I used the Dell XPS 15 OLED as my main laptop for 6 months — here’s what I found
I used the Dell XPS 15 OLED as my main laptop for 6 months — hither's what I found
There's a good hazard that some of the best laptops of CES 2022 — including the Asus ROG Menstruum Z13 gaming two-in-1 and the (vegan) leather-clad Lenovo ThinkPad Z13 — will end upwardly on our list of the best laptops on the market.
Only before that happens, I wanted to take a moment to talk about another excellent laptop that's been on our list of the best laptops yous can buy for some time: the Dell XPS 15 OLED.
If y'all're not familiar, the XPS xv OLED is a mid-sized model of Dell's pop XPS series of ultraportables that sports a 15.6-inch 3.5K OLED touchscreen, which is a pretty solid upgrade over the FHD+ (1,920 x 1,200) LCD screen it ships with by default. Dell began selling XPS 15 models with the optional OLED upgrade last twelvemonth, and after we published our Dell XPS 15 OLED review , Dell was gracious enough to let me hang onto information technology for another six months or so.
That's a little out of the ordinary for u.s.a. here at Tom'due south Guide, every bit we review then many laptops (and desktops, tablets, monitors, etc.) that information technology's rare to hang onto one for more than two or three months. I think that's a good affair for you, dear reader, because it gives us plenty of hands-on experience with lots of different products on the market and helps us offer more than nuanced perspectives on how those devices compare to their competitors.
Merely in our enthusiasm to review equally many different laptops equally possible, we can't assistance but handicap our authority to tell you what to expect from a given device vi months or a year down the road. Of form, a good deal of that depends on how you lot determine to use it: an entry-level XPS fifteen bought last year and immediately turned into a Hackintosh is going to experience much different to apply today than, say, ane loaded up with games and gaming accessories by a college student who managed to convince their parents that an XPS 15 with an upgraded Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 Ti GPU was "essential" for their college coursework.
Even and so, I often wish we had the luxury of spending 6 months to a twelvemonth with every product before nosotros publish the review. Doing so would make it harder to stay electric current, as laptop makers regularly refresh their products every year or three, just information technology would deepen our understanding and help us give you more informed reviews. Example in point: after using the Dell XPS fifteen OLED as my daily driver for half a twelvemonth, I've learned a few things that weren't as clear to me back when we published the review.
OLED really does brand a difference, fifty-fifty on laptops
OLED displays have been available on laptops for a niggling while now, but 2021 seemed to exist the year they really started to get mutual. Dell helped lead the charge, calculation an OLED choice to its XPS 13 in 2020 and to its XPS 15 in 2021 – so peradventure 2022 is the year the XPS 17 finally gets one likewise.
In our Dell XPS 15 OLED review I said a lot of nice things about the 3.5K OLED display, so I'll try not to repeat too many of them here. But what I've learned after looking at this screen for half dozen months (with occasional breaks to stare at other screens of varying sizes around the pandemic bunker that is my apartment) is that once you go OLED, it's hard to go back.
Personally, I retrieve that further validates the conclusion to spend the actress cash on an OLED display upgrade. We regularly extol the virtues of OLED screens on this website, as they typically achieve much more vibrant colors, deeper blacks, and more impressive contrasts than the LED displays notwithstanding attached to many computers. You can read our guide to what is OLED for a more thorough breakdown of how the tech works and why it looks and so good, but in short: if you tin afford it, an OLED display is a worthwhile upgrade.
Of class, if you lot just want a laptop for checking electronic mail, using spreadsheets, and by and large getting work done on the go, an OLED upgrade probably isn't worth it. But even on a piece of work laptop it can be a nice feature to have, equally it makes everything you look at – videos, pictures, peradventure even spreadsheets – appear more than vibrant.
After vi months of using an XPS xv OLED every day, non-OLED displays await dull past comparison. It actually inspired me to upgrade my quondam 4K TV to an LG C1 OLED, which ended up being the best thing I bought all twelvemonth. That nearly $2,000 decision was motivated primarily by my appreciation for the XPS 15's OLED brandish – though the fact that the LG C1's excellent gaming features pair well with my Xbox 1 X didn't injure either.
Put but, I think y'all'll be better off buying a laptop with a 1080p OLED brandish than a 4K not-OLED screen. Luckily the OLED brandish on the XPS 15 is 3.5K and then you're not stuck at 1080p, only in practise I've found it remarkably hard to read text or make out other fine details on the laptop's 15.6-inch brandish at three.5K resolution anyway — which is why Windows' built-in brandish scaling has been a godsend.
