For some reason people don't really seem to like this channel, but it's some of the best laptop content out there. Tends to be very honest, addresses thing from a more general purpose point of view (and not just gaming), provides quality data, reviews TONS of devices, will often try to review different variants if they have significant differences etc, etc.
Hard agree regarding these XPS. The XPS used to be the macbook pro of windows laptops, during the intel macbook era. They had similar flaws (thermal/performance issues) but both had very compelling qualities. Now in the Apple Silicon era it seems Dell just accepted they wouldn't be able to compete with macbook pros, so they went another direction of form over function and this is the result. Dell and especially the XPS line have very close ties to intel, and I heavily suspect these supposedly revolutionary designs were meant for equally revolutionary chips, but Meteor Lake is just not that. So instead of a mobile workstation with a futuristic design you get the performance of a $1000 ultrabook in a $2000+ chassis.
He’s very dry. And the presentation is similar to something you’d be forced to watch in high school. I’d never watch one of his videos unless I was in the market for the product he’s reviewing.
I appreciate the no nonsense straight to the facts presentation with enough detail to understand the nuances of his reasoning. Respects my time compared to other YouTubers.
You are badly mistaken. The vast majority of viewers of these types of videos have little or no intention of buying the product being reviewed.
They watch out of general interest in technology, to pass time, or for entertainment purposes.
MKBHD has nearly 20 million subscribers. You think they are buying every product he reviews?
Like him or not, saying “your videos are presented in a dull manner” is a perfectly valid criticism.
He isn't your high energy HEY GUYS type of youtuber, but at least he's honest.
I've tried an ungodly amount of laptops that reviews were praising and found all of them to have glaring issues.
Just read notebookcheck'reviews and come to your own conclusion. Laptop form factors are all about compromises and you just have to find one that works for you.
> Dell and especially the XPS line have very close ties to intel, and I heavily suspect these supposedly revolutionary designs were meant for equally revolutionary chips, but Meteor Lake is just not that.
I have zero proof but I suspect something similar happened with the infamous touchbar MacBooks.
Intel promises the moon with huge leaps in efficiency in upcoming generations stemming from smaller nodes. Apple believes them and designs the next gen of MBPs to be thinner, using the thermal headroom they’re expecting to gain. New case design makes it to production and tooling is installed in factories just in time for Intel to get firmly stuck in the 14nm mud, resulting in CPUs that are too hot for the new MBPs to competently handle.
If that’s what took place, I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s the point where the M-series project was changed from a back burner “what if” or “maybe some day” to “this has to happen”.
It has been widely leaked that the MacBook Pro redesign was designed around Cannonlake, both at the time and subsequently. The design was entirely based around Intel’s promises of drastic power draw improvements and first-time support for large capacities of LPDDR RAM with Cannonlake’s new memory controller, and the device launch was even timed around being Intel’s launch partner for Cannonlake. Apple went all-in and got burned, and it seems reasonable to assume that they were pissed.
I wonder what becomes of this:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/hardware/comments/13m03j6/march\_2023\_dell\_creates\_a\_new\_division\_to\_develop/](https://www.reddit.com/r/hardware/comments/13m03j6/march_2023_dell_creates_a_new_division_to_develop/)
Perhaps with Qualcomm's help, Dell could create a device to truly rival the Macbook.
Main points made:
1. **Price and Display**: They start at a high price ($1,700 for XPS 14, $1,900 for XPS 16) but offer low display resolutions (1920x1200) leading to low pixel density and pixelated images. Higher resolution options are available but at additional costs, pushing the XPS 14 to $2,000 and the XPS 16 to $2,200.
2. **Performance Comparison**: The laptops perform similarly to or worse than cheaper competitors in common benchmark tests. Specifically, they fall short of the MacBook Pro and HP's Spectre 14 in performance metrics, despite being more expensive.
3. **Graphics Performance**: The integrated graphics are underpowered, and even the upgraded Nvidia RTX 4050 GPU option is limited by reduced power allocation, making it less effective for graphical tasks compared to alternatives from Lenovo, Asus, and Razer, which are either cheaper or offer better performance.
4. **Keyboard and Layout Issues**: The keyboard layout includes odd key sizes and placements, leading to frequent mispresses. The function row has been replaced with a touch solution, which is criticized for lacking physical keys for quick, blind operation, especially problematic for tasks requiring function keys.
5. **Form Over Function**: The reviewer notes that Dell's design choices prioritize aesthetics over practical usability, mentioning issues with the sharp edges, backlighting on keys, touchpad responsiveness, and weight of the laptops. Additionally, the reduction in port variety and the removal of the SD card reader are seen as steps backward.
