Dell XPS 15 9550 Gaming Laptop First Look

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"Dell employs a PCIe-based 512GB M.2 SSD for storage. The system should have space for a 2.5-inch HDD/SSD too, as other models of the XPS 15 include an HDD."

No, no it doesn't. The specs, initial reviews, Dell's website, and other reviews all point out that if you opt for the PCIe SSD, they use the extra space that would otherwise be allocated for a traditional 2.5" drive, and fill it with extra battery instead.
 
And who is going to spend over $2000 on a "gaming" laptop with a 4K display that can run games in 4K? Seriously Dell. Every since they went to this limited configurability sales model, their product offerings have been less than desirable
 
its got great specs until you get to the 2gb of gddr5 ram on the gt 960m, which ends up being the bottleneck of the entire system when it comes to the gaming aspect of it. and that's a shame to as 4gb oh gddr5 would have been greatly needed which is this laptops achilles heel in an other wise solid gaming laptop for the price.
 
You do realize 2048x1152 is a 2K resolution at 16:9.
WQHD 2560x1440 is 2.5K, not 2K.
Click to expand...

There are 2,073,600 pixels in 1920x1080.
There are 2,359,296 pixels in 2048x1152.
There are 3,686,400 in 2560x1440.

Testing at 2048x1152 is hardly any more taxing on the system than 1080p. It is also not a common resolution, and there are relatively few (if any) displays that have a native resolution of 2048x1152. Yes, it is technically 2K, but 2560x1440 and 2560x1600 are commonly referred to as 2K resolutions, and monitors sold with a native resolution of 2560x1440 or 2560x1600 are marketed as being 2K displays. They are also abundant on the market and heavily used by gamers.
 
More memory would only get it so far. If it doesn't have more shaders and higher bandwidth you could put 8GB or RAM on a 950 or 940, and they would still conk out at higher resolutions.

its got great specs until you get to the 2gb of gddr5 ram on the gt 960m, which ends up being the bottleneck of the entire system when it comes to the gaming aspect of it. and that's a shame to as 4gb oh gddr5 would have been greatly needed which is this laptops achilles heel in an other wise solid gaming laptop for the price.
Click to expand...
 
Until mobile graphics are substantially beefed up(lots of obstacles to making this happen), there's no point in a display that is higher resolution than 1080(unless you're not gaming). Even 1440 is too much for anything but the 980m sli or true 980 graphics setups.
 
A 4k screen scales to 1080p with a perfect 4:1 pixel ratio. It is very easy to game at 1080p resolutions and still look great. This laptop is smaller and lighter (barely) than a macbook pro 15, but still cheaper by a good margin. it has touch as an option, a higher DPI screen, and better hardware. this is a laptop option for people wanting to buy macbook class laptop.

4gb memory will not appreciably help the 960m as any resolution over 1080p that requires more vram for textures would still not be playable with such low FPS. any gpu more powerful than the 960m would make the laptop larger, heavier, and less desirable for carry. it is a very well balanced machine.
 
with all the laptop homework I'm doing for a "gaming" laptop; this is a horrendous bargain. there's Alienware versions out there for cheaper with same display res and/or more graphics power. I think this is a pro workstation with OK graphics for some rendering. Even from what i looked up a better Gaming deal would be a GTX 965M & 1080p display(some builds go for as litte as $1100), or a GTX 970M with 1440p or even a little higher. laptop builders need to reality check themselves before marketing a configuration like this as a "gaming" unit.
 
"Dell employs a PCIe-based 512GB M.2 SSD for storage. The system should have space for a 2.5-inch HDD/SSD too, as other models of the XPS 15 include an HDD."

No, no it doesn't. The specs, initial reviews, Dell's website, and other reviews all point out that if you opt for the PCIe SSD, they use the extra space that would otherwise be allocated for a traditional 2.5" drive, and fill it with extra battery instead.
Click to expand...

