not a techy…. that sounds like a techy thing to do lol
Why a brand new , so called great pricy laptop can’t work out of box ? That’s Dell’s quality.
And if one need to perform the steps you mentioned, it should be clearly mentioned in Quick start guide.
Do you think Apple computer needs the steps you mentioned?
@Rraj_cH the dell website is there and all the guides are found there. Also cut some slack to dell. And don't compare dell to apple, because Apple has over 1 trillion dollars at it's disposal, for research and dell has less than 5 billion dollars to its disposal for research. And considering that the entire XPS line is the top of the line in windows world, and the amount of engineering marvels of the laptop are up to and in some ways even better than the macbooks, comparing dell to Apple makes it seem like Apple is wasting their money on research and being lazy, because with all that much resources, other companies with far less resources are able to make similar and better products.
@@kw1776
1. Dell has less R&D budget- let’s manufacture poor quality product, sell at high price at high margin, let customers suffer- Testimony- this video.
2. The so called ‘ TOP OF THE LINE’ XPS. - Myself had horrible experiences with Dell XPS 15 with lots of issues. Major- Thermal throttling, 100+ degree heat and unable to touch keyboard ( middle to upper part) , premier support failed to fix issues for months, sudden shutdown and restarting during important work calls, port’s not working. flashing display etc etc….Yes dell has less R&D and let’s produce junk and sell. There are many other glaring issues about Dell’s premier support.
3. Who stopped Dell to make Trillions and use that resources to manufacture quality products so that customers do not need to wipe everything upon receiving a brand new top of the line XPS and reinstall everything from OS and all drivers :)
Damn, I want a perfect powerful laptop (not a Mac). Seem it doesn't exist yet. I'm having Matebook X Pro, but after six years I want to upgrade and have more 16go of Rams
zenbook pro
Do a clean install of Windows! Get read off all the bloatware.
Test your RAM.
Test your SDD.
Sounds like a hardware issue. I would think fault ram stick could be a culprit. If not clean install of windows is your best bet. I do that to every new laptop.
The undrcharging issue is not an issue unless you underload 100% during the full time. Most people are not. But I get what you mean that was my initial reaction as well. Spend a lot $ on top level monitor you would expect it supports top level hardware. But most people don't run XPS15 with dedicated GPU so it make sense to cut corner there for Dell. Disspoint few give functionality to many other without the extra cost. Is fair compromise.
It sounds like most of the problems are being caused by Windows 11 rather than the XPS. You might want to consider "downgrading" to Windows 10. Thank you for your impressions, the video was very insightful!
I think Windows 11 is optimized for the dual core types on the 12th gen cpus
Have you considered the macbook pro 16? It's expensive but I think it's way better than the xps. Amazing battery life and you can use the full performance even while on battery unlike windows laptops.
Will think about transferring to the Apple universe next time. The XPS15 is doing OK despite the gremlins. Thanks for watching.
I had an Asus , I bought from Dick Smith. I7 chip etc. I had so much trouble with it , at first , I had to take it to a tech. He went through it and adjusted the settings and everything . Then the machine had no problems at all.
What a calamity. You can't write this stuff!
dang.... i got my xps 9510 for $999
Thank you British Bryan Adams
Here is an interesting video on a somewhat similar topic: czcams.com/video/bZpwCpubr_0/video.html
I am thinking of buying an XPS machine for the form factor, materials, and the keyboard. I have owned an XPS machine in the past, but I wrecked it using the wrong GaN charger. The wrong voltage killed the battery . The issue outlined in the video are quite concerning, especially in terms of the hardware. The issue with Teams is most probably caused by the way the Windows is configured in combination with all the other software installed. In some cases, regretably, it needs to be resolved via a fresh Windows install, without all the bloatware and factory configurations. Fresh installs on XPS can also be tricky due to all the Rapid Storage drivers needed, etc.
Still, the XPS attirbute is quite appealing - screen, keyboard, mats, etc. I am a bit put off by the resulting wieght and heat too. I need a machine for both office work and content production.
Thanks for watching, and the link. Good luck with your purchase.
Dell. BIG price, Terrible user experience and quality. aaaand YES had many problems with xps 15. people should really check forum reviews before buying
Techy-perspective here ... even in 2022, the fact that Dell charged 2200USD (even 2700USD before offer!) for a 11800/3050ti configuration is disgusting. With a 3050ti you'll have essentially no future-proofing and even when new, this is the absolute barebones minimum I would consider capable of any heavier use-cases like the mentioned video-editing you do. You see these specs in a laptop 1/2 of the price. Given all the other issues you had, really makes me wonder what the 'premium'-money you spent went into; likely straight into profit, certainly not the value you were getting. I can not strech that part enough - you NEED to do more research; even the nicest looking/feeling machine will be of little use, if the muscle it has barely gets you through its intended workload/ future-applications. Surely, there is also the other spectrum; great specs in a terrible chassis (e.g., almost anything from MSI), but there is A LOT in between and for that kind of money you really can expect premium in both build-quality AND performance.
Thanks for taking the time to write some good advice.
guess this is why people stay with mac
I totally regret purchasing an XPS 15. Never again.
It seems this is your most popular video, perhaps you should switch from travel to tech videos!
The thought has crossed my mind Darryl!
very frustrating and expensive. *** google driver booster, its a software package that installs drivers, the free version is enough.
It sounds to me like most of your issues are software related and not specific to the hardware. You're in effect complaining that two differing Windows installations with differing update histories behave differently. Many of these type of issues are likely not to be hardware related, and it's misleading of you to imply such.
I clearly state in the video that some of my issues have been resolved by reinstalling drivers etc. In the video description I state "Obviously some of these are software related and some may be hardware. I have done my best with updates and reinstalls". It is misleading of you to imply that I am solely blaming it on the hardware. My complaint is the performance and hiccups 'out of the box'. Why should a $3,000 laptop arrive with software issues? I have no idea what you mean by "You're in effect complaining that two differing Windows installations with differing update histories behave differently"? Is that what I was sold? I have not reinstalled Windows.
You got a bad unit.
Dell makes Terrible Desktops, so I don't trust them Anything.