6. **Price Comparisons and Value**: When fully upgraded, the XPS laptops become significantly more expensive than more powerful or functional alternatives. The review highlights how other brands offer better performance, usability, or both at lower prices.
7. **Final Verdict**: While acknowledging the XPS laptops' appealing design and suitability for light use, the review concludes that there are better options available, particularly emphasizing the superiority of MacBook Pros for those open to macOS, and other Windows laptops for performance or value seekers. The reviewer likens Dell's current strategy with the XPS line to previous missteps by Apple and critiques in popular franchises, suggesting a need for Dell to reconsider its approach.
I have to agree with all of them. I have an 9520, but my next laptop will likely not be an XPS. For me personally I find the display very important, and the competition now has comparable ones or even better ones.
Genuinely happy to see people finally starting to care about pixel density.
I can’t wait until we get rid of 1080 screens altogether.
They don’t belong anywhere, except maybe a phone. Or a TV if it’s placed far enough away from the viewer.
But computer screens? No. They are just awful.
The resolution I’m waiting for the total disappearance of is 1368x768. It’s awful, and though it’s disappeared from a lot of laptops you can still find it clinging on in low-end through midrange laptops.
Yep, and even then at that size a taller aspect ratio is preferred, because 16:9 at that size and resolution leaves you with a keyhole’s worth of vertical space after all the taskbars, titlebars, menubars, toolbars, etc are accounted for.
> Form Over Function: The reviewer notes that Dell's design choices prioritize aesthetics over practical usability, mentioning issues with the sharp edges, backlighting on keys, touchpad responsiveness, and weight of the laptops. Additionally, the reduction in port variety and the removal of the SD card reader are seen as steps backward.
Also the glass touchdeck. It looks like a small drop could shatter the entire thing.
Glass is more ~premium~ (read: cost misaligned with value), but plastic is a more durable material for all applications that don't require optical transparency.
> The reviewer likens Dell's current strategy with the XPS line to previous missteps by Apple and critiques in popular franchises, suggesting a need for Dell to reconsider its approach.
A few months ago, I saw someone's post that analyzed Dell's recent laptop designs and concluded that Dell is trying to copy Apple, except is a couple years behind as they also copied designs that Apple had later stopped using.
Touchpad responsiveness issues are a death blow to any laptop that isn’t a 8kg brick that has to be plugged in anyway.
My company loves to buy dells that randomly have non-functional power-on and Ethernet so I can see why the company could get complacent.
Base is $300 less than an equal MacBook Pro (MSRP). Worse screen, no HDMI or full sized SD, worse battery, worse performance, but at least the SSD is upgradable.
Meteor Lake gets better battery life than Zen 4... in video playback.
It doesn't get close when it comes to CPU efficiency and battery life outside of that.
https://www.notebookcheck.net/MSI-Prestige-16-B1MG-laptop-review-From-Core-i7-Xe-to-Core-Ultra-7-Arc.785587.0.html
Can you please find an AMD-based laptop that beats this one in the web surfing test? I haven't been able to.
Didn’t have to search hard. But I’m sure the metric will change.
MSI Prestige 16” chassis 1100 minutes on Wi-Fi from 99.9mWhr battery = 11 min per Whr.
Lenovo T14s G4 (7840U) 14” chassis 793 minutes on Wi-fi from a 57 Whr battery = 13.91 min per Whr which is 26.35% more efficient and that is without the 2 special ultra low power E cores devoted to video playback.
HP EliteBook G10 (7840U) 14” chassis 779 minutes on Wi-Fi from a 51 Whr battery (yes…just about half as large as the MSI Prestige) = 15.27 min per Whr which is 38.72% more power efficient than the Prestige.
MSI Prestige gets 1100 minutes as the same reason the MacBook Pro 16” gets such great battery life - they use largest battery allowed. MacBook M2 Pro 14” only gets 807 min from a 70 Whr battery. That MTL is roughly same wi-fi efficiency as M2 MacBook Pro. But HP/Lenovo + AMD beats them both in terms of efficiency.
So an x86 manufacturer \*could\* beat that MSI Prestige if they used a 7840U with a 73 Whr battery and same screen efficiency as the HP (or 80 Whr with Lenovo screen efficiency). A MacBook Pro 16” already does beat it (1204 minutes from a slightly smaller 99.6 Whr battery).
Pretty good video, rightfully roasted the laptops for the ridiculous MSRP, weird keyboard layout, port selections for their weight and the base model screen resolution. Kinda pity they didn't open up the laptops and see how much stuff is soldered-on
Honestly insane, for $100 more then the starting price of the XPS 16 I could get the new Zephyrus G16 which is lighter, has a better port selection, comes standard with an OLED screen, comes with a core ultra 9 and has a 4070 instead of the dinky integrated ARC GPU.
