I’ve been wanting a new laptop for a while, my previous Dell XPS was from 2012, had an i5 and only 1gb of dedicated graphics memory.
This was fine back then and really up until a few years ago when I went to 4k video. Before that I was strictly 1080p or even 720p so the laptop could handle it, it was a little thick due to the extra large battery but I kind of liked the way the battery acted as a stand to tilt the laptop so there’s that lol.
So why a new laptop?
But traveling with that laptop started to become a pain, it was heavy and bulky, but really the issue came when trying to edit higher resolution video on the go a shows like NAMM, Loop, or just when I was working remotely.
I had been watching the XPS 15 for a couple of years and finally saw a great deal over at Adorama for the 4k, touch screen, 16GB rama, 512gb SSD model with the Nvidia GTX 1050 graphics card.
Did someone say 4gb of dedicated video memory? Yes indeed!
So I picked it up shortly before heading out to NAMM this year and was able to put it to use immediately.
Gotta say, I loved being able to edit my 4k videos without any lags, no need to turn the quality down or pre-render in Vegas Pro, I just dropped the 4k in, added any effects I needed and rendered.
Is it loud and hot?
Well, when I’m working with 4k video the fans definitely kick in, you can hear them, it’s not silent at all.
The heat for me hasn’t been an issue, I can edit 4k video and still keep the laptop on my lap if I want, so no problems there.
For the size of this laptop I’ll happily trade a little noise when editing and rendering high res video, since it’s pretty much silent when I’m not doing that.
Any hardware or driver issues?
I did have a couple of issues with the hardware, specifically the 4k screen. I had situations where it would start flickering, I looked it up and it seemed to be an issue with some of the units.
Luckily I made sure to get the latest drivers and adjusted a few settings between the Intel graphics and the GTX card and I haven’t seen the issue since….if I do, I still have about a year left on warranty lol.
Another issue that comes up from time to time is distorted audio, which I also saw others have. I’m not sure if it has anything to do with switching sample rates between apps or what, but a reboot of the laptop seems to fix it. I honestly do not get it often enough to pinpoint what’s causing it, but again, if it becomes too much of an issue I’ll just be calling up Dell.
So what’s the bottom line?
Man, I love this laptop. I’m a Dell guy, specifically I really dig their XPS line. I was considering a few others, mainly Samsung, HP, and Asus…but in the end I just felt that the Dell XPS 15 gave me what I wanted at a price I couldn’t resist. Plus I can upgrade the ram easily if I wish to in the future.
The 4k screen is amazing, though it took some time to adjust my eyes….now I want to upgrade all of my monitors to 4k!
This laptop definitely fits my needs as a mobile 4k video editing workstation as well as an everyday productivity device when I’m not at my desktop.
I know they’ll be releasing an updated version with the 8th gen Intel processor and other upgrades sometime this year, but I felt for the deal I was able to get and the power it had I didn’t want to wait and I’m glad I didn’t.
Any other Dell XPS users out there? Let me know your experience below!
If you’re interested you can still grab the same deal I got from Adorama: http://bit.ly/Dell_XPS15_Laptop
I’m a long time customer myself and also an affiliate of Adorama so if you use my link I will get a small percentage at no cost to you, but this definitely helps me continue to create the content you enjoy 🙂
