Dell XPS 17 Review: A Mobile Workstation in Disguise
Dell XPS 17 in the test: a camouflaged mobile workstation
RRP $ 2,800.00
"The Dell XPS 17 is unrivaled when it comes to extra-large, high-performance laptops."
advantages
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Bright, beautiful screen
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Fantastic build quality and design
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Performance is impressive
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Ultra-thin bezels
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Comfortable keyboard and touchpad
disadvantage
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Mediocre battery life
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Bad webcam
If you mainly work from home, the idea of a large 17-inch laptop may sound attractive. The screens on these laptops are just inches smaller than some external PC monitors, wrapped in a single package that you can take with you on the go.
But the Dell XPS 17 is more than just that. It's a powerhouse in terms of performance and hopes to replicate not only the large-screen format of a desktop setup, but performance as well. The latest model comes with an Nvidia RTX 3060, an Intel Core i7-11800H and a touchscreen with 4K resolution. That particular configuration costs a whopping $ 2,800, but if you need the size and performance, the XPS 17 remains one of the best laptops you can buy.
design
The Dell XPS 17 is a very large notebook. I'll start there as it's the most important feature of this laptop from the rest of the XPS range.
Apart from the XPS range, the size of the XPS 17 is unique. Other 17-inch laptops like the LG Gram 17 or the HP Envy 17 are much smaller than the XPS 17, but that's hardly a fair comparison. These laptops run on lower wattage processors and cannot be configured with high-end discrete graphics cards.
The XPS 17 has more in common with modern workstation laptops like the Asus ProArt studio books or the HP ZBook Fury 17. But even there, many of the options you find haven't been updated in a while and aren't nearly as slick as the XPS 17.
In terms of size (and performance), the Razer Blade 17 is the closest competitor to the XPS 17. The XPS 17 is slightly smaller in most dimensions than in thickness, where the two laptops are almost on par.
It feels high quality and looks elegant, just like other XPS laptops.
If you're looking for a bigger, more creative-facing laptop, chances are, 16-inch laptops are also worth considering. Laptops that fit into this category, the Lenovo Legion 5 Pro, the ROG Zephyrus M16, and the Dell Inspiron 16 Plus, follow in the footsteps of the MacBook Pro 16-inch. The XPS 17 is thicker and heavier than most of these laptops, despite everything Dell has done to shrink the case, weighs 5.3 pounds and measures 0.77 inches thick.
But Dell has stuck to its guns with the XPS 17, making it a pretty unique offering in 2021. The larger screen with 16:10 aspect ratio makes the laptop appear even more expansive – even with the insanely thin bezels that wrap around the display.
The XPS 17 is heavier, wider, and thicker than the 16-inch MacBook Pro, and is larger in almost every way compared to the LG Gram 17. But size comparisons with laptops like this one are hardly fair, especially considering how much more power there is to pack into the XPS 17.
Otherwise, the XPS 17 looks almost identical to the XPS 15. While much of the internal structure is unique, the aluminum shell, ultra-thin bezels, and black carbon fiber palm rests will look very familiar. It feels high quality and looks elegant, just like the smaller versions of the same laptop.
It's one of my very favorite designs. I wish Dell offered the white variant (as seen in the XPS 13), but I'm not going to complain about the aesthetics. Since it was first launched, it's one of the best looking laptops you can buy.
Ports
The Dell XPS 17 keeps its connections simple: four Thunderbolt 4 ports and a full-size SD card slot. These ports say a lot about where the XPS 17 gets its inspiration from and who it is primarily intended for. If you're frustrated by the limited ports in the MacBook Pro, the XPS 17 isn't of much help. It is noteworthy that there is no HDMI port or USB-A.
Fortunately, Dell includes a USB-C adapter with USB-A and HDMI for free, which makes me happy. Hard to complain with Dell doing the dirty work for you.
