This laptop is perfect for anyone who wants a powerful computer that is also very bright. It has an Intel Core i5-5300HQ processor, 8GB of RAM, and a 256GB SSD. It also has a great viewing angle and great sound quality.
Dell XPS 17 review: Design
The Dell XPS 17 (2022) is a very impressive laptop that closely resembles models from the past year and the year before. The main chassis, screen cover, and palmrest are all made of machined aluminium, and the device is exquisitely designed and constructed. Thanks to the display’s ultra-slim bezels on all four sides, it nonetheless has a contemporary appearance. And this is despite the fact that a 720p webcam with Windows Hello facial recognition functionality is still crammed into the top.
The MacBook is a great laptop. It has a very sturdy chassis, a big trackpad, and thin bezels. It’s the perfect size for anyone who wants a large laptop with all the features that a Windows laptop has.
The XPS 17 is a very transportable laptop. All four of the USB-C ports support Thunderbolt 4’s full capability, including power delivery and DisplayPort alt mode.
Keyboard and touchpad
The Dell XPS 17 is a laptop that has a 1.3 mm (0.05 in) key stroke, and the typing experience is just fair overall. However, the sound of its clattering is also a contributing factor in this. There is undoubtedly potential for growth in this area, and Dell’s business and workstation versions also feature superior keyboards.
The white backdrop illumination cannot be turned on automatically by the brightness sensor. The big ClickPad, on the other hand, leaves no room for criticism. It not only functions quite consistently, but it also provides a lot of room for gestures using up to four fingers. The capacitive touchscreen in our model can also be used for inputs, and this also works without any issues. However, pen input with pressure levels is not supported.
Display
The Dell XPS 17’s display is excellent. It has a brightness of 500 nits and a color gamut of 100% Adobe RGB. ..
The laptop display was great for catching up on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, the darkness of space was satisfyingly black, and the photos were sorted through easily.
The XPS 17’s screen is not as bright as the MacBook Pro’s. Our light meter measured the Dell display at 466 nits, which is higher than the 366 of the Gigabyte Aero 16 and on par with the 464 of the model from a year ago. However, Apple’s rival 16-inch tiny LED display was a tad brighter, measuring 501 nits.
The Dell XPS 17 is the best option we’ve tested in this class and screen size.
Dell XPS 17 review: Audio
The speaker system is made up of two 2W woofers and two 2.5W tweeters. Together, they generate peaks of 88 dB from a music source and an average volume of 82 dB from pink noise measured at 1 m. That alone is great, but when you add the high level of musicality and impressive amount of detail, you get an audio setup that is quite impressive.
Dell has released a new audio product called the Waves Nx 3D Audio for Speakers that is designed specifically for the XPS 17. The MaxxAudioPro, however, does offer a quirky 3D surround system emulator that does provide the hazy sense that the sound source isn’t simply in front of you.
Graphics
The RTX 3050 is a dedicated graphics card that is used primarily for day-to-day operations. It has a maximum clock speed of 1875 MHz and can handle the reproduction of high-resolution videos.
The XPS 17 9720 has an extra 5 watts of processing power if there isn’t much processor load. Although we did not test the older 9710 with the RTX 3050, the RTX 3060 edition of the XPS 17 9720 still lags behind the older model by roughly 10%. Especially in tests with demanding graphics requirements, so we anticipate that the RTX 3050 will follow suit. This is a development that unmistakably goes in the wrong direction. ..
Dell XPS 17 review: Performance
The Core i7 12700H is a quick chip, with eight efficiency cores running at up to 3.5GHz and six performance cores operating at up to 4.7GHz. When the RTX 3060 is added, the Dell XPS 17 (2022) outperforms the XPS 15, which was already a capable performer, in a variety of applications. The XPS 17 outperformed rival large-screen, high-performance laptops including the Huawei MateBook 16S, Acer Swift Edge, and LG Gram 16 in Geekbench 5 and PC Mark 10. ..
This 17-inch laptop is able to run even the most demanding video and design programmes without experiencing any issues, and these are the kinds of programmes you’d definitely purchase it for. The Nvidia RTX 3060 likewise expands gaming options, but we should add a few restrictions. First of all, because this GPU is the 60W version—what we used to refer to as the Max-Q version—it is unable to achieve the same 1425–1702 MHz clock speeds as the 80W or 115W models. ..
We found that the laptop’s bottom became extremely hot after just a few minutes of gaming, and it was difficult to cool down the device even with the fan running at full speed. We raised the laptop a little bit to provide more space around the vents while gaming, but it still wasn’t enough.
The XPS 17 is a device meant for productivity and casual gaming, not dedicated gaming. Its cooling systems are not up to par, and some scenes in Borderlands 3 and Horizon Zero Dawn refused to run. This underlines the fact that the XPS 17 is not as powerful as some dedicated gaming devices.
Battery life
The XPS 17 9720 has the same battery capacity as the XPS 17 9710. This is sufficient to power a high-resolution 17-inch display and 45-watt CPU. We should be able to determine the new processor’s relative efficiency because the 12th-gen CPU is the only noticeable change from the previous generation in terms of power usage.
The XPS 17 9720 lasted 7.5 hours on our web surfing test, which cycles through a number of well-known and complicated websites. This is slightly less than average but more than two hours more than the XPS 17 9710. In our video test, which plays a local Full HD Avengers trailer for 13 hours, the upgraded model also held up better for over three hours longer. ..
Heat
We measured the surface temperatures of the laptop at several locations while running Cinebench R23 under duress. The XPS 17’s keyboard reached 37.1 degrees Celsius (98.8 degrees Fahrenheit) between the G and H keys, but the touchpad stayed cooler at 31.9 degrees Celsius (89.4 Fahrenheit). ..
The laptop’s bottom reached a warmer maximum temperature of 38.8 degrees Celsius (101.9 degrees Fahrenheit). But by performance laptop standards, none of these temps are scorching (or even extremely warm).
Configuration options
The Dell XPS 17 (2022) starts at $1,749 in the US, $2,099 in the UK, and $3,999 in Australia. The apparent difference in price outside of the US is attributed to a higher spec base CPU. Anyway, since that’s not exactly inexpensive, adding upgrades merely makes the situation worse.
The UHD+ touchscreen adds $300 (or £300), increasing the RAM from 16GB to 32GB costs $150 (or £200), and the 1TB SSD costs an additional $100 (or £100). You’re looking at a total cost of $2,749, £2,599 in the UK, and AU$4,798 in Australia, as configured.
Conclusion
Apple is not going to produce a 17-inch MacBook Pro. We’ll always have the thought that Dell’s large-screen XPS 17 laptop might be the best option if Apple doesn’t produce one. The versatile worker from Dell doesn’t break any records in any one area, but it consistently produces good performance.
The Dell XPS 17 is a great choice for someone who wants a single all-in-one computer and doesn’t mind travelling with a big backpack. It has a large screen, powerful CPU and GPU speed, and long battery life. It also charges a fair fee for all of this.