To get comparable specs on Dells site would cost me an insane $3500, it's ridiculous.
what even is Dell doing with all that money they are charging...
It's not like they have a top tier after sales support system or something like Apple does.
Apple after sales support is considered top tier? Here in Norway their after sales support is considered to be the worst of ***all*** electronics brands commonly available, by quite some margin.
I assume Apple operates with a 1-year limited warranty in the US, the "problem" is that this is 5 years by law here in Norway. Paying for AppleCare coverage is a completely foreign concept here, even though it might actually cover more than manufacturing defects.
During the butterfly keyboard era, some people didn't get their MacBook repaired for over a year until Apple introduced the repair program. The response from Apple-authorized workshops was "no error found, you're cleaning it wrong". Even today I can regularly see cases pop up where Apple-certified workshops don't repair the product because it's not covered/acknowledged by Apple, [like flickering screens.](https://www.tv2.no/nyheter/forbruker/far-meg-til-a-fole-meg-liten/16473781/)
>what even is Dell doing with all that money they are charging...
They're probably doing the Lenovo thing where no one actually buys it at that price and they can advertise "40% Off!" in a few months.
Its not comparable but I just bought 14" hp laptop with 12 core cpu and beautiful OLED screen for 650€ on sale and normal price I think was under a grand and its pretty thin and light too. How does 1900 make sense.
I had two XPS, one for work and one personal, they were really overrated.
After that terrible experience I would stay away from them, there are many other premium laptop that are better
The XPS lineup is popular becuase they were one of the first ultrabooks on the market (especially in the dGPU space for the 15). Anything after the Kaby-Lake R and Whiskey Lake generations (8xxxU) are serious overpays due to the prevalence of other ultrabooks with adequate power and general specs for the daily consumer.
Yeah, i had a first generation XP13 from work and when it got old it never occured to me to ask for something but a newer XP13. The OG was just that much better than your normal laptops at the time, it was a quantum leap.
Those original [original and L322X models](https://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Dell-XPS-13-Ultrabook-Late-2012.87006.0.html) had the carbon fiber bottom and were extremely nice. Since then, the XPS models have been progressively cheapened and made more mainstream, while also maintaining and even increasing the prices.
Yeah, for me the shift came around the time of 2nd gen Ryzen Mobile, as a lot more manufactures got into the thin-and-light game, leading to more competition that drove down prices on viable SKUs.
Nah, Thinkpad T14 if you want a midrange laptop, X1 Carbon/Yoga for high end ultrabooks, and X1 extreme for portable performance.
Asus only if you need more performance than the X1 extreme and you're happy to sacrifice portability, or if you aren't willing to pay thinkpad money I guess.
Their keyboards are still horrid to type on.
I was able to pick up a Lenovo Slim Pro 9i for work for around $1000 that has a super-bright 3200x2000 mini-LED screen and has fast-enough specs to even game in a pinch. The XPS series was enticing to me when they first came out, but they have been passed up by virtually every laptop manufacturer nowadays.
I bought an HP Zbook Firefly 14 on sale for less than an XPS. Equivalent if not better specs, great build, and it's business grade so it's easy to repair and has good parts availability.
HP had a notorious rep for overheating though. I understand why many would shy away from them. If I were to shop for one I wouldn't even consider them, unless there was a great review of it
I have a MBP and an XPS 14… the MBP lasts almost 3x as long on a single charge and it’s faster. I feel like moving to ARM is the only way Windows laptops will be competitive again. Intel chips are just way too power hungry for mobile at this point.
It's called 1440p/QHD. Many recebt laptops with 1440p (or similar resolutions) have been able to achieve 8-12 hour battery life, for example the 2024 Zenbook 14, the ROG G14, Lenovo Yoga Pro/Slim 7 etc. Not to mention that Macs have had high-res screens since like 2013.
At this point in time 1080p should be considered mid-range at best, and has no place in a premium flagship laptop
As long as the colors and brightness are sufficiently premium, sure. Even the 16" has a higher ppi than most desktop monitors. Plus the battery life benefits and ability to use 100% display scaling without making everything microscopic.
It is, just not for the price they're asking if other specs don't compensate. $1700 for the base model is wild when other comparable ultrabooks on the market exist with similar premium features and build quality.
Hell, even comparing to previous XPS models the price jump is wild.
Yeah it's fine, we deploy tons of Latitude 7440s at my work with 1920x1200 screens and they looks good enough. And boy do the 7440s cost more than the XPS lol.
I just switched from a Surface Pro 8 t the ROG Flow X13 (2022 variant) and while I love the latter to bits for everything but especially battery life, I do miss the crystal clear and razor-sharp display of the SP8. So no, for some people it may not be fine and until you see both of them or use them one after the other, it may be quite hard to comprehend the actual differences.