The full-size SD card slot is of course there for photographers and videographers. The ability to switch directly from a camera to a computer is extremely useful, even for hobbyists and amateurs. If you have one, your friends and colleagues with MacBook Pros will get jealous.
Keyboard and touchpad
No surprises – the XPS 17 has an excellent keyboard and touchpad. The keystrokes are bouncy and contain no nonsense about nonsense with low travel. Typing is quiet and comfortable.
The keycaps, however, are the highlight of the keyboard. They feel sturdy under the fingers instead of wobbly. I also love how big the keycaps are, leaving very little white space between the keys and nice wide keys on the sides. You can find wider shift keys on another laptop.
The touchpad is similarly wide. Rather than just using the same-sized touchpad on the smaller XPS laptops (as other manufacturers do), this touchpad was specifically designed to take advantage of the 17-inch form factor. The tracking is precise and the click is pleasantly quiet.
Display and speakers
The Dell XPS 17 is all about its screen. The 17-inch screen has a 16:10 aspect ratio, which is perfect for this size laptop. It offers a large workspace for expanding windows and multitasking. The resolution is 3840 x 2400, which is even more pixels than a standard 4K screen. The result is an extremely sharp display with a touch function.
The base model is a 1920 x 1200 model and does not come with a touch screen. It's a $ 400 difference in price, so choose wisely. I don't recommend going for 1080p resolution on such a large display as you start to pick the pixels.
Like the port selection, this high-resolution screen was designed with the creative in mind. It is a bright and colorful screen with almost perfect color saturation, reaching 100% in sRGB and 98% in AdobeRGB color spaces. The color accuracy is also on point and the maximum brightness was measured with 491 nits. It's a thoroughly bright, beautiful screen.
However, the temperature of the screen is rather warm. In many cases, the warmer tint is welcomed. But while watching videos or movies, I noticed some skin tones with a strange orange tinge. Dell only includes a single color mode in the Windows settings.
The 720p webcam, which is located in the frame above the display, is terrible.
Speaking of entertainment, the speakers are decent. I was hoping for more bass for a laptop of this size, but the XPS 17 offers a nice stereo image and can be quite loud without crackling. If you want to hear background music or podcasts while you work, these speakers should be enough without too much discomfort.
However, I have a lot of complaints about the webcam. The 720p webcam located in the frame above the display is terrible. It's part of the compromise with such a narrow top bezel. It gets you through the occasional video call, but if you have to be in front of the camera all day, this isn't the laptop for you.
perfomance
The Dell XPS 17 starts at $ 1,550. What you get in this base model is the Intel Core i5-11400H, integrated Intel UHD graphics, 8 GB of RAM and a 512 GB SSD. This model is a bit cheaper, but does not rely on the strengths of the XPS 17.
With up to eight cores (and the addition of a separate graphics card), the Dell XPS 17 becomes a much more powerful performer. My device came with the Core i7-11800H, 16 GB of RAM, an Nvidia RTX 3060 and a 1 TB SSD. But in exchange for your $ 2,800, you get a laptop that excels at heavy-duty tasks like creative application performance and gaming.
| Laptop | 3DMark time spy | Cinebench R23 | Underdog bench 5 | PCMark 10 | Fortnite (1080p Epic) | Civilization VI (1080p Ultra) |
| Dell XPS 17 (Core i7-11800H) | 7039 | 1525/10145 | 1568/8801 | 6209 | 78 fps | 104 fps |
| Dell XPS 17 (Core i7-10875H) | 5801 | 13876 | 1315/7959 | n / A | 82 fps | 90 fps |
| LG Gram 17 (Core i7-1165G7) | 1408 | 1312/3912 | 1503/4606 | 4880 | 13 fps | n / A |
| Lenovo Legion 5 Pro (Ryzen 7 5800H) | 9175 | 1430/11195 | 1460/7227 | n / A | 101 fps | 114 fps |
The XPS 17 was already a powerful laptop, but the jump to the RTX 30 series graphics increases performance. The benefits are easy to see when comparing the 3DMark results, with the newer model being 18% faster in the same test. You may write off the RTX 3060 compared to the 3070 or 3080 in gaming laptops, but the names can be misleading. The system can deliver 70 watts of power to the graphics card, which is more than what many non-gaming laptops can do. However, to put things in perspective, the Razer Blade laptops can deliver up to 100 watts of power to the graphics.