With a skillful GPU, the XPS 15 is a solid gaming machine
You know what else looks nifty on an OLED brandish? Games. Dell's XPS laptops are typically marketed more than towards students and professionals than hardcore game enthusiasts (though the XPS 17 is beefy enough to agree a spot on our listing of the best gaming laptops), simply in my time with the XPS 15 OLED I've found information technology to exist a surprisingly adept platform for playing games.
Our review unit showed up configured with an Intel Core i7-11800H, 16GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 Ti GPU. To buy the same model through Dell's website would cost you well-nigh $2,000 equally of this writing, which isn't chump modify – you could definitely get a solid gaming laptop for that price, and some for even cheaper, like the budget-minded Dell G15 SE.
But while you lot can definitely get more frames per second for your dollar if y'all buy a dedicated gaming laptop, you lot'll likely also go a heavier, uglier, louder device with a subpar keyboard and touchpad. And you well-nigh certainly won't get an OLED brandish, unless you shell out for a premium gaming laptop like the Alienware m15 R4 (2021) or the Razer Blade 17 (2021).
I'm non proverb gaming laptops are a waste product of money, or by and large worse than a souped-up ultraportable like the XPS 15 OLED. A gaming laptop can exist a wonderfully versatile alternative to a gaming PC, particularly if you fox it out with your favorite mouse, keyboard and headset. Instead, I'g proverb that I've found that a well-specced XPS fifteen OLED with a 3050 Ti is remarkably good for playing all but the latest and most graphically demanding games, and they oft look astonishing on its eye-catching 3.5K OLED display. I was able to play games like Apex Legends, Battletech, Crusader Kings Three, Inscryption, and Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous with graphics settings at or higher up normal on the XPS 15 OLED, and it had little trouble maintaining a steady 30 frames per 2d across the board.
That said, the XPS fifteen OLED'south already middling vii-hour battery life (based on our lab testing) dropped to roughly 2 hours while playing games, and so don't expect to do a lot of gaming unplugged – you're ameliorate off with an Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 if you desire hours of laptop gaming on the go.
A good webcam actually is worth information technology – at least during a pandemic
In closing, I just wanted to chop-chop highlight something else I learned while using the XPS 15 OLED for half a year: the value of a skilful webcam.
In our review of the XPS 15 OLED we criticized its 720p webcam for capturing video that looks grainy, washed-out, and generally unattractive. Nonetheless, there was a time when I'd have told y'all that webcam quality shouldn't exist a significant cistron when considering which laptop to buy, because honestly, who expects to look good on a laptop webcam anyway?
Just later half dozen months of using the XPS 15's webcam for well-nigh every video call I've had – and I've had a lot, thanks to working remotely during a pandemic – I have to say how demoralizing information technology feels to see a blurry, unattractive vision of yourself every time you hop on a telephone call. I doubt looking bad on video calls has had any major impact on my career or personal life, simply information technology sure has made me feel a flake worse overall. It'due south gotten so bad that I regularly hitting the "plow off camera" push button in Google See during business meetings, and I'1000 starting to think about ownership a USB-C webcam and merely using that instead.
So if you're on the fence about a laptop similar this and feel like maybe the lack of a good webcam won't be an issue, I recommend you lot recollect twice – and consider bookmarking our list of the all-time webcams on the market place, just in case you (like me) are tempted by the appeal of an XPS fifteen OLED only don't want to expect sickly on your Zoom calls.
Verdict: 6 months later, the XPS 15 OLED is still a winner
We're preparing to review a fresh crop of 2022 laptops here at Tom's Guide, so information technology's time for me to send this 2021 XPS xv OLED habitation to Dell. I'll be lamentable to come across it become, as afterward one-half a year of use it'due south just every bit bonny, speedy, and comfortable as it was the day it arrived.
If it's not articulate from this article or our coverage to date, I like this laptop. I've looked at a lot of 'em, and even after using it daily for months I still think the XPS xv OLED is one of my favorite laptops of 2021, second only to the Framework Laptop.
I call back if yous're in the market for a Windows ultraportable and don't mind less than 10 hours of battery life, the XPS 15 remains an excellent option. If you can afford to spend upward of $2,500, configuring information technology with a discrete Nvidia GPU turns the XPS xv into a decent gaming motorcar. But fifty-fifty just upgrading the base model with an OLED display is a great investment that will pay dividends every fourth dimension you look at the screen — merely watch out, or you might discover yourself tempted to spend thousands of dollars upgrading every screen yous own to OLED.
Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/opinion/i-used-the-dell-xps-15-oled-as-my-main-laptop-for-6-months-heres-what-i-found
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