To be fair I had a 4k display on my previous xps 13 and didn’t find it worth it at all. At that screen size it was so unnecessary and wasted resources. People still use 24 inch desktop displays at 1080p without having a meltdown…
4k is unnecessary, but is also falling out of favor because of that.
Nowadays you will typically see 2880x1800, 2560x1600...
That's pretty much indistinguishable from 4k, but with higher refresh rates and better battery life.
Especially if it's a 2-in-1 and you're using a stylus to draw/write in tablet mode, pixels get really obvious then.
I've got a ROG Flow X13 and I would definitely go for the QHD or 4K model if I upgraded.
Was in market for a laptop couple months ago and let me tell you, theres a reason why Apple charges what they charge. Competition is **non existent**. You simply cant have a laptop with a good screen, good battery life, no stupid idiosyncrasies (looking at you zephyrus with your stupid """usb-c""" port) and gpu better than whatever intels limping to barn with.
SKU gore : Has options for regular 1200p, low power 1200p (oh god the smears), touch 1200p, another touch 1200p, IPS, OLED etc etc. I didnt check but i have a safe guess that says retailers only carry the worse screen with base-ish config or best screen with balls to the wall config, no in between.
And all of them are 60 hz max. (I dont game on laptops, it just matters even while scrolling reddit).
And i would need to check if their OLED variant has that touch/pen layer thats from 2005 with visible grid. (Top of the line lenovo yoga's does.)
2005 was a hyperbole, I pulled Yoga from the Yoga i ordered and returned. I know spectre's has it too, and couple others i dont remember. PC manufacturers havent figured out OLED + Touch/Pen yet.
If you're unhappy with AES 2.0 (Lenovo, Dell, LG, business HP) then your only choice is APPLE ipad. EMR has a grand total of two PC devices that support it, and in many ways MPP2.0 (consumer HP, surface) is worse. USI is a standard that attempts to unify the standards but is not compatible with any of them and only used on chomebooks.
Huh, yeah i just remembered i didnt noticed anything like that with my old surface. Although that wasnt oled. But its nice to confirm that was a specific tech (Wacom AES 2.0) so at least i know what to search for next time im in market, thanks.
It’s frustrating. I like to keep one current-ish laptop from both sides of the fence around and finding an x86 laptop that doesn’t make massive concessions and is generally a good all-rounder is seemingly impossible.
Literally every gripe I had with the new XPS 16 is mentioned in this video. I will be keeping my XPS 17 9710 until this generation of garbage from Dell passes.
They need to seriously consider firing the moron engineer/product development manager for the dumbass decision to make a shitter touchbar when most of their buyers are professionals/creatives that use the FN keys a lot.
P1 for mobile workstation
I recently had a chance to play around with the newest gen of T14 as well and it's pretty much on par with the older X1Cs if only a little heavier.
It seems like the laptop that would really catch my eye if I saw it in real life, but owning one would be a completely different story.
I really hate how every manufacturer apart from Apple keeps on doing white or silver keyboards. As pointed out in the review, they have terrible contrast issues where you need to toggle the backlight on or off for visibility depending on the lighting, and if you have some sort of mixed lighting you get screwed either way.
The only way I think it might work is if you have an RBG keyboard like the Zephyrus G14 and you set it to blue or red. Either way, I've got to give Apple credit for caring about user experience rather than just trying to make a pretty laptop to get the sale. Likewise with their 4 rubber feet design opposed to other manufacturers who love using 2 long rubber strips across the laptop which are guaranteed to thermally expand and fall off after a few months or years.
>other manufacturers who love using 2 long rubber strips across the laptop which are guaranteed to thermally expand and fall off after a few months or years
Looking at you, *HP*. Whenever the laptop got hot, I could literally shift around the rubber strips with my finger.
Original one: fell off within a year, re-glued it. Fell off again. HP sent two replacements: stock adhesive was trash as expected again, fell off again within months.
I didn't bother the 3rd time.
Yup. I had the same issue with my HP Spectre. They started falling off within a month, that's how bad HP's material choice, design and thermals were (thanks, Intel 10th gen).
The icing on the cake was how the rubber feet didn't even stop the laptop from sliding around, due to their angled/pointed design which minimised contact area.
>Likewise with their 4 rubber feet design opposed to other manufacturers who love using 2 long rubber strips across the laptop which are guaranteed to thermally expand and fall off after a few months or years.
0\_o
XPS pricing is ridiculous. Should have come with QHD mini led and 32GB/1TB at that price point. But like most windows laptops, its stupid to buy these at MRP. Just wait for it to go on a sale. That said I think there are better laptops like LG Gram or Galaxy Book etc.
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