This leads to faster frame rates in the games I tested. Outside of the heaviest games, the XPS 17 can achieve over 60 fps (frames per second) in games with 1920 x 1200. Outside of a lighter, more processor-heavy game like Civilization VI, you won't be trying to play games in native resolution, of course. The 60 Hz refresh rate is also a limitation on how enjoyable the gaming experience will be. Because of this, it's not a laptop that should be bought primarily for gaming. But it's a bloody benefit, that's for sure.
The improved graphics as well as the better performance in creative applications. I tested the laptop's video editing capabilities in PugetBench's Premiere Pro benchmark, which tests everything from 4K video playback to timeline export. It outperformed the last Intel-based 27-inch iMac I tested, which had a desktop Core i9-10910. It is the top-scoring laptop that I tested in this benchmark, and you will likely see comparable performance in many other content creation applications.
Of course, processor performance is also extremely important in these tests, and the 11th generation Intel Core i7-11800H, the heart of the XPS 17, does admirably. The CPU hummed with around 3.2 GHz and occasionally increased up to 4.19 GHz. Its PCMark 10 results were fantastic, which tests daily tasks like web surfing, video conferencing, and spreadsheets. It should be noted, however, that laptops with AMD's Ryzen 5000 platform are just as strong in this benchmark, even with smaller 13-inch laptops like the Asus ROG Flow X13.
Much of the XPS 17's impressive performance comes from its good thermals. The surface temperatures never get too hot and the internal temperatures stay pretty cool. I noticed occasional jumps up to a maximum of 100 degrees Celsius (for both the GPU and CPU), but temperatures mostly stayed below 70 degrees for most of my tests.
Battery life
The battery life of the Dell XPS 17 is not that great. Dell packed a 97-watt-hour battery inside – you can't safely pack a much larger battery. Still, you shouldn't expect all-day battery life. The combination of large, high-resolution screen, 45-watt CPU and RTX graphics are all power guzzlers and show how long the battery will last.
The laptop lasted a little over five hours in our light web browser test. It did much better on video playback, where it took nearly 10 and a half hours while a 1080p movie trailer repeated until it ran out of battery. It's unusual to see such a large discrepancy between these two tests, but no matter what you do, you can't expect the XPS 17 to last a full day on a single charge.
The 1080p model with no RTX graphics will of course likely last longer. The XPS 15 also gives you a few hours more battery life.
Our opinion
That Dell XPS 17 is in a class of its own. If all you want is a big screen, the price and size of the XPS 17 may be excessive. However, if you need a bigger screen and extra performance, the XPS 17 is hard to beat.
Are there alternatives?
The next real alternative to the Dell XPS 17 is the Razer Blade 17. These are the only two 17-inch laptops that can be configured with powerful graphics, 4K screens and powerful 45-watt processors. The Razer Blade 17 is more expensive, however.
The LG Gram 17 or HP Envy 17 are both cheaper and more portable options, but they can't be configured as high as the XPS 17.
If you like the design and performance of the XPS 17, then you should also consider the smaller XPS 15. It's a little cheaper, has better battery life, and is easier to carry around.
How long it will take?
The Dell XPS 17 should last four or five years if you look after it. The model offers the possibility of exchanging components such as RAM, memory and the Wi-Fi card. Dell also allows you to add tons of RAM or storage during configuration – but it costs you extra. The XPS 17 can be configured with up to 64 GB RAM and a 2 TB SSD via Dell's own store.
Should you buy it?
Yes, especially when you can take advantage of the extra power and brilliant screen.
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