That's only on full spec'd model on the Dell website. The $1799 config with 4k screen and 512GB SSD. The lower ones show they have the 56Whr battery and not the 84Whr. I would prefer to have the 84Whr battery but not at $1800...

http://www.dell.com/us/p/xps-15-9550-laptop/pd?~ck=mn
 
You do realize 2048x1152 is a 2K resolution at 16:9.
WQHD 2560x1440 is 2.5K, not 2K.
Click to expand...

There are 2,073,600 pixels in 1920x1080.
There are 2,359,296 pixels in 2048x1152.
There are 3,686,400 in 2560x1440.

Testing at 2048x1152 is hardly any more taxing on the system than 1080p. It is also not a common resolution, and there are relatively few (if any) displays that have a native resolution of 2048x1152. Yes, it is technically 2K, but 2560x1440 and 2560x1600 are commonly referred to as 2K resolutions, and monitors sold with a native resolution of 2560x1440 or 2560x1600 are marketed as being 2K displays. They are also abundant on the market and heavily used by gamers.
Click to expand...

You are completely correct! But my post was about how the statement within the article was incorrect regarding not having a 2k resolution available.

It has bugged me for a while that hardware sites like this continue to regurgitate the marketing buzz that 2560x1440 is "2k" when the 2k resolution standard is 2048x1080. The closest consumer resolution to 2K is FHD at 1920x1080. If we also take the UHD 3840x2160 = 4K 4096x2160 idea further, half of UHD is FHD, and half of 4K is 2K.
 
This is a nice productivity laptop that can play some games at 1080p. It is not a gaming laptop.

A 960m for that much money is stupid if gaming is the goal. You could easily get a 970m, possibly a 980m for that money.
 
I don't think I've ever seen a monitor of any kind marketed as "2K" — I'd like to see an example of that if there is such a thing. I have certainly seen the term 2K used, but only in the context of contrasting against a 4K display and without any specific resolution mentioned. I have always assumed people were talking about 1920x1080 since it's exactly half the linear resolution of what people commonly refer to as 4K. 2560x1440 sounds a lot more like 2.5k to me, since if you were just rounding, it would have to be 3k, or if you were rounding down then 1920x1080 would have to be 1k and 3840x2160 would be 3k...
 
The panel not only features high resolution, but is also 100 percent Adobe RGB-compliant, which allows it to produce extremely vivid images.
Click to expand...

So where are the color space measurements to back that statement up? I thought this is a review, not a rehash of manufacturer-provided specs? And since we're on the topic, where are the measurements of screen brightness, black level and color accuracy? What's the point reviewing a laptop if you omit a key component from testing?

Edit: never mind that, missed the editor's note as usual >_<
 
More memory would only get it so far. If it doesn't have more shaders and higher bandwidth you could put 8GB or RAM on a 950 or 940, and they would still conk out at higher resolutions.

its got great specs until you get to the 2gb of gddr5 ram on the gt 960m, which ends up being the bottleneck of the entire system when it comes to the gaming aspect of it. and that's a shame to as 4gb oh gddr5 would have been greatly needed which is this laptops achilles heel in an other wise solid gaming laptop for the price.
Click to expand...

yes but for the price you would expect it to come with 4gb of gddr5 ram when competitors in this segment come with that amount of video ram on the 960m and they sell for 400 dollars cheaper.
Click to expand...
 
I don't believe Dell markets this as a gaming laptop. It's not. But it is an awfully nice laptop if you can afford it.
 
Since when does dell sell gaming laptops... they stopped doing that 8 years ago. If you want a gaming laptop; you can't even look at Alienware anymore.

Try Eurocom, Sager, Clevo, Origin, etc...... "Gaming Laptop" huh...... more like cheap plastic macbook that runs windows door stop.
 
And who is going to spend over $2000 on a "gaming" laptop with a 4K display that can run games in 4K? Seriously Dell. Every since they went to this limited configurability sales model, their product offerings have been less than desirable
Click to expand...

This is a hilarious comment. Compared to the competition, this machine is ridiculously inexpensive and highly competitive.
 
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